Chapter 1 The Movement of Copernicus and Galileo

The movements of Copernicus and Galileo were indeed beyond the capabilities of ordinary level 18 players. They moved on flat ground, yet gave the impression of treading on water, much like the legendary "lightweight skill". From a game perspective, it was the astonishing effect of a large number of passive skills overlapping and functioning.

The two small bosses emerging from the forest were malformed creatures, their bodies pieced together entirely from corpse fragments, barely twisted into a human shape. Their appearance could be described as a combination of disgusting and terrifying, but their strength was only so-so. Even excluding the GMs, any one of the six in this script could easily take on such a small boss in a one-on-one fight, albeit at a certain cost.

The cold glint of blades flashed swiftly, their figures taut as drawn bows.

Copernicus and Galileo used the same weapons and had similar combat abilities. Even their judgment at the moment of drawing their blades was identical. They knew the monsters' data very well and had no doubt that a single move would leave the enemies half-dead, and at most three moves would end the battle.

But... the moment they attacked, something unexpected happened.

It wasn't that the two small bosses suddenly gained strength, but that they suddenly died... Only the parties involved knew that the two monsters had inexplicably died the instant before being attacked. When the blades struck their bodies, the two monsters were essentially corpses moving forward with inertia.

To put it another way, it was as if you saw a ferocious person rushing towards you, brandishing a brick, but just as he reached you to attack, he suddenly suffered a myocardial infarction and died on the spot.

However, only the two GMs knew these things; Feng Bujue didn't see the truth of the matter. On the surface, the scene was... Galileo and Copernicus each made a move, and in the blink of an eye, they had dealt with two monsters.

The three from Order quickly caught up, and Brave Invincible was the first to exclaim in surprise: "What the hell! You guys are professionals too, right?"

"Something's not right... these two monsters weren't killed by us." As Galileo spoke, he opened the GM menu to check, and the expression on his face suddenly became serious.

Just then, the environment around the players also changed. All the illusions disappeared, and the forests around them looked completely normal. Looking at the mountains, they could see that they were not far from the fields at the foot of the mountains.

Feng Bujue reacted quickly and immediately said to Copernicus beside him, "Did the spell formation fail?"

"Why are you asking me... how would I know..." Copernicus didn't finish his sentence.

Feng Bujue interrupted again: "Why did it fail?"

"That's why... why are you asking me!" Copernicus replied unhappily.

"Because you're a Reconnaissance specialist." Feng Bujue replied matter-of-factly.

"In your mind, does 'Reconnaissance specialist'..." Copernicus's mouth twitched, "...equate to 'omniscient'?"

"If you're going to put it that way, I can only ask in a different way." Feng Bujue's expression and temperament changed drastically at this moment. His eyes seemed to be saying that the charade was over.

His eyes revealing a fanatical light, and his face wearing a calm, confident expression, Feng Bujue asked directly, "Did the Derivative do this?"

"Pfft..." Meng Jingchan spat out a mouthful of beer.

Order also had some information about Derivatives... but very little. Apart from the existence of Derivatives, the few people who had come into contact with them had not been able to provide much substantial information.

Ye Zhi and Brave Invincible were not high enough in the studio to know about it; this was the first time they had heard the term. But players of Meng Jingchan's level had higher access to game information within the company, so he knew about it. Of course, the only information he had was that "in team survival mode scripts with six players, there is a minuscule chance of encountering an uncontrollable data entity called a Derivative." Order had no information about the characteristics of Derivatives, the GMs' involvement in script generation, or the GMs' abilities.

Order had only two relatively reliable encounter records with Derivatives. The first time, a six-member team in the guild reported to their superiors that they had encountered a script-based humanoid creature calling itself a "Derivative," which possessed astonishing strength, intelligence far exceeding that of ordinary script bosses, and had no connection to the script itself. The second time, also a six-member team, the situation was similar. The parties involved claimed to have been wiped out by a Derivative and a Boss working together. During a brief exchange with the "Derivative" by the first six-member team, Order obtained the only bit of information it currently possessed, and listed it as extremely high-level information, which was incorporated into the database.

The main reason Meng Jingchan was so shocked was that the word "Derivative" came out of the mouth of this guy called "Feng Bujue." Did "Infernal Frontline," this unknown guild, have intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities comparable to Order? How many members did they have? How professional were these members?

Copernicus and Galileo's expressions were beyond description. If Meng Jingchan was like that, one could imagine what kind of reaction the two GMs would have.

"What are you... talking about..." Galileo seemed to be clinging to a sliver of hope, trying to play dumb.

"Do I need to be more explicit?" Feng Bujue said. "Please, dear brothers, open your GM menus and see if the sudden failure of the spell formation near us has anything to do with a Derivative."

The three from Order looked at Copernicus and Galileo as if they were monsters, then looked at Feng Bujue as if he were a super monster. There was too much information in those few sentences, and the atmosphere was quite tense, so they didn't know what to say for a while.

