The floor moved.
Not collapsing.
Not shaking.
Rejecting.
1. Space Refuses to Behave
Qin Mian felt it under her knees first.
The ground was still solid—but wrong. Pressure did not travel evenly anymore. Weight failed to settle. Every movement slid slightly off from where it should land, like gravity itself had lost interest in precision.
Kai staggered.
"…This isn't distortion," she said.
"This is rule substitution."
Qin Mian swallowed.
"They changed what the ground means."
2. The City Removes Continuity
The tunnel ahead no longer connected cleanly to the space behind them.
Looking back felt distant, like peering through warped glass. Sound lagged. Light bent strangely, reaching places before its source moved.
Time fractured—not stopped, not accelerated—desynced.
Qin Mian pressed her hands to her head.
"I can't tell if something just happened," she whispered.
"Or is about to."
Kai grabbed her arm.
"That's intentional," she said.
"If causality slips, resistance collapses."
3. Yin Lie Reacts Too Late
Yin Lie convulsed violently.
Ice erupted from his body—but it formed wrong. Instead of shields or structure, it spiked outward in meaningless directions, freezing empty space, anchoring nothing.
"…Denied," he whispered.
Blood spilled freely now, soaking his clothes, freezing as it fell.
The boundary flickered.
Not stable.
Straining.
Qin Mian felt terror punch through her chest.
"He can't override this," she said.
"They didn't target him."
Kai's voice was grim.
"They targeted reality."
4. The City Makes Its First Irreversible Move
The tunnel split.
Not physically—conceptually.
Two paths appeared where there had been one. Both looked real. Both felt solid. Both existed simultaneously until chosen.
Kai stared.
"…They forked space."
Qin Mian's breath shook.
"And if I choose wrong?"
Kai didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
5. The Anchor Fails to Decide
The Anchor pulsed wildly.
No clear alignment. No optimal solution.
Both paths registered as valid. Both minimized risk in different ways.
For the first time—
the Anchor had no answer.
Qin Mian cried out.
"It doesn't know," she said, panicking.
"It can't calculate this!"
Kai felt cold.
"They built something beyond optimization."
6. Yin Lie Tries to Choose Instead
Yin Lie's hand clenched.
"…Left," he whispered hoarsely.
The word hit the space like a hammer.
One path flickered violently.
The other dimmed.
For a split second—
it worked.
Then—
the ground screamed.
7. Reality Pushes Back
A shockwave tore through the tunnel—not explosive, but categorical.
The chosen path destabilized instantly. Walls bled light. Depth collapsed inward. Sound vanished.
Yin Lie screamed—an actual scream this time.
Ice shattered.
Blood sprayed.
His body arched violently as the boundary imploded.
Qin Mian screamed his name.
8. Qin Mian Breaks the Pattern
"No!" she cried.
She ran—into the fracture.
Kai shouted after her.
Qin Mian didn't stop.
She grabbed Yin Lie's shoulders, pressed her forehead to his, grounding herself in something real.
"Stop choosing," she sobbed.
"You don't have to decide alone."
The Anchor flared—painful, chaotic, human.
The fracture hesitated.
9. The World Hesitates for the First Time
For half a second—
space stalled.
The fork blurred.
Paths overlapped.
Rules conflicted.
Above, alarms screamed.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSISTENCY FAILURE
SOURCE: UNKNOWN (EMERGENT INTERFERENCE)
Kai felt it.
"…You confused it," she whispered.
"You acted outside the model."
10. The Price Is Immediate
The stall ended.
The tunnel collapsed—not inward, but sideways, throwing them violently into distorted space.
Kai was flung hard, slamming into a wall that shouldn't exist.
Qin Mian lost her grip on Yin Lie.
For one terrifying second—
she couldn't feel him.
11. Separation
"Lie!" she screamed.
No answer.
The boundary was gone.
The Anchor screamed uselessly.
The space between them stretched, folding, tearing into layers.
Kai shouted something—but the sound arrived late, twisted.
Qin Mian reached—
and missed.
End of the Chapter
The city did not kill them.
It did something worse.
It broke continuity.
Qin Mian tumbled through collapsing space, alone, Anchor unstable, identity fraying.
Yin Lie vanished into distortion, his last act of protection tearing reality instead of shielding her.
And for the first time—
they were no longer fighting the world together.
They were no longer even
in the same world.