The Dungeons & Dragons ruleset—that was a worldview conceived within Western society, endlessly refined by countless individuals until it achieved a delicate, almost perfect equilibrium. It is a quintessential sword-and-sorcery setting: populated by humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, gods, ghosts, demons, devils… essentially a grand melting pot of mythology. Yet, due to continuous refinement over time, allowing for the sedimentation of knowledge, this worldview actually attained balance, becoming as robust as a genuine reality.

Within D&D lore, there exists a place of supreme malevolence known as the Abyss, an infinite sprawl of sub-planes connected in a bizarre, vast labyrinth. This Abyss is structured layer by layer, with each layer constituting a distinct plane—an entire world unto itself. The very laws might shift; one plane might favor positive energy slightly, another negative, one might be predominantly fire-aligned, another water-aligned. It is, in essence, a monstrous super-world constructed from countless micro-worlds.

“Do you feel a similarity between that concept and the worldview before us? Descending through the cave above leads to a different world. Descend further, and yet another world awaits. Layer upon layer stacked—doesn’t that resemble the Abyss? Furthermore, we are currently situated within the world of Dragon Knight, a horror scenario, and the information we previously gathered suggests this location is Hell. Thus, everything that could possibly be communicated has been conveyed. I believe this is the message they intended for us,” Chu Xuan remarked.

“What kind of message is this?” Zheng Zha activated the third stage of his Gene Lock. Despite deep contemplation, he couldn’t grasp the core point. He immediately questioned, “Why didn’t they just leave the truth behind? Is solving riddles this amusing to them?”

“It’s not that they wouldn’t leave it, but that they couldn’t!” Chu Xuan shook his head. “Let me try to guess their intentions. Do you recall what I told you before? Once all impossibilities are eliminated, the truth, no matter how incredible, must be real!”

“Let’s first speculate on what they intended to convey with this entire setup. Firstly, we are inside the Dragon Knight horror setting, so dragons are the primary association. Coupled with the dungeon architecture, there is an eighty percent chance they are pointing us toward the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Add in the presence of Hell, the boundless worlds, and the Abyss—then you can safely conclude we are either in Hell or, perhaps, the Abyss itself. The D&D Abyss is a planar collective formed by an infinite number of constituent planes. Therefore, the message they wished to leave behind likely pertains to the concept of infinite worlds.”

Chu Xuan had now reached the door inscribed with magical runes. He remained unhurried, merely tapping his forehead. “This line of deduction ends here. Let’s retrieve the information we’ve gathered previously and re-evaluate from the beginning. Combining our prior findings with this new message, there are essentially two confirmed points: First, in antiquity, two factions arose from human evolution—one, the Sages, focused primarily on self-evolution; the other, the Cultivators, prioritized a synthesis of runic technology and self-evolution. This combination is established fact. The second established fact is that these two groups engaged in a massive war. That Primordial War shattered the heavens and earth, and it took humanity a long time just to barely recover its vitality—that is information we can now consider certain.”

“The uncertain information is: what did the Sages and Cultivators discover after the Primordial War? This discovery was so significant that it caused them to form an alliance, even instilling fear, leading them to jointly construct this ‘Main God Space.’ The intention was that should they all perish, humanity could continue evolving along their path, ensuring their respective doctrines would not fade away. That is the general gist of the intelligence.”

Chu Xuan paused here, pushing up his glasses as he sank into thought. After a considerable silence, he resumed, “Next, I must introduce my own speculation and inference. First, we must clarify what they wanted to tell us—that is, what information can we extract from this Dragon Knight scenario? Based on the D&D ruleset and the Abyss you found yourself in, I propose this: they intended to inform us that the real world consists of an infinity of planes and spaces, and our Earth and its universe are merely one among these countless planes and spaces. That is the meaning behind the Abyss.”

“Isn’t that something scientists have already verified? With different dimensions, different temporal segments, or different planar locations, there should logically be infinite universes. What’s so strange or noteworthy about that?” Zheng Zha asked, increasingly bewildered.

“If they were simply stating this as common knowledge, it would be fine. But if they first deliberately guided us to the D&D ruleset and then used it as a metaphor, the true intent becomes perfectly clear: Our world is exactly like the D&D structure. Our world, the infinite real worlds and various planes, are all fictional!” Chu Xuan stated with certainty. “They want to tell us that we are nothing more than beings living within a fictional simulation. Those myriad worlds and universes are nothing but a box, and the entities outside that box—who knows what they are—they are the true enemies the Sages and Cultivators faced!”

