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"After all... if you don't court death, you won't die. The identity of a Kamen Rider is not something they can play around with."

"So you should have a clear understanding of what this world is all about by now," Lin Chen asked.

"It's very clear. This world is governed by a set of rules called the 'Grand Prix of Desire.' Those knights didn't become heroes voluntarily; they were contestants chosen by the 'operators'—they fight each other, battling monsters called Demon Apprentices, and the winners gain the power to 'grant any wish.'"

The loser... if their ID core is destroyed, will lose their knighthood, but will not die; however, they will completely lose that memory.

Lin Chen remained silent for a moment.

"Is that so? That's why those two girls disappeared after those two little things were crushed?"

“Indeed.” Earth consciousness paused. “This outcome may not be a bad thing for them. This ‘Grand Prix’ was a reality show for future people from beginning to end. The knights’ battles, deaths, and tears were just a program for the amusement of high-dimensional audiences. They thought they were fighting for their dreams, but in reality… they were just actors on stage.”

Earth's consciousness paused, seemingly sorting through deeper information:

“That bull-headed knight just now… he may have touched upon part of the truth, which is why he developed an extreme hatred for ‘wishes’ and ‘knights’ themselves. He wanted to end this farce, but he used the most violent method—disqualifying everyone from participating and leaving the ‘Grand Prix of Desire’ without any actors to perform.”

After listening, Lin Chen suddenly chuckled softly.

"So that whole scene was just a scene from a reality show? The two girls were crying and shouting that they didn't want to die just because they didn't want to leave this game of make-believe?"

"That's right!"

Upon hearing the confirmation from Earth's consciousness, Lin Chen remained silent for a moment.

He glanced one last time at the raccoon knight kneeling in the ruins. "Now that everything is clear," he said, turning his gaze away and leaping off the roof of the wrecked bus, his boots landing softly on the cracked pavement. "Then this matter is no longer important."

It's nothing but a farce where memories are erased. Even death is fake, even pain is reset, so what meaning does this farce have for him to draw his sword?

“Now we need to go and see,” he said, taking a step forward, his dark golden eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at a certain spot, “just how arrogant will those humans of the future be…?”

Lin Chen had just left the abandoned bus when a sharp, shattering sound, like glass breaking, suddenly rang out behind him.

He paused slightly and looked back.

A figure was violently thrown out, attempting to adjust its posture in mid-air, but still crashed heavily onto the road, kicking up a cloud of dust.

It was a young man, wearing a flashy dark red floral shirt and a smart black vest, now stained with dust and blood. He knelt on the ground, one hand gripping the earth tightly, his shoulders trembling slightly, his head bowed, stray hairs obscuring his eyes. This was the protagonist of this world, Ukiyo Hidetoshi.

He slowly stood up, revealing a face stained with dust and blood. His eyes were filled with suppressed rage and grief, like a lone wolf driven to madness by the loss of its cubs.

Lin Chen glanced at him, then ignored him and turned to leave in the direction of his destination.

The wind in the abandoned factory area carried the smell of rust and dust, swirling through the gaps between the containers, and mingling the dull thuds of metal armor colliding and the crisp sounds of gravel rolling down into the empty space.

A dark purple zombie-like figure stood in the center of the battlefield, with Azuma Michonji's sharp claws dangling. Beneath his feet lay Kurama Neon and Sakurai Sara, who had been defeated one after the other. Not far away, Sakurai Kagekazu was struggling to his feet, supporting himself on one knee. This overtime match was a foregone conclusion from the start; the power of the Knights Special Attack had turned the so-called "contest" into a one-sided suppression.

The gaze climbs upwards along the mottled cement wall, finally landing on the edge of a low, flat-roofed building deep within the factory area. Belloba and Kekaila stand side by side on the exposed edge of the roof, with peeling plaster and dusty drainpipes beneath their feet, and a continuous stretch of deep green fir trees behind them.

The midday sun shone brightly on the two of them, but it couldn't penetrate the almost pathological interest in their eyes.

Having just emerged from the realm of the Creator Goddess, Gene's warning—"You will be erased along with this world"—still echoed in their ears, yet the two remained completely unconcerned. Their final wish had been entrusted to the statue of the Creator Goddess.

As Kaikaila handed a large lollipop to Belloba, her gaze remained fixed on Jinghe, who was getting up in a disheveled state, a pleased smile playing on her lips.

“My last wish has come true,” he began, his voice filled with fervor. “Now I can finally watch my chosen player go all the way to the end in peace.”

