Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The air remained silent for nearly four or five minutes. The puppets that had completed their metamorphosis looked at each other, and after seeing the strange appearances and naked bodies of the others, they immediately looked down at their own bodies.

They were all completely naked.

"Who are you?!" The innermost puppet took a step back, picked up a sharp stone, and pointed it directly at the monsters in front of him.

His tone turned cold as he stared at them and asked, "What...did you do to me?"

Seeing this, the other three also retreated a little distance. They all looked around warily and secretly grabbed onto some objects at the bottom of the abyss for protection.

"I should be asking you that too, where did you put my clothes?" The doll near the outer edge sneered. "Do you know I'm the Insect Emperor?"

"……what do you?"

"..." The puppet in the middle looked hesitant. His gaze swept over the people in front of him and then fell on his own pale skin.

This is not their own body.

"Am I dreaming?" he muttered to himself.

The people inside were wary of each other and dared not move. The air was still, and they remained in a stalemate for three or four minutes.

"Buzz-"

The small cell phone, lying in the corner, rang a few times. The frequency of the phone's vibrations increased, becoming particularly prominent in this empty and silent abyss.

The people who had been locked in a stalemate all secretly turned their gazes towards the sound. The phone screen had been shattered, and the text on the screen was illegible, simply condensing into data in the air.

A glowing square panel appeared directly above the phone, and the data on it pulsed and merged, slowly forming line after line of text.

To our dear hosts:

A child's voice, disguised as someone trying to survive, slowly drifted out from the panel.

The dolls: "..."

By the time you read this letter, I will have already left. I regret that I will not be able to see you one last time.

The situation is dire, and I wouldn't have resorted to such extreme measures unless absolutely necessary. After all, even transporting you to my world would be far too difficult for you.

The dolls: "..."

The mechanical voice on the panel was still speaking slowly.

My investigation reveals that numerous small worlds in the universe are facing the risk of rapid collapse. Before long, your world will also be affected.

This world is the world I first came into, and it's also the first world to be destroyed. I invited you here hoping you would help Zhou Yanshu protect it, or at least prevent it from being taken over by other systems.

[By the way, Zhou Yanshu is my Omega. In other words, he's my wife, my queen, my empress, my darling... Go and seek refuge with him, and he will definitely protect you.]

Of course, you should also remember to protect him.

He's in poor health; he's only recently been able to walk with difficulty, and he's also very clingy. Sigh... he really can't be without me, and given his tendency to be suicidal, what will happen to him after I'm gone? ...

The dolls: "..."

"When is he going to finish this?" The puppet in the middle slightly raised his chin, his gaze sweeping over the panel above that was still playing mechanical voices incessantly. He was utterly speechless. "Can't we play it at double speed? All this nonsense."

"Heh..." another doll sneered, "Surviving by clinging to life is a clever scheme, it's really a trap."

"You guys were also bound to the Gou System? How could he do this? I never expected it."

"Waaah... My throne, my palace, my soft bed... How could he do this to me? I am the Insect King, waaah!"

"Want some paper?"

"No need, I can wipe it myself with my hand. I've always been independent like this. Thank you."

"..."

The people below said a few words, and the mechanical voice playing from the panel above gradually came to an end.

In short, you're on your own for the next while. Whatever you do, don't try to fight the other systems head-on. Remember, survival is the best policy!

Alright, my time is almost up, so I can't say much more. Remember to go find Zhou Yanshu; he's the current Mermaid King, he's easy to find... Goodbye.

[A petty, cowardly lingering.]

After the mechanical sound ended, the panel above quickly disappeared into the air. The crackling electrical noises ceased, and the surroundings returned to their previous calm.

One of them stepped forward and picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground. The screen was completely shattered, but the phone still had a little power.

"Shall we...introduce ourselves first?"

*

When Yu Zhuo opened his eyes again, he saw an endless, thick darkness. He instinctively reached out his palm, only to touch the rough, sandy ground below.

His head throbbed with a dull ache, and he didn't know how much time had passed. The darkness before his eyes dissipated, and color slowly reappeared.

This is a dead planet. Or rather, it is a planet where no life exists.

Yu Zhuo stood there, looking up at the gray sky. There was no sun, moon, or clouds. A cold wind howled, making his face and ears ache.

Yu Zhuo paused for a moment, then looked down and saw that he was sitting on a dried-up river. The water had long since evaporated, leaving only traces of the water eroding the rocks and large patches of dry, hard sand.

Yu Zhuo was somewhat stunned. He stood up and looked around.

Not far from him lay a human skeleton.

This planet has been extinct for at least tens of thousands of years. All the creatures on it have died, and their bodies have turned into dust, becoming tiny particles in the air.

Even if bones remain, after the passage of time, they will only be scattered fragments.

However, the skeleton closest to Yu Zhuo was extremely well preserved. All the bones in his body were still there, neatly arranged, and even the feather-shaped ornaments on his head and ears remained in their original positions.

Yu Zhuo could vaguely see the dense cracks on the bones. He paused for a moment and continued walking towards the skeleton.

The closer he got to the corpse, the wider his field of vision became. When Yu Zhuo walked to the side of the corpse and saw the situation, he couldn't help but pause.

He had assumed that what was placed there was a human skeleton, but that was not the case.

The skull and upper body skeleton of the corpse did indeed resemble that of an ordinary human, but when Yu Zhuo got closer, he saw that the lower body of the corpse had a winding tailbone that was more than ten meters long.

It was covered with cracks, the tailbone was struggling and drooping, and at the very bottom there were several foot bone patterns that were twisted to the point of being deformed.

Yu Zhuo saw a scale-like object placed beneath the skeleton; it was entirely black with tiny points of light shimmering on it.

Yu Zhuo instinctively felt a sense of familiarity, as if he were being echoed. He stared at the object and quickly realized that it was a dragon scale.

These are not human remains; they are the remains of a dragon from this destroyed world.