Chapter 111: The inter-universe portal opens, linking the game to other dimensions.

The Abyss Scouts didn't survive the night.

Twelve Abyss Scouts were scattered across six provinces in the country. The Guardian Alliance's assault teams, guided by Ghost's real-time coordinates, synchronized their cleanup. Lin Ye didn't go to the scene himself; he sat on the third floor of the studio, extending the coverage radius of his Cross-dimensional Decay Domain from the entire city to the whole country. The energy consumption was greater than any time before. On the monitoring panel in front of Ghost, Lin Ye's real-time heart rate spiked to 130 beats per minute at one point. Su Qinghan stood behind him without a word, simply placing a glass of warm water by his hand.

The moment it covered the whole country, the energy shells of the twelve scouts shattered simultaneously, like twelve dark purple lamps extinguishing in the same second. The gunfire from the assault teams came intermittently through the communication channels from the six provinces. Each time the gunfire ceased, the same report came through the headset: "Target eliminated."

Sister Chen was silent in the command channel for a few seconds, then said: "Lin Ye, your effective coverage radius has already exceeded the recorded limit of all known supernatural ability users."

Lin Ye deactivated the domain, picked up the glass of water, and took a sip. His forehead was covered in sweat. He didn't respond to Sister Chen, just told Ghost to record the energy consumption data, noting that next time they might need a more energy-efficient method to take out twelve targets simultaneously.

Ghost saved the data and was just about to continue optimizing the skill template when a high-priority monitoring alert popped up in the bottom right corner of the main screen. The sender wasn't the Guardian Alliance's Abyss energy monitoring network, nor was it the studio's own order backend, but inside the game—a piece of real-time log synchronized by the God Realm official server group through a cross-dimensional channel. The log had only three lines, each marked with the system's golden announcement format: Detected abnormal activity in a cross-universe plane crack; the source of the trigger is neither Abyss energy characteristics nor local server data packets. The end of the third line marked a string of coordinate parameters, and the corresponding folder directory name was "Cross-Universe Linkage Protocol Draft Pending Review."

Lin Ye stared at the screen for a moment, and just as he was about to have Ghost confirm it further, the master control computer on the desk automatically popped up the game launch interface. It wasn't him logging in manually; the game pod had actively awakened his bound account port. A flash of golden light appeared on the interface, and a draft of a server-wide announcement popped up. The title read: Preliminary Framework for the God Realm Parallel Universe Linkage Version. Below it was a short description—This linkage involves game worlds from three parallel universe planes: the magic plane Magic Era, the technology plane Interstellar Warframe, and the immortal cultivation plane Immortal Cultivation World.

A small window popped up next to the announcement; it was a text message sent personally by the game's official CEO. The other party was typing line by line, the pace much faster than usual: "Mr. Lin Ye, this is the cross-universe linkage version draft we are preparing; we haven't had a chance to synchronize it with you yet. Early this morning, the server automatically detected an external pathway attempting to access our server's data layer. The technical team traced the access request to a game server called Magic Era, and the other party proactively sent an inter-plane exploration invitation. We also received a short diplomatic note signed by the Shadow Demon Dragon."

Lin Ye placed the cup on the table and replied in the chat box: "The Shadow Demon Dragon is a world boss in Magic Era. How did it know your server's physical address?"

The CEO replied in seconds with three words: "Don't know."

Ghost synchronized and retrieved the public data of the Magic Era server, finding that the Shadow Demon Dragon was an untamed wild world boss in Magic Era, described as an ancient creature that controlled the power of the shadow plane, with no record of cross-game activities before. He combed through the version update announcements of Magic Era and found that the latest patch only added an inconspicuous note—The Shadow Demon Dragon's territory has added a space rift scene effect, trigger conditions unknown.

Lin Ye stood up, patted the coat Su Qinghan had placed on the back of his chair, put it on, walked to the game pod, opened the hatch, and sat inside. He put on his helmet and left a sentence for Ghost: "Keep in touch with Sister Chen's side, and don't stop the secondary fluctuation scanning after the Abyss Scout cleanup. I'll go in and take a look to see what's going on with that Shadow Demon Dragon."

The moment the holographic interface expanded, the familiar character panel and backpack interface appeared in his field of vision. But unlike usual, there was an unfamiliar entrance icon on the right side of the backpack. The icon was shaped like three intersecting golden cracks, labeled "Cross-Universe Plane Channel." Lin Ye clicked it, and a drop-down menu popped up, listing the names of three parallel universe planes: Magic Era, Interstellar Warframe, and Immortal Cultivation World. The entrance to Magic Era was flashing with dark purple light, with a line of yellow system prompts next to it: Received an invitation from the Shadow plane of Magic Era, accept?

He clicked accept. A blue light flashed before his eyes, and the loading screen changed from the Main City Square of God Realm to a dim magic forest. The trees were unnaturally tall, their crowns blocking the sky, and glowing spores floated in the air. In the distance, a black mountain ridge arched out of the ground like the spine of a giant beast, and dark purple liquid magic energy constantly dripped from the surface of the mountain, each drop emitting a puff of green smoke as it hit the ground.

