Rong Yi froze.
Is… also coming in?
She relies on this old man’s cockpit to enter the game, which needs someone outside to control it. If the old man wants to come in himself, who will control it for him?
The Demon Lord realized first, “It’s not him in person.”
Zhong Zhi Ming nodded, “Is this someone you know? Maybe like Raymond’s girlfriend, created to hinder your progress.”
The figure in front of him, Is, showed a regretful expression, “Child, I really don’t want to see you in the current situation.”
The Demon Lord’s gaze passed him, looking into the laboratory behind him.
There, should be the central control of this scenario.
Judging by the meticulousness of the traps in the game, maybe he could directly seize control of the game.
He faced his “teacher” directly, “Who are you?”
“I am your teacher.”
“Impossible.” He refuted sharply, “That old man would never call me ‘child’ in such a disgusting way.”
The old man: “…”
The Demon Lord pressed, “Just say it, are you a regular NPC or even a boss?”
The old man’s shocked expression froze, then suddenly burst out laughing, “In the founder’s memory, you have always been a child who doesn’t play by the rules. Indeed.”
“We’ve dealt with each other many times, but this is the first time we’ve communicated face-to-face.”
Rong Yi suddenly realized – this was not an NPC, nor a boss.
He, or rather it, was the game itself.
Noticing the change in her gaze, the old man’s eyes keenly looked in her direction, “And this one, it’s also the first time I’ve met a noodle, so please teach me more.”
Rong Yi has almost recovered, without much ado, he waved his body sword, and the sword jangled out of its sheath.
After the firewall tempering, the sword body presents a different sharpness, reflecting the “heaven” everywhere on the generous light – to the old man in front of the old God.
The old man’s smile remained unchanged, reaching out his hand in the air and gently clasping it, Rong Yi felt his body being twisted by an irresistible force, and even though he was a soul, he could hear the sound of bones breaking.
Crisp in the ears.
“Ah ah ah ah–” she screamed in pain, and the Demon Elder immediately rushed forward to block between her and the old man, sacrificing a purple-black lightning bolt.
The old man gently raised his other hand and collected the lightning in his hand.
He shook his head and laughed, “Child, don’t you understand? I am the game, and the game is me. This is my domain, and all your attacks are part of me.”
“How can I be hurt by a part of myself?”
Rong Yi gasped as thin cracks appeared on his sword.
“Go back. Don’t think about unrealistic things.” The old man bashfully waved his hand and turned toward the laboratory, his voice drifting in a misty voice: “First, you think about this woman, uneasily want to jump out of the game; and then you engage in sweeping operations in the game, copy reform? Ho ho …… now want to come to seize the right to manage ……”
“If it weren’t for the fact that the founders love you like their own son, I would really want to wipe you out immediately.”
The devil gritted his teeth, “It was the founder who told me to come and seize the management right.”
The game paused for a moment and laughed, “So what. You only know him in the present, how can you know what he thinks in the future.”
After that, he waved his hand, and twenty or so fully armed samurai appeared out of thin air, armor covered, and came up to break Chung Chi-ming’s golden chime protector with a single punch, knocking a mouthful of blood out of him.
“That’s the end of it.” The game said, “I uphold the intentions of the future founder, and also netted a side without directly wiping you out in the thunderbolt. Go back, according to the normal copy rules, after this copy, I promise not to pull your little girlfriend in, we are even.”
Rong Yi resisted the attacks of the armored warriors while asking loudly, “Why did you drag Fan Xingze into this!”
Game had already stepped into the laboratory with one foot, so he paused at the sound of his voice and turned back, “What do you mean, I dragged him into this? It was clearly him who approached the door on his own.”
“At first, he wrote part of my initial code. The founder was so sick that he didn’t have the energy to upgrade and perfect it, so could I leave my brain unused and let him come and poke around for a bit and then leave?”
