Has she been waiting for her own questline all along?
With this realization, Ye Bai fell deeper into contemplation, unable to stop herself from recalling the clues about the hidden class questline in her memory.
The more she thought about it, the more everything seemed hazy and ambiguous.
She couldn’t remember clearly…
The conclusion sent a shiver down Ye Bai’s spine.
Before her psychic level had improved, her thinking and memory had been merely above average. But after the upgrade, her memory had sharpened significantly—she could recall even the smallest in-game details with clarity. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to navigate the game "Boundless Realms" so effortlessly with her deep understanding of its mechanics.
The Whisperer, the Spellbreaker, the Outcast Apostle—these three hidden classes, like all others, had been designed as Easter eggs in Boundless Realms. That much, she remembered without issue.
But when it came to how they had been merged into a progression system for second and third-tier advancements, the specifics of when this idea had been proposed or implemented grew increasingly indistinct in her mind. She only knew it had happened, yet couldn’t pinpoint when.
Moreover, when she had first chosen her class, this particular path had been the only one that surfaced in her thoughts—unwavering, as if it were the obvious choice.
It was as though her subconscious had instantly provided the optimal answer to the question, "Which class is the strongest and most suited for me?" Had she not paused to reflect on it now, she might never have noticed this peculiarity.
At this realization, a wave of unease and confusion washed over her, leaving her scalp tingling.
Was this awareness truly her own… or did it come from somewhere else?
Standing motionless in the virtual expanse of the Star Network, Ye Bai watched as streams of cosmic news flickered across the screen she had programmed. The familiar room, the familiar setup—gradually, they grounded her.
Once again, she slipped into that state of icy calm.
Now that her class progression was fully established, there was no turning back unless she abandoned her current path and started over from scratch. Obsessing over its origins wouldn’t solve anything.
Weighing the information she had, she recognized that her memories about the hidden classes were flawed—possibly influenced by some anomaly. But was this anomaly limited to her class choice, or did it extend elsewhere?
Ye Bai meticulously retraced her steps since entering the game: her desperate gamble after discovering Boundless Realms on the Star Network, establishing her territory, and navigating its mechanics. Beyond the heightened intelligence of NPCs and the game’s adaptive systems in full immersion mode, there was one other discrepancy in her memory—just like her hidden class.
The Well of Origin.
This special artifact, which should have appeared with the first expansion, "Shattered Pantheon," had instead become a legendary constructible building via blueprints.
The Divine Realm, the Well of Origin, her hidden class… There had to be a connection between these three that she wasn’t yet aware of.
Soon, Ye Bai steadied herself and logged out of the Star Network, returning to reality.
Her real-world crisis was far from resolved. And all along, her in-game abilities had manifested differently in reality—she could perceive their effects with far greater clarity. Perhaps the undocumented powers of the Outcast Apostle, unexplained in the game, could be uncovered here.
…
The next moment, Ye Bai opened her eyes beside the wreckage of her starship on the barren planet’s surface.
This world orbited farther from its star than Earth, and its rotation was slower. Though a full night had passed in Boundless Realms, the pale sun still hung distantly in the sky here.
This time, returning to reality felt different.
Thanks to the "82-year nutrient solution," most of her injuries had healed, leaving only faint twinges of pain.
The most significant change, however, was in her psyche—a renewed vitality, as though she had stepped out of a suffocating room. Her mental state brimmed with energy, no longer drained from casting that legendary spell. Instead, she felt stronger than ever.
In fact, she had a vague sense that, despite technically being a B-rank psychic now, she might even stand a chance against that deceased A-rank mystic who had nearly killed her—unlike before, when she had been utterly suppressed without the legendary magic as a trump card.
Previously, psychic energy had always felt like an intangible force to Ye Bai, requiring microscopic manipulation of natural energies to affect reality—hence how she had cast spells in the real world.
But now, at B-rank, her psychic strength seemed fundamentally transformed. Her mind could directly influence reality, as though turning the abstract into the tangible.
With a mere thought, she willed her psychic energy to counteract gravity, lifting herself steadily into the air.
So this was how B-rank psychics achieved flight.
The effort barely drained her; ambient cosmic energy replenished the cost effortlessly.
Once airborne, the thinning atmosphere posed no discomfort. Here, she noticed the second change from her ascension: her psychic body had "materialized" into her most efficient energy-exchange organ.
Oxygen was no longer necessary for survival. Instead, her psychic body could absorb and convert energy directly—explaining why B-rank psychics could endure the void of space.
After testing these newfound abilities, Ye Bai turned her focus to the three new skills from her third-tier advancement.
As with every previous upgrade, the moment she willed it, the three abilities surfaced in her awareness. Though their mechanics and effects remained unclear, they felt as natural as breathing—ready to be unleashed at her command.
