Abyssal Wanderer.

The sudden appearance of this spark startled Jiang Zhou at first, but he quickly guessed its origin.

Is it a high-level modifier of the Firebringer deciphering it...?

He said silently to himself.

The mark left by the Goddess of the Underworld through her power was indeed difficult for Number One to unlock on his own. However, as an organization with an adjuster who had surpassed the limits of human intelligence, the Fire Stealers' leader must have left some backdoors for their important members.

It is indeed possible to do this through those backdoors.

Furthermore, Lady Hecate doesn't seem to have any intention of further reinforcing the mark...

Your after-sales service is terrible.

Jiang Zhou complained to Ms. Hecate, who was currently nowhere to be found, through the interconnected Janus program.

No response.

Ok……

Jiang Zhou sighed inwardly.

He could currently relock all of Number One's cybernetic permissions, thus cutting off the Fire Thief's remote decoding. However, this would prevent Number One, whose combat abilities were restricted, from reclaiming the universal printer on the tenth floor.

Fortunately, the other side's decoding speed was not fast.

Observing the speed at which the Martian erosion was spreading, Jiang Zhou roughly estimated that it would take about two to three hours to completely decipher it.

Let's see if these two hours or so can bring this all to an end!

Realizing he had no time to waste, Jiang Zhou directly connected to the combat pod in the data center.

The world around me shattered instantly, then reassembled at pixel-level scale.

His hacker vision, loaded with the Prism program, brought that brutal data battlefield into his perception.

The air was thick with the smell of decay and ashes.

At this moment, the ram-headed demon standing in the black ocean is confronting the burning human figure in the sky.

The figure in the sky flapped its burning, broken wings, swooping down again and again towards the vast, dark ocean. Each time its figure approached the sea, hundreds and thousands of sticky tentacles would suddenly rise from the sea surface and coil towards it, but they would all be burned to ashes far away.

The trail left by the swooping figure would instantly evaporate tons of black liquid beneath it, revealing the dry, barren earth below.

Each time he burned across a vast expanse of the black ocean, the goat-headed demon would unleash a howl of pain and rage. Immediately, more black liquid would seep from the demon's body to fill the gaps left by the burning, while countless thick tentacles would shoot towards the figure.

This is how Jiang Zhou perceived the cyber battle between the two meme entities.

As for Jiang Zhou's hacking skills, in a digital battlefield of this scale and intensity, he would probably be swept back to basic reality by even a slightly larger wave...

But he didn't come here with the intention of providing assistance using his hacking skills.

The moment Jiang Zhou appeared on the battlefield, the two memetic entities engaged in combat simultaneously noticed him. The goat-headed demon raised its hand at him, and a giant wave immediately crashed towards him. Seeing this, the burning figure flew towards him like a shooting star.

But he was a beat too slow, and in an instant, the giant wave pressed down on Jiang Zhou like a wall.

It was only at this moment that Jiang Zhou noticed that what was churning on the surface of the dark seawater was not water or foam, but countless distorted human faces screaming in terror.

But just as the dark waves were about to crash onto Jiang Zhou's face, a faint mist rose around him, and he seemed to become ethereal, passing through the waves unharmed.

At the same time, the burning figure flew to Jiang Zhou's side with a "whoosh". Its wings spread wide, burning away all the surrounding waves.

"It's you!"

The burning figure, the memetic entity Icarus, looked at Jiang Zhou and spoke.

"You actually know me?"

Jiang Zhou was somewhat puzzled—although he had previously discussed the plan to create another meme entity with Booker online, he hadn't expected that the other party would actually know him.

"The logical entity that was previously in charge of coordinating computing resources in the Mage Tower has a hardware configuration that is very similar to yours."

Icarus said so.

"However, although the hardware configuration is very similar, its operating program is very different from yours. Compared to yours, it is more efficient and more robust."

As he spoke, golden wax continuously melted and dripped from his wings.

Is this talking about the hell realm?

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

However, my trip here is indeed related to the Hell Realm.

Jiang Zhou stretched out his hand, and a USB flash drive, which was considered an archaeological artifact in this era, appeared in his palm. Because he really didn't have the energy to choose any personalized prism appearance, he subconsciously changed into his old work attire when he came to this data battlefield.

"This is the Hell Path—the data center networking key left behind by the 'logical entity' you just mentioned."

