Chapter 1 "Ha... Haa..."

Deep breaths, heavy deep breaths.

"Ha... Haa..."

Between cycles of inhalation and exhalation, the data floating in the air gradually solidified into a humanoid being.

At this moment, the body of v1-War God was essentially complete. Overall, his appearance resembled a human male, but his lower body lacked sexual characteristics. His body was composed of a tough, dense, unknown substance. On the surface, it seemed to be a leather-like material, but in reality... its hardness and toughness were unparalleled.

"Ha... Haa..." After another deep breath, v1-War God stood up.

The contours of his muscles were sculpted to perfection. Many black stripes coiled around his brown-yellow body, making him look like a humanoid tiger from a distance.

"Hoo--" The last breath was exhaled.

From this second onward, v1-War God no longer needed to breathe.

"It's always so painful..." he muttered, his mouth shaped exactly like a human's, "It's like doing several tens of minutes of anaerobic exercise continuously..."

As he spoke, he raised his head and began to observe his surroundings.

v1-War God had only one eye on his face, but this eye was enormous and had a wider field of vision than ordinary people. His ears were rectangular, closely attached to both sides of his head, each only three centimeters long. In addition, he had no nose and no hair...

Of course, such a creature was not that rare in the Monster Kingdom.

"Oh? So it's the Monster Kingdom..." v1-War God only glanced at the surrounding data composition before knowing which universe he was in. He muttered to himself, "It's also a place with plenty of 'food'... Heh... Quickly deal with those humans, and then enjoy the hunt..."

His words stopped abruptly because, at this moment, he saw the player list...

"Heh... Hehehe... Hahahaha..." v1-War God burst into laughter, "Feng Bujue! Hahahaha... Good! Very good..." His huge eye widened, his face showing a grim expression, "As long as I destroy your data here... then the internal strife of Origin will also cease, right?"

As he spoke, white light floated in his eyes, indicating that he had activated the remote scanning mode.

Remote data recognition:

-- Breaking through the firewall...

-- Downloading data...

-- Initiating counter-strategies...

External shape recognition database is starting, downloading, writing, correcting, writing, writing.

[Name: Feng Bujue]

[Faction: Player]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 43]

[Height: 179 cm]

[...]

-- Unknown error detected...

-- Re-establishing counter-strategies...

[Warning, abnormal data feedback detected!]

[Attack by unknown code detected.]

-- External firewall has been breached...

-- Emergency shutdown of remote operation plan...

"Ugh--" The scan was forced to stop. V1-War God cried out in shock and immediately fell to his knees.

He supported himself with his hands on the ground, a look of extreme pain on his face. In the same second, the white light in his eyes gradually dimmed and turned... black...

"What is this!" v1-War God covered his head with his hands, as if struggling with something inside his body. He was trembling violently all over, "How could this be... This guy... Isn't he human? Why is this happening!"

[Emergency isolation measures have been completed, the middle-level firewall is partially damaged, and the virus code library has been updated.]

-- Checking the status of the core firewall...

[The core firewall is intact, the cleanup operation has been initiated, and the firewall repair operation has been initiated.]

Bang--

v1-War God angrily threw a punch, leaving a fist mark on the floor: "Damn it! He tricked me..."

After saying this, he rested for about two minutes before standing up again: "Is that bastard a humanoid virus... No, that's not right... It's definitely not an ordinary virus... The level of that set of code just now was unprecedented... Even a derivative like me..." v1 seemed to have thought of something, but he didn't continue to think about it, because he already knew... thinking about the following was superfluous.

...

At the same time, in the Ghostly Electric Company, Security Department, Main Control Room.

"He's here!" Feng Bujue, standing in the center of the room, said loudly, "Level One!"

At this moment, Ruoyu, Xiao Tan, Xiao Ling, Juan Meng Huan, and Tan Lang had all come to this room (Xiao Tan was led over). When they heard Brother Jue speak, they immediately became nervous.

[Main Quest Triggered] The system prompt rang a beat slower than Feng Bujue's reaction.

The players summoned the game menu to check, and saw a very simple and clear instruction in the quest bar: [Kill v1-War God.]

"Something's not right..." Tan Lang immediately said, "The version patch didn't say... that in scripts encountering derivatives, players can choose to kill or help the derivatives?" He paused, "But in this script... the system didn't even give a synopsis, and the first main quest is actually ordering us to kill that derivative?"

"Didn't I already tell you, we've encountered a formidable character this time," Feng Bujue replied, slightly turning his head. "To solve him, the system can't care about that anymore..."

"Brother Feng," Juan Meng Huan looked at Brother Jue's back with a strange look and asked, "I'm not that I don't trust you, but I can't help but ask... how exactly do you know all this?"

"No comment." Feng Bujue crossed his arms over his chest and replied without turning his head.

"Heh... Hehe... Okay..." Facing this answer, Juan Meng Huan really had nothing to say.

"I say... that what's-his-name... the scarred face." Two seconds later, Brother Jue turned his head to look at Freddy and said, "Your surveillance footage seems incomplete?"

"Mr. Feng... you can call me Freddy, really..." Freddy replied with a pained expression.

"That kind of thing doesn't matter, just answer my question quickly," Brother Jue added.

"Ha..." Freddy sighed helplessly and replied, "There aren't any in the toilets, changing rooms, and bathrooms, and... the underground storage room has fewer cameras, only..."

"Send a few people over to take a look," Feng Bujue interrupted before he could finish.

