165: Chapter 165 Narrative Layer Trial: You call this collapse? I call this art!

Starry Sky Ancient Road · Space in front of pangu-003.

The massive "Lawyer's Letter" (or rather, a red warning notice) that obscured the starry sky did not vanish despite Li Mo's mockery. Instead, it began to burn violently, transforming into countless red [Correction Chains] that locked down the space for a million miles around.

Within this Void Realm shrouded in red light, three figures as towering as mountains slowly emerged. They lacked specific facial features, their bodies composed of densely packed black and white text. Every word radiated a rigid, archaic, and unquestionable pressure.

"We are the Narrative Layer Inspection Team." The giant in the center let out a thunderous voice, a massive character for [Outline] (representing the plot outline) carved into its chest. The giant on the left had [Setting] (representing the world-building) carved on its chest, and the one on the right had [Logic] (representing logical consistency).

"Li Mo, Administrator of pangu-003." The Giant of [Outline] raised a colossal hand made of countless "Prohibited" symbols, pointing at the blue planet below. "You have committed the 'Crime of Narrative Collapse.'" "Count One: Art Style Fragmentation. Gatling guns, Gundams, and magical girls appearing in a Cultivation World is a severe violation of genre classification." "Count Two: Power Scaling Collapse. Qi Refinement Stage Cultivators (players) killing a Soul Transformation Stage BOSS through self-detonation has left the Realm System with no dignity." "Count Three: Character OOC (Out of Character). Xiao Yan building nuclear bombs instead of using fire, the Magic God writing code instead of chanting, the Titan God King wearing women's clothing... this is a desecration of the original characters!"

"Judgment: Immediate execution of the 'Rollback' procedure." "All anomalous settings are to be forcibly restored."

Buzz—! As the judgment was handed down, an irresistible wave of Law instantly swept across the ship.

...

Thirty-Third Heavens · Teaching Area.

Xiao Yan, who was in the laboratory tuning a "Buddha's Fury Hydrogen Bomb," suddenly felt his entire body stiffen. The precision nuclear warhead in his hand actually regressed rapidly in the red light, turning back into an ordinary Heavenly Flame. The knowledge of quantum Physics and chemical equations in his mind was being forcibly erased, replaced by that classic line: "Do not bully the young for being poor... Do not bully the young for being poor..."

The Magic God next door also suffered a miserable fate. The tens of thousands of lines of C++ code he had just written instantly turned into obscure parchment scrolls. The high-performance Spiritual Qi terminal (tablet) in his hand turned into a broken wooden staff. "No! My code! My automated casting macros! Give them back to me!"

The players were the most miserable. The "Spider-Man" player who was moving bricks in the Nether Heavy Industry Layer suddenly found that his web-shooters were gone and his Hulk bloodline had failed. They turned back into Qi Refining rookies dressed in coarse linen clothes with no strength to even truss a chicken. [System Warning: You have been hit by a Narrative Layer Dimensional Reduction Strike!] [Your cheats (bloodlines/equipment) have been judged as violations and are forcibly confiscated!]

"Holy crap! My Gundam!" "Where's my Gatling? How did it turn back into a fire stoker?" "Developer! There's a bug! It's a rollback! I want compensation!"

The entire ship was filled with wails. After grinding hard for half a month, they were back to square one overnight? Who could endure this?

...

Above the starry sky.

Li Mo watched the scenes being forcibly "corrected," a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "Rollback?" "Did you ask me, the lead writer?"

He did not use physical force to break those chains; instead, he took out his spring and autumn brush and Lore Book. "You say this is a collapse?" "You say this is desecration?"

Li Mo's figure blurred, appearing directly before the three textual giants. Though small in stature, his Aura was like a sharp sword piercing the firmament. "Three Inspectors, do you understand what is meant by... a 'Version Update'?"

"Sophistry!" The Giant of [Logic] roared. "Cultivation is cultivation! There must be Spiritual Roots, Dao enlightenment, and Undergoing Tribulation! What kind of cultivation is using nuclear bombs to blow people up?"

"Who ruled that cultivation can't use nuclear bombs?" Li Mo sneered, lifting his brush and writing a large character for "Refute" in the Void Realm. "In my view, the essence of cultivation is—'utilizing energy to transcend the mundane.'" "Storing Qi in the Dantian is storage; storing electricity in a battery is also storage." "Killing with a Flying Sword is killing; killing with a nuclear bomb is also killing." "This isn't called a collapse; it's called... 'reaching the same goal through different paths.'"

Li Mo snapped his fingers. "All personnel, heed my command!" "Event Start: [I Speak for Myself]." "Show these old fogies what true... cultivation is!"

Buzz! Following Li Mo's command, a golden halo of Administrator Privilege instantly covered the ship. That red power of correction was temporarily blocked.

"Director Xiao Yan! Class is in session!" Li Mo's voice echoed through the Thirty-Third Heavens. "Show them what 'New Era Alchemy' is!"

...

Teaching Area.

Xiao Yan, who had just regained his senses, had a flash of fury in his eyes. You dare delete my memories? You dare confiscate my nukes? "I've put up with you lot for a long time!" Xiao Yan roared. Although the nuke in his hand was gone, the knowledge in his head remained (restored by Li Mo).

"All Disciples, heed my command!" "If we don't have nukes, we'll... hand-craft them!" "Heavenly Flame Array! Rise!"

Boom! Hundreds of explosion-path players simultaneously summoned Beast Fires. Although they lacked high-tech equipment, they used a primitive "Human Centrifuge" (hundreds of people running in circles to generate centrifugal force) to forcibly compress the flames to the limit. "Buddha's Fury... Fusion!"

