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Chapter 1049: The Hacker's Empire

Zhao Wuji didn't exchange the money immediately, but lay back down. The design work on Freedom Star is 10 hours a day, and only half of the time has passed. He can't waste the money he has already paid.

"A random script of The Matrix is ​​about to start"

Zhao Wuji gradually regained consciousness from the darkness, and the first thing he felt was a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He slowly opened his eyes, and what came into view was a small apartment of less than ten square meters. The mottled wallpaper was covered with mold spots, an iron bed occupied most of the space, and an old CRT monitor was placed on the bedside table, flashing snowflakes.

Outside the window, the never-ending rain hit the glass, refracting the neon lights into distorted spots of light. Zhao Wuji propped himself up and found that he was wearing a wrinkled white shirt and a cheap suit. The electronic watch on his wrist showed: March 1999, 3, 28:07.

"Is this the simulated world inside the Matrix?" He whispered to himself, reaching out to touch the wall. The rough touch was so real that it was frightening. Suddenly, a severe headache came, and a large number of memory fragments poured in like a tide. In this virtual identity, he was an ordinary software tester at MetaCortex, repeating the boring code checking work every day.

**Main Mission:**

**1.在矩阵中存活100天（剩余99天23小时59分）**

**2. Discover the truth of the matrix (0/3 key clues)**

**3. Assist the Awakener (0/1)**

Zhao Wuji tried to circulate the Nine Yin Manual, but found that his meridians were empty. The system prompt on the eye mask flashed:

**"Warning: The current script restricts superpowers, only retaining basic physical fitness (strength 18/agility 18)."**

"This Nine Yin Manual is actually a superpower? The limitations of this Sagittarius host are too particular, but it is okay to give Zhao Wuji such a gray identity. However, there are already digital life in the universe. Maybe this identity issue will be resolved like this, but it's a pity that the original hundreds of millions of Chinese currency were wasted."

He smiled bitterly and shook his head, his eyes falling on the work ID card on the bedside. His eyes in the photo were a little numb, and below it was printed "Zhao Wuji-MetaCortex Software Testing Department-Employee No. 114514". There were several documents scattered on the desk, and the top one was marked in red pen with "Overdue-Final Warning".

"It seems that I have to deal with the work of this identity first." He quickly browsed the code documents. Modern programming languages ​​were not unfamiliar to him. While sorting the documents, a note fell to the ground, with a scribbled handwriting on it: "They monitor everyone - go find the owner of the Red Dragon Internet Cafe."

This unexpected discovery made Zhao Wuji's heart beat faster. He carefully checked the apartment and found a waterproof bag behind the toilet tank, which contained three hundred-dollar bills and an old-fashioned key with "Red Dragon-27" engraved on it.

After changing into a decent suit, Zhao Wuji walked into the elevator. He was accompanied by a blonde girl who mechanically put on makeup in front of the elevator mirror and ignored Zhao Wuji. When the elevator stopped at the 15th floor, a man in a suit and tie walked in. His name badge showed that he was the company's security director.

"Mr. Zhao," the man suddenly said, his voice too cold to be human, "last week's code audit report has not been submitted yet."

"We are in the process of final verification. We will make sure it is done before the end of the get off work day today."

"You have been marked as an inefficient employee." The man interrupted him, his eyes flashing strangely behind the lenses, "The company does not tolerate inefficiency."

The elevator reached the first floor, and Zhao Wuji walked out of the building quickly, his back soaked with cold sweat. The look in the eyes of the security director was definitely not just an NPC, but most likely a scenario player, and one from the enemy camp.

The streets were bustling in the rain, and pedestrians were walking mechanically with all black umbrellas. Zhao Wuji turned into an alley and suddenly quickened his pace. Through the reflection of the shop window, he confirmed that two men in windbreakers were following him.

"The agents have targeted me so quickly?" He was secretly alert and deliberately walked into a fast food restaurant, slipped out from the back door, and after wandering through many alleys, he finally found the "Red Dragon Internet Cafe" hidden under the neon lights.

