The Black Dragon Fortress drifted silently in the void between dimensions.
There was no sky here.
No stars.
No passage of time.
Anchored by the Dimensional Lock, the fortress existed in a pocket of absolute stillness—a place where cause and consequence were temporarily divorced from reality. It was the closest thing Su Chen had to a personal sanctuary.
Inside the Alchemy Lab, however, life was very much active.
The space had long since stopped resembling a traditional laboratory. The Ice and Fire Well terrain had been fused directly into the floor, half the chamber glowing with blue frost while the other half radiated crimson heat. Energy currents twisted through the air, carrying a sweet, cloying scent—one so dense and toxic that an ordinary human would die within seconds of breathing it in.
Su Chen stood alone at the central workbench.
On the table before him rested a single object.
A needle.
It was impossibly thin, forged from Dragon Steel taken from the Swallowed Star world. Its surface was engraved with microscopic runes, each one carved with precision down to the molecular level. Under the lab's lights, the metal reflected a cold, predatory sheen.
Su Chen picked it up, turning it slowly between his fingers.
"Tang San's Dragon Beard Needle," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else. "Brilliant design."
His eyes flickered as copied memories surfaced—blueprints, mechanisms, usage principles.
"It coils inside the target's muscles after penetration. Impossible to remove. Guaranteed internal damage." He paused, then added flatly, "But against high-vitality monsters, it's not enough."
Regeneration. Dense muscle fibers. Reinforced organs.
Against beings like that, pain alone didn't kill.
He glanced to the side.
"Xiao Yi Xian."
She stepped forward without a word, her expression calm, almost serene. In her hand was a crystal vial filled with an iridescent black liquid. The substance inside seemed alive, swirling slowly as if it possessed its own will.
"This is the final mixture," she said. "King Cobra gall as the base. Wisteria concentrate for neural shutdown. And the Void Blood you harvested… as the catalyst."
Su Chen studied the vial.
"What does it do?" he asked, even though he already knew.
Xiao Yi Xian's lips curved faintly. "It doesn't just poison the body. It dissolves the spirit."
"Good," Su Chen replied. "That saves time."
He dipped the Dragon Beard Needle into the liquid.
The moment the toxin touched the metal, the runes along its surface pulsed once, absorbing the substance completely. There wasn't a single drop left behind.
Then Su Chen activated another ability.
[Murasame – Cursed Mold].
He didn't summon a blade.
He didn't need to.
The curse responded to intent.
A sharp, distorted vibration echoed through the lab.
ZZZTT—
Thin red markings bloomed across the needle's surface like veins, twisting and interlocking. The Dragon Steel darkened, turning pitch black, as if light itself refused to linger on it.
A system notification appeared.
---
[Item Created: Needle of Finality]
Grade: S-Rank Consumable
Effects:
• Armor Piercing (Dragon Steel)
• Internal Shredding (Tang Sect Technique)
• One-Cut Kill Curse (Murasame)
• Spirit Corrosion (Void Poison)
---
Su Chen lifted the needle and examined it.
"A god-killer," he said calmly. "And it costs me almost nothing to make."
He touched it.
[Infinite Copy.]
The world flashed white.
One needle became ten.
Ten became a hundred.
A hundred became a thousand.
The copies cascaded endlessly, materializing with mechanical precision. Within minutes, an entire storage container was filled to the brim—one hundred thousand identical needles, each one humming faintly with lethal intent.
Su Chen sealed the container and straightened.
"Now," he said, "we need a delivery system."
Saya Takagi was already smiling.
She stepped forward and gestured toward a newly assembled device resting against the far wall. It was a sleek, matte-black structure—compact, angular, bristling with dozens of micro-barrels arranged in tight arrays.
"The Needle Storm Emitter," she said proudly. "Magnetic rail acceleration. Ten thousand rounds per second. Mach Five muzzle velocity."
She paused, then added casually, "I integrated it directly into the fortress turrets."
Su Chen's grin was sharp.
"Perfect," he said. "Let's go test it."
---
Earth – Border of the Central Domain
Space folded.
The Black Dragon Fortress reappeared high above the New Asian Continent, its massive hull casting a shadow over the land below.
They were far inland now—closer to the heart of the expanded world.
The environment had changed drastically.
