Chapter 129 The Virus and the Antivirus

After passing through the spatial rift again, Feng Bujue arrived in a blue-gray space.

Here, there were no sun, moon, or stars; the firmament itself emitted a moderate light. Everything within sight had a metallic texture.

In that faintly cyan sky, there were also a few wisps of crimson data streams, like rosy clouds or colorful clouds... extending infinitely to the horizon.

"The Inner World, huh..." Brother Jue took only a second to adapt his body to the new environment, where the atmosphere and gravity differed somewhat from the real world. He then activated his data vision and began searching for new rifts.

Unexpectedly, after that one second, he was startled to realize... that two enormous data streams were approaching him from a great distance.

Although they were two distinct forces, their overwhelming presence was similar.

In the blink of an eye, one of the data streams had already approached Feng Bujue. It seemed... that the other party intended to launch an attack on Brother Jue directly with this "transmission speed."

Feng Bujue reacted quickly, immediately turning to block. But the impact did not arrive as he had predicted, because... the other data stream rushed over diagonally at the critical moment, knocking aside the one heading straight for Brother Jue and deflecting the impact for him.

Tss--

The moment the two light streams touched, a tearing sound of light energy rent the air. A violent energy storm spread out in a circle, pushing Brother Jue back seven or eight meters.

Before the light and shadow had dissipated, six figures had appeared in Feng Bujue's vision.

The three on his left had materialized from the light stream that had just rushed towards him; the three on his right had been brought by the stream of light that had protected him.

"You go! We'll hold them back." After many years (from Ruth's perspective), Ruth's first words to Feng Bujue were to tell him to leave quickly.

Clearly, she had come on the data stream that protected Brother Jue, and the two beside her were "Red" and "Azure."

And the three currently confronting her were a tall humanoid creature composed entirely of golden liquid metal, and... "Chitie" and "Yi."

Through his data vision, Feng Bujue had confirmed... that the golden humanoid in front of him was "Zero," or rather... had once been Zero.

During the period when Twenty-Three tried to destroy the main universe, the Origin and Z Organization, unaware of the truth, had united to fight against him. At that time, Ruth led the Origin in the Inner World, while Zero led the Z Organization in resisting in the main universe...

Later, on the shattered Jumo Island, Chitie and Yi were "infected" and defeated by Twenty-Three, causing the Z Organization to suffer heavy losses. As a result, when Doumo and the Redundant Soldiers attacked the Monster Kingdom, Zero could only fight against Twenty-Three alone...

In the end, all the high-level combat forces of the Z Organization, including Zero himself, were infected and assimilated by Twenty-Three.

Ruth and the others were spared only because the main battlefield was in the Inner World...

Now, because Twenty-Three himself had been absorbed by Fate, the three members of the Z Organization had also been separated by Fate and become "antivirus programs" used to deal with the Derivants.

"Okay." After observing for a few seconds, Feng Bujue had roughly deduced the situation before him. He didn't stand on ceremony with Ruth, responded, and turned to run.

But before he could finish speaking, Zero and the other two rushed towards him again.

Even though Ruth and the others immediately stepped forward to suppress the three members of the Z Organization, due to the principle of "priority commands," the three still stared fixedly at Brother Jue with their white-light-filled eyes, struggling to break free from their restraints and desperately approaching their target.

"Don't look back, I won't let them touch you!" As Ruth said this, she, as the suppressing party, was showing injuries similar to data cracks on her body.

Feng Bujue indeed did not look back. He left as quickly as possible, following the data trail.

He could see that the battle between Ruth and Zero had already begun before he arrived in this space, and... Ruth's side was already showing signs of defeat. Once he left this space, Zero and the others would lose their priority target and turn to deal with Ruth with all their strength. The result of that battle... would likely end with the latter's destruction.

But even knowing this, he would not turn back, could not turn back.

He believed what Ruth said, "I won't let them touch you."

Just as Ruth also believed in him, firmly believing in the promise he had made in the past...

Because of the promise he had received back then, Ruth did not ask Feng Bujue any questions at this time. She didn't care where he was going or what he was doing. She simply unconditionally believed and did everything she could to be Feng Bujue's aid.