"Hmph, how could I let go so easily?" Belloba took the lollipop and licked it, a few strands of her black hair fluttering in the wind. Her gaze never left the dark purple figure, her pupils reflecting the Taoist priest's cold, hard shoulder armor, surging with an almost greedy light. For her, victory and defeat were never the end of entertainment; only the unfathomable loneliness and misfortune hidden behind the victory were the lingering aftertaste worth savoring.

Kaikai chuckled softly, raised his chin at Jinghe below who was gritting his teeth and throwing punches, his tone undisguisedly mocking: "Sakurai Jinghe, is this all you've got? Let me have a good laugh."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a dull thud came from below—Jinghe had once again been kicked away by the Taoist priest, crashing heavily into the rusty oil drum. The loud bang startled the sparrows on the wall.

Belloba didn't reply, but the excitement in her eyes grew even more intense, as if she had already glimpsed the bloodshed at the end of the story. She sighed softly, her tone softening, yet carrying a chilling obsession: "Little Taoist priest, let me see your misfortune."

"What a disgusting sense of humor!" a voice suddenly rang out.

Chapter 290 The Power of Creation

The sound from behind made Bellopa pause slightly as she licked the lollipop.

She slowly turned around, a few strands of her black hair fluttering in the wind. Her gaze fell on the man in black who had somehow appeared on the edge of the roof, and her eyes lit up as if she had discovered a new and interesting toy.

“Oh dear,” she tilted her head, a wicked smile playing on her lips, “where did this little one come from?”

Guagua turned around, squinted at Lin Chen, and looked him up and down. His tone was full of undisguised contempt: "Not a knight... an outsider who doesn't even have the qualifications to participate dares to come here and spout nonsense?"

He chuckled and gestured downwards with his chin.

"What, you want to go down and play with them too?"

Lin Chen put his hands in his pockets, his dark golden pupils sweeping over the two of them, feeling as disgusted as if he were looking at two bedbugs criticizing an ant tank.

"Play?" he asked, then took a step forward.

“Then let me see—” his dark golden pupils narrowed slightly, “whether you can still laugh when you yourselves are dragged into an ant tank.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Lin Chen moved.

Without transforming, he simply took a step forward, and his figure vanished from the spot like a ghost. The next second, he appeared in front of Guagua, delivering a straight punch to Guagua's face without warning.

Guagua's pupils contracted sharply, and in a haste, he crossed his arms to block. With a muffled thud, he slid back several meters, a tingling tremor running through his arms.

"Oh?" Lin Chen raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat surprised that the other party could withstand that punch.

“…Interesting.” Guagua flicked his wrist, his gloomy face finally losing its contempt, replaced by the seriousness of a hunter encountering a difficult prey. “Looks like you’re not an ordinary human. Although I don’t understand why you were able to enter this game, this is getting interesting.”

Belloba didn't back down either, her eyes widening with excitement, a sickly blush spreading across her face: "Oh my... You can do this without even a Knight System? That's amazing!"

She threw away the lollipop and shot out like an arrow, a whip kick sweeping towards Lin Chen's side with a whooshing sound. Lin Chen dodged to the side, and the force of the wind generated by Belloba's boots actually cut a drainpipe behind him in half.

"Unknown misfortune! Variables beyond the script!" After landing, Belloba spun around and delivered another elbow strike to Lin Chen's throat.

Lin Chen raised his hand to block, the impact of their arms making a dull thud. He expressionlessly gripped Belloba's wrist, about to exert force, when Guagua had already closed in from the side, delivering a sharp knee strike to his ribs.

Lin Chen released Belloba and took a half step back. A sharp, grating knee grazed his clothes, and Belloba's pursuit was already upon him, her fists raining down like raindrops, each strike carrying the force to shatter concrete.

The three of them then engaged in a fierce battle on the rooftop.

There were no flashy transformation effects, only the most primal clash of flesh. Every punch and kick from Lin Chen was as heavy as a mountain, the wind from his punches compressing the air into a booming sound. But Belloba and Guagua were not at all at a disadvantage—Belloba was like a bloodthirsty female leopard, her movements cunning and ruthless; Guagua was as sinister as a snake, always delivering deadly moves from the most treacherous angles.

The sheet metal on the roof continued to be lifted, cracked, and collapsed in the aftermath of the three men's fight.

Guagua chopped at Lin Chen's neck with a chop, but Lin Chen dodged it by tilting his head. He then retaliated with an elbow to Guagua's chest, causing the latter to groan and stagger back several steps, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. But Belloba immediately followed up from the other side, delivering a whip kick to Lin Chen's blocking arm. The force of the impact caused him to sway slightly.

"What happened? What happened?" Belloba licked the blood from the corner of her mouth, her laughter growing even more maniacal. "Is that all?"

