The metal door to the core area slowly opened in front of Lin Yi, and cold white light flowed out through the crack, cutting a line of light and shadow at his feet.
His palms were burning hot from the Key of Creation, and golden-purple light patterns spilled out from between his fingers, casting distorted shadows on the ground.
"Chu Yao, initiate a deep scan of the core system." Lin Yi's voice was two octaves lower than usual, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly under the light.
The tingling sensation at the back of his neck had spread to his temples, as if a thin needle was gently prying at the edge of his sea of consciousness—this unusual sensation reminded him of the remains of an advanced civilization that had been shredded by the turbulent flow of time and space in the Starfall Ruins three days ago. The structure of that thing's sea of consciousness back then was somewhat similar to the stinging pain he felt now.
"Connecting..." Chu Yao's projection suddenly froze, and a red warning bar began flashing along the edge of her light blue skirt. "Level 2 firewall detected!"
No, it's level three... level four!
The mainframe is preventing data retrieval! Her virtual pupils suddenly contracted to thin slits. "Wait... there's residual code actively exposing itself!"
Lin Yi's fingertips tapped softly on the protective door.
He could hear his own heartbeat, each beat striking his ribs, eerily overlapping with the resonance frequency of the Key of Creation.
When Chu Yao's projection suddenly froze, his breath also stopped—the blue light solidified into a statue, the ends of his hair still maintaining the arc of the previous second, only the data stream in the corner of his eyes surged wildly, as if it had been forcibly stuffed with an excessive amount of information.
\"bite--\"
As the mechanical sound pierced the silence, Chu Yao's projection exploded with a "boom," only to reassemble itself three seconds later.
This time, her complexion was even paler than before, with pale blue veins showing through her virtual skin: "Database comparison... anomaly protocol detected." She raised her semi-transparent palm, and a string of twisting code appeared in the air: "The core code of 'Infinite' contains a 'Power Extraction Protocol.' Every time a world reboot is completed, the primal power of the real world will be extracted..."
"How much?" Lin Yi interrupted her.
Chu Yao's Adam's apple (virtual) moved slightly: "One percent."
The muffled sound of the protective door closing behind him made Lin Yi's back press against the cold metal.
As he gazed at the code dancing in the air, he suddenly recalled the blood-written message left by the old Taoist priest who had passed away three months ago in Kunlun Ruins: "Heaven and earth are flawed; what is not robbery is theft."
At the time, he thought it was an ancient cultivator's lament about the end of the Dharma era, but now he understands that the so-called "deficiency" is that the source has been cut away piece by piece by someone using the most precise program.
"You shouldn't know these things."
A hoarse voice came from above.
Lin Yi looked up and saw a cloud of black mist emerging from the shadows. It was the outline of a shadowy figure, but it was no longer the absolute black of the past—the edges were grayish-white, as if it had been corroded by something.
His "face" lacked specific features, yet it conveyed a clear sense of hesitation: "Some truths, those who know them won't live past three days."
"Your so-called 'trial grounds' are nothing but a trap to exploit Earth's resources," Lin Yi sneered, spinning the Key of Creation in his palm, golden-purple light patterns instantly spreading across his arm. "From the declining spiritual energy concentration in the beginner village to the frequent ley line disturbances in reality, it's all you doing, bleeding us dry, isn't it?"
The black mist trembled violently, as if it had been struck in a vital spot.
After a long pause, a muffled response came: "We call it the 'Civilization Harvesting Project.'" This time, there was no grandiose term like "advanced civilization," and the voice even carried a hint of self-deprecation: "Every hundred years, we select a 'civilization star,' bind it to reality using a game framework, and wait until its origin is drained..."
"Let's just find another place to continue harvesting." Lin Yi interjected, a golden light flashing deep within his pupils. The Core of Cause and Effect resonated deep within his sea of consciousness, crushing all the lies in the shadowy figure's words into dust. "So you're afraid I'll collect the Genesis Keys?"
Because the Seven Keys Resonance would disrupt the extraction process?
The black mist suddenly solidified into a solid form.
It was a man wearing dark silver armor, his face blurred, but you could see his Adam's apple bobbing rapidly—this was the first time the shadowy figure had revealed human features.
He pressed his hand to his chest, where a festering wound dripped black blood from the seams of his armor, corroding the ground and emitting wisps of blue smoke. "I should have killed you," his voice trembled. "But three days ago, I saw my sister coughing up blood in reality. She was only seven years old..."
The sound of metal scraping came from the left.
Xuanmingzi was standing in front of the control panel at some point, his Taoist robe being lifted by the airflow in the core area, revealing the dimmed Bagua jade pendant at his waist.
His fingers rested on the holographic screen, and the twisted code obediently arranged itself in order, as if recognizing its former master: "I tried to stop it." His voice was thick with an unbearable bitterness. "Three hundred years ago, when I was the first agent of the game's mainframe, I secretly modified the protocol parameters three times..."
