The simulation labeled "Echo Protocol: External Entity Detected" pulsed with a rhythm unlike anything Jin Mu had felt before.
It wasn't entropy.
It wasn't causality.
It was… observation.
Jin Mu stood at the edge of the grid, the glyph from the Beast God inheritance glowing faintly in his palm. The Void Engine had flagged the anomaly but refused to classify it. That meant it wasn't part of the system.
He entered.
The simulation was a void — no stars, no gravity, no time. Just silence.
Then — a flicker.
A figure appeared.
Not cloaked. Not shifting.
Still.
It wore no armor. No robes. No glyphs.
Just a gaze.
Eyes like black suns.
"You're not supposed to be here," Jin Mu said.
The figure didn't respond.
Jin Mu summoned the Sigil. The void resisted. Reality bent. The glyph flared.
Still — no reaction.
Then — a voice.
Not spoken.
Transmitted.
"You are being watched."
Jin Mu froze.
"By who?"
"By what came before."
The simulation trembled.
Fragments of memory floated around him — not his, not Luo Feng's, not the Architect's. Older. Deeper. From a time before the Virtual Universe. Before the Void Engine.
He saw visions — civilizations rising and falling, stars being born and devoured, stories written and erased. And at the center of it all, a presence.
The Watcher.
Not a god.
Not a system.
A witness.
Jin Mu stepped forward.
"Why now?"
The Watcher's gaze intensified.
"Because the story is becoming self-aware."
Jin Mu staggered back.
"You mean… Luo Feng?"
"No. You."
The void cracked.
The simulation collapsed.
Jin Mu landed in the Virtual Universe's outer shell, gasping. The glyph pulsed erratically. The Void Engine was silent.
But the Watcher's message remained.
He was being observed.
Not by the Order.
Not by the Void Engine.
By something older.
Back in the training chamber, Luo Feng completed his latest trial. Babata cheered. The boy's aura flared. The timeline stabilized.
Jin Mu watched from the shadows.
The Architect appeared beside him.
"You saw it," she said.
He nodded.
"It saw me."
She frowned.
"That's not supposed to happen."
Jin Mu looked at the stars.
"Maybe the story is bigger than we thought."
Then — a tremor.
A new simulation activated.
Not from the Void Engine.
Not from the Watcher.
From Jin Mu.
Automatically.
Unintentionally.
It was labeled:
"Echo Protocol: Jin Mu — Divergence Begins."
Jin Mu froze.
His presence had triggered a new branch.
And the story was no longer stable.