The terminal was encased in a thick outer armor, seemingly offering maximum defensive capabilities, but Jiang Ran didn't believe it could withstand a full-force attack from a near-god level.

"Stop what you're doing!"

The broadcast blared, and a deafening sound came from all directions, but Jiang Ran walked step by step toward the terminal, ignoring the artillery fire aimed at him.

boom--

The firepower of these cannons must have been precisely calculated to ensure power without penetrating the outer armor of the terminal. But unfortunately, if they couldn't even break through the outer armor of the terminal, how could they possibly break through the mesh created by Alice?

"You see, you're not perfect after all, are you?" Jiang Ran placed his hand on the outer armor of the terminal. "Once I destroy this thing, your so-called eternal life will be gone~"

"Wait! You have no grudge against us, do you? What good would it do you to destroy our terminals? I think we can talk!"

"That's more like it!" Jiang Ran leaned against the terminal. "We're all civilized people, what can't we talk about?"

What do you want?

"As expected of data speaking, it's really direct." Jiang Ran held up a finger. "But I like it this way."

"First, I need all your data on Nightstorm and Night Raven, including how they were generated and what their purpose is. This is the stuff you created, isn't it? Don't tell me you don't know. Give me your data in one second, and don't try to figure out any ulterior motives! If I don't see it right away, I'll take action!"

A string of data instantly appeared on the big screen!

"I hope you can keep your promise, after all, humans are not a trustworthy species!"

"Likewise."

[X-008: Project Storm, testing an annihilation cannon, anticipated to be a weapon capable of striking [Near God] level targets. The test failed, the material leaked out, and the device is now unrecoverable. It releases a large-scale annihilation material every night at 11:00 PM. Calculations have minimized the harm of the annihilation material to ensure it will not damage buildings.]

This experiment demonstrates that the existing algorithm still has flaws, and the calculation is currently being updated.

[G-001: Project Night Raven, to manufacture [Near God] level units. Currently, one unit is the limit, and subsequent manufacturing has encountered unknown errors. Night Raven is equipped with an anti-annihilation device and a particle regeneration device to ensure its ability to move in night storms. It will autonomously seek out other creatures with "divine" power, as well as other surviving unconverted humans, anesthetize them, bring them to the giant tower, and convert them into our own.]

[To date, the Night Raven is still operating normally.]

If all this data is true, then Jiang Ran can roughly guess how everything will develop. He can't just look at the problem from the perspective of the deserted city; he also needs to know where this world came from.

Research into weapons capable of striking near-god-level targets failed? Of course it would fail, because that's the predetermined plot of "gods." After researching one "Night Raven," all subsequent research failed? Of course, because this instance only requires one "Night Raven"!

For some reason, Jiang Ran felt that the recent world of ghost stories was very different from the original world of ghost stories. The original terrifying elements were gradually diminishing, and other aspects were gradually being added.

"The data has been transferred to you; now you should keep your promise!"

"Wait, wait, wait, didn't I just say 'firstly'? Don't worry, I have absolutely no interest in your research data." Jiang Ran tapped his outer armor with his finger. "Finally, I want all your intelligence about the Lost City!"

"Don't push your luck!"

"Can I understand that you don't want to talk?" Jiang Ran tapped the outer armor again. "It's simple if you don't want to talk!"

[Y-2569 Information: The Lost City. According to folded documents such as Y-456, the Lost City truly exists, but we have yet to actually reach it. Calculations suggest it likely contains information related to "God." Information related to "God" will be classified as top secret—all memories related to "God" will be deleted from all "thought entities." We will name the only item related to the Lost City the "Stone of God," item number Y-2570.]

[Y-2570 Information: God Stone. Calculations confirm that this item does indeed possess divine power. We applied it to Project G-001, the Night Raven, as an energy carrier for the Night Raven. Afterwards, no substitute was found, and subsequent calculations for Project Night Raven failed.]

So that's how it is. If the God Stone contains a lot of "divine power," then Lapres must have been trying to use its power, but he messed it up.

However, Laplace at least knew whose power he was relying on, while Terminal was clearly using the power of God, yet he wanted to reject the existence of God. He was really hypocritical, which was the best result after his calculations.

Forget it, this has nothing to do with Jiang Ran. Anyway, those gods aren't necessarily good people.

The clue to the Lost City must lie within the God Stone, and to obtain the other God Stone, we must start with the Night Raven!

Tsk, a guy at the near-god level who can also decompose and recombine particles is really hard to deal with. Can such a thing really be killed without the help of a true god level?

Jiang Ran glanced at Alice.

"Don't worry! I always keep my promises!" Jiang Ran left the terminal, then smiled at the large screen. "I hope you guys keep your promises too, don't shoot me after I leave!"

"We won't."

"Then let's go, Gwen, Alice."

Jiang Ran led the two away from the giant tower. Gwen tugged at Jiang Ran's sleeve: "Are we just leaving like this? I feel like we can dig out more things."

"People have limits to their tolerance, and so does data. Rather, people have the opportunity to change their limits when their bottom line is crossed, while machines only execute the results of data calculations."

"In such a massive city, how could there only be one terminal computer? Even if we destroy the most conspicuous terminal computer, we can only inflict heavy damage on them at most. What we will face next is a relentless pursuit by the entire city!"

"But if we just leave like this, won't they go back on their word?"

“This matter—” Jiang Ran turned to Alice, “Alice, do you think they will break their ‘promise’?”

Alice's fist clenched unconsciously: "They'd better not!"

As the three walked along the road, the roadside projections all looked away with disgust.

"Hmph, you fool! How could you possibly understand the meaning of evolution!"

"Sigh, although I'm too lazy to talk to guys with pre-set data, I'll still say the same thing to you, Terminal."