Chapter 118 On the Table, Fate, Unsettling Variables "Reading poetry, my..."

"...You mean, you know about the hackers?" Fu Ze hesitated for a moment, then translated what Dragon Spine had just said based on his own understanding.

Longji nodded, confirming that the other party's understanding was completely correct.

"However, to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings, I would like to make a statement in advance."

"I didn't know he was a hacker from the beginning."

"If I hadn't accidentally discovered the message in the [special key], I probably would never have guessed that this was a game world, and naturally I would never have connected that person's identity with that of a 'hacker'."

Immediately, Fu Ze began to make plans.

According to the [attachment], no player has logged out of the game since the problem occurred.

That is to say, regardless of which of the game glitches mentioned in the [attachment], players will not anticipate the existence of a hacker.

Given how incredibly realistic this world is, aside from those who study philosophy, probably no one would doubt its authenticity without a reason.

etc!

Speaking of "for no reason", Fu Ze recalled the strange behavior that Liwei had mentioned before, in which the Dragon Spine had caused Deer Ear and Rhinoceros Horn to move west and east towards the world's borders.

Obviously, no one would do something that seems pointless for no reason, let alone someone like Dragonspine.

Unless someone first does something that is enough to overturn the Dragonspine worldview, and then tells the other party that this world has boundaries, and invites the other party to verify it personally.

If this person is the hacker who created the virus that could affect the "central hub of everything," then doing this would be very simple.

Immediately afterwards, Fu Ze recalled another detail:

Just like when he and Yuan Jianxing went to the library of V City University, one of the urban legends, which would never be completed, almost all the students who were originally going with them dropped out of the adventure due to various unforeseen events.

Deer ears and rhinoceros horns also encountered various accidents on their way to the world's borders.

In retrospect, it was the "world echo" at work, using seemingly plausible methods to circumvent the possibility of the world's boundaries being discovered.

After repeated unsuccessful attempts, they explained the situation to the Dragon Spine.

Logically speaking, most people would choose to send them home.

But Longji insisted on letting the deer ears and rhinoceros horns try again.

This time, the two successfully reached the world's borders, with no further obstacles in sight.

Generally speaking, the same behavior will only lead to the same result.

If the same behavior yields different results, it means that some underlying factors must have subtly changed.

Based on the information available, only one scenario can achieve this effect—

The deer ears and rhinoceros horn yielded the [key].

Oh no, it should now be called a "key".

Because they possessed the [key], they were recognized as players by the [Center of All Things], and therefore no longer faced additional obstacles in their "overstepping" behavior.

This connects the logical connections:

The hacker finds the dragon's spine—the hacker demonstrates the power of the [Key]—tells the dragon's spine that the world has boundaries—the dragon's spine attempts to verify, encountering numerous unexpected problems—the hacker distributes the [Key] to the deer's ears and the rhinoceros's horn—verification successful.

After all, a person must first prove their worth before they can sit down and make a deal.

So now the question becomes, why did this hacker target Dragonspine?

Considering the subsequent actions of the Dragon Ridge and the remedial measures mentioned in the [Appendix], the answer to this question is quite obvious—

He needs Dragonspine's assistance to kill the GMs who enter the game carrying [Special Keys] to repair [The Central Hub of All Things].

"How could a hacker who can write such a powerful virus need the assistance of others?" Fu Ze asked, somewhat puzzled.

Upon hearing Fu Ze's question, Longji knew that the other party had already deduced a lot of information, so there was no need for him to waste his breath.

Dealing with smart people is so refreshing.

"That means the virus isn't actually as powerful as the 'letter writer Fu Ze' imagined."

"Like magic."

“When you don’t know the principle behind a magic trick, you may be attracted and amazed by the magician’s performance,” Longji explained. “But once you know the principle behind the magic trick, the magic trick that originally seemed so mysterious will become ridiculous.”

Upon hearing the metaphor of the dragon's spine, Fu Ze almost blurted out, "So you already know the principle behind this virus?"

But he quickly realized what was happening.

If Dragon Spine truly understands the principles behind this virus, then he, who possesses the "Writer Fu Ze" [Special Key], would have no need to seek out himself, the "Recipient Fu Ze".

"You two broke up?" Fu Ze went straight to the point.

However, Longji denied Fu Ze's statement: "The premise of a falling out is cooperation."

“Personally, I don’t think a healthy partnership should be a one-way communication where only one party can reach out to the other.” He gestured between the two of them. “For example, between you and me, even though there are all sorts of misunderstandings, whether I want to contact you or you want to find me, there are always clues to follow.”

In this way, Longji lightly dismissed the previous conflict between the two: "Longji almost drowned Fu Ze in the sea" and "Fu Ze fought his way out and reached the top floor of the Kangming Building".

Fu Ze also knew that some of his actions had indeed crossed the line.

As the conversation continued, he picked up the ginger ale on the table, unscrewed the cap, inserted a straw, and took a small sip.

This means that he accepted the olive branch extended by the dragon spine, and completely turned the page on all the back and forth between the two of them.

Longji could naturally see Fu Ze's attitude, so he continued, "I have met that person three times in total."

-

"When we first met, he appeared in my private study without any warning."

"He fiddled with my globe and said that the world actually has 'boundaries' and suggested that I verify it myself."

Before I could chase him away, he said he would wait for my "bad news." Before he finished speaking, he had disappeared, just as abruptly as he had arrived.