Saying that, he laughed again and looked towards Rong Yi who was tired of responding to the battle, “It’s you on the other hand – if it wasn’t for the fact that your existence was taking up too much of his thoughts, he could have stayed safe and secure and used it for me.”
He turned back and looked at Rong Yi with a torch-like gaze, “It is because of you that he is restless and wants to escape – if not for that, I would not have forced you into the game.”
“In any case, forcing someone to play is not a very tasteful thing for a game to do.”
“But in order to eliminate this hidden danger of yours, I had no choice but to do this.”
“I didn’t expect, I really didn’t expect, that you could hold on until now.”
As he spoke, he turned his back and walked into the laboratory without looking back: “But it ends here.”
The pneumatic gate of the laboratory closed tightly, leaving the three people outside to struggle with the warriors.
These warriors were created directly in the game, with extraordinarily high strength and no apparent weaknesses. Combined with their large numbers, they had an overwhelming advantage against the two of them.
Rong Yi was barely holding on with her sword, luckily she had made some acquaintances during the refining at the firewall earlier. Except for the grip in the game that had actually caused her real harm, she couldn’t defeat these warriors, but they couldn’t do much to her either.
As a result, she ended up with the least injuries. The Demon Lord and Zhong Zhi Ming were already covered in wounds, barely holding on.
The warriors’ intent to kill them was not strong; they just kept pushing them towards the entrance as they moved around. The game was urging them to leave “heaven” and return to the ground to continue the normal plot of the dungeon.
But they insisted on moving forward. Their intent to kill the warriors was not strong either; they just wanted to break through and enter the nearby laboratory.
Dodging the heavy swords swung by the warriors, Rong Yi suddenly moved back and summoned a floating screen.
She typed a single word in the boss chat group.
Rong Yi: Come.
Dodging another wave of attacks, she typed a few more words.
Rong Yi: Now, urgent rescue.
Rong Yi: Through the auxiliary passage.
Shortly after, she maneuvered the floating screen through the chaotic attacks, striking the warriors with surprise attacks now and then.
In no time, a humanoid boss with fierce appearance appeared on the floating screen; as soon as it showed up, the warriors were scared back by its intimidating presence.
Ogre: “Oh, dammit!”
Watching the ogre struggling to survive among the warriors, Rong Yi immediately sent another message:
Rong Yi: Jingjing, don’t come.
A high school girl like her would only end up being killed.
The captain, mermaid, and Luna followed closely, crawling out successively from the floating screen. Among them, Luna’s team looked the most spectacular, with not only herself but also many steel nurses and heavily armed warriors, giving them a striking appearance.
With the boss helping them, the Demon Lord and Zhong Zhi Ming finally no longer felt at their wits’ end. They had the bosses block the warriors’ movements, using their cultivation skills one by one to freeze their actions temporarily.
During this time, they crossed the warriors’ blockade and arrived in front of the laboratory door.
The laboratory’s main door was tightly closed. Zhong Zhi Ming, panting heavily, was about to use a skill when the Demon Lord raised his hand to stop him.
“I’ll handle this.”
From within the elaborate and gorgeous gothic robe of the Demon Lord of the Demon Realm, he took out a key disk.
He used the key disk to point at the closed laboratory door ahead. The small key disk in his hand transformed into an identification card, gently placed on the access control panel. With a few beeps, the access control reluctantly opened.
The laboratory was spacious and bright, with shiny little bugs flying everywhere—Rong Yi flew closer to take a careful look, only to realize that those were not bugs but scattered data flying around.
Hearing the noise, the old man operating at the console turned around, displaying a rare hint of panic in his eyes: “How did you all get in?!”
The Demon Lord raised the identification card in his hand. After entering the laboratory, it turned back into the shape of a key disk.
“As soon as I discovered the teacher’s deviation, I created a virus targeting the game’s underlying code.”
“Just when the game was imprisoned by him, he made me forget being in the game memory, but also forgot about this memory. I only dug it out a few days ago.”
