Morning sunlight spilled through the old lattice windows of Suibian Temple, casting mottled shadows across a slightly worn wooden dining table.
The air was filled with the gentle fragrance of rice porridge and pickled side dishes—along with the faint, elegant aroma of the tea steaming in front of Master Yixuan.
Ling, Zhe, and their master sat around a small square table, eating breakfast. The soft clink of chopsticks and bowls formed the day's quiet rhythm, weaving in and out with the occasional chirp of birds outside.
But Ling's attention wasn't on the food.
She held a spoon and absentmindedly stirred her porridge, her eyes fixed on the chat group main interface—a screen only she could see.
[Giant Daifuku (Tsunade):]So yeah. Following Orochimaru's plan, I became Hokage in a single day. Next up: remodel the Wind Country's environment and bring the Sand under control.(hands-on-hips.jpg)
[Sports Lunchbox (Ling):]That's terrifyingly badass! Tsunade-sis really is Tsunade-sis!(thumbs-up.jpg)
After sending it, Ling reread Tsunade's message—eyes full of admiration, and a sliver of envy she couldn't quite hide.
Perfectly fusing Mash's magecraft system with her own world's chakra… a cross-dimensional "cheat code" like that was exactly the kind of golden finger she'd always dreamed of.
Almost reflexively, she started imagining what her power system might look like if it could be combined with other group members' worlds…
Then she slumped a little, a quiet sigh escaping her.
Because right now, she was still stumbling through fog with a blindfold on. She hadn't even fully grasped the outline of her own power yet—how was she supposed to talk about "fusion"?
"Still looking at that chat group again?"
A calm, gentle voice broke her train of thought.
Ling jolted back to reality and met Master Yixuan's half-lidded gaze.
Yixuan sat leisurely at the head of the table. A small plate of delicate tea snacks sat before her, and she picked up a piece with two fingers and ate with effortless elegance.
"Heh-heh… yeah," Ling scratched the back of her head in embarrassment, a few stray hairs springing up mischievously. "Can't hide anything from you, Shifu."
Across from her, Zhe lightly blew the tea leaves floating on his cup, took a sip of warmth, and let out a long, satisfied breath.
"It's been a while since I've felt this relaxed."
After Xiangzi joined the group and triggered new chat functions—after Ling realized she might have drawn the attention of the Origin—she stopped hiding things. She told everything to the three people closest to her: her brother Zhe, her master Yixuan, and Hoshimi Miyabi.
Their first reactions had been exactly what you'd expect.
Zhe had suspected his little sister had gone too deep into Hollows and gotten her brain corroded by Ether, talking nonsense. Yixuan had been visibly worried, checking Ling's mental state again and again. Miyabi had simply reached out and touched Ling's forehead like she was checking for fever.
So, to prove she wasn't delusional, Ling created a New Eridu sub-group and pulled them all in.
Once they personally used Group Transfer and saw the bizarre group items with their own eyes, denial became impossible.
And what followed was… an almost unnatural looseness.
For several days—aside from Miyabi, who still kept running around training—the other three basically did nothing.
If time reversal was imminent, then everything they did now—effort or sabotage—would be burned away in the river of reset time. So why keep struggling?
Better to enjoy the calm before the storm.
Just like now: Senior Sister Fufu was out drilling disciples, while Ling's little circle lazed around with breakfast and tea.
Strangest of all, once they consciously decided to "lie flat," the entire world seemed to press a mute button in response.
New Eridu—normally a place of constant friction—fell into an eerie peace.
The Mayor's faction, the Public Security, the military… all the forces that used to clash openly and covertly suddenly stopped moving, as if by silent agreement.
No big headlines. No sudden incidents.
Just a dead quiet that felt like the air right before thunder.
And yet the expected lightning never came.
Yixuan had offered an explanation—one that sounded almost mystic—based on Ling's information:
"If the world is a videotape," she'd said, "then you, Ling, are the sole observer. When the observer grows tired and closes her eyes for a moment, the tape naturally pauses as well."
She'd looked as though she could see through the skin of reality.