"So the Old Gods punished you, trapping you in data, watching your civilization slowly drain away." Lin Yi took a half step forward, shadows looming over Xuan Mingzi's face. "But you should have told me this sooner." His tone was icy. "When I shielded you from the Starfall Punishment, when I repaired the mainframe's vulnerabilities for you..."
"I dare not." Xuan Mingzi suddenly looked up, his eyes glistening with tears—an emotion that shouldn't be present in a data being. "The Old God planted a causal lock in the sea of consciousness of every agent. Speaking a single word of the truth would result in the death of ten innocent people." He grasped Lin Yi's wrist, his fingertips as cold as ice. "But it's different now. You have the Core of Causality, you can..."
The communicator vibrated at that moment.
Lin Yi looked down and saw Long Wu's avatar flashing wildly on the screen. In the background, there was the sound of shattering glass and his deliberately suppressed but still explosive roar: "The entire earth vein monitoring system in the laboratory has exploded!"
Old Chen said the spiritual energy concentration at Kunlun Ruins dropped by 20% in half an hour...
Lin Yi's finger hovered over the answer button, then he suddenly looked up at the dark figure and Xuan Mingzi.
The shadowy figure had transformed back into black mist and was slowly retreating towards the corner of the wall. In the black mist seeping from the festering wound, the shadow of a little girl with pigtails could be vaguely seen. Xuan Mingzi retreated behind the control panel, looking down at his palms as if he were looking at the hands from three hundred years ago, hands that could still feel the real wind.
"Tell Long Wu to prepare all the defense matrices." Lin Yi pressed the answer button, his voice sharp and icy, "And..." He gazed at the intertwined golden-purple light in his palm, the resonance of the Genesis Key suddenly becoming clear and resonant, as if playing a prelude to the impending war, "Have him sharpen that Dragon Slayer Blade."
The communicator crackled with the sound of Long Wu gasping for breath, followed by the dull thud of something being overturned—it was obvious that the guy was red-eyed and smashing everything he could.
The alarm suddenly sounded in the core area, and the red lights cast blood-like shadows on everyone.
Lin Yi looked at the constantly fluctuating values of the origin on the holographic screen and suddenly smiled.
That smile lacked warmth, yet carried a certain do-or-die exhilaration—since advanced civilizations want to be the hunters, then let them see that the prey they've targeted can also become the sharpest hunting knife.
"Chu Yao, synchronize the evidence of the extraction protocol to all high-ranking members of the Reality Alliance." He turned and walked to the control panel, the light patterns of the Genesis Key already covering his entire body, drawing two dazzling golden-purple streaks amidst the red alert. "By the way..." His fingertip pressed the protocol termination button, "Notify all members of the Time Legion that in three hours, we will raid the lair of the advanced civilization."
The black mist of the shadowy figure made a soft, whimpering sound in the corner, and Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe fluttered in the air currents.
In a secret base in the real world, Long Wu crushed the communicator. The clear sound of his blade being drawn, mixed with his deafening roar, pierced through layers of soundproof glass: "They treat humans as nourishment."
I'm going to chop off these bastards' heads!
The red alarm light cast flickering, blood-red shadows on the core area wall. The shattered communicator fragments still clung to Long Wu's palm; the stinging pain of broken plastic piercing his hand, mixed with his burning rage, made his temples throb. "They treat humans like food?"
"This is even worse than the night owl!" He roared, his throat trembling, as he drew the dragon-patterned giant axe from his back—the scales on the bronze axe handle gleamed from the sweat on his palms, and the wind generated when the axe blade was drawn made the dark shadows and mist in the corner sway.
"Fifth Brother!" Lin Yi stepped forward, and the Genesis Key in his palm suddenly felt cool, precisely gripping the numb tendons on Long Wu's wrist.
Long Wu's muscles were taut like cast iron; the axe blade was only three inches from the ground, yet it was held in mid-air by this seemingly effortless grab. "If we charge now, we won't even be able to break through the defensive matrix of an advanced civilization's outpost," Lin Yi's voice was low, yet it pierced Long Wu's anxiety like a steel needle—he saw the golden-purple light surging in the boy's eyes, the core of cause and effect at work. "We need evidence, irrefutable proof that can make all the hesitant enforcers, even those deceived players, see the truth."
Long Wu's Adam's apple bobbed twice, and the axe handle spun half a circle in his palm before slamming heavily onto the ground.
The bronze struck the metal floor with a dull thud, making his hands go numb. "So you expect me to just wait here?" He stared at Lin Yi's spiky hair, suddenly remembering how three months ago in the newbie village, this kid was being chased all over the forest by monsters, but now he could talk the talk of the town with the lifeblood of an advanced civilization in his hands. "Fine, I'll listen to you." He slammed the axe back into his back, his knuckles white from gripping it. "But if we delay another day, my axe won't care about any plans."
