Chapter 378: Chaos Follows in Quick Succession

Blue Star, Blue Star

In the winter gloom, the lead-gray city of London exuded a medieval film-like oppression.

"Still no contact with Shi Weng?" Lord Baser gazed toward London's Seine River; the glass window reflected her own image alongside the Lords within the conference room.

Everyone wore solemn expressions; the rival factions, normally mutually contemptuous, gathered without their usual hostile tension.

"No contact." Lord El-Melloi II set down the outdated emergency phone used to reach Shi Weng, shook his head, his serious expression lost in thought.

The most dangerous place is the safest place

Shortly after Shi Weng uttered this cryptic phrase, he vanished, leaving behind only a letter bearing a single Eastern idiom—"Take care of yourself."

"All magicians sent to Fuyuki appeared at their homes the next day, having forgotten everything they did. We cannot explain the anomalies in the Great Source." Calmagrif smiled gently, glancing at the black-clad clergy nearby:

"We magicians, deemed heretics, are one thing—but Bishop, do you truly know nothing of your own great God?"

"Where the God descends, if one cannot reach to behold His countenance, it is because our sinful flesh has not yet attained purity." The brown-haired middle-aged bishop made the sign of the cross over his chest.

Clearly, the magicians scoffed at this claim, yet as a church envoy invited to this meeting, he remained unmoved by their words or expressions.

Conversely, what the magicians feared was of no consequence to the Church; the Church had far more urgent matters to attend to, with neither interest nor obligation to concern itself with the magicians' troubles.

Thus, his purpose in attending today was primarily to observe the heretics' distress and fear.

"Let us return to the subject." Lord Baser's voice rang out, cutting through the murmurs, aiming to organize a new round of discussions on countermeasures.

At that moment, her eyes suddenly trembled as if shaken by an earthquake, her pupils shrinking to needle points.

Above London's skyline outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the sky—darkened without warning—now bore a massive black mass crawling across it.

As if heaven and earth had inverted and hung upside down, countless twisted, writhing tentacles erupted from the clouds as if breaking through soil, hanging naturally then curling like octopus limbs; massive fleshy lumps covered every surface of the tentacles.

Baser froze in place, momentarily plunged into indescribable chaos—but after the haze passed, the scene remained unchanged: the classical city, blended with a few iconic modern buildings, still stood as elegant as before, its gray tone exuding quiet stillness.

Unaware, she was drenched in cold sweat, feeling as if she had endured a life-or-death crisis, utterly unlike the fear brought by the previous "Spirit Summoning" incident.

"Baser?"

"No, nothing."

Facing her colleagues' inquiries, Baser maintained her composure, breaking free from the hallucinatory vision of disaster.

She turned back to speak—yet found seated at the center of the conference room, in the commander's chair, a slender man whose entire body was composed of pure ink-black, his sclera pitch-dark, his golden eyes emitting a strange glow.

"I come to explain the current situation," said the tall, lean dark man, "and to bring you the knowledge and power to save the world."

One avatar of Nyarlathotep, the Dark Man.

"Seriously, when did this symptom start?"

Before Ye Fan and others, Su Lin wasn't merely performing a series of "coincidental encounters," he was openly recording every projected scene with his camera.

Black Sakura encounters Black-haired Young Sakura, Tokiomi, Emiya.

The unevolved "Pichu" version of Weigong Shilang, alongside Saber and the Fifth Holy Grail War's Masters, stood dumbfounded before the movie theater ticket counter, staring at posters showing various evolution paths of themselves.

The trio—Weigong Shilang, Tohsaka Rin, and the Knight King—seemed to have just concluded a side story, hand-in-hand, preparing to step into the future, yet "accidentally" teleported into this city, surrounded by familiar faces casting glances of "You can do that?"

"Administrator Klean, UID721, set his drop rate to the lowest." Su Lin glanced at the new movie rating, "Even this malicious negative review's drop rate should be set to guaranteed minimum."

The vast training ground of Water Mirror Peak had become Light Mr.'s personal surveillance room.

"Boss, our game doesn't have an equipment-drop mechanic."

