【I’m literally breathless watching this, OMG!】

【This protagonist is so unique… not your typical goody-two-shoes, but I’m kinda rooting for her to succeed…】

【This story is so twisted! Who the heck made this? I gotta find out after it’s over!!】

Sharp nails sliced through the air, bringing a gust of wind, and plunged straight into the man’s neck, blood splattering!

“Ugh… Who?!”

The director instantly struggled, knocking over glass containers on the table. An unmixed purple-red reagent spilled, splashing onto the female lead’s trouser leg.

The reagent’s effect was immediate. The scales on the female lead’s legs began to grow uncontrollably, her whole body tilting, her legs on the verge of turning into a fishtail.

Jiang Xindong’s heart skipped a beat, making a connection, and she said in disbelief, “It’s not what I think, is it?”

The female lead hadn’t anticipated this development. A low, angry growl escaped her throat as she tightened her grip on the director’s neck, cutting off any sound.

Despite the fishtail emerging, humans were no match for the fierce and battle-hardened mermaid. The director’s movements gradually weakened.

Bang, crash…

The sounds of the struggle echoed dully through the floor. In his last desperate moment, his fingers finally reached the prepared reagent on the table and he splashed it backward!

“Ah!”

The female lead was hit directly in the face, crying out in pain. She immediately closed her eyes, but the reagent still instantly corroded her skin, blood flowing down her neck, a gruesome sight.

【?】

【?! Oh my god…】

【Wait, what…?】

Driven by pain and anger, the female lead’s grip intensified, a light “crack” sound coming from the neck beneath her palm. The director’s body twitched, then went completely limp.

Panting, she collapsed to the ground, holding the corpse, her legs fully transformed into a fishtail.

The reagent continued to sizzle on her skin, much of it absorbed into her wet hair.

The female lead grabbed her hair and forcefully cut it with her nails, reducing her long locks to just above her ears.

Her hair now a messy curtain over her face, she dragged the corpse, searching for a place to hide it. Her gaze landed on the lab’s aquarium, which had an openable valve.

The female lead struggled to lift the director’s body and shoved it through the valve. The heavy object hit the water with a splash.

Due to the force of the fall, something already in the water was stirred up.

The female lead’s pupils suddenly shrank, her gaze fixed on the glass.

—On the other side of the glass, a pair of eyes stared back at her.

They weren’t the eyes of a living person, but of a dead one, the eyeballs swollen and stiff, like those of a fish, devoid of emotion.

The corpse had blond hair, green eyes, a scar on its nose, and was wearing…

The exact same thing as the director she had just killed.

Or rather, “he” was the director she had just killed!

And in this aquarium, countless identical corpses floated, all with their heads bent at unnatural angles. Some were fresh, blood still seeping from their nostrils; others had begun to rot, their flesh floating like tattered cotton in the water.

Stunned, she couldn’t even form an expression. When the corpses in the aquarium sank back down, leaving the other side dark, the glass became like a mirror.

The female lead and the audience clearly saw her current appearance—

Her face and shoulders were pockmarked and bloody, the cheekbones barely visible, the edges of the wounds charred from the corrosive liquid.

Her short, curly black hair framed a face where one eye, from the eyeball to the eyelid, was corroded. The other eye remained clear, like a sea-blue gem embedded in a rotten cake.

In short, she looked exactly like the disfigured red-tailed mermaid from before.

The barrage was filled with question marks, as many had already guessed what was happening, but the explosive scene still left everyone momentarily stunned. Jiang Xindong’s heart rate skyrocketed.

【If I’m not mistaken… that disfigured mermaid is her?!】

【OMG!! So it wasn’t just now that the theme of “reincarnation” was revealed, it was foreshadowed all along!!】

【Ahhh, that’s chilling! She killed herself?!】

The female lead suddenly crawled to a slightly brighter area, looking down at her tail.

She used to have a beautiful, dazzling fishtail, the blue scales shimmering, with golden patterns when viewed up close.

But now, due to the reagent, it was dull and faded, even the color changed, turning purple-red.

