Total Conquest

The Temple.

The sky here was always in an ideal state.

Eternal day, emitting a soft, pale gold radiance.

Suddenly, an anomaly appeared in the sky without any warning.

At first, it was just a few inconspicuous black blemishes at the edges, as if the sky had been accidentally stained.

But this blackness spread with extreme speed, expanding from spots to patches in the blink of an eye.

Like some kind of living black moss, it spread frantically across the sky, connecting with itself.

In just a few breaths, the once clear and pale gold vault of heaven was covered by a vast expanse of deep, ominous darkness.

Only a few scattered glimmers of gold remained, struggling to survive under the crushing weight of the darkness.

Immediately after, a moon slowly emerged within that dark canopy.

The moon did not look like the one commonly seen in the night sky; its surface had no craters or markings, and its entirety was a gloomy grey-white.

Its edges were blurred, emitting a somber halo that was completely out of place with the magnificent splendor of the Temple below.

The Game Managers living throughout the Temple—some accepting missions at the mission tablets, some resting in their quarters, others strolling through the corridors—all reacted.

No matter what they were doing, upon noticing the anomaly in the sky, they instinctively stopped and looked up in shock.

"How did the sky suddenly...?"

Before the question could be finished, a tremor surged from the ground beneath their feet.

At first, it was just a faint shaking.

Then, the vibrations gradually became violent and frenzied.

The ground groaned under the unbearable strain as massive, bottomless cracks tore open the level surface, extending wildly in all directions.

Boom!!!

The towering palace complex of the Temple was collapsing.

The giant stone pillars supporting the main structure of the Temple tilted and snapped amidst the tremors.

One of the giant pillars at the edge of the central plaza was the first to give way.

The severed upper half of the pillar crashed down, creating a world-shaking roar.

Dust and debris flew everywhere, crushing a cluster of secondary buildings below.

It also crushed any remaining shreds of hope the Managers had.

"Damn it, what exactly is happening?"

A Manager wearing flame-patterned armor roared in anger.

He leaped high into the air, dodging the falling boulders. Looking down at the Temple, which had instantly turned into an apocalyptic ruin, his face was filled with terror.

The collapse continued, growing more intense by the second.

Not just the Temple buildings, but even the magnificent landscapes surrounding the Temple were being destroyed.

Towering mountains crumbled into landslides. Vast plains collapsed into deep valleys. The earth was torn apart, with cracks crisscrossing everywhere.

Even more terrifying was the sound of cold, salty, and fishy water gushing from the fissures tearing through the earth.

In the next moment, black seawater erupted from countless cracks!

The seawater gathered rapidly, flooding the collapsed plains, pouring into the torn canyons, and swallowing the ruins of the fallen palaces.

The sea level rose at a staggering speed.

Everywhere the seawater touched, all things quickly lost their luster.

A boundless black ocean was replacing the once magnificent world.

At the center of the ocean, a giant whirlpool had already taken shape.

The diameter of the whirlpool was immeasurable, and the walls of waves at its edges were hundreds of meters high.

The black current spun at high speeds, emitting a low-frequency roar that devoured everything around it.

"█!!!"

A sinister and violent dragon's roar suddenly resounded through heaven and earth!

The sound did not come from any fixed direction; it came simultaneously from the sky, the ocean, the depths of the earth, and every inch of air from all directions.

It was omnipresent, making the very souls of those who heard it tremble.

Along with the dragon's roar, the pitch-black surface of the sea boiled.

Countless unspeakable aquatic supernatural creatures emerged from the depths of the whirlpool and beneath the waves.

Some were the skeletal remains of giant marine creatures, their bodies burning with eerie green ghost fire.

Some were mutated sea creatures or monsters that only appeared in ghost stories and legends.

There were also aggregations of the drowned from shipwrecks, struggling as they reached out with countless pale arms.

"Take to the sky! Get away from the surface!"

An eagle-eyed high-level Manager shouted sternly.

The surviving Managers snapped out of their shock and used various means, turning into streaks of light as they desperately flew toward the higher reaches of the sky.

They sought to distance themselves from the black ocean that was devouring everything and the monsters surging within it.

But the danger did not only come from the ocean below.

The moon in the sky was equally dangerous.

That ominous moon also began to change.

Countless pitch-black dots seemed to peel away from the moon's surface, or perhaps they were born from the dark sky itself, swarming out.

They were pitch-black birds, shaped like ravens.

The number of ravens grew exponentially, gathering into a massive cloud in the blink of an eye.