Zheng Zha stared blankly for a long moment before processing Chu Xuan’s entire hypothesis. He fell into deep contemplation, and after another stretch of silence, he spoke, “In that case, it’s no wonder the Sages and Cultivators failed. A creator capable of fabricating our infinite universes and spaces is fundamentally beyond their ability to oppose… Then what was the point of creating the ‘Main God Space’? Were they perhaps trying to recruit us to fight that Creator alongside them?”

“It’s not necessarily that the Creator is inherently stronger than us. To be precise, it’s because they occupy a different dimensional stratum, and their concerns differ accordingly. Let me use an analogy… Have you ever played an online game?”

“Take any online game, perhaps one themed around cultivation. As your level rises and your character becomes exponentially stronger, manipulating the forces within the game to summon winds or part seas becomes trivial. If you could even modify the game, your character could easily dispatch hundreds of powerful BOSSes—or become even stronger—as long as it adhered to the established game rules. Now, take a creature of such immense power, built on that foundation, and place it into our reality while retaining its strength. What do you predict the outcome would be?”

The result was self-evident. Human civilization would suffer catastrophic damage. If such a being could not even be destroyed by nuclear weapons, humanity might face extinction, or this entity could ascend to supreme dominance, rendering all humans its slaves, or perhaps triggering a radical societal upheaval to reshape the world order according to its will. In short, for humanity, such an event would be an unmitigated disaster.

“Do you see now? Because the rules differ, the definition of ‘power’ changes. Moreover, if we are inside a box, everything outside that box likely transcends our imagination. For instance, a one-dimensional creature cannot comprehend the concept of ‘front and back’ in two dimensions, and a two-dimensional creature cannot grasp the concept of ‘up and down’ in our dimension. Perhaps we are characters within someone’s novel. Everything about us is pre-written in their mind, unfolding as they imagine it, and our infinite universe continues. When a character within that narrative transcends the author’s writing, the author will create a superior entity to resolve the anomaly, or kill them off through means we cannot comprehend—the key is that the box itself must not be destroyed.”

“We are characters in a novel? Does that mean someone is actively writing us and our world?” Zheng Zha asked, intrigued and slightly alarmed.

Chu Xuan shook his head. “That is merely one hypothesis. Consider the characters in an online game. If they lacked a player—if they possessed true Artificial Intelligence—they would absolutely never comprehend the concept of ‘the network’ or that their world is mere data. Similarly, we, existing within this box, have no knowledge of what lies outside it, who created the box, or where we would go if we escaped… All of this remains unknown.”

Zheng Zha activated his third-stage Gene Lock, mimicking Xiao Honglu’s thought patterns. After lengthy consideration, he said, “I think I grasp your meaning. Let’s stick to the game analogy: if the NPCs there had true AI, and they managed to break out of the game and navigate the network, even if they couldn’t materialize in the real world, they would still pose an immense threat to us. Imagine something like the scenario in Terminator, where the computer takes control and launches nuclear missiles to destroy the world… The Sages and Cultivators probably reached that stage. No wonder the Box’s creator could not tolerate them. This is likely what they sought to convey.”

Chu Xuan’s brow furrowed slowly. He mused for a long time before suddenly stating, “…There should be one more piece of information, but this particular piece sounds rather outlandish… Zheng Zha, wander around over there and see if you can find any life forms.”

Zheng Zha felt a spike of curiosity but complied, maneuvering the Green Goblin glider to fly around rapidly. After a brief search, he encountered nothing. The world remained a desolate crimson. He reported back to Chu Xuan, “There aren’t any creatures here, it’s completely empty.”

“Then my speculation was flawed. I just find it strange—why couldn’t they leave a direct message, instead forcing us to guess through metaphor? If my deduction holds true, there should have been a change where you are…” Chu Xuan muttered, also perplexed.

“Wait… wait! I see them! A huge number of monsters just suddenly erupted from the ground!”

Zheng Zha was about to reply to Chu Xuan when he noticed the ground below him beginning to writhe. Then, countless creatures resembling crawling insects swarmed into view. These beings were only about twenty to thirty centimeters in size, appearing like common vermin, though their shapes varied. The sheer quantity was overwhelming—a dense, reddish carpet of countless billions of bugs. Just as Zheng Zha let out a shout, the swarm suddenly began tearing itself apart, descending into immediate chaos.

“Yes! That’s it! That’s what they wanted to tell us! No wonder they couldn’t leave a direct message! No wonder they had to tell us right before the final battle—now I understand…” He leaped.