Following it wasn't pursuers, but an escort program that had been dead for 6 years.

Beyond the world's borders.

The white delivery unit still hangs quietly beside the lingering echo of the old anchor.

The third application for a life sample was not accepted.

But that warning that just appeared.

It has never disappeared.

External following signals: Exist.

Unable to determine the target to follow.

It is impossible to determine whether there is hostility.

Jiang Luo stood behind the second door, holding the mother seed.

His small face was unusually serious.

"Check the signal first, don't touch the hibernation pod."

Nyar nodded.

"Since the other party has been able to drift with it for so long, rashly touching the life sample might wake up what's behind it."

The crow glanced at the white crystal plate.

"Couldn't you just delete the application?"

Jiang Luo turned her head.

"When you receive a suspicious package, is your first reaction to burn the shipping label?"

"……no."

"That settles it."

(￣_￣)

The Thousand-Eyed Demon God still guards the City of No Life.

Dozens of eyes turned to the delivery unit at the same time.

She did not attempt to cross the world's borders.

Just follow the "follow signal" that was publicly displayed on the white crystal panel.

one second.

two seconds.

Black blood immediately seeped from the surface of the outermost few eyes.

Jiang Luo frowned.

"Small eyes, don't force yourself to look."

"Well enough."

The Thousand-Eyed Demon God spoke very softly.

"The signal is very far away, and it's not a continuous connection. It only checks the status of the life sample periodically."

Lin Xiao immediately asked, "Is the frequency fixed?"

"fixed."

"how long?"

"According to our local time, it's about once every seventeen minutes."

Nyar heard this number.

Suddenly I looked up.

"It's not a chase."

Everyone looked at him.

Why?

"A true tracking system doesn't give a target a seventeen-minute window, nor does it simply confirm their existence every time. It's more like a low-energy escort procedure."

The crow paused for a moment.

"escort?"

Jiang Luo blinked as well.

"Then why did the delivery unit label it as an unknown risk?"

"Because the thing escorting it doesn't belong to the delivery system."

Nyar pointed to the extremely faint signal.

"Imagine this. Someone puts a child on a long-distance bus, and the bus is responsible for taking the child there. But the parent calls every now and then to make sure the bus is still there. From the bus's perspective, these calls are not a function within the system; they can only be marked as external tracking."

Jiang Luo remained silent for two seconds.

"This analogy sounds quite normal."

"I sometimes speak normally."

"rare."

Nyarlathotep: "..."

The next signal confirmation will arrive soon.

Seventeen minutes exactly.

The white crystal plate flashed slightly.

[External following signals have appeared.]

Duration: 0.4 seconds.

[Action: Status confirmed.]

No localization diffusion detected.

No attack structure detected.

The black leaves of the mother plant lit up simultaneously.

A root, thinner than a human hair, clung to the edge of the crystal plate.

There is no reverse tracking.

They only caught the faint echo left behind by the other party.

[Analyzing...]

[Rule completeness: 0.02%]

[Target rule status: Highly incomplete.]

[Target activity: close to 0.]

Jiang Luo was stunned.

"Is he dying?"

Nyar stared at the result.

"It's not that I'm about to die, it's that I was already close to dying."

The second line continues.

[Rule action: Confirm the target's continued existence.]

[When the target is abnormal: Attempt to wake it up.]

[If the target is safe: Continue following.]

Lin Xiao's eyes flickered slightly.

"It's not chasing the hibernation pod."

"It is guarding."

The Thousand-Eyed Demon God's vision continued to extend outwards.

This time.

Taking advantage of the 0.4-second lingering echo of the rule.

She finally saw an extremely blurry outline.

It's not a monster.

It wasn't some enormous life form.

It was just a small, fist-sized, grayish-blue dot of light.

It is very far from the dormant location of the life sample.

It did not come close.

They even maintained a fixed distance.

The life samples drifted forward.

It followed.

Life samples stopped.

It stopped too.

Jiang Luo looked at the screen.

"Isn't this a bodyguard?"

Nyar nodded.

"Automatic rule type".

The crow whispered, "Well, it's quite dedicated; it's still working even though the world is dead."

The air suddenly became quiet for a moment.

This sentence was originally meant to be a sarcastic remark.

But after that.

Nobody laughed.

A world that is already dead.

Send off the last life.

The delivery system is looking for a new world willing to receive it.

The other escort rule is so badly damaged that only 0.02% remains.

I followed them like that for who knows how long.

Check every seventeen minutes.

Is it still alive?

Is it still there?

Does it need to be woken up?

Jiang Luo lowered her head.

I glanced at the attribute-less rule crystals in the system repository.

He didn't say anything.

Naya understood it at a glance.

"You want to feed it?"

"Ask if it's possible first."

"It can, but if you replenish its rule energy, it might regain more of its original functions."

"for example?"

"For example, proactively contacting the original world."

Jiang Luo immediately shook her head.

"I won't feed them."

The mother world is completely dead.

Wake it up at this time.

What if I foolishly dial back again?

That's not called saving someone.

It's called causing trouble.

Lin Xiao suddenly pointed to the test results.

"There's still a section that hasn't been translated."

The mother plant's black leaves swayed.

Disassemble the last remaining structure bit by bit.

[Escort Rule Number: Nine Cities - Departure from the Boundary - 07.]

[Target bound: Out-of-bounds life form - 001.]

[Highest Priority: The target must not return to the home world.]

And the previous comments.

Exactly.

The crow took a soft breath.

"001?"

Jiang Luo noticed it too.

"Only one?"

Nyar shook his head.

"At least this escort rule is only bound to one person."

The white delivery unit quickly provided cross-reference results.

Number of living samples: 1.

[Corresponding escort marker: Match.]

[Similarity of source rules between the two parties: 96.8%]

It's confirmed.

Following the signal is not the enemy.

It's something that came out of the dead world along with that dormant life form.

Jiang Luo was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

The mother plant suddenly trembled again.

The black leaves suddenly stood upright.

[A second layer of tracing traces has been detected.]

Everyone's expression changed instantly.

Jiang Luo looked up.

"Not the one from before?"

【no. 】

[Beyond the escort rules, there exists another set of low-frequency following structures.]

[Distance: Further.]

[Activity: Unable to confirm.]

[Match with rules governing the source of life samples: 0%]

The atmosphere had just eased up a little.

It suddenly tightened up again.

Naya's expression turned completely somber.

"This is what the delivery unit is really warning us about."

The crow swallowed hard.

"Is there another one following the escort procedure?"

"right."

Jiang Luo looked at the Thousand-Eyed Demon God.

"Small eyes, can you see?"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon God turned dozens of his eyes toward deeper into the distance at the same time.

one second.

three seconds.

Five seconds.

She suddenly closed her twelve outermost eyes.

"no."

"Too far?"

"no."

The Thousand-Eyed Demon God slowly shook his head.

"It has no fixed shape."

"Every time I'm about to see it, it turns into the debris of the world next to it."

Jiang Luo's face gradually turned cold.

This description.

They're somewhat familiar.

Lin Xiao had also thought of that.

"A third lineage?"

The mother culture immediately provided a comparison.

[Third lineage similarity: 18%]

No.

But it's not exactly good news either.

Naya stared at the second layer of trace that was almost impossible to detect.

The voice lowered.

"There's another thing we've never seen before in the world's wreckage."

Jiang Luo bit the candy in her mouth.

bang.

(;all)

"OK."

"Don't accept the survivors yet."

"The one behind it."

"First, peel it off Luo Luo's delivery slip."