Isabelle Is Indispensable

"That's not true! There's no such thing!"

Inside the detention room, the middle-aged man argued desperately.

"Prosecutor Song, you can't wrong an innocent man like this. Where would I hide any dangerous items in the Safe Zone? Evidence, where's the evidence?"

"I, Jia Xiaokai, have—have made mistakes before, but I'm actively reforming now, correcting my past errors. You can't just pile new charges on me because of what happened before, can you? I won't accept it!"

Jia Xiaokai ran a hand through his thinning hair, his face full of defiance.

Song Shiyi across from him remained unmoved.

"If you confess truthfully, you'll receive lenient treatment. But if you conceal it and cause a safety incident with severe social repercussions... then your next stop won't be this detention room, but a prison in the lower dimensions."

Song Shiyi spoke methodically.

Jia Xiaokai shook his arms vigorously, a bitter smile on his face: "There's nothing, nothing at all! How am I supposed to confess?"

"You can go ahead and check, search my home—where would I hide any dangerous goods?"

"Prosecutor Song, everything needs evidence, needs facts, right?"

Song Shiyi didn't argue further with him. She simply put away her recording phone and stood up from the chair.

"Then, today's routine questioning ends here. If you have anything you want to tell us, ring the bell anytime."

She turned and walked into the wall.

Jia Xiaokai poured himself a glass of cold water from the nearby dispenser and took a big gulp.

His face looked normal, but inside, his thoughts were churning.

Why would someone else know?

That shouldn't be possible.

There was something eerie about this.

No... no.

Song Shiyi wasn't the type to bluff without reason. She was a prosecutor who liked to hit people with hard evidence.

Could it be... that the organization deliberately leaked the news, trying to use the committee to force the key out of his hands?

Jia Xiaokai furrowed his brow, rubbing his brow with his chubby fingers, using the back of his hand to mask his expression.

If that was the case, indeed.

Under the committee's constant pressure and surveillance, he had no other choice. He no longer had the chance to study the key independently... 180 years of imprisonment—that time was too long for anyone.

Too bad those guys didn't know.

The key in his hand wasn't meant to open the famous [Golden Plains], but the infamous [Black Abyss]—where the Forest God had sealed all kinds of terrifying, ferocious, mad monsters.

Thinking of this, Jia Xiaokai couldn't help but laugh.

The key was hidden in a Fragmented World. He wasn't worried at all.

After the era shift, a Fragmented World, lacking the push of a main god, would quickly close up and return to stillness, forming a new Safe Zone.

The gods couldn't enter it. They could only wait for the Novice God of that Fragmented World to ascend to the Pantheon, moving parts of the Fragmented World again and turning it into a Crawling Zone.

Most importantly.

Even if someone managed to survive the traps he'd set, got the key, and opened that portal—

They'd then face a siege of Level 40 monsters, and that was just the outermost prisoners on the first floor of the [Black Abyss].

Jia Xiaokai was looking forward to someone getting that key.

When they opened the [Black Abyss] full of anticipation, their expression would definitely be very amusing.

Lu Yao treated himself today.

He bought two chicken leg pieces, a beef burger, a fried chicken burger, a pack of fries, a box of chicken nuggets, two large Ice Colas, and half a cut cantaloupe. Total cost: 148 yuan.

He'd been staying up late almost every day recently, so today was his reward.

"Eat whatever you want, don't hold back."

Lu Yao gestured to Isabelle beside him.

Isabelle paused for a moment, then said, "My lord, I don't need food. As long as the Flame of Faith in the temple still burns, I can draw sustenance from it."

Lu Yao handed her a chicken leg: "Sometimes eating isn't about being hungry. Think of this as a treat. Just eat, you might like it."

Without Isabelle's tireless efforts day and night, the situation wouldn't be as clear as it was now. He certainly wouldn't have gained a boss-level subordinate like the Blood Knight, which had let him take off.

