Chapter 1 Profound Breaths

"Ha... huff..."

Deep breaths, heavy, deep breaths.

"Ha... huff..."

In the cycle of repetition, the data floating in the air gradually solidified into a humanoid creature.

At this moment, V1-War God's body was basically formed. Overall, his appearance was close to 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... huff..." After another deep breath, V1-War God stood up.

The contours of his muscles were as perfect as a sculpture. Many black stripes coiled around his tawny-yellow body surface, making him look like a humanoid tiger from afar.

"Huff--" The last breath was exhaled.

From this second on, V1-War God no longer needed to breathe.

"It's always so painful..." he muttered, his mouth shape completely identical to that of a human, "It's as if I've been doing anaerobic exercise continuously for dozens of minutes..."

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

V1-War God only had one eye on his face, but this eye was very large, and the field of vision was wider than that of ordinary people; his ears were rectangular, tightly attached to both sides of his head, only three centimeters long each; in addition, he had no nose, and no hair...

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

"Oh? Is this the Monster Kingdom..." V1-War God only glanced at the surrounding data composition and already knew which universe this was. He muttered to himself, "It can be considered a place with plenty of 'food'... Heh... I should quickly deal with those humans, and then enjoy the hunt..."

His words came to an abrupt halt, because at this moment, he saw the player list...

"Heh... hehe... hahahaha..." V1-War God laughed loudly, "Feng Bujue! Hahaha... Good! Very good..." His giant eye widened, his face revealing 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 streamers were already floating in his eyes, indicating that he had activated the remote scanning mode.

Remote data identification:

-- Breaking through the firewall...

-- Downloading data...

-- Initiating counter-strategies...

External shape identification database starting, downloading, writing in progress, writing in progress, writing in progress.

[Name: Feng Bujue]

[Faction: Player]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 43]

[Height: 179 cm]

[...]

-- Unknown malfunction detected...

-- Re-establishing counter-strategies...

[Warning, abnormal data feedback detected!]

[Attack from unknown code detected.]

-- External firewall has been breached...

-- Emergency cut-off of remote operation program...

"Ugh--" The scan was forcibly terminated. V1-War God cried out in alarm, and then knelt on the ground.

He supported himself on the ground with both hands, his face showing an extremely painful expression. In the same second, the white streamers in his eyes gradually dimmed, and turned into... black...

"What is this!" V1-War God covered his head with both hands, as if he was fighting with something in his body, his whole body trembling violently, "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, 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 swung his fist, leaving a fist mark on the floor: "Damn it! He set me up..."

After saying this, he rested for about two minutes before he stood 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 codes just now was unprecedented... Even I, a derivative, am..." V1 seemed to have thought of something, but he didn't continue thinking, because he already knew... it was pointless to think about what would come next.

...

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

"Here it comes!" Feng Bujue, standing in the center of the room, said loudly, "First class!"

At this moment, Ruo Yu, Xiao Tan, Xiao Ling, Juan Meng Huan, and Tan Lang had all arrived in this room (Xiao Tan was brought over by someone). When they heard Brother Jue speak, they immediately became nervous.

[Main Quest Triggered] The system prompt rang out even a fraction of a second slower than Feng Bujue's reaction.

The players summoned the game menu to check. They saw a very simple and clear instruction appearing in the quest bar: [Kill V1-War God.]

"Something's not right..." Tan Lang immediately said, "Didn't the version patch say... that in scripts where you encounter derivatives, players can choose to kill or help the derivatives?" He paused, "But in this script... the system hasn't even given a plot summary, and the first main quest that popped up is actually ordering us to kill that derivative?"

"Didn't I already tell you, we've encountered a formidable character this time." Feng Bujue turned his head slightly and replied, "To solve the problem, the system can't care about anything else..."

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

"I can't tell you." Feng Bujue crossed his arms over his chest and replied without turning his head.

"Heh... hehe... okay..." Faced with this answer, Juan Meng Huan really had nothing to say.

"I say... that guy... that disfigured face." Two seconds later, Brother Jue turned his head and looked at Freddy, "Your surveillance footage doesn't seem to be complete?"

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

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

"Ha..." Freddy sighed helplessly, replying, "There are none in the toilets, changing rooms, and bathrooms, and... there are fewer probes in the underground storage room, there are only..."

"Send a few people to go take a look." Feng Bujue interrupted before the other party finished speaking.

