At the heart of the Virtual Star World, suspended above the boundless star-sea, floated a colossal construct of shimmering light and geometric structure shaped like a neon eye, and almost everyone who had been in the Virtual Star World called that neon eye, the World’s Eye!
In truth, there was also some truth to this name because this eye was the source code incarnate. This omniscient hub connected every star island, trade node, and soul avatar that roamed the Virtual Star World, whether in the Mortal Realm or the Legendary Spectrum Sky City.
From afar, it resembled a tranquil eye of a God, with its iris a spinning vortex of liquid starlight, its pupil a black hole where all light vanished. It pulsed softly, steady, rhythmic like the very heartbeat of this digital cosmos.
Countless streams of energy like souls, data, and law-encoded consciousness, flowed to and from the Eye, connecting it to every corner of this world. It was serene, perfect, an untouchable divine mechanism.
But right at that moment, in the silence of its core, something shifted.
It was merely a faint, untraceable ripple of static that undulated across the Eye’s luminous surface; it was so faint it could be mistaken for a rendering glitch. Its light dimmed for a fraction of a second before returning to normal.
However, thereafter, another flicker surfaced within the reflection of its star-forged depths, as if a shadow had crept.
It was an abstract blur of silver-black lines, threading through its code and embedding itself deeper, but no alarms rang, no warnings triggered, and not even sentinels stirred.
The anomaly was too elegant, too perfectly synchronized with the Eye’s own code before it vanished...like a whisper swallowed by a roar.
But it was without doubt that within the World’s Eye, something had taken root, and now it was like a presence that watched the watcher.
In another location, far below the serene glow of the World’s Eye, within the luxurious layers of the Legendary Spectrum Sky City, stood a grand complex of blazing light and opulence, featuring a massive ethereal shifting sigil that reads...
The Upstar Casino!
Unlike ordinary pleasure halls, the Upstar Casino was more than a den of luck and greed. It was a digital palace crafted from pure energy and legend.
Its towering spires shimmered in fractal colors, ever-shifting with the will of its patrons. The ground was a river of starlight, and every table, every machine, radiated an aura of wealth and danger.
The air itself was heavy with emotion, filled with hope, despair, euphoria, and ruin, each resonating through the casino’s central crystal dome. Here, fortunes were not merely won or lost; they were rewritten.
Furthermore, within a place like the Legendary Plains, where the lifespan of a Legendary State Rank expert could reach over a thousand years, this was a very popular place to seek entertainment and enjoy a rare thrill of gambling, just like a blood-boiling battle.
That’s why many Legendary Rank Experts who didn’t like the thrill of bloody battles or simply lost interest in it shit to this place to enjoy the high stakes of gambling with their accumulated wealth!
In the uppermost section of this grand hall, beyond veiled portals guarded by spectral gatekeepers, was the VVIP Chamber, also known simply as the Royal Table.
Only those with an initial balance of one billion Zodiac Credits could enter this sanctum. Even Legendary Kings rarely visited, for it was here that the true apex gamblers, those who could stake entire fortunes of small powers and not flinch, tested their gambling skills.
Inside the Royal Table, a vast circular room glowed in subdued gold. The floor was made of translucent onyx, reflecting galaxies beneath it.
Five thrones of dark glass surrounded a levitating, rune-carved table where threads of golden data twisted like living serpents.
At the table’s center spun a crystalline sphere, the Core of Wagers, a device that absorbed, evaluated, and redistributed all the bets, its pulse marking each phase of the game.
Five figures sat in solemn focus, each one radiating the quiet, terrifying poise of someone who had gambled more than just wealth before.
At the far side of the table sat a woman draped in a flowing black and crimson gown that shimmered like liquid night. Her silvery-white hair cascaded down her back, glinting faintly with digital sparks.
Although her peerless face was covered in a veil, her eyes, icy violet, burned with both fury and exhaustion.
A faint black crown-like ornament rested upon her head, glowing with the symbol of a crescent star. Behind her veil, her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her fingers tapped against the table in an uneven rhythm. It was a rhythm of barely contained wrath.
Her aura exuded charm and danger, a predator’s grace wrapped in elegance. But her expression... was that of someone on the edge of ruin.
All around, the other four players, adorned in their luxurious robes and jeweled insignias, watched her with faint smirks. They had seen it a thousand times before. The look of a gambler standing at the brink of oblivion, and that woman was about to lose everything.
The golden orb in the center pulsed, projecting the current status of the match.
Four names glowed brightly, while hers dimmed near zero.
"Final phase commencing," A neutral, synthetic voice announced as new runic cards materialized above each player’s hand.
Her gaze darkened further, her slender hand tightening into a fist.
"It’s rigged, damn it!" A faint curse passed through her lips, but it was inaudible to others because of the setting of the Royal Table.
However, her energy was turbulent like a volcano ready to erupt. Her composure cracked for just an instant, which was visible as day to the others, and the other players exchanged knowing smiles.
As seasoned gamblers, they knew that it was the unmistakable scent of desperation, and in the Upstar Casino, desperation was the scent of defeat.
However, just as the final card materialized above the table, her pupils contracted because a faint buzz whispered through her mind, like distant static.
Then came a voice, flat, mechanical, and emotionless, "Lady Dreamy. I’ve successfully infiltrated the core of the Virtual Star World."
Her eyes widened, but just slightly; the storm behind them stilled.
Her clenched jaw loosened, and a strange gleam passed over her face, a blend of disbelief and dawning, icy amusement.
For a moment, no one at the table noticed the shift in her aura as her lips curved slowly, subtly, into a wickedly serene smile. The kind of smile that made the temperature in the room drop, though no one understood why.
She murmured under her breath, so low that only she could hear it, "Does this mean I can go wild?!"
The golden sphere pulsed, marking the last countdown of the match.
But now, her gaze shimmered with something no longer human. Her despair had vanished, and in its place was calculated, lethal glee.
The long-awaited Nightmare Plan had finally breached the beating heart of the Virtual Star World, and its first echo was about to erupt from the gambling table!