178: Chapter 178 The Power to Freeze Time: Who is the Terrifying Being Behind the Savior?

Rome, the top-floor suite of the InterContinental Hotel.

Heavy blackout curtains blocked the midday sun firmly outside. Inside the room, the characteristic crackle of a vinyl record flowed—a lazy jazz tune.

Jiang Ming was sunk deep into a soft sofa, gently swirling a glass of amber whiskey in his hand as the ice ball clinked crisply against the glass.

However, only he knew just how heart-stopping the last five minutes had been for both worlds.

It was a "fault line" that mortals could not perceive.

Although time in the real world continued to flow, on every observation screen, the dimension known as the "Mirror World" had been forcibly paused by a supreme power.

Jiang Ming took a sip of the pungent liquor. His gaze was not on the massive floor-to-ceiling window but focused on a point in the void where a system backend interface, visible only to him, floated.

The originally deep blue operation panel was now flashing with a piercing red warning light.

A bold, high-priority log sat at the very top of all the data streams:

【Critical Warning: Illegal contact detected!】

【Subject: ID ‘Saver-Jeanne’ (Jeanne)】

【Target: World Core Architecture/Special Item ‘true holy grail’】

【Status: Triggered underlying logic mutual exclusion; system has activated emergency circuit breaker mechanism—Mirror World physical time stop.】

Jiang Ming set down his glass, a playful smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

When he first wrote the code for the "true holy grail," in order to prevent this item—which contained the rules of creation—from being accidentally damaged or exploited, Jiang Ming had specifically written an absolute command into the world's underlying logic:

“Unless the final victory is achieved, no existence can conceptually ‘move,’ ‘destroy,’ or ‘analyze’ this object.”

It was like in a game where, no matter how high your attack power, you could never tear off the “textures” used for the map background and take them away. This was a dimensional restriction, an iron rule of the system.

“But... since I personally pushed you onto the altar of the ‘Savior,’ wouldn't it be quite embarrassing for me if I let you fail to pick up a cup in front of the whole world?”

This wasn't just a matter of pride; it was also because Jeanne's current actions were carrying out his will to oppose the “Abyss.”

As the GM, granting temporary permissions to a hardworking employee was only logical.

With a slight thought, Jiang Ming's consciousness instantly took over the system backend.

Behind that access request marked as “Denied,” he found an inconspicuous gray button.

【Authorize this operation】

...At this moment, the real world had long since descended into chaos.

A full five minutes!

All synchronized Sky Screen live broadcasts across the globe were frozen at the second before Jeanne reached out to touch the Grail.

It wasn't a network lag or a signal interruption; time in that world had truly stopped moving.

Just as countless people thought the end of the world had arrived early in this bizarre fashion...

The picture moved.

The static, grayscale scroll on every screen regained its color and flow without warning.

“It moved! It's back!”

“My God! What on earth just happened?!”

A global explosion of joy and gasps, like survivors of a catastrophe, erupted. People's gazes were once again locked onto the screens, their hearts in their throats.

Mirror World, above the Potala Palace.

Jeanne did not know what was happening in the outside world. In her perception, everything had occurred in the blink of an eye.

The moment her fingertips, encased in Platinum Gauntlets, touched the outer wall of the Grail, an indescribably vast repulsive force surged through her fingers and straight into her saint graph core.

“Rejected.”

Immediately following that, a virtual light screen composed of pure golden rule runes, visible only to her, forcibly popped up before her eyes like a computer error warning.

The first line of text on the light screen displayed coldly:

【Warning: User (Saver-Jeanne) detected attempting to move special item (true holy grail)】

The second line of text followed immediately:

【Permission verifying... Verification failed, user permission level insufficient.】

In Jeanne's golden eyes that looked down upon all living beings, an expression of disbelief appeared for the first time.

Insufficient permission?

She was already the “Savior” chosen by the world itself, the final line of defense for the human order. In this world, could there be an existence with higher authority than her own?

Could it be... that “Lord” who had never shown his face but had been guiding her in the shadows?

Just as she was about to give up, the golden light screen before her refreshed again without warning.

The originally piercing red warning instantly turned into a soft green.

A line of concise text slowly appeared:

【Prompt: Super Administrator (Admin) has intervened.】

【Request approved; you have obtained ‘temporary maximum operational permission’ for the special item (true holy grail).】

Jeanne was completely stunned. Super Administrator? Who was that?

But she could clearly feel that the arrogant, all-rejecting barrier of rules was now receding like a docile lamb, even actively accepting her aura.

“Is this... Your will?”

Jeanne murmured in her heart. No longer hesitating, she reached out again.

This time, there was no hindrance.

Her fingertips smoothly passed through that flowing miniature galaxy, firmly grasping the cold stem of the Holy Grail.

It felt weightless.

There was no physical weight, but the moment she held it, Jeanne felt as if her soul was being infinitely stretched, instantly connecting with an entire universe.

The rules of creation and annihilation contained within, and that authority heavy enough to crush a god, made her clearly feel her own insignificance.

Coming back to her senses, Jeanne didn't dare linger. Holding the Holy Grail, her figure turned into a streak of golden light that tore through the sky, vanishing instantly from above the Potala Palace.

Only then did the outside network erupt like a delayed-explosion powder keg!

The bizarre five-minute standstill finally had a reasonable explanation—or rather, the most absurd explanation.

On Twitter, YouTube, and Weibo, countless tech geeks and data experts began frantically analyzing the footage frame by frame.

“Brothers, the case is solved! It definitely wasn't a lag!”

A bold red post was pushed to the top of the global trending searches within just ten minutes, accompanied by a detailed data analysis chart.

“I compared the flow of the clouds in the background with the trajectory of Jeanne's hair fluttering. In those five minutes, the physical rules of that world were completely stagnant! Do you know what that means? That's a real space-time freeze!”

“Thinking about it carefully is terrifying! Brothers, is it possible that the cup isn't equipment at all, but the ‘physical server’ of this game?”

“Holy crap, the person above hit the nail on the head! Just now, when Jeanne grabbed it, the data volume was so huge that it caused a server overload, and the GM had to perform an emergency shutdown for maintenance?”

“Hahaha, I'm dying! Others raid to steal equipment, but Jeanne found it too troublesome and just carried away the server chassis?”

“Official Warning: That's the map core! Put it down! Jeanne: I'll take that!”

Amidst the carnival of “memes,” only the top think tanks of various countries turned pale.

What they saw was not a joke, but deep fear.

To be able to stop time, to freely grant the permission to “move the universe”... behind that Savior, what kind of terrifying existence is standing?