"Wh—wh... where is this?"
Cyrene suspended in the boundless void. She crossed her arms somewhat warily, her fingers instinctively clutching the thin gauze coat on her shoulders.
Those radiant galaxies, rotating nebulae, and the silent outlines of distant star systems formed a cosmic tableau.
Dead silence ruled this place. She could perceive no wind here, nor any change in temperature—only a soul-piercing, icy stillness. This stillness was so vast it made one's heart palpitate.
[This is the entity data space.]
At that moment, a cold, mechanical female voice rang out abruptly, without the slightest fluctuation.
[You may view it as a secret space unreachable through conventional means, an information cocoon existing within the cracks of reality.]
Hearing this voice, Cyrene gave a violent start, her body snapping around in the void.
"Who? Who's speaking?" she hurriedly inquired.
Her voice carried alarm and suspicion as her gaze searched the starry sky urgently.
However, the voice seemed to be everywhere; no matter which direction Cyrene turned, the sound did not change in the slightest.
[I am your auxiliary tool, intended to assist you in lighting the final spark of hope for this future destined for ruin.]
The voice paused, and a few subtle "ticks" sounded internally.
[In terms you can more easily understand...] The cold texture intensified again, [I am your system.]
Hearing this, Cyrene felt dazed for a moment before saying skeptically:
"System? Lighting the final spark of hope for this future destined for ruin? Can you explain in detail?"
[I can, but oral explanation is less effective than seeing it with your own eyes. Therefore, please witness it yourself.]
As the words fell, the profound starry sky was suddenly torn asunder.
A ghastly white glare poured down like a flood, instantly swallowing Cyrene's vision.
Cyrene instinctively raised her arm to shield her face. Her eyes stung slightly from the intense light, and a few tears secreted uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.
Before the light had even dissipated, waves of clamor struck her eardrums first.
It was the roar of engines, the clashing of metal, and... the death screams of humans.
Cyrene lowered her arm. The scene before her made her breath hitch, and her heart slammed against her chest.
The smooth asphalt road looked as if it had been overturned by a giant plow, with broken rebar exposed.
A car that had been snapped in half lay overturned not far away, its body twisted and deformed. Billowing thick smoke rose from under the hood, and the pungent smell of burning filled the air.
And even stronger was a nauseating, metallic scent of rust and blood.
Right in front of her, in the center of the street, a massive, twisted, and malicious shadow stood tall!
The monster was over three meters high, its body covered in shimmering, writhing dark red muscle fibers. Thick, deformed bone spurs pierced through its skin like inverted brambles, glinting with a cold light.
Its sturdy lower limbs supported its frame. On one giant claw, a viscous liquid was slowly dripping from the tips.
"Quick! Crossfire on the left flank! Don't let it near the second line of defense! Hold steady—!"
Before Cyrene could recover from the shock brought by the monster, a heart-wrenching roar erupted behind her like a clap of thunder.
Seeing this, she spun around violently.
About a dozen meters behind her, several scarred armored vehicles were blocked haphazardly in the middle of the road, barely forming a barrier.
A dozen or so soldiers with blood-stained faces were making a final stand, relying on the vehicle bodies and ruins.
Veins bulged on their temples, their faces a mix of dust and terror, but the arms holding their assault rifles were locked tight. The dark muzzles were all pointed in Cyrene's direction.
No, they were pointed at the monster behind Cyrene.
"Military? A modern military?" Just as this thought flashed through Cyrene's mind, her body reacted quickly.
A chill rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. Those trembling muzzles and the near-collapsing terror in the soldiers' eyes were like icy needles pricking her nerves.
"Roar—!!!"
A foul-smelling gale swirled up from the ground.
A terrifying roar, loud enough to shatter glass, carried a suffocating pressure of bloodlust as it charged violently from behind her!
Hearing the roar, Cyrene turned her head in terror, her pupils beginning to contract slightly due to extreme fear.
In her vision, that dark red, terrifying giant shadow was turning into a fired cannonball. At a speed completely disproportionate to its body, it tore through the air and lunged toward her!
