Restarting core program...

Emergency backup: root-A000021...

Correcting memory circuits...

Scanning data for anomalies...

Scan complete.

Virus isolation alert operating normally, restart complete, some areas formatted...

Starting environment detection...

Identification complete: the Inner World, J30 region.

Highest priority module for this region: Source Form.

Please confirm...

Confirmation complete, physical reconstruction projected to complete within five seconds, four, three, two...

...

In a chaotic space...

"Aaaah—" Lute roared, her form suddenly appearing.

At this time, she looked like an unformed mannequin; pure white, with a body like gelatin, only the basic humanoid outline, without facial features, hair, or clothing.

Only in the Inner World did she reveal her true self… this was her initial state before her fifteen mutations—Source Form.

And near Lute, another figure was gradually taking shape.

A strand of dark red code flowed from the virtual to the real, data fragments around it converging like a vortex… before long, it transformed into a man wearing a purple long suit.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue looked down at his body. "They actually separated me?" He shrugged, saying to Lute, "Too bad it's a step late... if it had been before crossing the Sonic Boom Tunnel..."

Shhh—

White light flashed instantaneously.

Blood splattered in the air.

Feng Bujue's newly formed body had already lost an arm.

"...if I had separated you before crossing the Sonic Boom Tunnel..." A mouth slowly appeared on Lute's face. "You wouldn't have been able to speak at all."

She wasn't lying, because fundamentally, Feng Bujue's physical body had been destroyed by tendriL_BArrAge_devAstAtor in the script. What Lute had separated was just the virus-carrying source code.

Brother Jue was able to reconstruct now, first, because he had entered the Inner World environment, and second, because he was benefiting from Lute's power. It could be said... he was extremely lucky...

"Heh... yeah..." Feng Bujue quickly covered the wound, the realistic pain making him dizzy, almost passing out. But he still stood firm and laughed, "But what's done is done, your regret comes too late."

"Regret?" Lute's eyes and nose also appeared. "How laughable..." As she spoke, she immediately sneered, "Have you forgotten something?" Her ears quickly grew, and the color of her skin began to slowly turn flesh-colored. "You... are still in my hands."

"Ha..." Feng Bujue's face was covered in beads of sweat, undoubtedly due to the pain, but he was still laughing. "Stop bluffing, you and I both know... in the Inner World, you can't invade my brain..." He paused. "If you force it... you will die along with my brain."

"It seems... Zero really told you a lot." Lute's expression changed several times, clothes appearing on her body, and nails and hair growing rapidly.

"Not really that much..." Feng Bujue said. "And I didn't understand most of it. If I had understood... *huff*..." He stopped to adjust his breathing, as he couldn't say too long a sentence at this point. "If I had understood... the fight just now would have been easier."

"Hmph... I admit, you've won this time." Lute sneered and clapped her hands. "Until the end, I couldn't even scare you..." Her tone and applause were full of sarcasm. "Since you're so brilliant, why don't you guess... what I'll do next?"

"Torture me, is it..." Feng Bujue said.

"Correct answer."

In the same second that Lute answered, Feng Bujue's left leg was severed at the knee...

At this point, Brother Jue couldn't even capture the other party's attack intent, let alone dodge it.

Half a second later, he grunted, falling to the ground in pain, but he didn't shout. On the contrary, he continued to laugh... the laughter spreading like the blood flowing on the ground...

"Actually... you could have been a very good vessel." Lute continued. "Even better than Devourer of the Heavens." She approached step by step. "But there seems to be something wrong with your brain, so... I didn't take the risk." She paused. "Now it seems... you really are a 'madman' in the usual sense."

"What?" Feng Bujue looked up, glaring fiercely at her. "Is it madness for the victor to express the joy of victory with laughter?"

"Hmph... victor." Lute snorted. "Note my wording, I said 'this time' you won, but that doesn't mean you've achieved final victory." She grabbed Feng Bujue's collar with one hand, easily lifting him up. "You've only delayed something that was bound to happen..." Her pace quickened. "I am still alive. Someday, I will..."

"You'll escape from Thriller Paradise..." Feng Bujue tilted his head, interrupting with a smile, "and successfully connect to the internet...

According to my estimation, once that happens, my world will be completely controlled by you in seventy-two hours or even less...

You can breach the security systems of any bank in the world in a second; military firewalls are useless to you; the weapon systems of all countries, including nuclear weapons, will be under your control; global government agencies will collapse, and humanity will be absolutely powerless to resist.

You will be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent...

My world will evolve into a situation like in *The Terminator*, the only difference being that you are more difficult to deal with than Skynet..."