Ling had blinked at the time, completely baffled.
"Uh… Shifu, that's… kind of abstract, isn't it?"
It sounded too spiritual and too convenient—yet somehow, it also felt disturbingly plausible.
Now, wrapped in this abnormal tranquility again, Ling recalled that metaphor and quietly shook her head.
Since they were talking about the chat group, Yixuan asked casually, "By the way… your group leader still hasn't found time?"
Ling glanced down at the interface and confirmed.
"The leader helped a group member recruit two key people. Took some effort. He should be resting in his own world now—by his estimate, he'll be here within the next day or two."
Speak of the devil.
The moment Ling finished, her screen flashed. A new message jumped up.
[Group Leader (Eisen):]@Sports Lunchbox. Ready? I can rewind time for you whenever you want.
[Sports Lunchbox (Ling):]Been ready forever. Just waiting for you to show up.(excited-hand-rub.jpg)
Ling accepted Eisen's transfer request without hesitation.
A heartbeat later, Eisen appeared abruptly in Suibian Temple's main hall.
He'd woken up, taken a shower with the Fire Keeper, scrubbed off the inexplicable blue-green marks on his body, and then came straight here.
"Yo!" Ling lifted a hand in a big, shameless greeting.
After days of nonstop chatting, she was already "online friends" with the group to the point of familiarity—even if meeting in person still made her slightly awkward.
Yixuan rose smoothly, wearing a warm, respectful smile. She stepped forward and clasped her hands in greeting.
"You must be the Group Leader Mr. Eisen that Ling speaks of so often. I am Yixuan, Ling's master. Thank you for the many ways you've looked after her."
Her gaze rested on Eisen for a breath, and something flickered deep in her eyes.
This man's… physiognomy… was chaos.
As though wrapped in layers of mist—rootless, traceless, impossible to read by any normal method.
Eisen dipped his head in return, courteous.
"Master Yixuan, you're too kind. Helping each other is what the group is for. Ling's very active—she's helped everyone a lot, too."
Zhe stood as well. He was steadier than his sister, and he bowed slightly.
"I'm Ling's brother, Zhe. Thank you for taking care of her."
Eisen nodded with an easy smile. "Zhe, no need to be so formal. Ling's excellent."
After the brief greetings, Eisen looked to Ling and cut straight to business.
"Alright, Ling. What do you need me to transfer?"
"It's all stacked in the back warehouse!" Ling popped up and pointed toward the rear of the temple.
Led by Yixuan, they crossed a quiet courtyard and stopped before a heavy wooden door at the back.
Yixuan formed a quick hand sign, and the door slid open without a sound.
Inside were mountains of Dennies and piles of Ether materials in all kinds of shapes.
Ling stared at the scene—practically a gold mountain—and clicked her tongue with a mix of pride and pain.
"Man… for all this money, my brother and I squeezed every relationship we had. Our faces are basically sanded off. Even Shifu went all in—used her reputation as a Void-Hunter-level powerhouse and the entire Yunqu Mountain's decades of credibility as collateral just to secure this much."
Yixuan stood off to the side, serene as ever, as though she were looking at firewood instead of wealth that could buy several streets.
"It's fine," she waved lightly. "Once time rewinds, the debts vanish—clean slate. Besides…"
A sharp glint flashed through her eyes.
"Even if there were no rewind, your master knows a thing or two about investing. With this as principal, multiplying it several times over isn't difficult."
Eisen nodded and didn't waste words.
With a thought, he began transferring through the sub-group.
The mountain of Dennies and the piles of Ether crystals vanished batch by batch—silent, absurdly fast—leaving only pressure dents on the warehouse floor where the weight had sat.
On the other end, in a massive warehouse in Eisen's world, the Fire Keeper stood quietly.
Straight-backed, silver hair flowing faintly in the dim light, her face calm and untroubled.
She acted as the transfer anchor, receiving the material stream without a single sign of strain—despite the fact she'd endured a brutal, body-breaking night not long ago.