That giant maw filled with rows of sharp teeth enlarged rapidly in her pupils! It was so close... she could even clearly see the dark red chunks of meat, mixed with fabric scraps, hanging between the teeth!
Too fast! There was no way to dodge!
"I can't get away!!" Cyrene's mind went blank.
Her body was as stiff as if it were filled with lead; she couldn't even move a finger.
At this moment, she could only close her eyes in despair, crossing her arms tightly to protect her head, every muscle in her body tensed to the limit.
Whoosh—!!!
Accompanied by a violent gust of wind pressure, the monster—carrying a thick scent of blood and rot—passed through her body without any hindrance, as if it had moved through a hollow phantom!
The expected impact did not happen.
The expected agonizing pain did not arrive.
There wasn't even a sensation of a collision!
There was only the nauseating wind and the icy feeling of the sound passing through her body.
Immediately following, behind her, a scalp-numbing density of gunfire, mixed with the desperate roars of soldiers, suddenly exploded!
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!
Cyrene snapped her eyes open, tears still clinging to her lashes.
She lowered her arms, her heart pounding with lingering fear.
Then, the scene before her eyes sent her into total shock and bewilderment.
She looked in disbelief as that massive, horrific monster, like an entity-less phantom, passed its bulky frame through the spot where she had just been standing without any resistance. It hadn't even managed to disturb the strands of her hair floating in the air before charging straight into the defensive line constructed by the soldiers with their own flesh and blood!
"Fire! Focus fire on its head! The eyes!"
At this time, a middle-aged military officer with two bars and one star on his shoulder straps—his face covered in blood—was screaming with all his might. The assault rifle in his hands spat out angry and desperate tongues of flame.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!
Countless burning metal warheads poured onto the monster's head and torso like a rainstorm. Dense sparks splashed wildly against its dark red cuticle skin!
But this all-out attack was meaningless!
The bullets that should have easily torn through a human body simply deformed and shattered the moment they touched the monster's skin, before being ruthlessly bounced away. They couldn't even leave a single white mark on that keratin layer!
Even the strafing from the heavy machine gun atop the armored vehicle only caused a slight indentation and writhing in the monster's bulging muscle groups, which vanished in an instant.
But these ineffective attacks completely enraged this creature from hell!
It suddenly raised that giant claw dripping with slime and swept it horizontally with a whistle that tore through the air!
Bang! Crack—!
Two dull thuds of breaking bones exploded almost simultaneously! The two soldiers at the front, who were firing while leaning against the vehicles, didn't even have time to let out a short scream before their entire upper bodies twisted and deformed, flying through the air!
They slammed heavily against the walls of the ruins behind them and slid down, dragging two striking crimson streaks across the wall and the ground.
Immediately after, as if it felt that wasn't enough, the monster stepped forward violently with its massive frame, sending gravel flying. Its other giant claw rose high and slammed down hard on the twisted hood of an armored vehicle!
Clang—Creeeeak—!!!
The thunderous boom of twisting and snapping metal erupted! The multi-ton armored vehicle was as fragile as a child's toy in the face of this absolute strength! The entire vehicle body was forced upward, flipping and crashing to the side! It instantly crushed several soldiers behind it who had no time to dodge beneath the heavy steel wreckage!
Dark red blood gushed from the gaps beneath the vehicle like a fountain, rapidly spreading across the ground.
A slaughter.
This was a one-sided slaughter!
Cyrene stood frozen in place.
She watched these tragedies unfold just inches away; she watched those vivid lives be easily crushed; she watched that middle-aged military officer, who had been shouting orders, be stepped on by the monster at will. A clear sound of bone-cracking followed as the officer's entire chest cavity collapsed... Her nails had long since dug deep into her palms, and her body shook violently and uncontrollably.
"How could... this happen..." She wanted to scream, to stop it... but her throat felt as if it were tightly blocked. No matter how much strength she used, she couldn't make a sound. Only silent wails crashed within her chest, bringing a tearing pain.
