Chapter 143 The Underwater Eight Gates

Seeing Feng Bujue confidently rushing toward that unknown object, Isaac and the others didn't have time to think and followed.

A few seconds later, upon contacting the mass of pixels, Feng Bujue's body flashed with light and disappeared; the three who followed closely behind experienced the same changes one after another.

[Current mission completed, main mission updated]

As the scene before his eyes transformed, Feng Bujue heard the system's voice prompt in his ear.

He opened the taskbar and saw that the main mission [Enter the "Underwater Eight Gates" of the Contra Area] had been crossed out, and the subsequent mission [Break through the "Underwater Eight Gates" and enter the Deep Breakthrough Zone] had appeared.

"I see..." At this point, Feng Bujue understood why the system had brought him to this "Underwater Eight Gates."

This level itself, like Pi-Ta, was a kind of "existence that shouldn't exist"—a paradox. To approach the core of Pi-Ta in this virtual dimension, they needed to find such a space, a place that Pi-Ta's logical barriers couldn't defend; only through here could they break through the AI's firewall.

"Whoa? There really is an 'Underwater Eight Gates'?" The Bearded Man stood still and gazed at the scenery before him with an astonished expression.

"Looks quite similar..." Isaac also looked around and replied in a deep voice.

"Yeah, there's plenty of water around anyway." Lightning Head added.

Indeed, this level was an aquatic world overall. The place where Feng Bujue and the others stood was a huge rock floating on the water; and like this floating rock, there were many more in front of them, with varying intervals, but they all extended in the same direction.

"Alright, regardless of whether it is or not... anyway, getting to the end of this level will bring us closer to Pi-Ta." Feng Bujue didn't comment much on whether this was the so-called "Underwater Eight Gates," he just pointed out the next course of action.

The four exchanged a few words and set off again.

But... less than three minutes after they started moving, they realized that the difficulty of this "Underwater Eight Gates" was unbelievably high.

If the six levels they had experienced before were normal Contra, then this level was some kind of M-fix created by a fan.

What awaited the four were... soldiers of various types, with astonishing strength and in overwhelming numbers; constantly crisscrossing, ever-changing networks of fire; hidden, deadly death traps; and... from time to time, even regular enemies stronger than some of the previous mini-bosses.

To be honest, even Feng Bujue was surprised by this difficulty. If it weren't for the help of the three NPCs, allowing him to pass this level alone without using skills... he would probably have to resort to some kind of razor blade.

…………

"Hoo... finally..."

A full two hours later, when he saw the end of the floating rock, Lightning Head breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relieved.

At this time, except for Feng Bujue, the other three were all scarred and covered in dirt.

As for Brother Jue... although he looked fine on the outside, he was actually the one who had taken the most damage in the team; it could be said that a large part of their ability to get through without anyone dying was due to Feng Bujue's efforts.

Along the way, Brother Jue had to trigger various traps and engage in the first round of battles with new enemies. If his reconnaissance work hadn't been so good, the disgusting nature of this level alone would have been enough to wipe out this four-person team ten times over.

"So... next..." When he came to the last floating rock, Isaac asked, "We probably have to jump into that hole, right?"

The "hole" he was talking about was a creature similar to the one at the end of the sixth level... a pixel bug-like object; but this time, the teleportation point wasn't a moving object, but a cloud of air floating in mid-air; the cloud was about three meters in diameter, and would show the same distorted image no matter which angle you looked at it from.

"There's no other choice, is there." Feng Bujue replied, stepping forward, preparing to be the first to enter.

Unexpectedly, at this moment...

Crack—

The sound of rock cracking suddenly rang out, and in the same second, the floating rock beneath the four's feet trembled violently.

The other three were okay, staggering a few steps before regaining their balance, but the Bearded Man carrying the little cannon was out of luck... due to the weight, this sudden tremor caused him to fall to the ground.

No one expected that the consequence of this fall would be...

Crack crack crack crack—

Just as everyone hadn't recovered from the effects of the first shock, similar cracking sounds came one after another.

At the same time, all the floating rocks within Feng Bujue's field of vision developed cracks and shattered into pieces of varying sizes at a speed visible to the naked eye.

That wasn't all...

What happened simultaneously with the shattering of the floating rocks was... the surrounding seawater turned from blue to red in an instant, transforming entirely into lava.

No sooner said than done.

Just as Isaac and Lightning Head's expressions changed from surprise to fear, and they were about to shout out, Feng Bujue had already reacted... using the still-safe rocks under his feet to exert force, he grabbed the two of them, one in each hand... and threw them toward the pixel cloud floating in mid-air.

As Isaac and Lightning Head's screams sounded, their feet left the ground, and they crashed into the cloud one after another, turning into light and teleporting away.

However...

Two seconds later, when Feng Bujue saved the two and turned his attention to the Bearded Man farthest away from him, the latter's lower body had already sunk into the lava and broken rocks; moreover, at this time, Brother Jue had also lost his footing... relying on his superb agility and zero-time difference calculation, he was barely jumping back and forth on some of the unmelted broken rocks, keeping himself from falling into the lava.

"What are you doing! Bastard!"

Just as Feng Bujue was approaching the Bearded Man in this "skimming" manner, he suddenly heard the latter's roar.

From the moment they met until now, the Bearded Man had always called Brother Jue "Savior" and "Mr. Feng," but at this moment, he excitedly shouted "Bastard."

"Go quickly!" The Bearded Man didn't wait for Brother Jue to respond, he immediately added, "Can't you see that I'm beyond saving!"

Yes, everyone could see that he was beyond saving...

While saying these two sentences, the Bearded Man's waist down had already sunk into the lava, and his head and arms that hadn't sunk were already burning in the fire.