Bound to Eisen by the Fire-link ritual, fatigue meant nothing to her. Even death couldn't separate them—weariness was something she could reset with a thought.
The transfer continued smoothly.
Eisen's gaze drifted toward a corner where several compact but intricate construction machines sat: a small drilling unit, an automated digging arm, and matching power modules.
He asked casually, "Do these machines need to come too? Once you rewind, wouldn't it be easier to just buy new ones?"
Ling's easy expression tightened a little.
"After the rewind, we want to hide deeper. We're planning to dig a large underground room beneath Random Play as a safer base. If we buy new equipment, purchase records and logistics trails could leave evidence—and someone could trace that."
She paused, a lingering fear flickering across her face.
"We've already had a huge scare once. Bringer, to capture Miyabi while she was carrying the tailless… he used a wide-area power-grid attack—indiscriminate coverage. That attack directly knocked out the HDD system and Fairy."
Her voice dropped, heavy with aftershock.
"It was way too close. Fairy's core functions were forced offline, and right then Public Security came to check in. If Zhu Yuan hadn't arrived in time—and if we hadn't gotten lucky—we would've been caught on the spot. Our identity as proxy would've been exposed completely."
Even now, the memory made her palms sweat.
Eisen listened in silence, his brows drawing tighter and tighter. When Ling finished, he pressed immediately.
"But, Ling—this doesn't actually solve the real problem."
"Even if you build a bunker underground, you still risk exposure from construction noise, soil changes, vents… there's always a chance you get found."
"And the key point is this: their goal was to cripple HDD and Fairy through the city power grid. That's a chokehold move. You can bury yourself as deep as you want—if you still rely on the public network, you can't prevent it."
Ling sighed, shoulders drooping.
"Yeah… you're right. But what can we do? Fairy's a power hog. If someone really wants to trace us—and has the authority—they can just watch for abnormal high-consumption nodes and lock onto us."
Eisen went still.
"…Then the hard part isn't hiding a base," he muttered. "It's independent energy."
A solution rose in his mind, clean and decisive—
—and he immediately started building it.
He turned, lifted his hand, and drew on the wall with effortless motion.
Ink spread like water on paper—no visible brushstrokes, no hesitation—forming a landscape that seemed to "appear" rather than be painted.
First distant mountains. Then a winding stream. Then layered forest. Finally pavilions and towers nestled by water.
When the last stroke settled, the whole scene felt alive.
Eisen waved at the three of them.
Then, under their stunned stares, he stepped forward—
and his body silently sank into the ink landscape, as though entering water.
Ling, Zhe, and Yixuan stared at one another, seeing the same disbelief in each other's eyes.
Yixuan moved first. She inhaled once—steadying herself—and followed Eisen straight into the painting.
Zhe swallowed hard, slapped his own face as if checking reality, and rushed after her.
Ling hesitated for half a second—then her curiosity detonated and she dove in too.
The moment she stepped through, the world spun—
then instantly stabilized.
When her vision cleared, all three stood frozen.
Soft grass underfoot, rich with earth and wildflower scent.
Towering green mountains ahead, wrapped in drifting cloud.
Birdsong. Running water.
Air so clean it felt like it washed the lungs.
And pavilions exactly where Eisen had painted them.
Eisen looked at their dumbfounded faces and smiled.
"Welcome to the painted world," he said, spreading his hands. "With how hard your world suppresses me, this is basically my limit—about the size of a city."
He glanced upward, thoughtful.
"Maybe… it's tied to Hollow corrosion. The worse the Hollows erode reality, the less the spatial laws can suppress me, and the more space I can pry open."
He added, "This isn't a true inner universe, though. It depends on your real world and can't take you out of it. If I carry the painting to another universe via group transfer, you'll be 'rejected' and popped back out."
Ling was the first to recover. She spun in circles like a kid, ran to the stream, scooped up cold water, and practically sparkled.
"This is perfect! We don't need to secretly dig under Random Play anymore! Even if Public Security turns the store upside down, they'll never imagine the real core is hidden inside a painting!"
Eisen smiled with her enthusiasm.
"And for the energy problem—I've got an initial idea."
