The pilot stared woodenly at the helicopter ahead.

He hadn't heard about any newcomers being sent over, and besides, that helicopter didn’t look like it belonged to their team.

"Passage ahead is forbidden!"

The mechanical voice kept repeating itself.

"Sister Yezi, should we head back?" Fu Shiyi spread his hands helplessly.

He hadn’t expected that even at a time like this, someone would still be watching the black hole.

"We're not turning back."

"Take us in a little closer. I want a better look."

A moment ago, from afar, she’d caught a hazy glimpse again—those writhing tendrils.

"Er... okay."

Fu Shiyi answered meekly.

The next second, the helicopter surged forward at full speed, plunging straight into the safety zone.

Just as Ye Shu had predicted, those people didn’t dare chase after them.

"That’s it. Little Shiyi, stop here."

Ye Shu opened the helicopter’s door, facing the black hole head-on.

They weren’t far—in fact, the black hole was just beneath their feet.

Facing it directly was far more shocking than any video stream in the broadcast room.

Bottomless and pitch black, the hole had devoured a thousand-meter-high mountain in mere minutes, not even causing the faintest ripple.

None of the communication devices within a hundred miles would work at all...

Ye Shu simply launched the livestream.

The feed was broadcasted directly to every area in the instance.

[Welcome, Sexy Mother Cockroach in Black Stockings!]

[Welcome, Visitor123!]

[Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms: What’s going on here? Someone’s actually near the black hole!!]

[Spicy Duck Neck: That’s fearless! Aren’t you afraid it’ll suck you in? Big players are something else—while the rest of us are running away, she has the guts to get closer.]

[Reborn, Making Eight Cents a Day on Tomato: Is this the black hole? It doesn’t look quite like ours… Looks bigger—hey, was something moving at the mouth just now? Was that an illusion?]

The light screen was undisturbed.

As the person on the scene, Ye Shu aimed the camera straight at the black hole.

"I’m your daddy—hey everyone!"

"Not much time, so I’ll be blunt: the black hole in District D, number 18, with a diameter of 124 kilometers, swallowed 201 cities, had over a hundred nukes thrown at it—and that only sped up its growth..."

[Holding a Baby Bottle: Is that any way to talk? Who do you think you are?]

[Fortune From All Directions: Wait, maybe that isn’t an insult.]

[Sister Fang’s Seafood Wholesale AAA: You just noticed? It’s Daddy’s first on-camera appearance at the top of the leaderboard, though no face, sadly.]

[Happiness Knocks: Is that the point? Did you hear how bad District D’s losses are? It’s several times scarier than what we’ve faced!]

"Today I’m bringing you a close-up view of the black hole."

"Watch carefully—you’ll only get this one chance."

Ye Shu tossed a few enhanced flash grenades inside.

For a moment, as the grenades exploded, the black hole was illuminated.

Its gaping mouth was ringed with thick, ropelike vines—no, not vines—tendrils, each as thick as a human thigh, snaking and curling along the walls.

[War God of Pure Hatred 188: Holy crap, am I seeing things? Is there something in there?]

[Debunking Superstition: You’re not wrong, I saw it too.]

[Stir-Fried Squid Shreds: So disgustingly creepy. I thought this was just a black hole—a physical threat. But it looks like something magical. If that thing is alive…]

[Monkey Mountain, My Butt Is The Reddest: Sss-hah sss-hah~ Am I the only one noticing the boss is a girl?]

Ye Shu's gaze stayed fixed on the black hole.

She had tossed in some exorcism talismans as well, but for a behemoth like this, they made not a lick of difference.

"Sister Ye, this helicopter can’t last more than a minute at most. If we don’t leave, we’re done for." Fu Shiyi, always the calm one, sounded anxious for once.

He hadn’t even finished speaking before the helicopter began to violently shake.

At the same time, the space surrounding the black hole’s mouth distorted even further.

Ye Shu shut down the light screen. The instant she did, Fu Shiyi caught on and pulled the helicopter straight up.

From entry to departure, every move of the helicopter was under remote surveillance.

Ahead was the zone of Black Hole 18—no soldiers would venture near. After all, just a few days earlier, several aircraft had crashed after being dragged in from what should have been a safe distance.

The soldiers reported everything up the chain.

Ye Shu, for her part, shared her photographs with the higher-ups, images showing the spiraling, rootlike tendrils winding along the black hole’s inner walls.

With everything she’d seen before, Ye Shu was certain—the black hole was alive.

Unfortunately, she was just too small to stand against it.

No—that’s not right… Perhaps there is a way, if only she could find it.

It was the thirtieth day in the game.

The black hole, like a plague of locusts, devoured everything on the planet with insatiable greed.

During this time, Ye Shu learned something else:

From the very beginning, the higher-ups had known the black hole was a living creature—so they drew up the evacuation list long ago.

Ye Shu and Fu Shiyi, because of their abilities, were lucky enough to be selected.

But the day before they were to enter the ship, the game itself restricted their freedom.

..........

"Beep beep—"

"Identity confirmed. Permission granted."

The person ahead of her stepped through the checkpoint; now it was her turn.

Ye Shu stood obediently in the long queue, with Fu Shiyi right behind.

Just as it was her turn, a familiar mechanical voice rang out beside her ear.

[Dingdong! The Survival System warns: District D’s players are not permitted to leave the planet without authorization. Noncompliance will be met with erasure!]

Ye Shu thought she had misheard.

She took another step closer to the checkpoint.

The mechanical voice boomed even louder.

[Ding! Player number 10096, severe violation detected. Awarded three seconds of electric shock.]

[Electroshock commencing in: 3, 2, 1—execute.]

"Wait, hold on—what rule did I break? Damn system, there’s nothing about this in your regulations—not letting players leave the planet?!"

Ye Shu was caught off guard by the shock. The skin beneath her clothes burnt black, and any movement drew blood.

[First warning issued.]

[Player 10096: Do not violate the rules again. Next time, you will be erased.]

The system left her with that threat, then vanished.

"Are you alright?"

The soldier manning the security gate cast a worried look at Ye Shu.

"I’m fine," she bit out through clenched teeth.

From the outside, Ye Shu looked like she’d seized up, suddenly staggering where she stood, her beautiful face twisted in pain and horror—quite an odd sight.

"Sister Ye, what happened to you?"

Fu Shiyi hadn’t even touched her when his own face changed. Clearly, he heard the same voice.

"Let’s get out of here for now."

Ye Shu always managed to find a way to survive.

But to die simply for trying to escape—that, she would never allow.

They found an excuse to slip away. No one stopped them; places aboard were so rare that letting anyone go was unthinkable.

The channel for District D was ablaze.

All the players went live with their mics.

[My Cultivation, Only the Path of No Emotion: Damn this game. I was just about to board the sleep pod, and now it says I’ll be erased if I leave!]

[First Pretty Boy of the Survival Game: Same here. I managed to sneak in with a prop I spent thirty points on, and now I have to walk out? System, how are you going to compensate me?]

[Sister Says Purple’s Got Vibes: What the hell, is District D being targeted? I asked around—other districts don’t have this problem. Did the game bug out? Don’t mess with me! I’m out of resurrection cards. Are they seriously planning to use us as black hole fodder?]

Ye Shu's expression turned grim.

She’d checked with Su Bai—all the other districts, A, B, C, F, G… everything else was running as usual. Only here…