Lin Chen looked down at his numb arm, and a trace of true emotion finally surfaced in his dark golden pupils—an almost violent excitement.

"That's interesting."

The battle on the rooftop intensified.

Lin Chen delivered a whip kick to Bellobah's side, causing her to take a half-step back, her boot heel creating a crack in the concrete. Taking advantage of the moment, Guagua cut in from the side, throwing a hook punch at Lin Chen's ribs. The three exchanged blows, each collision causing the entire low building to tremble slightly.

In the factory area below, the battle has already come to a conclusion.

Azuma Michonji, his dark purple claws dangling, looked down at Sakurai Kagekazu, who lay on the ground. He bent down and pulled the ID Core from Kagekazu's waist, slowly raising it above his head, his five fingers closing.

"ended."

Jinghe lay on the ground, reaching out his hand, using the last of his strength to try to stop it, but he didn't even have the strength to get up. He could only watch helplessly as the core creaked under the weight of the Taoist priest's palm.

"No... Sister..."

On the rooftop, Kaikaila's gaze unconsciously drifted downwards, and the usual cold smile on her lips froze for a moment.

It was that moment of distraction.

Lin Chen spun around expressionlessly, unleashing a powerful whip kick that slammed his heel into Kaikaila's temple. Kaikaila groaned and flew backward.

On the other side, at this critical moment—

"Alright, alright, that's enough."

A light, cheerful voice suddenly broke the silence. A dark figure flashed past from behind the container, slapping the ID core out of the Taoist priest's hand with pinpoint accuracy. The core traced an arc in the air, gleaming faintly in the setting sun, before landing perfectly back in Jing He's palm.

Jinghe was stunned, and the Taoist priest also frowned.

A knight with a pumpkin head appears, playing with an electric guitar in his hand; it is none other than Haruka Onin—Kamen Rider PunkJack.

"Overtime is over." Wen Yin whistled, a nonchalant smile on his lips. "What a pity, we almost won."

In mid-air, the giant holographic scoreboard refreshed. After Sharo was eliminated, all the ID cores she had collected were transferred to Jinghe's hands, and Jinghe and Daozhang's core counts were tied again—the extra round still ended inconclusively.

"Tch." The Taoist priest spat unhappily, deactivated his dark purple armor, and turned to leave.

“Don’t rush off.” Wen Yin called out to him, her gaze sweeping over everyone present. “I have something to say to all of you—including that friend hiding over there.”

Wen Yin's gaze fell into a collapsed shadow deep within the factory area.

A moment later, Ukiyo Hidetoshi slowly emerged from the shadows. He was still wearing that dust-covered floral shirt, his face terribly grim.

On the rooftop, the battle between Lin Chen and his two companions continued.

Bellobah did a backflip to create some distance, patted the shoulder Lin Chen had kicked, and suddenly laughed: "Oh dear... things seem to be getting more interesting down there. Should we stop?"

Lin Chen ignored him. He took a step forward expressionlessly, and the wind from his fist whistled through the air once again.

"...Tch." Belloba's smile faded slightly, a hint of impatience flashing in her eyes. She knew that continuing like this wasn't a solution; this man was truly a monster, and her carefully modified temporary body was being completely suppressed by him.

Without further hesitation, she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the laser sublimation device.

"I can't play with you anymore."

With a playful smile in her eyes, Belloba raised her hand and took out her exclusive sublimated name card holder, holding the silver-purple laser-inspired sublimator in one hand.

She inserted the card into the gun-shaped transformation device, and a transformation sound effect immediately played:

【BEROBA SET! LASER ON! BEROBA LOADING! 】

With a lazy "transformation," the sublimator burst forth with intense pink and purple lightning, and data streams swirled around it.

A virtual, dynamic belt automatically appeared and locked around her waist, with tiny laser particles rapidly outlining the shape of the armor. Layers of specially made armor conformed to her body, and the mask and shoulder armor took shape in sequence.

The light suddenly burst forth and then subsided, and a gigantic body rose from the ground, with Kamen Rider Bellova, more than ten meters tall, standing amidst the ruins.

【READY FIGHT!】 The moment the electronic voice faded, the pink behemoth, over ten meters tall, was fully formed. Belloba stretched its heavily armored neck, its enormous compound eyes looking down at Lin Chen, who resembled an ant beneath it, and let out a mocking laugh with a metallic finish.

However, the laughter did not last long—

boom!!!

With a casual step, she crushed the already dilapidated low-rise building to pieces. The shockwave, carrying debris and air currents, swept in all directions, and visible ripples of shock swept across the entire abandoned factory area.

On the other side, Wen Yin had already told Fu Shi Ying Shou and the others the truth she had found out.