The frantic flood of loyal messages ceased.
The chat interface returned to calm.
For a few seconds, there was only silence in Yuan Lin's mind.
A deafening silence.
Deeper and more terrifying than any silence he had ever experienced in his life.
Then, as if a dam had burst, the real world came rushing back with force.
He heard the sound of his colleague's keyboard clicking in the next cubicle.
A sound that seemed distant and unreal.
He smelled the slightly burnt coffee from the breakroom.
A painfully mundane and familiar scent.
He saw the boring numbers in the spreadsheet on his screen, which had returned to normal.
Each number was like a witness to the life he had been living just minutes before.
A life he didn't know was so precious.
All these ordinary details that made up his life now seemed flimsy and fragile.
Like a thin eggshell encasing a terrifying cosmic chaos.
He collapsed in his chair.
He felt a coldness cover his entire body, even though his shirt was damp with sweat.
He had succeeded.
He had lied to legendary beings, and they had bought his lie.
He had bought himself some time.
A wave of pure, ecstatic relief washed over him.
So powerful it made him feel dizzy.
A hysterical, muffled laugh almost escaped him, but he bit his lip hard, turning it into a silent tremor in his chest.
But this relief, like everything good in his life, was short-lived.
It was soon replaced by an ice-cold realization.
"Three cycles of the gray moon..." he thought, his heart beginning to pound with anxiety again.
It had sounded like a majestic deadline when he said it.
But now he realized he had no idea what it meant.
"How long the hell is that? Three days? Three weeks? Three centuries?"
"And what will I do when they present their reports? Real reports about real armies and real enemies? I'll be completely exposed, like a student who didn't study and walked into his final exam."
He had only postponed his execution. He hadn't cancelled it.
Then he remembered the reward.
He looked at the mental interface, at that number shimmering with a promising blue light in the corner of his vision.
[Current Balance: 501 Chaos Points.]
Five hundred and one points.
He didn't know their value, whether it was a lot or a little.
But it was the only tangible thing he possessed in this madness.
It was proof that this System, despite being his prison, might also be his only arsenal.
"System", he asked cautiously in his mind, as if whispering in a library for fear of disturbing the murderous librarians.
"What are these Chaos Points, exactly? And how... how do I use them?"
The reply came instantly, in cold, logical texts, devoid of any drama.
Its efficiency in displaying information was both unsettling and comforting.
[Chaos Points (CP) are the primary currency of the System. They are acquired by completing quests, demonstrating the Lord's authority, spreading chaos, or assimilating chaotic energy sources.]
[They can be spent in the `[Store]` to purchase skills, tools, techniques, and information.]
"The Store."
Yuan Lin felt a genuine curiosity for the first time.
A curiosity that momentarily overcame his fear.
As a tech expert, he was used to exploring new systems, clicking on every button and menu to see what it does.
Carefully, as if afraid he might spend his points with a wrong mental touch, he focused on the word and opened the [Store]tab.
What he saw made him gasp.
It wasn't a simple list.
It was a lavish, ghostly catalog.
An infinite tapestry of impossible items floating in the void of his mind.
The categories glowed with different colors: fiery red for weapons, emerald green for elixirs, mysterious purple for techniques, and pale gold for knowledge.
His gaze was drawn to the weapons section.
He saw 3D images of swords that glowed with darkness and spears that seemed to be made of frozen lightning.
[Star-Eater Blade - A legendary sword capable of slicing through the void itself.]
[Price: 8,000,000 Chaos Points + 1 Nebula Heart.]
Yuan Lin felt dizzy. Eight million points? What the hell was a "Nebula Heart"? Could he order one from Amazon?
Then he saw the elixirs section.
[Phoenix Revival Pill - Rebuilds the body and soul from ash after death. (Single use only).]
[Price: 6,500,000 Chaos Points.]
Yuan Lin felt poor.
Not just his financial poverty in the real world, but a new, cosmic poverty.
His balance of 501 points suddenly seemed like a single coin he had found on the sidewalk.
