“So, things that happened in your world and mine are completely different too?” After hearing Luo Xiaoming out, Xu Fang seemed to realize something. Then he suddenly asked, “Xiao Ming, is the history of your world the same as it is here?”

“Yeah…” Luo Xiaoming thought it over. “History followed the same course. Maybe some details were different, but the general direction was the same, and so was the world order. Could it be that after what happened in the Immortal World, the world split in two—one where authors exist, and another, ordinary world where I live?”

“Has anything about your memories changed?”

“No… Oh, right. In this world, I’m a woman. That’s weird.”

“So do you think we’re in parallel worlds or on different worldlines?”

Luo Xiaoming asked in confusion, “What’s the difference?”

“There’s a big difference. On a worldline, the positions of all particles are already set and can never be changed. Even if you try to change something, events will converge toward their predetermined course. Parallel worlds, on the other hand, evolve into countless possibilities and outcomes. The world we live in is just one of them. You came to another world with no authors, yet kept your memories of the ‘world with authors.’ That fits the characteristics of a ‘worldline shift.’ But you can observe me, which doesn’t seem like we’re on different worldlines. If this were a parallel world, you should have plenty of memories of things you never experienced. There should even be another ‘Luo Xiaoming.’ But there’s still only one you, with your memories unchanged.”

“Ugh, stop already!” Luo Xiaoming waved a hand. “Can’t I have just transmigrated? I transmigrated back to the modern world.”

Xu Fang took out his phone. “Well, there’s something I’d like to verify.”

“How?”

Xu Fang called Luo Bing.

The phone rang for a while, then the call was declined. Xu Fang tried again, and this time it was answered.

“Hello? Who is this?” Luo Bing sounded a little cold over the phone.

“It’s me.”

“You are…?”

“Xu Fang.”

“You’re still alive? Ahem, I’m so glad you’re all right. Does that mean Luo Xiaoming’s safe too?” Luo Bing’s attitude changed completely.

“How have you been lately?” Xu Fang asked casually.

“Sigh. Ever since the plane crash, I’ve been on edge every day. I’m never getting on a plane again. I couldn’t get in touch with Luo Xiaoming, and I thought the world had abandoned me.”

“Oh? Didn’t you contact the Protectors to find out where Luo Xiaoming was?”

“I did, but I don’t know why—I couldn’t get through to Xiao Zhe at all. And besides Xiao Zhe, I don’t know any of the other Protectors.”

Luo Bing complained about what had happened over the past couple of days. Most of it was trivial, but he sounded fairly happy. If Xu Fang was fine, then Luo Xiaoming was probably fine too—and Luo Bing himself wouldn’t be in any danger.

But Xu Fang’s next words ruined Luo Bing’s good mood. “Luo Xiaoming is dead.”

In this world, Luo Xiaoming was dead.

“Huh?” Luo Bing fell silent for a long time. “You’re not joking, are you?”

“I’m not.”

After a long silence, the man on the other end grew agitated.

“Why? Who did it?”

“The ‘Author.’ I still need to find out exactly who. Right now, I…”

“The Author, the Author—it’s always the Author!!” Luo Bing shouted, cutting Xu Fang off. “I’m so fucking sick of those damn supernatural forces! Ever since I got mixed up in all this weird stuff, first my parents, then Luo Xiaoming—my family keeps disappearing one by one… Am I next? Huh?”

Xu Fang: “…”

It was the first time he’d ever heard Luo Bing speak to him so fiercely.

Luo Bing panted, trying to calm down.

Xu Fang said nothing, waiting for Luo Bing to collect himself.

After a long while, Luo Bing said, “I’m sorry, Xu Fang. I’m begging you—don’t get involved with me anymore. I want to stay alive.”

Xu Fang answered calmly, “All right.”

“What a coward! How dare he talk to you like that!” Luo Xiaoming, who’d been listening in, was furious. Sure, Luo Bing was only trying to protect himself, but that pathetic, terrified-of-dying attitude was infuriating.

“That’s it, I’m going to teach him a lesson! Xu Fang, wait here.” The angrier Luo Xiaoming got, the more she thought about it. She headed straight for Luo Bing’s room.