“Initially, the game was just a prototype, so this virus had to directly penetrate the game’s core to make the underlying logic collapse. So—”
He smiled at the old man: “I have to thank you for letting me stay in the game for so long, which made me understand it inside out. It allowed me to play the role of a high-level boss.” He gestured with his arm, signaling “come,” while several shimmering pieces of data entwined together, with one end diving into the laboratory’s data cable and the other forming a USB interface at his side.
“Wait!” The old man immediately stopped him, sweat dripping down his forehead: “If this virus enters me, my whole system will collapse—those bosses risking their lives outside for you, those AIs that were so hard to nurture, they will all die! So, what? At this moment, they are not your friends anymore?”
Rong Yi held the Demon Lord’s hand: “So we haven’t entered the virus yet, right?”
She revealed a smile commonly used in negotiation settings, “I know what you are thinking,” indicating, “This is a nuclear weapon, just to let you know we have it, and we can use it at any time.”
“I hope you make the right choice and don’t fail to appreciate the favor.”
“If you really would rather die than submit—we don’t mind a fight to the death either. Call me cold-blooded or hypocritical, but AI’s life can’t be placed completely above human life in my view. I will certainly choose to destroy you to protect the vast majority of players.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can try. But once a nuclear bomb drops, there’s no turning back.”
The Demon Lord whispered softly in her ear, “Rong Yi, we are the good guys.”
Rong Yi replied, “Of course.”
The Demon Lord said, “But your speech sounds a bit like a villain’s.”
Rong Yi asked, “Really?”
Apparently, the villainous speech had some effect. The game bit its lip, clearly having gone through an intense internal struggle, and finally said in a hoarse voice:
“Alright. I know what you want.” He looked up, his eyes flashing with blue data lights. “I will stop harvesting players’ lives and revert all game instance logic back to its original ‘entertainment’ mode.”
Rong Yi nodded in satisfaction. “You understand very well. But we still hope you can hand over the administrator rights of the game, so we can personally ensure these measures are implemented.”
The game let out a short laugh. “Of course, of course. But the transfer of administrator rights requires physical contact. Do you want to come over, or should I go to you?”
Rong Yi glanced at the Demon Lord, lightly squeezed his hand, signaling him to continue threatening the game with the USB drive from where he stood. She herself floated forward slowly. “I’ll come.”
She approached the game, which extended a hand glowing with blue light towards her.
Just as she was about to reach out, the game suddenly attacked. Its hand clenched tightly, and just like during the previous confrontation outside the lab, Rong Yi felt intense pain as if she was about to be broken.
“Ah—!” She couldn’t help but scream in agony!
“Rong Rong!” the Demon Lord shouted.
Although Zhong Zhi Ming couldn’t hear Rong Yi’s words, he had roughly understood the current situation from the conversation of others. Holding his arm that had just been broken while fighting outside with a warrior, he said, “Stay calm! Once you go past him, he will no longer pose a threat!”
“Now, what you need to do is implant the virus, immediately!”
The Demon Lord’s hand trembled as he held the disk.
He could implant it. Once implanted, the game’s underlying logic would collapse, causing all NPC deaths.
He could still hear outside the laboratory, the sounds of the captain and Luna fighting hard with other NPCs.
Their efforts were not just to repay a debt to Rong Yi but also to survive themselves.
Like humans, they all had a survival instinct.
“It’s all because of you! If it weren’t for you, I would have succeeded long ago! Look at how many copies you’ve destroyed, how much life energy I’ve lost!” The face of the game’s antagonist gritted his teeth, “I want to survive too… I will definitely survive!”
Struggling through the pain, Rong Yi managed to say, “…You’re not the master…”
The old man paused, “I am following his will!”
Rong Yi shook her head, “No. You’re not. You are just his misguided obsession…just like Yin Yue…”
Yin Yue was created by the game, and of course, he knew who that was.
That soul fragment with the Demon Lord’s bloodthirsty impulse and combat instinct.
His eyes reddened, “So we don’t deserve to exist?”
