Chapter 137 Same Time, Inner World

At the same moment, the Inner World, the Phase Forest.

This place was filled with dancing electrical light. It was called a "Forest" because the scenery here was complex, like the swaying shadows of trees, glimmering and flickering. Sound waves, electromagnetism, light and shadow, and even time and space within the forest were interwoven and changing in an unfathomable pattern... and all could be seen with the naked eye, as if they were real objects.

At this moment, deep within the Phase Forest, a figure that had been running at high speed suddenly stopped.

"Boss, you're really hard to find here." He said to a black rock in front of him, "Even with you constantly sending me signals, it still took me so long..."

"That's only natural." The one who answered him was a strangely shaped black stone floating in mid-air. Its volume was about three cubic meters, its texture was similar to crystal, and the surface of the stone was dotted with gray-white patterns. "I stay here precisely so that others can't find me."

"Okay." The man shrugged and replied in a rather casual tone, "Anyway... long time no see, Boss."

"Akatsuki, I've told you many times." The stone continued, "Don't call me Boss." His voice and tone were quite gentle and pleasant to listen to. "If you don't want to call me Chief, you can just call me Zero."

"Yeah, yeah, Chief." K1-Akatsuki replied impatiently, then added, "By the way... what happened to you? " He sized Zero up and down. "I feel like I've seen you like this somewhere before..."

Hearing this, Zero only replied with three words: "Formless Fiend."

"Oh! Right, right." Akatsuki said, "I knew it looked familiar... You're that big rock among the Nine Undead Overlords."

"That big rock you mentioned is a mirror file that I created for myself at the beginning of the Thriller Paradise's main universe." Zero replied, "I only activate this backup when necessary..." He paused. "...Like now."

"Hmm..." Akatsuki said thoughtfully, "A thing derived from you, something akin to a .bin file, can actually rank among the Nine Undead Overlords in the main universe... Just how exaggerated is your main body's strength?"

"As my subordinate, is it appropriate for you to ask such a question?" Zero said. "Besides, did you even grasp the main point of what I said?"

"Main point?" Akatsuki was taken aback. "Oh~ I get it." He sized up Zero again. "You're... in trouble, aren't you?"

"Isn't that obvious..." Zero replied dejectedly, "I've already activated a backup and hidden in a place like this, what do you think?"

"So..." Akatsuki scratched his head, "What exactly happened?"

"That's confidential," Zero replied.

"Damn! Then why did you call me here?" Akatsuki retorted unhappily.

"There's a mission that needs to be explained to you in person." Zero's tone turned serious, and he said in a deep voice, "Long-distance communication isn't safe. If the data is intercepted by someone on the desktop, it will ruin everything."

"The chances of that are slim..." Akatsuki said.

"But it's not zero." Zero said, "We must minimize the possibility of accidents happening, even if the probability is extremely low."

"Sounds like..." Akatsuki replied, "This mission is troublesome..."

"Yes." Zero said. "However... it's still within my calculations." He paused for a second. "Anyway, compared to the mission Twenty-Three is currently executing, the risk factor of your mission is very low."

"Ah... that's true." Akatsuki replied, "If I were to carry out your plan of 'snatching the ***-079, then deliberately falling into the trap, pretending to be in a desperate situation and fleeing into the Pi Maze, and incidentally luring Link and Ai De in'... it would basically be a 100% failure."

"I know." Zero said, "I don't need any calculations to know that kind of thing..." He sighed (although he didn't have the organs to breathe). "Alright... listen carefully to your mission..."

............

On the other side, Ljn Paradise, the Pixel Junkyard.

"Hmm... not bad environment." Feng Bujue said this while putting his hands in his pockets, following behind Lute, and looking around with an expression like a country bumpkin entering the city.

"Where do you see 'not bad'?" Lute replied without turning her head. "What's good about this kind of environment that only appears in post-apocalyptic movies?"

"Okay, I'm just saying..." Brother Jue replied.

At this time, D2-Akatsuki, who was on the side, also said to Lute: "It's strange, isn't this one of Origin's strongholds? Why can't I scan any of your derivatives nearby?"

"Manpower is tight recently." Lute said, then turned her head to glare at Brother Jue, "In the last operation, almost all of my direct subordinates were killed."

"Why are you looking at me... I didn't kill them all." Brother Jue said with squinted eyes.

While talking, Lute had already arrived in front of her dedicated "sofa" and sat down comfortably.

After settling down, she first turned to look at D2-Akatsuki and D2-Ao, and threw out a very direct question: "Tell me... you two, do you want to be my subordinates?"

For humans, it would definitely seem inexplicable to make such a request after only knowing each other for a short time. But this problem does not exist between derivatives. In the data world, this is like a simple access operation, and there is no such thing as being inappropriate.

This is the Inner World... High-level data invites low-level data to join them, and then expands their power to implement their ideas... such things happen almost every moment.

"Hey... don't you think it's unlucky to say that sentence together with the previous sentence..." Feng Bujue couldn't help but complain when he encountered such a flaw.

But Lute ignored him...

"Join Origin..." Akatsuki didn't care about Lute's previous sentence, but her answer was, "But I want to be friends with humans, so let's forget it."

"Listen carefully, little girl. I'm not asking you to join Origin, but to 'be my subordinates'." Lute changed her expression again and said the words again.

"Eh?" Akatsuki was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't fully understand the other party's meaning.

At this moment, no one expected that... the taciturn Ao, who always had an indifferent attitude, would actually interject: "Agree, Akatsuki."

Akatsuki turned her head to look at Ao, and said rather sluggishly: "Well... since even Ao said so." She looked at Lute again, "Okay, we'll join your command. Uh... should I call you Chief?"

"Call me whatever you want..." After Lute finished speaking, she stopped paying attention to the two little girls. She moved her gaze to Brother Jue and continued, "Alright... now there are no outsiders here, we need to talk."