Meanwhile, Luo Bing hung up and stared at his phone, looking miserable. “I’ve definitely offended Xu Fang now. I hope he’ll let it go for Luo Xiaoming’s sake…”

As Luo Bing muttered to himself, his bedroom door was shoved open with a bang. A short-haired girl stormed in, furious.

“You… Ow!!” Luo Bing froze. Before he could react, an uppercut caught him on the chin.

“I know you’re not that Luo Bing, but I still wanted to punch you once. Hmph!”

Luo Bing was dumbfounded. Wasn’t Luo Xiaoming dead?

When he came to, Luo Bing got angry and shoved Luo Xiaoming away. “Fuck you! You two were messing with me! Is it fun to toy with my feelings?”

“What are you talking about?”

“So you teamed up to trick me, huh? Ahaha, you got me!” Luo Bing raised his middle finger. “And I was actually worried about you.”

Luo Xiaoming blinked blankly, then her eyes widened. She pointed at Luo Bing and cried, “Wait, yesterday you told me there was no such person as Xu Fang in this world…”

“What do you mean, yesterday?” Luo Bing rolled his eyes. “Quit acting. This isn’t funny.”

“Something’s wrong with you!”

“You’re the one acting weird. All right, if you’re done playing around, get out of my room.”

Listening to Luo Bing, Luo Xiaoming gradually understood what was going on. Then shock surged through her.

This Luo Bing was the one who’d just spoken to Xu Fang on the phone. And she was standing right in front of him—which meant she was now in the same world as Xu Fang?

“Give me your phone for a second.”

“Hey, what for?”

Luo Xiaoming snatched Luo Bing’s phone and checked his recent calls. Sure enough, the latest call had come in two minutes ago, from an unfamiliar number overseas!

“Was this the number Xu Fang used to call you just now?”

“Yeah… What’s going on?” Luo Bing frowned, finding Luo Xiaoming’s behavior a little strange.

Luo Xiaoming tapped the callback button and headed for her room. She had to tell Xu Fang what had happened.

Just as Luo Xiaoming was about to reach her room, the call connected. She heard the voice coming from both her phone and the “eyeball” in her room.

“Hello?”

“Xu Fang, I found out something huge!”

“…Xiao… Ming…” The voice from the phone suddenly broke up, then fell completely silent.

“Xu Fang!” Luo Xiaoming pushed open the door and looked at the “eyeball” in the room. But the “eyeball” had turned back into an ordinary “eyeball,” just like when the signal had first cut out.

……

When Xu Fang noticed the phone signal had cut out, he immediately called back, but all he heard was the carrier’s message saying the number couldn’t be reached. At the same time, he realized the image from the Eye of Truth had also gone dark.

“A call from Luo Xiaoming?” Xu Fang fell into thought. Things were getting more and more complicated.

Perhaps these weren’t simply two different worlds.

For now, all Luo Xiaoming could do was wait for the Eye of Truth to reconnect. Once she got to Hua Country, she’d find a way to meet Luo Bing.

Xu Fang’s short-term goal was to rescue Gussy and meet up with them. Right now, he was on his own. He couldn’t stand against any country—or Organization K—by himself. Even though the setting panel could provide cover for some of his actions, the consequences of using it poorly were too much to risk. Xu Fang wouldn’t use it lightly.

Without the Eye of Destruction, Xu Fang might still be basking in the achievement of a successful landing. But because he could see the fate of destruction, he sensed the malice directed at him from the entire world, as if from some unseen force. Something in this world was plotting against him, and his fate was highly unstable.

The more you know, the less happy you are.

To get out of this predicament, Xu Fang had no choice but to bring in outside help.

First, the Authors.

The other two survivors of the Immortal World—Empty and Owen. After facing the trials of the Immortal World, Xu Fang had a good idea of what they were like. Calling them friends who’d been through life and death together might be a little much, but they were teammates he could trust.

Authors like Bernice, Ji Shuyu, and Black Frame were rare talents too. Unfortunately, Xu Fang had arrived too late to get them all through in one run.

Xu Fang searched several popular forums for the keyword “Disaster Strategy Group.” He actually found a few related threads. After sorting them by date and narrowing the results to the past week, only 36 relevant posts remained. Three had obscure English titles.

