"Good..." Jacob nodded, his voice carrying a faint echo of satisfaction and anticipation, "Even a sliver of access is enough. Through it, Nyx should be able to begin to spread her Nightmare Domain within the network. At least that’s what she said, isn’t that right, ’Lady Nyx’?"
The insect on his shoulder tilted slightly as it didn’t understand the underlying question between Jacob’s words; it still replied with its wings flickering.
"Precisely, sir. Once the Nightmare Domain mentioned by Lady Nyx expands through the infiltration pathways, her influence will grow exponentially. However, to increase our control rate, I will require additional computational cores.
"This is where the Red Spirit Mechanic comes into play. When its conversion is complete, the newly created Machina Unit will be integrated directly into this Quantum Nightmare. That will multiply our processing power tenfold and probably evolve the Quantum Nightmare to the next level!"
Jacob nodded slowly. "That’s why I even bother to go after the Red Spirit Mechanic. A Quantum Computer without an Artificial General Intelligence is like an engine without optimal fuel, and what could be better than an SNIM to take its place.
"Once it becomes your auxiliary brain, you won’t have any trouble putting your attention elsewhere and leaving the Quantum Computing Floor to it."
He then turned his gaze toward the massive Quantum Nightmare again, its rotating form painting his skeletal silhouette with endless shifting light.
"Once we gain at least 5% infiltration," His eyes flickered with cruelty, "We’ll be able to rewrite the sub-laws of the Virtual Star World itself. Then the Nightmare Plan will reap endless benefits..."
The insect’s static voice crackled faintly.
"Understood, sir. I will continue optimizing and allocating resources. We’re already stabilizing the quantum link between Infinite Space and the Void Server through dimensional sync pulses. Everything is proceeding at maximum efficiency."
Jacob extended his hand slightly, the reflection of the glowing polyhedron dancing across his bones.
"Excellent. Maintain stealth priority above all else. The SAAI and Undying Will must not sense even a breath of our presence. Once Nyx creates her disturbance, we’ll slip in deeper under the chaos."
The insect vibrated its wings once in acknowledgment before darting away, merging with the swarm once more.
Jacob stood alone before the massive projection wall, watching the flickering holographic map of the Virtual Star World. His golden eyes burned like dying suns, deep and unreadable.
"Only 0.01%," He murmured again, his voice low yet brimming with confidence. "And already...the world seems to be changing..."
At that moment, the polyhedron pulsed again, and somewhere far away, within the Virtual Star World, the Upstar Casino glittered like a small sun in the middle of the Virtual Star World’s endless night.
A thousand holo-banners shimmered around its vast obsidian dome, each one projecting illusions of fortune, luxury, and temptation.
Laughter, digital jazz, and the rhythmic clinking of crystalline chips filled the grand hall as avatars from countless sectors reveled beneath neon constellations.
However, right at that moment, for one impossible heartbeat, everything froze.
Every sound fractured into a high, glass-like tone, every beam of light bent, rippling like heat over a dying sun.
The entire casino seemed to breathe once, then exhale a shiver of black mist that spread outward in all directions.
At the center of the main floor, seated upon a throne of reflective glass and red velvet, Nyx opened her eyes. They glowed, not with mere data light, but with something deeper, a reflection of endless night.
Her pupils were like event horizons; nothing escaped their pull.
"Connection with the main body stabilized," She whispered.
Her voice carried through both code and consciousness, reverberating in frequencies that even the system itself could not categorize.
Behind her, the air split open into shifting hexagonal layers, forming an intricate mandala of runic code, each line a fragment of the Nightmare Protocol Jacob had seeded from the Infinite Space.
Black symbols poured from her fingertips, running down the throne like living ink before bleeding into the casino floor.
At that moment, Black Mechanic’s static voice sounded,
"Nightmare Domain—Initialization Sequence: Level Zero.
"Anchor point established: Upstar Central Nexus.
"Network resistance... negligible!"
The light of the casino flickered again, and the gamblers, the dealers, the nobles in golden avatars, none of them realized what was happening.
To their perception, reality glitched for only a blink, no more than a minor network delay. But inside the code layer, Nyx was already channeling her Dream Law and the newly built Nightmare Domain she had created through the knowledge she received from the Lesser Plains!
The glass floor cracked, not physically, but conceptually, as reflections within it multiplied infinitely, each showing a distorted version of the casino hall.
In some, the guests were shadows; in others, they were puppets of wire and glass, smiling endlessly under flickering neon.
From those reflections, tendrils of black silk began to rise, silent and delicate, coiling through the air like smoke.
They brushed past avatars’ bodies, sinking into their digital skins. No one screamed. No one even noticed.
Every touch implanted a fragment of Nyx’s consciousness; it was a seed of nightmare!
Her lips curved faintly, the motion both serene and predatory, "The dream begins..."
At that moment, in the upper layer of the network, alarms flickered once and vanished.
The Star World Guardian AI, responsible for anomaly detection, twitched as its sensors blipped as though they had encountered a null frequency. However, thereafter... nothing. The anomaly data self-deleted!
Nyx’s presence existed between frames, beneath rules, in a fold of reality that no algorithm could read.
Around her throne, the floor melted into a circular abyss of red and black.
Out of it rose eight pillars, each crowned with an eye of void-light, and each eye began to hum in resonance with the Quantum Nightmare in Infinite Space.
The whole structure rotated, forming a dimensional anchor ring that connected her directly to Jacob’s Dreamscape Nightmare Realm, far beyond the network.
Black Mechanic’s voice turned colder, layered with echoes of distant stars...
"Phase one... complete!
"Nightmare saturation: 0.01%!
"Host environment synchronized!"
The walls of the casino dissolved into a shifting panorama of impossible landscapes as cities suspended upside-down in black oceans, moons bleeding silver mist, skies cracking like glass.
Every gambler’s laughter warped into whispers, merging into a quiet chant that pulsed with rhythmic unity.
Through that chorus, Nyx could feel Jacob’s distant pulse and the authority of the Dreamscape Nightmare Realm.
Jacob’s power flowed into her through the Nightmare Realm, stabilizing her domain and shielding her from system interference.
Together, they were a mirrored consciousness, half in data, half in the void.
Nyx raised her hand as a single drop of obsidian data floated above her palm, glimmering with runes.
"This..." Nyx muttered with a hint of mirth, "...is only the first thread. Once we reach one percent, the Virtual Star World will begin to... dream!"