168: Chapter 168: The scriptwriting team takes action, a plot-driven tragedy unfolds.

"The Sweeper will arrive in nine minutes."

Customer Service 007's voice continued to count down in Lin Chen's mind, carrying obvious anxiety.

"Mr. Lin, I must remind you—the 'Sweepers' are not clerical staff like the Screenwriting Team who bully others with authority. They are the direct armed forces of the platform's Supreme Council, specialized in dealing with 'systemic bugs'."

"In their eyes, a streamer like you who has awakened self-awareness and can even reverse-operate the platform's rules..."

007 paused:

"...is the most dangerous virus."

Lin Chen stood where he was, watching the angels still reveling around him, the scene of money raining from the sky, and the tip records scrolling crazily in the bullet chat area.

Background dimension points balance: 61,872,844.

Sixty million dimension points sounds like a lot.

But 007's next sentence made his heart sink:

"Last year, there was a streamer from a cultivation plane who also unexpectedly awakened and tried to resist the script. He had saved up eight hundred million dimension points, bought a 'Heavenly Dao-grade Defensive Array,' and hired three dimensional mercenary groups."

"The Sweeper only took three seconds."

"After three seconds, that streamer, his world, all the resources he had saved, and even the audience's memories of him..."

"...were all formatted."

"As if he had never existed."

Lin Chen was silent for two seconds.

Then, he asked:

"Is there any way to negotiate?"

"No," 007 replied. "Sweepers have no emotional modules; they only execute orders. Their orders come from the Supreme Council, and the Council just unanimously passed an 'Investigation Order' against you."

Unanimously passed.

It meant Lin Chen had already offended the entire power pinnacle of the platform.

"However..." 007 suddenly hesitated, "there is a loophole."

"Speak."

"The Sweepers' mission is to 'investigate and handle abnormal streamers,' but the specific execution standards... have some flexibility."

007 explained quickly:

"If you can prove you are of 'immense value to the platform' before they arrive—making the data so beautiful that even the Council would be reluctant to delete it—they might change the handling to an 'Observation Period,' temporarily monitoring you instead of erasing you."

"How do I prove it?"

"Audience data," 007 said. "Your current real-time online audience is 5.2 billion, total tips are 60 million, and likes are over 80 million—this data is explosive for a newcomer, but it's not enough in the eyes of the Council."

"What they look at is 'long-term value' and 'irreplaceability'."

"You need a record-breaking livestream, one that makes the audience go completely wild and makes the data curve rise vertically..."

007 paused:

"...a god-tier performance."

Almost at the same second he finished speaking—

Su Qingyu suddenly groaned, clutching her forehead and collapsing to her knees!

"Qingyu!" Lin Chen rushed over to support her.

But this time, it wasn't a plot attack from the Screenwriting Team.

The data streams on Su Qingyu's body that had just subsided suddenly began to flow in reverse! Instead of being expelled from her body, they were frantically pouring in from the void!

Those data streams were no longer chaotic code; they had condensed into black, foul-smelling chains, boring into her eyes, ears, mouth, and even her skin pores!

[Warning! High-dimensional virus intrusion detected!]

[Virus Code: Memory Entropy Increase · Type β]

[Intrusion Target: Memory core of character "Su Qingyu"]

[Infection Effect: Randomly deletes, tampers with, and contaminates memory data, ultimately leading to character cognitive collapse and reduction to a blank template]

"Is this..." Zhang Hao's face was pale, "the Screenwriting Team's revenge?"

"More than that." Lin Chen stared at those black chains, a cold light flashing in his eyes. "This is the 'Sweeper's' warm-up."

"They haven't arrived yet, but the attack has."

He raised his hand, wanting to use dimension points to exchange for a purification program, but a prompt suddenly popped up from the background mall:

[Due to the "Investigation Order" taking effect, some of your permissions have been temporarily frozen]

[Prohibited Purchases: Concept-grade defense, rule modification, and virus removal items]

[Remaining Purchasable Categories: Entertainment props, visual effects, temporary buffs]

Locked out!

Even the path of spending money to solve the problem was blocked!

Melodramatic Plot Twist:

Su Qingyu began to tremble violently under the erosion of the black chains.

Her eyes were unfocused, and she muttered to herself, but what she spoke were memory fragments that didn't belong to her at all:

"The Seventh Era... Void Devourer... First Generation Underworld Lord..."

"No... those are Lin Chen's experiences..."

"Why... are they in my head..."

She suddenly looked up at Lin Chen, her eyes filled with tears of mixed pain and confusion:

"Lin Chen... who am I really?"

"Why... in my memory... is there your past?"

"And..."

She tremblingly pointed at the sky:

"Those bullet comments... they say..."

"'Su Qingyu was originally a pawn arranged by the First Generation Underworld Lord'..."

"'Her existence was just to help Lin Chen awaken'..."