"Besides, hasn't he always been like this?" Klean said to Ye Fan, unfazed:

"When Lu Mingfei ran away with Hui Liyi through Tokyo's streets, he was right there every day watching the live stream, occasionally treating himself to fried chicken, beer, skewers, and hot pot as 'fake meals,' and sometimes even used funds to order takeout delivered to the rooftop—all just to expand the historical projections of meals he once owned."

"My takeout, thank you."

Lu Mingfei, dressed in the Moonlight Tavern's yellow vest delivery uniform, stood frozen, slowly typing a question mark.

'Is something wrong here?'

That old man was watching me the whole time when I ran away with Hui Liyi?!

Didn't he defect to work for that other old thing?!

Only when his takeout was taken from his hands did he realize Klean hadn't paid—and he stood there, questioning reality.

"Sss—terrifying." Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan shook his head and said:

"Good thing he's a 2D character; my straightforward protagonist story probably doesn't interest him."

Su Lin turned and glanced at Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan, smiling.

"Don't you dare smile at me!!!" Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan's teeth trembled as he shouted, "The rejected-bride, weakling trope is outdated! You know this kind of story will flop, right?!"

"Oh." Su Lin nodded, then turned to Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, whose messy hair was combed into a slicked-back pompadour, and said:

"Three minutes. I want the world coordinates of the Avalon couple."

"Impossible! That's the Star-Within-Sea!!!" Shi Weng groaned, clutching his head.

"Please, I'm just a harmless mage—locking my soul inside this gem golem won't help!"

"You know it's the Star-Within-Sea—so you've paid attention to this before, haven't you?" Su Lin gave him a meaningful look and asked:

"Don't you find the party below fascinating? Why not throw a grand fantasy carnival?"

"Indeed, fascinating." Shi Weng nodded solemnly, "But I can only travel along timelines to reach different Parallel Worlds. Avalon in the Star-Within-Sea is beyond my reach."

"Tch, I'll think of another way later." Su Lin wasn't merely seeking amusement; linking so many world portals served a more important purpose:

Manifesting before the masses.

Once these individuals were drawn here, projections of this world would appear above their original worlds.

The most effective known way to gain points is manifesting before the masses and altering overall fate; trends of increase or decrease occur depending on circumstances—even if Su Lin did nothing to other Parallel Worlds, it wouldn't matter.

Letting countless Parallel Worlds witness his glory—he understood the principle: even a mosquito's blood is blood.

"We'll discuss this later. They've already begun, unable to wait any longer."

Su Lin stepped away from Shi Weng, gazing toward the layered, interwoven dimensional rifts in the distance—now dyed pitch-black, like a starless void.

"Terrifying—Cthulhu, Servant universe, and an invisible-in-plain-sight universe Rin… this mess is too much." Su Lin sighed deeply.

"Only we the Fourth Catastrophe have no right to say that, Senior Su Lin." Song Shuhang had been suppressing his inner snark for a while; now he could barely hold back.

"Aren't you going to do something about this?! That's an Outer God—one glance drives you mad and twists you into something alien! Its appearance here one after another clearly means it's planning something!"

"Hmm." Su Lin smoothed his expression, thought carefully for several seconds, then spoke solemnly:

"Let's get out of here. I'll pack up all the people on this planet and send them to our world. That'll solve our aging problem—and then my social security won't be an issue anymore."

The scene fell silent. Everyone stared at Su Lin in disbelief, as if he'd just uttered something bizarre.

"You should go see Adam and get checked out," Kleine said. "At this point, not going up to confront it already feels abnormal."

"Liu Li Ge, should we...?" Zhang Chuang asked, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Han Li smiled and said, "Chuangang, I know what you mean."

"Just gathering a few trump cards counts as going all out?" Su Lin glanced longingly at the screen displaying countless joyful scenes.

A certain Emiya Shirou, still undecided on his path, was already trapped in a harem showdown—while also encountering Farou Shigeki, who had accidentally wandered in by chance and was now surrounded by the crowd who had just finished watching the Fantasy Carnival, about to be torn into seventeen pieces.

The Jewel Elder was the Second Ancestor in another timeline, so he naturally had the relevant coordinates.

"Pity. We can only come back to watch the replay."

His upper garment shattered into dust under immense power; bare-chested, his messy white short hair swayed in the wind. Before him appeared a path of light leading straight into chaos and darkness.