At this time of universal destruction and the collapse of all realms, even a human might not be as firm as she was.

On the contrary, self-proclaimed higher life forms often only believed in themselves when faced with life-or-death situations, and even... didn't even believe in themselves.

Can I really stop Fate?

What if my strength is still not enough?

What if I fail?

What will this world eventually become?

Feng Bujue questioned himself all the way. These questions that he could not answer but could guess the answers to flashed through his rapidly running brain again and again, pushing him to the brink of collapse.

Long-lost fear, like an uncontrollable wildfire, scorched his calmness.

He was not afraid of death, but he was afraid of the situation that might occur after his defeat and death, those hopes, trusts, dignities, and lives that he carried from others... would all be shattered with his failure and death.

Every time he thought of this, he was uncontrollably afraid.

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

Spatial rifts in the Inner World were easy to find; the data veins there were very clear.

Feng Bujue quickly performed another transfer. This time, the moment he regained consciousness, a scorched earth appeared before his eyes.

Dim light scattered through the clouds, illuminating the scarred black earth.

At this time, in front of Feng Bujue... lay hundreds of corpses. Among these dead, he saw [Blade]'s Long Ge, Qisha, Pojun, and Tanlang, as well as many members of the Blade studio whom he did not recognize but had seen in different occasions. In addition, he also saw [Order]'s "Drunk Life, Dream Death," and [Mountain and River]'s and [Heaven and Earth]'s Qiufeng Se, Yuzhong Jichang, and others...

These Thriller Paradise players, whom he knew or did not know, had gathered here for some reason and... died in battle here.

And those who killed them were now standing on this hill of corpses and river of blood.

Billy, Bill, Zhuanjiezun, Dianhewang, Rabbit Hair Bro, R2-Prism Seal, Y2-Shine, and so on, among those blood-soaked figures... in addition to powerful NPCs, there were also Derivants who had been "infected" by Twenty-Three at different times.

These faces familiar to Brother Jue were now staring directly at Feng Bujue with pairs of eyes filled with data streams.

This terrifying, desperate scene became even more terrifying and even more desperate after a moment...

After the same reaction time, all these monsters rushed towards Feng Bujue, an overwhelming and frantic offensive, leaving him nowhere to escape.

Forced, Feng Bujue had to use the Holy and Demonic Powers, ready to release an energy explosion to withstand this wave of encirclement and suppression.

However, at this moment...

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

"Eh? Brother Feng?" Meng Jingchan had sharp eyes and was the first to spot Brother Jue in the crowd.

Hearing his words, everyone around turned their heads and looked here, making noises.

"What? Feng Bujue is here?"

"Where? When did he come?"

"It's my first time seeing him in person..."

"With him here, the chances of winning should increase..."

When these voices entered his ears, Feng Bujue's expression was still puzzled.

A second ago, he had seen countless monsters pouncing on him, but the next second, he suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a crowd, and these people... were all the "corpses" he had just seen.

"Brother Feng!" Just as Feng Bujue was stunned, Long Ge called him and squeezed through the crowd, "You came at the right time. Section Chief Gu has already contacted us, and we will fully assist you." As he spoke, he came to Brother Jue's side, "By the way, Little Wang and Little Gu are also here... I'll call them over..."

As he said that, he turned his head back, but then he froze for a moment: "Eh? Where are they... Little Wang! Wang Tanzhi!"

"I'm leaving." While Long Ge was still shouting for people, Feng Bujue coldly dropped these words and pushed through the crowd, moving forward.

"Eh, wait a..." Long Ge wanted to stop him, but just as he was about to finish speaking, someone in the crowd shouted, "Monsters are coming! Seven o'clock direction!"

As a result, Long Ge's words were quickly drowned out in a cacophony of noise. By the time he looked again, Feng Bujue had already run far away without looking back.

Just now, when Long Aotian said his first words to Feng Bujue, the latter had already confirmed with his data vision that Little Tan and Little Ling were not among this group of people. As for why Long Ge said they were there, and why these people, who had clearly died, had suddenly come back to life... After thinking for a few seconds, Feng Bujue had already come to a conclusion in his mind.