"'Now the play is over, it's time to clear her'..."

The bullet chat area exploded instantly:

[Holy crap! The Screenwriting Team is going this big?!]

[Revealing the character's background directly?!]

[Tipped 1 million dimension points: Begging for the truth!]

[User 'Lore Buff': I've flipped through the expansion packs of previous seasons, and it seems there really is such a setting...]

Lin Chen gripped Su Qingyu's hand tightly.

He could feel her memory being violently torn and reorganized.

Those black chains were forcibly instilling the "truth"—or rather, the "truth" written by the Screenwriting Team.

"Listen," Lin Chen stared into her eyes, "no matter what they cram into your head, remember one thing—"

"You are Su Qingyu."

"You are my wife, the Vice Chairwoman of the Underworld Group, and a person who has reached this point through your own abilities."

"You are not anyone's pawn."

The chaos in Su Qingyu's eyes subsided for a moment.

But the next second, more black chains surged in!

Her body began to turn translucent!

This was a sign that her memory was being excessively tampered with and her character data was beginning to collapse!

"Boss!" Zhang Hao shouted urgently, "dimension points can't buy purification programs, but they can buy other things! Think of something!"

Lin Chen's brain worked frantically.

Entertainment props...

Visual effects...

Temporary buffs...

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

"Xiao Qi!"

"Here!"

"Buy the 'All-Platform Announcement Slot,' the most expensive one. How long can it stay up?"

"Ten million dimension points per hour! You can customize the announcement content and special effects!"

"Buy three hours!"

[Purchase Successful]

[Consumed 30 million dimension points]

[Obtained "All-Platform Golden Announcement Slot" × 3 hours]

[Remaining dimension points: 58,872,844]

The giant screen in the sky suddenly shuddered!

All bullet comments, tip prompts, and even the livestream footage were forcibly cleared!

In their place was a line of golden, shimmering text with shocking special effects that spanned the entire screen:

[Lin Chen, Chairman of the Underworld Group, is offering a reward of 100 million dimension points for a network-wide solicitation—]

["Save My Wife" Creative Proposal!]

[Requirement: Combine entertainment props, visual effects, and temporary buff items to create a method to clear the memory virus!]

[The person whose proposal is adopted will also receive "Heaven Branch Lifetime VIP Privileges"!]

[Submission channel opened, 10-minute time limit!]

Below the announcement were real-time images of Su Qingyu being eroded by the virus and a screenshot of the list of items available for purchase in the background.

As soon as this move was made—

The entire Myriad Dimensions Sandbox platform exploded.

Thrilling Satisfaction:

A reward of 100 million dimension points!

What kind of concept was this?!

An ordinary streamer works hard for a year just to save a few hundred thousand dimension points!

Top streamers like Long Aotian Immortal Emperor only have an annual income of twenty to thirty million!

100 million dimension points is enough to allow a low-level civilization to advance directly to a medium-level plane!

After a brief dead silence, the bullet chat area went completely insane:

[One hundred million!!!]

[Submit! Submit quickly!]

[User 'Item Master' has submitted proposal #001!]

[User 'Visual Effects Artist' has submitted proposal #002!]

[User 'Buff-Stream Patriarch' has submitted proposal #003...]

The number of submissions soared at a rate of thousands per second!

What was even more terrifying—

Because of this all-platform announcement, the number of online viewers in Lin Chen's livestream room began to skyrocket exponentially!

From 5.2 billion, it jumped to 10 billion!

30 billion!

80 billion!

Finally, it stopped steadily at—

120 billion!

The third-highest online record in the platform's history!

The background data refreshed frantically:

[Total tips exceeded 100 million dimension points!]

[Likes exceeded 200 million!]

[Popularity Ranking: 99th on the overall list (Entering the top 100 for the first time)!]

Customer Service 007's voice was trembling:

"M-Mr. Lin... this move of yours..."

"Is the data enough?" Lin Chen asked.

"Enough! It's more than enough!" 007 said excitedly. "A newcomer streamer breaking into the top 100 on their first day—the Council will definitely take this data seriously! But..."

He changed the subject:

"The Sweeper will arrive in four minutes."

"And they... are already nearby."

Just as he finished speaking—

The sky at the edge of the God Realm suddenly split open with a pure white crack, devoid of any impurities.

From the crack, a figure slowly floated out.

It was a humanoid creature about two meters tall, wearing a pure white uniform and a featureless white mask.

In its hands, it held a thick record book with an ∞ symbol printed on the cover.

It didn't look at Lin Chen, the chaotic scene, or even the crazy bullet comments in the sky.

It simply opened the record book and recited in an extremely cold voice:

[Investigation Subject: Lin Chen (ID: MF-001)]

[Anomaly Level: A+ (Confirmed awakening of self-awareness and attempting to manipulate platform rules)]

[Handling Plan: Format]

[Estimated Time: 3 seconds]

It raised its head.