The owner of the Internet cafe was an old Asian man. When he saw the key, his pupils shrank slightly: "Machine 27 is at the back, five dollars an hour."

In the small compartment, the old computer was humming. Zhao Wuji inserted the key, and a hidden interface popped up on the side of the computer case. When he inserted the key, the screen suddenly turned blue, and then a line of green text appeared:

"Do you know the difference? Dreams and reality? -M"

The keyboard started typing automatically, and the code scrolled like a waterfall. Suddenly, the entire screen turned red, and a warning box popped up: "An abnormal individual has been detected, and the cleanup procedure has started." Zhao Wuji immediately pulled out the key, and the computer immediately returned to normal, but the chassis began to heat up and smoke.

He quickly left the Internet cafe and found three black cars parked at the door. At the critical moment, a motorcycle braked in front of him and the rider took off his helmet - it was the blonde in the elevator.

"Get on the motorcycle if you want to live!" she said sternly. Zhao Wuji jumped on the back seat without hesitation, and the motorcycle roared into the rain, with a burst of gunfire behind him.

The motorcycle engine roared in the rainy night. Zhao Wuji held on to both sides of the seat tightly, and the cold rain splashed on his face. The blonde skillfully shuttled through the narrow alleys. In the rearview mirror, three black cars were chasing after her like sharks smelling blood.

"Lower your head!" the girl suddenly shouted. Zhao Wuji instinctively leaned forward, and a bullet grazed the end of his hair and smashed the fire hydrant on the roadside. A high-pressure water column shot up into the sky, reflecting a strange red light under the neon lights.

"Who are they?" Zhao Wuji shouted amid the roar of the engine.

"Agent! Matrix antivirus program!" The girl turned the handlebars sharply, and the motorcycle rushed into an underground tunnel under construction. "My name is Christine, and I am Morpheus's external informant."

At the end of the tunnel was a rusty container truck. Christine dragged Zhao Wuji out of the car and took out an old-fashioned CRT TV from the cab. The moment the screen lit up, Zhao Wuji saw the face of a bald black man.

"Mr. Zhao," Morpheus' voice on the screen was accompanied by electronic noise, "the key you found contains a fragment of the seventh-generation core code of the Matrix. The agents have marked you, and now you have only two choices-" The truck suddenly shook violently, and a harsh sound of twisted metal came from the tunnel entrance at the rear. Christine's face turned pale: "They found us!"

The TV screen flashed a rapid red light, and Murphys spoke faster: "The blue pill will make you forget everything and continue to be a slave to happiness; the red pill will show you the truth." A small metal box popped out from the bottom of the TV, with two pills inside.

Zhao Wuji grabbed the red pill and swallowed it without hesitation. The world twisted in an instant, Christine's screams became infinitely prolonged, and the scene before his eyes collapsed as if being sucked into a black hole. He felt himself falling, falling endlessly.

The blinding sunlight woke Zhao Wuji up. He found himself lying in a metal cabin, his body full of tubes and wires, and the connector at the back of his neck was burning. With a "click", the tubes automatically fell off, and he climbed out of the cabin in a panic, kneeling on the cold ground and coughing violently.

"Welcome to the real world." Morpheus' voice came from above. Zhao Wuji looked up and saw a tall black man in a worn leather jacket standing in front of him. Behind him was a metal dome that seemed to have no end, and countless identical cabins were arranged like a honeycomb.

"Is this a human breeding farm?" Zhao Wuji said hoarsely. His eyes were not yet able to adapt to the light of the real world, and his skin looked sickly pale because he had not seen the sun for many years.

"Earth in 2199." Morpheus handed him a rough cloak. "After the machine war, AI turned humans into biological batteries. The Matrix is ​​the cage of our collective dream."

