A secondary explosion shook the floating temple's stone pillars, raining dust and blue crystal shards onto the cave floor. Thick black smoke billowed from the inner corridor, mixing with the sound of energy weapon fire and the screams of panicking resistance members.

"Damn it!" Valeri growled, unsheathing her dimensional dagger with a swift motion. She cast a look of intense urgency at Davin. "Stay behind me. Our base has truly been infiltrated."

Without wasting a single second, Valeri sprinted straight into the temple cave, followed closely by Davin, who locked into a ready combat stance, relying on his battle instincts amid the smoke-choked narrow corridor.

The interior of the hideout had transformed into a mini battlefield. Digital projection consoles lay shattered to pieces, optical cables burned, and several resistance members slumped across the floor from plasma fire exposure.

At the end of the main corridor, a sturdy man with a torn explorer's coat stood holding a brightly glowing crystal energy container—the Core Protective Crystal, the primary power source keeping this temple island stable in the air.

The man was Orson, a senior member of the wanderer group who had joined them for years.

"Orson! What are you doing?!" Valeri barked, halting in the middle of the corridor, staring sharply at the man with her dagger drawn. "Put that crystal core down! Do you want to destroy us all?!"

Orson turned slowly. His face looked pale, drenched in cold sweat, yet his eyes flashed with a mad desperation. He clutched the crystal container tightly to his chest.

"Destroy us all?" Orson repeated with a cynical laugh, his voice raspy and bitter. "Valeri, we've been trapped in this simulation hell for over a decade! We don't eat, we don't age for real, and we just keep running from one fake world to another! I'm exhausted!"

"So that's why you sold out this base?!" Valeri shouted, her voice shaking with profound anger and disappointment. "You betrayed the people who considered you family?!"

"They aren't family! They're just broken programs refusing to wake up!" Orson shrieked hysterically, gesturing toward the surrounding wreckage. "But The Overseers promised me... they said if I hand over the holder of The Ledger and this crystal core, they'll wipe my data from the simulation and send my consciousness back to the original earth!"

Before Valeri could retort, the corridor ceiling above Orson suddenly tore open in a blinding blue light.

Crack... Zzzt!

The cave stone walls melted instantly, yawning wide to reveal the vast open sky outside. From within the rift of light, two towering figures with glass-mask faces glided down silently.

They were The Overseers—local dimensional wardens tasked with maintaining the stability of the Aethelgard simulation. Their bodies stood tall, wrapped in transparent cloaks reflecting binary data, and their faces took the form of flat, expressionless glass masks emitting red scanning beams.

"Efficient betrayal, Subject Orson," a dual-layered cold voice emerged from the Overseers' glass masks, echoing across the room. "Your reward will be processed once the target is secured."

Orson nodded rapidly, then deftly tossed the crystal core container into the hand of one Overseer. Afterward, he pointed toward Davin. "That's him! The book holder! Take him!"

"Orson, you cowardly bastard...!" Valeri growled, lunging forward to slash the man.

Yet Valeri's movement was instantly cut off by a flash of red energy fired from the Overseer's glass mask. Valeri was forced to leap backward to avoid the laser strike melting the stone floor beside her.

Davin did not stand idly by. He attempted to activate the Echo ability to manipulate the gravitational structure around the Overseer, but before his hand touched the floor, the air around him suddenly condensed into a transparent energy cage locking his body instantly.

"Argh...!" Davin struggled, feeling electric shocks pierce his coat. The hourglass symbol on the back of his hand flickered in panic.

"Primary target locked. Initiating forced extraction," the lead Overseer stated emotionlessly.

Without granting Davin or Valeri a chance to fight back, the Overseer grabbed Davin’s coat collar with a massive hand made of data energy, then soared through the open cave roof out into the open sky. Orson trailed behind them, smiling triumphantly, believing his dream of returning home was about to come true.

"Davin!" Valeri screamed hysterically, running in pursuit right up to the edge of the collapsed cave cliff.

Yet her efforts proved futile. The Overseers moved lightning-fast, carrying Davin across the sea of golden clouds toward a giant open platform floating freely at an altitude of thousands of meters above the temple islands.

A high-pressure gale welcomed Davin’s face the moment he was roughly dumped onto the open floor of that platform.

Thud!

Davin sprawled across the white marble of the platform surrounded by the infinite void of the sky. Before him, the glass-masked Overseer loomed tall, projecting a blinding red scanning beam. Beside it stood Orson, breathing heavily, holding out his hand to claim his promised homecoming.

"I've handed over the target! Where's my way home?!" Orson demanded of the Overseer impatiently.

The Overseer lowered its glass-masked head slowly toward Orson. A cold, flat mechanical voice emerged from behind the mask:

"Promise kept. Subject data deletion begins now."

Before Orson could grasp the meaning of those words, the Overseer's hand struck forward swiftly, piercing the man's chest in a flash of red laser light.

Orson's eyes widened in shock. He looked down, staring at the smoking hole in his chest, then gazed at the Overseer in disbelief before his body went limp and collapsed onto the marble floor, dying instantly without ever experiencing the freedom he had dreamed of.

Davin stared in horror at the scene unfolding before him, realizing the utter cruelty of this simulation manipulation system.

The Overseer slowly pivoted its glass mask radiating blood-red light, staring straight at Davin, who remained bound within the energy cage atop the open-air platform thousands of meters in the sky.