Chapter 271
The crimson data stream hung tens of thousands of miles above the ground, like a constantly shrinking, blood-red tumor.
As the player unleashed a barrage of attacks, the tumor was flattened and rolled under immense pressure, the wounds deepening from shallow to deep.
Suddenly, with a whoosh, as if the sky had been ripped open, twisted code resembling viscous blood gushed out, plunging into the wasteland in huge gushes, the blinding crimson splattering into everyone's vision!
At this moment, the entire thirtieth floor of the Black Tower became even darker and more oppressive, as if the end of the world had arrived.
Kill them!
Under the system's furious instructions, the earth suddenly cracked like a spider web.
The hideous pollutants kept crawling out of the dark cracks, covered with scalding lava, sparks flying everywhere, scorching the soil, like vengeful ghosts crawling out of hell.
They let out piercing screams, their iron hooves and giant claws crushing the earth and tearing at all living things around them.
Not a single person backed down.
Xie Xubai's golden light hung high in the sky like an unchanging compass, its dazzling brilliance piercing through the thick crimson data stream, replacing the dying Augutov and continuously sounding the horn of attack for the players.
The battle channels were filled with the hoarse commands of the leaders of the top guilds, the front-line warriors raised their weapons and fought with bloodshot eyes, and the medical support team's healing skills never stopped for a moment.
Outside the live stream room, hundreds of millions of viewers had bloodshot eyes, calling on friends and using all their connections to squeeze out their last remaining points and invest them in the streamer who was working hard.
Every second, someone falls, and someone else grits their teeth, eyes blazing with fury, and struggles to their feet. Then, with veins bulging and panting heavily, they stride forward, squeezing out the last bit of strength from their exhausted, aching, and convulsing bodies to fight the corrupted monsters, resist the system's pressure, and fight against fate to win!
That was an unstoppable advance, an indomitable backbone, a civilizational will that could not be extinguished even as the population dwindled from over eight billion to just three hundred million.
So, under violence and oppression, countless people did not retreat but advanced, their forces continuing to surge towards this chaotic and insane situation!
Amidst the chaos, blood mist erupted and dust billowed. From above, it looked as if a wall of people had collided head-on with a crimson storm.
Countless attacks swept across the sky like a tidal wave, and the explosive, scorching flames illuminated the entire sky as bright as day.
This was a long and arduous battle.
But as time went on, players could clearly feel it.
—The sky has broken.
That heavy obstacle, which made everyone feel suffocated, that shadow that always loomed over their heads, was no longer as impenetrable as an iron barrel.
When higher dimensions resort to their old tricks to crush lower dimensions, it is the lower dimensions that in turn infiltrate the higher dimensions.
The guild leader shouted in a booming voice: "Now's the time!"
In a flash, Xie Xubai condensed all his scattered spiritual bodies together. Golden light burst forth in the crimson twilight, dazzling and brilliant. His power surged, reaching the peak of this body in this world!
When this ray of light rose high like the sun, directly overshadowing the crimson blood of the system data stream and illuminating the scorched earth of the Black Tower, the system felt threatened for the first time and finally trembled with fear.
No, to be precise, it wasn't the first time, it was the second! In the previous life, it was also a golden light that pierced the sky and tore away its disguise!
Xie Xubai remained calm as he raced against time through the system's database, which was fraught with danger like a whirlpool.
As they predicted, the system's database was built on the concept of an existing "data warehouse" on the Internet.
It can be roughly divided into three main layers from the outside to the inside.
The outermost layer is the [Application (images delivered to customers for use)], the middle layer is the [Public (data aggregation and analysis)], and the core layer is the [Import (storing raw data)].
In the blink of an eye, Xie Xubai has moved from the external application layer to the data middleware layer.
If the outside world is a battlefield where nine out of ten die, then this place is a purgatory where demons run rampant.
The code characters flowing here are alive, and their ferocity is in no way inferior to the hideous monsters of demigod-level pollutants.
The deeper you go, the stronger the monsters become. Countless, hundreds of millions or even billions of them rush at you, their gaping maws and sharp teeth like thorns, making it impossible to move an inch.
