Chương 21: Infiltration

Something's not right.

The surrounding air seemed to freeze for a moment, the sounds around me suddenly disappeared, and even breathing became difficult.

Lin Che felt a tingling sensation on the back of his neck, as if he were being licked by some kind of cold gaze.

—It seems like something… is secretly watching him.

The next second, a commotion ahead broke the suffocating atmosphere.

A middle-aged man in a plaid shirt staggered over, his face contorted in terror, his mouth agape as if he were screaming, but Lin Che's ears were filled only with an eerie silence.

Seeing the other person fall to the ground, Lin Che instinctively wanted to help them up, but at the moment of contact— His fingertips passed through the other person's shoulder without any resistance, as if passing through a holographic projection.

Lin Che's pupils suddenly contracted.

—What happened?

The man struggled to his feet and rushed toward the emergency exit without looking back, while Lin Che's gaze was fixed on the cell phone signal bar—where the glaring "No Service" was displayed.

[Virtual infiltration has been detected around the host] The mechanical sounds of the system were exceptionally clear in the deathly silence.

"What just happened?" Lin Che looked at his trembling right hand, the scene from just now still etched in his mind.

[The host was within the area covered by the infiltration of the Void Realm at the moment it occurred, and thus entered the interior of the Void Realm bubble.]

"Inside the bubble?" Lin Che's gaze swept across the six-story shopping mall. Sunlight still streamed through the glass dome, and the escalators were still running, but almost all the pedestrians in his sight had become silent phantoms.

"It seems completely different from the real world..."

His voice stopped abruptly. For a moment, his vision suddenly distorted, and the three-dimensional shopping mall turned into layers of caves in his eyes, each hole filled with virtual beasts with scarlet shells.

Those ant-like monsters had glossy carapaces, compound eyes that gleamed with a sickly red light, mouthparts that opened and closed constantly to reveal serrated jaws, and bone needles with barbs extending from the end of their abdomens.

The interior of the bubble can be seen as an illusion of the real world; it reflects real space, but those inside cannot interact with reality.

"What about people outside the bubble's coverage area?" Lin Che forced himself to calm down and continued asking.

Even if someone enters the area corresponding to the fake, there will be no effect; from the perspective of a real observer, the person inside the bubble will suddenly disappear.

However, once the infiltration of the virtual realm is complete, those still within its range will be immediately affected.

"Is it possible for an ordinary person to leave the area covered by the bubble?"

[Stardust-level magical girls can freely pass through the dimensional barrier, but creating a shield with magic to protect ordinary people as they pass through the barrier is a skill that at least Crescent-level magical girls can master.] Lin Che slowly took a few steps forward in the direction the middle-aged man had run from, and placed his palm against an invisible wall. He could clearly see the crowd outside, but not a single sound could get in.

My hand instinctively reached into my pocket, but I only found a set of house keys—the transformation device was still lying in the drawer of my desk.

"Is it too late for me to cosplay as Gou Muzhen now...?" He forced a smile, his lips twitching.

Looking into the distance, the crowd suddenly looked up in unison and immediately began to rush toward the exit in a panic, clearly having heard the evacuation alarm.

Some people who were looking down at their phones did the same thing before the alarm sounded, presumably because they had received an evacuation notice from the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.

"Wait... since the Void Realm infiltration has occurred, what about the Void Beasts?" Lin Che recalled the giant lizard-like Void Beast he had seen in the South Suburb Park that night.

"Isn't the Void Realm infiltration process only stopped when the Void Beasts are eliminated?"

The infiltration process that erodes reality needs to reach a certain level before the phantom beasts will appear within the bubble. The speed at which they appear can be used to roughly judge the strength of the phantom beasts.

Based on the current situation, this infiltration of the virtual realm is at the nascent stage.

"That should be alright." Lin Che breathed a sigh of relief.

"The juvenile level is the weakest; Yuqing should be able to handle it easily."

After a brief silence, the system issued a notification: This system advises the host not to be overly optimistic.

"... Why?" His nerves tensed up instantly.

[The host should have already seen those juvenile-level void beasts.] Lin Che's pupils contracted sharply. The layered caves and countless ant-like ethereal beasts that had appeared for only a moment flashed through his mind: "Could it be that those were all...?"

"Mommy... Mommy..." A child's sobbing voice suddenly came from not far away.

Lin Che looked in the direction of the sound and saw a little girl with pigtails crying as she lunged at a middle-aged woman squatting on the ground.

With each embrace, those little hands futilely slipped through the other's body.

The mother seemed to have guessed the reason for her daughter's sudden disappearance. She was kneeling on the ground, covering her face and crying bitterly, tears constantly seeping through her fingers.

"Damn it." Lin Che's heart clenched. He rushed to the little girl's side and pulled her into his arms.

"Little sister, we need to hide first, it's dangerous here."

"No! Mommy's right here!" The little girl struggled desperately in Lin Che's arms, her little hands stubbornly reaching for the unreachable phantom.

"I want to be with Mommy!"

Just then, a dense whistling sound suddenly arose from all directions, like hundreds of chainsaws starting up at the same time, and the eerie buzzing sound vibrated in the air.

"Listen, your mother is safe now." Lin Che gritted his teeth and hugged the little girl tightly.

"Once the magical girl drives away all those monsters, you'll be able to see your mother." He quickly slipped into a narrow storage room and closed the door.

He didn't try to find Su Yuqing; she must be dealing with an even more difficult situation right now, and he, unable to transform, would only be a burden.

The narrow passage echoed with a sickening scraping sound. Lin Che gently covered the little girl's mouth with one hand, nervously turning his gaze toward the exit of the passage.

Those virtual beasts are generally the size of large dogs and all have wings. This means that even a passage that allows several people to walk side by side can easily be entered by those monsters. If they are discovered, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Will those virtual beasts attack humans on their own initiative?" he asked anxiously in his mind.

[The beasts instinctively crave magic to strengthen themselves and reproduce, and magical girls are their primary targets.]

"That's good, as long as we wait here for the other magical girls to come and help..." Lin Che was about to breathe a sigh of relief.

Since the Bureau of Extraordinary Events has issued an evacuation notice, there is no reason not to notify other magical girls to come and provide support.

However, humans can be seen as anchors in the real world; eliminating all humans would accelerate the process of infiltrating the virtual world.

"You..." Lin Che's expression changed drastically, "Can you stop talking like you're squeezing toothpaste?"

A rustling sound came from inside the passage, indicating that an ant-like virtual beast was approaching. Realizing the danger, the little girl dared not make a sound. She clung tightly to Lin Che's clothes and huddled in his arms.

"Don't be afraid," Lin Che forced a smile.

"Brother has a secret weapon; I'll definitely be able to protect you."

The sound grew closer and higher—the monster had clearly caught the scent of humans and was speeding towards them.

Lin Che gritted his teeth, gently put the little girl down, and suddenly flung open the storage room door and rushed out.

"Damn beast, come on!" Lin Che was about to use his trump card when he caught a glimpse of a familiar emerald green figure out of the corner of his eye, and his movements immediately froze.

In the instant he was distracted, the virtual beast suddenly rammed into him, slamming him hard against the metal shelf.