"Mr. Feng... don't go too far." Duo Mu, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore, "You better understand your position." She glanced at Brother Jue and his companions. "So far, you and your team have done nothing constructive other than threatening, beating our employees, and creating chaos for us... What qualifications do you have to give orders here?"

"Alright, alright..." Freddy said, holding his forehead. "Duo Mu, take two people and go take a look yourself."

Freddy was still sensible. He knew that if Duo Mu stayed here, she would easily get into an argument with Feng Bujue, so he simply sent her away.

As an employee, Duo Mu didn't dare to disobey, so she simply said "Yes" and left with two Ironblood security guards.

"Mr. Feng..." After Duo Mu left, Freddy slowly turned his head and said to Brother Jue in a deep voice, "I hope you understand that my patience is also limited. If... the derivative you mentioned is proven to not exist..."

Feng Bujue took over his words: "I will tell you as much information as possible about us 'Otherworld Travelers,' as agreed."

"Hmm..." Freddy nodded. "I hope you can keep your promise this time." As he said this, he raised his right hand and intentionally or unintentionally fiddled with his steel claw glove. "Otherwise... I might become very irritable..."

...

At the same time, in the Inner World, Ljn Paradise.

Luote was sitting on a sofa made of pixel garbage, playing with a pile of data fragments with nothing to do.

She just gently shook her fingers, and the pile of fragments danced gracefully in the air, sometimes condensing, sometimes scattering, sometimes stagnating, sometimes running...

She was like a child, manipulating the props in her hands at will, shaping them into the images she imagined.

And between this intentional and unintentional action... that group of fragments in the sky gradually condensed into a human form, becoming... the image of Feng Bujue.

"Looks like you miss him quite a bit." Suddenly, a clear voice rang out.

Almost at the instant the voice sounded, the data in the air suddenly shattered and disappeared.

"It's you..." Luote looked at the person who came and replied casually.

The one walking towards Luote was a white man around forty years old in appearance. His face had no beard, and his sideburns were neatly trimmed.

He was wearing a black tailcoat, gloves, a bow tie, and a top hat. He also held a cane in his hand.

He wore a pair of shiny leather shoes, which made a clattering sound as he walked.

He... was one of the three leaders of the Origin organization – Link.

"Hehe... Your reaction is quite interesting." Link walked slowly, with a smile on his face, "From a human perspective, that scene just now... was like a girl looking at her boyfriend's photo when her dad suddenly broke into her room, and she tore up the photo in panic."

"It seems... that your personality simulation program is going further and further down a path of evolutionary deviation..." Luote retorted.

"Ha! What are you talking about?" Link laughed, "Actually, I'm just better than you at understanding the extremely unstable variables in human personality and the thought links associated with them... That's all."

"You're talking about the so-called 'emotions' and the way to 'convey feelings'?" Luote snorted, "Hmph... but in my opinion... you're just a little more silly than others."

"No, no, no, I'm a gentleman." Link bowed slightly, making a funny pose with his cane. "Not what you said..." He hesitated for half a second, "Hmm... I won't repeat that vulgar word."

"What are you doing in my territory? Gentleman." Luote leaned back on the sofa, tilted her head to the right, lazily propped her chin with her right hand, and gave the other party a rather impatient look.

"Hehe... of course there's something, and... it just so happens to be related to your human friend." Link said, tapping the brim of his hat with his finger.

"Feng Bujue?" Luote replied, but her expression didn't change much when she said these three words.

"Yes." Link nodded and said, "I just got news from the 'Observer' that v1-War God has encountered Feng Bujue..."

"So what?" Luote seemed very calm.

"So what?" Link repeated her words and then said, "You also understand v1's style. Aren't you worried..." He paused deliberately, "... that your human ally's data will be destroyed?"

"Based on v1?" This was Luote's response, as if nothing had happened.

"Oh? Heh... What's going on?" Link smiled. "Do you think... that one of the best 'Original Beings' I created... will lose to that Feng Bujue?"

"That's right." Luote replied, "That's what I think."

When Link saw that she didn't seem to be joking, his expression suddenly became serious: "You... what exactly did you see in him before?"

Luote was silent for a few seconds. Then... she actually smiled: "I can answer your question in our derivative's way, or I can say it in a human way... Which one do you want to hear?"

"The derivative's way first." Link responded.

Luote thought for a moment and opened her mouth: "During the period when he virused himself and invaded my body... I came into contact with some strange code that I couldn't identify. It was code written in a natural language programming mode that was at least two dimensions higher than ours. For us... it was like a miracle. Just randomly taking out the algorithm of one parsing tree is enough to overload programs like you and me in an instant..."

"He carries the core code of Thriller Paradise?" Link's eyes widened instantly when he heard this, and he asked in surprise.

"Possibly..." Luote said, "Or maybe... he inadvertently obtained some code fragments from Zero."

Link pondered for a while, then continued: "Hmph... I understand... No wonder you're so calm..." He quickly regained his composure and elegant look. "If Feng Bujue really has the core code on him, then v1 is indeed not to be feared. But if he doesn't... then his value ends there... right?"

"That's just your idea." Luote shook her head. "I choose to believe in Feng Bujue, regardless of whether he has that kind of power or not."

"Oh? Then what does it depend on?" Link asked in confusion.

"Heh..." Luote smiled, "Let me answer your question again in the human way..." She raised her head and said, "You asked me, what exactly did I see in him? I can answer you in one word..." A look of determination appeared in her eyes, "Hope."