Boom--

In a loud explosion of energy, the battle began.

But Feng Bujue did not care about the bloody battle that was happening behind him. He just buried his head and rushed forward.

He could already feel... that Fate was in this space. This was also the reason why so many NPCs and infected Derivants appeared here.

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

After traveling at near-sonic speed for nearly five minutes, finally, a radiance like a vast sun appeared on the horizon.

Since the scene in this data vision was too dazzling, Feng Bujue had to switch to normal vision to see things.

So, he saw the next scene...

On a piece of scorched earth slightly higher than the ground, Fate, in the appearance of Twenty-Three, was standing there.

Her left arm was raised high, holding Wang Tanzhi by the neck, raising the latter above her head.

The moment Feng Bujue saw them, Fate had just twisted Little Tan's neck...

And at this time, at Fate's feet, lay another corpse - Gu Xiaoling's corpse; she also looked like she had just died not long ago, and blood was still gushing out from the bloody hole in her chest.

"I'll kill you..." Feng Bujue had no time to grieve, perhaps, he would no longer feel grief, because a more intense, crazy killing intent had overwhelmed all other emotions at this moment...

He muttered the intention to kill the other party, and the Holy and Demonic Powers on his body were instantly pushed to the limit.

The moment he broke the sound barrier, his figure was already in front of Fate... A punch enough to shatter space-time, carrying everything he carried, slammed towards Fate's face.

However...

Buzz--

Fate simply raised a finger of her right hand and gently tapped in the void, opening an invisible force field that stopped Brother Jue's fist and its momentum.

The earth-shattering power of the punch only stirred up a few ripples on the force field before dissipating into nothingness.

"You came... earlier than I expected." Fate looked at Feng Bujue and said indifferently, "Even without counting the two of them 'time rewind', the timing of your appearance has exceeded my calculations." As she spoke, she casually threw Little Tan's corpse away, and then said, "It seems... you have obtained some new power, but obviously..." She tapped her finger again, pushing the force field forward, and threw Feng Bujue out, "...it's still not enough to threaten me."

Shua shua shua...

In the next second, streamers of light appeared, and black light broke through the wind.

Feng Bujue did a somersault in the air and scattered dozens of Mad Demon Poker cards from his fingers.

"Spiritual weapon..." Looking at those scattered attacks flying towards her, Fate still had no emotional changes. She simply spread her right hand and waved it slightly, and those black lights were decomposed into data light streams in the process of flying, flowing away in a melting state, "...Compared to the power of those psychics in the real world, it's not worth mentioning."

The repeated setbacks of the attack did not make Feng Bujue give up. Before his feet landed, he stepped into the air again.

"In terms of pure 'power', you have no chance." Fate said, and with another snap of her fingers, she made Brother Jue, who was rushing forward, fall straight to the ground... The state of his fall was like being pulled down by a huge force. Even though he did not fall from a very high place, he shattered the ground.

"You should have more 'high-level' abilities, right?" Fate said word by word, "Let me see it... The Truth, the Reason, the Lie." (Note: Zhen, Li, Zhi, Miu are directly transliterated for emphasis, referencing the character's special ability.)

Hearing this, Feng Bujue did not respond. Under this tremendous gravitational pressure, he had used all his strength just to try to support his body.

If he knew how to use the Lie of Truth, he would have used it long ago, and would not have waited until now...

"I see... still not enough." Fate observed him for a few more seconds and continued, "It seems that my 'stimulation' for you is not enough."

After saying that, she moved forward, approaching Feng Bujue, not knowing what she was going to do.

Just then, suddenly!

Beside Brother Jue, a spatial rift suddenly appeared and quickly extended into a "mirror."

Before Fate could react, a thick arm stretched out from the mirror and grabbed Feng Bujue, who was lying on the ground and unable to get up...

Half a second later, the mirror reclosed and disappeared.

"Oh?" Fate looked at the place where the rift disappeared and muttered in a deep voice, "A small god of another dimension, but unexpectedly able to cause trouble for me at this time."