It was at this moment that the evil god's tentacles emerged from the shadow beneath Xie Xubai's feet.
Eight tentacles expanded outwards like an open umbrella, while another tentacle clung tightly to Xie Xubai, protecting him.
The evil god's oppressive aura swept across thousands of miles like a tsunami, its tentacles, sharp as iron, pierced through the turbulent data stream, crushing all the sharp teeth that rushed at it!
Half of the data stream was blocked by the tentacles, while the other half leaked out through the gaps, relentlessly shrieking and attacking the rushing golden light.
But then a burst of blood mist appeared, revealing Xie Xubai's lithe and slender figure.
He did not slow his advance, his face was cold and stern, and he held the staff of the god of fire Agni in one hand. The emerald green jade staff made his pale and thin knuckles stand out. The raging flames rose from the staff and he swung it hard, shattering the data stream in front of him. The fire wave surged up to a height of a hundred feet!
That was the Glazed Fire that Xie Xubai cultivated in the Red Yin Ancient Town. It could not only slay demons and evil spirits, but also purify impurities.
Screams erupted in an instant, the monster fled, and the blazing firelight illuminated the charred remains scattered on the ground.
[Thank you, Xu Bai!] The system roared, [You've used the same trick once, died once, and it won't work again!]
Xie Xubai lifted his eyelids, his movements not stopping. He wielded his staff as if it were a sharp blade, and in a flash, flames shot through the sky, piercing and annihilating the code monster that pounced on him!
The golden dragon roared with a terrifying sound, the Dionysian vines twisted and grew, breaking through the illusion, the black goat cub cast a silent and dangerous gaze from the dark world, and Death revealed his divine form, laughing loudly as he swung his sharp scythe down from the sky!
—The gods, responding to the will of hundreds of millions of believers, paved the way for Xie Xubai. The database space trembled and shook violently under the impact of countless divine forces!
The system's internal firewalls were breached layer by layer, and the attacks from contaminants became increasingly frenzied and reckless, leading to a visible state of panic and loss of control.
Finally, when Xie Xubai charged straight into the core area where the raw data was stored, the system could no longer tolerate it.
The fiercely fighting group suddenly loosened their grip, and when they looked up, they couldn't help but be full of surprise.
All the pollutants transformed into strings of distorted data that flew into the clouds, like streams returning to the sea, and disappeared into the openings exposed in the system itself.
This data stream naturally came to Xie Xubai.
The system seemed to realize that, under the full protection of the gods, a human wave tactic could not stop Xie Xubai's advance at all; no matter how many came, they would just be cutting vegetables.
So these monsters turned to their own kind, baring their sharp teeth and claws, devouring each other and eating with gusto. In this way, they rapidly absorbed power and forcibly evolved, growing in the blink of an eye to be as big as the sky, completely blocking Xie Xubai's path!
Xie Xubai subconsciously waved his magic staff, but only left a faint mark on the enormous creature's body. He stopped in surprise, frowning and looking cold.
The system laughed wildly.
The overwhelming behemoth condensed a huge eye from its face, and hundreds or thousands of eyeballs rolled out of its eye socket, densely packed together, a collection of all the power that the system could mobilize.
They stared at Xie Xubai with venomous intent, as if looking down on an overconfident ant, and roared: "Die—!"
The colossal hand slammed down, the air condensing to its limit and exploding with a sharp hiss. Xie Xubai's clothes fluttered wildly in the wind and waves, his slender body swaying like a withered branch.
But then the young man looked up again, and a spiritual entity split off from his body.
The system assumed Xie Xubai was trying to disperse his forces and escape, and laughed, mocking that it was impossible.
Who knew that the divided soul raised its head, its eyes equally resolute and sharp, and the next moment it merged into the raging fire of the immortal staff, as if it were swallowed up by the flames, and in an instant it had no breath left.
At that very moment, Xie Xubai shuddered, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and large beads of cold sweat streamed down his temples.
The immortal staff in his hand, however, was unusually powerful. The blue and orange glazed fire surged with divine power several times over, and was refined into pure golden flames!
