Chapter 294: Qin Shi Huang's "The Matrix!"
Le Fay Pendragon, a girl who should be in middle school in normal human society.
The various unbelievable experiences she had gone through made her slightly more mature than her peers.
However, the new situation she now faced left her mind momentarily blank.
The moment she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the place where everyone had been staying, but had returned to the arena.
It was an extremely quiet arena, so quiet that only her breathing could be heard.
But in fact, the entire arena was filled with people and gods—except that aside from her being alive, everyone else seemed... dead?
Dead?
Panicked, she quickly reached out to check on Irina beside her. Not dead, still alive—she appeared to be purely in a deep sleep.
She tried calling out to her, but Irina wouldn't wake up no matter what, leaving Le Fay utterly at a loss.
What on earth had happened?
What kind of anomaly occurred during the ninth round of the final battle between humans and gods?
Why did she think that?
Because on the arena stage, Le Fay saw that Buddha, representing the gods, was also motionless as if in a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, Qin Shi Huang, representing humanity, with his massive mechanical holy body, remained intact and quietly suspended in the air above.
Everything seemed as if, at the moment when Heimdall was about to announce the start of the battle—no, at the instant just before Heimdall declared the start of the 387th battle—as if after countless reloads, the entire world had fallen into a deep sleep at that initial moment.
Yes, it was as if the entire world was asleep, because even the two sides shown in the live broadcast were completely immersed in slumber.
"If that's the case, then it's indeed not my delusion, not my hallucination," Le Fay murmured to herself.
The digitized scene she had seen earlier was indeed real.
Thus, an incredibly unbelievable possibility surfaced in her mind: the consciousnesses of all humans and gods in the entire world had been pulled into a virtual world space.
Everyone thought the ninth round had already ended, but in reality, that wasn't the case.
"So, when exactly were we dragged into the virtual world?"
Were those countless reloads earlier also taking place in the virtual world?
"No!"
Le Fay noticed that Buddha's jackal mask had a crack.
In other words, some of the reloads might have been genuine, and then, at some unknown point after the crack appeared, they were abruptly pulled into the virtual world without warning.
"Could it be that even now, we're still in the virtual world? That we haven't returned to reality?"
After this self-conjecture, her petite body trembled slightly.
She was frightened by her own terrifying speculation.
So, it was better to stop entertaining that possibility for now.
If this continued, she would become unable to distinguish reality.
Then, who could have pulled everyone into the virtual world?
The most likely suspect was—
"Eek!"
Le Fay let out a small gasp as Qin Shi Huang's massive mechanical body suddenly emitted a wave of light that radiated throughout the entire Central Celestial Realm.
No—even the mythological spaces, those pinned down by the devices detached from the Iron Great Wall, were swept by this wave of light.
So, it seemed everyone had been pulled into a virtual world by Qin Shi Huang—one that even the gods had failed to detect as false!!!
It was unbelievable. This Qin Shi Huang had created such a "Matrix."
"What should I do now?"
Le Fay grew bewildered, unable to wake Irina no matter how she called out.
The others were probably the same, right?
She decided to try again.
"Miss Rossweisse..."
But no matter who she called, there was no response.
It felt as if she were the only living person left in the world, making Le Fay deeply uneasy.
What exactly had happened?
How could Le Fay have vanished so bizarrely right before their eyes, disappearing without any warning?
There was no strange glow, no spatial rift that swallowed her up, nor did she gradually fade into transparency. She was just suddenly gone.
"Le Fay, Le Fay!!!"
Irina called out urgently, but there was no response.
"Sefaira, what on earth is going on?"
She gripped the shoulders of the otherworldly shrine maiden firmly, shaking her as she demanded an answer.
"I... I don't know either,"
Sefaira replied, equally lost.
"Perhaps Le Fay really was teleported away by your transfer spell, Sefaira,"
Serafall couldn't help but speculate.
It was possible that what Le Fay saw was real—some circumstance had simply made it invisible to the rest of them.
"So, if Sefaira reactivates the spell, can we teleport as well?"
Rossweisse pressed anxiously, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"I'm not sure, but we can try again!"
But the result—
"It's not working!"
"No response at all."
"The mana input even exceeded the previous attempt."
One by one, they grew increasingly bewildered and helpless.
"What should we do? If Le Fay really was sent back, that would be one thing, but if she ended up in an unfamiliar world, that child would be terrified."
Irina was utterly distraught. Among them, Le Fay was the youngest, treated like a little sister by everyone.
"Even if she was truly sent back to our side, it might not be safe. What if our world has already fallen?"
"Alright, Rossweisse, don't scare Irina with such uncertainties."
"I'm not trying to scare her—we need to consider this possibility!"
The Valkyrie responded rigidly.
Regardless, the fact remained: they had lost Le Fay.
"Wait, everyone, quiet for a moment. I think I hear Le Fay's voice," Irina suddenly said, and the others immediately fell silent.
"Huh? What is—what is this?!!"
Irina suddenly widened her eyes, staring at the magic circle.
"Is this the situation Le Fay mentioned?"
"What situation? Irina, what did you see?"
"Did you see the same thing as Le Fay?"
Rossweisse and Serafall urgently pressed for answers.
But before Irina could recall, they faintly heard Le Fay's voice as well. Simultaneously, light emerged from the teleportation array that had shown no change in their vision.
Immediately after, the four exchanged glances and reached out to touch it.
After a strange sensation and what felt like an eternity of consciousness sinking into darkness, the darkness began to open.
"Whoa!!!"
"Huh?"
"This is—!"
Upon waking, the group saw an exhilarated Le Fay, but they were stunned by the scenes beyond her in their field of view.
So stunned that a chill shot up their spines straight to their brains!