I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

The thick clouds had vanished without a trace, revealing a clear blue sky.

Even the air seemed to be warming up; breathing no longer sted my lungs, it felt like a warm spring day, incredibly comfortable.

But this is Antarctica, and even in the height of summer, this shouldn't be happening, the girl clearly realized.

From the moment she suffered her defeat, the whole world seemed to be on fast-forward. She could barely see the two fighting; all she knew was that after several rapid collisions, this was what happened.

In the blink of an eye, she was transported from that frigid dimension to another hidden world.

The girl snapped out of her daze and suddenly opened her eyes wide, searching left and right.

"Little cutie, are you alright?" A familiar voice sounded behind her.

Cheng Fei, clutching his aching chest, walked up to the girl.

"You're injured?!" Shen Xi hurriedly helped the boy up, her face showing intense worry.

"It's alright." The boy waved his hand and took a few deep breaths.

He has a rapid healing ability, so any injury that isn't fatal is insignificant to him.

The boy looked at the quiet world before him and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

In any case, they are safe for now.

As for whether a failed attempt would lead to abandoning the target or staying put, he wasn't considering that for the time being.

"Where is this place? Where did the failed project go?" Shen Xi followed his gaze, her brows furrowing slightly, a look of confusion on her face.

"Of course it's Antarctica. Teacher Shen, have you lost your memory?" The boy stared at her thoughtful little face, then feigned surprise as usual. "Did you hurt your head just now?"

The girl stared at him, her brows furrowed, and opened her mouth slightly.

A sudden, inexplicable feeling of weakness washed over the boy, causing him to sway slightly.

"What's wrong?" Shen Xi quickly leaned closer to observe him.

"I'm just a little tired." The boy closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

I almost forgot, the energy to activate the system dimension was directly drawn from him. Fortunately, his attributes were much higher than last time, so he didn't lose consciousness on the spot.

The girl stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly pulled one of his arms up and draped it over her shoulder, her slender body supporting the weight.

"Teacher Shen, what are you doing?" The boy tilted his head, puzzled.

"I'll take you away." The girl bit her lip and looked around as if searching for direction.

"No need for that, I'm really fine. Let's just wait here for now." The boy thought for a moment, then decided to put his arm around the girl's shoulder and enjoy her care.

He wasn't sure where he would end up if he moved out of the system dimension, since he hadn't received any detailed explanations and hadn't had the opportunity to test it.

Before them stretched an endless expanse of ice, with nothing else visible until the horizon, and the entrance to the ice cave had vanished.

It's as if the system dimension is just masquerading as something similar based on the location he enters each time.

Shen Xi stared at his face, her eyes flickering as if she were trying to think. "So this place is safe, just like that island?"

"Which island?" The boy looked genuinely bewildered.

The girl stared at him for a moment, then turned away with an annoyed look, saying, "Cheng Feiyu is pretending to be crazy again."

"Let's not talk about that for now. Are you hungry, Teacher Shen?" The boy shook his head and sighed, took out his energy bar, tore it open, took a bite, and chewed it.

"I'm not hungry." Shen Xi observed his movements, then quickly took out her snacks and put them into his chest strap.

During this time, I noticed a tear in his winter coat near his shoulder. I carefully opened it and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there was no bleeding.

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as when Teacher Shen bites me." The boy swallowed the high-energy food in his mouth, feeling the weakness subside, his tone not without a hint of sarcasm.

"Trash." The girl glared at him, her voice soft and weak, completely lacking her usual fierceness.

"Since things have come to this, let's take a rest." The boy took a breath and simply sat down on the spot.

Although the earth was still covered with hard blue ice and snow, the temperature in the system was very comfortable, and the sun was even shining, making people feel warm.

Shen Xi squatted down beside him, hugging her knees, her eyes fixed on him without blinking.

"What is Teacher Shen looking at?" the boy asked curiously.

"What do we do next?" the girl asked anxiously.

