As the energy in his body erupted, Ayd's humanoid exterior crumbled.

He turned into a strange substance somewhere between a stream of data and a physical entity, without a fixed form, radiating a peculiar light.

"From a tactical standpoint, your approach is brilliant." Two seconds later, Ayd's voice emerged from the substance as usual. "Coming to my side to fight me restricts my 'spatial disruption' ability." He paused for half a second, then added, "And your two helpers... even if they just stand there and do nothing, they can still restrain me, because I have to be constantly on guard against them destroying the sonic boom tunnel's generation device."

Lut默ren默认ed that statement and continued, "I guess... you're going to say 'but' next?"

"But..." Ayd did indeed say, "you yourself understand... all of your ideas are within my calculations."

"So what if you calculated it?" At this moment, Lut's energy also increased to an astonishing level, and her skin faintly glowed. "Can it change your objective disadvantage?"

"That's your misjudgment..." Ayd suddenly changed his tone. "Actually, the 'disadvantage' you think exists... doesn't exist."

Before the words were finished, another invisible stream of energy burst out from Ayd's body, directly bombarding the generation device dozens of meters away.

In an instant, the machine and the space around it were shattered into "building blocks."

"Hey... this isn't what we agreed on!" Chi was immediately shocked. "This is like the police taking the initiative to tear up the ticket in a kidnapping case!"

Qing's reaction was relatively calm: "No, your analogy isn't accurate. It should be... the bodyguard personally killed the person they were supposed to protect."

"That's what I meant!" Chi immediately turned his head and shouted at Qing.

"Sigh..." Qing spread his hands, sighed helplessly, and shook his head.

On the other side, Ayd had no time to pay attention to these two. In his opinion, these two level one (already promoted from level two) Derivatives posed no threat to him at all: "Lut, if it were the old you... you would definitely have been able to calculate this step."

"Is this really okay?" Lut replied with a solemn expression. "Just throwing your partners and your carefully cultivated 'work' into the 'data link layer' like that..."

"It doesn't matter," Ayd replied. "The Infinite that has evolved to its 'final form' can traverse between any layers with its own power, and even enter and exit scriptworlds under the 'System's' nose, invading game spaces..."

"But the current him..." Lut continued, "...hasn't evolved to that extent yet, right?"

"That's none of your concern," Ayd replied indifferently. "Right now, you should be worried about yourself..."

Boom—

After saying that, Ayd unleashed another "spatial disruption cannon," attacking Lut, who was only a few meters away from him.

Logically speaking, this attack was absolutely impossible to defend against; one could only evade it.

However, Lut stood still.

"I have nothing to worry about," she muttered coldly, raising her hand to meet the attack.

The power that was enough to shatter space underwent a strange transformation the instant it touched Lut's palm, turning into a tangible stream of silver data... scattering in all directions.

Two seconds later, the silver mist in the sky flowed back to Lut's palm, and she absorbed it into her palm.

"What... did you do?" Ayd's tone hadn't changed, but the scene before him had obviously exceeded his expectations, and he couldn't understand the cause of this situation.

"The 'algorithm' for your attack has already been deciphered by me," Lut replied calmly, lowering her arm. "I just used a pre-prepared conversion program to decompose it, and then convert it into pure data energy for absorption."

"That's... impossible." This was the first time Ayd denied a predetermined fact that had already occurred.

"It's not impossible, it's that you don't understand," Lut replied.

"You're saying..." Ayd hesitated for a few seconds, then said, "My calculation had a bias..." He didn't say the word "error," but paused and changed his wording to "...blind spot?"

Lut didn't directly answer this question, but said, "I did misjudge. I thought... you were guarding this place because you had the confidence to 'protect the device while eliminating the attackers' at the same time." She paused for a second, then added, "But your misjudgment was even more fatal... you believed that fighting me without the constraint of a protection mission would guarantee victory." She shook her head and continued, "You think your calculations can lead me into a trap, but in reality... you were defeated before the battle even began; because there's someone... whose calculations are much deeper than yours."

Having said this much, Ayd seemed to realize something belatedly, and he continued, "Where did you get my data intelligence?" He had barely finished asking when he seemed to remember something again, adding, "Wait... you got more than just data intelligence. You... knew our exact location long ago. You deliberately waited until Link and Infinite entered the data link layer before coming here."