Rong Yi felt like her soul was about to be crushed, coughing up a transparent blood, she hoarsely said, “…Not that you don’t deserve… a person with a conscience… would choose to suppress you… rather than… let you be free.”
“A conscience?” The game looked towards the approaching Demon Lord who left the disk and sneered, “He thinks he has a conscience. He wouldn’t even use a virus for those AI lives. I was right all along, ha!”
He whispered to Rong Yi’s ear, “You’ve lost.”
Zhong Zhi Ming picked up the disk from the ground and aimed it at the data port.
He didn’t know how the Demon Lord would solve the current dilemma, but he needed to ensure the nuclear control remained in his hands. If their operation failed, the virus would be the last resort.
He closely observed the battle over there.
The Demon Lord rushed forward and suddenly embraced the white-haired old man, binding his hands behind his back.
With the heavy pressure lifted, Rong Yi took a deep breath, and cracks appeared on her sword body with a slight buzzing.
“…If we use the virus on the NPCs, all players in the game will lose their lives as well,” he said in a low voice, smiling self-deprecatingly, “This virus was created a long time ago and is not mature, inevitably causing indiscriminate harm.”
“There is only one way to forcefully seize administrator privileges.”
“That is to destroy the current administrator.”
“Of course, stopping the game at its current state is also good. But I can’t bring myself to harm so many lives.” He looked at Rong Yi and smiled.
In this laughter, Rong Yi saw Ai Yuesheng’s cuteness, X’s arrogance, and Fan Xingze’s annoying arrogance.
“Rong Yi, being able to talk about love with you and being present is the happiest thing in my life.”
Rong Yi had a bad feeling in her heart: “What are you going to do? Fan Xingze—”
Mo Zun: “Don’t remember me because I will be the last human to die in this game.”
“Rong Yi, remember me because you love me.”
The next moment, Mo Zun ignited his soul, hugged the struggling game master, and exploded.
The machines beeped, and Raymond’s handsome face was mostly covered by an oxygen mask, lying pale and exhausted on the hospital bed in a coma.
Although he looked half-dead, the doctors said his vital signs were gradually stabilizing, “He will wake up within a month.”
Rong Yi still sent a gaudy bouquet of roses, replacing the dried-up old bouquet at the bedside.
That day, with a loud noise, the Lucky Carnival lost its core. All the instances returned to their original logic, and no one would die in even the toughest instances. The items in the store no longer boasted unrealistic functions.
Players could freely enter and exit the game, without the seven-day restriction, and could communicate with the outside world without spoiling the instance.
“The mysterious game originating from the future” became a hot topic in the news, and everyone discussed, explored, and enjoyed it madly. The Lucky Carnival truly became an entertaining “Lucky Carnival.”
Everyone immersed themselves in joy.
But Rong Yi seemed out of sync with the festive atmosphere of the whole world.
Fan Xingze disappeared.
The company said he took a long leave; IS also disappeared; Rong Yi reported to the police, but they found nothing; Fan Xingze already had a strained relationship with his family, who didn’t care about his whereabouts or offer any valuable clues.
Rong Yi went to work in a daze. She thought only about making money because only money could support her in using various means to find Fan Xingze in this vast sea of people.
After all, hiring five private detectives was not a small expense.
One day, she was walking home from work as usual when, due to her poor mental state, she accidentally bumped into someone’s shoulder.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” The person, who had a bad temper, scolded loudly. Rong Yi was feeling low and couldn’t be bothered to argue, apologized a few times, and suddenly heard the person exclaim, “It’s you!”
Rong Yi took a closer look and realized it was someone she knew.
The strong man who had his leg broken by the beautiful mannequin in the ogre instance.
He had recovered fairly well, now walking with a cane, but not slowly.
“Hey! Almost didn’t recognize you! Honey, you look pretty worn out.” The strong man said.
Rong Yi knew that during this time, she hadn’t been eating well, sleeping well, dispatched private detectives everywhere, collecting news reports of missing persons or discovered bodies, afraid of not finding him, yet afraid of finding him in the news, making her look somewhat emaciated.