"Just wait." The boy nodded to himself as he ate.

"Wait?" the girl asked suspiciously.

"That's right, didn't you notice the failed work has disappeared?" the boy said casually.

"The motorcycle is gone too." The girl looked around.

The system didn't copy the vehicles parked nearby, I don't know if it was to prevent the two people from driving them away or what.

“That’s true, then we’re trapped.” The boy said with a relaxed expression.

The girl stared at him, then thought for a moment, "So Cheng Feiyu plans to hide here and wait for his failed attempt to leave on its own?"

"Hey, Teacher Shen, what are you talking about, inside and outside? I don't understand what you're saying. Don't try to fill in the blanks with your own imagination." The boy focused on replenishing his energy.

The girl stared at him in silence for a second, then rested her chin on her knees, shut her mouth, and stopped talking. She simply gazed at the infinitely distant void beneath her feet, as if she were pondering something.

……

In the circular command center, far from the Antarctic continent, everyone stared at the large screen hanging in the center, holding their breath and looking serious.

In satellite images taken from high altitude, a striking white continent surrounded by a deep ocean stands out.

The clouds meandered across the continent, looking unremarkable except for a red dot marked on the edge.

It was as if an invisible hand was stirring the clouds, and a visible vortex was accumulating, drawing in the surrounding clouds, making the central area completely invisible.

On the adjacent screen, a colored 3D image—or more accurately, a complex signal that could only be presented by overlaying numerous charts onto a colored 3D image—was jittering violently.

"The virtual energy waveform is abruptly changing, what does this mean...?"

"The technical team is still analyzing the data, and their preliminary conclusion is..."

"What is it? Tell me quickly..."

"It seems to be the aftershock of a large-scale change in the tropism of matter. There has never been a record of this before, so it is impossible to determine the situation at the scene..."

"A massive change in matter tropism? Are you kidding me? Is a Protoss fleet warping in...?"

"Is it possible to get in touch with them now...?"

"It's impossible, the signal completely disappeared just now..."

"Where's the combat team? It's been two days..."

"Currently over the Drake Passage, it will take at least several more hours to arrive..."

at the same time.

On the icy plains shrouded in dark clouds, the whole world seemed to have fallen into midnight.

A violent air current, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, dispelled the previous bleached weather, replacing it with a gale carrying ice crystals that raged across the land. A blizzard, as real as ice, swept across everything in its path, emitting a deafening howl, and the temperature dropped to extremely low levels, surpassing any record ever set on this continent.

In this apocalyptic scene, the silver life form with a mercury-like metallic sheen remained completely unaffected.

It stood on the open ground, its two slender arms outstretched, its ten fingers bent and straining to the sides, as if there were an invisible door closing in front of it, and it was trying to pry its fingers into the crack of the door and forcefully open it.

Nearby, the blizzard and the earth flickered, sometimes normal and sometimes semi-transparent, like a poorly rendered game screen, where the textures of objects could disappear at any moment.

A snake-like current of electricity emanated from where its fingers were clenched, twisting and turning in the blizzard.

As its arms slowly opened, a glowing sphere with a violently trembling outline appeared out of thin air, and the surging cold air nearby seemed to find an outlet, frantically rushing into it.

the other side.

On the clear, icy plain, the boy sat casually on the ground, devouring the snacks he carried with him.

The girl squatted beside him, hugging her knees, watching him eat with a blank expression, her stubborn pink lips tightly closed, not moving at all.

Without warning, a glowing sphere suddenly appeared floating in mid-air not far from the two of them.

It started small, but quickly began to expand, and its outline could be seen trembling violently in ways that defy description, with silver snake-like currents surging out and frantically licking the surrounding air.

Shen Xi's eyes widened suddenly, staring blankly at the scene.

Cheng Fei slowly stood up, a very bad feeling rising in the young man's heart.

As the sphere grew larger, a surge of icy air mixed with ice crystals burst forth from it, penetrating the warm space and immediately spreading in all directions, causing the temperature to plummet visibly.