Xie Xubai raised his immortal staff again, swinging it in a wide arc to take advantage of the momentum, like the bright moon soaring in the sky. The seemingly slow movement was actually incredibly fast, and golden flames burst forth with terrifying power, tearing open a long, ferocious bloody maw in the giant object, sending out a spray of data character fragments!
The system has no sense of pain, but it can feel the shadow of death gripping its throat. Fear outweighs the pain, causing it to scream in agony.
Upon impact, the staff dimmed, and the flames returned to their usual blue-orange color.
However, less than half a second later, Xie Xubai summoned another split soul.
Despite the excruciating pain, he bit his lip until it bled, his teeth stained with blood, and his whole body convulsed and trembled. But his hand gripping the magic staff remained as steady as a mountain, and he swung it out with deadly force, striking the bloody wound directly, tearing the flesh open, until it snapped in half at the waist!
The colossal object collapsed, the sky crumbled and the earth caved in, the system let out a heart-wrenching scream, and the scattered crimson data streams were all swept into the suddenly cracked spatial vortex.
The shadows came like a tide, and then receded like a tide. The noisy world suddenly became extremely silent, and ahead, the view opened up abruptly, with only a few data characters trembling and huddled in the cracks in the ground.
Nothing could stop Xie Xubai anymore.
He swallowed a mouthful of blood, gripped his cane, and strode forward with unstoppable force, reaching the core area of the system. Deep within the vortex of wounds and openings, he saw a heart.
The heart isn't a real heart; it's a representation of the system's core data. The skin bulges, the veins contract, as if terrified of the impending execution.
Without hesitation, Xie Xubai stretched out his cracked and bleeding palm and squeezed it tightly in his hand.
In an instant, he established a mental link with the dying system, and a massive amount of data rushed into his consciousness.
Xie Xubai found the remnants of Augutov's consciousness, as well as the original consciousness of the missing player who was imprisoned.
He could choose to kill the system now, but if he did, the souls that had been integrated into the system would dissipate along with it.
Xie Xubai decisively chose another path.
— Complete the infinite game.
Miel sacrificed his own soul, and the only record of that sacrifice [9] is now invalid.
But they still have Yan Yue, whose current record is [8]. Winning this trial will be the record [9], and the next trial will allow them to achieve the record [10].
Following the mental link established with the system, Xie Xubai finally uncovered the truth behind why Record [10] would be reopened.
Examples include "Brain in a Vat" and "The World of Chu O".
Each time a record [10] is reached in a dungeon, the system will exert cognitive interference on the player and set up a closed barrier that covers the entire dungeon.
Because the signal was blocked by the barrier, the infinite game's settlement system was unable to intercept the message that the player had achieved record [10], so the judgment failed.
Because of the cognitive interference from higher-dimensional gods, most people are in a daze and find it difficult to discover the truth.
This trap was repeated countless times until Xie Xubai gained control of the system's core data.
Now, once this barrier is broken, players can clear the level in no time, given their overall strength.
But there is one last question.
The data on how to bypass the barrier has been lost.
No, I shouldn't say "surprisingly".
Xie Xubai quickly thought of someone. His thoughts raced through his mind, but then settled in an instant. In front of the system, he deliberately opened his mental barrier, revealing an obvious flaw.
Since it's so obvious, anyone with a brain would know there's a problem and wouldn't easily step into it.
However, given that the system was already at its wit's end, even knowing that Xie Xubai was treacherous, it had no choice but to take a gamble.
The players outside held their breath, focusing intently on the crimson data stream high in the sky.
Until Xie Xubai's voice, unharmed, reached their minds through the mental link.
For a moment, they couldn't believe it, until the top organizations took turns verifying that Xie Xubai was indeed him. In an instant, the players' eyes widened in surprise and relief; some even covered their faces and burst into tears. The venting roars echoed like a tidal wave, vast and endless.
A teleportation array leading to the thirty-first floor of the Black Tower opened before them, and they quickly entered.
The system notification tone sounded at the appropriate time.
[Ding! Congratulations on successfully completing this trial!]
Author's Note:
The next chapter will conclude this major arc, and there shouldn't be many more chapters left. Thank you all for waiting. As compensation, I'm giving away 50 small red envelopes in this chapter. Thank you very much!
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