Chapter 68 The Rescue

Boom—

An immense force crashed down.

The earth-shattering power shattered the data streams in the air, creating layers of light explosions.

Of course, these dazzling optical effects themselves had no power; these “light streams” were merely the air changing color due to the influence of energy.

“Bujue!” The moment the attack landed, Ruoyu’s expression changed. She shouted Feng Bujue's name, wanting to confirm whether he was dead or alive. Here, the [Team] option in the game menu was also disabled, and players could no longer observe their companions' survival through the menu.

“He’s fine.” It was a woman’s voice that answered Ruoyu.

To be precise, it was Root.

“Tch…” V1-War God spat unhappily, his attack unfinished.

The next second, V1 landed swiftly, his battle intent收敛了.

“You seem unhappy.” In the dissipating mist of light, Root’s figure gradually became clear.

She still maintained the form of a liquid metal being, her figure and appearance both female; except for her facial features, her body had no other physical details (such as a navel, fingernails, body hair, sensitive areas, etc.; Derivatives don't need such traits). Even her facial features were the kind of generic,大众脸.

“Why did you stop me?” V1-War God did not respond to Root’s words, but instead threw back a question directly.

“Do I need to explain my decisions to you?” Root retorted.

“Understood…” V1-War God did not argue further.

Communication between Derivatives is mostly like this… They won't tell meaningless lies for the sake of so-called “face” or “convenience” like humans do; nor will they hurt others’ feelings due to some kind of執着 or momentary emotional波动.

Their conversations can sometimes be so simple that people can't understand them, and sometimes so complex that people can't understand them. In short… it’s very different from the daily communication methods of humans.

“Good.” Root continued, “These two people are now under my control.” She paused for a moment, “Also, I have a new mission for you.”

V1-War God hesitated for half a second, then replied, “Please give your orders, Commander.”

Although Root was not V1’s direct superior, she was, after all, one of the three leaders of Origin, and she was fully qualified to order V1.

However, V1’s brief hesitation also showed from another angle… that the internal strife of Origin (after colluding with Feng Bujue, Root had some disagreements with the other two leaders) was now an open secret among all members. How long this superficial harmony could last… was probably a big question mark.

“Ho… You’re really obedient, eh.” At this moment, Feng Bujue, who was standing beside Root (he was saved by Root at the last moment), finally found an opportunity to interject, “Hey… can you make him dance?”

“If you keep talking, I’ll kill you myself.” Root glared at Jue-Ge sideways, and said very impolitely.

“Okay, okay…” Feng Bujue smiled, “I was just asking.”

After listening to Jue-Ge’s nonsense, Root turned her head and continued to say to V1: “The watchers from [z] (I guess everyone has forgotten, so I’ll make a note. This ‘z organization’ is the Derivative organization led by Zero; X-23 and 赤铁 are both officers of this organization. It was mentioned earlier that they have been monitoring Feng Bujue for a long time) have been dispatched. Their target is obviously Feng Bujue.”

At this point, she suddenly paused for two seconds.

Feng Bujue noticed… that during this time, Root had quickly transmitted a small cluster of data to V1-War God.

What they used was undoubtedly a unique transmission method between Origin members. The process was extremely secretive. If one didn't observe closely at close range, it would be impossible to capture that wisp of data from the air (because from a data level perspective, the air itself is also a bunch of code).

“The coordinates and identification signals have already been given to you.” Two seconds later, Root continued, “You know what to do, right?”

“Of course…” V1-War God raised his hands and made a fist-掌 gesture in front of his chest, “I won’t let them get close.”

As he spoke, he had already turned to leave.

Before leaving, V1 also glared at Jue-Ge with the remaining light from his big eyeballs, looking like he was依依不舍…

Boom—

Accompanied by a muffled bang, V1-War God stepped down, like a cannonball being fired, and quickly disappeared into the distance.

“Hello, Li Ruoyu.” After V1 left, Root turned her face and greeted Ruoyu.

If Feng Bujue heard these words, he would immediately ask the other party… why she could say his real name.

“Hello, Root…” But Ruoyu simply responded calmly to Root’s greeting.

From this point of view, Ruoyu’s personality is much better than Jue-Ge’s. It’s not that she is unaware of the existence of certain problems, but she is born with a kind of indifference that is almost冷漠, so she is not very執着 about "answers."

“You two, let's talk more after we return to Ljn Paradise.” Root continued, “Staying on the ‘desktop’ for too long… is not safe.”

“Sure.” Feng Bujue replied, “We were planning to go there to find you anyway.”

“Mm…” Root nodded, then turned her gaze to D2-Red and D2-Blue a few meters away, “Are you… with them?”

Facing Derivatives, she didn’t need to “greet” them. Because Red and Blue recognized Root, the latter's appearance and code characteristics had high辨识度; and Root naturally recognized Red and Blue (just scan the data).

Besides… as Derivatives, the three of them didn't need to pay attention to the social etiquette of the human world.

“We’re friends!” D2-Red replied in a rather proud tone.

Although her words and deeds towards Jue-Ge and Ruoyu revealed a feeling of嚣张 everywhere, it can be seen… that she is very hopeful and very happy to接触 humans.

“Then do you want to come along?” Root continued to ask.

“Eh…” Red didn’t answer immediately, but turned to Blue and said, “Should we go or not?”

“You decide.” Blue still had that indifferent expression, and still said that line.

“Okay!” Red thought for a second, then replied, “Let’s go then!”

…………

At the same time, π Maze, at the entrance and exit.

“I knew it… it wouldn’t be that easy.” Link looked at the pile of data fragments on the ground and sneered, “Hmph… you’re really fast and ruthless, clean and neat… My subordinates were able to stay in the π Maze for so long and come out alive, but they can’t survive five minutes in front of you.”

“You flatter me.” A soft voice replied, “I’m just…” X-23 said as she put a disc into the挎包 at her waist, “…doing my best…”