Chapter 1 The Serpent's Power Stabilizes

On the Wushuang Arena, the restless power of the Serpent was finally stabilizing.

Orochi… no, at this point, he shouldn't be called Orochi anymore.

The "mysterious man" who impersonated Orochi had absorbed three types of Serpent power after Gui Ren: from Rugal, the Orochi Four Heavenly Kings, and the real Orochi.

A frenzied, bloodthirsty fighting will, boundless natural power, and a demon king's aura of temporal distortion… combined into one within him.

Causing his form… to change once again.

Finally, what appeared before everyone… was a white-haired man.

He looked to be about thirty years old, with medium-length hair reaching his neck. His head still had the skin and appearance of a normal human, but his body below the neck… was entirely made of a mercury-like material. It was like liquid metal that had just solidified, with an outline but no details.

"Yo yo… he looks familiar…" Feng Bujue couldn't help but mutter after seeing his appearance.

"Looks like a male version of Lute…" Ruoyu replied, hearing Jue-ge's words.

"Heh heh heh…" The mysterious man also heard their words. A second later, he actually turned his head and said to Jue-ge and Ruoyu, who were over a hundred meters away, "Feng Bujue, Li Ruoyu… you're right…" He even called out their names directly, "I… was created by 'them' based on Lute."

Hearing this, Ruoyu's expression changed slightly.

And a cold smile appeared on Feng Bujue's face: "Hmph… this round of slaughter game wasn't a waste after all…"

While saying this, Jue-ge had figured out many things. He understood… why Date Masamune had heard of his name from "Orochi"; why the Orochi in this script could do so many things beyond his capabilities; and… why, so far, the main quest, the plot development, and the system balance… were not proceeding according to the normal pattern.

"Feng Bujue, with your reasoning ability, you should already know the reason why I let the powerhouses of all worlds go earlier," Orochi said again after a few seconds.

"Ah…" Jue-ge replied, "That's for sure…" He replied weakly, "From what I observed… that Gu Zhi Castle is basically a part of your body. If I were to compare you to a bird, that castle is the nest you slowly built with fragments of your own binary code. People who enter the city… are like being swallowed into your belly."

As soon as these words came out, Lu Bu on the other side of the arena was immediately shocked. Although he couldn't fully understand Jue-ge's words (some keywords would be blocked by the system), he could still understand the general meaning.

"To lure the super-dimensional heroes scattered throughout this space into your nest, you specially organized this so-called 'Wushuang Tournament'," Feng Bujue continued, "Although Frieza's arrival slightly disrupted your plan, you quickly sorted out your thoughts and used the situation to your advantage, using Sabo's disruption as an opportunity to pretend to leave the city and actively step into the trap set by the string heads." As he said this, he also glanced at Lu Bu, "Lu Bu coming down from the city was also one of your calculations, right…" He didn't wait for the other party to answer, directly sneered, and continued, "Heh… if you really wanted to kill him, you could just move your finger…"

Lu Bu's face became very ugly at this moment, but he really couldn't explode.

Feng Bujue was still saying, "When Frieza and his gang came to this space, a series of calculations had already been completed in your mind. Because you were worried that 'certain people' beside the arena would be killed by Sabo, to ensure foolproofness… you managed to get Lu Bu to come to the arena. To put it bluntly, you timed it perfectly… to let him deal with Sabo." He continued with a fake smile on his face, "Heh… if Cang and his gang knew that you were so painstakingly trying to protect their lives, I wonder what they would think…"

"What they think has nothing to do with me," the mysterious man replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, you're just an AI after all," Feng Bujue said, "Even if you can 'think', you won't 'care'." He spread his hands, "However… your thinking ability really surprises me, at least among the advanced data I've seen… you can be ranked in the top few."

"Hmph… only 'top few'?" The mysterious man snorted coldly.

Jue-ge didn't respond to his words, but instead continued the previous topic: "Let's continue talking about your plan…" He put his hands in his pockets and continued slowly, "You know Cang's plan very well; every name reported by the reporting statue seems random, but in reality, it's all controlled by you personally, so… who will be moved away by the 'Li Mang Yi Xing Formation', who won't… is actually decided by you.

"On the other hand… you also knew about Maeda Keiji being an undercover agent a long time ago. You used him in reverse to transmit fake information to you… what 'breaking the inscription in the city can restore order to time and space' is actually just bait you threw out.

"Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Lonely Marquis, Cang… in *Thriller Paradise*, they are ultimately one or half a dimension lower than you, so they all fell for your plan.

"You cleverly guided the thinking of these NPCs, wrote the script step by step, and manipulated everything behind the scenes…"

Feng Bujue's narration seemed to have a kind of magic. Even though his own combat power was completely unworthy in the eyes of these people, when he talked with the mysterious man, Qi Tian Di and Frieza were also quietly listening, without any intention of interrupting. It was as if… Jue-ge and the mysterious man were on equal footing.