The two GMs looked at each other, exchanged glances, and Galileo then smiled and looked at Feng Bujue, saying, "After the script is over, you'll have to talk to the relevant personnel of our superiors."

"Let's talk about the current situation first." Feng Bujue said, "When the illusion disappeared just now, I used [A Decisive Victory a Thousand Miles Away] to take a look again..." In any case, the GMs knew what skills the players had, so he stated it clearly. "It doesn't show anything." He paused for a moment and asked, "Can I assume that the Derivative has already dealt with the Boss?"

Galileo replied, "The Grudge Well still exists, but it has lost its power. The other three spell formations on the mountain are the same, and they all lost their power at the same time just now."

"At the same time?" Feng Bujue continued. He thought for two seconds and then said, "Aside from the possibility that four Derivatives in the script discussed acting together, the problem is probably with the 'source of power'."

Copernicus said, "To cut off the source of the Grudge Well's power, in addition to destroying the spell formations in various places, there is indeed another way... That way, rather than 'cutting off,' it's more like 'destroying'."

Galileo continued, "According to the fLAg-related information, this script has a true Boss named Waylu, who is not on this map, and we can't see his specific data. What is known is that if you jump into the Grudge Well after breaking less than three spell formations, you can encounter this Boss. I guess the Derivative went to the other side of the Grudge Well and eliminated this Boss, causing all the spell formations on our side to lose their power from the source." As he said this, he had figured out the previous question--why the Derivative's coordinates were sometimes visible and sometimes not. The reason was probably that the Derivative had entered the other side of the world.

"Hmm... then the question arises..." Feng Bujue said, "Why haven't we cleared the level yet?"

"This..." Galileo really didn't know.

Copernicus said, "I suspect it's a problem with the main quest. The current main quest is still 'Enter the mountain and find the abandoned shrine.' Perhaps it's because we haven't triggered the next fLAg, which has led to this situation." His eyes showed that he was checking the GM menu while speaking. "Successfully destroying any one of the three spell formations in the mountain will update the main quest to 'Destroy the four Soul-Snatching Formations and seal the power of the Grudge Well'; and directly encountering the true Boss will update the quest to 'Eliminate Waylu.' But now... we haven't triggered any of them, and all the spell formations have lost their power."

"So the main quest is stuck on the first step..." Feng Bujue pondered. "Interesting... If this speculation is correct, now that even the true Boss is dead, there are no longer any fLAgs in the script that can change the progress of the main quest. How are we supposed to clear the level?"

"Since you seem to know a lot of things," Copernicus said, "why don't we just say things clearly." At the same time, he turned his head to look at the three from Order. "Please, the four of you, just exit the script."

"What what?" Brave Invincible replied, "The three of you have been talking to yourselves, saying a bunch of inexplicable things, and then you want us to quit? Quitting halfway will lead to a time penalty that prevents us from queuing, and we won't get any rewards. For us, this loss is more serious than a team wipe!"

"I'm sorry, judging from the current situation, this script is basically a bug, and the clear condition cannot be met." Galileo replied, "As Mr. Feng said, the main quest is stuck, and we can't do anything about it."

Feng Bujue seemed to be afraid that Brave Invincible wouldn't understand, so he added from the side, "It's like Li Xiaoyao just left Yuhang Town, and the Lord of Worship was killed by an alien passing by Earth with antimatter weapons. Even if you continue playing, you won't be able to clear the level."

Copernicus continued, "We still have work to do, which is to deal with the Derivative. If you stay, even if you are not killed by the Derivative, you will still be wasting time, and in the end, you will still have to quit on your own." He also knew that it was impossible to fool the players into taking responsibility for the situation, so he spoke according to the company's emergency response guidelines. "As for your loss of game time, since it was caused by the system, the company will definitely compensate you. We will report this situation to our superiors after we have dealt with the matter in this script. The relevant personnel will contact you later and give you a solution. I think you will all get satisfactory results."

Ye Zhi then asked, "Since you are GMs, can you explain to us now what Derivatives are?"

"Um... I'm sorry, we are not authorized to disclose that." Galileo replied.

Ye Zhi's next reaction was very similar to the method Feng Bujue used on Pan Feng and Hua Xiong: "You should know that we are from Order, right." She pressed aggressively, "With our studio's credibility, if we publish today's events on the official website..."

"That is also your freedom." Galileo replied fearlessly, "The company will make a corresponding response and explanation." He was confident in saying this because... after the script where Pan Feng and Hua Xiong met Feng Bujue, the higher-ups immediately drafted a new regulation in response to their report. In the event that a GM's identity is revealed and they are subjected to this kind of intimidation, the GM's response must follow a standard procedure. Facing Ye Zhi's words, all they had to do was answer like this.

In fact, the matter of the Derivatives had already been exposed, but the four players present, including all the major studios, did not know...

