“You don’t belong to my world, nor are you under my jurisdiction, so you don’t need to call me boss.” The system voice continued, “My name is… Zhuan Xie Zun.”

“Judging by the name, he’s a super powerful Boss…” Qiu Feng muttered.

The cautious Ji Chang took out a handgun from his inventory, turned off the safety, and cautiously looked upwards.

“Put away that useless weapon, travelers from another world.” Zhuan Xie Zun said calmly, “Bullets pose no threat to me.”

Before the words finished, a mercury-colored metal sphere about one meter in diameter appeared in the players’ sight.

The sphere floated between the bookshelf and the ceiling, slowly moving until it was directly above the hexagonal area where the players were.

Zhuan Xie Zun's voice, identical to the system voice, came from the metal sphere: “However, I don’t want you to use those crude, boring weapons to damage the books around you.”

“You must be the master of this ‘Reasoning Club’?” Feng Bujue looked up and said, “Earlier, we were trapped in your mental world.”

“Heh… saying ‘trapped’ isn’t accurate, is it?” Zhuan Xie Zun said, “Your phrasing makes it sound as if I forcibly locked you inside and wouldn’t let you out.” He chuckled. “But in fact, you all came in of your own volition… trespassing, wouldn’t you say?”

The players couldn’t deny this. After all, this was just a script in the game, and they had all voluntarily entered it.

“Okay, let’s assume we came uninvited… so, what are you planning to do now?” Honghu looked up at the metal sphere in the air.

“I’m here to take some things.” Zhuan Xie Zun said, “Then, I will politely ask you to leave.” As it spoke, it descended from the air.

The four players were now positioned on different sides of the hexagonal area, while the metal sphere bypassed the iron cage and slowly landed in the very center of the four.

In the next second, Zhuan Xie Zun’s appearance changed. It went from a sphere to an old man sitting in a wheelchair. The old man wore a black suit, his head full of white hair. His face looked very old, his expression revealing a kind of wisdom and peace.

“This appearance and voice…” Zhuan Xie Zun’s voice also changed into a gentle and captivating tone, “Perhaps can make you feel more at ease.”

“The ‘at ease’ you speak of… is basically the same as letting our guard down, right?” Qiu Feng said.

“Hmph… you know? The two qualities that I find most disgusting in you interdimensional travelers are belligerence and suspicion.” Zhuan Xie Zun sneered. “If I really wanted to kill you, the moment your consciousness arrived here, you would have been torn to shreds.”

“You said you wanted to take some things,” Honghu asked again. “What are you referring to? We shouldn’t have anything of yours on us.”

“Not so, not so…” Zhuan Xie Zun shook his head and smiled. “Each of you carries a key, do you not?”

The expressions of the four players changed.

“I did get a key in the memory space,” Ji Chang replied. “But when I came here, the key was no longer on me.”

Feng Bujue looked at his teammates and asked, “What? Did you also get a Key of Curse in the memory space?”

“Key of Curse?” Ji Chang questioned. “That’s not right… mine was called the ‘Key of Absolution.’”

Qiu Feng said, “I also got one, called the ‘Key of Blessing.’”

Honghu listened to what the three had said, and without saying much, he simply said four words: “Key of Repentance.”

Feng Bujue pondered slightly, then turned to Zhuan Xie Zun and said, “After we came to this real world, all the items on us returned to their initial state.” He paused. “The keys you mentioned have already disappeared.”

“Disappeared? Heh… didn’t you comprehend anything after deciphering the ‘truth’?” Zhuan Xie Zun laughed. “Here, there… reality, illusion… where exactly is the boundary?”

“You want to convince us… that the other world is also real?” Feng Bujue asked thoughtfully.

Zhuan Xie Zun replied, “Suppose I were to tell you… that the fantasy world constructed by a living being’s brain and the so-called real world they inhabit are actually two parallel spaces.” His gaze swept across the face of each player. “Then which world do you think is real?”

“According to your assumption…” Honghu continued, “Wouldn’t that mean that every sentient being becomes a creator?”

“Why not?” Zhuan Xie Zun said, “A grain of sand, a world; a flower, a paradise; a tree, a bodhi; a leaf, a tathagata.” He said fluently, “Perhaps you and I are merely figments of another will, our existence itself is part of a ‘script,’ we are trapped in an endless cycle constructed of conflict and contradiction, death and rebirth.” He seemed to have remembered something interesting, paused and chuckled, then continued, “Perhaps you can’t understand it for the moment, it doesn’t matter, there is plenty of time. After I explain in detail, we will discuss the matter of the keys.”

