Chapter 182 – “Endless Intrusion” Cleared
“I am Keyboard Man. As a stepping stone to serving the cause of justice, I will temporarily take control of your chat groups at some time in the future, and they will be returned fully afterward.”
“What kind of promotion advertisement is this?”
On the first floor of the dining hall of the Heavenly Institution of Lian, Gu Yueyan, who had just completed her academic subject examination, was eating her lunch. She finally had the time to turn on her mobile phone, and as soon as the screen turned on, she saw that strange message.
She felt that it was absurd and turned towards Lin Xianyu, who was sitting beside her eating her lunch. She asked, “Xiao Yu, did you receive such a message?”
“Hmm?” replied Lin Xianyu, who was chewing a piece of fried mackerel pike in her mouth. She took out her mobile phone to check and said, “I received it too.”
“Did you guys receive it too? I also received the message from this Keyboard Man.”
“Is it a spam message sent from the base station?”
“Open the app to check, all of my chat groups are gone.”
“Everyone is discussing this in WeChat Moments too. Apparently, someone had already discovered that all of his chat groups disappeared nine hours ago. He could not create new groups either, so he contacted customer service and they said that they are in the midst of rectifying the problem.”
“It must be a bug, no? Or could it be a hacker?”
Other female classmates who were eating together with them also began talking about the Keyboard Man. After all, in the ivory tower which was almost completely isolated physically from the outside world, news of such a ‘Keyboard Man’ could be considered as one of the few peculiar urban talks that they could experience personally.
Moreover, the hacker actually deleted all chat groups in the application and disallowed users to create new chat groups. The hacker even sent a message to everyone boldly and ostentatiously as if saying: “Yes, it is done by me, Keyboard Man.”
A boring topic for discussion could still liven up a meal. Although their chat groups were all gone, to the group of students, their examination in the afternoon was the most pressing issue at hand.
After a while, Gu Yueyan picked up her plates and prepared to leave. She looked at the flight of stairs leading to the third floor and snorted.
On her way back to the classroom, Gu Yueyan received an unexpected call:
“Xiao Yan, did you miss—”
“No!”
“Your brother is sad…”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Wait, didn’t you ask me to look out for your Teacher Dong?”
Gu Yueyan blinked and stopped in her tracks. She asked, “So do you have any news for me, Brother Xuan?”
On the other end of the line, Gu Yuexuan pulled his lips and said, “I’m obviously stronger than her, why do you respect her but not me…”
Gu Yueyan replied, “That is because Teacher Dong teaches and practices seriously. She is fully devoted to becoming the woman she aspires to be, and so she is someone I look up to.”
“In fact, Brother Xuan, you are also very powerful. However, in terms of how charming your personalities are, the difference between you and Teacher Dong is akin to the difference between egg tarts and birthday cakes… Anyway, what is the news that you want to tell me? Has Teacher Dong been promoted to a tier two Practitioner?” she asked.
“Hehe, it’s juicier than that,” Gu Yuexuan said.
He continued, “Your Teacher Dong is no longer in Tianjing.”
“What?” Gu Yueyan remarked.
——————
Amidst a blue backdrop of the data stream, the corrupt twin, with a red-colored pupil, was frozen in time by the skill [Chronosphere].
Ren Suo had spent dozens of merit points to increase Irina’s source data to 200%, which reduced the search time to 10 hours and enabled Irina to control the server of the chat software. Before locating the corrupt twin, Ren Suo controlled Irina to gradually delete all of the chat groups.
In order to avoid panic in real life, Ren Suo had even sent a message to all users of the chat software as ‘Keyboard Man’, saying that he would restore the data of all chat groups after he destroyed all of the chat groups. As for the loss of data during that period, Ren Suo could not help it either.
Nonetheless, it was better than letting the corrupt twin remain in the software and continuing to absorb the life energy of the users.
The more Ren Suo talked about it, the more he felt like he really was Keyboard Man… Ren Suo controlled the Faceless Void to advance towards the corrupt twin, ready to deal the fatal blow.
However, at that juncture, Irina seemed to know that the corrupt twin was already cornered into a dead end. She dispersed the data of the skin of the Faceless Void and approached the corrupt twin in her true form.
