“I might have a way.”

“What way?”

With everyone watching her, her expression grew solemn. “Uh, before I say it, prepare yourselves mentally. If you wet your pants from fright, don’t blame me.”

Owen and Empty were both puzzled. They had no idea why Yoriko was acting so mysterious.

“I’ve even been through a boundary-crossing test. Is there anything in this world that could scare me?”

“This poor Taoist is mentally prepared. Go ahead and speak, young lady.”

Yoriko glanced at Xu Fang. Only after receiving his signal did she speak in a low voice.

“Do you know about the ‘fourth wall’?”

They were all authors, so naturally they understood the concepts of the ‘fourth wall’ and ‘meta.’

The fourth wall refers to an imaginary ‘wall’ in the traditional three-walled, picture-frame-style theater. It allows the audience to see the audience within the play. In another sense, when the audience appears in a film or television show, it can be considered ‘breaking the fourth wall.’

“There’s something I was afraid you’d worry about, so I never told you. The reason technology advanced so rapidly in the world I originally came from—and the reason humanity went extinct—was related to this. The fourth wall had already been broken.”

“The examples of ‘breaking the fourth wall’ that I know of mostly involve characters in a work making sarcastic remarks to the readers, mainly to heighten the drama and comedy. Except in works that use meta as their entire selling point, the fourth wall usually has little to no effect on the plot.”

“D-don’t laugh so happily. When disaster strikes, you’ll have your chance to cry.”

“Disaster striking? I don’t feel a thing. Unless the rules tell me, ‘Actually, I was lying to you.’ Then I might feel a little afraid. Hahahaha!” Owen replied with a grin, clearly just enjoying the show.

Empty: “What did you go through at the hands of the immortals…?”

Who would’ve thought that Owen had been depressed to the point of wanting to die just moments ago? The Eternal Life Church’s methods must’ve been truly brutal to drive this guy into depression.

“I’m not going to argue with you.” Yoriko added, “In the world I originally came from, that was what people called the beings beyond the ‘fourth wall’—the ‘authors’ and the ‘readers.’”

They were hearing that term again.

Empty asked, “Aren’t we the authors?”

“No, no, no.” Yoriko made a “dame” gesture. “Ants can’t understand the definition of three dimensions, so they can only use their limited two-dimensional knowledge to explain the traits of three-dimensional things. In the same way, ‘authors’ and ‘readers’ are merely names that make things easier for us to understand. Who knows what an ‘author’ really is—an ancient god? A higher-level narrator? Some indescribable will? And what about a ‘reader’—an observer? A ghost from the void?”

She sighed, her eyes carrying the weariness of an old person. “When facing higher-dimensional beings and the unknown, people give inexplicable things names like these while maintaining both reverence and curiosity. It’s the last way they have to preserve the dignity of science.”

“A higher-level narrator… An extremely dangerous reality-altering entity capable of bringing about the apocalypse. That has to be at least Keter level, right?” Owen muttered as he analyzed the situation.

“That’s right. We’re on the lower levels of the narrative ladder!” Yoriko said.

The term “narrative ladder” was derived from “supermetaphysics,” an absurd philosophical concept. Put simply, the narrative ladder was formed by infinitely many narrative layers stacked upward without end.

Unlike the Buddhist cosmological view of the three thousand great thousand worlds, a lower narrative could never reach a higher one unless a narrative from above intervened.

“Wait, wait, wait. Forgive me for interrupting, but haven’t we gone off-topic? Weren’t we supposed to be discussing how to rescue Luo Xiaoming?”

“The method was already laid out in our conversation just now.”

The old man and the young woman stared at each other. The latter gave a dry cough. “Well, although reaching a higher narrative is incredibly difficult, you never know what might happen. Once you return to the real world, you could try going in that direction. Hahaha…”

“You want cavemen to research microchips? Give us something practical! Don’t joke around with everyone using your wild imagination.”

Several of them understood Yoriko’s idea, but understanding and believing were two different things.

“If you don’t believe me, then forget it. I’ve never lied to you!”

Xu Fang didn’t take part in the argument. He noticed a familiar figure among the immortals—a nun named Moulin, her face hidden behind a veil.

Xu Fang walked toward Moulin. As he approached, he finally noticed it: where Moulin’s eyes should have been were two bloody holes. Blood ran down her chin like bright-red tears.

“…Is that you?”

“What do you mean?” Xu Fang asked.

Moulin held an object out in front of Xu Fang.

Xu Fang took it and opened his hand to look. It was an eyeball, its deep-blue iris crystal clear. The owner’s face must have been just as beautiful.

“Are you giving it to me?”

“May God guide you on the path ahead.” Moulin slowly retreated into the darkness.

After Xu Fang fell into the lower world, the eyeball had disappeared. He never expected its original owner to return it to him at the very last moment.

Her eyes were highly unusual. They seemed capable of seeing something that could drive people insane: the ‘indescribable.’

Thinking of what Yoriko had said about the ‘narrative ladder,’ Xu Fang gradually formed a suspicion. Could the ‘indescribable’ be some manifestation of a ‘higher narrative’?