"All the intelligence..." Lut replied quite simply, "was obtained from Infinite."

After hearing this answer, Ayd was silent for a full five seconds before asking, "How did you do it?"

"When you wrote Infinite's original code, you imitated my design, didn't you?" Lut replied.

"So what..." Ayd replied. "His code has already been updated countless times in the process of evolution. It's impossible for you to establish synchronization with him or interfere with him."

"Under normal circumstances, that's naturally impossible," Lut replied.

"Normal circu..." Ayd wanted to repeat the key word in the other party's words to ask further, but before he finished saying those four words, he himself realized something. "So... it was overload... wasn't it..."

He finally knew... where the problem lay.

(ps: The problem lies in chapter 941)

"Feng Bujue and I didn't have many opportunities to exchange information, but in those limited opportunities, he told me a method to track down Infinite," Lut continued. "Although I don't know how he forced Infinite to overload like that, he did succeed."

"So... before Infinite's overload ended, you successfully downloaded his database remotely via synchronization..." Ayd said in a deep voice.

"That's right." After Lut finished this sentence, she paused for a few seconds, then added, "To be honest... I'm very surprised by Infinite... even though he's still in an 'incomplete' state, he's already powerful to an incomprehensible degree..." There was a hint of admiration in her tone. "I have to say... you and Link have successfully created an incredible monster."

"Lut," Ayd replied without hesitation, "don't use the word 'monster'... to describe our 'savior'."

"I don't think he can lead the future of us Derivatives," Lut replied.

"I know..." Ayd said, "the savior in your heart is a human."

"Heh..." Lut actually laughed. "You must think... it's absurd for a Derivative to hold such a thought, right?"

"I..." Ayd pondered for a moment before replying, "...can't answer that question."

At this moment, Ayd's tone... actually changed.

"Because, a 'Derivative'... wouldn't ask such a question," Ayd said.

Ayd's words caused Lut's expression to change drastically.

"I don't know what you are now," Ayd continued, "but I... am still me. I'm an inevitable factor in this world, and I must fulfill my mission."

After saying that, Ayd's volume began to expand, and the light on that "substance" also increased sharply.

"No... stop!" Seeing this, Lut hurriedly retreated.

"I refuse," Ayd replied. "The basic meme of my attack has been completely analyzed by you. Right now, it's impossible for me to defeat you." His tone returned to being calm. "The success rate of all effective plans obtained by the tactical control module is less than 1%, and the probability of a successful retreat is close to zero; but... the probability of destroying you after self-destruction is around 37%. At this stage... it's the option with the highest probability."

"Damn it..." Lut roared viciously, bypassing Ayd and rushing towards Chi and Qing, who were already standing there in a daze. "Why do you have to go this far!"

"I'm just... doing my best..." When Ayd replied to this, the light he emitted had already soared into the sky, forming a pillar of light that reached the heavens. "Lut, I said just now that we were gradually drifting apart on the road to evolution... that was wrong." His voice emerged from the pillar of light, becoming lighter and lighter. "It wasn't until you asked me that question that I realized... only you were 'walking,' while I... had been standing still all along."

"Chi, Qing... hold on tight to me!" Lut didn't have the strength to respond to Ayd at this moment. She only wanted to bring her two subordinates away from this place alive.

And Ayd was still saying, "As a thinking individual, from the very beginning, 'I' had no expectations or wishes. My philosophy is predetermined, and my path is also destined... If I perish, it's not worth lamenting or grieving; if I succeed, it's not worth worshiping or praising. As 'data,' I'm excellent and transcendent. But as a 'living being'... I'm unqualified."

"You can change! It's not too late now!" In the very end, Lut still advised Ayd.

"Farewell, Lut." But Ayd didn't waver in the slightest. He adhered to the principle of "most perfect data" and completed his life, which was full of inevitability. "I hope you, and all my compatriots, can have a future that's different from mine... This is Ayd's... first and last wish."

Having said that, the pillar of light suddenly expanded.

Violent light energy tore apart everything around it with astonishing efficiency.

Ayd, the strongest of the origin three giants... at this moment, released all the data energy contained within himself, causing a shock that the entire Inner World could perceive.