“Help! (tag: Disaster Strategy Group)”

“Where is everyone from the Disaster Strategy Group?”

“I’m back (tag: Disaster Strategy Group)”

Since no one knew what the poster meant, not a single person had replied.

All the posts came from the same ID: Lrvine, a newly registered user.

A quick check of the user’s IP address showed it was in the United States.

Well, they weren’t even trying to hide it. The code was impossible to connect to the Authors, sure, but Owen was being way too blatant. Wasn’t he afraid someone would figure it out?

To be cautious, Xu Fang didn’t reveal who he was. Instead, he registered a new account, routed it through several proxy IPs, and replied to one of the threads:

“Post the nuke’s landing site.”

If this really was Owen, he’d know how to answer. After all, only Authors who’d been through the Immortal World knew about that.

As for the ordinary powers in the world… Xu Fang wanted to form an alliance with a powerful force. It had to be internationally recognized; otherwise, he’d have enemies everywhere. That alone ruled out working with Organization K, a terrorist group with ambitions to conquer the world. Besides, Organization K was intensely hostile toward him.

Xu Fang had also considered forming a group made up entirely of Authors, like the Destruction Association. But an organization like that would have to operate in secret, making it hard to get anything done. He could take advantage of loopholes and use its influence to achieve his aims, but it still wouldn’t have enough power. And Xu Fang had many plans ahead that would require a huge investment of manpower and resources—things Authors alone couldn’t provide. Building a force centered on Authors and devoted entirely to serving them sounded promising, but it would take time.

All things considered, it would be better to work with a highly influential company—or even a country.

There was no way forward in Hua Country for now. Xu Fang was in Bharata. Could he make contact with the authorities here?

Xu Fang was undocumented. To get a foot in the door with Bharata’s government, he’d need a credible track record. If this were a novel, he could forge an identity, spend some time in the underworld, build connections, and get himself a new identity along the way. When the time was right, he could go legit and enter politics. He’d show off his abilities a few times to attract the attention of senior officials, and eventually he’d make contact with the Bharata government.

In reality, Xu Fang couldn’t be bothered with all those twists and turns. What he lacked was time. If he followed the plan above, an entire volume would be over by the time he made contact.

This was where the Consultation Center could come in handy. It wouldn’t reveal anything about the Authors, but it had no qualms about answering questions about ordinary people.

“Will the Bharata government cooperate with the ‘Authors’? Keep the cost under 10 points.”

【This question cannot be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no.’】

Since the question involved the ‘Authors,’ the Consultation Center wouldn’t give a definite answer.

“Answer with a probability. Keep the cost under 10 points.”

【42%.】

Lower than he’d expected. At the level of a country, the people at the top would know more about the Authors than ordinary people did. Did that mean they had a more negative impression of them?

“Question: Give me a plan to successfully win over the Bharata government. Keep the cost under 30 points.”

【Answering this question requires 500 points.】

As expected, questions involving “the world,” “countries,” or “civilization” never cost less than three digits. Xu Fang could afford a mere 500 points, of course. But he had other uses for them, and every point had to be spent where it mattered most.

Xu Fang thought it over, then used an author’s privilege—the letter function—to draft an email to Bharata’s Minister of the Interior. Emails from Horror Novel Web were different from ordinary emails: they appeared physically beside the recipient, in this case the minister.

He was sure the email would be enough to astonish—or even frighten—the Bharatan leadership.

As for the risks this might bring, Xu Fang wasn’t afraid. He was already stuck in a quagmire, and risks would come looking for him sooner or later. Better to act first than wait around.

The Bharatan government wouldn’t be able to find Xu Fang anytime soon. Even if they managed to pinpoint his location, they still couldn’t stop him from leaving. This was the real world. Any large-scale human operation required layers of decision-making; no one could mobilize an entire country in a few hours like the monsters in the Immortal World.

Just then, Xu Fang received several private messages from a forum user named Lrvine.

Lrvine: [Image] [Image]

The images showed a world map marked with red and black “☢” symbols, exactly like the ones Xu Fang had seen in the Immortal World.

Lrvine: “Carry me, boss.”

Xu Fang: “Owen?”

Owen: “I’ve finally been waiting for you, Rules!”