African continent, Sahara.
Underground, somewhere hidden within the coordinates: the headquarters of World Serpent.
"Buzz!"
An orange spatial gate opened—corresponding to the power of the Law of Space.
"Dominator Doll·Ling Ke" and Kevin appeared there together.
At that moment, the former simply stood silently.
Buzz~
Buzz~
Buzz~
A multitude of spatial gates, directly linked to the battlefield, rapidly unfolded.
And through them surged a vast army of Dominator Figures, each equipped with various character templates drawn from video games.
They nearly surrounded the underground World Serpent base entirely.
Even within the base, they had already begun rapid infiltration.
They monitored every corridor, every door.
They controlled everything.
"The preparations to welcome our 'guests' are complete," Dominator Doll·Ling Ke said, casting a sidelong glance. "Mr. Kevin, if you please."
"When our deal is fulfilled, your reward will come as well."
At those words...
"Can I really trust you?" Kevin asked coldly.
Though truthfully, there was no longer any need to ask.
After all, his actions had already shown his decision.
But Ling Ke was clearly in an excellent mood at that moment.
Because the revenge plan he had orchestrated had finally reached its final phase.
He himself—the architect of it all—had never expected things to proceed so flawlessly.
That's why, as he controlled "Dominator Doll·Ling Ke" indirectly, he replied patiently:
"Of course, you can trust me."
The dark-haired youth beside Kevin smiled:
"After all, you are not my enemy."
"I have no reason to seek revenge on you, so naturally, I focus only on fulfilling our agreement."
"Besides, the content of that deal is, precisely, the result of my revenge."
"And that result... is something you want to see too."
Kevin said nothing more.
Suddenly, Ling Ke spoke again.
"Sorry. I suppose I mentioned Dr. MEI just to provoke you and push you into action."
The dark-haired youth tilted his head, looking at the 'savior' beside him:
"You're not like Raiden Mei."
"Your promises are not empty words."
"You have the courage to sacrifice everything."
"Otherwise, you wouldn't be walking beside me now… toward sin."
To that...
"You and I both know this is not something a 'hero' would do," Kevin replied in a deep voice.
"Exactly!" Ling Ke's lips curled slightly. "But it is a choice worthy of a 'Ying Jie.'"
"You were one—and you still are."
"Like a moth plunging into flame... not to destroy itself, but... to live until death!"
Hearing such praise from the enemy of humanity, a man who fights against the Collapse...
Kevin said no more.
He simply nodded, expression cold.
And then took the first step forward.
The direction in which he walked—
—was toward the Land of Past Lives.
Meanwhile, elsewhere—
The far side of the Moon, within the ruins of an extinct civilization.
[Current points of "World-Ender Player": 37,915,259]
Since the Law of Domination is unified, every Dominator Figure knows in real time how many points the "Ready Player One System" linked to the main body has accumulated—thanks to a communication network based on quantum entanglement.
And it must be said: the mad plan to launch giant meteors straight from the Moon to Earth was simply unsolvable.
During this time, Walter had ordered all elite human forces, including Yolandele, to head to North Africa to confront Ling Ke and Kevin. Meanwhile, he, Tesla, Einstein, and others were gathering the remainder of humanity's strength to resist the meteor storm.
Undoubtedly, humanity used its "silver bullet."
In the Second Collapse Eruption, a similar technique had been tested in Anti-Entropy's early stages.
But against multicore Celine, silver bullets—with a range of hundreds of thousands of kilometers—were easily neutralized by an electromagnetic pulse.
This time, that wasn't the biggest problem.
Though they didn't need to worry about that, other obvious problems remained. For example:
"The Moon has lots of giant rocks, but do your human weapons have enough ammunition?"
On the lunar surface, a vast number of Dominator Figures used the power of the Law of the Sky to cut and teleport meteors.
It appeared they were prepared to wage a war of attrition.
Until all of humanity's "silver bullets" were exhausted.
Or—
Boom!
[Current points of "World-Ender Player": 56,713,299]
The system jumped by nearly 20 million points in an instant.
Without question, that meant 20 million human lives were lost on Earth at that very moment.
The only possible explanation was:
"Even if your weapon stockpiles don't run dry, you humans can't stop all the meteors."
It was a relentless bombardment, a total saturation offensive.
Yes.
Now that Ling Ke had already contacted Kevin, his revenge plan had entered its final stage: the Dominator Figures attacked cities—far more than the nine Rita had listed earlier.
The target selection was random, indiscriminate.
Truly... apocalyptic.
After today, even if humanity wasn't completely wiped out, the old social order would cease to exist.
Because a tsunami of meteorites, earthquakes...
Would darken the sky, block out most of the sunlight, and trigger rapid global cooling.
Yes, after this storm of fire would come a deadly winter.
And without even looking further ahead...
Just now—
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
[Current points of "World-Ender Player": 156,759,213]
Each meteor had become a sword of judgment, igniting the sky over humanity.
Each one that fell meant the destruction of at least one entire city.
Today, countries around the globe—along with Walter, Tesla, Einstein, and others—were on the brink of collapse.
Dr. Lobster's foul language could be heard nonstop.
But if that was despairing...
Ling Ke, on his end, was dealing with a different problem.
"Who would've thought I'd reach the point where I have so many points... I can't even draw cards?"
Yes.
The Ready Player One System doesn't have a "spend all points with one click" function.
And when drawing new character templates...
There's no guarantee!
Now, with so many new templates appearing randomly, the system had become congested.
"Forget it. I'll just wait for the new harvest to fall into my bowl," Ling Ke said calmly, watching the Theater of Domination.
As already mentioned—his mood was excellent.
So excellent, in fact, that he could even afford to hand out praise.
In short, the carefully prepared revenge plan was about to be completed, and he couldn't wait to see the expressions of his enemies when they could no longer change the inevitable.
And now, the final piece of this puzzle...
...was in the Land of Past Lives.
And then—
"It's time to meet the much-discussed 'Will of the Collapse.'"