The holographic map shaped like the anatomy of a human brain spun slowly in the center of the floating temple cave, casting a dim blue glow that illuminated the tense faces of the dimensional explorers.

Not a single person inside the room uttered a sound. A thick, chilling silence hung between the stone walls, as though the oxygen inside the cave had suddenly been sucked away by the bitter reality just revealed by Valeri.

Davin stood frozen before the stone table. His eyes stared intensely at the holographic coordinate points blinking before him—points marking where he had once bled, fought, and lost loved ones.

Oakhaven. The rotting memory vinyl record inside the illusion of a peaceful village. Neo-Veridia. The cyberpunk megacity where Lyra sacrificed her life to topple the AI tyranny. And now Aethelgard, the world without gravity where he had just set foot.

All of those... were not planets in other galaxies. Nor were they alternative universes out in the vast cosmos.

"A simulation..." Davin whispered, his voice sounding terribly raspy, as though his throat were choked by shards of glass. "You're saying... all these worlds are digital simulations?"

Valeri nodded slowly. The tough woman deactivated the brain map projection, plunging the room back into the dim, blue crystal glow along the cave walls. The expression on Valeri’s face no longer held the firmness of a resistance leader, but rather absolute despair.

"That's right," Valeri said quietly. "For years, we thought we were great cosmic explorers. We leaped from one portal to another, searching for freedom or a way back home. But the further we went, the more we realized the pattern. The broken laws of physics, the memories wiped away every time we transition, the recurring world topography... those are all classic hallmarks of computer programs running atop remnants of consciousness."

A resistance member near the campfire lowered his head, clenching his fists over his knees. "Our original earth was destroyed by an ancient cosmic disaster—an information radiation storm that shattered human civilization. Billions fell into a mass coma, trapped in an endless, dreamless sleep. And the system... The Ledger, or whatever you call it... was created to nurture, or perhaps torment, the remnants of their minds."

Davin felt a crushing blow to his chest. A severe dizziness struck his head once more, not from a physical migraine, but from the collapse of the entire reality foundation he had long believed in.

If these worlds were merely simulations inside the heads of comatose people... then who was he?

Was he a real human born of flesh and blood, or merely a programmed artificial consciousness—an NPC given the illusion of having memories, pain, and grudges by the core system?

"Then... what is the meaning of our struggle all this time?" Davin’s voice shook, staring at Valeri with sharp eyes reflecting profound agony. "If everything we did in those worlds was fake, Lyra's death in Neo-Veridia... the villagers' sacrifice in Oakhaven... were those all just lines of meaningless code?!"

Valeri stepped closer to Davin, then gently patted the man’s shoulder. Her touch felt real, warm, and trembling.

"For those of us who feel it, the pain is real, Davin," Valeri said earnestly. "Even if the foundation is code and simulation, the choices we make, the grief we suffer, and the courage to fight... those all stem from our own souls. Don't let the system strip away your humanity, even if you know this world isn't real."

Davin fell silent, digesting every word the woman spoke amid the cave’s silence.

Yet, before either of them could continue the conversation, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred.

Zzzt... Clank!

The ancient digital projection console on the stone table that had previously been dead suddenly lit up on its own with blinding light intensity. The holographic screen flickered wildly, emitting a sharp static hum, as though receiving a high-frequency signal from outside the temple cave.

"What's going on?!" shouted one resistance member in panic, drawing his weapon. "Our defense system suddenly went offline!"

Davin felt an extraordinary burning sensation on the back of his right hand. The Ledger hourglass symbol pulsed at maximum speed, radiating a golden-silver light so bright it illuminated every corner of the cave. The symbol shook violently, as though being pulled by a powerful magnetic field from the console before him.

The console was not hacking the hideout's system. The console was responding to the presence of The Ledger inside Davin’s body.

"Davin, stay away from that terminal!" Valeri shouted, drawing her dagger while stepping back.

But it was too late. Davin was pulled by an unseen force toward the console stone table. His hand lifted on its own, pressing flush against the vibrating terminal surface.

Boom!

A low-frequency data explosion echoed inside the cave. All the resistance members covered their ears in pain from the deafening noise.

Atop the stone table, the digital projector spewed millions of white light particles gathering to form a giant holographic projection. The projection was no longer a brain anatomy map or system error data, but the shape of a human face.

The face belonged to a middle-aged man with stern facial features, wearing a neat white lab coat, and a pair of sharp eyes staring straight at Davin with a cold, emotionless expression.

Davin gasped heavily. His breath hitched in his throat.

He recognized that face. He had seen it in the secret Veridian Industries tower archives in Neo-Veridia. That face belonged to the system's creator, the genius scientist who designed the cross-dimensional foundation...

It was the face of Dr. Arthur Ronan—his own biological father.

The creator's holographic projector flickered, then parted its lips. A heavy, mechanical, yet strangely familiar voice echoed, filling the entire floating temple cave:

"Welcome to the core of consciousness, my son. You've come a long way... but this game has only just begun."