Chapter 117 The Only One, Kidnapping, I'm sorry to bother you. First of all, things aren't that complicated...
Thinking of this, Fu Ze picked up the letter that "Fu Ze" had written to himself again and reread the fifth paragraph—
"Your core task here is to find out what's wrong with the game's computing power core—the [Center of Everything]—causing players to be trapped in the game and unable to log out normally, and then repair it."
Clearly, although the root cause of the malfunction is still unknown, the symptoms are quite clear: the correspondence between the [key] and the player has broken down.
“You just said that players don’t easily ‘wake up,’ so under normal circumstances, they must have a trigger to ‘wake up,’ right?” Fu Ze adjusted his posture, aligning his gaze with the dragon’s spine. “What is that trigger?”
“Just as you guessed, the way the [Center of All Things] identifies players is simple, direct, and uniquely rigorous—the [Key].” Dragonspine placed the cup back on the table. “Whoever possesses a [Key] with a unique number is the player.”
The only one...
Fu Ze's expression was solemn.
But now that the key can be stolen by killing each other, doesn't that render the "uniqueness" invalid?
"Besides the [anchor generation] and [persistent computation] mentioned earlier, the [Center of Everything] has another function..."
"[Global Echoes]"
When he said those four words, Longji's fingers, which were resting on the sofa armrest, tightened considerably.
"This [World Echo] has two main uses. One is to bring up the control panel after the player performs the default or self-defined activation action, allowing them to modify game settings and log out of the game."
Since the [Center of All Things] will only identify players through the [Key], when a player loses the [Key], the [Center of All Things] will treat the player and other beings as products of [Anchored Generation], and therefore the player will naturally not receive the [World Echo] function service.
—That means you can't log out of the game.
Although his question had been answered, Fu Ze hadn't heard the theoretically expected second half of the content for a while, so he took the initiative to ask, "What about the second part?"
"Secondly, it involves tracking and analyzing players' potential needs, indirectly influencing the behavior of others, and creating unexpected events to enhance their gaming experience."
In any case, Dragon Spine could not utter those three letters written in the [Attachment].
After receiving Longji's reply, Fu Ze fell into deep thought.
He himself remained skeptical about whether "the writer Fu Ze", "the recipient Fu Ze" and "himself Fu Ze" were the same person.
Even assuming this assumption is true, it's highly unlikely that "the letter writer Fu Ze" would have allowed players to enter the game hastily without addressing such a significant potential problem as "what if the [key] is lost, or there's a problem with [World Echo] and the player can't be identified?"
Fu Ze asked, "So how did he determine that the players couldn't log out of the game because there was a malfunction in the [Center of All Things]?"
“Because someone has claimed it.” Dragonspine stared at a bird-shaped mosaic on the table. “Just a few hours after the player was found to be unable to log out of the game, an email was sent to his inbox.”
An anonymous hacking team has claimed responsibility for the incident.
"They claim to have planted a virus inside the game that affected the [Center of Everything] and thus 'kidnapped' the players."
Before Longji could finish speaking, Fuze frowned.
He believes in the existence of geniuses in this world, but he believes even more in the wisdom of the collective.
According to the signature in the letter, the "writer Fu Ze" is the architecture director of the "Code: ULTIMATE" project team.
Since he is a manager, he must have a team under him.
A team capable of building such a powerful "Center of Everything" must be full of experts and would not be easily breached by a "hacker squad".
But since the deed has already been done, and it has even reached the point where "the writer Fu Ze" needs to leave information in the [special key] to prevent "the recipient Fu Ze" from losing his memory, then he can only accept this outcome for the time being.
"What is the hacker team's purpose? Ransom?" Fu Ze asked again.
Dragon Spine nodded: "If you want them to stop the virus's operations and release the players from the game, you'll have to pay a large ransom."
"In addition, they also said that the virus cannot be completely repaired."
Fu Ze's eyes widened considerably in an instant.
Wouldn't that mean...?
"In other words, as long as this game continues to operate, there is always the possibility that players will be unable to log out." Dragonspine, like a ruthless robot, recited the contents he had seen in the [attachment] verbatim. "To solve this problem once and for all, we would have to abandon all existing resources and create a new game."
After scanning his surroundings, Fu Ze didn't believe that anyone could really be so brave as to abandon such mature content and start from scratch.
In other words, if the impact of the virus cannot be eliminated, then as long as the game continues to operate, ransoms will continue to be paid to the hackers.
This is a really good deal!
Fu Ze and Long Ji thought the same thing at the same time.
"He didn't try to solve this..." Fu Ze stopped midway through his question.
The solution that "Fu Ze, the letter writer" tried to solve was none other than himself, wasn't it?
Although Fu Ze didn't finish speaking, Dragon Spine automatically filled in the blanks for the question: "According to the [attachment], a group of GMs once entered the game in batches randomly, carrying [special keys]."
"But like the players, they never left the game."
"Even some time after entering the game, the GM's [Special Key] lost its match, and outsiders couldn't even get the [Center of All Things] to lock their location and force them to log out of the game."
Based on my own experience, I think this group of GMs is probably doomed.