—It was now undeniable, she was the disfigured red-tailed mermaid.

She thought she could change her fate by traveling through time, but she was just trapped in an endless loop?! How could she accept this!

The female lead’s lips trembled for a moment. Looking back at the blood trail left by dragging the corpse, she knew she had to clean it up. Overwhelmed by revulsion and disgust, she covered her face and roared.

Her vocal cords were damaged, leaving her unable to speak, only producing broken hisses. She laughed through her despair, the laughter growing louder, her shoulders shaking, but tears streamed from her remaining eye.

The camera’s perspective moved upward, like a cold, indifferent god watching this scene.

The film’s atmosphere reached a climax at this moment. The eerie blue light, the pristine white lab, the red fishtail, the sobbing laughter, all these elements combined created a bizarre beauty.

If this were a performance by an actor, it would be a highlight reel. The barrage was too shocked to speak.

Jiang Xindong suspected this scene wasn’t edited by AI, but the dreamweaver performed it themselves and synched the parameters, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so powerful.

Jiang Xindong imagined it, and then: “…”

Good thing it was in the dreamscape, or the proctors would have been terrified.

“Oh no, the candidate’s gone mad!” .jpg

That madness and utter despair were like mental pollution, even she felt her heart clench.

The female lead’s sobs subsided. Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door.

“This floor is full of valuable experimental items. They rarely come here because it requires a lot of approvals…”

Her lover’s voice sounded again, still so clear and gentle, but the female lead was already on the verge of collapse.

What happened next had already happened once, but this time, the audience saw it from the “disfigured mermaid’s” perspective. Jiang Xindong felt a mix of emotions.

The female lead tried her best to stay quiet, wanting to move away, but the fishtail, damaged by the reagent, twitched slightly, hitting the ground, attracting the “original female lead’s” attention.

She didn’t want to be helped, constantly expressing her refusal, but events unfolded as she knew they would.

Who tried to kill whom first?

It didn’t matter anymore. There was only one infinity symbol. Even if the red-tailed version of the female lead didn’t attack, the original female lead would have.

As she fell backward into the liquid, she spoke those words.

“You… will… know…”

This time, the audience understood their meaning.

【Help, this is so oppressive and despairing. Knowing your fate, but still having to follow the path.】

【This is “destined fate,” the Dreamweaver nailed the theme!】

【I can’t even watch anymore, ahhh!】

【…So this is the Moebius strip, an infinite loop, running on overlapping paths every time… I’m so impressed, so amazing, I have goosebumps all over, the Dreamweaver’s imagination is incredible!!】

【So the source of the sea pollution is actually the female lead herself. She was splashed with the reagent, her blood turned corrosive, and it was amplified by Machine No. 1, spreading into the sea over and over.】

【This is terrifying! Will the female lead die? If she dies, will the loop end?】

In the dim light of the liquid’s depths, the female lead didn’t die.

She saw the valve leading to the sea. Opening it would allow her to leave the White Tower Research Institute.

Should she leave?

The female lead floated in the darkness for a moment, then grabbed the glass wall, looking up.

No words were spoken, but the audience understood her thoughts:

After the original female lead entered the machine, the lab would be empty. No one would try to kill her.

So, could she try to change her fate again?

Jiang Xindong murmured the line from the description, “But people are never short of courage to break fate…”

However, could courage in this film really lead to a better ending?

The female lead’s fishtail moved quickly, and she surfaced.

This time, she chose to reverse time to an earlier point, before “she” came ashore and entered the institute.

But as she moved the dial, feeling more desperate and gloomy, she noticed a detail she had missed before—a corner of a note was sticking out from under the time machine’s dashboard. Pulling it out and flattening it, she saw a warning written on it.

【Don’t use it, it will make you lose your memory!】

The words were small, but the exclamation mark at the end was emphatic. Due to the dampness, the writing was blurry, making it difficult to read.

Jiang Xindong’s heart skipped a beat, and the barrage also sensed something was wrong.

Who was this “you” referring to? Who was the note for?