With that thought in mind, he focused his gaze on the eyeball.

The connection was established once more, and Xu Fang saw it again.

This time, Xu Fang suddenly understood what the ‘indescribable’ truly was.

First, it was something material, capable of reflecting visible light.

It was alive, its chest rising and falling with each breath.

It was human—a girl with short hair, delicate features, and a slender, tall figure.

A familiar feeling surfaced.

—Luo Xiaoming?!

It was an extremely strange feeling, as though even his memories had changed at this moment.

Xu Fang recalled the ‘indescribable’s’ appearance from his memories and realized with shock that the being was Luo Xiaoming.

“Luo Xiaoming?” Xu Fang asked tentatively.

The girl came to her senses and looked over. Her confused expression turned to astonishment.

“Xu Fang, can you hear me? You can see me!”

Xu Fang felt a headache coming on. For a moment, he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“Wait, I didn’t hear you clearly just now. Say it again.”

“Xu Fang, can you hear me? Really—you can see me!”

Xu Fang adjusted to the information.

Luo Xiaoming’s eyes grew moist. She blinked hard, forcing back the haze of tears, then let out a relieved breath. “That’s great, Xu Fang. You can hear me. That’s great…”

Just then, Owen and the others came over.

“The immortal world is almost at its end. We need to get ready.”

“What’s the rush? Didn’t Xu Fang say there’s still one person missing?”

“Hey, Xu Fang, who are you talking to?”

Xu Fang held the eyeball in his palm and gestured toward it for everyone to see.

Several of them gathered around the eyeball, looking at it from every angle, but they couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“It’s beautiful, but I’m not an eyeball fetishist.”

“This poor Taoist senses spiritual energy hidden within it. It must be some kind of magical item.”

“Eek, how scary…”

“You can’t see the person inside the eyeball?”

Empty and the others looked at one another, then shook their heads in unison.

“Luo Xiaoming, can you see the people standing beside me?”

Xiao Ming nodded. “I can. And I also know that you defeated the Eternal Life Church, Xu Fang. Just as expected of you!”

“How do you know?”

“I saw it in a novel called The Real World. After I woke up, I’d already returned to ‘reality,’ but this reality was different from the one I remembered. Everyone I knew existed in this world, except you, Xu Fang—you had never existed here… I know, I know you must really exist. This eyeball is proof!”

“Xu Fang, could the ‘singularity’ be inside this eyeball? Ahhh… The narrative ladder!” Yoriko clutched her hair with both hands, her face filled with terror. “Wait, Xu Fang, don’t… Don’t believe what it says. That thing might be a ‘reader’ trying to deceive you!”

“Stop interrupting their conversation, airhead.” Owen stepped in front of Yoriko. “I’ve heard enough of your nonsense.”

“Young lady, what exactly is this ‘reader’ you keep talking about? Why would it deceive us?”

Luo Xiaoming was interrupted, but she wasn’t surprised in the slightest by what Yoriko had said. “The Real World is an ensemble novel. Yoriko is one of its main characters. The technology in her world is highly advanced—they could even communicate with the ‘readers’ above them. But because of those ‘readers,’ human civilization went astray and eventually perished. Yoriko was the only survivor. She may have some psychological trauma related to the ‘readers’…”

Xu Fang relayed Luo Xiaoming’s words to Yoriko. Her expression nearly twisted out of shape. “It’s hopeless, it’s hopeless. I thought contacting the ‘author’ might still save us, but who would’ve thought she’d already become a ‘reader’? There’s now a pitifully thick wall between us.”

Luo Xiaoming grew angry. “Hey, hey, although I do count as a ‘reader’ in a certain sense, I absolutely had no intention of harming you!”

Xu Fang said, “The immortal administrators seem to listen to the ‘readers’?”

Yoriko laughed hollowly and said in a thoroughly defeated tone, “They’re all just people here for the fun of it. Spoiling things to the immortals is perfectly reasonable… Whatever. I give up thinking. Let the chips fall where they may.”

After that, Luo Xiaoming told them what had happened after she arrived in ‘reality.’

During the week after arriving in ‘reality,’ she searched the entire world but couldn’t find Xu Fang.

In the end, she discovered a novel titled The Real World. It was still being serialized, and it actually contained descriptions of Xu Fang.

Luo Xiaoming searched frantically through the book for Xu Fang’s figure, but Xu Fang only appeared in the latest volume. The events in those chapters were precisely what had happened in the immortal world. Moreover, there were very few passages describing Xu Fang. He had only appeared a few times as a supporting character.

Luo Xiaoming clicked into the author’s profile. The author’s name was “You.” Xiao Ming felt certain that “You” knew something.

She contacted “You,” but received no reply.

While anxiously waiting, Luo Xiaoming finished reading all of The Real World.

The Real World was an ensemble novel with no fixed protagonist. Its worldbuilding was incredibly complex and all-encompassing. The author wrote about many characters, jumping from one chapter to another. The title was The Real World, yet nothing in it was realistic in the slightest—it read like something written while high.

