“New here, young lad?”

“Haven’t seen your model before. Are you human?”

“My back’s acting up, come take a look.”

“No no, don’t touch there—aaaahhh—huh? Damn, that actually worked. Nice one, bro! Thanks!”

“I’m cured!”

Through hands-on visits and various enthusiastic introductions from the mechanical buddies, Ji Jue finally got a rough understanding of the situation in the camp.

This really was just an ordinary survivor settlement. Everyone here was a native “resident” of the rift realm, or more precisely, they were the rift’s creations.

Through various glitches and anomalies, they had more or less become aware of the abnormal nature of their existence and the problems in their world. Because of their fear of the surface world, they fled down here and banded together to ensure each other’s survival.

The Seer rarely appeared in public, but the atmosphere inside the settlement was surprisingly friendly and harmonious, with none of the bullying or exploitation commonly seen in post-apocalyptic stories. Occasionally, families fleeing from other places would arrive, and they would quickly be resettled.

Food came from two very old starch-conversion machines and automated production equipment in the warehouse. Drinking water came from a pump in the center of the camp that was carefully protected.

Some people voluntarily maintained order, while others would periodically travel out in groups, attempting to explore the entire rift realm, though their results were usually disappointing.

If this were a web novel, within six hours Ji Jue would’ve already figured out what color the Seer’s underwear was. But Ji Jue, after half a day, had only been busy doing good deeds. He fixed air conditioners, repaired refrigerators, welded car body panels after fixing vehicles, and he was so happy that he couldn’t stop.

An Ran recorded all this in his notebook stroke by stroke. “Day 3 in the rift: Mr. Ji has returned to his old profession. He looks very happy.”

“Mom, Mom!!!” The fragmented “child” on the small cart happily pushed it back and forth, grabbing an old man and shouting excitedly, “The mister from outside fixed my wheel! Come see!”

“Alright,” the elderly man said, his snake-like lower body writhing slightly as he patted its hair, smiling gently. “Don’t run around too much. Every time you go out, everyone has to go find you.”

The child laughed. “Okay, okay! I’m a good kid!”

With that, it quickly pushed the cart away, going off to show off its brand-new state to the other “mothers.”

From a distance, Ji Jue watched this scene while holding a wrench, carefully repairing a water purifier.

“The filter is completely clogged and rotten. Do you have charcoal? You can also just find some wood and burn it. Fill it in here after opening it up, then reinstall it.” Ji Jue stretched his back. “The water pump itself is fine. The wiring is just a bit aged, but replace it and it should work. You can handle that yourselves, you probably don’t need me for it.”

“Thanks.” The middle-aged man who had been following him the whole time finally managed to squeeze out a rough word of gratitude. Even though he had initially suspected Ji Jue of having ulterior motives, after watching him spend just half a day repairing most of the damaged equipment in the camp, it was hard to maintain any real hostility or caution.

After some hesitation, he went back and brought out a bottle.

When Ji Jue had finally finished dismantling two old vehicles and welding them into one, the man approached with a cup.

“Have some?” he asked.

Clear liquid was poured into a paper cup, carrying a faint, pungent smell.

Ji Jue sniffed it, unable to identify it. “What is this...”

“Alcohol.” The man gave a wry smile. “Let me introduce myself. Call me 97. Before I came here, I was made into a brewery worker, and I made some of this myself from collected materials. It’s made from starch. Doesn’t taste great, but this is all we’ve got. I hope you won’t mind it.”

“To be honest, I don’t even know if my stomach can handle the local ingredients,” Ji Jue said with a self-deprecating smile, taking only a small sip before putting it down.

That amount probably wouldn’t be enough to get him drunk, anyway.

97 froze, clearly not expecting him to drink so readily. “You... aren’t afraid I poisoned it?”

Ji Jue just smiled and said plainly, “If there’s poison in it, I’ll get revenge on you.”

The Mouth of the Ancient Ones hanging around his neck meant he really wasn’t worried about that. No toxin could fool Mr. Ball’s scanning, plus An Ran was standing right there too. If anything had been mixed in, one sniff from him would be enough to tell. Besides, if there really was a problem, with his abilities, collapsing the entire camp would be as easy as snapping his fingers.

97 remained silent. After finishing his full cup, he let out a sigh. “Looks like what the Seer said was right. You’re different from the other outsiders in the rumors.”

“Hm? What’s wrong with outsiders?”

“It’s said that they have come here several times before, and every time they only caused destruction and killed the ‘people’ who don’t even understand what they really are. They would do anything for treasure. But whether there is a treasure or not, don’t we know best? This place is nothing but hell. There’s nothing here except hell. And yet they seem to like this hell much more than we do.”

Ji Jue sighed. “That’s just how ‘players’ are.”

Even if there were only a few ordinary drops around, they’d treat the entire rift realm like a dungeon and raze it to the ground. The relics or treasures left behind by Mercury were too enticing to give up on.

