The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

"Xiaoyu, is this the portrait of the protagonist in your story?"

During the break, Wang Yu, who sat in front of Lin Xiaoyu and was also her best friend, looked at the black-haired man and blonde woman depicted on the two drawings that Lin Xiaoyu had secretly worked on during class with a look of amazement.

What background did you set for these two main characters?

"I haven't decided yet, but I dreamed about it last night, you know?"

Lin Xiaoyu excitedly pulled a diary out of the drawer and placed it in front of Wang Yu.

"As the saying goes, what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. Last night, I actually dreamed that I went to this world that I created. Take a look at the background of this world I designed and see what you think?"

"No, if I read what you wrote, I'm afraid I'll have nightmares at night."

Wang Yu placed the two drawings on the desk and quickly waved her hand.

"The world you designed is too bizarre! Do you know that after reading what you wrote these past few days, I'm even afraid to open my closet? You should save it for harming other people!!"

"Hmph, fine, don't bother reading it then. I'm sure I'll get accepted for this year's submission to the school's online community. I'll just write down what I dreamt about last night."

Lin Xiaoyu looked dejected after being rejected.

"When the manuscript is accepted and I receive the payment, I'll treat you to something to eat."

“It’s a deal!!”

..........................................

"Were we... in that girl's dream before?"

On the rooftop of the teaching building not far away, looking out at the window, Yukari Yakumo had an expression of disbelief on her face.

“That’s right, the world we were in before was her dream world.”

Turning his head thoughtfully, Shi Bai looked at Yakumo Yukari.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a multi-layered nested world, a world that is gradually sliding towards an abyss of complete corruption and depravity."

"...A multi-layered nested world?"

"It's one layer after another, which might be hard for you to understand if I explain it, but just watch carefully from now on..."

Before he could finish speaking, Shi Bai suddenly looked up at the sky. In the dim clouds, a huge black shadow was slowly moving. Just the moment he looked up at the clouds, the enormous creature hidden in the clouds revealed its face.

—It was a massive metal warship that almost occupied the entire school.

"Keep up, don't fall behind."

Without turning his head, Shi Bai said this to Yakumo Yukari, then reached out and grabbed her hand, before slashing at the metal warship in the air with one hand.

With a deafening roar, a massive burst of flame erupted from the metal warship, and a series of explosions lit up the sky.

..........................................

"Damn! Is this game bugged?! Where did the attack come from?!"

Looking at the grayed-out computer screen in front of him, Fang Qiang angrily slammed his hand on the table.

"The Type A warship that I spent a whole month piecing together is just gone inexplicably!?"

"What's wrong with Qiangzi?"

After taking off his headphones, Zhang Liang, who was sitting next to him, turned his head to look at him with some curiosity.

"Hurry up! We're almost at the battlefield. Are you planning to desert? Where's your warship?"

"I can't play it, it's unplayable. Look for yourself, my warship has inexplicably been completely destroyed."

Pointing at his computer screen, Fang Qiang muttered curses as he pulled out his phone to file a complaint on the official website.

"Even a cheat code wouldn't be this outrageous! The entire warship was completely destroyed in less than a few seconds! How am I supposed to play like this?! Damn it!! I spent a whole month piecing this together!!!"

"Take a screenshot and complain to the official team. This is clearly someone maliciously exploiting a bug in the game."

After using Fang Qiang's mouse and keyboard to access the battle log and review it for a while, Zhang Liang frowned.

"Even in the safe zone, they can still damage and instantly kill warships. This is definitely a bug in the game. I guarantee you'll hit your target every time you shoot."

"But what about today's battle? I climbed over the wall to escape from my dorm to go online. I've been preparing for this important battle for a whole month!!"

Fang Qiang put down his phone, looking utterly dejected.

"If the game developers don't offer compensation for what happened today, I'm definitely not letting them off the hook!!"

"Please accept my condolences. You were originally a key player in this battle, but now it seems you can only play a supporting role. Let's see how the game's official team responds to you."

With a look of sympathy, Zhang Liang patted Fang Qiang on the shoulder and casually offered him a cigarette.

"Here, have a smoke to calm down."

"This is bullshit official..."

Muttering something to himself, Fang Qiang took the cigarette his childhood friend handed him, but before he could light it with a lighter, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and patted his shoulder.

"Sure, Xiaoqiang, after getting the call from the dorm manager, I searched five different internet cafes before finally finding you. Did you enjoy the game?"

"Hello...Teacher..."

Turning his head stiffly, Fang Qiang forced out an awkward smile.

"Are you two going to keep playing games here? Come on, why don't you come back to the school with me and have a good talk? I'll treat you to tea."

The middle-aged man wearing glasses had a beaming smile on his face.

"........."

"........."

After exchanging a silent glance, Fang Qiang and Li Liang obediently paid their bills and left the internet cafe, sheepishly following behind their homeroom teacher.

Because they kept their heads down the whole time, they didn't see two figures brush past them and walk into the internet cafe.

"The online game 'MechSky' is a mecha game that focuses on assembling warships and mechas, and it has become quite popular in recent years."

After briefly browsing the game's official website, Shi Bai tapped the table with his finger and looked at Yakumo Yukari beside him.

"Now you should know what a multi-layered nested world is like, right?"

"……Understood."

Yukari Yakumo's lips twitched slightly.

"So, is the world we're in now the same as the online game world we were in before? What kind of world are we in now?"