A mushroom cloud, crude but with extremely high energy density, rose above the teaching area. It was no longer the original Xuanhuan fire lotus, but an... artificial sun shimmering with radiant light.

"Do you see clearly now?" Li Mo pointed at that sun and spoke to the Giant of [Setting]. "This is what you call a 'collapse'?" "This is clearly... the sublimation of the 'Dao'!" "This is the physical manifestation of the 'Great Dao of the Sun'!"

The Giant of [Setting] was stunned. Its body, composed of countless setting clauses, actually began to crumble. "This... this works too? It follows energy conservation... it follows the Great Dao of Simplicity... logic... logic is self-consistent?"

...

"It's not over yet." Li Mo looked at the Giant of [Logic]. "You say the players' self-detonation style is a power scaling collapse?" "Thunder War! Step forward!"

The First Heaven. Thunder War led the Falcon Squad and tens of thousands of "self-detonation style" players, roaring toward the sky. "Our bodies are fragile, but our will is steel!" "Cultivation—what are we cultivating?" "It is 'sacrificing oneself for righteousness'! It is 'finding life through death'!"

"Detonate!" Tens of thousands of players simultaneously ignited the Spiritual Qi within them. But this was not just a simple explosion. Under Thunder War's command, these tens of thousands of explosions formed a perfect [Resonance Frequency]. It was just like the resonance produced by an army marching across a bridge.

Buzz—Crack! That red [Correction Chain] locking down the ship was actually... shattered by this pure, death-defying explosive soundwave.

"Did you see that?" Li Mo pointed at the shattered chains. "A Mortal can also shake the heavens." "Isn't this more hot-blooded, more like cultivation, than those old monsters who go into seclusion for ten thousand years at every turn?"

The Giant of [Logic] took a step back. The character for "Logic" on its chest cracked. "Will interfering with reality... Mortals defying heaven... this... this is indeed a core satisfaction point of cultivation..."

...

"As for the last one..." Li Mo looked at the largest giant in the middle, the Giant of [Outline]. "You say the Titan God King wearing women's clothing is a character collapse?" "Heh."

Li Mo waved his hand. A holographic screen projected into the starry sky. On the screen was the Titan God King in a pink dress being beaten in the Labor Reform Camp, but his "Popularity Points" (voted by players) ranked first in the entire server. Countless bullet comments floated by: [Go God King! You're so cute today!] [Even though he used to be a tyrant, he's a qualified punching bag now!] [To protect the God King's dress, I'm willing to top up another five hundred!]

Even the Titan God King himself (having been brainwashed by Li Mo for a long time) stood in the square at this moment, waving a fairy wand and shouting: "For love and justice! For the glory of Tianhe Academy! I will fight too!"

"Do you see?" Li Mo questioned loudly. "What is a character setting?" "A setting isn't dead! A setting is alive!" "A high-and-mighty tyrant turning into a beloved (bullied) mascot is called... 'Gap Moe'!" "This is called... the reshaping of a 'Character Arc'!" "In your outlines, are there characters this vivid?"

Boom! These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing hard against the chest of the Giant of [Outline]. It looked at the Titan God King, who, though in a sorry state, had light in his eyes (even if it was beaten into him). It then looked at those players howling to protect the God King.

"Vividness... attention... reader feedback..." The Giant of [Outline]'s body began to tremble violently. As a maintainer of the Narrative Layer, its core KPI was "reader attention." And now, every corner of the ship was filled with a vitality it couldn't understand but whose data was off the charts.

"Error... Error..." "Old logic cannot explain current popularity..." "Outline... the outline needs an update..."

Crack! Crash! The three giants collapsed simultaneously. Their rigid textual bodies completely disintegrated before the players' tide-like "idiotic power" and "brain-hole torrent." They turned into a rain of ink that filled the sky.

[System Hint: The Narrative Layer Inspection Team has been defeated.] [Obtained Loot: Rule Ink (can be used to write new settings).] [Unlocked New Achievement: I Am the Rule.]

Li Mo stood in the ink rain, allowing the ink droplets representing the rules of the old era to fall on him. He reached out and caught a drop of ink. "Look," he said to the Star Spirit Navigator beside him. "There are no unbreakable rules." "As long as your story is exciting enough and fun enough." "Even the 'censors'... will be assimilated by you."

The Star Spirit Navigator looked at Li Mo, her eyes full of shock. "Captain, are you... are you declaring war on the entire Narrative Layer?"

"No." Li Mo shook his head, his gaze turning toward the deeper Void Realm. There, he felt that the "Author" who had been peeping at him seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, even secretly clapping. "I am... saving it."

"Alright." Li Mo put away the spring and autumn brush and turned to look at the players and protagonists who were cheering and celebrating. "The crisis is resolved." "But..." "We've made too much noise." "That 'debate' just now has likely spread throughout the entire... [Myriad Worlds Scrapped Draft Zone]."

Li Mo pointed toward the depths of the starry sky. The originally pitch-black cosmic background suddenly lit up with countless pairs of eyes. Those were countless worlds that had been abandoned, left with bad endings, or dropped. Their protagonists, their Devil Kings, their wills... all looked toward the ship at this moment.

Since there was a place here that could "rewrite the ending." Since there was an Administrator here who could bring "rigid characters" back to life. Then... "Save us..." "We want to... live again..."

Countless thoughts converged into a tsunami, surging toward the ship.

Li Mo took a deep breath, a wild smile curling at the corners of his mouth. "It seems the days ahead won't be boring." "T-9, expand the servers." "We're going to set up a... [Myriad Worlds Refugee Camp]." "Or perhaps call it... the [All-Heavens Dream Fulfillment Agency]?"