Chapter 426 362: Dragon of Consciousness and Heart! Stepping into the Third Realm

A dragon's head, so enormous it was beyond imagination, emerged from within. Its eyes were icy cold, devoid of any emotional fluctuation—

It was a Western-style Giant Dragon. Its claws, which battered the rift, and its exposed, scale-covered torso held faint traces of a lizard. The impression it gave was utterly different from that of an Eastern Divine Dragon—intensely oppressive. Through the crack in the sky, one could vaguely see its massive, bat-like wings stirring.

Then, It opened its mouth.

A world-ending torrent descended from the heavens!

Chu Bamboo's pupils contracted. His body tensed instinctively, but he didn't try to dodge. For one, knowing the true nature of this world, he figured this was probably one of Z's bizarre schemes. For another, if this was real, there was clearly no dodging it anyway!

In that instant, the world turned blood-red.

"...Huh?" Chu Bamboo stared at his body in disbelief. A faint layer of golden light shielded him, resisting the apocalyptic torrent of fire from the heavens. But... the faint golden light was clearly protecting only him.

The red light that had nearly blotted out his vision gradually faded. When Chu Bamboo focused his eyes, he fell silent...

The incredibly prosperous city on the summit was gone!

Absolutely everything—all those things both strange and familiar—had vanished.

Zhou Ze, the surrounding buildings, even the languid pedestrians—all of it had vanished... 'Or rather, they're dead? Not even a corpse is left...'

"...Z! What the hell are you doing?" Chu Bamboo pulled out his phone, his expression blank. His first reaction was, naturally, that Z had concocted a virtual illusion. After all, this world was ultimately illusory, so it wasn't unimaginable for something like this to happen. 'Like some grand VR movie?'

"Even if you want me to experience despair, having Zhou Ze die right in front of me, making me watch as a once peaceful and tranquil world is destroyed just to give me an opportunity for a breakthrough... but!" Chu Bamboo sighed. 'Isn't this a little too contrived? How am I supposed to get immersed in this?'

Then...

A terrifying dragon's roar echoed from the heavens.

An unimaginable mental power permeated the air. The rifts in the void widened further, and one terrifying Western Giant Dragon after another forced its way through. Although they were countless times smaller than the first one, that was only relatively speaking. Giant Dragons over ten meters long were everywhere, almost blotting out the sky. It even gave Chu Bamboo the illusion of seeing a fleet of drone carriers, like he had before in the Dream World.

The war had begun!

Mechs sped in from the distance and began to clash with the Giant Dragons. However, they were no match at all and were torn apart one by one...

They were routed at every turn!

"Alright, you win!" Speechless, Chu Bamboo silently took out his phone and dialed a number. No one answered.

His brows furrowed. Chu Bamboo tried a few more numbers, but they all went unanswered.

"...If you don't want me to get angry, then change everything back!" Chu Bamboo said softly. The numbers he was calling belonged to Li Kang and the others, of course.

He waited silently for five seconds. It wasn't until a Giant Dragon in the sky seemed to notice him and charged in his direction that Chu Bamboo's brow twitched. He had a faint, ominous feeling. With a blank expression, he pressed his hand to his temple.

"...Wake up!"

...

The next moment, Chu Bamboo opened his eyes, and his expression changed drastically. Through the glass, he saw the azure sky. '???'

'What happened? Wasn't I in an underground base? How can I possibly be seeing the sky?!'

Turning his head with difficulty, Chu Bamboo saw the base—or rather, its ruins. The upper level had been torn open and flipped over. Countless machines were spewing sparks...

One after another, the "Frozen Coffins" were now either overturned or destroyed amidst the explosions, the bodies housed within spilling out.

Lizard-like creatures were tearing at these slumbering "corpses."

'Setting aside how the underground base was unearthed... where did these lizards come from? Is this still a dream?'

Chu Bamboo thought calmly. 'But why... can't I return to reality just by wanting to? Shouldn't that be enough to prove I've escaped the Dream World's Virtual World?'

'So... this isn't some panoramic VR experience created by Z? It's all real?'

'Calm down! Calm down!'

'Thinking it over, there are still a lot of things that don't add up... For example, why didn't anything like this happen in the last timeline?'

'I logged out after lunch in the last timeline... This time, even though I waited for Zhou Ze for a bit, I was only an hour later at most! At this same time in the last timeline, I was still in the base, still waiting for Lin Xin Bamboo to arrive!'

'This... Z's plan... should I call it crude, or...'

A lizard's sharp claw suddenly slammed against the glass of Chu Bamboo's life support pod, but it didn't budge in the slightest...

It slammed its claws against it again and again. Finally, growing impatient, it went to find other, easier "food" that had already been "opened."

One after another, a few lizards came over, and they all tried their luck!

Finally, a slightly smaller, pink-skinned lizard made a tentative attempt. Perhaps thanks to the efforts of the others... this time, it suddenly pierced through the glass pod. Chu Bamboo turned his head to the side—the claw had nearly struck his head.