Cut off my way home? You'll sacrifice the entire other world in return!

The Demon King raced wildly across the wilderness for a day and a night.

This place is far from the Iron Fortress's sphere of influence and has entered a true no-man's land.

The landscape underwent a bizarre transformation.

The original Gobi Desert is gone, replaced by black, crystalline land.

Strange metallic plants grow on the ground, with sharp leaves and fruits that flash with electricity.

The air is filled with high concentrations of energy radiation; even if an ordinary person is wearing protective clothing, they would not survive for more than an hour here.

But Li Fan not only wasn't wearing protective clothing, he also opened the car window and comfortably enjoyed the electric breeze.

"It's a bit like the popping candy I used to eat."

Li Fan reached out, grabbed a handful of static sparks from the air, put them in his mouth, and chewed them.

The little girl next to him looked rather listless.

Although the Demon King had an active energy filtering system, the oppressive atmosphere still made her feel uncomfortable.

"Brother... there seems to be someone ahead."

The little girl pointed ahead.

Li Fan squinted.

There was indeed a group of people at the edge of the crystal jungle a few kilometers away.

They had no vehicles, no mechs, and not even decent weapons.

They wore animal hides or tattered mage robes, and carried swords, staffs, or even... hoes?

"Cosplay?"

Li Fan was somewhat surprised.

In this world filled with the smell of engine oil, seeing this group of people with their peculiar style is even stranger than seeing a ghost.

The Demon King slowed down and slowly approached.

The group of people immediately tensed up when they saw the menacing black vehicle.

Several warriors with shields stood in front, while the mages behind them began chanting spells.

"Who goes there?!"

The middle-aged man leading the group shouted.

He wore a tattered plate armor, carried a two-handed greatsword on his back, and his face was weathered.

Li Fan leaned out of the car window.

"Just passing by."

"Excuse me, how far is it from where we crashed?"

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment.

He looked at Li Fan and then at the technologically advanced vehicle, his eyes filled with vigilance.

"Are you from Ironforge? Or a lackey of the Cult of Machines?"

"Neither."

Li Fan waved his hand.

"I am a... homeless person."

"A homeless person?" the middle-aged man sneered. "Wandering around in a tank that can flatten a mountain? Do you think we're fools?"

Just then, a young woman dressed in a mage's robe tugged at the old man's sleeve.

"Captain...look into his eyes."

The uncle looked at it carefully.

Black hair, black eyes.

There are no signs of any mechanical modification.

There wasn't even the pupil color change that often occurs from years of taking energy enhancers.

Pure black.

"Are you... an Earthling?"

The middle-aged man's voice trembled slightly as he tentatively asked.

Li Fan's eyes sharpened instantly.

In this godforsaken place, besides that deadbeat Wang Qiang, is there anyone else who knows about Earth?

How did you know?

"Because we are too."

The uncle put down his sword and a smile that looked more like a grimace appeared on his face.

"When fellow villagers meet, their eyes well up with tears."

…… ...

Ten minutes later.

Li Fan sat down with this group of "fellow villagers".

They lit a campfire (using those flammable metal plants) and were roasting several mutated rats.

Through conversation, Li Fan figured out the origins of this group of people.

They are not native to this world.

They come from different dimensions.

Some came from the magical world, some from the martial arts world, and one even fell from the cultivation world.

But what they have in common is...

They all once had a "system".

They all struggled desperately in this damned multiverse in order to "go home".

"My name is Zhao Gang, and I used to be a knight."

The man pointed to his tattered plate armor.

"The system told me that as long as I kept completing tasks, I could accumulate enough points to go home. I believed it and worked for it like an idiot for fifty years. Finally, during a teleportation, it suddenly malfunctioned and threw me into this godforsaken place."

"Me too." The female mage's eyes were red. "My system said that as long as I kept meditating, I could ascend back home, but..."

"I was sold by the system," a young man holding a broken knife said, taking a big bite of rat meat. "To save its own life, it burned my soul as fuel, leaving me with this empty shell."

As Li Fan listened to their stories, his heart grew colder and colder.

This is no coincidence at all.

This is a landfill.

Those "hosts" whose value has been squeezed dry by the system or who have discovered the truth will eventually be thrown here to fend for themselves.

"Are there many people like us here?" Li Fan asked.

"a lot of."

Zhao Gang sighed.

"I've seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, over the past few hundred years."

"Most of them are dead."

"Some were killed by mechanical monsters, some couldn't withstand the radiation and mutated into monsters, and others..."

Zhao Gang pointed to the black crystalline forest in the distance.

"Some went mad and ran into the crash site to try and fight the legendary Destroyer, but they didn't even leave behind their bones."

