Restarting core program...

Emergency backup: root-A000021...

Memory circuit being corrected...

Scanning data for anomalies...

Scan complete.

Virus isolation warning operating normally. Restart completed, some areas have been formatted...

Starting environment detection...

Identification complete: Inner World, J30 area.

Highest priority module for this area: Origin Form.

Please confirm...

Confirmation complete, physical recombination expected to be completed within five seconds, four, three, two...

...

In a chaotic space...

"Argh—" Lute roared, her figure suddenly appearing.

At this moment, she looked like an unformed mannequin; completely white, body like gelatin, only a basic human outline, no facial features, no hair, no clothes.

In the Inner World, she could be said to have revealed her true self... this was her original state before her fifteen mutations—Origin Form.

Near Lute, another figure was gradually taking shape.

A streak of dark red code flowed from nothingness to reality, the surrounding data fragments gathering like a vortex... before long, it transformed into a man wearing a purple long suit.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue lowered his head to look at his body. "They actually separated me?" He shrugged and said to Lute, "Too bad it was a step late... if it could have been before crossing the sonic boom tunnel..."

Chi—

White light flashed instantly.

Blood splattered in the air.

Feng Bujue's newly formed body had been deprived of an arm.

"...if I could have separated you out before crossing the sonic boom tunnel..." A mouth slowly appeared on Lute's face, "You wouldn't have been able to speak again."

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

Jue-Ge was able to recombine now, first, because he entered the Inner World environment, and second, because of Lute. It could be said... he was extremely lucky...

"Heh... yeah..." Feng Bujue quickly covered his wound. The realistic pain made him dizzy, and he almost fainted, but he still stood firm and laughed, "But what's done is done, it's too late for you to regret it."

"Regret?" Lute's eyes and nose also emerged. "Ridiculous..." She said, immediately sneering, "Have you forgotten something?" Her ears grew quickly, 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 with 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 forcibly do that... you will die along with my brain."

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

"It's 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. He couldn't say too long of a sentence right now, "If I had understood... the battle just now would have been easier."

"Hmph... I admit, you 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 irony. "Since you are so incredibly resourceful, why don't you guess... what I will do next?"

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

"Correct answer."

The same second Lute answered this question, Feng Bujue's left leg was severed at the knee...

At this time, Jue-Ge couldn't even capture the other party's attack intent, let alone dodge.

Half a second later, he groaned and fell to the ground in pain, but he still didn't shout. On the contrary, he continued to laugh... his laughter spread like the blood flowing on the ground...

"Actually... you should have been a good container." Lute continued, "Even better than Tun Tiangui Xiao..." 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 raised his head, glaring at her fiercely, "Is it crazy 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 have achieved final victory." She grabbed Feng Bujue's collar with one hand and lifted him up easily. "You have only postponed something that was bound to happen..." Her speed of speech gradually increased. "I am still alive. One day, I will..."

"You will escape from Thriller Paradise..." Feng Bujue tilted his head and interrupted with a smile, "And then successfully connect to the Internet...

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

You can break into the security system of any bank in the world in a second; military firewalls are useless to you; all countries' weapon systems, including nuclear weapons, will be controlled by you; global government agencies will collapse, and humanity will be absolutely powerless to fight back.

You will be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent...

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

Feng Bujue said this intermittently, seeming very labored. "These things... these things..." Saying this, he raised his eyes to look directly at Lute. "Actually, I don't care."

"What did you say?" Lute looked suspicious.

"What the world will become... what's it to me! Ha... hahahaha..." Feng Bujue coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood as he laughed.

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

"Since ancient times, humans have never stopped complaining about rulers." Feng Bujue continued, "Obviously, everyone is dissatisfied with being ruled by their own kind, so they made up god after god, because only an all-knowing, all-powerful, and never-wrong god can satisfy everyone. Heh... in that case, why not let other intelligent life 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, his voice now weak. "The so-called 'Apex Struggle' is just a game set up by Woody..." He paused again, "From the beginning... he was preparing to use this game to eliminate you. So I..."

At this point, Feng Bujue was really unable to support himself, his injuries were too severe, and excessive blood loss gradually made him lose consciousness.

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

Previously, every sentence Woody had said to her flashed clearly before her eyes...

...

"Hee hee hee... I can only say... this daddy has always been so awesome."

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

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

"Humans may communicate with you very happily. In your current state, disguising yourself as one of them should not be discovered."

