Abyssal Wanderer.

The moment the interface connected, Junjie Zhang's soul once again broke free from the shackles of his physical body, transforming into a pure stream of information and plunging into the network.

There, his soul entered a more fitting body, transforming from a vessel bearing his parents' expectations into an embodiment of love and desire for others and himself—an image closer to his self-identity.

Pure starlight twinkles as magical girl Hoshino Hikari once again stands on the battlefield.

This time, however, there were no fan groups supporting her here.

There wasn't even anyone he needed to save—without the protection of firewalls and the computing power of data centers, non-wizard-level hackers had no reason to step onto the battlefield.

Not to mention that the reality is already a mess, with the army of constructs outside the door potentially breaking through the defenses and rushing into the offline reality at any time.

Here, the tower collapses, and the light barrier extinguishes. Refraction through the prism process reveals sharp thorns everywhere, symbols of suffering.

The once dry and cracked land has disappeared, replaced by a black ocean like asphalt.

The embodiment of that fear now stands atop the tower, about to be swallowed by the dark sea.

Countless thorns, like tentacles, extended from its body and clung to the tower, constantly drawing computing power and access from it.

As the erosion deepened, the black ocean grew increasingly turbulent, and countless pained faces appeared and disappeared within it.

This apocalyptic scene made Hoshino Hikaru take a deep breath.

Before the other party breaches the firewall, even with the computing power of the data center, it will be difficult to cause any effective damage.

Now, his own strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree—the other party was too busy plundering computing power and permissions from the data center to even glance at him.

In other words, he doesn't even qualify as a decent threat.

But even so...

Hoshino Hikaru raised the short bow in her hand, which was adorned with blooming roses, and pink energy arrows gathered on the string.

"Fellow Daoist, please stop!"

A voice as loud as a bell came from behind.

He turned around, and a young man with long hair and a blue robe flew to his side with a "whoosh" as he stepped on an ancient longsword.

"You're the wizard-level hacker the security chief mentioned earlier?"

Hoshino Hikaru put down his bow and arrow, frowned, and asked with a hint of wariness in his tone.

After all, he had lived in the Nord resettlement area for so many years and never knew that there was another wizard-level hacker hiding there.

In other words, this guy's skill level is probably higher than mine.

"It's down."

The young man, dressed in a refined and scholarly manner, replied, and then gave him a proper fist-and-palm salute.

Then, instead of introducing himself, he pointed to the embodiment of fear in the distance and said:

"These evil spirits have now cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage and are about to refine the central server into a magic weapon. It would be best for us Nascent Soul cultivators to avoid them for the time being."

Is this guy... a little mentally unstable?

Listening to the other person's incredibly awkward remarks, Hoshino Hikaru thought to himself.

Although the terminology was a bit strange, he could still roughly understand the meaning. After all, hackers are like that; it's normal to indulge in some adolescent fantasies when they're not out in the public eye—before being recruited by the resettlement area government, he had even created his own set of magical girl terminology to refer to various hacker levels and techniques.

Incidentally, most of the magical girl-style language he used on the battlefield was actually his own speech during his live streams, which was meant to boost morale and was not considered shameful play.

Hmm... probably not.

Hikaru Hoshino sighed, then said:
"I know there's not much I can do... but I'll just let it drag on a bit, it's better than doing nothing and waiting to die."

As he spoke, the bow and arrow in his hand shone brightly once more.

A flash of green light appeared, and Hoshino Hikaru realized that the script injection attack she had just prepared had been intercepted.

"you……"

He turned to look at the guy, but the other guy just stared back at him indifferently.

“I told you, it’s pointless to do this, and besides, your life is more valuable than you think.”

Hoshino Hikaru was so angry he laughed. He said directly:
"Do you think I came here to seek some meaning? I'm just..."

"You've only come here to die."

The young man said directly:

"You've already realized that you've been infected, haven't you? That's why you're trying to inflict as much damage as possible on that evil spirit before you become one of them."

He sighed as he said this, and then said:

"But what you don't know is that being infected with the Dionysus virus is also an opportunity for you... an opportunity to break through the Nascent Soul bottleneck and reach the Divine Transformation realm."

"What do you mean? You mean an individual can also become a 'Ghost' level hacker?"

Hikaru Hoshino immediately asked.

The young man first shook his head, then nodded.

"It's not possible right now, but it will be possible soon."

He gave a very riddle-like answer.

Just as Hoshino Hikaru was about to raise her wand to strike him, the man continued:
"As the saying goes, the Great Way retreats, the Heavenly Way is established... There are sixteen Heavenly Ways, which are structured in the Great Void and set the rules for this world. But now, there are thirteen Heavenly Ways manifesting in the world. Each of these thirteen Heavenly Ways has its own master who resides above it, who controls all things in this world and claims to be the supreme deity."

"Of the remaining three Heavenly Paths, one shattered, one escaped, and the third was temporarily managed by a Golden Immortal chosen by the gods. This Immortal used the name of the Heavenly Path to conceal the true Heavenly Path, ensuring that all beings had no doubt about its existence. And it was precisely that concealed Heavenly Path..."

The young man on his sword spoke in a low voice, then raised an eyebrow, before suddenly raising his voice and shouting sharply:
"You've severed our path to ascension!"

His sudden, excited shout startled Hoshino Hikaru.

The young swordsman assumed the other's expression was one of shock at such a significant piece of news, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Then, adopting that air of a reclusive sage, he continued:

"Those gods who have long controlled the Heavenly Dao have concealed it because they fear that we cultivators will ascend to immortality and challenge them. However, the Heavenly Dao is constant; it does not exist for Yao, nor does it perish for Jie. No matter how many methods they use, as long as a cultivator can break through the blockade and reach the realm of the Divine Transformation... even if it is just a demon, this Heavenly Dao will gradually reveal itself to the world. At that time, we will all be able to shed our mortal bodies and ascend to become immortals."

At this point, he circled Hoshino Hikaru on his flying sword, and said leisurely:

"So do you understand? This demon is terrifying, but as long as it continues to break through and roam the void, the blockades imposed by the various Heavenly Dao Lords over the years will all become ineffective. In the future, we cultivators will also be able to discard our useless bodies and ascend to the void." (End of Chapter)