"I don't know? How would I know?"

With a slight smirk, Shi Bai skillfully registered an account for himself and entered the game [Mech Starry Sky].

"Let's relax a bit. I think this game is quite fun. Mechs are a man's romance... I'm going to build myself a Gundam first."

"But that's a real world inside, you..."

"But right now we're out there, and those people in that world are just NPCs. I mentioned it before, right? This world is gradually heading towards a completely corrupted abyss, and it seems to be the work of some evil god..."

While quickly searching through the various parts for building a Gundam in the online store, Shi Bai casually replied.

"If you go and tell the people who play this game that all the NPCs in the game are real people, see if they believe you or think you're crazy."

"...So what should we do now?"

After a moment of silence, Yukari Yakumo asked him a question.

"As always, let's continue trying to save the world."

Even when his hair turned white, he wouldn't look back.

"The harvest in the last world was quite good. Would you like to see the world origins we obtained in the last world? Speaking of which, you've probably never seen anything like this before..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a boy of about eighteen or nineteen years old suddenly stumbled in from outside the internet cafe. He stood at the door with an anxious expression and shouted loudly at the people who had come to stay all night.

"Everyone, get out of this internet cafe right now! It's haunted!! Those things will come out and kill people at midnight!!!"

However, it was obvious that no one took his fantastical words seriously. Some of the older men with bad tempers were so angry at being yelled at that that they stood up, grumbling, and walked towards the boy with a bottle in their hand.

"Ghosts? Do ghosts exist in this world?"

Seeing the boy at the door who immediately turned and ran away when he sensed something was wrong, Yukari Yakumo frowned slightly.

"This ghost is not that kind of ghost. It seems this is a world with a supernatural focus..."

Shi Bai looked up at the slightly dim ceiling, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Forget it, let's tackle the Gundam another time. Let's go."

"……Walk?"

While Yakumo Yukari was still in a daze, Shi Bai had already grabbed her hand.

A moment later, the world before them changed again, and they found themselves in a dilapidated bookstore.

The bookstore looked like it had been rioted, with collapsed shelves and piles of books everywhere, and even large pools of dried blood.

Shi Bai squinted at the scene outside the bookstore shrouded in a hazy mist, then pulled a novel from the bookshelf and tossed it to Yakumo Yukari.

"Take a look for yourself. We were just in the world of a novel."

"...The Ghost Hunter?"

Looking at the novel in her hand, Yukari Yakumo was slightly taken aback.

"Yeah, the guy who came into the internet cafe and shouted that there was a ghost and made everyone in the internet cafe leave is probably the main character."

Shi Bai pursed his lips, seemingly quite displeased, and replied.

"That's why I hate this kind of multi-layered nested world the most. Don't you know nesting is forbidden?"

"Then what is the world we live in now...?"

Holding the novel, and looking at the large patches of dried blood in the bookstore, Yukari Yakumo frowned slightly.

"...Apocalyptic world?"

"No, judging from the fog outside, it might look more like a disaster thriller currently playing in a movie theater..."

As Shi Bai was speaking, a huge tentacle suddenly shot out from the vast, invisible white fog outside and hurtled towards the bookstore.

"Look, terrifying monsters like these, hidden in the mist, have always been an essential prop in disaster and suspense films."

With a casual slap, he sent the tentacle that flew right in front of him flying away, crashing into several houses. Shi Bai then turned to Yakumo Yukari and began to speak.

"...How should we leave this world?"

Yukari Yakumo was speechless.

"Leaving this film and television world is easy, but I'm afraid it's not just a simple nesting doll, but a Möbius strip."

"Mobius?"

"I'll show you to prove it, and you'll see."

As he spoke, Shi Bai walked out of the bookstore.

Shi Bai had encountered this kind of multi-layered, nested world before, much like Inception. These worlds weren't so bad in other aspects, but they were just disgusting.

Because in a fully formed, multi-layered nested world, with one nested doll leading to another, the environment becomes increasingly bizarre and disgusting, as if one is gradually descending into hell.

The world is still normal now and has not been completely polluted, so apart from the original world, the other worlds are still okay. However, as time goes by, all worlds will gradually develop in an indescribable direction of horror and terror.

When that time comes, the world will be completely beyond saving.

The method to move from one layer of the nesting doll to the next is quite simple: just find the protagonist of that nesting doll world. The first layer is the dream world, the second layer is the online game world, the third layer is the novel world... and this fourth layer is the movie world.

It didn't take long for Shi Bai to lead Yakumo Yukari to the male and female protagonists of this movie world in this misty town, successfully breaking into the next level of the world.

And so, one nesting doll after another, after breaking through three more nesting doll worlds, they returned to the original dream world—that chaotic Cthulhu-esque world where demons roamed freely.

"From beginning to end, it forms a perfect closed loop."

Shi Bai snapped his fingers.

"This world is the lowest level, and also the most basic level. The chaos and disorder of this world will gradually spread to other matryoshka doll worlds, eventually turning all other matryoshka doll worlds into this kind of absurd and illogical chaotic world."

"...I hate it here."

Looking at the two feet tap dancing on the street not far away, Yakumo Yukari unconsciously hid behind Shi Bai, her face looking quite pale.

"No one would like this kind of world, and no one could understand it... except for the evil god race, most of whom are mentally unstable."

Shi Bai narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky.