Chapter 1 The Abandoned Shrine

In the abandoned shrine, the color of the pupa's surface changed from white to beige, then gradually deepened, eventually turning into a blood-aubergine hue like a scab on a wound.

After the color change stopped, several minutes passed before the pupa suddenly shattered, and thousands of fingernail-sized fragments collapsed to the ground. The brown fragments were very dry, and fell cleanly, without sticking to the man inside the pupa.

This Level 3 Derivative appeared to be in his thirties, male, with soft facial features and medium-length hair, making him look quite refined. The outfit he wore was actually the novice clothing of a player.

After emerging from the pupa, he expressionlessly rotated his neck. He was missing his right arm. At his right shoulder was a very smooth cut. The cross-section showed no flesh; it was only a plane emitting a faint glow. Upon closer inspection, one could see very fine streams of data wriggling on its surface.

"Tch... still the same..." he muttered with considerable displeasure. He walked to a corner of the room and picked up a pottery jar from the ground.

Behind the mouth of the jar was a narrow spatial pocket, similar to a player's knapsack. However, once the arm came out of it, the space would disappear. The Derivative's right arm was like a piece of luggage that could not be carried around or disassembled. Every time he entered a script, it was directly squeezed out of a spatial rift in solid form.

He took the arm out of the jar and connected it to his shoulder. When the two glowing cross-sections came into contact, the entire area on the right side of the Derivative's body distorted. Without any physical collision, one of the walls near that side suddenly caved in, its surface displaying an irregular undulation.

After connecting, he tried to swing his arm, then looked at his right hand and pondered, "So many times... but the synchronization time hasn't shortened by even a second..." He could feel the position of his arm even when it wasn't attached, and he immediately knew how long this set of data would take to synchronize with his body after it was attached.

In short, this Level 3 Derivative still needed some time to recover to one hundred percent combat power. Now, this arm seemed to be attached to his body, but he couldn't use its full strength yet.

"It hurts..."

"It's uncomfortable..."

"Save me..."

Suddenly, a chorus of moans rang in the Derivative's ears. He frowned slightly and looked down, following the sound. He saw that the floor of the room was now covered with terrifying, blood-soaked ghosts.

The ghosts came through the walls from under the floor, like dying people trapped in a swamp. Some only showed their heads, while others had half their bodies sticking out. Their hair was scattered over their faces, their complexions were pale, their eye sockets were all dark and empty, without eyeballs, their mouths were half-open, and their hands were outstretched, looking like drowning people trying to grab something...

The ghosts' moans weren't loud, they just sounded like the cries for help from those struggling in agony, but that was what made them so unsettling...

At this moment, the entire floor of the room was filled with the figures of these ghosts. The Derivative had almost no place to stand. Soon, the ghosts reached out and grabbed him. Some hands grabbed his ankles, and others leaned out and grabbed the hem of his clothes.

"Is the Boss of this script using illusions..." His eyes lit up, and a faint glow appeared in his pupils. "Hmph... seems quite cunning..."

The next second, he bent his knees slightly, making a very light jumping motion. This seemingly casual jump allowed him to shake off the restraints of the ghostly hands and directly shot onto the roof beam with a straight-bodied somersault and a half turn, a high-difficulty maneuver.

A gray ghost was hiding on the beam, this monster was exactly the same as the one Feng Bujue had encountered. Before it had time to make any attack, it was blown apart by the Derivative's left-handed punch.

Level 3 Derivatives can see the world in the script from a different perspective than players. They can turn the scenery in their eyes into a semi-data, semi-physical state, and they can also sense within a certain range. Therefore, illusions are useless to them, far less threatening than actual strength and speed.

"Strange... hasn't that Level 4 guy solved the Boss yet?" While he was thinking, he raised his leg and kicked, his toes easily passing over his head. The roof of the shrine was lifted at that moment, and a powerful impact force broke a large hole, the size of the hole was enough for people to jump out of it.

After leaping onto the roof, he saw a hazy moonlight, of course, for Derivatives, light was a very secondary observation condition, even in that dark room, he could see very clearly.

In the courtyard of the shrine, there was a dry well.

At this time, on the edge of the well, was placed the head of the Level 4 Derivative.

"What a joke..." he said in a low voice, and his body moved, rushing forward. His whole person fell from mid-air, his feet touched the ground, and he stood firmly.

Coming to the head, he said, "What happened?" It seemed he knew that the head could still communicate with him.

"I... went... to... the other... side... of... the... world..." The state of the head's speech was like a broken radio station.

Although Level 4 Derivatives are the weakest level of Derivatives, in theory, their combat power should never be worse than the script Boss (not all worlds are suitable for Derivatives to enter, such as the Pili world, where Derivatives will never appear), the situation in front of him was very abnormal.

"I'm already... completely... data... frag..." He could no longer say a complete sentence, "It put me... here... to... let you..." At this point, a ghastly claw suddenly stretched out from the well and dragged the head down.

Standing by the well, the Level 3 Derivative was also encountering this situation for the first time. He immediately began a series of logical analyses. First, he investigated the positions of the players and GMs, these guys were still on the way up the mountain, and the situation in front of him was obviously unrelated to them; then he tried to establish data-level communication with the Boss (the benchmark for Level 3 Derivatives is that they can drive some script Bosses with relatively low intelligence, so x-23 once commanded Dr. Ashford's variants), but the result was a failure.

"If you haven't understood what I mean, I'll say it myself." A deep, distant voice suddenly came from the dry well, "I put his head here to tell you to be smart and not try to be my enemy."