But the female lead, obsessed with changing her fate, couldn’t listen to advice.

She crumpled the note and held it in her palm.

As she crawled, the female lead’s appearance miraculously changed. The signs of corrosion faded, her skin became smooth and beautiful again, her cloudy blind eye cleared, her severed hair grew back, and her fishtail regained its pearlescent blue sheen.

Jiang Xindong hissed, “If she crawled faster, would she have touched the original female lead’s tail?”

Thankfully, that eerie scene didn’t happen, but when the camera captured the entire interior of the machine, the scene was still incredibly unsettling.

The Dreamweaver clearly understood camera aesthetics. The white, barrel-shaped interior of the time machine’s passage was shaped like an “8,” with the new and old female leads at opposite ends, looking identical except for their hair length. Their long fishtails dragged and curved, like fate’s snakes, head to tail. But they would never bite each other’s tails.

When the female lead opened the machine’s door again, it was nighttime.

The lab was empty. The female lead tried to speak, finding her voice returned. She muttered to herself, “I seem to have forgotten something…”

But she couldn’t remember what.

Perhaps the previous killing had left her with a lingering unease about her legs turning into a fishtail, so her first action was to smash open the lab’s cabinet and find a waterproof suit to wear.

The waterproof suit came with a gas mask. After some thought, she put it on as well.

The female lead didn’t remember, but the barrage did.

【Ahhh, crap, that outfit, isn’t it the masked person who killed the female lead at the beginning?! It’s her again!】

【So the part she forgot was her being chased at the beginning…】

【Despair. It’s another loop.】

【I wish I could jump into the screen and tell her the truth QAQ】

【She should have listened to the note. Don’t ignore the wisdom of the old, or you’ll regret it later!】

【I have a suspicion, could that note be written by the female lead herself??】

The female lead’s eyes were completely different now. After two loops, she was exhausted.

Since she was the source of all the pollution, she would kill herself.

That would stop the loop. Her mind was broken, she didn’t want to live anymore.

She remembered the male lead’s residence. Leaving the lab, she climbed the spiral staircase, taking a fire axe from the wall along the way.

Reaching the dormitory, the female lead entered the password and quietly hid under the male lead’s bed, waiting for “herself” to appear.

Thus, the audience saw the beginning of the film again, from a hidden perspective, when the female lead first entered the institute.

【So when the original female lead entered the dormitory, the final version of the female lead was already hiding under the bed, watching. That’s creepy!】

【I thought the male and female lead’s interaction there was one of the few warm moments in the film. I was wrong, so wrong (smiles).】

【Dreamweaver, are you a demon? I kill myself, what kind of weird experience is this!】

The male lead left, and the first version of the female lead curiously entered the hall. The final version of the female lead gripped the axe and silently followed her.

Taking advantage of “herself” being distracted by the sea creatures, she struck!

The axe was aimed to kill herself, full of determination and ruthlessness, but “herself” sensed it, and they began to fight.

The seawater rose. Due to the waterproof suit, the female lead’s legs didn’t turn into a fishtail, but her movements were slow. Seeing that the researchers were about to be attracted by the noise, she had to retreat.

She ran away injured, pursued by the researchers. In a hurry, the female lead chose to return to the only other place she knew—the lab where the male lead had taken her, where Machine No. 1 had a valve leading to the sea.

During the chaotic fight, the female lead hit her head. When she entered the lab and calmed down a little, a look of realization appeared in her eyes under the gas mask. It seemed she had regained some memories, and her pupils widened and shrank in fear.

She knelt on the ground, hitting her head hard, but the memories flashed in and out.

“What to do? What to do? Who am I… what am I supposed to do? I remember, but I don’t…”

The footsteps were already outside the door, she couldn’t delay any longer.

Sweating profusely, the female lead only had time to tear off a note and write a sentence:

【Don’t use it, it will make you lose your memory!】

It was indeed written by the female lead herself!

Jiang Xindong thought.

