As long as you have the courage, fierce ghosts go on maternity leave.

Chapter 390: It’s about to end

On the other side, White Clothes stepped out and appeared in the real world. Her body hovered in the void above the bustling streets, unseen by the people below.

"With Black Clothes there, I don’t have to worry about the Horror World, but I must still be cautious," she murmured, her eyes flashing with silver light.

"Blood Clothes and the others could betray, and so could Black Clothes. It’s better to have a contingency plan with these mysterious observers around."

After pondering for a while, White Clothes’s gaze settled on a villa near her home. Her vision pierced through the walls, seeing her good friend Lucy, who had been reincarnated alongside her, taking a nap.

A slow smile formed on her lips: "No matter how capable you are, you probably won’t expect that I would create a new guardian, especially one in the real world."

With a gesture of her finger, wisps of mist began converging towards the napping Lucy in the villa.

In the federal command center, Sofia was stunned, gazing at the scene on the screen. White Clothes was transforming a person from the real world into a guardian!

If this were truly the real world, it would be one thing, but this was a virtual world! Most people inside were akin to player characters, enacted by the citizens of the federation, their behavior corrected by programming to prevent anomalies. Essentially, these characters were nothing more than controlled programs.

White Clothes’s creation of a new guardian would certainly alter the individual’s will, ensuring absolute loyalty. But these weren’t real souls; the people controlling these characters were still in the outside world, wearing virtual reality helmets.

This equipment merely linked neurons, allowing control, not connecting consciousness. In other words, it was no different from a computer or smartphone; regardless of the modifications, a simple reboot would suffice.

"Is she..." Sofia turned, somewhat incredulously looking at a colleague. "Did she just give us a guardian? Or is it meant as a trump card?"

"It seems... likely!" the colleague responded, equally bewildered.

"I remember, this Lucy should be one of Alexander’s classmates from his last reincarnation. To ensure authenticity, these classmates in the plan were our military personnel, right? Trained numerous times?" Sofia continued.

"Seems so..." the colleague hesitated. It wasn’t that he didn’t remember; as one of the executors of the plan, he was intimately familiar with every detail, especially those involving Alexander’s last reincarnation.

But this scene was so unexpected, so beyond what anyone had anticipated, that he was struggling to believe his own eyes.

Not only had they been given a guardian, but it was also directly assigned to one of their own. White Clothes’s move was unexpectedly considerate!

Elsewhere, in a massive underground facility, rows of virtual life-support pods housed men and women in military uniforms.

Not everyone needed to constantly control a character in the virtual world; intelligent programs assisted in this task, with humans taking over only when interacting with guardians or during crucial moments to ensure authenticity.

These individuals were characters closely associated with Alexander or the guardians. Even if their roles in the Horror World were currently sleeping, they had to remain constantly connected in the Horror World.

At this moment, Lucy, one of the operators, was idly playing Tetris while occasionally monitoring the characters she controlled in the virtual environment.

Suddenly, right after clearing a level in her game, she was stunned.

Some people, while just playing along, found themselves becoming guardians!

...

With a snap, the seventh chess piece landed on the vast chessboard floating in the endless starry sky, displayed on the water screen.

The ripples on the water screen flowed, revealing Sofia and Isabella above Earth, hovering over a cemetery.

Blood Clothes, having played a role in Alexander’s scheme, remained in this world under the identity of Isabella. Around them, streams of Ghost Energy data swirled, and lights lit up on nine towers in the starry sky.

Inside the federation’s facility, numerous researchers in lab coats feverishly wrote programs. Data streams suddenly expanded, enveloping the entire cemetery.

A virtual residential area manifested over the small hill of the cemetery, gradually solidifying. A thousand people entered the residential area.

Some elderly characters approached a chessboard set up in the square, while young children joyously headed to the fitness bars and slides. The rest either entered the buildings or strolled around the neighborhood, greeting each other warmly as if they were about to return home or go out.

Thus, a lively, ordinary neighborhood came into being.

In a high school nearby, a boy named Alexander seemed to lose consciousness for a moment, slowly closing his eyes.

But the next second, he woke up in panic. In the classroom, a projector displayed a gruesome warning about the Horror Instance.

Underneath, Alexander quietly lifted his sleeve, revealing a sinister scythe tattoo on his arm.

Dazedly waiting for school to end, Alexander quickly headed home. However, the direction he took was completely different from usual, and he didn’t realize it.

"Alexander, school’s over, huh? How come you came home so early today?"

"Alexander, do you want to play basketball tomorrow at noon? Let’s crush those kids from next door!"

"Brother Alexander, my mom said she just learned two new yoga poses and asked you to come over tonight to give her some guidance. I... I want to learn too..."

Soon after reaching home, Sofia knocked on his door.

The scene on the water screen suddenly accelerated, blurring into a whirl of light. When it became clear again, a long sword had pierced a chest.

The ripples spread once more, and all images vanished, leaving only the endless starry sky, the vast chessboard, and Alexander behind it.

Alexander stepped forward, crossing the chessboard, walking through the vast expanse of the galaxy. In one step, he traversed the radiant starfields and passed through the massive water screen, emerging from it.

At this moment, trillions of ghost citizens, or rather the trillions of federation citizens controlling these characters, brought their right hands together, placing them over their hearts, and bowed in a military salute of the starry era: "Greetings, Marshal!"

Alexander returned the salute with a smile, looking at the struggling White Clothes: "It’s about to end!"

"Cough... cough... What a scheme, what a grand game!"

"The Federation, the Horror World... We never imagined that the spiritual civilization in our eyes was just a virtual world you created!"