Zhao Wuji trembled as he touched the interface on the back of his neck, where sticky nutrient solution still remained. Several figures walked out of the shadows in the distance - the one-eyed Tank was debugging the brain-computer interface, and the nose-ringed Apak threw him a bottle of synthetic protein drink.

"Your physique is very special." Morpheus looked at Zhao Wuji's smooth muscle lines, "Have you trained in the Matrix?"

"Ancient Chinese martial arts." Zhao Wuji tried to move his limbs and found that the internal force of the Nine Yin Manual had recovered 30% in the real world. "Why can my ability still be used here?"

Morpheus and Tank exchanged surprised looks. "This shows that your level of consciousness is far beyond that of ordinary people. It usually takes six months of training to map the abilities in the Matrix into reality."

Suddenly, the sound of an alarm pierced the air. Apak rushed into the control room and shouted, "Patrol sentry! Three kilometers away!"

"Everyone, level one combat readiness!" Morpheus pressed the emergency button on the wall, and the dome lit up with a blood-red warning light. Zhao Wuji was pushed onto a tracked armored vehicle, and through the bulletproof glass, he saw this devastated world for the first time.

Under the leaden sky, the abandoned city looked like the skeleton of a giant beast. In the distance, octopus-like mechanical sentinels hovered, their metal tentacles glowing coldly in the sun. Even more horrifying was that some of the building wreckage was covered with semi-mechanized flesh and blood, as if the entire city was being devoured by some kind of biological and mechanical fusion.

"That's the second generation of mother." Christine gripped the steering wheel tightly, "The machine began to genetically crossbreed humans and AI."

The armored vehicles shuttled frantically among the ruins, and the roar of collapsed buildings came from behind. Zhao Wuji saw three sentinels cutting the viaduct with laser beams, and one of them suddenly turned, and six electronic eyes locked their vehicles at the same time.

"Hold on tight!" Christine turned the steering wheel sharply, and a beam of plasma passed by the rear of the car. The blast overturned the armored vehicle. Zhao Wuji climbed out of the car window in a whirlwind, and found that Morpheus was using an electromagnetic rifle to block the approaching sentry.

"Take him to find the prophet!" Morpheus stuffed a data chip into Zhao Wuji's hand, "It contains the coordinates of the loophole in the seventh generation matrix!"

When Zhao Wuji was dragged into the underground sewer by Apak, the last scene he saw was Morpheus detonating the electromagnetic pulse bomb. In the dazzling blue light, the tall figure was pierced through the chest by the mechanical tentacles.

In the stinking sewer, Zhao Wuji and Aipak held their breath and listened to the sound of metal tearing above their heads. It was not until the vibration gradually subsided that Aipak turned on the flashlight, and the beam of light illuminated a face distorted by despair.

"Morpheus died?" Zhao Wuji's voice was dry.

Apak did not answer, but dragged him deeper. After seven hours of trekking, they finally arrived at a hidden subway station. On the mottled wall, there was an eye pattern painted in red paint, and below it was written "The Prophet's Residence".

Unexpectedly, the so-called prophet turned out to be an old woman in a floral apron. She was baking cookies and the aroma of cinnamon wafted through the kitchen.

"Ah, a new guest." The prophet pushed his reading glasses. "The people chosen by Morpheus are always particularly unstable."

She handed Zhao Wuji a cookie: "Try it? It's made with fungal protein."

Zhao Wuji took a bite, and his taste buds were immediately filled with unfamiliar sweetness. In the real world, this was simply the most delicious thing.

"Do you know why you can retain your martial arts memory?" the prophet suddenly asked. Without waiting for an answer, she pointed to an old photo on the wall - it was a group photo of a martial arts competition in the early 21st century, in which there was a young man who looked exactly like Zhao Wuji.

"Memory residue will appear when the matrix is ​​iterated. The underlying code of the seventh-generation matrix contains data fragments of all the 'abnormal' in the previous six generations." A strange light flashed in the prophet's eyes, "And you, dear, are a program loophole in the third-generation matrix, an anti-virus program that should have been deleted."