He stepped onto the path toward dark chaos. The onlookers' gazes grew increasingly solemn. Amidst the gale of light and heat, Su Lin's appearance had already changed beyond recognition.

He had become a stranger: a white-haired man.

An interesting lifeform. I've never seen a vessel like you before.

A faint smile curled at Su Lin's lips. Behind him, a wheel of light spun like gears, then additional gears of varying sizes and shapes emerged, interlocking and rotating continuously, revealing the ultimate principle of world-creation and construction—the first force symbolizing the universe's awakening.

You're unique... in every possible sense.

He crossed through the dimensional corridor's different worlds—each step brought a new scene: desert, forest, ocean, city, even the starry cosmos.

"After sleeping so long, you've finally woken up? Having one NEET in eternal time is bad enough—but at least she was pretty. But watching a man's sleeping face every day? I'm exhausted."

Hmph... interesting. The original body remains asleep. I am merely a consciousness.

Others couldn't see it, couldn't hear the laughter—but in Su Lin's vision, that towering figure was transmitting its will directly to him through pure thought.

You're special. I don't know how you crossed worlds to obtain and recreate this aggregation method I failed to achieve—but this power isn't something you can keep forever, unless you want to become—

A golden waistband condensed from the void, crossing vast spacetime to settle upon Su Lin. It was not a true object, but a recreation based on memory and image.

"I never intended to become you. I just want to borrow your power for a moment."

Dozens of shard-like fragments of light appeared around Su Lin, then transformed into pure soul bodies.

Among them were fist-wielding monks with head wraps, handsome spearmen, wild swordsmen, elders, children, youths, men, women—and even non-human races.

They stared at Su Lin, but did not merge into his body.

"Look, I don't mind you descending into this vessel. But I want to use your power to resolve some troubles. And you want to gather more fragments to reclaim them all at once."

"There's a word I think describes this situation."

"Mutual benefit."

The power Su Lin obtained could continuously draw fragments of the Light Aspect of the Creation God Karos from distant worlds, until his body could no longer bear the weight of the full universe's power and knowledge.

He believed this proposal would be highly appealing to Karos, who still slept.

As a fellow Creation God, you have the right. Though your own situation isn't much better.

Who is the Creation God?

You mean me?

God?

Su Lin blinked. "Aren't you supposed to say, 'What if I refuse?' next?"

Why refuse? Mutual aid—that's exactly what we're doing now.

Are you misunderstanding something?

Su Lin had already prepared his response and contingency plan for rejection.

Use it as you wish.

The will gradually conveyed a sense of weariness.

In your... this avatar's... shattering—

Su Lin had now reached the dimensional corridor region swallowed by chaos and darkness. Compared to Karos's words, the sight before him startled him more.

A swordsman with crimson arms, a martial artist radiating battle aura, a witch wielding a broom, a sniper carrying a rifle—

Numerous, their auras powerful. After players were cleared and the dimension invaded, they had established a garrison in this ancient, lush forest.

They stared at Su Lin, who had suddenly appeared, uncertain and wary.

"I see. This is truly interesting."

Far away, a dimensional gate hundreds of meters wide opened. Soldiers in uniform and various groups emerged from it. On the peak of distant mountains, a woman clad in a robe, with a tear-like mark beneath her eye, had been gazing at the scenery—until she noticed Su Lin among the adventurers, her eyes filled with shock.

"But this isn't where your story unfolds. Go back."

Su Lin spread his arms, as if stretching his body, and the soul fragments behind him surged into his form.

A shoulder guard materialized on his right chest. Amidst the trembling of heaven and earth, endless lightning erupted. Thunder and gales began to howl!

The dark chaos, the mist invisible from within, was blown away.

Before the eyes of the chat group members, the Servants of the Servant Universe, the Million, Jiang Taixu, and countless beings from other worlds—

In the sky, boundless energy converged into a single beam, bursting forth from Su Lin as its origin.

The recreated sky-city Gran Forest, its ten-thousand-year snow-capped peaks, all the replica worlds, continents, and heavens were torn apart; tectonic plates were pulled by immense power.

Bright, dazzling light became the sole color of the world.

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. Weekend tasks still need finishing. I checked the news—next Spring Festival requires more shift adjustments. What an insane day.

(End of Chapter)