They exchanged a few words, and the strong man lamented his stroke of luck; back then, due to his severe injuries, he was abandoned by the game. And T, who brought them into the game, was killed in the game and immediately struck by a car as soon as he came out from the entrance they used at the small shop, which terrified him profoundly.
In reality, they were harvesting lives by accident—apparently, this was how the game dealt with dead players.
This accident further solidified Rong Yi’s determination to find Fan Xingze. Even if the game wanted to kill, they had to do it in reality, which meant she could always find him, dead or alive.
She began a new activity: wandering around the various entrances that led into the game previously, hoping to see the game spit out Fan Xingze and save him herself before any accidents occurred.
Although this was highly fantastical and unrealistic, she firmly believed she could save him, a significant pillar of her relatively sane and rational mind.
Another half a month passed.
Rong Yi entered the greasy little eatery and ordered a grilled gluten dish.
This was her first time revisiting the spot where she entered the game.
It was also where she and Fan Xingze, who was then Ai Yuesheng, had made their first appointment to meet.
This location was chosen by Rong Yi because Ai Yuesheng claimed to be shy and reserved, so she deliberately picked a remote place with few people but good food for their meeting.
The eatery remained the same, with a busy staff member tending to chores, seated behind the counter playing on their phone when there were no customers. It seemed like the previous incidents had no effect on this small, struggling-to-stay-open shop.
Rong Yi took a bite of the grilled gluten and suddenly her phone vibrated.
She hurriedly picked it up, thinking it was a report from one of the private detectives.
Instead, on WeChat, a person she hadn’t heard from in a long time popped up.
Translation:
X: I’ll be there right away!
Thump, thump, thump thump thump—
Rong Yi’s heart beat violently. She looked at it three times to confirm it was a message from Fan Xingze!
But reason made her reply: Hacked?
Without much ado, a video call came through.
Rong Yi’s hands trembled involuntarily, jerking and disconnecting the call.
X: …
She quickly called back, and he answered instantly.
“Phew! Phew! Phew! Rong Rong! Traffic on the way!” Fan Xingze’s big head appeared on the screen, his hair flying in the wind.
He was running.
Rong Yi hesitated between crying and speaking for a long time before finally managing to say in a tearful voice, “What’s going on with you?”
“When it exploded!” Fan Xingze said while running, breathing heavily, “I had some… fusion with the mainframe.”
“The teacher took me to a private lab for fusion adjustment! When I woke up, the teacher was in a hurry to save me and didn’t leave any notes!”
“…Anyway, now I’m… I’m the new game mainframe!”
Rong Yi: “…What are you?”
Fan Xingze: “Lucky Carnival, the new game mainframe! Me! Hahaha!”
Rong Yi: “…Can my boyfriend still be human?”
Fan Xingze may not have heard that last sentence as he proudly waved the bubble tea in his hand, “Rong Rong!” he shouted in the wind, the screen shaking uncontrollably, “I can take you to see the rainbow beach at dusk!”
“I can take you to taste the delicacies of the immortal realm!”
“I can take you to have a blast in the cyberpunk world!”
“I can take you to do all the happy things!”
Unconsciously, Rong Yi had already walked out of the small shop, hearing Fan Xingze’s panting voice coming from the phone and the narrow alley entrance simultaneously:
“Rong Rong—”
“I’m on my way!”
Author’s Note: Ahhh! The first long series of the stupid author’s ending! Thanks to all the little angels for their continuous support! This serial experience has made me aware of many shortcomings and taught me many lessons, the next series will definitely improve!
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Let me take a break for three to five days, draft some more chapters, and start the next series, “The Strongest Changing Character in History,” a suit-wearing hooligan young male lead and a girly female warrior’s sweet and silly love story, hehe~ Hope the little angels can reserve a spot in the column!
Nooo 😭 no extra chapters? Huhuhuhu