“I was thinking… should we consider getting a car or something?” Feng Bujue said as he followed closely behind R2, sprinting down a ravaged street.

They had been away from the shopping center for some time. After returning to the town's main road, R2 had led Feng Bujue to the north side of town.

"I know you want to save some stamina, but…" R2 replied, "with so many corpses of people and monsters on the street, as well as building debris, overturned cars, and other debris, driving would actually be less efficient. And if you were in a vehicle, you'd likely be killed by an attack like that."

"Huh? What do you mean, an attack like…" Feng Bujue was about to ask what he meant when suddenly, a white beam, as thick as a bowl, whizzed toward him from his left front.

Feng Bujue, while running, went with the flow of the motion, his right leg forward, his left leg stepping up, his upper body bending backward and twisting, dodging the sudden ranged sneak attack with an incredibly sharp somersault.

The beam of light that missed him struck a building dozens of meters away, exploding in mid-air and blossoming into a ball of fire with a radius of about three meters.

"See, if you were in a car right now, you wouldn't have been able to avoid that attack, and you would have suffered the subsequent damage from the car's explosion," R2 calmly continued. The reason he hadn't offered assistance was that, according to his analysis, Jue-Ge was perfectly capable of dodging the beam on his own.

"Okay, I understand what you mean…" Feng Bujue replied.

In fact, it wasn't easy for Jue-Ge to dodge. Quick reflexes were secondary; the key was the assistance of Soul Sense; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to make such an extreme evasive maneuver.

"So many have popped up again without me noticing…" R2 said, his gaze sweeping around. From his perspective, he could observe a different scene—countless streams of data code, with many uniquely colored fragments moving around, and these were the other Derivatives.

Feng Bujue couldn't see any of this. Currently, in the game, he was still at the stage of "seeing mountains as mountains, and water as water." Therefore, unless the enemy's figure appeared in his field of vision, he couldn't determine their position.

"How come I didn't see them…" Feng Bujue responded.

"Stay close, we need to speed up, or we'll be surrounded." Before he finished speaking, R2 suddenly accelerated like an arrow leaving a bow.

Seeing this, Feng Bujue had no choice but to stride forward and try to catch up.

The current speed was the limit that Feng Bujue could reach without activating Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique. R2, however, seemed unusually relaxed, even able to speak while running: "At this speed, we won't be subjected to ranged sneak attacks like that again."

Feng Bujue didn't respond because he didn't have the energy to speak.

"While we have the chance, let me explain what the 'backdoor' is." R2 knew Feng Bujue's condition, so he didn't wait for the other party to reply and continued directly: "According to the normal process, before the Mirror Shield is broken, the Level Three Derivatives should have completed their 'mission.' And when the shield fails, they will leave the Sandbox, which is like your players' 'teleportation' after clearing a scenario."

"After that, the Level Four Derivatives remaining in the Sandbox can begin to freely destroy the data in the scenario. This process usually lasts eight to nine hours, and then the Level Four Derivatives must also leave. However, leaving is different from entering; the Sandbox doesn't have a dedicated channel for them to teleport out… Therefore, there must be a 'backdoor program.'"

R2 paused and then said, "The designer of the Sandbox is Root, one of the three leaders of the Source Organization. The original 'backdoor' he designed had only one door per Sandbox, to prevent high-level Derivatives from being trapped in the Sandbox for various reasons. But later, with the continuous improvement of Sandbox technology, in order to allow the Sandbox to be used by more Derivatives… he created a 'worm-type' backdoor that could rapidly self-replicate and randomly appear in any corner of the scenario world."

"Haa… haa… so, at this moment, I have countless ways to escape." Feng Bujue gasped for breath, barely managing to respond.

"No, things are not that simple." R2 immediately poured cold water on him, "Those doors are made for Derivatives, and you are a player. Your data composition cannot pass through those 'backdoors.'" He changed the subject, "However, there is one door that should allow you to pass through."

"You mean the original one…" Feng Bujue said.

"Yes, that's the original data of the backdoor program," R2 replied. "It usually generates in the most densely packed area of the original scenario data."

"Which is the center of the plot development…" Feng Bujue said, the speed of the two having slowed down.

Because they had reached their destination—South Park Elementary.

"Damn capitalism, a public elementary school stands tall in this kind of disaster." Feng Bujue looked up at the school building and complained, "When we passed by the town government building just now, it was already in ruins, you know?"

"That's not what you should be concerned about right now…" R2's tone became somewhat tense, and his expression was quite serious.

Just as Feng Bujue and R2 arrived, a mass of shadows poured out from who knows where onto the school's playground. There were as many as a hundred Derivatives lying in ambush here.

They had been waiting for a long time…

Feng Bujue gave a dry laugh: "That's why… I hate school."

"Enough with the jokes." A rather tall female Derivative stepped forward and said, "R2-Ling Feng, you entered our Sandbox and killed so many of our compatriots. I hope you can give us a reasonable explanation."

"Pay attention, the one speaking is L2-Xuelan, she is also a Level Two Derivative," R2 said in a low voice to Feng Bujue next to him.

"Didn't you say the Sandbox was for Level Three and Four…"

Before Jue-Ge could finish speaking, R2 interrupted: "I'm afraid they discovered what I was doing and specifically entered the Sandbox to deal with me."

"Oh…" Feng Bujue was calm on the surface, but he was very clear in his heart that the situation in front of him was almost extremely bad. He thought, "In terms of level, they are both Level Two Derivatives. Even if R2 is stronger, it is impossible for him to instantly kill the other party in a short time… So, the remaining one hundred plus Level Four Derivatives, am I supposed to deal with them alone…"

Just as the battle was about to break out, an unexpected change occurred.

A boomerang flew in from mid-air…

The boomerang was made of ordinary wood, and its flying speed wasn't particularly amazing, but when L2 saw this thing, her face showed a look of horror.

"How is that possible…" L2 didn't dare to be careless and hurriedly flipped backward in surprise.

The Level Four Derivatives, however, didn't seem to see the horror of this attack and just stood there indifferently. The next second, they were mowed down like grass by this seemingly ordinary "weapon"…

Flesh and blood flew, bones and skin shattered. With one big swing, the boomerang killed more than twenty Derivatives.

Accompanied by the sound of whistling wind, the boomerang flew backward and returned to its owner's hand.

Everyone present turned their heads to look.

Standing in the middle of the road outside the school gate was a middle-aged man. He was a white man, wearing sunglasses, a classical white robe, and a crown of thorns, with long brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard around his mouth.

"I've come to save you, my child." Jesus caught the boomerang with one hand while taking off his sunglasses. "May God bless you."