The simulation labeled "Origin: Jin Mu" pulsed like a heartbeat.
Jin Mu stood before it, the glyph from the Beast God inheritance glowing faintly in his palm. The Void Engine had generated it without authorization. That meant one thing:
It wasn't a test.
It was a message.
He entered.
The simulation was a battlefield — scorched earth, shattered stars, and broken avatars. But it wasn't a memory. It was a possibility. A future that hadn't happened yet.
At the center stood a figure.
Jin Mu.
But older.
Tired.
Fractured.
The simulation flared, and the older Jin Mu turned. His eyes were dim. His aura flickered. He carried the Sigil — but it was cracked.
"You came," he said.
Jin Mu stepped forward. "What is this?"
"A warning," the older version replied. "From the end."
Jin Mu scanned the environment. The battlefield was littered with fragments of failed timelines — Echo Protocols, corrupted simulations, broken glyphs. And at the center, a monument.
To Luo Feng.
But it was shattered.
"He failed?" Jin Mu asked.
The older version nodded. "Because I tried to replace him."
Jin Mu staggered back.
"I thought I could do better," the older version said. "I thought I could rewrite the story. But the Void Engine doesn't allow that. It punishes ambition. It erases deviation."
Jin Mu clenched his fists. "Then why show me this?"
"Because you're close," the older version said. "Too close. You've anchored yourself. You've gained trust. You've shaped the story."
Jin Mu frowned. "Isn't that the point?"
The older version shook his head. "No. The point is to protect. Not to lead."
The simulation trembled.
The battlefield cracked.
The older version began to fade.
"Remember this," he said. "The moment you try to become the hero… is the moment the story dies."
Jin Mu reached for him.
But the simulation collapsed.
He landed in the Virtual Universe's outer shell, gasping. The glyph pulsed erratically. The Void Engine was silent.
But the message was clear.
He was walking a razor's edge.
Back in the training chamber, Luo Feng was preparing for his next trial. Babata had upgraded his neural core again, and the boy's aura was blazing.
Jin Mu watched from the shadows.
The Architect appeared beside him.
"You saw it," she said.
He nodded.
"I saw what I could become."
She studied him.
"And what will you do?"
Jin Mu looked at Luo Feng.
"I'll walk beside him," he said. "Not ahead."
The Architect smiled.
Then — a tremor.
A new simulation activated.
Not from the Void Engine.
Not from the Order.
From outside.
It was labeled:
"Echo Protocol: External Entity Detected."
Jin Mu froze.
Someone else had entered the story.
And they weren't part of the system.