Chapter 259

William received the telepathic message while he was engaged in a fierce battle with the Black Tower's rebel army.

Hearing someone call his name in his mind, "Major General William Bridges J. Edward," William, who hadn't heard his real name in a long time, was instinctively startled: "Who?"

The next second, he lost his footing and fell into a black hole that suddenly appeared on the ground.

His vision went black, and the hurricane whipped his clothes around from below. After a dozen seconds, the intense feeling of weightlessness finally stopped, and William suddenly opened his eyes and looked up in astonishment.

What came into view was a vast and boundless universe, with stars twinkling in the darkness like specks of light scattered on a curtain, while he floated in the crevice of an asteroid belt, and to his astonishment, he found that he could actually breathe normally.

William tentatively reached forward and touched a transparent film, which must have been what protected him.

Suddenly the membrane moved, enveloping him as he crashed into a rapidly spinning meteorite.

William quickly raised his arm to block!

But the expected pain did not come. Instead, it was as if the air was rippling as it passed through some invisible barrier.

When William opened his eyes again, a bright and solemn conference hall suddenly appeared before him.

There were many important figures sitting in the hall, and William recognized more than a dozen of them.

Among them, the most well-known are the top teams from the Central Continent region, as well as several top organizations from the Outer Continent region, who have already taken their seats in the front row.

Having not seen such a grand display in a long time, William couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive and full of suspicion.

"Major General, over here!"

Someone called to him quietly from the side. William turned around and saw a senator he knew. He sat down next to him and learned that a final meeting to deal with the Infinite Game was about to be held.

The decisive meeting... Is this day finally coming?

As leaders, managers, and senior players continued to enter the scene, they were all trusted comrades who had been screened. Some of them frequently appeared in the public eye, while others kept a low profile and kept a low profile. Now that they had all gathered together, their arrival was a symbol of the latest development.

Soon after, the large screen in the center lit up, signaling the start of the meeting.

The noisy conversation gradually quieted down, and the entire hall fell into a solemn and quiet atmosphere. William suppressed his rapidly beating heart and looked over.

They saw a boy's face on the big screen, who introduced himself as "White Ghost".

This young man was one of Xie Xubai's spiritual entities.

When he stormed the major online communities of the Black Tower Kingdom, the instance had not yet been merged, so most of the attendees did not recognize him.

Most people couldn't help but feel a momentary sense of familiarity with the prefixes of the boy's nickname.

—White Ghost, white.

Not all attendees had the opportunity to make a pact with the gods.

In order to preserve their memories, they resorted to many extreme measures, such as researching alchemical elixirs, implanting brain-computer interfaces, and using soul recording technology.

Because the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon can provide group protection, there are more people in the Central Continent who retain their memories.

However, during the cycle, memory will inevitably suffer some wear and tear.

Moreover, Xie Xubai is a key wanted target of the system. Players' cognitive impressions related to words like "white" and "Xie Xubai" are all listed as dangerous information by the system and are repeatedly washed away in the cycle, resulting in them not recognizing each other when they meet.

No one present knew why they felt a sense of kinship with the boy, as if they had fought side by side for a long time.

With this indescribable feeling, the bigwigs from various fields, who usually argued heatedly whenever they met, surprisingly refrained from raising objections or nitpicking. Instead, they calmly clasped hands, raised their heads, and listened attentively to the young man's speech.

"...Although the power systems outside the universe are different from ours, their structure remains the same despite the variations."

Next, I will use modern cybersecurity knowledge to explain the three main attack paths we can employ.

"The first layer is the network layer, which is the main system that infiltrates the game through the network."

"In theory, we are in the same public network as the system, but because of the huge gap in strength between the two sides, simply put, our network technology is not enough to break through the system's firewall. That's why the system has always been as elusive as a ghost to us."

"But the good news is—on the eve of the final battle in the previous life, the system finally revealed its true colors to the world!"

The young man looked at the top members beside him. Several technical backbones nodded and stepped forward, using their skills to lay out a roadmap, which was covered with detailed data analysis formulas and situational changes.

This route map clearly shows the coordinates of the system's appearances several times, as well as its movement path at each moment, with an error of no more than one second. This means that they can completely lock onto the main body and launch a direct attack!

This discovery was enough to shift the players from a completely passive to an active position. Discussions and commotion arose instantly in the seats. The boy said, "As you can see, the ghost has appeared."

Someone immediately pressed on, "Now that we've captured the system's core, why not just attack it directly?"

The boy shook his head: "I regret to inform you that it's still because our strength is insufficient."

"The system had already exposed its true form before the game restarted. At that time, countless players rushed to attack it relentlessly. As you and I have seen, the system was damaged, but not fatally."

"So the game will restart instead of end, and the severely damaged system has changed its previous arrogance and is now sneaking away to hide."

One of them frowned, looking slightly agitated: "Then can I assume that even if we drag the system out of the shadows, we can't directly kill it? What's the point of fighting it then!"

The young man's expression was calm and composed. Facing the man's questioning tone, he replied unhurriedly, "Of course it's meaningful. Is a perfectly intact system easier to deal with than a severely damaged one?"

"This is our method of attack, but it is by no means the only method of attack."

