96: Great Escape! Forget the island, let's dismantle the gold bricks first!

Blue screen.

An endless, pure, and despairing blue replaced the originally holy and majestic dome of the Heavenly Realm.

Those lines of white error code, familiar to every person on Earth, were like the most malicious tombstones, etched into every player's field of vision.

【A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C0011E36 in VXD VMM(01) + 00010E36.】

Absolute silence lasted for only three seconds.

Then came the wail of the entire world falling apart!

"Rumble—!"

A vibration more intense than anything imaginable came from every inch of land beneath their feet. Having lost the unified scheduling and energy supply of the core AI "Michael," this great divine kingdom, composed of countless floating islands and operating precisely for eons, was like a supercomputer with its power plug pulled; all Systems collapsed in an instant.

The white marble floor tiles beneath the players' feet groaned under the burden, and bottomless cracks spread wildly across the ground like black lightning.

In the distance, a smaller subsidiary island that once held the Angel Garden had completely lost the support of its anti-gravity engines. It tilted, burning, turning into countless massive meteors trailing long tails of flame as they silently plummeted toward the endless sea of clouds below.

The sky was cracking.

The canopy made of energy peeled away like a shattered mirror, piece by piece, revealing the cold, deep, and heart-palpitating darkness of the Universe behind it.

The artificial gravity System failed completely, and countless pieces of junk and building debris discarded by players after looting began to float slowly. A gold toilet that had just been dismantled drifted lazily in the weightless state, hitting a player's helmet with a crisp "clang."

"Holy crap... is it the end of the world?"

"Where's the GM? Shitty devs, come out and do something! The server is going to blow!"

Just as all players were stunned into helplessness by this apocalyptic scene, a System announcement they were all too familiar with—carrying a hint of laziness and mockery—popped up on everyone's retinas simultaneously like a final death warrant.

【Server-wide Emergency Announcement: The Heavenly Realm core server has crashed. The System is attempting a remote restart... Failed.】

【Warning: The Heavenly Plane will completely disintegrate in ten minutes, collapsing into a spatial singularity.】

【Temporary evacuation channel has opened at coordinates (XXX, XXX). All players, please evacuate through the portal as soon as possible before the countdown ends.】

At the end of the announcement was a line of blood-red, seemingly smiling "warm tips."

【Please take your personal belongings with you. We wish you... a pleasant game.】

A brief silence.

"Bang!"

Li Qiang kicked away the gold toilet that had hit his head. He glanced at the crimson countdown 【09:59】 slowly ticking in the upper right corner of his retina, then at the collapsing, gold-glowing palaces and buildings around him.

His eyes turned red in an instant.

It wasn't fear or panic.

It was the most primitive, purest... greed, the kind that erupts when a wild wolf, starving for three days and nights, suddenly sees a completely defenseless, fat sheepfold!

"Enjoy the game?"

Li Qiang grinned, revealing a grim smile that made the surrounding players shudder.

"I'm having a blast!"

He spun around and, with all his might, shouted the command for a general offensive that echoed through the entire Heavenly Realm to the dazed players!

"What are you all standing there for?!"

"There are only ten minutes! After ten minutes, everything here will be refreshed away! Do you understand?! Refreshed away!"

"What is this? This isn't an escape! This is a limited-time zero-dollar shopping spree carnival Daddy Dev opened for us!"

"Forget that damn island! Strip the gold bricks first! Strip them! Everyone, strip them for me!!!"

This roar was like a bolt of lightning, instantly jolting all the players awake.

The shock and fear in their eyes were replaced by an even more fanatical emotion within a tenth of a second.

That's right!

The world is ending!

What does that mean?

It means everything here has become ownerless!

It means every brick they strip and every tile they pry loose now will carry no penalty!

How is this doomsday? This is clearly heaven!

"Strip it—!"

A player was the first to react. He let out a strange cry, pulled an entrenching tool from his backpack, and shoveled hard at the pure gold base of a half-collapsed Angel Statue nearby.

"Clang!"

Sparks flew everywhere.

This one action was like flipping a switch for madness.

"Charge! Knock down those palace pillars! Those are made of Mithril!"

"Don't fight me for it! That rune floor over there is mine! I saw it first!"

"Quick, quick, quick! Strip all those glowing streetlights! While the power isn't completely cut, we can pry them off to use as batteries!"

"And that door! That Gate of Purity we smoked black! That thing is made of crystal! Carry the whole thing away for me!"

Tens of thousands of players transformed into a swarm of locusts at this moment, carrying out a final and most frantic squeeze of this doomed divine kingdom.

Combat players were responsible for guard duty and destruction. They used power hammers and explosives to forcibly demolish the relatively intact building structures, making it easier for the life-skill players behind them to "stock up."

Life-skill players' eyes glowed as they brought out the skills of a lifetime. Groups of miners used high-frequency vibration pickaxes to work frantically against the gold brick walls of the palace, and gold bricks fell like rain. Tailor players climbed the temple dome, using knives to cut down the magnificent curtains and veils embroidered with gold thread; though they didn't know what use they had, they looked very valuable.

Wang Wei did not participate in such low-level physical labor. Wearing analysis glasses, he directed his group of tech geeks toward the wreckage of destroyed defense towers and mechanical guards.

