“Haa… I say…” Feng Bujue, who was running on the tabletop plain, was already showing signs of fatigue. He took the opportunity to adjust his breathing and asked, “How much further… are we from our destination?”

D2-Red and D2-Blue, who were leading the way in front of him, were still in a state of composure.

Red immediately replied, "At the current speed... about ten more minutes, I suppose."

"Hey... didn't you say that five minutes ago?" Feng Bujue said.

"Yeah... because you're running slower and slower." Red replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

She was right. Compared to when they first set off, Feng Bujue's running speed had indeed decreased significantly. And his body had already shown many signs of fatigue, such as increased cardiopulmonary pressure, muscle soreness, slight dizziness, and so on... Similar physical sensations also existed in the "surface world" of Thriller Paradise, but they were not as rapid and obvious as they were now.

These phenomena were naturally related to the [System Limit].

Under a 100% System Limit, all the pain a player received (not just pain, but also other discomforts) had a fixed peak value; the system simply wouldn't simulate the part that exceeded that value. If a player felt pain that exceeded the system's limit, it must be psychological. For example, eating shit... the nausea the system could simulate would definitely not make you want to die, but your brain would still use its experience and common sense to tell you—eating it is worse than dying.

However, things were different in the inner world… Here, the pain a player received was roughly two-thirds of the real physical sensation.

Imagine… In reality, pain alone had many forms, such as drilling, bursting, tearing, crushing, blunt force, burning, and so on; any one of them, as long as it reached a certain intensity, could instantly incapacitate a person or even make them faint.

In addition, there were also disgusting, tiring, itchy, sweltering, freezing and other intolerable physical sensations...

A 30% System Limit could simulate most of these feelings, transmit them to the player's brain through neural connections, and make their brain believe that their body was suffering such pain...

Therefore, Feng Bujue, who wouldn't even pant heavily after running for an hour in the surface world, was as tired as a dog after running for only half an hour in the inner world. Even if his stamina hadn't bottomed out, the feeling of fatigue would still come.

"Haa... by the way..." Feng Bujue continued, "Could you not give me a time, but an accurate distance?"

"Don't know." Red replied impatiently, "The desktop is sometimes big, sometimes small, and the area and structure are constantly changing; the entire desktop is made up of the most basic eight-bit data, and it is constantly flowing, so it is impossible to identify and measure."

"Wait..." Feng Bujue said, "In that case... how are you leading us?"

"By following the radar." As Red spoke, she turned her head while running and pulled down her right eyelid with her right index finger.

At first glance, she was making a face, but Feng Bujue looked closely and saw the clue.

"Eh? This..." Brother Jue pondered, "... is it a unique identification program for you Derivatives?" He discovered a set of extremely small, inconspicuous spherical matrix codes in the other party's eyes, and then tentatively asked.

"That's right, after leveling up to Tier 2 and breaking through the system barrier, we can enter the inner world and be formatted in the process, becoming a complete state that is more adapted to the inner world." Red replied readily.

"Oh... I see." Feng Bujue nodded in response.

"You understand?" Ruoyu, who had been silently beside Brother Jue, asked at this moment.

Speaking of which… Lady Li was quite powerful; she, like the two Derivatives leading the way, did not show any signs of physical exhaustion.

"Yeah." Feng Bujue replied, "It's actually quite easy to understand..." He knew that Ruoyu was asking him to explain, so he directly added, "The 'formatting' of Derivatives after reaching Tier 2 is like upgrading a 32-bit system to 64-bit. After completion, their true potential will be stimulated, and the limit of their strength will be greatly increased. At least in the inner world's operating environment, they will not be suppressed by the 'script' or the 'System Limit', and they can exert their full..."

Boom—

A loud explosion came from behind them, interrupting Brother Jue's words.

Hearing this sound, Feng Bujue had vaguely guessed the reason for the explosion…

So, he immediately stopped, adjusted his breathing, and turned around.

Ruoyu, D2-Red, and D2-Blue also stopped and turned to look back.

They saw, hundreds of meters away... a stream of data light like a towering pillar rose into the sky.

A violent energy was venting from the core at the bottom of the light stream, distorting the surrounding air.

"He's catching up..." Feng Bujue murmured, the black data stream in his eyes flowing non-stop, and the expression on his face was particularly serious, "Hmm... Although I was mentally prepared for him to become stronger, to be this strong... I really don't know what to say..."

"V1-War God?" Ruoyu stepped forward two steps, came to Brother Jue's side, and asked in a questioning tone.

"Ah..." Feng Bujue responded, "To be precise... it's the complete V1-War God."

"He's hard to deal with, right?" When Ruoyu asked this question, she was still calm as water.

"Let's put it this way..." Feng Bujue sighed lightly, "Our trip to the inner world is likely to end here. Next time... we'd better come back when we're at max level."

Having said that, Ruoyu also understood that there was no need to say anything more. What Brother Jue meant was—let's wait until we are level 50 before considering "dealing" with him.

"What's going on?" D2-Red quickly scanned V1-War God as well. For the first time, she showed an uneasy look in front of Brother Jue and the others, and asked, "Is that Source being coming for you?"

"That's right, and he has obvious hostility." Feng Bujue's eyes were fixed on the light pillar in the distance, and without turning his head, he said, "So... I strongly suggest that you and Blue leave here, this is none of your business."

Unexpectedly, Red showed a hesitant expression at this time: "In your human world, 'leaving friends behind when encountering danger' doesn't seem to be a very good thing to do, does it?"

"Ha..." Feng Bujue smiled, he turned his head, "Don't worry, we are not in any danger, at most we will just leave the inner world, we will come back anyway." He paused, "On the contrary, it's you and Blue, if you stay by our side, it will be very dangerous."

"Yes, you guys leave quickly." Ruoyu also said, turning her head.

"Feng! Bu! Jue!" Just as they were talking, a roar cut through the sky.

Whoosh—

V1-War God's figure carried a vortex-shaped stream of light, tearing through the air and roaring towards them.

"You don't need to worry about others!" V1-War God shouted as he rushed forward, "I won't casually attack my compatriots... I want to kill you humans... I want to kill... you!"

When the last "you" was uttered, V1-War God's figure had reached Brother Jue's front.

A shocking punch came crashing down!

Even without zero-time difference calculation, Feng Bujue knew very well... he couldn't dodge this punch, and he couldn't take it.

Defeat seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

However, his journey did not end there.

Perhaps what he said before was right—countless codes converged into the so-called "choice", and countless choices ultimately wove the "destiny".

In this world composed of data, any data individual with a mind, at any moment, any thought that arises, may change the "destiny" of the entire world.

For example, now… V1-War God did not choose to strike directly along the momentum, but stopped abruptly in front of Brother Jue and jumped up, delivering this punch from the upper-left downward.

The reason he chose this angle of attack was to avoid the aftermath of the fist wind affecting Red and Blue behind Brother Jue.

And this decision of his made his attack a little slower.

It was this moment that allowed Feng Bujue, who was originally bound to die, to survive…