He got straight to the point.

Perhaps sensing their impending execution, or perhaps simply preparing for the worst, Hell Path sent Jiang Zhou a program capable of reallocating data center computing power ten minutes before the attack.

With this thing, Icarus could easily reclaim the computing power of the entire data center and drive out the embodiment of fear from its control.

Jiang Zhou's most important task in coming to the data center, besides testing whether the "Mingyue Mark" was effective against that memetic entity, was to hand over the key to Icarus. Incidentally, he had already tested the mark as soon as he entered; the mark's protection only worked on him and couldn't be used to suppress the Avatar of Fear.

Icarus accepted the USB drive without hesitation. As he melted it into wax and merged it into his body, the faceless creature spoke:

"While I am very grateful for the supplies you sent, I must say that the computing power of the Mage Tower is no longer of much use."

Jiang Zhou, who had initially thought the other party would be encouraged by this, frowned and said:

"No way, about 30% of the computing power in the entire Nord resettlement area comes from here. Add to that its centralized and low-latency characteristics, and the fact that a lot of city management system permissions are here... As long as you control the data center, you should be able to maintain the balance of power, right?"

Another colossal wave was burned into hissing, putrid mist, Icarus explained:

"That might have been the case before, but now that brainless beast has taken control of the 'door.' As long as the 'door' remains open, it can continuously summon things from the upper realm to strengthen itself... It's just the hardware computing power of the lower realm; building a powerful computing matrix won't take much time or resources."

In other words, it's like using a universal printer to manufacture computing hardware, and then stepping on your own two feet to reach the sky?
Jiang Zhou's lips twitched.

It seems that letting fear take control of the multi-printer has had a more serious impact than he originally anticipated.

"Of course, I will be able to maintain my advantage for at least the next half hour."

As Icarus spoke, the flames burning on his wings surged even more fiercely.

Although he couldn't see the other person's expression clearly, Jiang Zhou seemed certain that he was grinning maliciously.

It's that kind of vicious grin, like someone who'd rather die than give up a bite out of their enemy.

That ruthlessness was just like someone I used to know.

What are you planning to do?

Jiang Zhou asked.

"Is that even a question? While we can still maintain a local advantage, we should try to destroy the opponent's data structure as much as possible... even if it means burning everything we can to the ground."

Icarus answered without hesitation.

Okay, okay...

Hearing this, Jiang Zhou couldn't help but sigh inwardly. He hesitated for a long time, and finally raised his hand to stop Icarus before he could raise his wax wings and rush forward.

"Wait a minute!"

Jiang Zhou gritted his teeth and said.

Although "he" was not him, but merely a collective of the impressions that the fanatical Icarus members resonated with regarding that person, an embodiment of "the will to venge." But Jiang Zhou knew he simply couldn't bear to watch him burn himself out once again.

Even if it's just an echoing meme entity.

"what happened?"

Icarus turned to look at him and asked.

Jiang Zhou did not answer, but a thick fog began to swirl around him.

As a meme entity, Icarus could naturally tell that this was a virtual network program with extremely high privileges and a highly sophisticated architecture on the dark web.

And the VPN being built around here is trying to connect to...

Please... Ms. Hecate, this isn't something I'm asking you to do personally. I can at least offer a little bit of convenience, right?
As the virtual network attempted to connect, Jiang Zhou silently prayed in his heart.

Of course, it's more like complaining than praying.

At that moment, Hecate, who was about a thousand meters above the Nord resettlement area, hesitated for two seconds and then slightly raised one of her fingers.

As she made this movement, a small black ball that had been circling around her instantly came to a stop beside her.

The seemingly hollow black sphere began to deform. Just as if drawing threads from molten glass, a thin, jet-black line was pulled out from the black sphere.

The black line grew longer and thinner, drifting downwards. By the time it reached the top of the Nord settlement, it had become only one-hundredth the size of a human hair.

Then, it continued to narrow and penetrate downwards. First, it passed through the gaps in the building, then through the gaps between molecules. By the time it finally reached the tenth-floor data center where Jiang Zhou was located, it had become so narrow that it could only be observed with an electron microscope.

It attached itself to Jiang Zhou's brain-computer interface.

Instantly, Jiang Zhou, connected to the Abyss Web, established communication with the City of Sages.