"Yes, my lord."

Isabelle remained obedient as always.

She mimicked Lu Yao's actions, grabbed the chicken leg, and tore into it, leaving her lips greasy.

Lu Yao said with a smile, "Take off your sunglasses when you're eating. We're all friends here."

"Yes, my lord."

Isabelle held a chicken drumstick, her fingers greasy again, and now she needed to take off her glasses—for a moment, she was all flustered.

"Let me help you."

As Lu Yao removed her sunglasses, her eyeball nearly rolled out, and he scrambled to shove it back into its socket.

In the end, Isabelle's complete features were finally revealed.

She had an aloof, unapproachable coldness about her, her eyes bright and resolute, green pupils glinting with a metallic sheen under the light.

Compared to human girls on Earth, Isabelle's gaze was too direct and candid, giving an initial impression of an aggressive, overbearing strength.

Looking a second time, Lu Yao realized that wasn't the case at all.

Isabelle had a habit of losing focus in her eyes, as if she was spacing out—it was really just nearsightedness without her glasses.

"...Because I'm used to observing my surroundings with the Power of Faith."

Isabelle put down the drumstick and bowed her head. "My deepest apologies, my lord. My current demeanor is truly discourteous."

"It's fine, we're among our own. When there are no outsiders around, no need to be so formal."

Lu Yao actually found it more relaxing this way.

"Yes, my lord." Isabelle still straightened up.

To Lu Yao, Blood Knights could be replaced, but Isabelle was indispensable.

Take, for instance, when he'd previously sounded out Song Shiyi. Isabelle's identity as an Apostle carried natural persuasiveness, so Song Shiyi, as a committee inspector, treated her with courtesy.

At Lu Yao's direction, Isabelle indicated that Prayer God had issues, and behind it all was the matter of the [Whistleblower].

Though Song Shiyi had some doubts, she still showed concern. She naturally brought up some theories about the Safe Zone, hinting in a roundabout way that there was no need to worry—everything was under control.

Anyone else wouldn't have had that effect.

In fact, Lu Yao had also sent Isabelle to borrow the small supermarket owner's phone to call Song Shiyi. If it hadn't been a pretty young girl, borrowing a phone to make a call wouldn't have been so easy.

In the Pixel World, with the Blood Knight holding the fort, Lu Yao was now at ease, so he had the leisure to eat fried chicken and chat with Isabelle.

"Why is this low-dimensional realm you're in called the Fragmented World?"

Isabelle slowly gnawed on the chicken bone, patiently chewing off every shred of meat, swallowing it down, as frugal as ever.

"My lord, because it's not a complete great world."

"A complete great world is tree-shaped, formed by many small worlds connected together. The core linking these many worlds is the Main God Space—that is, the [Golden Plains] you opened earlier, my lord..."

Isabelle patiently explained for a long time.

Lu Yao listened carefully and then summarized.

A great world was like a skewer of grilled meat.

The skewer stick was the Main God Space, capable of connecting to many worlds, entering and exiting at will.

The Main God Space was a private space created by a Lord God-tier deity, akin to a backend manager for many worlds.

There was also another type called the [Unclaimed World], somewhat similar to the Fragmented World.

But unlike the Fragmented World, the Unclaimed World had not been possessed or transformed by any deity; some would give birth to rare species or precious treasures.

Hence, the Unclaimed World had always been a key strategic resource for gods to search for and fight over.

Compared to the fertile Unclaimed World, the Fragmented World was like an over-exploited barren wasteland.

Without the support and drive of a main god, the rules of a shattered world would quickly self-correct. The boundaries would fix again, forming new Safe Zones that gods could not enter.

After this shattered world was stripped away, the [Whistleblower] took the chance to send in their followers and Heroes to invade—even so, they were constrained by the Rule Power, and the sealed Blood Knight was the best example.

In short, the Fragmented World was the Novice Village for Novice Gods.