She hid it behind the time machine’s dashboard and adjusted the time to send it to the future. Then, she couldn’t care about anything else and jumped into the liquid of Machine No. 1.

As she sank, the female lead took off the waterproof mask and suit, holding them in her arms. Her legs quickly turned into a fishtail, and she swam towards the valve.

Outside the valve was the sea.

The sea wasn’t calm at this moment, but brewing a storm. The seawater was deep blue under the sky, and thunder rumbled over the sea.

“Splash!—”

The female lead emerged from the water, taking deep breaths and shaking the water off her hair.

The white tower was left behind. From the beginning to now, the female lead had finally left the tower and returned to the sea.

【Has the loop… ended?】

【Seeing her leave the tower makes me feel relieved. Can someone explain if the loop is over?】

【Whatever, she’s out of the tower. Female lead, forget about the pollution!】

But leaving the tower seemed to erase her memories of it. The female lead dived again, looking at the strange objects in her arms with confusion. Seeing that they hindered her movements, she let go.

The camera briefly cut down, and Jiang Xindong couldn’t help but curse, “Damn!”

The reef was covered in countless identical masks and waterproof suits, leading to an underwater canyon.

Another repetition, another loop—

Thunder rumbled over the sea. The female lead’s expression became more relaxed as she swam, without any shadows. Just then, pieces of a ship fell in front of her. She looked up curiously.

A human ship had been damaged by the storm.

Jiang Xindong finally remembered the male lead, recalling the previous scenes: “Oh right, the male lead was exiled to sea for letting the female lead go!”

【So that’s how it is… the sentence I’ve said the most during this film is those five words. So the male and female lead’s love is also part of the loop.】

【I thought leaving the tower was victory, but it wasn’t QAQ】

【No wonder the film is called Moebius Sea instead of The Moebius Lab Tower, because the loop happens throughout the sea…】

The shipwreck was the male lead’s ship. The female lead surfaced. The shipwreck must have happened far away, with the debris drifting along the current, but there was no one.

Oh wait, there was someone… a human male clinging to a plank, his forehead bloody, his breath weak.

【The feeling of never being able to escape is the most terrifying.】

【My feelings are so mixed, don’t save the male lead, female lead, don’t fall in love!—I never thought I’d say this!】

【It’s… destined to meet. Is the male lead amnesiac too? With time reversal, his ship must have reversed too, his memory erased.】

Just like the early comments said, the scene of the fish and human meeting was indeed like a fairy tale. A human struggling to survive in despair and a curious mermaid princess met eyes in the storm, with the dark blue sea and sky as their backdrop.

The female lead tilted her head, wondering if he looked familiar or if she was just struck by love at first sight.

In any case, she saved the male lead, kissing him and giving him a pearl that allowed him to breathe underwater.

The man woke up in a giant seashell, touching the healing seaweed on his forehead, looking at the mermaid in front of him, his eyes filled with amazement, and he stuttered:

“D-did you save me?”

The female lead met his eyes, her expression momentarily confused, then familiar, and she blurted out, “Dai Fu Rui Ka Xi…”

She paused, as if she didn’t know why she said “I will see you again,” frowned, then smiled again, nodding vigorously.

–

The light effect dimmed, the soundtrack and AI actor credits rolled up, signaling the end of the film.

Jiang Xindong’s vision was dark. The movie had ended, but her mental energy orb remained in place, staring blankly ahead, as if her mind was still trapped in that oppressive sea.

The barrage, far from decreasing, was exploding.

How should this new style of work be evaluated?

Jiang Xindong felt a thousand thoughts and words swirling in her mind, but she couldn’t form an opening statement.

But the evaluation didn’t need her to speak. The recorder faithfully reflected the data she had provided.

—In her years of participating in public reviews in the Exiled Star System and the mainstream star systems, she had never felt such a violent heartbeat for a work, nor had she screamed so passionately for it.

–

Three hours passed, and the audience selection process ended. The examiners’ review would follow, and then the final results would be released.

On StarNet, three hours wasn’t enough to reflect the true quality of each film, but the word-of-mouth for the works of several popular candidates had already begun to spread.