The "black cloud" covered more than half the sky, and they emitted noisy, piercing cries.

The cries blended together, creating a maddening cacophony.

The raven flock circled in the air like a dark storm filled with malice.

Then, the Managers who had ascended to avoid the seawater were targeted!

The sky-blotting flock of ravens dove like a black waterfall toward the Managers scattered in the air.

Instantly, many Managers were dragged into a bitter struggle, caught off guard.

Light blades, flames, frost, energy shields—various techniques were unleashed one after another.

Cries of alarm and roars of anger collided with the pitch-black raven flock.

"What the hell are those things!"

A Manager who barely managed to withstand the raven flock's impact looked at the moon in the sky, his face written with terror.

"That is the 'Far Side of the Moon,' a terrifying existence."

An aged, calm, yet holy and majestic voice pierced through the battlefield.

The voice clearly entered the ears of every Manager.

Everyone's heart tightened as they instinctively looked toward the source of the voice.

It was an old man, suspended in mid-air, possessing an elegant demeanor unlike the other disheveled Managers.

His hair and beard were white, and his expression was kind. Dressed in a simple long robe, his sleeves fluttered gently in the chaotic air currents, giving him the air of an immortal.

The highest manager of the Temple, Meng Xuan.

Meng Xuan was currently looking up at the moon, a cold light reflected in his eyes.

He sighed softly. "You are even more evil than I imagined."

"You know who I am?" An ethereal voice drifted from the moon itself, communicating only with Meng Xuan.

The kind and benevolent expression on Meng Xuan's face faded slightly, replaced by a cold sneer at the corner of his mouth.

"Of course I know who you are."

"The Moon that steals the radiance of the Great Sun, the Moon that erodes the myriad worlds."

"Every world has the same moon, and every pantheon shapes a different moon god."

"You are the back of the moon, the darkness that is difficult to define."

Hm? Yue Shi was slightly surprised.

This old man was quite mysterious and seemed to know a great deal.

"Who are you?" Yue Shi's voice rang out again.

Ordinary people couldn't possibly know these secrets.

Even Yue Shi himself had only recently come to understand his own essence.

Meng Xuan did not answer. Deep in his eyes, a flash of holy golden light suddenly flickered.

He raised his withered hand and gently swept his sleeve toward the raven flock rampaging in the sky.

Whoosh.

A gale rose out of nowhere.

It wasn't a simple movement of air, but rather the driving force of a rule or concept from a higher level.

Everywhere the wind passed, the dense flock of ravens seemed to encounter their natural enemy, screaming as they dissipated in large swathes.

The sky was instantly cleared.

Then, Meng Xuan raised his hand and pointed toward the eerie moon at the center of the vault of heaven, his expression becoming incomparably solemn and grave.

"Far Side of the Moon, the evil shadow that eternally turns its back to all things."

"In the name of the True God of this world, I wield the Law."

"This place rejects your existence!"

"In the name of Meng Xuan, I command you to leave at once!"

His voice was as loud as a great bell. As the last syllable fell, Meng Xuan pointed his fingers like a sword toward the moon.

A humming sound resonated.

A brilliant pillar of light, composed of countless tiny golden runes, erupted from his fingertips.

The light pillar crossed space to expel the moon!

Unexpectedly, the expulsion was completed very quickly, requiring almost no effort.

First, the dark canopy was illuminated and dispersed by the golden light.

The outline of the moon then became blurred and shaky, like a reflection in water after a stone is thrown in.

Finally, after a brief ripple of distortion, the moon and the influence it brought were erased one by one, completely vanishing from the sky.

Meng Xuan panted slightly and lowered his arm, his face turning a bit pale.

The other Game Managers breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

However, they had relaxed too early.

The moon had been expelled, but...

The black ocean that had submerged the Temple showed no sign of receding.

The giant whirlpool continued to spin, and the roars of the deep-sea supernatural creatures still echoed from time to time.

The cold, fishy sea breeze continued to blow across this scarred territory.

Meng Xuan gazed at the boundless ocean below, gravity appearing in his eyes.

The other Managers hovered in mid-air, watching the still-expanding sea; the joy of expelling the moon vanished in an instant.

"Why wasn't the seawater expelled along with the moon?"

"Could it be that two different entities have invaded the Temple together!"

Amidst the chaos, some particularly "bright" Manager came to this chilling conclusion.

Meng Xuan did not respond. Staring at the ocean below, he raised his hand again, golden light reconverging at his fingertips.

