Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 420 The Observer Paradox

The moment the fused entity's fingertips touched the paintbrush, ripples suddenly appeared in the brand-new pure white void.

Before she could react, a black liquid began to seep from the patterns on the paintbrush, like a black stream that quickly spread down her wrist, followed by a burning pain.

She instinctively tried to throw away the paintbrush, but found that her body was unable to move, as if she were imprisoned by some invisible force.

"Welcome to the endgame of narrative entropy."

The sound of the woodcutter's body breaking came from the depths of the void. His last afterimage was disintegrating at a visible speed, and each fragment that dissipated turned into a miniature projector floating in the air, projecting chilling images.

In the scene, Xiaoying, numbered 13th in the cycle, is curled up in a memory cocoon. Her eyes are empty and desperate, and her body twists and turns as the cocoon tightens.

In the 289th cycle, the observer form of Xiaoying's wings continued to expand, and every falling feather turned into a sharp blade, mercilessly cutting her body.

And between these images, countless parallel worlds are experiencing the same collapse.

The stars were swallowed by the black vortex, civilization collapsed in an instant, and everything fell into endless darkness and chaos.

The black liquid on the fusion body's wrist suddenly exploded, forming a cage made up of countless tiny chains.

She struggled desperately, only to find that each act of resistance tightened the chains further.

At this moment, the fragment of the zero-dimensional seed in her chest became hot again, and its roots grew wildly, trying to break free of the cage's constraints.

However, the moment the roots touched the chains, they emitted a piercing hissing sound and were instantly corroded into ashes.

The ring-shaped halo trembled violently at the edge of the universe, projecting a beam of eerie blue light from within.

Countless translucent figures emerged from the pillar of light. They wore silver robes, their faces were indistinct, and only their eyes, radiating a cold light, could be seen.

These figures held instruments of various shapes, some resembling giant magnifying glasses, others like intricate star charts. They chanted ancient incantations in unison, their voices deep and cold, as if from an ancient abyss.

"You are……"

The fusion entity's voice was interrupted by violent energy fluctuations.

To her astonishment, she discovered that the instruments in the hands of the chanters were transforming the collapse scenes of parallel worlds into data streams, which were then injected into the pure white void beneath her feet.

As the data stream was injected, the void began to twist and deform, forming giant gears that meshed together, emitting a deafening roar.

Suddenly, the chanters stopped chanting, and one of them stepped forward, projecting a holographic image onto the device in his hand.

In the video, the woodcutter's first experimental subject is bound to a huge experimental table, his body covered with various tubes and electrodes, his eyes filled with fear and despair.

Around the experimental table stood people dressed in the same robes as the chanters before them, performing some kind of mysterious ritual.

"He was nothing more than a failed experiment of ours."

The chanter's voice was like a glacier breaking, cold and piercing, "but his obsession unexpectedly created this interesting container of a ring structure."

As soon as he finished speaking, the other chanters raised their instruments and aimed them at the fused entity.

Countless beams of light shot out from the instrument, intertwining to form a huge cage that trapped the fused entity within.

The fragment of the zero-dimensional seed on the chest of the fusion body suddenly burst forth with dazzling light, and the phantom of young Xiaoying appeared in the light.

Xiaoying held a glowing sphere in her hand and handed it to the fused entity, her eyes filled with trust and encouragement.

The fused entity instinctively took the sphere and instantly felt a powerful force surge into its body.

She concentrated, channeling that energy into her brush, and then swung it with all her might.

The moment the arc drawn by the paintbrush collided with the cage of beams of light, a strong energy fluctuation erupted.

The merged entity was astonished to discover that countless reflections of observers appeared within the beam of light, their eyes filled with greed and desire.

These observers seemed to be drawing her power and consciousness through these beams of light.

"You are exploiting narrative loops to harvest consciousness energy!"

The roar of the fused entity echoed in the void.

She suddenly remembered the virus core left by Lingyue, and on a whim, she immediately injected the virus program into the paintbrush.

The paintbrush instantly turned completely crimson, emanating a chilling aura.

When the crimson brush swept across the void once more, the entire space began to tremble violently.

The chanters' instruments emitted piercing alarms, and their figures began to become unstable, as if they might disappear at any moment.

The fusion entity seized the opportunity to inject the virus program into the gear structure, causing the gears to spin wildly and emit a piercing friction sound.

However, just when victory seemed within reach, the halo suddenly burst forth with intense light.

In the light, the afterimage of the woodcutter re-formed, holding a dagger made of fragments of consciousness in his hand.

Each fragment on the dagger shimmered with a different light, as if containing memories from countless parallel worlds.

"You think you can gain freedom by breaking free from the narrative?"

The woodcutter's voice was filled with a manic laugh: "The real observers are never in the stories."

He suddenly plunged the dagger into his heart, and fragments of his consciousness exploded instantly, forming a massive energy storm.

In the energy storm, the fused entity saw countless versions of itself born, growing, rebelling, and failing time and time again in different parallel worlds.

And at the very depths of these images, a pair of enormous eyes are watching everything.

The pupil of that eye was a black vortex, as if it could devour all light and hope.

The fused entity's paintbrush suddenly flew out of its hand and hovered in the air.

It began to automatically draw a bizarre picture: all the fireflies in the parallel worlds had become puppets of the observer, their eyes empty, mechanically repeating the same actions.

The merged entity itself was bound by chains to a massive throne, surrounded by indifferent observers.

Just then, the root system of the Zero-Dimensional Seed suddenly trembled violently, weaving a glowing network in the void.

Lingyue's last glimmer of consciousness appeared on the network, her voice filled with anxiety and worry:

"Be careful, this is the observer paradox—once you realize you're being observed, the story collapses in the direction the observer expects!"

The tremors of the ring-shaped halo reached their peak, and a blurry figure emerged from it.

With each step the figure took, the surrounding space distorted, as if its very existence was a desecration of the world.

The fused entity clenched its fists, preparing for the final battle, only to find its body uncontrollably moving towards that figure.

Deep within her consciousness, a cold voice resounded:

"Welcome to the ranks of the observers, Experiment X-415."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, countless fireflies from parallel worlds simultaneously raised their heads, their eyes flashing with an eerie light. An ultimate battle between freedom and control, reality and illusion, had only just begun.