Guardian

At that moment.

A hundred kilometers away, the Pearl Divers troops locked onto their target through their equipment.

The figure in their crosshairs was none other than Qin Yiguan, leaning beneath the boulder.

"It's him!"

"Black Calamity!"

"I'll never forget that face!"

"Blow him to pieces!"

"Fire every weapon! Hold nothing back!"

In that instant, countless brilliant colors flashed across the horizon. Every kind of beam weapon, every kind of Plasma Cannon, and Antimatter Missiles bloomed like fireworks, converging on the center of the encirclement in a bombardment that left no blind spots!

The young man watched the weapons fill the sky.

Fuck.

He had no energy left to curse. In the end, he had still been played!

"Guardian!"

The armored figure let out another low roar.

Then two curved shields, each as tall as a person, suddenly materialized in his hands.

With a flick of his hands, he drove the shields into the ground in front of and behind Qin Yiguan. They slowly closed together, sheltering Qin Yiguan between them.

Then.

The armored figure leaped up and stood atop the shields.

Boom, boom, boom!

In an instant, every kind of weapon came flooding in.

The beam weapons carried temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Celsius, comparable to the surface of the sun.

The plasma missiles released beams of electromagnetic energy that focused in the atmosphere, forming masses of plasma capable of tearing anything apart.

The Antimatter Weapons carried antimatter particles. When they encountered normal matter, an annihilation reaction would occur, reducing everything to nothing.

Within this tiny space.

Extreme heat scorched everything, masses of plasma burst and tore, and antimatter annihilated matter. Forget humans-even atoms could be crushed and shattered, ultimately annihilated by all these forms of destruction!

Yet the armored figure and the two shields remained as immovable as mountains.

He stood silently amid the violent storm, as though the sight of heaven and earth collapsing had nothing to do with him.

In just an instant.

The surrounding ground had already vanished, annihilated into a vast, bottomless hole.

Within the Metaverse.

Technology and experimental conditions could transcend the limitations of reality.

Simulations could run endlessly, theories could be tested endlessly, and development could proceed without restriction.

These weapons might never come into existence in reality.

But within the Metaverse, they had been developed far ahead of their time.

Any one of them was thousands or tens of thousands of times more powerful than the weapons of the old era!

And yet.

The armored figure seemed to exist on an even higher level, beyond matter as people understood it.

As for Qin Yiguan.

He stood quietly between the two shields. Even the sounds of the explosions were barely audible, leaving his peace undisturbed.

He had only a basic understanding of the ferocity of the weapons outside. After all, he was no weapons expert.

All he knew was that those attacks were beyond anything a human could withstand.

"Are you all my personalities?"

"I actually have two... or even more split personalities?!"

The young man asked slowly.

But the armored figure remained silent.

He stood motionless, like a statue cast from steel.

The young man shook his head.

He seemed capable of saying only one word.

Boom, boom, boom!

The massive explosions continued.

Those Pearl Divers were mad with fury. The crimes Black Calamity had committed must have been horrific.

The bombardment lasted at least ten minutes.

The young man tilted his head back, with nothing to do.

But just then, the armored figure suddenly spoke. "We are all you, and our abilities are all your abilities. You simply haven't unlocked the shackles on your own consciousness yet."

"Though I am a guardian personality, I cannot protect you forever."

"One day, I will be assimilated or consumed."

"Before that happens, you must become incredibly powerful."

"If you can, you could even merge everything together."

"Including them."

"And the godlike Number One."

"The fusion rate within the Metaverse is the key to everything."

"From this moment on."

"You must hone yourself."

With that.

The armored figure dissipated, and the two shields vanished.

Light returned in an instant.

The young man could now see his surroundings clearly.

The fierce bombardment had stopped.

He stood inside a massive pit a full thousand meters across. Its walls were smooth, like a meteor crater, or a scar on the earth.

The armored figure was long gone.

At that moment.

God's Abandoned's voice rang out, and an information panel appeared before him.

Brain Restricted Zone A09 [Dissociative Identity VI]-Temporary development: 5%

Personality 1: Black Calamity.

Personality 2: Guardian.

A sharp light flashed in the young man's eyes.

I'm actually even more complicated than I thought.

A hundred kilometers away.

Among the Pearl Divers troops.

The visual feed focused on the bottom of the pit.

They saw the young man slowly climbing upward.

"How is he...?"

"Completely unharmed!"

"That's impossible!"

"Weapons of this caliber already incorporate the most powerful technology in the Metaverse! No living creature could come out unharmed!"

"We've exhausted all our energy and ammunition. This... is impossible!!!"

"This is impossible!!!"

The Pearl Divers had yet to notice.

Dense black shadows had silently seeped across the ground, enveloping the entire force.

The next moment.

The sounds of machinery shattering, explosions, and screams rang out.

The young man had no idea how long he had been walking before he finally climbed to the edge of the enormous pit and emerged onto the surface.

What greeted his eyes.

Was an endless expanse of broken machinery and human limbs strewn across the ground, scattered in a massive circle.

It was the Pearl Divers troops.

The young man had never had a particularly good impression of them.

Now they were all dead.

It was as though a monster had suddenly burst from the darkness, tearing them all apart and chewing them to pieces.

It wasn't hard to understand.

Black Calamity hadn't left right away. Instead, he had chosen to eliminate them completely.

The young man fell silent for a moment, then merely asked, "God's Abandoned, how do I increase my fusion rate?"

"Fusion rate is a statistic unique to the Experimental Zone. You need to survive here, live here, and do all sorts of things. In a sense, it's like proficiency. It increases as you gain experience, and as it increases, it means you are becoming more and more attuned to this world."

The young man nodded. "If my fusion rate increases, will my overall abilities improve proportionally?"

"Yes."

God's Abandoned said, "And that improvement has thresholds. Once you reach a certain state, your abilities will undergo a qualitative transformation."

The young man scanned the severed limbs covering the ground. At least five thousand people had died here.

Yet there was no emotion in his eyes.

"I have to improve myself like mad. I have to do everything I can to become stronger."

"Otherwise, I could be killed at any moment."

"Whether in reality or in the Metaverse, it's the same."

God's Abandoned suddenly asked, "Are you only doing this to save yourself?"

"Of course not."

The young man's face was calm, but his eyes shone. "I'm also doing it for my own ambition!"

He paused for a moment, then said in a low voice, "You saw it too. My personalities are powerful. And you heard it too. I have more than two personalities."

"I'm going to merge every last one of them."

"I'm going to possess all their abilities."

"In this chaotic age..."

"Now that opportunity has come..."

"Why should I become one of those petty schemers?"

"I want everything."

"I want to be the strongest!"