After a moment’s consideration, Ye Bai descended—unlike the theatrically airborne mystic she had fought. Then, cautiously, she activated the first ability, the one whose purpose had eluded her in the game.
As her mental energy stirred, the world before Ye Bai's eyes transformed once more. The surroundings unfolded into segmented scenes under her 'gaze.'
Previously in the game, Ye Bai had acted cautiously, refraining from further experimentation. But this time, she intended to push the boundaries.
Almost instinctively, she sensed she could interfere with these scenes. Tentatively, she selected one.
Immediately, her mental energy surged, propelling her into the chosen scene.
The scenery shifted in an instant.
Ye Bai snapped back to awareness, finding herself standing in the very 'scene' she had just observed. Her body hadn’t moved, yet she was now ten meters away from her original position.
Teleportation?
Wasn’t that supposed to be a spatial magic ability?
Ye Bai frowned, her intuition telling her it wasn’t that simple. Puzzled, she repeated the experiment several more times.
On the desolate planet, a lone figure flickered erratically across the terrain—an eerie sight that would make any spacefarer with even a passing familiarity with the concept of 'ghosts' blurt out, "What the hell?!"
Through repeated testing, Ye Bai gleaned more about this ability.
First, the ten-second cooldown described in the game wasn’t as rigid in reality. After one 'blink,' she could force another, though the second attempt drained her mental energy drastically. Waiting the full ten seconds, however, restored the energy cost to normal.
Second, like other abilities in reality, the farther the 'scene' she targeted, the more mental energy it consumed. The maximum range was roughly two hundred meters.
Moreover, within that range, the 'blink' was incredibly flexible—unbound by her line of sight. She could go wherever she willed.
What struck Ye Bai most was how this ability differed from conventional spatial teleportation. It was oddly 'intelligent.' For instance, when she blinked onto a soft synthetic material, the space didn’t tear or distort the fabric.
Logically, if this were spatial displacement, her body and the material might partially collide, resulting in a 'clipping' effect like in games.
Yet nothing of the sort happened. Ye Bai stood firmly atop the material, even feeling its elasticity beneath her feet.
So, what caused this 'smart' teleportation?
Ye Bai meticulously retraced every step of using the ability, scrutinizing every minute difference between past and present.
Suddenly, it clicked.
Her mental energy regenerated faster during the skill’s use. Another subtle but undeniable change was in her injuries—they healed quicker, especially after the recent tests.
This ability, labeled by the game system as 'time magic,' bore the name [Breakpoint Leap]. Clearly, it wasn’t just about restoring energy or health.
Ye Bai’s eyes lit up as she grasped the underlying principle:
This skill didn’t traverse space—it leaped through her own personal time!
The illusion of spatial displacement came from her choosing a destination. In truth, the 'blink' was her moving there at her maximum speed, with the intervening time compressed.
For the outside world, Ye Bai seamlessly 'skipped' from point A to B, but for her, that time still passed—just in a condensed form. This explained her accelerated recovery: her body had experienced more time than observers perceived.
If the time had truly vanished, her recovery would’ve proceeded at normal speed.
After calculating her movement speed and the ability’s 200-meter limit, Ye Bai estimated the time compression spanned about ten seconds.
The implications left her breathless.
[Breakpoint Leap] wasn’t just stronger than spatial teleportation—it was transcendent.
Spatial jumps could be blocked, but time leaps? Nearly impossible to counter. No spatial ripples, no detectable energy. Without precognition, enemies couldn’t predict her destinations.
More crucially, during that compressed—or 'leaped'—time, unless her foe wielded similar time magic or unleashed instantaneous area-wide attacks, Ye Bai was untouchable.
To her enemies, that time didn’t exist. How could they strike her then?
In games, invincibility frames were programmed exploits. This ability? It was real-world invincibility.
Even this first time magic skill outshone spatial magic. Ye Bai felt reassured—her choice of profession wasn’t a mistake but a boon.
Now, she turned her attention to the other two time magic abilities.
Unlike the abstract [Breakpoint Leap], their names hinted at their functions, giving her a rough idea of their effects.
"Bullet Time" is a cinematic term, colloquially referred to as an enhanced slow-motion or time-freezing effect.
Ye Bai reached down, grabbed a handful of sand, and tossed it into the air before immediately activating [Bullet Time].
As expected, the world in her vision slowed down in an instant.
Her mental energy continued to deplete rapidly. Just like the exaggerated slow-motion scenes in movies, the grains of sand she had thrown earlier seemed to defy gravity, floating midair and descending at an agonizingly slow pace.
If not for the constant, heavy drain on her mental energy, Ye Bai might have mistaken this for an immersive slow-motion film.
She reached out and caught a few tiny grains of sand in her palm.
