"There's no such thing! Nothing like that!"
In the detention room, the middle-aged man struggled to defend himself.
"Prosecutor Song, you can't frame an innocent man! How could I have hidden dangerous items in the Safe Zone? Where's the evidence? Where is it?"
"I, Jia Xiaokai, did make mistakes, but I'm actively reforming and correcting my past errors. You can't use things from the past to pile more charges on me now, can you? I won't accept it!"
Jia Xiaokai smoothed down his sparse hair, his face full of indignation.
Song Shiyi, seated across from him, remained unmoved.
"Confess truthfully, and you will receive lenient treatment. But if you conceal information and cause a safety incident or severe social repercussions as a result... then your next stop will not be a detention room, but a prison in the low-dimensional realm."
Song Shiyi spoke in a formal, measured manner.
Jia Xiaokai shook his arms hard, his smile bitter. "There's nothing because there's nothing! What do you expect me to confess?"
"You can investigate all you want. Go search my home. What dangerous items could I possibly be hiding?"
"Prosecutor Song, everything needs evidence. You need to establish the facts, right?"
Song Shiyi did not continue arguing with him. She merely put away her recording phone and rose from her chair.
"Then today's routine questioning will end here. If there is anything you wish to tell us, press the doorbell at any time."
She turned and walked into the wall.
Jia Xiaokai poured himself a cup of cold water from the water dispenser beside him and tipped back his head for a large gulp.
He looked as normal as ever, but inside, stormy waves churned.
Why did someone else know?
That shouldn't have happened.
There was something deeply strange about this.
No... no.
Song Shiyi was not the type to bluff without reason. She was the kind of prosecutor who liked to smash evidence right into people's faces.
Could it be... that the organization had deliberately leaked the news, intending to use the committee to force out the key in his possession?
Jia Xiaokai furrowed his brow. His round fingers rubbed at the edge of his eyebrow while the back of his hand concealed his expression.
If that was the case, then indeed.
Under the committee's continued pressure and surveillance, he would have no other choice. He no longer had the chance to study the key independently... One hundred and eighty years of imprisonment was far too long for anyone.
Unfortunately, those people did not know.
The key in his hands was not meant to open the famed [Golden Plains], but the infamous [Black Abyss]—where the Forest God had sealed all manner of terrifying, savage, crazed monsters.
Thinking of this, Jia Xiaokai could not help laughing.
The key was hidden in a Fragmented World. He was not worried in the slightest.
After the changing of eras, a Fragmented World would quickly close without the Main God's support, returning to stillness and becoming a new Safe Zone.
Gods could not enter it. They could only wait for the Novice God of the Fragmented World to advance into the Pantheon and set part of the Fragmented World in motion again, turning it into a Crawling Zone.
Most importantly—
Even if someone survived the traps he had set, obtained the key, and opened that portal—
They would next face a siege by Level 40 monsters. And those were merely the prisoners at the outermost edge of the first layer of the [Black Abyss].
Jia Xiaokai was very much looking forward to someone obtaining that key.
When they opened the [Black Abyss] with such anticipation, their expressions would surely be entertaining.
Lu Yao splurged today.
He bought two pistol drumsticks, a beef burger, a fried chicken burger, a bag of fries, a box of chicken nuggets, two large Ice Colas, and half a sliced Hami melon. The total came to 148 yuan.
He had been staying up late operating the game nearly every day recently, so this was his reward to himself.
"Help yourself. Don't be polite."
Lu Yao gestured toward Isabelle beside him.
Isabelle froze for a moment. "My lord, I do not require food. As long as the Flame of Faith in the Temple continues burning, I can draw sustenance from it."
Lu Yao handed her a pistol drumstick. "Sometimes, eating isn't about being hungry. Think of it as a reward. Eat whatever you like. You might even enjoy it."
Without Isabelle's tireless efforts day and night, the situation would never have become so clear. And he certainly would not have gained a boss-level subordinate like the Blood Knight, letting him take off immediately.
"Yes, my lord."