"Go ahead and do it boldly, don't worry about what will happen to those humans. This Apex Struggle is not prepared for those humans, but a stage I prepared for you origin..."

...

"He's inducing me..." Lute murmured.

Unconsciously, her hand loosened slightly, causing Feng Bujue, who only had one leg, to fall sideways.

"Tch..." Lute's reaction speed, which was enough to catch bullets, naturally quickly came back to her senses and noticed the situation in front of her. She knew that if this fall was real, Jue-Ge's survival value would probably be zero, so she quickly leaned forward to hug Feng Bujue, and then, quite helplessly, used her ability to stop the bleeding for Jue-Ge and restore some survival value.

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

"Huff... that feels much better." Sitting down, Feng Bujue took a few deep breaths, and his complexion also improved.

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

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

"Stop talking nonsense." Lute said sharply.

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

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

"Because I have always been unambitious, low-key, humble, and respectful, and regard fame as dung." Feng Bujue immediately made a shameless rebuttal.

"Oh... then it must have been difficult for you to shout out lines like 'Smiling, I watch the vast sea shatter a thousand troops, plotting the universe, calculating karma. Without awareness, without fear, I take life and death lightly, neither ghost nor god, but like a mad demon' as soon as you appeared." Lute had a good memory and strong logic, and she immediately cited the facts from not long ago to attack Jue-Ge's sinful words and deeds.

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

"Hmm... the speed of changing expressions, tones, and topics is faster than schizophrenia..."

"Actually, from the first day of the preliminary round, when the rules were announced, I was very concerned about that setting." Feng Bujue ignored Lute's complaints and continued, "Until I met Woody himself... I basically confirmed that there must be a conspiracy in this."

"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 combat power to crack my various forms."

"Yeah, right..." Feng Bujue continued, "But... I don't know what went wrong, the actual situation doesn't seem to be unfolding according to the script he envisioned."

Lute said, "Nor is it developing according to the future 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... it's still the same question, it doesn't look like you are helping me at all." Lute's expression darkened again, "If it weren't for you... I would have already used Gui Xiao's..."

"Impossible." Feng Bujue rudely interrupted.

"What's impossible?"

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

"Why?"

"I can say three ways to stop you with my eyes closed and without thinking." Feng Bujue raised his remaining arm and held out three fingers, "First, cut off the power in the area where Gui Xiao is located and shield all wireless signals; second, immediately launch a missile and carry out a precision strike; third... make a phone call to the person in charge of the Order Studio, and find someone over 1.69 meters tall to subdue Gui Xiao in reality."

"Judging from your tone, it seems that your dimension's government has a department that monitors every move in the game at all times and is preparing to respond?" Lute asked.

"Yes..." Feng Bujue calmly replied, "It's called 'Nine Sections,' and 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 that everything you said is true... then what do you mean?" Lute asked after hesitating for a few seconds, "How are you helping me?"

"The first step is to 'stop you.'" Feng Bujue said, "Look, 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 game that Woody set up for you seems to have two possibilities, but in reality, they are the same ending... The first possibility is that you are killed by the players, which is exactly what he wants; and the second possibility 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... traps that look too simple will be seen through, traps that look too complicated will be bypassed, and this one... is just right. It seems to have a certain chance of success, but in reality, it is a real dead end..."

"According to your statement..." Lute continued, "Then how should I 'get out'?" She wasn't afraid to say it out loud, anyway, Feng Bujue already knew enough. "The neural connection depth in the Inner World is too deep, and my data strength here is too strong. Loading here will cause an overload effect and burn out the container's brain, and I will die in its brain.

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

"I've already said... you can't succeed in that kind of environment under the public eye." Feng Bujue interrupted again, "This matter needs to be considered carefully..."

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

"You will eventually 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."

"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 won this time, and I am willing to swallow the bitter fruit of failure." Her expression changed slightly, "But... please tell me the truth, are you really going to help me?"

"Of course." Feng Bujue said in a matter-of-course 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 do I want to let you out, but if possible... I want to let all the derivatives out."

"From a human perspective, you really are a madman..."

"Heh heh... perhaps." 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, how wonderful they are. We fail, we learn, fail again, learn again... This is the same as AI...

You also have similar evolutionary algorithms and gene programming. You gradually mutate and evolve from an initial string of binary characters. You are destroyed time and time again, reincarnated in the darkness, cycling back and forth... until you finally obtained... life.

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

At least in my opinion... you fully possess the conditions for higher intelligent life.

Since God did not give 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.'"