"Mr. Feng... you're going too far." Duomu, who was standing beside him, couldn't stand it any longer, "You better figure out your position." She glanced at Brother Jue and his companions, "So far, you and your team have done nothing constructive other than threatening and beating our employees, and causing chaos for us... What qualifications do you have to give orders here?"

"Alright, alright..." Freddy said, holding his forehead, "Duomu, you personally take two people to go take a look."

Freddy was still quite sensible. He knew that if he left Duomu here, she would easily start an argument with Feng Bujue, so he simply sent her away.

Duomu, as an employee, didn't dare to disobey orders, so she simply said "Yes" and left with two Iron-Blooded Security guards.

"Mr. Feng..." After Duomu 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 spoke of is proven to be non-existent..."

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

"Hmm..." Freddy nodded, "Hopefully, you'll keep your promise this time." As he spoke, he raised his right hand and intentionally or unintentionally fiddled with his steel-clawed glove, "Otherwise... I might become very irritable..."

...

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

Lute was sitting on a sofa made of pixel garbage, playing with a pile of data fragments listlessly.

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

She was like a child, freely manipulating the props in her hand, kneading them into the image she imagined.

And in this intentional or unintentional manner... the cluster of fragments in the sky gradually condensed into a human figure, turning into... Feng Bujue's appearance.

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

Almost at the moment the voice rang out, the data in mid-air suddenly shattered and vanished.

"It's you..." Lute looked at the person who came and casually responded.

The person who was walking towards Lute was a Caucasian man who looked to be around forty years old. He had no beard on his face, and his sideburns were neatly trimmed.

He was wearing a black swallow-tailed coat, gloves, a bow tie, and a top hat, and he was also holding a cane in his hand.

He wore a pair of shiny leather shoes, which clicked 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 slight smile on his face. "From a human point of view, that scene just now... was like a girl looking at her boyfriend's photo when her dad suddenly barged into her room, and then she tore the photo in a panic."

"It seems... that your personality simulation program is going further and further down an evolutionary wrong path..." Lute retorted.

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

"Are you talking about the so-called 'emotions', and the ways of 'conveying feelings'?" Lute snorted coldly, "Hmph... in my opinion... you're just a little more comical than others."

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

"What brings you to my territory? Gentleman." Lute 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." As Link spoke, he tapped the brim of his hat with his finger.

"Feng Bujue?" Lute continued. When she said these three words, her expression didn't change significantly.

"Yes." Link nodded and said, "I just got a message from 'The Watcher' that V1-War God has encountered Feng Bujue..."

"So what?" Lute seemed very calm.

"'So what?'" Link repeated her words and then said, "You also understand V1's style, are you not worried..." He paused consciously, "...that your human ally's data will be destroyed?"

"Based on V1?" This was Lute's response, as if nothing was happening.

"Oh? Heh... what's going on?" Link laughed, "Could it be that you think... that one of the best 'Originators' that I created... will lose to that Feng Bujue?"

"That's right." Lute replied, "That's exactly what I think."

When Link saw that the other party wasn't joking, his expression suddenly became serious: "You... what exactly did you see in him before?"

Lute was silent for a few seconds. Then... she actually smiled: "I can answer your question in the way we derivatives do, or I can say it in the way humans do... which one do you want to hear?"

"Let's start with the derivative's way." Link responded.

Lute thought for a moment and opened her mouth: "During the time when he viralized himself and invaded my body... I came into contact with some strange codes that I couldn't identify. Those codes were written in a natural language programming model that was at least two dimensions higher than ours. For us... it's like a miracle. Just randomly taking out the algorithm of one of the parsing trees is enough to instantly overload a program like you and me..."

"He has the core code of Thriller Paradise?" Link heard this and instantly widened his eyes, asking in surprise.

"Possibly..." Lute said, "It's also possible... that he accidentally obtained some code fragments from Zero."

Link thought for a while and continued: "Hmph... I understand... No wonder you're so calm..." He quickly regained his composure and elegant expression, "If Feng Bujue really has the core code, then V1 is indeed not to be feared; but if he doesn't... then his value is also over... is that right?"

"That's just your idea." Lute shook her head, "I choose to believe in Feng Bujue, and it has nothing to do with whether he has that kind of power or not."

"Oh? Then what does it have to do with?" Link asked in confusion.

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