The two, who had just adapted to the warm environment, shivered simultaneously.

It was obvious that something was invading this world, flooding in like a torrent along with the raging blizzard from the other side. One could almost hear a shrill cry, like the howling of a monstrous wind or the wailing of a banshee.

Soon, ten fingers, gleaming with a mercury-like luster, also probed in. As the fingers opened to the sides, the sphere of light expanded rapidly, and its outline trembled more and more violently, as if space itself was being torn apart.

"Cheng Fei! What's going on?" Shen Xi looked at the boy abruptly, her face filled with indescribable panic, clearly realizing what was happening.

In the blink of an eye, the thing that had reached in from the ball of light had changed from fingers into two familiar, slender arms.

"Don't rush." ​​The boy held her small hand, trying his best to remain calm.

However, a storm was brewing in my heart.

system!

You fucking can't even protect your own dimension?!

A tremendous sense of crisis exploded in the boy's heart.

If a failed attempt can even penetrate the system dimension... where can they possibly escape to?

As if in response to him, the words appeared before the boy's eyes.

[WARNING: System dimension is being compromised]

To avoid significant damage, the system dimension will be closed in ten seconds, and all foreign objects will be removed.

[Note: Foreign objects include the host.]

Even I'm being moved out?!

When he saw the second-to-last sentence, the boy was still worried about the safety of the girl beside him. When he saw the last sentence, his eyelids twitched wildly, and he used the greatest willpower he had ever had in two lifetimes to suppress the urge to curse out loud.

The sphere of light continued to expand, and the head and shoulders of the silver life form could be vaguely seen, attempting to pass through the sphere of light like a catfish trying to enter a pipe.

A powerful blizzard, strong enough to scatter one's soul, surged in from behind, forcing the girl beside the boy to cover her face with her arms and stare wide-eyed at the scene before her.

What can you do in just ten seconds?

The question arose in the boy's mind, and he activated Time Zero with all his might, his brain racing as he thought.

However, no matter what, the boy couldn't find a way to break the deadlock.

With his last 100,000 points, he couldn't afford those items that cost hundreds of thousands, nor could he instantly max out all his attributes and become an extraordinary life form.

The boy swallowed hard, clearly hearing the sound of his own swallowing, and feeling his heart pounding like a drum in his ears, which even drowned out the howling of the blizzard.

He seemed to be stuck in a dead end.

The moment he realized this, countless images flashed before the boy's eyes, and he saw countless versions of himself in them.

It seems he made a mistake over the past year.

Originally, after reflecting on his past life for several years since his rebirth, he had decided to be a realist, study hard, get into a good school, and then find a good job to live a life of leisure.

Because of this useless system that appeared out of nowhere, they unknowingly started doing some dangerous things.

Not only did he not focus on improving himself, but he also came to this godforsaken, freezing place, only to encounter some failed project, real aliens, and now, as a reborn person with a system who could have lived a life of leisure, he's about to be killed by the aliens.

Generally speaking, other reborn people stay in the city at home, and at most they might encounter some cultivators or ancient martial arts families, right?

How did it come to the point that he encountered an advanced alien creature that he couldn't defeat no matter what he did, and now he only had ten seconds left to live, so there was no point in doing anything?

Thinking of this, the boy suddenly felt relieved, and even wanted to laugh a little.

However, if we must say something, this matter is not entirely his own responsibility.

Having traveled all the way to this place, I was somewhat influenced by others.

How did he go from being a staunch realist to venturing into this godforsaken place?

The boy turned his head and looked at the girl beside him who was frozen in time due to the zero state.

Beneath her arms, the small face, revealing a hint of fear, remained delicate and beautiful, radiating a translucent quality like fragile glass, every detail resembling a work of art that never existed.

If I hadn't joined the Corridor Research Department and hadn't met her, I wouldn't have done such a stupid thing, right?