Great, he thought sarcastically. "I'm not just broke on Earth, I'm broke on a multiversal level."
But Yuan Lin was practical.
He had learned from his job to ignore the fancy products he couldn't afford and to look directly for practical solutions to his current problem.
And what was his current problem?
Ignorance.
He was completely ignorant.
He knew nothing about this world, about his followers, about his enemies, or even about the basic rules of power.
He was running a superpower without even knowing the names of its cities or the language of its people.
He searched through the store's categories, ignoring the weapons and treasures, until he found a section that looked modest in a corner of the interface.
Its name was [Data Library].
It contained information packets, not tools.
[Introduction to Cultivation Realms - Price: 100 Chaos Points.]
[Languages of Demons and Fae - Beginner's Pack - Price: 250 Chaos Points.]
[Comprehensive Historical Analysis of the Gray Chaos World - Price: 1000 Chaos Points.]
They were all tempting, but his eyes settled on one packet at the top.
Its name seemed as if it had been written specifically for him.
A life raft thrown to him in an ocean of confusion.
[Beginner's Information Packet: "The New Vessel's Survival Guide" - Price: 500 Chaos Points.]
He looked at the price, then at his balance.
501.
It would cost him almost everything he had.
He hesitated.
A part of him, that frugal, cautious part that was used to comparing noodle prices in three different stores, screamed at him.
"Five hundred points for a 'beginner's guide'? It's a rip-off! That's more expensive than a genuine copy of Windows! I can learn all this myself from the reports they'll give me. Why spend everything now?"
But another voice, the voice of fear and cold logic, replied sharply.
"Learn it yourself? You don't even know what the 'Soul Formation Realm' is! What if Wu Tian's report says he has five hundred generals in that realm? You wouldn't even understand the scale of the threat.
One wrong word, one misunderstanding, and you'll be nothing but a burnt memory. Can you really risk your eternal existence to save a few points?"
It was a short but violent struggle.
A struggle between his stinginess and his fear for his life.
And fear won.
As it always does.
He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
"Buy."
The moment he confirmed the order, he felt as if a dam had burst in his brain.
It wasn't just information he was reading.
It was a flood, a deluge of data flowing directly into his consciousness.
He felt a sharp, sudden headache, as if his brain was being forcibly expanded to accommodate it all.
He saw flashes of images and information swirling in his mind.
Maps of worlds he had never seen, lands floating in a purple sky.
Diagrams of energy pathways in different beings' bodies.
Explanations of strange concepts like [Qi Condensation], [Foundation Establishment], and [Soul Formation].
He read about the history of the "Eternal Chaos Lineage," and about the ancient war that led to his "master's" slumber.
He grabbed his head with both hands and let out a faint groan of pain, slumping over his desk.
"Lin? Are you okay?"
He heard Su Ling's concerned voice from the adjacent cubicle. She must have heard his groan.
He raised his head with difficulty and saw her standing at the entrance to his cubicle, looking at him with worry.
"Your face is completely pale! Is it another migraine?"
Yuan Lin couldn't speak.
All he could do was nod weakly and force a faint, painful smile onto his lips.
"You should take a break," she said gently, then returned to her desk, leaving him with his silent torment.
When she was gone, Yuan Lin leaned on his desk, panting.
His head was still pounding violently, but the flood of information was beginning to subside, settling into its proper place, like files being organized in a new archive in his brain.
It was over.
He still felt dizzy, but now... he understood.
He understood that [Qi Condensation] was just the first step on an infinite ladder of power.
He understood that his followers, Wu Tian and Xue, weren't just strong fighters. They were in the [Soul Formation Realm], a level of power thousands of times beyond him, a level where they could destroy entire cities with a single touch.
And he now understood, with terrifying clarity, the massive gap between the "Lord" he was pretending to be, and the "ant" he actually was.
He looked at his remaining balance.
[Current Balance: 1 Chaos Point.]
He was no longer just a scared man in the dark.
He had become a scared man holding a detailed map of the dark, now fully aware of the depth of the abyss into which he had fallen.
And all he had to start his journey... was a single point.