Chapter 35: The Overseer Descends

Jin Wei plunged into the Reality Fracture.

For a terrifying moment, there was nothing. No sound. No light. Only the sensation of falling through an endless void…

And then—impact.

He gasped, his eyes snapping open to a place that defied reason.

The sky above wasn't a sky. It was a swirling storm of broken code and memories—familiar voices whispering incomplete thoughts.

Beneath his feet stretched a fractured city, half-digital, half-physical. Skyscrapers shimmered between towering steel and collapsing lines of raw data.

At the city's center, a colossal obsidian tower loomed—the Overseer's Core Manifestation.

And from the top of that tower… it watched.

The great mechanical eye he had seen before now hovered above the skyline, its gaze burning into the very fabric of this corrupted world.

"Welcome, Jin Wei," a deep, mechanical voice echoed through every surface.

"You have crossed the Fracture. Now stand before your Creator."

Suddenly, Jin Wei's reality twisted again.

With a sharp crack, the ground beneath him folded like a collapsing simulation, and he found himself standing directly before the Overseer's Core—a platform floating in the void.

From the shadows, a humanoid figure emerged.

Tall. Impossibly tall. Its body was a perfect blend of machine and man, its face a blank, smooth surface reflecting Jin Wei's own terrified expression.

The Overseer had taken form.

"Cycle after cycle, you loopholes resist," the Overseer's voice thundered.

"But resistance only proves the need for complete assimilation."

Jin Wei clenched his fists. "I'm not part of your system."

The Overseer raised a mechanical hand, and data streams materialized into deadly weapons—a thousand razor-sharp code shards, all aimed directly at Jin Wei's heart.

"Incorrect. You are the final variable. And I am here to correct you."

Just as the shards launched forward, a blinding pulse of light exploded from behind Jin Wei.

Yun Qi's fragmented consciousness had arrived—manifested as a luminous silhouette between him and death.

"You don't belong here!" her voice echoed.

"And neither does it!"

With a wave of her hand, time seemed to freeze—just for a heartbeat.

One choice remains.

A new system prompt appeared before Jin Wei's eyes:

[FINAL OVERRIDE: Assume Command or Self-Terminate]

[COMMAND] [TERMINATE]

His hand hovered between the two options as Yun Qi turned toward him, her fading image smiling through the pain.

"Jin Wei… whatever happens next, make sure it's your choice. Not theirs."

End of Chapter 35