"Now that you're awake, why did you come looking for me? Don't tell me you can't do anything about the Earth OL system either?"
Li Si frowned, catching a subtle change in the Lord of the Astral Realm's expression.
"No. After awakening, I sensed that it was an astral consciousness similar to my own, though weaker than me. So I began to reverse-infiltrate it—or rather, them."
The astral consciousness shook her head. "Everything went smoothly until... I completely infiltrated the so-called database of this game system."
"What do you mean, 'them'?"
Li Si naturally caught the ominous feeling that she was about to change the subject.
"They are astral consciousnesses as well. More precisely, they are a fusion of countless remnants of astral consciousnesses. Those remnants together form a system that operates within a fixed framework."
The Lord of the Astral Realm fell silent for a moment before continuing. "In the database—or rather, in their memories—I saw the remnants of their memories. Only then did I realize there was someone behind all this. But by then, I had already become completely entangled with those astral consciousness remnants..."
As the Lord of the Astral Realm continued her account, Li Si gradually came to understand some of his own doubts.
He had been reborn and entered the game, but the future Lord of the Astral Realm had also used his soul to send information from the future back to her present self.
When the present Lord of the Astral Realm woke up and took a look, she found someone with an aura somewhat similar to hers sneaking into her home to pick locks. How could she possibly tolerate that? She immediately struck back with a round of reverse infiltration.
As the infiltration deepened, she discovered that the "Earth OL system" was actually