"When the time is right, we will gather all the surviving players in the 'Game House' instance and attack the system's main body from the outside to weaken its power. That's one of our strategies!"

"Secondly, based on this, we will use a second attack path, the transport layer."

In technical terms, this is called a man-in-the-middle attack, which involves hijacking the internal communication links of a system to tamper with data.

The boy's voice was strong and clear: "To put it simply, we need to find those traitors who have been marked with the system's imprint, that is, the internal links, and use them to impersonate our own people, bypass the firewall, attack the system's core programs, and secretly carry out our mission."

.

Bang!

Unceremoniously tossed into a pile of straw in the dungeon, White clutched the back of his head and grimaced, "Hiss..."

He raised his voice to the Fifth Apostle outside the fence, protesting, "Dazhuang! Is this how you treat your old friend and superior?"

“He’s the former commander,” the Fifth Apostle corrected in an icy tone.

"Alright, alright, whatever it is, we haven't seen each other for so long, don't you want to catch up?"

The Fifth Apostle stared silently at the innocent-looking youth. The air suddenly became tense, but the youth smiled calmly and remained composed throughout, showing no sign of the embarrassment of a prisoner.

The Fifth Apostle asked coldly, "What exactly are you here for?"

White: "That's right. I heard from Hamga and the others that you seem to have some misunderstanding about me."

The Fifth Apostle's tone was completely flat: "So you've come here to die, is that it?"

White chuckled lightly: "You could say that. Aren't you still upset about me taking your divine core? I've thought about it carefully, and it was indeed my fault. So I came to repay my debt as soon as possible. Aren't you touched?"

Fifth Apostle: "You would never do such a meaningless thing out of so-called pity and mercy. What is there here that is worth risking your life for?"

White said helplessly, "I really miss my old friend and I sincerely feel sorry for you. I came here to sincerely apologize, but why don't you believe me?"

As the young man spoke, he tapped his chest with his fingertip.

Crimson blood energy swirled and flowed, like shackles binding his heart, threatening his lifeline while also sealing off his divine power. At this moment, the young man was just like an ordinary human being, powerless to resist.

"Doesn't this show me sincerity?"

The Fifth Apostle stared at him expressionlessly, then turned and left.

"Wait, why did you leave? Dazhuang! Niu Dazhuang—! You really left?"

White took two steps to the fence, looked at the Fifth Apostle's retreating figure without turning his head, and said loudly, "Right now I'm just an ordinary person with no strength to even kill a chicken. This dungeon is chilly and damp. You should at least bring me a stove! I've injured my legs and spine before, and they flare up when I get cold, causing unbearable pain, as you know!"

The Fifth Apostle stopped abruptly, as if he were enduring something, his jaw clenched, and he took a deep breath.

"Give him the stove, and a few thick quilts," he instructed the guard beside him.

A dozen minutes later, figures could be seen outside White's cell, and the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard.

He leaned against the wall and looked up, only to see two guards carrying in an iron stove filled with glowing red-hot charcoal. Acrid black smoke billowed out, and the high temperature quickly evaporated the moisture in the cell, making it scorching hot.

Several more guards came in, one of whom picked up a branding iron. Its triangular head was already red-hot, and the surrounding air was distorted and deformed.

If this were to fall on a person, the skin and flesh would be scalded and charred.

White swept his gaze across the eyes of the guards, his eyes bloodshot and filled with murderous intent, yet upon closer inspection they seemed empty and lifeless, just like those of the rebels whose cognitive data had been altered.

He smiled and said, "I just heard from Lao Wu that he asked you to bring a stove. A stove and a soldering iron are not quite the same, are they?"

"Or is it the system, that you're so eager to kill me?"

A guard stared at him coldly like a puppet, his mouth opening and closing, his voice mechanical: "You're a cunning human, suddenly running into our trap. There's definitely something wrong with you. We have to kill you before that happens."

The other four men stepped forward and grabbed White's shoulders. The guard approached with a branding iron, clearly intending to torture the young man with cruel methods, hoping to cause him mental damage and a painful death.

White inadvertently pressed down on the restless shadow beneath his feet, then looked up at the increasingly approaching red-hot branding iron.

The system was determined to kill him and didn't hesitate at all; the branding iron pressed down directly.

In that brief moment, barely a breath's breadth, the intense heat scorched his skin, the burning sensation growing more pronounced and rapidly intensifying. The young man remained expressionless, his eyes unblinking.

Just as the branding iron was about to fall on him, a burly, imposing figure rushed into the cell like lightning.

Even faster than him were the ground and walls. With a loud crash, the earth shook violently, dust fell, and stones and dirt rushed towards him as if they were alive, suddenly enveloping the branding iron in the guard's hand!

The fifth apostle went away and then returned, grabbing the executioner's wrist with such force that the bones creaked and cracked.

The guards snapped back to reality, staring at the man's terrifyingly pale face. The man whose hands were being held was howling in pain. Terrified, they hurriedly protested, "Sir, we're not—"

Before he finished speaking, the Fifth Apostle casually waved his hand, and the soil and rocks solidified into a giant hand that threw them all out!

"You really are here to die." The Fifth Apostle looked at White coldly and said, word by word, "Since you're tired of living, then I'll grant your wish."