It was unknown if this could be considered lucky... having transformed into a dimension, the Bearded Man didn't feel any pain at this moment, so he could still speak.

Seeing this scene, Feng Bujue could only sigh secretly, and quickly stepped onto a larger piece of broken rock, leaping toward the pixel cloud.

"Is there anything you need me to convey?" Brother Jue shouted back to the Bearded Man at a fast speed while leaping through the air.

To be honest, Feng Bujue really wanted to save the other party as well, but this series of mutations happened too quickly, and his skill bar was locked, staying a little longer would put even him in danger... therefore, he could only do this much.

"Tell them not to be sad for me..." The Bearded Man raised his head and shouted back with difficulty, "I'm just... going to reunite with my wife and daughter..."

He didn't finish his words, his head submerged into the lava, leaving only his right arm stretched straight out on the surface of the slurry.

In the very end, in the instant before Feng Bujue fell into the pixel cloud... he clearly saw the Bearded Man's right hand slowly clenching into a fist, giving him a thumbs up.

…………

Silence, oppressive silence.

After the teleportation, the original four-person team was reduced to three.

In fact, Isaac and Lightning Head had already guessed the Bearded Man's fate before Brother Jue completed the teleportation, so when Feng Bujue appeared alone, they silently accepted this unfortunate fact.

This silence lasted for about five minutes, and then, Isaac spoke...

"Let's go." When he said this, he had regained his cold expression.

Hearing this, Lightning Head also wiped his face with his hand, took a deep breath, and stood up.

After the two were ready, they both looked at Feng Bujue, waiting for his next instructions.

It was not until this moment that Brother Jue truly felt the strength of these two people, or rather... experienced the cruelty of this script world.

Isaac and Lightning Head didn't even ask if the Bearded Man had left any last words...

It wasn't that they didn't care about the death of their comrade, it was just... they had become accustomed to turning the grief of losing someone into strength, and continuing to fight.

War can teach people many things, and its first lesson is often "the fragility of life."

Isaac and the others were already used to facing death head-on, because they had already lost too much.

The will and mentality of those veterans that they possessed were something that Feng Bujue didn't have.

"Then..." After a moment, Feng Bujue also spoke, "I'll still lead the way..."

…………

The three who set out on their journey again needed to face the space defined by the system as the "Deep Breakthrough Zone."

The situation here... could only be described as "crazy."

Image fragments from various games, tangible flowing sound waves, and countless pixel-monster-like substances were running around aimlessly and devouring each other here.

Fortunately, in this chaotic space, the route of Brother Jue and the others was still very clear; near their initial teleportation point, there was a very conspicuous blue optical cable, extending all the way into the distance. In addition, after entering this space, Feng Bujue's mission was also updated from [Break through the "Underwater Eight Gates" and enter the Deep Breakthrough Zone] to [Follow the blue light, find and enter the "Core"].

"There's something I want you to know." After walking for a while, Isaac suddenly said, "It's about the Bearded Man..."

"What is it?" Lightning Head asked.

"It was... a month ago, I think." Isaac slowly said, "He told me that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor." After saying this, he paused, and then added, "And he also knew... that with the technical conditions of our resistance army, it was impossible to cure this disease."

"'With the technical conditions of the resistance army' huh..." Feng Bujue quickly caught the key information in this sentence, and repeated it in a deep voice.

"Yes..." Isaac said, "If we used the nanobot technology from Pi-Ta, the disease could be completely cured; but... on our side, it's an incurable disease."

"So what did you say to him?" Feng Bujue asked.

"I didn't say anything." Isaac replied, "Because he didn't come to me for advice, he just wanted to confide in someone who could keep a secret."

"In other words..." Feng Bujue said, "At that time, he was already prepared to die?"

"It should be said that he had no other choice." Lightning Head added, "Even if he wanted to betray the resistance army and go to Pi-Ta in exchange for treatment, the result would most likely be that he would be transformed into a PM..."

"However..." Isaac said, "Just like the Bearded Man himself said, rather than being transformed into a PM, or betraying his comrades... he would rather commit suicide." He paused for another two seconds, controlling his emotions a bit, "Although he never mentioned it to anyone, I always knew... that he loved games; indeed, the Bearded Man's initial motive for joining the resistance army was just revenge, but later... when he really came into contact with video games, came into contact with the game culture that was erased by Pi-Ta, his thinking changed; he was no longer just fighting for revenge, he also believed... that returning games to humanity was a noble cause, and sacrificing for it was worthwhile."

"So in this 'suicide mission,' you chose to include him in the team." Feng Bujue added, "You understand... that he would rather die on the battlefield than in a hospital bed."

"Heh..." Isaac didn't answer Brother Jue's question, he just gave a wry smile and asked, "Do you believe in heaven? Mr. Feng."

"I... 'am certain' there is a heaven." Feng Bujue replied with particular confidence.

"Is that so..." Isaac responded wistfully, "Then... the Bearded Man has now reunited with his family in heaven, right."

"Hopefully." Feng Bujue wasn't so sure when he answered this question, after all, he hadn't been to heaven and didn't know what the situation was like there; moreover... he was basically certain that he would go to hell after he died, so he probably wouldn't have any chance to confirm this matter in the future.

After the three talked about this rather heavy topic for a while, they fell into silence once again.

However, their speed of travel was indeed accelerated a lot because of this...

The substances in this "Deep Breakthrough Zone" didn't have any logic, so they wouldn't generate any targeted "hostility." The three only needed to avoid those data blocks that looked very aggressive to move forward safely.

Thus, after about thirty minutes, they came to the end of the blue optical path...