"Indeed, the world is a sphere, which is common knowledge that even children know."

"However, given the strangeness of his appearance and departure, out of caution, I sent my two most trusted men—Deer Ears and Rhinoceros Horns—to investigate."

"As you know, their journey encountered insurmountable obstacles."

"Just then, I received his message."

“During the communication, he calmly suggested that I have my men ‘try again’.”

"I accepted it."

"And so, they actually reached the so-called 'world frontier'."

"I know he must have done something, but I can't find any evidence."

"The second meeting was exactly the same as the first. He quietly appeared beside me again."

“At that time, I was on the observation deck on the second floor of the boxing gym, while Rhinoceros Horn was about to take the stage in the boxing ring on the first floor.”

"He told me to have Rhinoceros withdraw from the competition."

I asked why.

He still refused to explain, only saying that if I didn't want the rhinoceros to lose its other leg, I'd better do as he said.

"Having learned from past mistakes, I hesitated for a moment, but in the end I recalled Rhinoceros Horn and forced him to miss that game."

"Due to Rhinoceros Horn's withdrawal from the competition, his original opponent won without a fight and automatically advanced. In the subsequent match, this person used cruel methods that walked the edge of the rules to completely destroy his opponent's leg."

"I asked him how he knew in advance."

He said that it's a complicated explanation, but I can simply understand this coincidence as—fate.

"I wanted to say I don't believe in fate, but when I saw the player whose thigh was crushed in his place because of Rhinoceros Horn's absence, I didn't say anything."

He asked me, "Do you want to change your fate?"

I asked, "How do I change it?"

“He said he could help me, but I also had to help him.”

"I said, how can I help?"

“He said he would give me a key and teach me how to use it to gain unimaginable power. He also said he would give me several more keys so I could give them to others as needed.”

"What I need to do is to 'eliminate' all those who have improper covetousness for the [key]."

“I can understand why he would choose me to do this kind of thing. Power, wealth, influence, ambition, I am indeed his only choice.”

"So I asked him why he did that."

He smiled and said to me:

"Want to read poetry, my friend?"

"Tis some visitor. (A guest arrives late at night.)"

Tapping at my chamber door.

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore?!

"I know the content of this poem, and I know what he wanted to express through it."

"To demonstrate my attitude, I took the lead and added the last sentence."

"Nevermore." (A lonely, unreturning state.)

-

Clearly, the "Visitor" in this poem refers to the first batch of GMs who entered the game with a "special key".

As Longji initially stated, perhaps this virus is not as powerful as "the letter writer Fu Ze" imagined.

Otherwise, the hacker team wouldn't have needed to leave a teammate in the game where they couldn't log out as an inside agent, and that inside agent wouldn't have needed to seek cooperation from Dragonspine.

This is a rare piece of good news.

“You just said you’ve met with hackers three times,” Fu Ze said, summarizing Longji’s account. “That’s only twice.”

“The third meeting was the day before yesterday,” Longji said calmly. “He said he was going to release a batch of ‘black swans’.”

At other times, Fu Ze might still be somewhat puzzled by the term "black swan".

However, the term "black swan" often refers to extremely rare and unpredictable major events that, once they occur, will have a huge and disruptive impact.

Using it to refer to players is quite appropriate.

Dragonspine did not explain why it chose "Black Swan" as a term for players because people generally believe that swans are white.

This long-held "truth" was instantly overturned when black swans were discovered on a deserted island.

From then on, the status of white swans plummeted in all aspects, becoming merely a stepping stone to highlight the rarity and nobility of black swans.

Unaware of the extremely subtle change in Longji's expression, Fu Ze's entire attention was focused on the fact that "the hacker is going to release a group of players."

It's "a batch," not "all."

So that means the ransom in the [attachment] has been agreed upon?

It has now entered the verification phase of payment processing?!

Rubbing his temples, Fu Ze asked, "Now that things have come to this, why did you come to me in the first place? It couldn't have been just to deliver a message, could it? You're being so kind?"

“Because the variables make me uneasy,” Dragonspine replied calmly. “Although, through various coincidences, the Key was eventually exposed to the public eye, all of this can eventually lead to a new order after the turmoil.”

But once a player leaves from here, things change.

After learning about the situation inside the game, it remains to be seen whether the outside world will reassess its approach to this world, send a stronger GM into the game, or even directly overhaul this world.

"And I don't think this hacker can be trusted."

“I discovered the information in the key quite early on, but it took me a lot of time to reverse engineer the letter.”

"After receiving the information, I realized that although he didn't lie to me, he never told me the truth either."

"I knew this world had boundaries, but I didn't know that the whole world was a pre-built game world."

"I know about the [key], but I didn't know it was called the [key], nor did I know it was the only way to authenticate players."

"I know that those who possess the [Key] are the lucky ones in this world, but I didn't know that this luck comes from the calculations of the [World Echo] within the [Center of All Things]."

"I know that people can be given abilities, big or small, by activating [keys], such as deer ears, rhinoceros horns, or Yuan Jianxing. I also know that the hacker has countless [keys], but I didn't know that they were taken from the players and then distributed."

"He doesn't seem to be lying to me, but I still can't accept this deliberate concealment of important information."

“I completely understand your thinking,” Fu Ze interrupted Longji’s rambling, “but your blatant deception is even worse than that of a hacker.”