The world did not simply break; it unfolded.
The moment Gu Yanchen's fingers touched Lin Yue's cheek, the `CRITICAL ERROR` warnings didn't just flash—they became the environment. The red text of the System UI expanded, bleeding into the sky, carving jagged lines through the air like neon scalpels. The ground beneath their feet transitioned from scorched obsidian to a shimmering, translucent silver, and the sound of a thousand mirrors shattering simultaneously roared through the district, deafening and absolute.
Lin Yue felt a violent tug at the center of his being, a sensation of being pulled through a needle's eye. The world blurred into a smear of grey and silver, and for a heartbeat, he felt the presence of Gu Yanchen—that cold, oppressive authority—slipping away, severed by the very conflict their contact had triggered.
When the vertigo subsided, the roar of the shattering glass had faded into a silence so profound it felt heavy.