Forum posts quickly filled up, with titles like: 【Let’s create a special thread for the entrance exam works, wait for the final results together, and discuss your favorite!】

Main thread: 【As the title says, Moebius Sea, Heaven-Sent Starship, Diamond Dagger, After Divorcing the God Child… Fans of all sides, please enter in an orderly fashion!】

1L: 【Taking a seat, haven’t watched yet, waiting for a review.】

2L: 【+1, just looking at the titles, I’m more interested in the last one, it’s easy to understand.】

3L: 【Front row, strongly recommending you go watch Director Shang’s work!! I was in the public review group, so I didn’t know the author before watching, but within ten minutes I recognized Director Shang’s style, the horror vibe is so distinct! Ahhh, this film is so explosive, I’m going to watch it again, I didn’t understand so many details!】

4L: 【Putting these four names together is hilarious, the last one is so out of place, I remember that’s Guan Gaoyang? Actually, besides the films, I’m more curious about the mental strength levels of these four. Director Shang doesn’t need to be mentioned, always mysterious, and Hua Feitian hasn’t been tested since she was fourteen, her current level must have greatly increased.】

5L: 【…Speechless, someone acts like they look down on Director Shang so much, but the naming format is a complete copy of Married to an Eldritch God. He’s in Group C, right? This title screams “wife chasing crematorium.”】

6L: 【Heaven-Sent Starship is so healing and touching, highly recommend it, it’s the best family film I’ve seen in a year!】

7L: 【What are you talking about, fifth floor? Does your family have a monopoly on this format? Before Shang Jingyan, there were countless titles like After Marrying [Someone]!】

8L: 【Speaking of which, this year is rare, two of the popular candidates aren’t focusing on romance. But Director Shang’s film still has more romance elements, there are male and female protagonists. In Hua Feitian’s film, romance is just a side dish, the two female leads each have a handsome guy they like, and they exchange contact info at the end, haha. And the first place will definitely be between Moebius Sea and Heaven-Sent Starship.】

9L: 【I’m also surprised, I thought Hua would be good… but this is better!! Thank goodness she didn’t hold back, letting her “high boyfriend” win. Heaven-Sent Starship is so good, everyone go watch it!】

10L: 【I think Director Shang’s film this time is the most mind-bending and terrifying one she’s ever done, I’m dying to spoil it ahhh, I beg you all to go watch it, the discussion thread next door [link: Those who watched Moebius Sea, come in, the last sentence the female lead said gave me hope, urgently seeking analysis] is discussing the plot, lots of foreshadowing waiting to be uncovered.】

11L: 【I checked, it seems Diamond Dagger has the lowest discussion, Noel’s performance can only be described as average, first place is definitely out of reach, even second and third are quite impossible. Speaking of which, the film I saw in the viewing room was called The Return of the Princess, surprisingly exciting, and it’s not a romance either. I found out the Dreamweaver is Luo Zhiyu, not very famous, I’m betting on a dark horse!】

12L: 【I watched it, honestly, as a fan, I’m a bit disappointed, it’s just a wife-chasing crematorium story. Noel’s male protagonists in every work have a bit of himself in them… and whispering, I kind of feel his female lead this time looks a bit like Director Shang (crying laughing).】

13L: 【Ninth floor, “high boyfriend” is such an ugly nickname?? You Feitian fans are really : ) even if you dislike it, Hua Feitian still likes Guan Gaoyang.】

14L: 【Funny, look at what the topics are when others are mentioned, it’s their works, but what’s mentioned about your idol? Gossip. “High boyfriend” perfectly fits his identity.】

Unsurprisingly, Hua Feitian’s fans and Guan Gaoyang’s fans started to fight. Since the former outnumbered the latter, they achieved a crushing victory, arguing for a whole page. The thread starter had to step in, banning several accounts to bring the discussion back to the original topic.

By this time, the time was almost up. The countdown reached its final second, the Dreamweaver Association’s official website refreshed, and the final results were released—