The golden light was even brighter than before, as if he intended to perform another expulsion.

But just then.

Rumble!

The black ocean let out a deafening roar.

The seawater suddenly surged. Its expansion was already fast, but now it was fast beyond belief.

Billions of tons of black seawater squeezed out from all directions in an incomprehensible manner.

In just a single breath, the internal space of the golden bubble where the Temple was located was filled with seawater.

The black seawater completely submerged this once magnificent and boundless world.

The giant whirlpool at the center of the ocean now took on an even more peculiar state because the seawater had filled the space.

It was like a giant eye opening, its pupil embedded in the oceanic planet.

The gaze of this giant eye ignored spatial barriers, staring directly at the Managers in mid-air.

"!!!"

An indescribable, overwhelming terror, surpassing all known dangers, violently assailed Meng Xuan's body.

His entire body shook violently. His raised arm froze in mid-air, and the golden light gathered at his fingertips went out.

He opened his mouth but could say nothing. His body wouldn't move, and he floated blankly high in the air.

If even the Highest Manager Meng Xuan was like this, the performance of the other Managers was even worse.

Some fell straight down, sinking helplessly into the ink-black seawater, swallowed by the darkness without even causing a splash.

The dragon's roar became even louder.

Incredibly clear and incredibly violent!

The whirlpool in the seawater spun with frantic speed, its center sinking downward to form a pitch-black passage that seemed to have no bottom.

A second later, a dragon's head poked out from the depths of the whirlpool.

The evil dragon had appeared!

The dragon's massive body pulled itself out of the whirlpool and reared up.

A sweep of the dragon's tail!

This single movement pulled the entire black ocean with it, instantly triggering a massive tsunami.

The seawater, in its most arrogant posture, brought the most direct impact and pressure to this world!

The membrane at the boundary of the golden bubble filled with the black ocean, which maintained the independent world within,

let out an earth-shattering roar under the impact of the tsunami's terrifying power.

Crack! Crack!

First, countless fine, spider-web-like cracks crawled across the entire inner wall of the golden bubble.

The cracks grew more numerous until, with a loud pop, it completely exploded!

Countless golden fragments, black seawater, Temple ruins, and despairing Managers were all ejected into the outside world.

Those lucky enough to still be alive all saw it. In the void where the golden bubble had originally been,

a massive white light ball emerged at the core!

It was an iridescent white!

It was as if multiple colors had been forced together, but without the muddiness of a failed mixture, it possessed a sense of extreme instability and beauty.

Countless transparent veins, like a neural network, extended from the surface of the light ball.

These veins varied in thickness; one end was deeply rooted in the light ball's body.

The other end extended endlessly into the depths of the void in all directions, disappearing at the edge of vision.

Looking closely, the ends of those neural networks were vaguely connected to the bubbles floating in the void.

Those were the game instances.

These neural networks were the connections that controlled the instances.

However, anomalies had appeared on many of the neural networks.

On one part, distorted plants had grown, eroding the veins themselves.

Another part had snapped completely, like necrotic blood vessels, though the bubbles connected below were still running.

The surface of the iridescent white light ball was covered in tiny cracks and patches of blemishes.

"███!"

A burst of non-human shrieks, filled with pain, chaos, and madness, emanated intermittently from the light ball, echoing continuously in the surroundings.

This was Old Dream?

This was the ruler of the Supernatural Game Show?

He seemed to have gone mad...

The dragon coiled above the seawater, the ∞ symbol appearing in its eyes as it stared at the massive light ball that had finally revealed itself.

The other party was in an extremely poor state and was raving mad. This was the perfect time to strike!

The dragon's roar echoed as the massive body swayed, carrying the infinite black seawater behind it.

The deep-sea supernatural creatures and the seawater together formed a torrent of destruction, surging toward the white light ball in one go.

Even if the white light ball was in a poor state, it still emitted a dangerous aura.

His madness made him seem even more dangerous.

The deep-sea supernatural creatures instinctively did not want to approach, but they were still driven to act as pathfinders.

The ones charging at the very front were the tentacles of a Deep Sea Kraken.

The neural networks extending from the surface of the white light ball seemed fragile, and in truth, they weren't sturdy either.

Many were broken as the Kraken's tentacles lashed out wildly.

The tentacles were the first to reach the light ball, and they did not hesitate in their movements.

As a result, they passed right through.

The Kraken was stunned. Its tentacles felt no physical contact whatsoever; that white light ball was like a phantom without a physical form.

"Keep charging. Do not stop," Yue Shi commanded.