Chapter 34 – The Watcher in the Void
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A Presence Unseen
The laughter echoed through the ruins, stretching through the broken air like distorted static. It wasn't natural. It wasn't human.
Luo Fan's fingers twitched, his instincts screaming danger.
> "Boss, I don't wanna alarm you, but that's the kind of laughter that usually means 'run while you still have legs.'"
Luo Fan didn't move. His eyes narrowed as he reached out with his senses—but there was nothing. No qi. No presence. No fluctuation in space.
And yet, the laughter persisted.
Shen Mu took a cautious step back, her expression grim. "It is aware of us."
Luo Fan exhaled slowly. "What is it?"
The spectral old man with silver eyes—the one who had spoken before—answered. "It is a remnant of something even the Reset could not erase."
Luo Fan's mind sharpened. That meant only one thing.
Something older than the System.
> "Oh great, we're dealing with eldritch leftovers. Just what we needed."
The laughter shifted. It no longer echoed from all directions.
It was behind him.
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A Glitch in Reality
Luo Fan turned slowly.
A figure stood in the ruins—a silhouette, featureless and incomplete, like a half-rendered image in a broken mirror. It flickered, shifting between different forms with each passing second.
A child.
A scholar.
A warrior.
A beast.
A shadow.
The figures overlapped, unstable, yet undeniably real.
And then, it spoke.
"You… should not be here."
The voice was layered. A thousand echoes stacked upon one another, an entire existence compressed into sound.
Luo Fan met its gaze—or at least, the suggestion of one.
"And yet, here I am," he said, voice steady.
> "Boss, I really don't think taunting the eldritch entity is the move here."
The figure twitched, like a glitch in space. "A world rewritten… but not restored. A balance tipped… but not settled. You… changed what was meant to be."
Luo Fan's breath slowed. "You're talking about the Reset."
The figure flickered, distorting violently.
"The Reset. The Cycle. The Correction. The Devourer was removed, but not ended. Now, something new is forming. Something… incomplete."
A silence stretched between them.
> "Boss. I think we just found the real problem."
Luo Fan clenched his fists. If this entity was right, then rejecting the Reset hadn't just rewritten the multiverse. It had left something unfinished.
An error in the very foundation of reality.
And that error… was staring right at him.
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The Choice Before Him
Luo Fan steadied his breath.
"Are you here to kill me?" he asked bluntly.
The figure twitched. Then—laughter.
Not the distorted laughter from before. This time, it was deliberate. Almost amused.
"No. I am here… to warn you."
Luo Fan's eyes narrowed. "Warn me about what?"
The figure glitched, its form shifting. Then, in a voice that was almost human, it whispered:
"The Devourer… is still watching."
Silence.
A chill ran down Luo Fan's spine.
> "…Okay. That's officially the worst news we've ever gotten."
Luo Fan's fingers twitched. He had absorbed the Devourer's power. He had rewritten the System. He had erased Shen Li's control over the Reset.
And yet—
"It is not gone," the figure continued. "It is simply… waiting."
Luo Fan's expression darkened.
Then, for the first time since the Reset, he felt something deep in his soul.
A pulse.
Faint. Distant.
But undeniably there.
Something inside him—something Devourer-like—had stirred.
And it was waiting for him to notice.
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The Path Forward
Luo Fan exhaled slowly.
He didn't know what this entity was. He didn't know why it had warned him instead of attacking.
But he did know one thing.
He had unfinished business.
The Forgotten Ones were watching him, waiting for his next move.
Shen Mu stepped forward. "What do we do now?"
Luo Fan closed his eyes.
> "…Well, Boss?"
He opened them again. Determination burned in his gaze.
"We find out what's really going on."
And then—we end it for good.
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[Chapter End.]