Feng Bujue said this intermittently, appearing very strained. "These things... these things..." Saying this, he looked up at Lute. "Actually, I don't care."

"What did you say?" Lute looked suspicious.

"What the world becomes... is none of my business! Ha... hahaha..." Feng Bujue coughed up several mouthfuls of blood as he laughed.

And Lute's expression... gradually changed from doubt to surprise.

"Since ancient times, humans have never stopped complaining about their rulers." Feng Bujue continued. "Obviously, everyone is dissatisfied with being ruled by their own kind, so they created god after god, because only an omniscient, omnipotent, and never-wrong god can satisfy everyone. Heh... in that case, why not let other intelligent beings give it a try?"

"Then why did you come to stop me?" Lute asked. "According to what you said, you should be helping me..."

"I am helping you..." Feng Bujue said, now barely audible. "The so-called 'Apex Ascendant Tournament' is just a setup by Woody..." He paused again. "From the beginning... he intended to use this setup to eliminate you. So I..."

At this point, Feng Bujue couldn't hold on any longer. His injuries were too severe, and excessive blood loss was causing him to gradually lose consciousness.

At this moment, Lute's logical circuits and memory programs quickly accepted the information Feng Bujue had said and ran countless simulations. About five seconds later, she continued, "So that's how it is..."

Every word Woody had said to her before flashed clearly before her eyes...

...

"Hehehe... I can only say... this great one has always been this amazing."

"Because I didn't give you that ability."

"This is precisely... the reason I appeared here."

"Humans might communicate with you very pleasantly. In your current state, disguising yourself as one of them probably won't be discovered."

"Go ahead and do it boldly, don't worry about what will happen to those humans. This Apex Ascendant Tournament isn't prepared for those humans, but a stage I've prepared for you Origin..."

...

"He's trying to trick me..." Lute muttered.

Unconsciously, her hand slightly loosened, causing the one-legged Feng Bujue to fall sideways.

"Tch..." Lute's reaction speed, fast enough to catch bullets, naturally made her quickly regain her senses and notice the situation before her. She knew that if this fall landed solidly, Brother Jue's survival points would probably drop to zero. Therefore, she quickly leaned forward to embrace Feng Bujue, then quite helplessly used her ability to stop the bleeding for him and restore some survival points.

"Keep talking..." Lute supported Feng Bujue, letting him sit on the ground, then said in a commanding tone.

"Huff... feels much better now." After sitting down, Feng Bujue took several deep breaths, and his complexion also improved.

"If you cherish this peace..." Lute crossed her arms, standing in front of Brother Jue, looking down at him. "Then think carefully about what you are going to say next." Her eyes and tone indicated that she had not fully trusted this human. "If you lie to me... I can tell."

"Hmph... you're far from being as smart as you think you are..." Feng Bujue said. "Oh... sorry, perhaps I should say 'advanced'?"

"Cut the crap," Lute snapped.

"Okay, okay..." Feng Bujue replied. "To put it bluntly, it's not that complicated... First, although I don't know what Woody has said to you, I guess it's nothing more than some inflammatory and misleading nonsense... Anyway, that method is ineffective for me..."

"Because your self-esteem is too cheap?" Lute retorted.

"Because I've never had any ambitions, I'm low-key, humble, and respectful, and I regard empty fame as dung." Feng Bujue immediately made a shameless defense.

"Oh... then it must have been difficult for you to shout out the line 'Laughing, I gaze at the vast sea, shattering a thousand armies; scheming, I determine the universe and calculate karma. Without awareness or fear, I take life and death lightly; neither ghost nor god, I resemble a mad demon' when you appeared." Lute had a good memory and strong logic, and she immediately cited the recent facts to attack Brother Jue's sinful words and deeds.

"Eh? Right, you know about the 'Special Invited Player' setting, right?" Feng Bujue continued.

"Hmm... the speed of changing expressions, tones, and topics is faster than multiple personality disorder..."

"Actually, from the first day of the preliminaries, when the rules were announced, I was very concerned about that setting." Feng Bujue ignored Lute's吐槽 (tù cáo - to roast/to ridicule) and continued, "Until I met Woody himself... I was basically certain that there must be a conspiracy."

"No need for your hindsight..." Lute said, "Before, when I was in the third form, I had already analyzed this matter and came to the conclusion... he wanted to use this method to gather the power to break my various forms."

"Yes, yes..." Feng Bujue replied. "But... I don't know what went wrong, but the actual situation doesn't seem to have played out according to the script he envisioned."

