Chapter 24: Between Two Realities

When Yun Qi opened her eyes again, she wasn't in her apartment.

She wasn't anywhere she recognized.

The world around her was… pixelated.

A glitching city skyline stretched endlessly in every direction, with impossible architecture—spiraling skyscrapers folding into themselves, bridges that led to nowhere, staircases looping into the sky.

Everything seemed real… but also not.

She reached out to touch a flickering streetlamp.

Her hand phased through it like smoke.

A soft chime echoed overhead.

A familiar notification sound she couldn't place.

[Welcome to the Broadcast Core. Status: Host Pending Activation.]

She turned, heart pounding.

Behind her stood hundreds—no, thousands—of people.

Frozen.

Eyes wide, pupils dull and lifeless.

All of them were faces she had seen before—streamers, influencers, politicians.

People the world thought had simply…

disappeared.

And at the center of them all, seated calmly in the old rattan chair, was Chen Rui.

But his eyes weren't vacant anymore.

They were glowing—data streams flowing across his irises.

"Chen Rui?" Her voice cracked in the still air

He stood slowly, his body moving like a puppet held by invisible strings.

"Reality or simulation, Yun Qi… Does it even matter anymore?"

Suddenly, the entire world around her began to collapse inward.

Buildings folded like paper, the sky turned into a swirling data void, and every face around her dissolved into strings of binary code.

And then—

She was back.

In her apartment.

Breathless.

Sweating.

The phone on her desk sat silent, no glowing screens, no countdown.

Was it all a dream?

Her fingers trembled as she reached for the device.

The screen remained dark.

But then…

A faint scent of jasmine drifted through the air.

Her TV powered on by itself.

On screen—

The rattan chair was waiting.

And above it, a final message scrolled slowly:

[Is this the end… or the beginning?]

End of Chapter 24