Story fragments can be thought of as time-limited dungeons.

The newly built flight control center towered over the top floor of the base. An elliptical hangar stood adjacent to the sharp command tower, which was fully equipped with high-tech apparatus. The "Flight Control Trio," consisting of signal officer Tiffany, communications officer Paula, and liaison officer Marie, held full responsibility for its operations. Inside the command tower lay the combat readiness duty room, where three-person flight crews A and B took turns standing watch. The six alien flight attendants of the 12th Navigation Command also possessed independent living quarters within the second-floor residential area of the main base. When the Viper Air Hunters were not on missions, one crew remained on combat standby while the other enjoyed free movement within the base, making independent living quarters indispensable. Wu Chen had specifically designated the second level of the Pan-3 mainboard as well as the Tidal and Arc secondary boards entirely as residential zones to accommodate the newly joined plot characters.

Thanks to the multi-plate overlapping effect of the folded space, the scale of Base 0326 far exceeded what casual observers could perceive. A grand alien aquarium occupied merely a fraction of the Tidal secondary board, illustrating that the internal space of the Arc secondary board's first floor—housing the biochemical robot laboratory and the virtual reality training center—was equally impressive.

A three-digit sense of security was far from enough to comfort Wu Chen, who bore heavy responsibilities. Before the arrival of the Purge Day, he intended to take on a few more commissions to elevate his Sanctuary Coin reserves to a reassuring four-digit figure. Of course, one ate a meal bite by bite, and Rome was not built in a day.

Late into the night, Wu Chen returned to his living quarters alone to rest. Aiyi, the central intelligence, tirelessly operated drones to perform invisible fine-tuning across the entire base. The biochemical, cybernetic, and mechanical female warriors entered the laboratory for maintenance by Dr. Sarah, while the human female warriors headed to the training hall to catch up with the mechanical warriors' simulated training progress and build combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

The advantages of plot characters were self-evident: specialized skills, solid character backgrounds, and high adaptability. Seamlessly linking with Wu Chen's exclusive "0326 Branch Plotline," they could achieve formidable combat power in an extremely short time. Furthermore, with the base's central intelligence Aiyi controlling everything through artificial intelligence and automated operations, Wu Chen held an optimistic expectation that before Purge Day, the Viper Air Hunters would be able to deploy loaded with the Moto-Terminator combat squad and take to the skies.

As for the actual combat prowess of the Moto-Terminator transformable armor squad, even Wu Chen, their sole creator, looked forward to it with anticipation.

Tenth day since returning to the Sanctuary.

Yesterday, the client sent another email notification: aside from players, any plot characters entering plot fragments must be either robots or cyborgs, and they could only travel via a single vehicle. In other words, only one car could pass through the portal. Consequently, four Moto-Terminators were loaded onto custom-made intelligent small trailers towed behind the AE86. Accompanied by Veltrix, Perry, Linda, and Anna, Wu Chen drove the AE86 to meet the client.

"Take care, Master. Good luck, sisters." Lin Baiyu led the stationed personnel to bid farewell at the garage.

"Keep the base secure." Since the trip would take at most a day, Wu Chen also wished to return as quickly as possible.

When the master went out, the central intelligence naturally followed closely. Base 0326 was temporarily managed by a proxy A.I. Although far inferior in capability to the central intelligence Aiyi, it sufficed for daily management—truly a "competent proxy."

One save file per day, coupled with the dense gathering of VIP players accompanied by their exclusive sanctuaries, endowed the Shattered City—which might otherwise have been merely a fragmented plot world—with high-dimensional attributes akin to a sanctuary. Consequently, the alternation of day and night, as well as the progression of plotlines, deviated from the norm. Moreover, every sanctuary player possessed distinct exclusive abilities known as "Sanctuary Powers." Among Wu Chen's exclusive sanctuary powers was the "Omega Brainwave Screen Net," a mental link originating from the high-dimensional world capable of integrating all plot characters from exclusive cards into the screen net. The restrictions on integrated entities were not limited to humans alone; anything possessing spiritual energy or even an "energy circuit" could be assimilated by Wu Chen to become a node. As the core of his spiritual energy grew increasingly powerful, these individual nodes would gradually solidify, manifesting in Wu Chen's personal universe as blazing stars or even forming constellations together.

