Much later.

It had gotten completely dark.

A tall, slender figure walked heavily through the gates of the Eternal Night Guild.

The visitor was Zhou Huai.

In fact, the "Zhou Huai" who faced Mr. Duan in the villa was merely a substitute body that he perfectly replicated one-to-one using the S-rank necromancer class he had just drawn!

That earth-shattering self-destruction deceived Mr. Duan's arrogant eyes and also saved the real Zhou Huai from a certain death trap.

However, being alive is more suffocating than being dead.

Zhou Huai followed the stairs like a wandering ghost from the first floor to the third floor, surveying the empty rooms.

Finally, he slumped down on the sofa in the living room on the third floor.

His face turned completely cold, and he stared blankly at the ceiling.

“I lost...I lost so badly...” Zhou Huai murmured to himself, his voice filled with a deep sense of powerlessness.

Although he managed to escape death by using a stand-in to self-destruct and fool the god-like Mr. Duan, he was truly utterly defeated in this confrontation.

Not only were all the top SS-level and SSS-level clones wiped out, except for the Insect Emperor Caesar who was far away in the Sakura Country! Even the Life Pendulum and the Heaven-Suppressing Seal, which were capable of overturning the rules of the world, fell into his hands.

What made Zhou Huai feel the most heartache and unable to breathe was that he had actually taken Ye Xi away!

The girl who had always silently stayed by his side, who had never given up on him even after he had been paralyzed for five years, was taken away right before his eyes by the man who killed his mother.

This battle not only shattered all of Zhou Huai's prized clones, but also ruthlessly destroyed the absolute confidence he had built up over a long period of time through the system.

"That level of power... he could instantly kill an SS-rank opponent with a wave of his hand, and even divine artifacts were helpless against him..."

Zhou Huai ran his hands through his hair, painfully pulling at his scalp.

"Faced with such a powerful opponent, what should I use to fight against him?"

"How can I save Ye Xi?"

"To defeat someone who transcends the rules of this world, I probably need to reach that level of 'transcendence' myself. But how exactly do I do that? By frantically grinding monsters and leveling up? Even if I reach level 100, I'd probably just be a slightly larger ant in front of those monsters that break free from the established framework..."

Zhou Huai sat on the dark sofa all night, his brain racing, but he couldn't come up with a single clue.

Despair overwhelmed him like a tidal wave.

Just as he was about to be completely consumed by this profound sense of powerlessness.

A cold, mechanical system notification suddenly exploded deep within his mind!

【Ding! Detected that the host is facing a crucial decision, triggering a hidden challenge mission!】

【Quest Name: The Source: The Lost Goddess!】

【Mission Objective: Rescue the host's mother. (100-day deadline!)】

【Mission Reward: 2 chances to draw a top-tier professional ball (guaranteed SSS rank)!】

Hearing the electronic voice echoing in his mind, Zhou Huai suddenly sat up straight on the sofa, his eyes widening and his pupils contracting sharply.

"Save...my mother?!"

Zhou Huai was stunned, his face full of confusion and shock.

He couldn't understand why the system would suddenly issue him such a seemingly unrelated challenge at this time.

The mission was to rescue the mother who had been missing for five years and whose fate was unknown!

"etc......"

Zhou Huai took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and his mind began to frantically unravel the mystery.

"Could it be that Mother... is the key to solving all the problems?!"

If there is anything in this world besides the unfathomable Mr. Duan that transcends the rules of the world.

That means the only thing that exists in my mind is this 【God-level Avatar System】!

The system is not an inanimate object; every challenge it issues is not without purpose. Each appearance of its own seems to be a kind of unseen guidance, leading one step by step toward the truth.

Thinking about it carefully now, there is indeed such a terrifying possibility!

That Mr. Duan is an ancient being who has lived through countless eras and countless "version changes"! The years he has lived in this world are probably much longer than he imagined.

Why would someone so extraordinary and who views all living beings as ants have a younger sister living in the secular Zhou family?

Since she is Mr. Duan's own sister, how could she possibly be just an ordinary woman who can't even kill a chicken?!

In that sudden attack, Mr. Duan could have easily wiped out the entire Zhou family, but he only crippled himself and went through great lengths to forcibly take his mother away. If his mother were just an ordinary person, she should have died in that turmoil long ago. Why did Mr. Duan keep her alive until today?

Thinking of this, the fog in Zhou Huai's mind seemed to be split open by a lightning bolt in an instant, and he suddenly understood!

“My mother... is absolutely a very important person! In fact, she holds a secret that even Mr. Duan fears or desperately desires!”

"Otherwise, Mr. Duan would never have gone to such lengths to take her away five years ago!"

Zhou Huai's hands were clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Perhaps only by finding her can we uncover the truth of everything and find a way to deal with Mr. Duan!"

Thus, in this suffocatingly ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ long and dark night, Zhou Huai finally saw a glimmer of hope in his desperate situation.

However, behind this hope lies a bottomless abyss.

The hidden challenge mission released by the system is absolutely unprecedented in difficulty.

After all, that's two guaranteed SSS-level professional balls as a reward! The system always follows the principle of equivalent exchange; the richer the reward, the more perilous the mission will be.

Most importantly, this task has an extremely strict 100-day time limit!

"100 days..."

Zhou Huai stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the first hint of dawn on the horizon.

This hundred-day countdown was like a Damocles' sword hanging over his neck, forcing him to seize every minute and second to improve his strength and find clues.

Because if he fails to rescue his mother within 100 days, what awaits him may be more than just mission failure.

Even the entire world will face utter destruction and cleansing under Mr. Duan's "grand plan".

"Mr. Duan, we haven't settled our score yet..."

Zhou Huai gazed at the distant sunrise, his eyes no longer filled with dejection, but instead with a cold and resolute killing intent like that of a lone wolf.