On that blank mask, two black characters suddenly appeared:

[Execute]

Cliffhanger:

Just as the Sweeper was about to act—

Lin Chen raised his hand and pointed at the submission list still scrolling frantically in the sky:

"Wait!"

He said.

"You can format me if you want."

"But can you look at this first—"

He pulled up the real-time background data projection:

[Current online viewers: 12,847,922,115]

[Total tips this period: 180 million dimension points]

[Number of submission proposals: 3,742,851]

[Platform Historical Ranking: Third in online viewers, first in tip growth rate, first in interaction rate]

The word "Execute" on the Sweeper paused for a second.

It slowly turned its head and looked at the data.

Then, it performed an action that no one expected—

It flipped to the next page of the record book.

It read:

[Special Clause: When an anomalous subject possesses 'extremely high commercial value,' an 'Observation Period' procedure can be initiated]

[Judgment Criteria: Simultaneously satisfy the following three items]

[1. Real-time online viewers ≥ 10 billion (Current: Satisfied)]

[2. Single-day tips ≥ 100 million dimension points (Current: Satisfied)]

[3. Audience interaction rate ≥ 50% (Current: 63%, Satisfied)]

The Sweeper was silent for three seconds.

Then, it closed the record book.

"Observation Period initiated."

"Duration: 72 hours."

"During this period, if the data drops by more than 30%, or if serious violations are detected again..."

Its blank mask turned toward Lin Chen:

"Immediate formatting."

After speaking, it didn't leave but sat down on the spot.

Sitting in the void, it opened its record book and began... recording.

The observation had begun.

And at this moment, the submission countdown had 30 seconds left.

Lin Chen looked at Su Qingyu, who was already so translucent she had almost vanished, then at the submission proposals still pouring in frantically, and finally at the Sweeper sitting nearby, staring at him like a god of death.

He took a deep breath.

"Zhang Hao."

"Here!"

"Filter the submissions, find a feasible plan."

"Yes!"

Five seconds later, Zhang Hao roared: "Found it! Proposal #38471! Wrap the virus chains in 'Memory Stage Play Effects,' then use 'Emotion Amplification Potions' to strengthen President Su's own will, and finally use 'Temporary Role-Playing Permissions' to let her perform a play of 'Overcoming the Heart Demon'—the virus will treat her as part of the script and be absorbed by her instead!"

"Success rate?"

"The submitter says 78%!"

"Buy it!"

[Purchase Successful]

[Consumed 5.2 million dimension points]

[Obtained: Memory Stage Play Effects ×1, Emotion Amplification Potion ×1, Temporary Role-Playing Permission ×1]

Lin Chen slapped all three items onto Su Qingyu simultaneously!

Golden light exploded!

Those black chains were instantly pulled into a virtual stage scene!

Su Qingyu's consciousness was forcibly injected—

She stood in the center of the stage, facing a "Dark Su Qingyu" condensed from the virus that looked exactly like her.

"You are me," Dark Su Qingyu sneered, "and also a pawn."

"No." Su Qingyu raised her hand, the words Lin Chen had just said flashing in her eyes, "I am Su Qingyu."

"The one who reached this point through her own abilities—"

"Su Qingyu!"

She threw a punch!

It wasn't a physical attack, but a clash of wills on the data level!

With the help of the Emotion Amplification Potion, her will strength increased a hundredfold!

Dark Su Qingyu was shattered by a single punch!

All the black chains crumbled, turning into pure data streams that she absorbed in reverse!

[Virus cleared successfully]

[Character data stabilized]

[Memory core reinforcement complete]

[New Permission: Memory Firewall (Can resist similar types of viruses)]

Su Qingyu opened her eyes.

Her body solidified again, and her gaze was clear and firm.

She looked at Lin Chen, then at the Sweeper who was still recording nearby.

Then, she performed an action that made the bullet chat go completely wild—

She walked up to the Sweeper.

Faced that blank mask.

And raised her middle finger.

"What are you looking at?"

She said.

"Haven't you ever seen a husband-and-wife streamer duo before?"

The Sweeper's recording motion paused for a full five seconds.

Then, it wrote in the record book:

[Observation Subject Spouse: Su Qingyu, abnormal behavioral pattern, suggestion...]

It paused and crossed it out.

Rewrote:

[Suggestion: Continue observation.]

Lin Chen looked at this scene and smiled.

He looked up at the 120 billion viewers:

"Alright, the crisis is temporarily over."

"To celebrate my wife's recovery and to thank everyone for their submissions—"

"For the next three hours..."

A crazy light flashed in his eyes:

"Everything is on me!"

"Any viewer who buys any item in the mall, I'll pay the bill!"

"Limit—"

"One billion dimension points!"

The bullet chat blew up the server.