Li Ban opened his eyes again. He was back in the laboratory elevator.
Chen Dong stood beside him. The beautiful, flowing streams of light around the elevator were gone; only a few indicator lights glowed dimly.
“Energy reserves are low. We need to hurry.”
Chen Dong stepped forward and pulled the doors apart with his bare hands.
Seeing this, Li Ban hurried over to help.
He was much stronger than Chen Dong. With his help, they forced the elevator doors open almost instantly.
Outside was a large laboratory containing twenty Experimental Capsules.
Chen Dong grabbed Li Ban and dragged him forward. “Hurry, get into your old Experimental Capsule. It’s the only one that doesn’t need time to adjust its parameters.”
But the moment they stepped out of the elevator, the entire laboratory fell apart.
Beyond the fissures lay pitch-black darkness—an endless space of unawakened consciousness.
The fragmented laboratory drifted away right in front of them.
The Experimental Capsules inside shattered one by one.
They were clearly useless now.
The moment Li Ban and Chen Dong stepped out of the elevator, they lost all gravity. Yet, as if drawn by some invisible force, they floated off into the distance alongside the laboratory debris.
Li Ban quickly looked back. The elevator was still there, standing silently at its original coordinates.
With quick reflexes, he grabbed the edge of the open elevator door with one hand and caught Chen Dong with the other.
Flexing his arm, he hauled both himself and Chen Dong back inside.
The elevator doors shuddered before slowly sliding shut.
“What’s going on?” Li Ban looked at Chen Dong.
This was Chen Dong’s brain-domain platform; he should know what was happening.
“My Experimental Capsule must have malfunctioned.”
For a fleeting moment, Chen Dong had thought he was going to be trapped in the dark zone of his brain forever.
It was a terrifying prospect.
However, once he recovered his wits, he quickly realized what had happened.
“The building is collapsing. Falling debris might have smashed the construct machine, which affected my brain in turn. I can’t maintain a stable brain-domain platform anymore.”
To think they had the Experimental Capsules to enter the Wizard World right in front of them, yet they couldn’t even get inside.
Li Ban had no time to complain. “Are there any other Experimental Capsules we can use?”
“The other Experimental Capsules don’t match your data. You don’t have enough clearance to enter—”
The anxious Chen Dong paused, his eyes suddenly lighting up. “I’ve got it. We’ll go to your old Experimental Capsule.”
He hurriedly operated the elevator controls.
The elevator shuddered continuously as if it were breaking down, making their hearts tremble along with it.
But Chen Dong seemed to have run into trouble. He spent a long time at the controls, and the elevator doors remained tightly shut.
Even though he knew he was just a digitized consciousness right now, Li Ban could still hear his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
“Is there any way to teleport directly? Isn’t this your brain-domain platform? Can’t you control this world?” Li Ban suggested.
“No. Precisely because it’s a brain-domain platform, we have to follow established rules,” Chen Dong said, trying hard to stay calm. “You know how it is. Once a person’s imagination runs wild, absolutely anything could happen.”
Li Ban fell silent and stopped distracting him.
Fortunately, two seconds later, the elevator doors opened again.
This time, the laboratory outside was the small one Li Ban had stayed in previously.
This small laboratory hadn’t fractured yet.
They quickly ran over to it.
“Hurry and lie down inside.”
Li Ban threw open the closed hatch and jumped in.
Chen Dong operated the main console.
“Li Ban, this Experimental Capsule still can’t force a logout—but you won’t need to force a logout ever again anyway.”
Finishing his inputs, Chen Dong stood outside the Experimental Capsule and looked down at Li Ban.
Seeing that the man wasn’t moving, Li Ban urged, “Chen Dong, hurry up and get into the Experimental Capsule next to mine!”
Since Chen Dong was the architect of this brain-domain platform, he should be able to enter anyone’s Experimental Capsule.
The avatar of Bai Yuechan might be out of commission, but Chen Dong could easily find a new character to inhabit.
Seeing how Chen Dong had insisted on bringing him back to the Wizard World even in the face of danger, Li Ban was more than willing to look after him once he assumed a new role.
Chen Dong, however, didn’t move. “I’m not going in.”
Li Ban was shocked, but he couldn’t even widen his eyes.
The Experimental Capsule hatch had already sealed shut. A metal needle pierced the back of his neck, and a wave of drowsiness washed over him.