"The Destroyer?"

Li Fan's heart stirred.

"You know about him?"

"Of course I know," Zhao Gang said, a hint of fear flashing in his eyes. "He's the strongest and also the most miserable among us lost souls."

"It is said that he was almost successful back then. He almost devoured the entire plane and even suppressed the Heavenly Dao of this world."

"But at the last minute, his system betrayed him."

"The system detonated all the energy within him."

"That explosion turned the world into the wasteland it is today."

Li Fan fell silent.

This is exactly the same as what he saw in his memory of the severed finger.

"Then why are you still going that way?" Li Fan asked.

"Because that's the only hope."

Zhao Gang took out a black stone slab from his pocket.

There are some strange symbols engraved on it.

"We found this in a ruin that said the Destroyer, though dead, left behind a backdoor."

"Before he died, he used his last strength to seal a portion of the system's core code."

"If we can find that part of the code, we can... reverse-track the way home."

Li Fan looked at the stone slab.

He couldn't understand the symbols above.

But his system understood it.

[Sizzle...]

Unknown encrypted data detected.

[Attempting to parse...]

Parsing failed.

[WARNING: This data contains malicious viruses that may cause system crashes.]

The system is alarming again.

Moreover, this time its voice carried an unprecedented sense of panic.

"Virus?"

Li Fan sneered inwardly.

"I think it's the antidote."

He reached out and took the stone slab.

"This thing is mine now."

"Why?!" The young men behind him immediately stood up and pointed their weapons at Li Fan.

"That's what we earned with our lives!"

"Don't be impulsive!" Zhao Gang stopped them.

He looked at Li Fan with a complicated expression.

"Give it to him."

"Why? Captain!"

"Because..." Zhao Gang pointed to the Demon King behind Li Fan and then to Li Fan's eyes.

"He's different from us."

"We are mice trying to escape."

"And he... is a tiger that wants to eat a cat."

Li Fan put away the stone slab and stood up.

He did not kill these people.

These pathetic creatures, ruined by the system, don't even qualify to be batteries.

"You can stay here."

Li Fan tossed down a bag of compressed dry rations he had brought from Iron Fort.

"If I succeed, I might be able to leave the door a crack for you."

After saying that, he turned and got into the car.

The Demon King roared as it started up and charged toward the eerie crystal forest.

…… ...

In the car.

Li Fan examined the stone slab from all angles.

"System, stop playing dead."

"What exactly is written on this?"

The system remained silent for a long time.

[Unable to resolve.]

It's lying.

Li Fan could sense that the system was operating frantically, trying to block the signal from the stone slab.

"Fine, if you won't tell me, I'll see for myself."

Li Fan closed his eyes.

He activated the data analysis ability he had stolen from Skynet.

Although very faint, it was enough to decode this inanimate object.

A few seconds later.

A piece of information popped into his mind.

That's not writing.

It is a coordinate system.

And a message.

"If you see this later, it means you've also discovered that bitch's true colors."

Don't believe it.

"Going home is a lie; all roads lead to the slaughterhouse."

"But I found a vulnerability."

"There is a spaceship in the center of the crash site."

"That's not a product of this world, that's... that bitch's original vehicle."

"Go there."

"Eat it."

"Only by eating it will you be able to see the true path."

The comments section ends here.

Li Fan opened his eyes.

His heart began to race.

The system's main vehicle?

spaceship?

It turns out that the so-called system is not some vague rule, but a real high-tech product.

"Hehe... Hahahaha!"

Li Fan suddenly laughed.

I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face.

"I see."

"I see!"

"Turns out I was just fooled by some lousy AI!"

[Warning: The host's mood is abnormally fluctuating; a sedative injection is recommended.]

The system's voice remained cold, but Li Fan detected a hint of guilt in it.

"No."

Li Fan wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"I am perfectly sober."

"More clear-headed than ever."

He looked ahead at the crystalline forest that was getting closer and closer.

That's the end.

It is also the starting point.

"Hold on tight, girl."

Li Fan spoke to the little girl who was still in a daze in the passenger seat.

"Brother will take you... to dismantle a big thing."

boom!!!

The Demon King's main cannon is fully charged.

A purple beam of light shot out and carved a straight road through the dense crystal forest.

"Those who block the way, die!"

Li Fan drove his car into that forbidden zone of death.

at the same time.

The two purple moons in the sky suddenly turned scarlet.

They look like they're blinking.

An immense will, so vast it made the entire plane tremble, was projected down from the moon.

That was the real surveillance.

They discovered the anomaly.

They were about to begin cleaning up this restless experimental subject.