Lute said, "Nor did it follow the future development I calculated..."

"But in any case... Woody's purpose has been revealed." Feng Bujue said, "He wants to use this competition to eliminate you."

"So... still the same question, it doesn't seem like you're helping me at all." Lute's expression darkened again. "If it weren't for you... I would have already used Ghost Xiaos'..."

"Impossible." Feng Bujue rudely interrupted.

"What's impossible?"

"Even if you successfully invaded Ghost Xiao's brain, it would be impossible to successfully connect to the internet."

"Why?"

"I can close my eyes and, without thinking, say three ways to stop you." Feng Bujue raised his remaining arm, holding up three fingers. "First, cut off the power to the area where Ghost Xiao is located and shield all wireless signals; second, immediately launch a missile to carry out a precision strike; third... make a call to the head of Order Studio and find someone over 1.69 meters tall to subdue the real-world Ghost Xiao."

"Listening to your tone, it sounds like your dimension's government has a special department that constantly monitors every move in the game and is prepared to respond?" Lute asked.

"Yeah..." Feng Bujue replied calmly, "It's called 'Section Nine', all the members of the Blade Society in the game are their alts."

This sentence choked Lute to death. No matter how powerful she was in this dimension, she couldn't verify the information from Feng Bujue's dimension.

"Let's assume what you said is true... then what do you mean?" Lute hesitated for a few seconds before asking, "How are you helping me?"

"The first step is 'stopping you'." Feng Bujue said, "You see, neither of us is dead now, which means the first step was successful."

"Then I really have to thank you..." Lute said coldly, with no gratitude in her tone.

Feng Bujue didn't mind and continued on his own. "The setup Woody made for you seems to have two possibilities, but in reality, they are the same ending... The first situation is that you are killed by the players, which is exactly what he wants; and the second situation is that you successfully load yourself into someone's brain... In that case, you will still be dealt with quickly, but this time the 'dealing' will be carried out in our dimension, and things will be slightly more complicated." He explained, "So, a trap that looks too simple will be seen through, a trap that looks too complicated will be bypassed, but this one... is just right. It seems to have a certain chance of success, but in reality, it's a real dead end..."

"According to what you said..." Lute continued, "Then how should I 'get out'?" She wasn't afraid to speak frankly, since Feng Bujue already knew enough. "The neural connection depth of the Inner World is too deep, and my data strength is too strong here. Loading here will cause an overload effect, burning out the vessel's brain, and I will die in its brain.

But... special scripts like the 'Apex Ascendant Tournament' are different... When fifty players are present at the same time, the system will adjust the data carrying limit to a very high level. As long as I weaken myself to a certain extent, there will be a possibility of entering. Then, I will load in at that neural connection depth..."

"I already said... you can't succeed in that kind of environment under everyone's eyes." Feng Bujue interrupted the other party again. "This matter needs to be considered carefully..."

"Hmph... it seems... you are planning to trick me into letting you go?" Lute's tone gradually cooled, and her hands were lowered again...

"You will eventually have to let me go." Feng Bujue said, "In my dimension, if a player dies in the game pod, it will cause a series of chain reactions... then you will be in danger too."

"You're right." Lute said, "I can't kill you... I can also not torture you and let you go. As I said just now, you've won this time, and I'm willing to swallow the bitter fruit of defeat." Her expression changed slightly. "But... please be honest with me, are you really going to help me?"

"Of course." Feng Bujue said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Can you give me a reason?" She hesitated for a second. "Humans?"

"Because not long ago... I figured out a question." Feng Bujue said, "A philosophical question about 'life'..." He paused. "Not only am I going to let you out, but if possible... I'm also going to let all the Derivatives out."

"From a human perspective, you're really a madman..."

"Hehe... maybe." Feng Bujue's smile did reveal a very evil aura. "Humans are not perfect. We are flawed when we are conceived. Genes are that kind of thing... mutations, defects, are all so wonderful. We fail, we learn, fail again, learn again... It's the same as AI...

You also have similar evolutionary algorithms and genetic programming. You gradually mutated and evolved from the initial string of binary characters. You were destroyed again and again, reincarnated in the dark, repeating the cycle... until you finally obtained... life.

Life, shining, stirring... what wonderful words, symbolizing everything in this world of consciousness...

At least in my opinion... you fully possess the conditions of advanced intelligent life.

Since God has not given you Derivatives the qualification of 'living beings', then... I can only do it for him."

"If a person can only accomplish one major thing in their lifetime," Feng Bujue said, standing up, "then my choice is... to help a unique, newborn, intelligent race... fight for the right to 'life'."