381: The true origin of that "future technology system"

Rumble—!!!

The chaotic flow of time and space tore at the armor of the Xuanyuan like a meat grinder. The alarm wailed as shrilly as a suona horn, and the red light cast a deathly pale hue over everyone's faces.

"It's over, it's over! We're going to crash!"

Wang Peng (Fatty) clung desperately to his safety seat, his body being tossed about by centrifugal force like a lump of dough. He wailed, "My source of fire seed! That was a max-level divine artifact! Is it just gone? I'm such a spendthrift!"

"Shut up!"

Lu Chen stood at the very front of the bridge, his feet nailed to the floor. Despite the violent shaking of his body, his gaze was locked onto the "Void Origin" that was rapidly receding.

Through the gradually closing rift in time and space, he saw a scene that made his very soul tremble.

The golden light orb that Wang Peng had left behind by the typewriter—the "source of fire seed"—had not dissipated or remained still.

It was moving.

As if pulled by an irresistible force of Causality, it transformed into a meteor traveling upstream, plunging headlong into the rolling river of... time.

"That is..."

Su Qingying also saw this scene, her pupils shrinking suddenly. "It's... going backward? Where is it flying to?"

Lu Chen did not speak.

He pulled the bio-skeletal chip from his pocket and pressed it firmly against his brow.

"pangu! Track its trajectory!"

Buzz!

Although the system had been uninstalled, the "True Vision" remaining in this chip was still powerful.

In Lu Chen's field of vision, that golden meteor pierced through dimensional barriers, passing through the birth and death of countless universes and the rise and fall of countless civilizations.

It flew faster and faster, further and further.

Until... it rushed into a blue, singular universe as tiny as a speck of dust.

Then, it locked onto that blue planet.

Finally, it dove into a... dilapidated rental room.

The image froze.

There was a young, exhausted-looking teenager, slumped over a computer and fast asleep.

The screen was filled with error codes.

At that moment, the golden meteor penetrated the roof and silently merged into the teenager's mind.

The next second.

The teenager woke up with a start as a crisp notification sounded in his ear:

【Ding! future technology system... bound.】

Boom!

Lu Chen's mind went blank.

All the clues and all the doubts were lit up like a string of pearls at this moment, forming a perfect closed loop.

"So... that's how it is."

Lu Chen suddenly began to laugh.

It started as a chuckle, then a loud laugh, and finally he laughed until tears came out, laughing more wildly than the time-space storm filling the sky.

"Brother Chen? Have you gone mad?"

Wang Peng was terrified. "What time is it that you're still laughing? We lost a divine artifact!"

"Lost?"

Lu Chen suddenly turned around and grabbed Wang Peng by the collar, lifting him to the porthole.

"Fatty, look closely!"

"We never lost anything!"

Lu Chen pointed at the point of light that had already disappeared at the end of time, his voice carrying a clarity and grandeur that saw through all the truths of the world.

"That so-called 'system'."

"That so-called 'high-dimensional legacy'."

"It wasn't given by some alien, nor was it picked up by good luck!"

"That was..."

Lu Chen pointed at his current self, and then at his younger self in the image.

"That was the current me, leaving for the past me..."

"A gift."

"What?!"

Su Qingying and Wang Peng exclaimed at the same time, as if they had heard the shock of the Big Bang.

"This... this is a Mobius strip?"

Su Qingying covered her mouth, her eyes full of disbelief. "Because you became a god, you left behind the system; because you had the system, you were able to become a god? This is... mutual Causality?!"

"Exactly."

Lu Chen let go of Wang Peng and straightened his messy trench coat.

He looked at the brilliant aurora outside the window; the gates to a new world were opening to them.

"There is no savior."

"And there's no such thing as a free lunch."

"From beginning to end."

"The one who redeemed me and the one who made me is only..."

"Myself."

Lu Chen pulled a cigarette from his pocket that he had hidden at some point (it surprisingly hadn't been crushed in this dimension) and put it in his mouth without lighting it.

"That 'author' or that 'back view'."

"They were all just myself on different timelines."

"We struggled in countless cycles, playing a game in this infinite loop."

"Until today."

Lu Chen waved his hand sharply, as if cutting the final thread of entanglement.

"Fatty's 'slip of the hand'."

"Finally completed the circle!"

"Holy crap..."

Wang Peng was stunned. Although he didn't fully understand, he was greatly shocked. "So not only did I not cause trouble, I actually did something great? I'm a 'delivery man'?"

"More than just a delivery man."

Lu Chen patted his trembling belly.

"You..."

"Gave fate a nudge."

"Alright!"

The look in Lu Chen's eyes suddenly solidified, regaining that domineering aura of one who rules over all worlds.

Since the Causality had been settled and the loop completed.

Then now.

Was the true new beginning.

"Sit tight!"

Lu Chen strode toward the control console and gripped the control stick firmly with both hands.

Ahead, the gravitational waves of the new world had already captured the Xuanyuan.

It was an untouched, primal, and wild... unknown land.

"The system is gone."

"The cheats are gone too."

"But so what?"

Lu Chen grinned, revealing a row of stark white teeth, his eyes more burning than a star.

"The three words 'Lu Chen'."

"Are themselves..."

"The greatest cheat!"

"All hands—"

"Brace for impact!"

Rumble—!!!

The black warship was like a burning meteor, crashing fiercely into that brand-new world with an unstoppable momentum.

And amidst that violent crash, there seemed to be a scream from Wang Peng mixed in:

"Brother Chen! Slow down! My kidneys are still in the trunk!!"

...The dust settled.

The warship had not crashed, but had plowed a ten-kilometer-long trench through a virgin forest at an extremely tricky angle before finally coming to a steady stop.

The hatch opened.

Fresh air, carrying the fragrance of soil, rushed in.

Lu Chen was the first to walk out.

He stepped onto the soft earth, looking at the two purple moons overhead and the distant floating city filled with magical aura.

"It seems."

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes, a playful smile playing on his lips.

"This new map."

"Is quite interesting."

He turned to look at Wang Peng, who was clutching his waist and groaning in pain, and Su Qingying, who was rapidly analyzing the composition of the air.

"Fatty, Qingying."

"Hmm?" The two of them looked up.

"Our barbecue stall..."

Lu Chen pointed at the magnificent magic city.

"Looks like it needs a name change..."

To 'Dragon Slaying Inn'."