The author carefully portrayed several distinctive characters. Through one opportunity or another, those people gathered together, and then… nearly the entire group was wiped out.

After that, a new volume began, introducing a new cast. After laying the groundwork for dozens of chapters, the new characters gathered together—and were wiped out once again.

In the third volume, the author depicted the world where Yoriko lived. The volume completely let loose and was actually written as an ‘interactive novel.’ Not the kind with prearranged story branches, but one where the author wrote as they went, creating the later chapters based on readers’ feedback and requests. The characters in the book also interacted intensely with the readers in the comment section. This attracted a huge crowd of readers who were there purely for the entertainment.

Interstellar travel was ready to go. Faster-than-light flight was no longer a problem, wormholes were still under development, and the Dyson sphere project had already begun. In less than a century, human civilization climbed from the level of the Second Industrial Revolution to researching antimatter.

The readers told the scientists that antimatter was extremely stable and safe to experiment with.

Human scientists also believed that, no matter how powerful antimatter was, it could do no more than erase a planet. So they conducted a detonation experiment on Pluto. As a result, Pluto vanished, taking 1.30×10^22 kilograms of matter from the universe with it and triggering the collapse of the universe.

Humanity perished in the collapsing universe. Only Yoriko escaped from it—that was the story of the third volume.

The fourth volume no longer focused on Yoriko. The author began looking for new victims: Ye Zhi, Simpson, Moulin, and others.

The author changed styles. The meta-science-fiction elements of the third volume were gone, replaced by a serious-literary portrayal of human nature.

The Shapeshifters engaged in a fierce struggle with the Federal Bureau of Control. Ambitious and power-hungry, the Shapeshifters intended to disguise themselves as humans and take control of the U.S. political sphere, but the Federal Bureau of Control eliminated them one by one. The bureau called these shapeshifting creatures ‘false people’ and widely publicized them online, encouraging the masses to search for them on their own. In the end, the false people were exterminated like pests. Only Ye Zhi survived, retreating into the mountains because she refused to come into contact with humans.

Professor Simpson had publicly declared himself an atheist and had once spoken out against racism. However, under pressure from his peers, the allure of journalism turned him into an anti-Semite. His later years became miserable in every respect. Public opinion pressed him until he could barely straighten his back, and his research achievements plummeted. Then, through a certain opportunity, Simpson returned to his youth, and the slander he had once suffered ceased to exist. He became shrewd and cautious, forged connections with the All-Seeing Eye, and gained access to more research resources. He was still pursuing science, but he no longer held fast to justice.

Moulin's experience was extraordinarily strange. She was constantly being watched by the Unspeakable, though she couldn't understand what it was. One terrifying incident after another unfolded, all beyond the understanding of ordinary people. In the end, her family was destroyed, and she herself went mad. After countless attempts and countless suicides, Moulin finally came to terms with things. She chose to become a nun and persuade others to cherish their lives. She endured the Unspeakable's constant voyeurism, yet still forced a smile in front of the believers and said, “No one has the right to control life or keep it here, and no one has the right to decide when death comes.”

That was how the parallel stories, one after another, came together to form Volume Four.

Volume Four was calm yet profound. I thought the volumes that followed would be the same, but I never expected Volume Five to descend into complete madness.

The survivors of Volumes Three and Four gathered in the world of eternal life. Owen, the Nameless, Black Frame, and other people never mentioned earlier also joined them. Of course, Xu Fang was among them as well.

As for why these people had gathered together, what the suddenly appearing Eternal Life Church was, or what the main plot even was, the author didn't mention a single word.

The readers were used to it by then, and they cursed in unison: “That old bastard is going to start killing characters again. You're not even human!”

After the updates reached the destruction of the Eternal Life Church, Luo Xiaoming saw Xu Fang inside the eyeball. Xu Fang had previously tried communicating with the eyeball's owner, Moulin, but aside from fearful gasps and even vomiting, Moulin gave no normal response at all. From beginning to end, Moulin was incapable of understanding anything from the other world.

……

Xu Fang relayed Xiao Ming's information to the others.

After hearing this, none of them looked too pleased. Becoming characters written by someone else, with their fates completely under that person's control—who could possibly be happy about that?

So “fatalism” had become a fact. Their futures had already been arranged too, hadn't they?

“Hey, why don't we use this opportunity to take out the ‘author’?” Owen said something shocking.

Empty and Yoriko hurriedly put some distance between themselves and Owen.

Yoriko cursed, “You lunatic! Don't get blood on me!”

Empty said in a trembling voice, “Heaven is watching everything people do. Watch what you say and do.”

“Wait, what? Luo Xiaoming is in the same world as the ‘author’ right now. If we can dox that ‘author,’ then even if we can't kill him, we can at least fight for certain rights. Xu Fang, what do you think?”

……The ‘author’?

We'd been written into a novel yet again. The previous ‘author’ had been Ye Huai. But the current ‘author’ existed on an even higher narrative level. Fighting it was impossible; there was nothing in this world capable of threatening the ‘author.’

“I want to talk to the ‘author’ first. I'll do it myself.” That was how Xu Fang answered.