Rubbing his temples, Fu Ze said softly, "The advance team all perished, yet he still came in. Should I call him selfless and courageous, or should I call him a foolproof, reckless act?"
“If it were the latter, you wouldn’t be sitting here with me right now.” Dragon Spine looked up at Fu Ze. “However, someone who can say, ‘As a developer, I need to be responsible to the players who trust me and play my games,’ certainly deserves the praise you gave for the first sentence.”
If Fu Ze had previously harbored some doubts about the true identity of "the letter writer Fu Ze," then all his doubts and suspicions vanished the moment Long Ji uttered his second sentence.
This is what I can do.
"I'm a little tired after saying so much. And it's more appropriate for him to tell you the rest."
As he spoke, Dragon Spine turned the letter over.
As he moved, lines of text slowly appeared on the back of the previously empty letter.
-
Considering that the specific ways the virus affects players' [keys] and GMs' [special keys] are unknown, I will prepare according to two possible scenarios.
First, the virus affected players' perceptions.
To enhance immersion, the game employs a rather bold design: players temporarily forget their identity in the outside world upon entering the game, and can only awaken their memories through "World Echo" after a Game Over or by triggering a specific event.
Therefore, the virus may have blocked the mechanism for players to awaken their memories, directly causing players and GMs to forget their identities and preset special actions, thus preventing them from triggering the game system in [Echoes of the World] and thus logging out of the game.
In this situation, if you lose your memory for some reason after entering the game, you will see the information in this unique [special key] that belongs to you, and thus remember your identity.
Second, the virus has interfered with the "central hub of all things".
Compared to the first scenario, this one has many more possible implementation methods.
For example, players who would otherwise actively log out of the game or return to the "Center of All Things" due to death can be blocked in the "Center of All Things," causing them to be stuck there and appear to be unable to log out.
For example, by directly stripping the player's and GM's [key] in some way, or by making the [Center of Everything] unable to recognize and read the [key], the player will not be provided with a logout service.
Based on the previous batch of GMs entering the game, I personally lean towards the first scenario.
Therefore, I have also prepared a special ability for you that is independent of the [Key] - [Rebirth after Death].
With the "Death and Rebirth" ability, your memories will overwrite the memories of the game character who directly or indirectly killed you, and will be completely preserved, instead of being stuck in the "Center of All Things" due to death.
Although there is a great deal of uncertainty, this should be a relatively quick way to escape in the worst-case scenario.
In addition, during the loading animation of "Death and Rebirth", I will provide a voice-over to hint at your subsequent actions.
I don't want you to use this method, since the death experience in this game is very realistic.
However, based on my understanding of you, no matter what difficulties and obstacles you encounter along the way, you will definitely persevere in pursuing the truth.
Thank you for your help.
-
Looking at the last four words of the letter, Fu Ze suddenly felt a lump in his throat.
Thank you for your help...
In the previous letter, which was highly summarized and only involved "who you are, where you are, and what you want to do," the writer, Fu Ze, used a commanding tone throughout.
It's not hard to imagine how decisive and efficient "Fu Ze" must have been in that world.
However, when writing about the hardships that the recipient, Fu Ze, might suffer, the writer, Fu Ze, lowered his head, solemnly expressed his apology, and made a request.
Logically speaking, regardless of which world they are in, this "letter writer Fu Ze" is indeed the "letter recipient Fu Ze" from the past.
Since it is one person, the "letter writer Fu Ze" does not need to apologize, and the "recipient Fu Ze" will fully understand the other party's good intentions after reading these contents and accept the other party's will.
But "the letter writer, Fu Ze," still apologized.
Because the moment he wrote these words and entered the game as a GM, "the letter writer Fu Ze" had already become a thing of the past.
After experiencing a series of subsequent sufferings, the person was no longer "Fu Ze the letter writer," but "Fu Ze the letter recipient."
One should not be generous with other people's money.
Yes, that's very "Fu Ze".
Lifting his gaze from the paper, Fu Ze felt as if a half-real, half-illusory figure was leaning against the table in front of him.
Although he couldn't see the other person's face clearly at all, and could only make out their general shape, Fu Ze had no doubt that this person was "Fu Ze, the letter writer".
That is, your true self.
He chuckled softly, looked up at the figure, and said silently:
"First of all, things aren't that complicated."
"Secondly... you have a really good eye for people."
Upon hearing Fu Ze's reply, "Fu Ze the letter writer" nodded knowingly.
Although the other person's features were blurry, Fu Ze could still sense a sense of satisfaction and pride from that wandering haze.
Since the saying "It's better to rely on yourself than on others; only you can take responsibility for and care about your own affairs" ranks among the top three of his life's beliefs, it's safe to assume that this saying will also be among the top ten of Fu Ze's life's beliefs, given that he has personally taken on this role.
This is the tacit understanding between "Fu Ze" and Fu Ze.
"Due to limitations, the information provided by Fu Ze was somewhat incomplete. I can supplement it further."
As the dragon's spine sounded, the phantom of "Fu Ze" dispersed.
"Especially the part about...hacking."
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Author's Note: After holding back over 400,000 words, finally, finally... *crying*
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