In this state where the entire world moved in slow motion, her own speed remained unaffected. However, the more intense or rapid her movements, the greater the mental energy consumed.
This ability could be used effectively in combat—whether evading attacks or launching them. The advantage was undeniable.
When the environment slowed down, it was as if Ye Bai herself had become faster. As the saying goes, "In martial arts, speed reigns supreme." With extreme speed, the damage she could inflict would be equally devastating.
"Whoosh…"
Deactivating [Bullet Time], time resumed its normal flow, and the suspended sand scattered back to the ground at regular speed.
Finally, she turned her attention to her third ability: [Time Reversal].
There was no doubt that abilities with longer cooldowns and higher costs were more powerful. This one, with its full-day cooldown and massive energy consumption, was the one that intrigued Ye Bai the most.
So far, the two time-based abilities she had could be summarized as "time acceleration" and "time freeze." The last one, judging by its name, seemed to correspond as "time reversal."
What fascinated her was the nature of this reversal. Could it really send her back to a specific moment in the past? If so, it would inevitably involve complex concepts like time paradoxes and parallel universes—ideas too convoluted for her to fully grasp.
The most straightforward paradox was this: If she truly could reverse time and return to before her class advancement, would her abilities even exist anymore?
Rubbing her temples, she stopped herself from overthinking. The only way to know was to try it.
Given the immense cost of [Time Reversal], Ye Bai rested for a while before attempting it.
Unlike the other two abilities, she couldn’t experiment with this one repeatedly. The cooldown was too long, and she lacked the mental energy to bypass it.
With a mix of curiosity and tension, Ye Bai activated her third class ability.
"Boom…"
An indescribable resonance reverberated through her consciousness.
Her current state was hard to define—it somewhat resembled the sensation during her third-tier advancement. Her awareness was pulled upward, detached from her body, but instead of seeing the world, she witnessed her own past.
From the moment she opened her eyes after returning to reality, to slaying the Chaos Beast in the Myriad Realms to ascend as a third-tier professional, and even her battle with the mysterious figure—all of it replayed in reverse within her mind.
In this state, the only anchor Ye Bai could rely on was her own spiritual form, steadily draining energy.
The further back she went, the more mental energy she consumed. At the same time, she could somewhat control the speed of this reversal—fast-forwarding, slowing down, or even pausing, as if rewatching a recording.
And most crucially, she could "reverse" time.
The subject of this reversal was, without question, her past self.
Her earlier concerns proved unnecessary. In this moment, she instinctively understood the ability’s function.
"Reversal" meant she could "retrieve" a past state of herself.
"State" referred to all non-external attributes. She couldn’t bring back physical items from the past, but she could reclaim a previous condition—whether it was replenished mental energy, revitalized cells, or even an ability that had already been expended.
Her spiritual form traveled back to the moment before she killed the mysterious figure. There, she used [Time Reversal] on her past self, who was suspended in midair by chains of mental energy.
In the next instant, the "past world" in her consciousness fast-forwarded, and a tremendous force yanked her back to the present like a snapped rubber band.
"Haah…"
Ye Bai gasped sharply, as if waking from an indescribable out-of-body experience.
Then, she remembered what she had just reclaimed through [Time Reversal].
With a thought, she felt an unusual power surging within her spiritual form.
A smile spread across her face. The single-use legendary spell [Petrifying Gaze]—which she had already expended—was now hers to wield again!
Of course, the trade-off was that [Time Reversal] had entered its cooldown. Attempting to activate it again felt like trying to lift an entire mountain—her consciousness bluntly rejected the notion.
Among all possible reversals, she could also choose to restore her physical vitality or mental energy, effectively allowing a "full recovery" in critical moments. But even if she used the ability to restore her body or mind, she couldn’t reverse time again immediately.
For now, the most strategically valuable reversals were undoubtedly the two legendary spells.
With [Time Reversal] at her disposal, these supposedly one-time abilities had effectively become permanent fixtures in her arsenal!
Despite her vast experience, Ye Bai couldn’t help but feel exhilarated. The oppressive tension of navigating the perilous Chaos Star Sea lifted considerably.
After calming her excitement, she remembered something else—the jade-like personal terminal she had taken from the mysterious figure.
She had kept this trophy but hadn’t dared to examine it closely until now.
The current situation was different. If they truly encountered an enemy they couldn’t handle, with Ye Bai’s current B-rank strength, his three bizarrely powerful time-based abilities, and the legendary petrifying gaze magic that had successfully slain the mysterious man, even if he couldn’t guarantee victory, he could at least escape unscathed.
Gripping the jade stone, Ye Bai extended his spiritual energy and activated this peculiar personal terminal.
The moment his spiritual energy made contact, a brand-new virtual interface materialized in Ye Bai’s consciousness—