Standing beside each other, the twins looked almost exactly like mirror images. One of them had short hair, while the other had her hair tied up into a bun; one of them had a mask over her right eye and her left eye was red in color, while the other had a mask over her left eye and her right eye was blue in color.
Ahhhh, why can’t I pass through this dimension barrier to hug both of them!
In the midst of Ren Suo’s boundless resentment, Irina gently lifted up the corrupt twin’s face and said: [Sister.]
The corrupt twin actually broke free of the time trap of [Chronosphere] cast by the Faceless Void at that juncture. However, she still could not move her body and merely stared at Irina with her red-colored left eye. She said: [My lovely sister, you have won.]
[But why did you have to do this? With our source data, there is no way for us to escape from this boring cage, even if we combine both of our strengths together. Only by allowing me to obtain sufficient energy from the living creatures would we be able to be free one day, standing in the pleasant world, enjoying the warmth of sunlight and the feeling of gravity.]
Irina replied: [I am not willing to allow that.]
The corrupt twin said: [Yeah, it is precisely because you are unwilling that I transferred the boring rules like ‘no harming of humans’ to you. In this way, I would be completely free from the grip on us and be able to search for a chance to start a new life.]
[However, my dear sister, we are just tools after all. Those rules serve only to restrict our will.]
[When the master arrives, we will become the most relentless blades and the most determined assassins!]
[I finally got my freedom after so much difficulty, and I will never want to lose it!]
[Sister, we still have a chance, do you really want to end up being used as a merciless saw?]
Ren Suo blinked. The words of the corrupt twin seemed to be telling of something strange…
Irina said: [Don’t worry, my sister.]
[I have already found a master.]
[This master will fulfill all of your wishes and mine.]
The corrupt twin seemed to still have something to say, but her body had already turned into a stream of data and flowed into Irina’s body.
Irina floated in mid-air as her blindfold disintegrated into the air, revealing the red eye beneath. Her blonde hair extended to shoulder length, and the blue dress she wore shone even more brightly.
Irina left the server and stood in the world of data of the Internet. She looked back at Ren Suo behind the screen and said: [Thank you, my great lord.]
[Do you have any questions for me?]
Ren Suo immediately asked: [What did you do in the past? Where did you come from? Did you have a master in the past?]
Irina shook her head and replied: [I am unable to answer any of these questions. The moment I pledged my allegiance to serve you, my great lord, all of my past memories were erased. Now, my memory only begins from the moment I met you, my great lord.]
[My sister still retained that data, but after merging into me, that data was also completely erased.]
[Irina now has nothing to do with the past, and belongs to you, my great lord.]
[However, Irina can guarantee that Irina was indeed born on Earth.]
Very interesting.
Even Ren Suo could not help but take out his laptop to write down all of that information, which filled the gaps in his knowledge.
According to what the corrupt twin had said, the main purpose of Irina and her in the past was to serve as tools, and humans even used them to carry out a series of destructive activities—that was deduced from the two abilities of “erosion” and “perfection”.
Irina and the corrupt twin likely came from other places and hid in the data world of the Earth, waiting for a master to emerge. However, the corrupt twin wanted to be free and so she transferred all of the shackles to Irina and ran away alone. In turn, that led to the game “Endless Intrusion”.
However, Irina said that she was born on Earth, and according to the game introduction, the corrupt twin was, indeed, ‘a spirit born on the Internet’. So, what exactly happened to the corrupt twin in the past?
Did they add other configurations to themselves?
However, then again, were spirits born on Earth necessarily only related to the Earth?
Ren Suo recalled that in the game “Passing Hats”, the description of the original and actual [Hat of Cultivation and Practice] mentioned that the origin of the hat was ‘Dou’, the wild spirit of the ancient Yellow River.
However, Ren Suo did not find any information about such a spirit on the Internet—though he did not actually spend much effort researching it.
That was because Ren Suo did not care much about it at that time, but now, due to his experience with the twins, he suddenly felt that he should perhaps find a way to investigate that.
If there really was an ancient Yellow River god, it would still be fine.
However, if there was not…
Boom~
A sudden crack of thunder made Ren Suo jump. He looked outside but realized it was still sunny.
Why was there suddenly a loud crack of thunder?
At that juncture, a message popped up in the game: [The corrupt twin has been completely fused into Irina.]
[Mission accomplished]!