The lush forests thinned, giving way to jagged black mountains that clawed at the sky. Trees grew short and thick, their trunks twisted and dense under constant pressure.
Gravity here was heavier.
Not subtle—visible.
A warning flashed across the main screen.
---
[Warning: High Gravity Zone]
Gravity: 10× Standard Earth
Monster Level: 40–60
---
"Boss," Lin Xiya's voice cut in. "Massive biological signature detected ahead. Blocking the pass."
She hesitated.
"It has… nine heads."
The display zoomed in.
A colossal creature filled the valley below.
Two hundred meters long. Nine serpentine heads weaving and snapping independently. Its scales shimmered with elemental light—fire, ice, acid, all coexisting in unstable harmony.
It was feeding.
Tier-3 Mutated Tigers—predators in their own right—were being devoured whole, crushed and swallowed as if they were nothing more than snacks.
---
[Target: Elemental Hydra – King Class]
Level: 55
Ability: Supreme Regeneration
(Sever one head, two regenerate.)
---
"Regeneration," Su Chen said softly.
He smiled.
"The perfect test subject."
He didn't order a landing.
"We're doing a fly-by," he said. "Saya—arm the Needle Storm Turrets. Load the Needle of Finality."
Outside, armored panels slid open along the fortress's hull. Sleek rail assemblies extended smoothly into firing position.
The Hydra sensed the intrusion.
All nine heads snapped upward, eyes burning with rage. It reared back and roared, spewing magma and corrosive acid toward the sky.
"Fire."
There was no explosion.
No thunder.
Just sound like fabric tearing apart.
THWIP—THWIP—THWIP—THWIP—
A black rain descended.
One hundred thousand needles screamed through the air, compressing it into shockwaves as they crossed the valley at Mach Five.
The Hydra tried to respond.
Elemental breath erupted—firestorms, freezing gusts, acidic clouds.
It didn't matter.
Dragon Steel didn't melt.
The needles didn't slow.
PUFF. PUFF. PUFF.
They vanished into the Hydra's body.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then—
Internal shredding began.
Muscles were torn apart from the inside as the Tang Sect technique activated. The Murasame curse spread like ink through water, blackening flesh and organs simultaneously. The Void Poison surged straight into the spirit core, erasing resistance at the source.
The Hydra never regenerated.
All nine heads went limp at once.
Its massive body turned gray… then black… necrosis racing across it in seconds.
THUD.
The Level 55 King-class monster collapsed, dead before it could even understand what had happened.
---
[Target Neutralized: Elemental Hydra]
[Experience Gained: 12,000]
[Level Up!]
Level 13 → Level 14
---
Inside the fortress, silence lingered.
Saeko slowly rested her hand on her sword. "That was…" she searched for the word, "…anti-climactic."
"No duel," she added quietly. "No struggle."
Su Chen descended toward the corpse, already scanning for valuable materials.
"Efficiency is its own form of beauty," he said. "Why struggle when you can delete?"
He harvested the gallbladder.
"Copy. Store."
Then he looked forward.
And froze.
Beyond the valley, the world simply… stopped.
A colossal vertical wall of chaotic storms stretched from the ground to the edge of the stratosphere. Lightning twisted through warped air. Gravity distorted visibly, bending clouds and space itself.
---
[Boundary of the Central Domain]
Gravity Beyond: 100×
Mana Density: Liquid State
---
"That," Su Chen said, pointing, "is the real world."
He glanced at his team.
"Everything we've faced so far—zombies, mutants, factions—was the kiddie pool."
Jiang Rou swallowed. "If I drive into that… I'll be crushed instantly."
"The truck will survive," Su Chen said calmly. "You won't."
He looked at his waifus one by one.
Gold Body—safe.
Esdeath—maybe, with modification.
Saeko—needs reinforcement.
The rest?
Instant death.
"We can't cross yet," he concluded. "You're too weak."
Natasha clenched her fists. "So we turn back?"
"No," Su Chen said, smiling. "We train."
He turned toward the core systems.
"I'll modify the interior with Gravity Chamber tech. But that's not enough."
He paused, then made his decision.
"We're going back to Swallowed Star."
Babata's voice responded instantly.
"Course locked."
"I'm robbing the HR Alliance vault," Su Chen continued calmly. "And stealing a Gravity Room."
He looked at his crew.
"We're going to make everyone a Superman."