When the game shut down, I took my skills with me.

"Abnormal high-dimensional energy fluctuations?"

Lu Yuan sat up a little straighter on the sofa, and the ease and laziness on his face vanished instantly.

He can tolerate monster sieges and player infighting because those are trivial "game" matters within his understanding that he can easily resolve.

But the word "higher dimension" touched a nerve with him.

This means that there is some kind of being that may be on the same "level" as him.

"Take over the footage." Lu Yuan's voice turned low.

Xiaoya immediately carried out the instructions.

The entire wall of the villa instantly transformed into a vast universe. At the edge of the solar system, extremely far from Earth, in the Kuiper Belt, a grotesque "crack" appeared out of thin air.

It's not like a crack in any physical sense; it's more like a perfect painting being torn apart by a craft knife, revealing a chaotic canvas underneath, flashing with error codes.

Countless unanalyzable data streams are surging wildly from the cracks, only to be obliterated by the physical laws of the real world, their extinguished light like a silent cosmic firework.

"The rift is expanding on its own; the other side is attempting to establish a stable 'anchor point.'" Xiaoya's tone was emotionless, but the projected data stream was frantically alarming. "According to the model's calculations, once the anchor point is successfully established, the other side will be able to ignore the spatial barriers of this world and directly project matter or energy. The anchor point is expected to be established in thirty minutes."

Lu Yuan didn't speak, he just watched quietly.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of space, directly seeing the essence of the crack.

This is "spying" from a higher dimension.

It's like a programmer forcibly opening a backdoor debugger in the program they wrote.

"Sir, should we activate the highest level of defense protocol for 'Ark'?" Su Muqiu's emergency communication also came in, clearly indicating that she had also received Xiaoya's highest alert.

"No need," Lu Yuan replied indifferently, and hung up the call.

He knew that for a crisis of this magnitude, any defense protocol was a joke.

"Xiaoya, lock onto that thing, I need to go check it out."

"Permissions confirmed. Mental projection activated. Coordinates: Edge of the Solar System."

Lu Yuan's body was still leaning against the sofa, but his consciousness had already traversed billions of kilometers, arriving instantly before the cosmic rift in a way that surpassed the speed of light and causality.

Here, the Earth is as small as a speck of dust.

In the cold, lifeless universe, only that crack was silently expanding, radiating an unsettling energy.

Just then, a strange "creature" slowly squeezed out from the crack.

It has no fixed form, like a geometric nightmare composed of liquid crystals, glass, and flowing light. Countless pupil-less eyes appear and disappear on its surface, each one frantically scanning and recording this strange world.

[Unknown energy system detected...]

[World Rule Strength: Low...]

[Early civilizations exist... Data-driven life forms exist...]

[A highly enriched reaction of the "origin of the world" has been discovered... Coordinates are being locked...]

A series of messages, presented in a way that Lu Yuan could understand, resonated directly in his mind.

This is the enemy's "scout".

The being known as the "higher-dimensional visitor" seemed to have finally completed its initial scan of the world. Its countless eyes suddenly turned towards the interior of the solar system, locking onto that unremarkable blue planet.

"Buzz—"

It moved.

There was no acceleration process; it was just a simple "displacement" before it was about to leap towards Earth.

And at that very moment.

On Earth.

Inside the city of "Ark," the Moon Priestess Leandera, who was meditating under the World Tree, suddenly opened her eyes, her face deathly pale and her whole body trembling. A tremendous fear, originating from her very life instinct, made it almost impossible for her to breathe.

In the Forge Temple of the Earthfire Dwarf Kingdom, Dugu Tie, who had just forged a legendary battle axe, trembled, and the axe fell directly into the lava. He felt as if a "god" was coldly watching him, and this god was full of malice.

Lin Wei, who was training diligently, felt goosebumps rise on her arm as she gripped the giant axe. Her fighting instincts were screaming alarm bells, telling her that an invincible, even incomprehensible, enemy was about to arrive.

Inside the villa.

Lu Yuan sighed.

"What a hassle, I should have just not watched it."

He extended a finger and flicked it lightly across the empty living room.

This action was incredibly casual, like flicking a speck of dust off your clothes.

However, at the edge of the solar system, billions of kilometers away.

A gigantic hand, composed entirely of data and capable of blotting out the sky, appeared out of thin air.

It appeared precisely on the path of the "higher-dimensional visitor" that was about to leap, and then, in the same casual and unquestionable manner, it bounced down.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

That "high-dimensional visitor," composed of geometric nightmares and capable of driving any god-level player to despair, couldn't even muster a decent resistance.

Its body, starting from the point touched by the finger, disintegrated inch by inch, instantly collapsing into the most primitive data stream.

It's like a program filled with code being selected by an administrator who then presses the "Delete" key.

Clean and neat.

After doing all this, the data giant vanished as if it had never existed.

The menacing cosmic rift, having lost its energy support, began to rapidly repair and close itself.

A few seconds later, the edge of the solar system returned to its usual deathly silence, as if nothing had happened.

On Earth, Leandera's fear vanished, Lin Wei's trembling ceased, and Dugu Tie's iron hammer regained its stability.

Everything was calm and peaceful.

Lu Yuan yawned, lay back down on the sofa, and covered his face with a cushion.

"Xiaoya, from now on, just block alerts of this level. Unless the other party crosses Jupiter's orbit, don't bother me again."

He just wanted to get some sleep in peace.

"Instructions recorded." Xiaoya's voice was as steady as ever, but she immediately added a sentence, breaking Lu Yuan's drowsiness.

"Sir, we have made a new discovery."

"In the last 10^-43 seconds before the target was cleared by you, that is, one Planck time, it successfully sent a compressed data packet to the other side of the crack."

Lu Yuan, who was covered by a pillow, stiffened for a moment.

"The data has been deciphered."

On Xiaoya's holographic projection, a line of cold, ominous text appeared.

[An unmarked native world has been discovered, rich in world essence. Coordinates have been locked. A highest-level user (1) has been detected. Threat level: Unknown. It is recommended to activate the 'Reaper' protocol.]