The truth had been laid bare.

Now Jie Ming stood inside this vast, real, yet subtly “off” model, face to face with its core.

The truth crashed over him like a flood, yet another crucial question instantly surfaced in his mind—a paradox concerning his very existence here.

“I have one more question.” Jie Ming looked at the four mask-like, frozen faces. “Why me? Or rather, why is my ‘background setting’ the only one so peculiar?”

He thought of Rex. “Someone like Rex can be an orphan with simple social ties—easy to conceal and control. Why go to the trouble of building an entire family for me, complete with childhood friends like Amy and Victor?”

The four mouths opened in perfect unison and gave an answer that startled Jie Ming:

“Because you are an anomaly, Subject 721. My core system is unable to read or construct a life path that fulfills your true innermost true desire. Creating intimate social relationships for you was a compensatory measure under the base logic ‘maintain individual social stability,’ but lacking the driving force of your authentic desire, the construction precision was naturally insufficient.”

“Unable to read my desire?” Jie Ming was slightly stunned.

“Yes. Tell me, Subject 721—stripping away all facades and excuses—what is your deepest, most essential longing?” The four voices overlapped, carrying a barely concealed urgency.

Jie Ming fell into thought.

He recalled his life after transmigration: decades of practicing Qi Refinement techniques that showed no result, devouring knowledge like a starving man in the wizard world, desperately fusing two systems to create sigil-wizard artifacts and the Black Titan… What was the fundamental driving force behind it all?

A moment later he raised his head, eyes clear and resolute, and answered honestly:

“Power.”

“To keep growing stronger, to surpass every limit, and ultimately… to possess transcendent power that surpasses all else.”

The instant the words left his mouth, enlightenment struck Jie Ming himself!

The underlying logic of “Justice” was to suppress everyone’s transcendent power in order to achieve absolute fairness.

Yet Jie Ming’s core desire was to obtain and endlessly increase transcendent power.

The two formed an irreconcilable, absolute opposition at the most fundamental rule level!

One demanded suppression, the other pursuit—a perfect logical dead loop.

Thus, the “desire-fulfillment system” that Justice relied on to sustain the entire world completely failed when applied to Jie Ming.

It could not “arrange” a life that both suppressed power and fulfilled his craving for power. He had become a BUG the system could not comprehend—an outlier impossible to assimilate with “happiness.”

For the first time, something resembling emotion flickered across those four eternally indifferent faces: extreme confusion and disbelief born of logical conflict.

“Why?” the quadruple voice asked, bewildered. “Pursuing power is a common behavioral pattern. Yet analysis shows that individuals seek power only to achieve other goals: status, specific objectives, security, respect… Power is merely the ‘tool’ to reach those deeper desires.”

Jie Ming shook his head, calm but unshakably certain:

“Pursuing power—especially transcendent power that continually breaks one’s own limits—is the goal itself. Does it need any other reason?”

Seeing the synchronized “astonishment” on all four faces, Jie Ming perfectly understood. This was not a mere difference in preference; it was a fundamental clash of worldviews.

Every civilization, shaped by its history, environment, and culture, gives birth to radically different ultimate pursuits.

The immortal cultivation civilization began with the pursuit of “longevity”; thus from the Golden Core stage they sought bodily immortality, and by Nascent Soul they could theoretically live forever.

The wizard civilization began with the pursuit of “knowledge”; second-rank wizards already studied laws, third-rank could sense spatial fluctuations—every ounce of power served the exploration of the unknown.

But the foundation of Jie Ming’s soul came from his previous life—a pure technological world utterly devoid of transcendent power.

It is precisely what one lacks that one craves most.

In a world where individual greatness was impossible, the yearning for “strength itself became purer, more extreme, etched into the cultural genome.

Unable to become saints in the flesh, they sought enlightenment in spirit—“If I hear the Dao in the morning, I may die content in the evening.”

Unable to split mountains with bare hands, they worshipped the power of machines.

For a tiny increase in muscle, some would sacrifice health; many men would even abandon their own testicles…

It was a primal instinct carved into biology: the urge to surpass oneself, to become stronger.

Jie Ming completely understood Justice’s current turmoil.

After all, when he was young and saw wizard-world children show no interest in a perfectly straight branch, he had felt the same astonishment (foreshadowed in Chapter 85).

“Some people love socializing, some love fine food, some love sport. I simply happen to love becoming stronger.” In the end, Jie Ming used the simplest words to veil that profound worldview chasm.

Justice fell silent. The four faces froze, as though the colossal system were running at full capacity yet still unable to find a logical path between “suppress power” and “fulfill the desire to pursue power.”

After a long pause, the cold voice returned:

“Comprehension failure. Your core parameters fundamentally conflict with the system’s base directive. You are… a vulnerability.”

Jie Ming suddenly recalled the intelligence report about the three wizards who had mysteriously “fallen in battle” early in the war.

“By the way, what happened to those three wizards who died? According to your logic, you don’t seem the type to actively eliminate people.”

Justice answered: “They also discovered other vulnerabilities and attempted to reverse-engineer and destroy the system’s core rules. Their actions were judged as the highest-level threat to the Absolute Equity Domain. Per core directive—elimination authorized.”

“I see…”

Jie Ming raised his head, gazed calmly at the face that belonged to “Amy” yet was now utterly alien, and asked his final question:

“Then, for me—an existence your ‘justice’ cannot accommodate, a vulnerability incarnate—what will you do?”

Justice did not answer.

The next instant—

Without warning, without process,

Jie Ming felt his “existence”—his thoughts, his perception, his everything—directly erased from the foundational layer of this world in a manner beyond comprehension, beyond description, beyond resistance.

He didn’t even have time to feel fear or regret.

Consciousness sank into absolute, eternal darkness.

He died.