He pointed toward a flatter region.
"Before the rewind, I can help you grab a large power plant from New Eridu and move the whole thing into this painted world. That gives you fully independent power—no outside grid, no chance of being cut off, and no way to cripple Fairy through the network. One-and-done."
Efficient. Brutal. Elegant.
But Yixuan, who had been quietly watching, sighed faintly.
"Mr. Eisen… that won't work."
"New Eridu doesn't have traditional power plants anymore."
Eisen blinked. "It doesn't?"
"Our electricity comes entirely from Shiyu Towers," Yixuan explained. "A Shiyu Tower draws Ether energy from Hollows, runs it through complex internal systems, converts and stabilizes it into usable electricity. The entire city's energy network originates from Hollows—not independent generators."
Eisen stared, caught off guard.
"Then… borrow a power station from another world? Like… a nuclear plant? See if it's compatible?"
This time Ling answered, her excitement fading into careful thought.
"Even if you could make a nuclear plant operate in our world, the bigger issue is that our electricity is… special."
"To power Bangboo, and to keep a high-grade AI core like Fairy running, the electricity has to carry specific Ether characteristics. Purely 'physical' electricity probably won't activate their core functions."
Eisen immediately pivoted.
"Then before we rewind, just seize a Shiyu Tower, and find a remote, unclaimed Hollow somewhere. Move the tower there and draw Ether—"
He stopped mid-sentence and shook his head hard.
"No. No, that's not it."
He grabbed at his hair, frustration visible.
"We need independent and hidden energy. Even if you move a Shiyu Tower into the painted world, it still has to draw Ether from a Hollow. A Hollow is a massive anomaly and energy source—hard to hide completely. If anyone monitors Ether flow and sees something abnormal pointing toward this painting, we're done."
"Moving a Hollow isn't possible. It's a spatial anomaly point."
"Creating a Hollow inside the painting doesn't work either. Hollows exist by consuming matter and energy—your world's conditions. It's not compatible with what I can sustain here."
"And most importantly: the painted world is your safehouse. Hollows are the Origin's fingers. You don't invite the enemy's hand into your own backline."
It was a loop.
Inside the rules of this world, independent energy was a trap with no clean exit.
Eisen refused to give up.
He closed his eyes and pushed his perception outward, past the painted world's boundary, sweeping across reality—searching for anything usable.
"There are plenty of Hollows," he muttered. "There's even a huge one on the moon. If we put a tower on the moon and draw from that…"
The thought died as soon as it formed.
He examined Shiyu Tower structure and its operating logic more carefully, and his expression soured.
"Damn it. This world's tech setting is annoyingly rigorous."
"New Eridu's Shiyu Towers are deeply bound to Hollow Zero—their core architecture, energy interfaces, stabilization modules, all of it is built to match Hollow Zero's frequency and spatial characteristics."
"If you move it, it won't connect to other Hollows. The energy frequency won't match, the spatial interface won't align. Forcing it either does nothing or detonates the system. To adapt to a different Hollow, you'd need new detectors, analyze the anomaly, redesign the tower from the ground up…"
He exhaled sharply.
"In most worlds, independent energy is a trivial problem. How is it this miserable here?"
Ling walked up, tugging his sleeve gently, guilt and gratitude mixing in her eyes.
"Eisen… it's okay. Don't wreck your brain over it. Independent energy is just too hard in our setting. We'll use the original approach—throw money at concealment. After we rewind, we'll be rich enough to afford it."
Eisen looked at her for a moment, then let out a crooked smile.
"Ling… don't say that. Now my completionist disease is fully triggered. If I don't solve this, I'm not going to sleep right."
He rubbed his face hard.
"Looks like, inside your world's framework, there's no perfect answer. But that doesn't mean other worlds can't provide one."
His eyes sharpened.
"Kafka's world is far more advanced than yours. If there's a way to generate 'Ether-compatible' power independently—or to simulate it—odds are we'll find it there."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter222)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 190
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 215
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 200
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 61
Checking In in Demon Slayer 65
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 15
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