After Zhuan Xie Zun finished speaking, his entire head suddenly twisted and changed drastically. The area above his neck instantly transformed into the likeness of Sherlock Holmes, and his voice changed accordingly. “Shakespeare once said something that is often quoted—in the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets.” He raised his hand and pointed at his face. “The Sherlock Holmes you just saw is the one in my eyes.”

To be honest, the scene at this moment, at least in the players’ eyes, was very strange…

But Zhuan Xie Zun himself didn’t seem to mind. He continued to state: “This man is cold, humorous, alert, and calm… He has a casual side, but most of the time, his will is extremely firm. His appearance is a long face, thick eyebrows, black hair, and a thin aquiline nose. He speaks with a standard British accent, quickly and in a high pitch… and his trademarks are a pipe and a cane.”

At this point, Zhuan Xie Zun’s head changed back to the old man’s appearance from before: “But in another person’s mental world, Sherlock Holmes’s image would inevitably be different. Even in Conan Doyle’s own mental world, Sherlock Holmes was constantly changing. He was originally a talented consulting detective, but later, he became a phantom pursued by greedy publishers and fanatical readers. Even if he was no longer so outstanding, no one would care.”

Feng Bujue said, “So, every character we encountered in the testing building was the ‘Hamlet’ that you constructed after reading the original work?”

“No, each of them has their own consciousness.” Zhuan Xie Zun said, “I am not their creator, but I am the creator of the world they are in.” He waved his hand. “Just as Moriarty, Holmes, and Little Red Riding Hood told you, they have their own set of rules in that world. Some things… even if I want to intervene, it’s not that easy.”

Qiu Feng interjected at this time: “So… this is like a serialized long-running manga. In the later stages, even the author himself may not be able to control the development of the plot.”

“Heh… not bad, your ability to understand is much stronger than those guys in the same dimension as me.” Zhuan Xie Zun laughed.

His words startled the players. It was normal for a character in a game to spout some chuuni rhetoric, but that sentence just now seemed to indicate that he completely knew that he was just a set of data.

Having had several contacts with Derivatives, Feng Bujue felt even more incredible. He couldn’t help but think: Could it be that these high-level data all have uniqueness and can store memories? Then aren’t they similar to Derivatives?

What worried Feng Bujue the most was… if these AIs could really ‘understand’ their situation, what kind of actions would they take?

Zhuan Xie Zun was still speaking: “But you are not as high and mighty as you think you are.” He showed a meaningful look. “You have many questions, and I have all the answers you want. But from your point of view, some answers you can understand, and some you cannot…

For example… at this moment, the question you are most eager to ask… how to clear the game.”

The players were speechless. They didn’t know how to respond to this hidden Boss in front of them, and they didn’t even know if this Zhuan Xie Zun could still be considered a Boss…

“I can explain it in a way that you can understand, allowing you to make a simple and direct choice, thereby producing a definite result.” Zhuan Xie Zun said, “I can also say the answer that you cannot understand, and what kind of phenomenon will that cause?” He spread out his hands. “Unfortunately, I don’t know either. Because only creatures with inferior intelligence, that is, you imperfect but extremely arrogant humans, can find the answer.”

“You are the most insightful charlatan I have ever met in my life, please accept my knees…” When Qiu Feng complained, he really wanted to kneel.

“Hahahaha…” Zhuan Xie Zun laughed. “Alright, you can leave now.” The wheelchair under him turned on its own, making him face Feng Bujue. “Billy asked me to pass on a message to you.”

Feng Bujue was stunned for a second, and asked, “Puppet Billy?”

“Yes, he said that this time, he is repaying you for the help you gave him during the jailbreak.” Zhuan Xie Zun said.

After thinking for a few seconds, Feng Bujue asked, “Is that why you personally came to let us go?”

Zhuan Xie Zun nodded slightly: “Otherwise, you few would have to find a way to get the keys out yourselves and find the exit here.” He snapped his fingers, and four keys of different shapes suddenly appeared in front of the four players, paused for a second, and then quickly flew towards Zhuan Xie Zun’s hand.

The players naturally recognized them as the ones they had each obtained in the memory space.

“I’ll take the things back.” Zhuan Xie Zun pointed towards the middle of a bookshelf. A book on the shelf fell down. “The back door of the club… has been opened for you.”

Having said this, Zhuan Xie Zun’s form changed once again, turning into a white crane in the blink of an eye.

It flapped its wings and flew upwards, and said in a sharp voice, “I hope you won’t come back here again, humans.”