Just like the day he had first crossed over, his eyelids grew as heavy as lead.
Unable to open his eyes, Li Ban could only listen to Chen Dong’s voice.
“Li Ban, my real name is Gu Yi. My codename is... General.”
Li Ban’s eyelids twitched. He had heard some things back at the mobile hub.
“I am the General, but I am not the only General. The other me is in the Wizard World. His name is Du An.”
The small laboratory began to fracture as well.
A fleeting look of panic crossed Chen Dong’s face, and he spoke faster.
“Tell Du An that the Ring World is destroyed. No one will ever hunt him down again. And ask him to stop making things difficult for the survivors of the Ring World.”
“There won’t be a mission assistance system from now on. You’ll have to walk your own path.”
“Just live as an ordinary person in the Wizard World. You might run into some trouble over at the Myriad Ancient Pagoda. You can push all the blame onto me.”
“No matter what, live well—even if you forget about the Ring World, that’s fine.”
“The Wizard World isn’t that simple. If climbing to the top is too exhausting, then experiencing birth, aging, illness, and death as an ordinary person isn’t a bad way to live either.”
In truth, Chen Dong had much more he wanted to say.
Although his relationship with Li Ban wasn’t particularly close, the boy was a child of the Ring World, his compatriot.
He didn’t even know if there were any other survivors besides Li Ban.
Chen Dong just wanted them to survive.
The main console indicated that Li Ban’s consciousness had already entered the Wizard World.
Chen Dong stared blankly at the crumbling small laboratory, unsure if Li Ban had heard his final words.
Then, as if suddenly snapping back to reality, he noticed the elevator doors were still open.
He kicked hard against the floor, utilizing a bit of the martial force he had learned in the Wizard World to leap a great distance.
He narrowly managed to grab the elevator floor and dragged himself up with great effort.
The small laboratory had completely shattered apart, including the Experimental Capsule Li Ban was in.
He, along with all the other researchers who hadn’t made it out, would never have a way back now.
Chen Dong stood in the elevator and watched the doors close.
Then, he turned around. “I am... the General. I wish to log out.”
[Command—Bzz—Accepted—Bzz—Logging out—]
Li Ban woke up.
The drowsiness receded like the tide as his brain gradually recovered.
He had just witnessed the destruction of a world.
The savior they had desperately searched for at all costs had turned out to be the poison that ended it all.
How could a “Virus” element be so powerful?
Li Ban had spent over two years in the Wizard World.
In his experience, while elements possessed many miraculous powers, they mostly leaned toward enhancing personal strength. They were never exaggerated to the point of destroying the world.
So why was the “Virus” provided by Du An able to kill the Leader and wipe out the Ring World?
“No, the Ring World probably wasn’t killed by the Virus. The Virus only affected the Wizard Embryo Fragment inside the Leader’s brain domain.”
“According to what Zhang Yang said, having a Wizard Embryo Fragment is enough to keep the world from collapsing. There was clearly a problem with the Leader’s Wizard Embryo Fragment, and it ended up being completely devoured by the Virus. That must be why the Ring World was destroyed.”
“If the Virus hadn’t appeared, the Ring World probably could have held on for a few more years.”
So in the end, it was still Lord Du An who had finished the game.
And he had done so to completely shake off the Ring World’s pursuit.
Li Ban let out a soft breath.
Since he had spent the entire time inside the mobile hub and the brain-domain platform, Li Ban didn’t feel any visceral impact from the Ring World’s destruction.
As for the death of the Director—the Leader—he was actually glad to see it happen.
He just felt a bit of pity for Chen Dong.
Especially after seeing the profound despair on the man’s face.
He hadn’t needed to stay behind in the Ring World to wait for death.
Li Ban had thought Chen Dong would go to the Wizard World with him.
But he hadn’t realized that despair could also be so serene.
Chen Dong’s brain domain had been damaged, meaning his real body had clearly suffered heavy trauma. By logging out, he was going back to embrace death.
Yet he had still chosen to leave.
Li Ban slowly opened his eyes and stared up at a pitch-black ceiling, confirming that he was no longer in the secret chamber of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
He had no time to dwell on his feelings. Now that he had finally managed to escape from the Ring World, there were still many problems he had to face.
“Who are you?”
Du An’s cold, clear voice suddenly rang out from the side.
He sounded as if he had been waiting there for a long time.