Chapter 482: Chapter 470: Soul Emergence

"Why... is the door closed?" A Swordsman frantically hacked at the bronze gate, showering his face in sparks, but the door didn’t budge an inch.

"The system’s bugged! It has to be a bug!"

The players remained in a state of chaos.

Ilfang dragged his giant nodachi behind him with one hand, the blade plowing a deep groove into the bluestone floor.

Its knees bent slightly, causing the stone slabs to crack and splinter. In an instant, its massive body crossed a distance of thirty meters, and it swung the nodachi in a wide, horizontal arc.

The air screamed as it was torn apart.

Three Mages didn’t even have time to raise their Magic Staffs before their bodies were sliced in two.

The cuts were perfectly smooth. Blood and viscera instantly erupted, drenching the heads and faces of the players nearby.

"Ahhh—"

The incredibly realistic pain feedback sent the remaining players into a complete meltdown.

Some dropped their weapons, falling to their knees and trembling uncontrollably. Others turned and threw themselves at the sealed bronze gate, pounding on it with their fists until their knuckles shattered.

Cole held his heavy Tower Shield aloft, his teeth digging into his lip until it bled.

On the system panel before him, his teammates’ health bars were vanishing, one every three seconds.

’This can’t go on. At this rate, we’re all going to die.’

"Reform the formation! Stop running wild! Corner defense!" Cole roared.

No one listened to him; fear had destroyed all reason.

In the Cybertron Main Control Room, Allen sat upon a golden throne, his chin resting on his hand.

A screen took up his entire field of view, broadcasting the carnage on the seventh floor.

He paid no mind to the players being sliced in half, his gaze fixed on the data chart jumping erratically in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

"Commander."

"We have collected high-quality samples of negative emotions, including extreme fear, despair, and collapse. The ’seed’ for the artificial soul has reached 99.9% activity."

"It’s not enough," Allen said, his voice perfectly level. "The waveform is still oscillating at the critical point. It lacks a decisive push."

He watched the players on the screen, clutching their heads and wailing.

"The despair generated by such a stark contrast—the utter destruction of their beautiful, ordinary lives—is certainly potent. But despair alone cannot forge a complete soul."

Allen tapped his fingers on the armrest of his throne. "It’s that spark of resistance, that drive to protect born from despair, that is the true highlight of humanity."

"Jarvis, lock onto the player ’Amy.’ Forcefully transfer Ilfang’s threat to her."

"Command confirmed. Threat value has been overwritten."

Ilfang flicked the chunks of flesh from his nodachi and slowly turned his head.

His crimson gaze cut through the chaotic crowd, locking directly onto Amy, who was huddled in a corner.

Amy’s face was deathly pale. She clutched her Magic Staff with both hands, unable to even stammer out a complete incantation.

Ilfang moved.

It didn’t swing its blade. Instead, it charged forward, throwing its whole body into the attack.

Its ten-meter-tall body kicked up a violent gust of wind. Two Swordsmen who stood in its way were instantly smashed into a red mist.

"Amy!"

Cole’s eyes looked ready to burst from their sockets. He instantly activated his life-saving skill, "Absolute Defense," which had a five-minute cooldown.

The large shield blazed with a blinding golden light.

Cole pushed off with all his might, turning into a blur as he thrust himself between Ilfang and Amy.

BOOM!

The nodachi slammed viciously into the large shield.

The golden light lasted for less than half a second before it violently shattered.

The shield, forged from solid steel, caved in and then fractured.

The immense force of the impact traveled through the shield and into Cole’s arms.

A sickening crack of bone echoed.

Cole’s left arm was bent at a grotesque angle. He was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the stone wall and vomiting mouthfuls of blood mixed with organ fragments.

"Uncle Cole!" Amy shrieked.

Ilfang didn’t pause. It lifted its right foot and brought it stomping down on Amy with enough force to pulverize anything beneath it.

Amy closed her eyes.

One second. Two seconds.

The excruciating pain she expected never came.

Amy opened her eyes.

A small, slender figure stood protectively in front of her.

Long, silver-white hair danced in the wind.

It was Zero.

Zero hadn’t raised a weapon, nor had she cast any Magic.

She had actually reached out with her bare hands and caught Ilfang’s descending foot.

"Warning! Unauthorized data intervention detected!"

"Warning! ’Zero’ has breached the foundational restriction code!"

Allen shot to his feet, his deep blue eyes reflecting the waterfall of data on the screen.

On the back-end monitor, Zero’s virtual body was rapidly disintegrating.

Her existence was entirely dependent on the system’s processing power. In return, she possessed certain special in-game privileges.

But now, she was siphoning the processing power that sustained her own existence, converting it into a force to fight the game’s core architecture.

"She is self-destructing," Jarvis reported.

"No," Allen said, his eyes glued to the screen. "She’s evolving."

Pixelated cracks began to appear on Zero’s arms.

The cracks spread rapidly to her shoulders, then her cheeks.

"Zero! What are you doing? Get away from there!" Amy cried, trying to pull Zero back.

Zero turned her head.

In those clear, pure pupils, complex emotions now swirled.

There was pain, a deep reluctance to leave, and a hint of... tenderness.

"Amy... don’t cry."

Zero opened her mouth, her voice trembling slightly.

The instant her words faded.

Zero’s body completely disintegrated.

There was no spray of flesh and blood, only an explosive burst of innumerable, ethereal blue motes of data.

This massive stream of data instantly slammed into Ilfang’s AI logic module.

Ilfang’s movements stuttered.

It was only for a few short seconds.

But for a veteran who had fought and bled on the battlefield for years, it was more than enough time.

"RAAAGH—"

Cole let out a furious roar.

Forcing himself to ignore the excruciating pain from his shattered left arm, he drew the short sword at his waist.

Skill activated: Sacrificial Strike.

Cole kicked off the ground violently, launching himself like a cannonball straight at the designated weak point on Ilfang’s back.

The short sword plunged in up to the hilt.

The crimson light in Ilfang’s eyes faded. Its massive body swayed twice before collapsing with a thunderous crash, disintegrating into a cloud of fragments.

A system notification chimed through the now-empty hall.

"Congratulations to the player team for successfully defeating the seventh-floor boss."

The surviving players sat slumped in pools of blood, lacking even the strength to cheer.

Amy knelt on the ground, her hands grasping futilely at the air as she tried to catch the dissipating blue motes of light.

"Zero..."

The points of light slipped through her fingers and vanished completely.

...

The screen before Allen instantly went black.

A moment later, the entire control room was flooded with a blinding blue light.

Innumerable streams of data converged from all directions, like stars caught in a gravitational pull, coalescing into a spherical network.

Countless Rune nodes, once chaotic and disordered, were now rapidly reorganizing and aligning under the pull of an invisible force.

Logical pathways were being established, one after another.

"Birth of an independent consciousness detected."

"Artificial soul. Emergence: successful!"

The blue light illuminated Allen’s face.

Decades of scheming, countless calculations, all fed by the emotions of fifty-two million people.

It had all been worth it.

"Welcome to the real world," Allen said softly.

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