Regrettably, due to the shattering of the sanctuary, Wu Chen's personal universe had likewise grown dim and devoid of light. To reactivate the entire universe, Wu Chen needed to connect more new nodes to feedback into the original old nodes, thereby triggering a "chain reaction" that would reawaken the entire screen net.

For Wu Chen, collecting sanctuary cards and integrating them into the screen net was equivalent to "grid-connected power generation" within the spiritual realm.

Assembly Workshop B-018D Section, home to the city's most renowned prosthetics doctor: Li Xiaoxian of the 0717 flat board base.

"Hello, 0326." The thin, bespectacled man asked earnestly, "Have we met before?"

"As you can see, I've just arrived in the city," Wu Chen replied with a smile. Having most of his past experiences erased served as a form of protection for VIP players.

"True," Li Xiaoxian pushed his glasses up out of habit. "Just as mentioned in the previous email, the commission I posted is essentially a beginner's task. You can think of the plot fragment we are entering as a restricted instance. Rest assured, we aren't filming plot characters, but rather... well, how should I put it, 'Heterogeneous Robots'."

"Understood," Wu Chen grasped the concept. "By 'heterogeneous robots,' do you mean those integrated with numerous prosthetic organs?"

"Precisely, precisely," Li Xiaoxian nodded repeatedly. "As you can see, 0326, I made my fortune by implanting prosthetics. However, aside from original objects, the Shattered City contains only players, exclusive sanctuaries, flat board bases, and the like. *All creations originating from plot worlds must be plundered from within plot fragments*, and the only way to bring them back into the Shattered City is by 'capturing' them into cards."

Wu Chen produced the rented Polaroid camera: "With this?"

"Correct, this is the basic model Mc-1," Li Xiaoxian recited like a connoisseur. "Much like the disposable fool-proof cameras sold in tourist areas, it comes with self-developing film. After taking the picture, you pull it out and give it a shake to develop the image, making it ideal for novice photographers. The more advanced digital camera, the Mc-2, comes with a built-in micro-printer that prints out cards directly after shooting..."

"Understood." Wu Chen had no intention of becoming a specialized paparazzi photographer; completing the commission, earning his reward, and accumulating a multi-digit sense of security were his priorities.

"Then shall we begin?" Li Xiaoxian asked, his caution tinged with barely concealed eagerness.

"No problem." This was what Wu Chen had been looking forward to as well.

Li Xiaoxian subconsciously touched his glasses frame, and laser beams instantly shot out from both lenses, shaping themselves out of thin air. Moments later, a circular portal was 3D-printed right in the center of the base.

That wasn't all. Li Xiaoxian gently extended his palm, and the laser from his right lens immediately printed a pair of disposable 3D glasses directly onto his palm.

The methods by which each player entered and exited plot fragments varied wildly. The otaku used a dimensional elevator, the bespectacled man used laser glasses, and Wu Chen used a red telephone booth, perfectly fitting the sanctuary world's consistent setting of diversity.

The dimensions of the circular portal were just right to accommodate a single compact vehicle. The entire process, from construction to activation, was completed entirely by the black-rimmed glasses worn on the prosthetics doctor's face—simple yet advanced.

"0326, please enter."

"How do I return?" For the sake of caution, Wu Chen wanted to clarify.

Li Xiaoxian handed the pair of disposable 3D glasses—resembling those given away for free at movie theaters—to Wu Chen: "Put on the glasses, and the portal will open."

"Got it." Wu Chen took the disposable glasses and casually tossed them into the glove box, while the onboard central intelligence covertly began analyzing them.

"Just finish the shooting. Be extremely careful and avoid any complications." Watching the AE86 drive into the portal, Li Xiaoxian could not help offering a final word of caution.

"See you later." Wu Chen lightly pressed the accelerator, and the AE86 vanished in a flash.

Sparks flew from the portal as it collapsed with a loud bang.

By the time Li Xiaoxian steadied himself against his glasses frame and struggled back to his feet, Wu Chen and the AE86 had completely disappeared. Within the vast flat board base, only Li Xiaoxian's murmured whisper remained:

"Please, let nothing go wrong..."