In fact, as early as the two days when the internal beta turned into the public beta, someone had already posted a thread on the forum about "Derivatives," but it was quickly drowned in the sea of posts. This matter could not even be called "a game myth circulating among a small number of players." Obviously, today's players, or rather... people these days, almost never believe anything easily. Who can we blame? Blame the News Broadcast? Heh...

"Hmph... since you say so..." Ye Zhi wanted to say something more.

Meng Jingchan waved his hand, signaling her to stop, and said, "Ye Zhi, there's no point in making threats." He suddenly revealed an aura of authority, and said to Copernicus and Galileo with a serious face, "Please rest assured, I can guarantee to you that Order will not spread any news about GMs and Derivatives to the outside world." His thinking was very clear. The fewer people who know about intelligence, the more valuable it is.

"However..." Meng Jingchan changed the subject, "Whether to exit the script at this moment is our players' freedom, right."

Galileo understood what he meant from his words: "Um... if you want to come into contact with the Derivative, we will not stop you."

Copernicus shrugged and smiled, "I'll kindly remind you that the strength and aggression of the Derivatives are far stronger than any script Boss you've ever seen. When you're killed, don't be surprised by how fast they are."

"They just want to collect as much intelligence as possible, and besides, if you get killed, there won't be a penalty for actively quitting." Feng Bujue interjected at this time, "By the way, I also want to meet this Derivative."

"You want to collect intelligence too?" Meng Jingchan turned his gaze to Feng Bujue's face and asked in a deep voice.

"I'm just a casual player, I don't have as many burdens as you guys." Feng Bujue replied, "I'm just acting out of interest." This statement was relatively believable coming from him. "Because of this Derivative, I can't get any rewards. At least I have the right to see what the culprit looks like, right?"

The only Derivative Feng Bujue had ever met was X-23. He didn't expect to meet her again. Given the circumstances of the Derivatives, Twenty-Three had probably been destroyed long ago, and the probability of encountering her again was basically zero. Therefore, Feng Bujue believed that the one in this script should be an unfamiliar level-four Derivative.

His curiosity was very strong. It was a rare opportunity to come into contact with other Derivatives, and Feng Bujue naturally wanted to learn more about this special group of AIs. Communicating with other individuals among them could also serve as a reference to see what was different between the Derivatives, whether they had unique personalities and even ideas, like intelligent life in the real world.

"Then do whatever you want." Galileo said, "But some things have to be said first. Our goal is to eliminate the Derivative and 'kill' it, turning it into data fragments. No matter what happens, that is the top priority. You want to watch from the sidelines and collect intelligence, you can. We also welcome you to help. But please don't do anything to hinder us."

The three from Order all expressed their agreement, but Feng Bujue remained silent. After more than ten seconds, he suddenly said, "There's one more thing I want to confirm... the two of you... can't get the Protagonist Aura, right?"

Galileo hesitated for a moment and replied, "Yes... uh... why do you even know this?"

"Don't look at me with that expression. I basically guessed this... Including the one at the beginning of the script, the random transfer of the Protagonist Aura happened three times in total. Brave Bro got it twice, and Ye Zhi got it once." Feng Bujue replied, "And there were also three directional transfers... Brave Bro got it once, and I got it twice." He glanced at Meng Jingchan, "The only people who haven't gotten the Protagonist Aura are the two of you GMs, and Brother Chan."

In the script introduction, the 'player' was mentioned many times in the part about the Aura setting. The only thing that wasn't mentioned was 'when the team size is less than or equal to two, the Protagonist Aura disappears.' After confirming that you are GMs, I was thinking that if the system didn't treat you as 'players,' then the appearance of this Aura setting would be very reasonable."

"Are you saying... if there were no Derivatives or GMs in this script, and it was just an ordinary team survival map, the system wouldn't have added the Protagonist Aura setting?" Ye Zhi followed his idea.

"At least that's what I think." Feng Bujue replied, "The Protagonist Aura is a protection that the system makes for players based on the difficulty of the script and the actual situation. Since it's an effect created by the system, even if the players are teleported away, it will continue to exist as long as the script hasn't been closed.

Normally, if the level can be cleared smoothly and four players leave, then the remaining two must be GMs. If the Aura still exists, it would be very unfair to the Derivatives, so it's simply set up so that GMs can't get the Aura in any situation..."

"What are you talking about? Why would the system want to make the battle between us and the Derivatives relatively fair?" Copernicus said, "Have you watched too many science fiction movies? The light brain doesn't have any self-awareness. Besides, even if it did, why would the system give a group of garbage data that needs to be destroyed a chance to survive?"

Feng Bujue sneered and thought to himself: "If only I knew... maybe one or a group of perverts in your high command deliberately designed the system like this."

"Um... maybe I'm overthinking it." Feng Bujue replied calmly, "Let's go up the mountain first. We should be able to find the Derivative if we find the Grudge Well."