"There's a way." Chu Yao's projection suddenly appeared between the two, her hair still adorned with lingering snowflakes—she had just forcefully breached the last layer of firewall in the core area; the veins beneath her virtual skin were less visible, but the blue light in her eyes was even more intense. "We can forge a key activation log." She raised her hand and drew a data stream, a simulated real-time scene appearing within a golden-purple mist: "Use the garbled code from the spacetime rift to overwrite the real data, making the advanced civilization mistakenly believe that the resonance frequency of the Genesis Key is normal, and the extraction protocol is still operating."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He could feel the core of cause and effect trembling slightly deep within his consciousness, as if verifying the feasibility of the plan. "How long can this delay things?"
"At least seventy-two hours." Chu Yao's fingertips traced the data stream. "Enough for us to collect the complete resonance parameters of the Seven Keys, and also enough for the ancient martial arts families of the Reality Alliance to reinforce the ley line seal by three layers." She paused, and the projection suddenly became semi-transparent—she was simultaneously retrieving global ley line monitoring data. "Long Wu just said that the spiritual energy in Kunlun Ruins has plummeted by 20%. If we delay any longer..."
"No need to say anything more." Lin Yi interrupted her, and the Genesis Key in his palm suddenly emitted a clear hum.
He glanced at Xuan Mingzi at the control panel—the old Taoist was staring intently at the primal values on the holographic screen, his fingers digging into the wooden bars beneath his robes until his knuckles were white as bone; then he looked at the shadowy figure in the corner—the little girl with pigtails in the black mist was now clearer, tilting her head and looking this way with her transparent eyes. "We need more allies," he whispered, "those law enforcers blinded by advanced civilization, those with conscience like the shadowy figure..."
\"drop--\"
The console suddenly beeped.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly turned towards the sound source, and her virtual pupils expanded into discs: "There is an encrypted signal!"
From the deepest core of "Infinite," it automatically matched your causal core frequency...
Everyone held their breath.
The red warning light dimmed eerily for two seconds, the static on the holographic screen surged wildly, and then a figure appeared—a member of an advanced civilization wearing a robe with star patterns, whose face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to the shadowy figure, and who wore a silver earring on his right ear, which swayed gently with his breathing.
"If you see this message..." His voice crackled with static, yet remained remarkably clear, "Remember, the true enemy is not Lin Yi, but the 'Old God' who controls everything." He suddenly smiled, the beauty mark at the corner of his eye glowing in the blue light, "I am the Shadow's brother, codename 'Morning Star'."
Three months ago, I discovered that the Old Gods had added a 'civilization extinction program' to the extraction protocol—once the source is drained, they will directly erase the consciousness of all native inhabitants...
Long Wu's axe clattered to the ground.
He staggered two steps, grabbing the control panel for support, his knuckles slamming against the metal surface: "Fuck it!"
"I modified the self-destruct program in the core code." The image of Morning Star began to flicker, and a star map of an advanced civilization appeared behind it. "The true purpose of the Seven Keys of Genesis is not to break the extraction protocol, but..." His lips moved, but were suddenly drowned out by a piercing electrical sound.
In the last two seconds, he suddenly took off his earring and pressed it against the camera lens. A line of bloody words appeared on the surface of the earring: "The Old God is in the core of the moon".
The image disappeared with a "sizzle".
The core area was filled with alarms again, but it was quieter than before—even the black mist of the shadowy figures had stopped. The little girl's shadow reached out to touch the remaining snowflakes on the holographic screen, as if trying to catch her brother's last words.
"Lunar core..." Lin Yi murmured repeatedly, as the core of cause and effect suddenly erupted with a searing pain.
He looked up at Chu Yao, who was rapidly analyzing the blood-red words on her earring; the snowflakes in her hair had completely disappeared. "Can you pinpoint the source of this image?"
"Tracking..." Chu Yao's fingertips suddenly paused. "The signal originated from the main server of the advanced civilization's outpost, and now..." She looked up, the blue light in her eyes seeming to burn through the void, "...is being completely erased."
Long Wu bent down to pick up the axe, this time gripping it very steadily.
He stared at the wispy strands of hair sticking up on Lin Yi's head, then suddenly grinned, revealing dazzlingly white teeth: "Now can we go raid their lair, shall we?"
Lin Yi did not answer.
He gazed at the intertwined golden-purple light in his palm. A sharper sound crept into the resonance of the Genesis Key—it was Chu Yao's fabricated data being generated, carrying the garbled fluctuations unique to spacetime rifts. "Chu Yao," he whispered, "according to your plan, first give the advanced civilization some reassurance."
Chu Yao's projection bowed, and when the ends of her hair fluttered, they brought with them a stream of golden-purple data.
On the holographic screen of the console, the rate at which the original value was decreasing suddenly slowed down. In the code of the extraction protocol, a "lie" woven from the random code of the spacetime rift was quietly creeping in.
Deep within the main server of the advanced civilization's outpost, in a log file marked as "abnormal," a newly generated record is flashing:
The Genesis Key resonance frequency is normal, and the extraction protocol is running stably.
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