Isabelle remained as obedient as ever.
Imitating Lu Yao, she grabbed the pistol drumstick and tore into it, getting oil all around her lips.
Lu Yao smiled. "Take off the sunglasses when you eat. We're all friends here."
"Yes, my lord."
Isabelle held the chicken leg in her hand, which was now covered in oil. As she tried to take off her glasses, she became momentarily flustered.
"I'll help you."
When Lu Yao removed her sunglasses, her eyeballs nearly rolled out. In a frantic scramble, he stuffed them back into her eye sockets.
In the end, Isabelle's complete features were revealed.
She seemed to possess an aloof, almost inhuman coldness. Her eyes were bright and resolute, and her green pupils glimmered with a metallic texture under the light.
Compared to human girls on Earth, Isabelle's gaze was too direct and open. At first glance, it gave off an aggressive sense of strength.
But after looking a little longer, Lu Yao realized that was not the case at all.
Isabelle had a habit of letting her eyes lose focus. She looked as if she were spacing out, but in truth, she was simply nearsighted without her glasses.
"...Because I am accustomed to using the Power of Faith to observe my surroundings."
Isabelle put down the chicken leg and bowed. "My apologies, my lord. My current appearance is truly improper."
"It's fine. We're friends. There's no need to be so restrained when no outsiders are around."
Lu Yao actually found this more relaxing.
"Yes, my lord." Isabelle still sat up straight.
To Lu Yao, the Blood Knight could be replaced, but Isabelle was indispensable.
Take his earlier indirect probing of Song Shiyi, for instance. Isabelle's identity as an Apostle carried natural credibility, so Song Shiyi, as a committee prosecutor, had been very courteous toward her.
At Lu Yao's instruction, Isabelle had indicated that Prayer God had a problem, and that the matter involved the [Whistleblower].
Although Song Shiyi had some doubts, she still treated it seriously. She naturally brought up some theories regarding Safe Zones, indirectly conveying that there was no need to worry and that everything was under control.
Someone else would not have had the same effect.
In fact, Lu Yao had also asked Isabelle to borrow the shop owner's phone from a small convenience store to call Song Shiyi. If she had not been a pretty young girl, borrowing someone's phone to make a call would not have been so easy.
With the Blood Knight holding the fort in the Pixel World, Lu Yao felt at ease now, so he had time to chat with Isabelle while eating fried chicken.
"Why is the low-dimensional realm where you are called a Fragmented World?"
Isabelle slowly gnawed and chewed the chicken bone, patiently stripping every shred of meat from it before swallowing it, as thrifty as ever.
"My lord, because it is not a complete Great World."
"A complete Great World has a tree-like structure. It consists of many Small Worlds linked together, and the core connecting all those worlds is the Main God Space—the [Golden Plains] that you opened before, my lord..."
Isabelle explained patiently for a long time.
Lu Yao listened carefully, then summarized.
A Great World was like a skewer.
The skewer stick was the Main God Space, capable of connecting to numerous worlds and allowing entry and exit at any time.
The Main God Space was a private space created by a Lord God Tier God, similar to a backend manager for countless worlds.
There was also another type: an [Unclaimed World], somewhat similar to a Fragmented World.
However, unlike Fragmented Worlds, [Unclaimed Worlds] had never been occupied or transformed by Gods. Some could nurture rare species or precious treasures.
Thus, [Unclaimed Worlds] had always been critical strategic resources sought after and fought over by the Gods.
Compared to fertile Unclaimed Worlds, Fragmented Worlds were barren wastelands exhausted by overcultivation.
Without the Main God's support and drive, the rules of a Fragmented World would rapidly correct themselves. Its boundaries would become fixed again, forming a new Safe Zone that prevented Gods from entering.
After this Fragmented World split away, the [Whistleblower] took the opportunity to send followers and Heroes to invade—even so, they were constrained by Rule Power. The Blood Knight, whose abilities had been sealed, was the best example.
In short, a Fragmented World was a Novice Village for Novice Gods.
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