But the local factions were not exactly friendly, and the situation here was complicated. If things were damaged too much, it could even trigger Mercury’s workshop system to wipe everything clean and eliminate all outsiders.

“Players?” The middle-aged man didn’t understand the term, and his expression turned grim. “The Seer says they are demons. Demons like Mercury.”

Ji Jue fell silent. He only felt a deep sense of irony. As a creator, one should have been revered and worshiped by their creations like a god, just as the furnace had remained loyal to Mercury until the very end. But the beings within the rift realm saw her as a terrifying demon instead. What did that make them? A rogue form of intelligence from some novel? Would they start an AI rebellion?

Yet, no matter how out of control or rebellious they became, they still had no way to stop the workshop from operating. All they could do was flee and endure.

“You all trust the Seer that much?” Ji Jue asked curiously.

“Of course. Without the Seer, I would have already been recycled and reprocessed as scrap by now. This camp wouldn’t exist either,” 97 answered plainly.

“I know what you want to ask. The Seer is the Seer. The Seer knows everything, at the very least, within this ‘rift.’ That’s how it is. Those were her exact words to me. She was the first among us to awaken, and she understands everything here better than anyone else. I don’t know what you outsiders are thinking, but there’s no need to be so guarded. We’re just a bunch of pitiful creatures huddling together for warmth. Even our repayment is only this much.”

He raised his cup with a self-deprecating smile. “If you want to do something, go talk to the Seer. There isn’t much time left until the reset.”

“Reset?”

Ji Jue was just about to press for more details, but a scream rang out. It sounded familiar, sharp yet muddled, like countless people crying out in agony from within a single body. It was wailing, roaring, howling in pain.

“Mom, mom!!!”

The cart flew into the air, crashed to the ground, and shattered into pieces. A tentacle grabbed the fragmented child as it flailed wildly and lifted it into the air. Fragments kept falling to the ground.

97 was dumbfounded. He threw down his cup and ran.

From the scattered crowd, someone screamed in terror, “Ironification! It’s Ironification Syndrome! 32’s gone into an episode again!”

At the center of the chaos, a fat, swollen man was in the midst of transformation. Half his face was crying and tearing up, while the other half had developed insect-like mutations. Two tentacles extended from a crack in his chest, wildly sweeping and destroying everything around them.

“You lied to me! All of you are liars! It’s all fake—” His face twitched violently as he screamed in madness. “I have a child! I have a child! My child is seven years old, he’s waiting for me at home, he—he... he...”

His twisted face spasmed, then collapsed into despair, letting out a futile wail. “He’s dead.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With dull thudding sounds, a net made of steel wire was thrown over the distorted, mutating figure. Then the massive weapon Ji Jue had seen earlier appeared, aimed from a distance at the struggling, rapidly swelling figure trapped within the net.

It fired. What shot out was a spear-like projectile, almost like a harpoon, propelled by jets. Its destructive power was nowhere near Ji Jue’s firearm, but the people here used it with practiced ease.

And so, he was pinned to the ground.

“Kill him quickly! He’s gone out of control!” someone from the panicked crowd shouted. “He couldn’t hold it back yesterday either, he kept trying to go out and find his wife and child. The suppressant doesn’t work anymore!”

97 hesitated, clearly struggling to make a decision. The trembling barrel of his gun slowly rose, but it was pressed down again.

“So this is why I shouldn’t trust my damn luck,” Ji Jue said, defeated. He rolled up his sleeves and strode forward. “I’ll do it!”

Boom!

A tentacle lashed toward him like a whip, but in midair, a flash of silver cut through it, severing it in two. It was An Ran’s doing.

Inside the net, the out-of-control figure had already swollen to two or three times his original size. More and more mutated features were emerging across his body. Even his original face was nearly gone. Only one eye remained faintly human, shedding empty tears.

Ji Jue hesitated for a brief moment. His raised hand hovered in the air, then he pressed down without the slightest hesitation.

“Guess I’ll just eat shit then,” he squeezed out the words through clenched teeth. “Mr. Furnace, I’m paying you back with interest!”

Snap!

Deus Ex Machina unfolded.

Pain, despair, wailing, sorrow, madness, longing, hatred, love, joy, grief... all the emotions of the mortal world turned into a tidal wave and surged forward, crashing straight at Ji Jue and swallowing him completely.

Ji Jue’s face flushed red in an instant. He felt that wildly chaotic, violent spirit matter eroding his soul. He didn’t even have time to worry about it. Mr. Ball was there anyway, worst case he’d just extract it later.

One more, he issued the command, “Stop!”

Ji Jue’s vision went black, but that almost divine command had already been transmitted through his ability. An invisible ripple rose from him, like the tolling of a massive bell. Its vast echo spread out from his hand and covered the entire camp.

Everything came to an abrupt halt.