Chapter 88: World Transformation

At this time, in an area outside the Starting Town, two people had already discovered the fact that it was impossible to log out of the game.

"Tell me, did something go wrong with this game?" the man with the face of a decadent samurai asked the boy beside him, looking depressed.

The boy shook his head slightly, and just as he was about to say something, a chime sounded from afar, giving them both a start.

"This chime, is it coming from the Central Plaza?" the black-haired boy said with some confusion.

"Seems like it!" the man nodded.

At this moment, a white light rose from their bodies, and then the two disappeared from where they stood.

Lingyun, who was in the wilderness, also heard the chime. He said to Luo Yexi and the others, "Let's return to the Starting Town first and see how things develop!"

"Okay." The girls nodded.

Since they did not belong to this world's player base, they did not enjoy the benefit of being forcibly teleported. And high-end items like Transfer Crystals were simply not loot that could be dropped by the low-level mobs they were currently killing. Therefore, their choice was to walk back.

When Lingyun and his group arrived at the Central Plaza, they happened to see a giant Death Phantom suspended in mid-air. As for the barrier surrounding the Central Plaza that prevented players from entering or leaving, it was directly ignored by Lingyun and his group. Kayaba Akihiko had already finished his long-winded speech and looked like he was preparing to pack up and leave.

Lingyun gazed at the sky, and suddenly his pupils constricted. He felt that a certain power within this world had reached a limit and was beginning to erupt.

"It has begun, the transformation of the world!" Lingyun whispered.

Just as the Death Phantom was about to vanish, all the players present felt the ground beneath their feet suddenly shake.

"This, what exactly is happening?" The black-haired boy held a mirror in his hand and looked around in astonishment.

Suddenly, his pupils constricted violently: "This, what is this?"

In his eyes, it was not just the plaza beneath their feet that was shaking, but the entire Aincrad Castle.

"So this is the transformation of the entire world; it really is a grand gesture!" Lingyun looked at the world and nodded slightly. The shaking of this world had no effect on him whatsoever. In his perception, the powers located at the top of the world had actually broken precedent and united this time to push this change forward. "Are they planning to use this world as a stage for a game of chess? They really are some willful fellows!"

"This, what is the situation?" Even Kayaba Akihiko, who had created this world, was completely bewildered as he watched this bizarre change.

"Whoa, this, what exactly is happening?" A burst of intense light rose from every corner of the world. The powerful force and violent shaking caused all the players in the plaza to cover their heads and lie flat on the ground.

The giant Death Phantom in the sky also turned into ashes and vanished within this burst of white light.

"Who, who are they?" The black-haired man lying on the ground raised his head and suddenly saw a figure standing upright, as if the shaking of this world had nothing to do with them. Afterward, a burst of intense white light obscured his vision.

Although a powerful pressure permeated this world, Lingyun used his Divine Sense to support a Domain. While the range of this Domain was not very large, it was more than enough to protect the girls beside him. The transformation of a world was not something one could see just anywhere; being able to watch this process without suffering any pressure was a rare opportunity for enlightenment for them.

The transformation of the game world into a Semi-plane also triggered incredible changes in the real world. The originally clear sky suddenly darkened, and beams of light continuously intertwined in the heavens.

People who were worried about the players in the game world were stunned as they watched this sudden anomaly. What on earth was going on?

Just as everyone was confused, the light in the sky suddenly intertwined to form a massive Array. The sky in the middle of the Array suddenly collapsed, forming a giant black hole that emitted a heart-palpitating aura. Countless rays of light shot up into the sky from various places and merged into the black hole.

In an ordinary house, a girl with short hair rushed toward a room. Ever since she learned that something had happened to the game world, she had dropped what she was doing and rushed home. In her home, someone very important to her had also entered this Death Game, and she could not help but worry.

When she kicked open the locked door, she saw a scene that horrified her. The person lying on the bed had actually turned into tiny specks of light and flown into the sky, after which they aggregated into a stream of light that rushed out of the window, flying straight toward the terrifying black hole in the sky.

"No!" A terrified scream escaped the girl's mouth as she lunged toward the direction of the white light.

However, the white light had already rushed out of the window, and she failed to catch it at all.

Just as she was despairing while looking at the black hole in the sky, she suddenly discovered that tiny specks of white light were beginning to overflow from her own body. Just as she was still confused, she suddenly felt her body float up and fly toward the black hole in the sky.

Gazing at the black hole that seemed capable of devouring everything, a trace of terror flashed in the girl's eyes. However, upon thinking of the white light that had merged into the black hole earlier, a trace of determination flashed in her eyes, and she followed this force into the black hole.

However, she soon discovered an anomaly: shouldn't the inside of a black hole be pitch black? Why was she currently in a white world?

"Hmm, what is this?" Lingyun, who was in Aincrad Castle, frowned suddenly. "Why have so many new soul auras appeared in this world?"

"These guys are playing a bit too big; they actually used the power generated during the formation of the Semi-plane to forcibly open a passage between the two worlds. Not only did they transfer the physical bodies of the players in this world into this world, but they also snatched tens of thousands of people from the real world!" Ruoxi's voice rang out in Lingyun's mind.

"Won't doing this trigger a counterattack from the power of the real world?" Lingyun asked.

"It can only be said that this world found a loophole. After all, this world is derived from the real world; the people from the real world being transferred here did not disappear. Moreover, the World Consciousness of this world has fallen into a slumber, so no one stopped them," Ruoxi explained.

"Tens of thousands of people... with so many new people appearing, this world is completely heading in an unpredictable direction." Lingyun rubbed his forehead, looking depressed.

The white light that filled the entire world slowly dissipated. Lingyun looked around; this world had undergone incredible changes. The world had changed significantly, and the most obvious point was that its size had expanded by an unknown number of times. Furthermore, everything in this world now possessed an extra aura of vitality.

As the white light before her eyes dissipated, the black-haired girl looked at where she was now and couldn't help but open her mouth wide. Looking at the completely unfamiliar scenery and the completely unfamiliar people around her, she could be certain that she had arrived in a completely unfamiliar world.

"Could this world be Aincrad Castle?" The girl looked around and couldn't help but clench her fists. "You, you must still be alive in this world! I, I will definitely find you!"