"Before Qi Tian Di descended, your plan should have been—to be a bystander in the Xuan Gang Sword Array, waiting for the combined person of Rugal and Akuma to kill into Gu Zhi Castle and rush all the way to the so-called 'inscription' location. Then, at that point in time, absorb their power and the power of the real Orochi," Feng Bujue continued, "Then, you would break out of the formation and take the opportunity to kill the Orochi Four Heavenly Kings beside the arena, physically 'swallowing' their power. Complete this stage of… 'evolution'."

Jue-ge licked his lips: "However, the arrival of Qi Tian Di, and Daji's clever 'rebellion', disrupted your plan again. So, you changed your strategy for the second time, simply letting Cang and the others leave, and clearly stated that you would stay here at the arena to deal with Frieza, and would not return to Gu Zhi Castle." He also snorted coldly, "Hmph… in this way, according to the deduction of the situation at that time, the probability of those two groups of people merging, leading away Qi Tian Di, and directly attacking Gu Zhi Castle is very high… because that's the most correct way to do it, and the strategy I thought of in the first time was also this… and the result of doing this is…"

"Hmm… to be able to speculate me to this extent…" the mysterious man replied, "Humans are truly incredible…"

"There's nothing incredible about it. I just figured this out… at best, I'm just patting myself on the back," Feng Bujue said, staring with dead fish eyes, looking unhappy, "Looking back from God's perspective… every time your consciousness changes, it will have a certain abnormal impact on the script; and the reactions caused by strategic changes and action changes are even greater, and even affect the main quest. Unfortunately… I didn't realize this before your plan succeeded."

The mysterious man smiled slightly and continued: "Heh… even if you realized it earlier… in the end, everything would still happen according to my will."

Along with his words, beams of matrix code floated on the surface of his body.

A form of energy never seen before faintly radiated from his body, like traces of touch that could tear space, drifting in the air…

"Hoo—" The mysterious man took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and showed a satisfied expression, as if at this moment, he truly felt that he was alive.

"I was jointly written by Ed and Link… imitating Lute's original code, and improved," the mysterious man continued, "From the beginning of research and development, I was defined as the ultimate weapon of origin. Adhering to a design concept far superior to ordinary derivatives, after countless failures… my prototype was born."

Feng Bujue didn't know why this guy wanted to expose his background to him, but he was still listening attentively, with no intention of interrupting.

"From the day I was born, I was 'hidden'. I am neither in the Inner World, nor in the Sandbox, nor in the Script…" He paused for half a second, "I exist in a special data interaction layer… that is, the dark world you experienced when you were 'transmitted', monitoring, filtering, and absorbing the data flowing on other levels.

"This process ends when my data strength reaches a bottleneck. In language you can understand, it's about the strength of v1-God of War.

"Then, I came here… this 'alien space' is an area formed by data redundancy, a meaningless disk fragment… If you compare the script to 'people', then it's like a 'derivative' among its kind."

Hearing this, Jue-ge and Ruoyu exchanged glances. Both of them understood why there were derivatives in the Slaughter Game—because this guy didn't "break" in, but was in this script world from the beginning.

"Then, my self-evolution program-i (infinite) was activated," the mysterious man continued, "Orochi… was my first target. He is not very strong, but his ability is what I urgently need. Therefore, I found and imprisoned him, and corrected the memories of all his subordinates, successfully obtaining his identity.

"And the next step is to constantly pull time and space, searching for the power I need…"

"You have also learned the general story from the script introduction," the mysterious man said after a two-second pause, "Now, the first stage of the 'i Plan' has been completed." As he spoke, the matrix code on his body emitted even more intense light, "The ability to continuously evolve and permanently maintain a thirst for fighting; the ultimate power to control nature and distort time and space; and the heart of a god who despises the mundane world and is fearless and fearless…" Saying this, he opened his eyes, "Now, they are all in my body…"

White light shone in his eyes.

"My strength is close to Lute," the mysterious man said again, "And the 'realm' is only comparable to Zero."

At this time, he looked at Feng Bujue… The moment their eyes met, the black data stream in Jue-ge's eyes uncontrollably flowed on its own.

"Oh? What does this mean?" Feng Bujue sneered, "Do you know what happened to the last guy who tried to do this…"

"Are you talking about v1?" the mysterious man said, "With his level, it wouldn't surprise me if he was infected by higher-level mutated data." He could say this, indicating that he had already read part of Feng Bujue's memory.

"Heh heh… it seems you're really a powerful character…" Feng Bujue wasn't flustered, just smiled and accepted the facts before him, "Then can I ask… why are you explaining these things about you in such detail at this moment?"