"Don't bother with those gold bricks! There's no technical content!" Wang Wei's voice sounded exceptionally excited in the team channel. "Prioritize dismantling the cores of those high-tech devices! I see several intact energy converters and logic processing units! This is the real Treasure Trove! If we take them back, we can mass-produce lightsabers!"

Under Wang Wei's direction, a group of players acted like professional surgeons, using laser cutters and precision tools to carefully extract glowing, structurally complex core components from the sparking wreckage.

On the other side, Li Qiang displayed his absolute dominance as the "Demolition Director."

He set his sights on a hundred-meter-tall pure white Angel Statue. The statue held a sword in one hand and a codex in the other, carved entirely from the finest white marble. The gems embedded in the base alone were enough to drive Lin Xiaowan crazy.

"Brothers! Lend a hand!"

Li Qiang called over dozens of strength-based players. Together, they looped an alloy cable thicker than a water bucket, dragged from the wreckage of a warship, around the Angel Statue's neck.

"One! Two! Three! Pull!"

Accompanied by Li Qiang's inhuman roar, dozens of muscular men exerted their strength simultaneously. The sacred statue that had stood for ten thousand years let out a groan of being overburdened and slowly tilted.

"Boom—!!!"

The Angel Statue collapsed with a crash, smashing a huge crater into the ground and sending countless stones and gems flying in all directions.

"Pick them up! Hurry!"

Players lunged forward like madmen, scrambling for the scattered gems amidst the billowing dust.

Chaos was the only theme at this moment.

In the sky, burning fragments of floating islands constantly whistled as they crashed down. Every impact made the earth vibrate violently, setting off destructive shockwaves.

A player was grinning foolishly while clutching a gold pillar he had just dismantled when a rock the size of a house flew past his scalp, scaring him so much he fell on his butt. But the first thing he did upon getting up wasn't to celebrate surviving; it was to hold the gold pillar even tighter.

"Damn! Almost made me drop my gear!"

Players had to dodge the "Heavenly Punishment" that could descend at any time while also fighting with the "competitors" around them for every piece of valuable goods.

"Let go! I pried this floor tile loose first!"

"Bullshit! I even spat on it! It's mine!"

Two players came to blows over a rune floor, only to both be smashed into the ground by a falling beam, knocked unconscious.

Lin Xiaowan, meanwhile, transformed into the most efficient capitalist. Riding a gryphon, she circled in mid-air, commanding her guild members from above.

"Team A, go to coordinates XXX. There's an intact alchemy laboratory there! Pack up all the jars and bottles inside for me!"

"Team B! Forget those scattered bits! Go to the Chant Cathedral and dismantle that entire pure gold pipe organ for me!"

"Team C, provide cover! Knock down any solo players who dare to snatch our things!"

Under her command, a chaotic zero-dollar shopping spree actually evolved into a highly efficient, organized strategic plunder.

Countdown 【03:00】.

In front of the evacuation portal, players had begun to arrive one after another. Each of them carried bundles several times larger than their own bodies, stuffed with all sorts of glittering spoils. They walked with staggering steps, yet their faces were full of happiness.

Countdown 【01:00】.

The main force began to surge frantically toward the portal. Li Qiang carried the head of the Angel Statue he had dismantled, which was taller than he was, shouting as he ran: "Hurry up! Don't dawdle! We can make one more trip!"

Behind him, Wang Wei led his people, carrying a giant server core that was still flashing with electrical sparks, running faster than anyone.

Countdown 【00:10】.

The portal's light had begun to become unstable, flickering violently. The vast majority of players had already rushed inside.

【9】

【8】

【7】

A player carrying a bag full of gold bricks had already reached the portal, but his sharp eyes spotted a fist-sized mana crystal not far away that no one had picked up.

Greed triumphed over reason.

【6】

With a roar, he threw the bag on his back to the ground and lunged forward like a hungry tiger, clutching the crystal tightly in his arms.

【5】

Holding the crystal, a happy smile appeared on his face as he turned to run back.

【4】

However, at this time, the portal had shrunk to the size of only one person, and the energy turbulence at the edges was like sharp blades, cutting through space.

【3】

"Oh no!" The smile on the player's face instantly froze.

【2】

Just as he thought he was going to be buried in these ruins for this crystal, a thick hand suddenly reached out from the portal and grabbed him by the collar.

"Do you want to die?!"

It was his companion!

【1】

The companion used all his strength to forcibly drag him back from the brink of death and into the portal. The mana crystal he had cherished as a treasure slipped from his arms and fell to the ground with a "clatter."

【0】

In the final moment before being dragged in, the player took one last look back.

The portal closed completely.

Then, the entire world lost its sound.

The Heavenly Divine Kingdom that was once magnificent, holy, and brilliant for eons, after losing its last bit of energy support, was like a castle made of sand, silently collapsing inward.

Countless floating islands, countless palaces and temples, and countless gold and white marble all turned into the most brilliant and silent dust in the Universe at this moment.

The end of a civilization had no elegies, no funeral couplets.

Only a group of bandits who had just returned fully loaded, counting their spoils in another world, accumulating strength for the next carnival.