System Crash!

A calm voice came from behind.

Skydream Iceworm's body suddenly stiffened, and it slowly turned around.

Xu Linjiu's spiritual form stood behind it with his arms crossed, a faint half-smile on his lips as he watched with amused interest.

"Uh... heh heh, I was just taking a stroll. Just taking a stroll..."

Skydream Iceworm awkwardly drifted backward, its tail curling unnaturally.

Xu Linjiu stepped forward twice, his gaze passing over Skydream Iceworm and settling on the area filled with memory fragments.

He casually waved a hand, and a pale golden barrier appeared before the memory fragments, giving off gentle waves of spiritual power.

Then he lowered his hand and looked at Skydream Iceworm, a teasing note in his voice. "Skydream, did you forget? I'm a spiritual-type soul master, after all."

Skydream Iceworm's expression froze.

"Do you really think I'd leave my memories completely exposed before a million-year soul beast with far too much curiosity?"

Skydream Iceworm's mouth twitched, and its entire body drooped like a deflated balloon.

"Fine, fine, I admit defeat, okay?!"

It rolled its eyes and did a somersault in the air irritably. "I was just curious where you got all that weird information! You even knew about my hiding place, not to mention those bastards like Di Tian!"

Xu Linjiu's spiritual form smiled faintly without denying it.

From the moment the sacrifice and fusion had been completed, he had known Skydream Iceworm would be unable to restrain its curiosity after waking up.

That was why he had immediately sealed away all his memories from his previous life with spiritual power. After all, those memories involved the secrets of transmigration, the system, and the Pokémon World. Before the time was right, he could not let anyone learn of them.

"Enough. Those memories are my secret, so give up on that idea."

Though Xu Linjiu's tone was casual, the meaning behind his words was perfectly clear.

Skydream Iceworm pursed its lips and was about to grumble when its gaze inadvertently swept toward the sky above the Sea of Spirit.

"Th-That thing! Look behind you!"

Skydream Iceworm abruptly pointed its tail at the sky above the Sea of Spirit, its tiny eyes wide as saucers.

"Oh, give it up. I wouldn't fall for a trick like that even thirty years ago!"

"What thirty years? Aren't you only twenty-four this year? No, look behind you! I'm really not lying!"

Xu Linjiu frowned slightly. Seeing that Skydream Iceworm did not seem to be lying, he turned and looked in the direction it was pointing.

Above the Sea of Spirit floated the projection of the Pokédex Martial Soul.

That itself was not strange. The Pokédex Martial Soul was one with him, so it was only natural for its projection to appear within the Sea of Spirit.

But the issue was that the system interface, which only he had originally been able to see, was now clearly displayed before Skydream Iceworm's eyes on the surface of the Pokédex projection.

Golden code flowed through the void, forming rows of text and icons: quest list, experience bar, inventory, attribute panel, contract status...

Everything was exposed without reservation within the Sea of Spirit.

Xu Linjiu frowned.

He had not expected Skydream Iceworm to be able to see the system interface within the Sea of Spirit.

This was an unexpected situation. It was probably because Skydream Iceworm now spiritually coexisted with him that the system no longer guarded its information from it.

But Skydream Iceworm did not care about any of that.

"Holy shit! What the hell is this thing?"

It shot toward the Pokédex projection and flew circles around it, its tiny eyes filled with shock. "So this is the system you mentioned? Those candies you gave me came from this? And what's all this written here? Experience points? Contract status? What the hell are these things?!"

Xu Linjiu rubbed his temples and was just about to explain when a glaring red warning box suddenly popped up on the Pokédex screen.

[Warning! Warning!]

The instant the warning box appeared, Skydream Iceworm jumped in fright and floated half a meter backward.

Then more warning boxes began popping up frantically.

[Detected that the Pokémon Skydream Iceworm's vital signs have completely vanished. Core life signal has returned to zero. Determined to be individual death.]

[Error! Detected the presence aura of Pokémon Skydream Iceworm!]

[Status conflict! Data contradiction!]

[Rescanning...]

[Scan result: Vital signs nonexistent...]

[Determination failed! Unable to determine current status!]

Xu Linjiu stared at the red warning boxes popping up madly before him, his brows tightly knit.

On the Pokédex screen, the icon representing Skydream Iceworm flickered wildly between light and dark, while scarlet warning text crawled across the entire interface.

The system seemed to have fallen into a logical infinite loop. Skydream Iceworm's physical body had indeed died, and according to the system's rules, it should have been determined to be dead.

Yet the million-year soul ring it had become still carried Skydream Iceworm's unique aura, and its soul resided within Xu Linjiu's Sea of Spirit, allowing the system to detect fluctuations of its aura again.

Skydream Iceworm was Schrödinger's Skydream Iceworm now.

Even Skydream Iceworm, usually so carefree, panicked at the sight. It instantly darted behind Xu Linjiu, clung to his shoulder, and poked out its head.

"Hey, hey, hey! Has your lousy martial soul gone insane? What do you mean individual death? I'm alive and well! I can still talk and bounce around, so what gives it the right to say I'm dead?!"

"You really are dead."

"Huh?"

Xu Linjiu's mouth twitched slightly as he raised a hand and pressed down on Skydream Iceworm atop his shoulder. "Don't panic. It just can't recognize what you are now. Your body is gone, but your aura remains. It's stuck in its judgment rules."

The moment he finished speaking, the warnings jumping all over the screen suddenly paused, and a new system notification appeared in the center of the panel.

[Severe data conflict detected. System self-diagnostic in progress...]

[Self-diagnostic failed! Initiating data repair...]

Xu Linjiu's expression turned somewhat grave.

He had not expected this to happen. The system had always operated steadily and had never made a single mistake, yet it had actually crashed because of Skydream Iceworm's special circumstances.

I can't be the first transmigrator to break his own system, can I?

The Pokédex screen flickered more and more violently before finally going completely black.

The Sea of Spirit fell silent for several seconds.

Skydream Iceworm cautiously moved closer to Xu Linjiu and asked in a lowered voice, "Um... did I break your system?"

Xu Linjiu did not answer. He merely stared at the blackened Pokédex screen, waiting to see what would happen next.

Several more seconds passed.

The Pokédex screen lit up again.

A line of golden text appeared on the screen:

[Compensation protocol activated]

[Data loss detected due to a system logic flaw]

[Calculating compensation...]

[Compensation plan confirmed: Special reward issued.]

"Compensation?"

Skydream Iceworm drifted closer. "Your system can actually give compensation?"

Xu Linjiu was somewhat surprised as well.

Golden text continued to appear on the Pokédex screen:

[Detected Skydream Iceworm attributes: Psychic, Ice.]

[Generating compensation reward...]

[Reward generation complete.]

Immediately afterward, an icy blue beam shot out from the Pokédex projection and slowly condensed before Xu Linjiu.

The blue light grew brighter and more solid until it finally condensed into an entirely icy blue egg in midair.

"An egg?"

Skydream Iceworm floated over, circled the egg twice, and even stuck out its tongue to lick it.

"Mmm! What pure ice-element energy!"

Its eyes immediately lit up. "This thing packs more punch than that chunk of Never-Melt Ice I swallowed before!"