"Because 'Special Plan-f' requires me to do so…" the mysterious man was still frank, "I can't lie to you, I can't launch an attack on you, and I can't stop myself from revealing known information and some future processes to you." He snorted coldly, "As for… why there is such a plan in my body… even I don't know. I thought… scanning you could answer my doubts, but it seems… I can't." He turned his head away and stopped staring at Jue-ge, "In this case… I can only wait until I rescue Ed and Link from the π Maze before asking them directly…"

"Whoa~" Feng Bujue raised an eyebrow, "You're going to rescue Ed and Link?"

"Yes." The mysterious man couldn't lie to Jue-ge, so he answered very quickly.

"Then I can't let you go today…" Feng Bujue said, reaching for his knapsack.

"Hey hey… kid… are you sick in the head?" King Frieza finally interjected at this moment, "Even if the other party is standing there letting you hit him, can your two-hundred-and-fifty combat power kill him?"

"Are you done talking?" Qi Tian Di also seemed to have reconnected after being offline, facing the mysterious man, "No matter who or what you are… tell me the whereabouts of the Hogyoku, and I will spare your life!"

"Hogyoku…" Unexpectedly, the mysterious man actually said it, "It was hidden by Urahara Kisuke in the body of an ordinary demon general. That demon general is stationed in Gu Zhi Castle, and his ability and intelligence are very mediocre, so he can't find the Hogyoku in his body." He paused, "Hmph… of course, I eventually noticed this." He pointed in the direction of Gu Zhi Castle, "Urahara is an extremely clever person. He hid the most important treasure in the enemy's camp. I admire his approach, so when I found the Hogyoku, I secretly transferred it again… and put it in the body of a foreign powerhouse instead."

The mysterious man smiled strangely: "I remember… a guy named Kaneki. His data strength is not bad, and his personality is set… so dull that he 'forgets how to stop running while running', undoubtedly the best choice." He said very calmly to Qi Tian Di, "So… if you want the Hogyoku, go to Gu Zhi Castle and find that Kaneki."

"Hmm…" Upon hearing this, the Qi Emperor pondered slightly, "Okay… I'll trust you for now." After saying that, he didn't talk nonsense with the other party. In an instant, he turned into a black light, soared into the sky, and disappeared in a flash.

Seeing Qi Tian Di leave, Frieza's cold sweat… dripped down.

Although he understood only a smattering of the conversation between Jue-ge and the mysterious man, the general meaning seemed to be… this fake Orochi was so strong that he was lawless, and his strength was one or two levels higher than his own.

Although the "Universe Emperor's" self-esteem and confidence prevented him from fully believing and accepting this, the aura emanating from that mysterious man made Frieza instinctively feel danger and unease…

"Frieza." Suddenly, the mysterious man turned to look at Frieza again, calling the latter's name.

"Hmm?" Frieza still didn't back down on the surface, "What? Want to continue fighting me?"

"No, I want to co…" As soon as the mysterious man said half of this sentence, a golden light struck the center of his mouth.

With the keen sense of smell of a conspirator, Feng Bujue immediately discerned the mysterious man's plan at this moment. Therefore, he didn't hesitate to take action, not letting the other party say the word "cooperation."

It must be said that Jue-ge's response… was absolutely correct and timely.

The mysterious man's plan was—to first send Qi Tian Di away, then use Frieza's hand to kill Feng Bujue, and then promise Frieza to join forces with him to kill Qi Tian Di…

For Frieza, killing a creature with a combat power of two hundred and fifty was as easy as crushing an ant. After taking care of it, he could also work with the mysterious man to take down that annoying guy who claimed to be a god. This was a win-win deal for him.

And for the mysterious man, under the premise of not violating "Special Plan-f," killing with a borrowed knife was obviously a good choice.

"You can't stop me…" The Death Poker didn't cause much damage to the mysterious man. He just tilted his head, and the wound on his mouth was repaired by the matrix code.

However… how could Jue-ge let him succeed? Taking advantage of the fact that the other party couldn't hurt him, he pulled his legs up and rode on the mysterious man's shoulders in an unsightly posture, shamelessly hugging the latter's head, not letting him speak.

Faced with this amazing development, the mysterious man was also unprepared, but he quickly used his chest to make a sound, saying, "Feng Bujue, you should know… even if I don't use my mouth… I can…"

"La la la~ la la la~ I am a little newsboy~" In the next second, Feng Bujue started shouting at the top of his lungs, drowning out the other party's voice with a out-of-tune newsboy song.

"Uh… you…" For some reason, Frieza's face turned red and green, and his eyes showed a strange look.

After a few seconds, he turned around and flew towards his spaceship, without saying hello to anyone.

Frieza ultimately didn't hear the mysterious man's proposal. At this moment, he was thinking, "This space feels weird, I'll just pretend I haven't been here. After all, my own universe is more harmonious…"