The Typewriter in the Ruins, The Truth of the World

Within the pure-white space, the silence was so profound it made one's ears ring.

There was no up, down, left, or right here, nor was there any passage of time.

That black old-fashioned typewriter floated directly ahead, its keys blanketed in dust, as though it had been abandoned for ten thousand years.

Lin Mu stepped forward.

Thud.

Though there was clearly nothing beneath his feet, the echo of a footfall on solid ground rang out.

Lilith followed behind, attempting to take a step forward.

Buzz.

A transparent ripple spread through the air.

Lilith's toes struck an invisible wall.

It was not just her.

Hades, Margo, and Elvira, who possessed holy attributes, were all stopped outside by that wall.

"Can't get through."

Lilith reached out and pressed her hand against the transparent barrier.

Where her fingertips touched, rings of red warning boxes surfaced in the space.

[Insufficient permissions.]

They were neither Blue Star's script nor the Abyssal language.

They were Chinese characters.

Square and orderly—the Chinese characters Lin Mu knew best.

Lin Mu stopped and looked back at the others blocked outside.

Then he turned around and walked alone toward the typewriter.

As he drew closer, the surrounding scene began to distort.

Black squares appeared across the barriers of the pure-white space.

Textures began vanishing in certain places, exposing purple grid lines beneath.

It was like a 3D game scene that had failed to load properly.

Lin Mu arrived before the typewriter.

He reached out, his fingertips touching the black fragment on the space bar.

Snap.

The fragment sprang up on its own and floated in the air.

Crackle, crackle.

A burst of electrical static sounded through the space.

The air above the typewriter began to twist and reform.

Countless blue motes of light gathered, gradually taking the outline of a