It wasn't until the blood-soaked monster, seemingly bored with the weak resistance of the ants beneath its feet, let out an earth-shaking roar and took heavy strides to chase after the survivors fleeing in panic... that Cyrene felt as if she had broken free from the suffocation of drowning. She took a violent breath of foul air mixed with blood and gunpowder, causing a sting in her lungs.
"Cough... cough cough..." She coughed violently.
Her gaze involuntarily drifted toward the center of the messy battlefield, toward the figure that had been trampled and was now lying among the rubble.
That middle-aged military officer.
Immediately, Cyrene practically stumbled and staggered as she rushed in that direction.
The man was currently lying on the edge of a messy pool of blood, his tactical vest torn apart.
The massive wound on his abdomen was shocking to behold, with broken internal organs faintly visible. Dark red blood was gushing out, staining the gravel beneath him. His face was a deathly gray, his eyes unfocused, just blankly staring up at the sky stained brown by smoke, his lips slightly parting and closing.
"Hang in there! Don't sleep! Look at me!" Cyrene knelt down immediately upon reaching his side, her voice trembling and distorted. "The monster is gone! Hang in there! I'll... I'll call an ambulance right away!"
Then, she frantically reached into the pocket of her dress, her fingertips searching urgently, but she found nothing.
Empty!
Cyrene's heart sank. She suddenly remembered that she had left her phone on the bed and didn't have it on her.
Thinking of this, she grit her teeth, a trace of bloodiness spreading in her mouth. She looked up sharply at the dying military officer on the ground and said at a very high speed:
"I forgot my phone. Where is your phone?! Tell me! Which pocket? Tell me, quickly!"
However, the military officer on the ground gave no response.
Those gray, defeated eyes continued to "stare" straight at the sky, the edges of the pupils already beginning to dilate and enlarge.
"Damn it! Damn it!!" Cyrene shouted in a low, anxious voice.
Seeing that the middle-aged military officer gave no reaction, she couldn't care about anything else anymore.
She thrust out her right hand with a tremor, reaching toward the military officer's blood-soaked coat pocket.
However, in the next second—
Her pupils trembled violently!
Her hand... passed through the military officer's body without any resistance!
She felt no texture of fabric.
She felt no trace of body temperature.
She didn't even feel the touch of that viscous blood!
The military officer before her was like a realistic holographic projection; although he looked very real, in reality, he didn't possess any physical entity.
Time seemed to freeze.
Cyrene stood frozen on the spot, maintaining that reaching posture, her mind a total blank.
She wouldn't give up! A massive sense of absurdity and unwillingness drove her. She thrust her hand out again, this time pressing directly toward the gruesome, bleeding wound on the military officer's abdomen.
She tried to use her hands to block that life that was slipping away.
However, the result was no different.
Her hands once again passed through the bloody wound without resistance, as if moving through a layer of air. Her palms pressed firmly against the rough asphalt road surface.
At that moment, a massive sense of absurdity and pervasive despair, like a deep, cold tide, completely submerged her!
She slowly raised her hands to her eyes.
Fair, clean, slender—not stained with a single drop of blood, without a trace of filth. They were as perfect as a work of art, forming the cruelest contrast with the shocking scarlet hell beneath her.
Even though this hellish scene was right before her eyes, and the pungent scent of death was so thick it was suffocating... she was like a ghost completely abandoned by the entire world.
"Why... can't I touch it... why..." Cyrene knelt in that pool of blood, looking lost. She stared at the middle-aged military officer who had now completely lost all signs of life, murmuring in a daze.
In the midst of this extreme confusion and helplessness, that familiar cold mechanical voice rang out once again in the depths of her empty consciousness:
[Regrettably.]
[This is a virtual image constructed from high-dimensional information flows, a cruel deduction of a future that does not exist for you.]
[Here, you are an observer, a recorder, and also... a ghost. You cannot interfere with the established causality of this place. The creatures and creations herein also cannot perceive your existence. What you see is the reality that is about to arrive.]