Lin Ye looked down at his character panel. All attribute values were displaying normally, and not a single item in his backpack was missing. The panel for the Cross-dimensional Decay Domain was also there, the skill icon lit up, indicating that the Talent could take effect across planes. He walked forward for a while, and the soil under his feet gradually changed from ordinary dark brown to an unnatural purple with a faint fluorescence. The concentration of magic energy in the air was unnaturally high. The black mountain ridge in the distance suddenly moved as a whole—the ridge was not a ridge; it was a giant flying creature crouching in the valley, sleeping.

Shadow Demon Dragon.

It slowly raised its head, and two eyes like dark purple searchlights shone on Lin Ye. Its wings, once spread, almost covered half the sky, and every flap caused visible chaos among the surrounding magic particles. Its voice was deep and thick, each word sounding as if it were squeezed from the depths of the earth's crust: "Outsider, you have the aura of the Abyss Council on you. You have killed their scouts."

Lin Ye stood with his hands in his pockets, looking up at it, his tone casual: "Not only killed, but also farmed. In the game, I've raided the home base of the Abyss Dungeon at least ten times. You know the Abyss Council?"

The Shadow Demon Dragon's pupils contracted. It didn't answer immediately, but instead scanned Lin Ye's entire body with some kind of magic energy, then slowly folded its wings and crouched back into the valley. When it spoke, the hostility in its voice had faded, replaced by a complex tone that was hard to tell if it was curiosity or wariness: "The Abyss Council is not a product of your plane. They were born in the ruins of a forgotten plane and survive by devouring the energy of other planes. The reality world you are in and the God Realm server are just two of their many targets. Magic Era is also one of their alternative targets. The reason I proactively sent the invitation is that I detected that you have the dual energy characteristics of both the Decay Domain and the Chaos Core. Our boss's astrology predicted a person who could restrain the Abyss Council, and the description matches you."

Lin Ye raised an eyebrow: "Who is your boss?"

"Magic Creator God." The Shadow Demon Dragon lowered its huge head, its tone becoming extremely solemn. "The supreme existence of Magic Era. Her Excellency said that if you are willing to accept the invitation, let me give this to you."

It opened its huge dragon claw, and a dark purple diamond-shaped crystal floated in its palm. Inside the crystal, it looked like a dense fog was constantly rolling, surrounded by three layers of fine light rings, the color of each ring constantly changing. Lin Ye's Cross-dimensional Decay Talent triggered automatically the moment it sensed the existence of the crystal, and a system prompt popped up in his mind—Detected unidentified high-density magic energy crystal, energy characteristics highly compatible with Chaos Core, recommended to obtain samples.

Lin Ye reached out and grasped the crystal. The surface of the crystal was cold. The moment it touched his palm, the dense fog inside suddenly calmed down, and the color of the light rings stopped changing. At the same moment, a line of green prompts popped up on his skill panel—Cross-dimensional Decay Domain energy cap increased by three percent, current coverage radius has unlocked cross-plane extension function.

This thing can directly help me level up.

He gripped the crystal tightly, looked up, and said to the Shadow Demon Dragon: "Is this a specialty of your magic plane? What is it called?"

"shadow crystal, top-tier magic energy crystal. In Magic Era, only the final boss of a top-tier dungeon can possibly drop it, with a drop rate of less than 0.05%. This one was condensed by the boss herself, sealing the source energy of the shadow plane inside. She said if you are willing to help fight the Abyss Council, we can provide a certain number of shadow crystals regularly as cooperation supplies in the future."

Lin Ye put the shadow crystal into his backpack, the corners of his mouth curving slightly: "Your boss is so generous, there must be conditions."

The Shadow Demon Dragon did not deny it: "The Abyss Council is expanding in multiple planes simultaneously, and Magic Era is struggling to fight them alone. We observed that you can use your Talent both in the game and in reality, and can synchronize across servers. Our boss's idea is very simple—you hang a title in Magic Era, allowing us to use the bosses in Magic Era to train troops and farm materials, and in return, we will provide you with shadow crystals and magic scrolls unique to this era, benefiting both sides."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said: "So it's just letting me open a branch in Magic Era, and then you act as my material supplier. Fine, I'm very familiar with this cooperation model." He turned around and waved at the Shadow Demon Dragon behind him as he walked away, "Tell your boss, count me in on the Abyss Council business. In a couple of days, I'll drag the Guardian Alliance from the reality side in to discuss it together."

Just as he was about to open the cross-universe channel to return to God Realm, the Shadow Demon Dragon added in a low voice from behind: "You need to be careful; the Abyss Council is not just playing around this time. They sent out the scouts not only to test your abilities. Every time you expose your energy characteristics in reality, their mother body will more accurately locate the coordinates of the plane you are in. Each of the twelve scouts you killed successfully sent back a final positioning pulse before they died. The Abyss Council already knows the location of your reality world."

Lin Ye paused, not turning back: "What else did your boss's astrology say?"

The Shadow Demon Dragon was silent for a moment, then said: "She said, the arrival channel for the Lord of the Abyss is already being anchored; there isn't much time left."