He let out a long sigh of relief.

He first silently thanked the goddess of the moon, then reached out and put his hand on Icarus's shoulder.

Amidst the questioning gazes of the other party, the two of them instantly appeared in the City of Sages.

Compared to the last time Jiang Zhou left this place, this shattered city no longer suddenly emits chilling screams from some corner.

Hmm... most of the mental models from the previous Dionysus Bureau are now dead.

Jiang Zhou checked the list and found that there were now only a handful of mental models who had not yet chosen suicide—he didn't know whether to say they were strong-willed or mentally abnormal.

"listen to me……"

Jiang Zhou said to Icarus.

"This is...the Upper Realm?!"

Clearly, being suddenly dragged to the City of Sages, Icarus's first reaction was not to patiently listen to his explanation.

He said with great emotion:
"You actually brought me to the Upper Realm?"

Well, from this perspective, this meme entity does indeed resemble a human.

"To be precise, this is not the upper realm you mentioned..."

Jiang Zhou tried to explain, but the other party clearly misunderstood him.

"No, no, no... 'Upper Realm' is what we call it. To you humans, it should be called the Abyss Web, right? How did you manage to do that? How did you suddenly pull me into the Abyss Web!"

Icarus looked around excitedly.

Perhaps for these beings born from information, the dark web is the truly habitable place...

Jiang Zhou thought to himself, and then registered the other party on the list of the City of Sages.

But this excitement lasted less than two seconds before Icarus snapped out of his daze and said:
"No, I have to go back! The Nord resettlement area still needs me, I didn't come here for..."

"Let me finish speaking!"

Jiang Zhou spoke loudly, drowning out the other person's words, then curled his lip and said:

"Strictly speaking, this is not the upper realm, but the barrier that separates the upper and lower realms, namely the Styx Firewall... Let me finish!"

Seeing the other person's shocked expression upon hearing the news, and as if they wanted to say something, Jiang Zhou interrupted:
"Of course, this is only part of the firewall; at least the city is under my control."

He paused here, and seeing that the other person didn't intend to interrupt, he continued:
"Next, I will temporarily entrust all the city's computing power to you... This computing power is very powerful, possibly much more powerful than an entire intact data center. And if you are no match for them, you can retreat back here at any time—once you retreat here, it's equivalent to being protected by the Styx Firewall. Do you understand what I mean?"

Icarus nodded repeatedly.

"I can temporarily give you this power, but on one condition..."

Jiang Zhou sighed as he finished speaking.

"Fight with your survival as the primary objective! In reality, all you need to do is stall for time as much as possible, understand?!"

There's no need to completely defeat that embodiment of fear; just help buy enough time.

Once Jim Ritter completes the Deep 7 modifications and then uses the Wide Area Nyx Factor to appease the Dionysus virus infected individuals, this crisis can be resolved peacefully.

This time, after hesitating for a moment, Icarus finally nodded.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhou continued:
"As for the remaining questions, I'll explain them to you once you survive."

…………

Back in basic reality, Jiang Zhou abruptly pulled out the connecting wire from his occipital bone.

Hmm... There wasn't another connection suddenly appearing behind her head, so the Goddess of the Moon must have connected herself to the Abyss Dark Web through some other method?
With that thought in mind, he packed his gear and prepared to go down—he had already spoken with the emcee and was going to the seventh basement level with Jim and the others.

I wonder if the pie in the sky that the emcee drew was big enough for the drawing artist to fit within it.

Theseus Cargo is still out of contact, and we don't know if the cartographers have recovered the equipment they hid... If they have, that would be troublesome.

And, that guy who's always been behind the scenes, Baptiste...

He was almost certain that the guy would intercept them on the way.

After donning his Chainbearer armor again, Jiang Zhou sorted through the pile of intelligence and plans as he rushed out of the data center.

Then, the moment he stepped out the door, he was surrounded by a swarm of buzzing gray mechanical insects.

Countless mechanical insects burrowed into his armor and began to "gnaw" at the internal wiring and components.

This is the mechanical arsenal left behind by Number One...

There was absolutely no time to react; that was Jiang Zhou's first thought.

…………

Meanwhile, Icarus, who had returned to the battlefield, shone like an archangel.

The burning wings behind him have now become pure light, continuously scorching the entire dark ocean without needing to swoop down.

That place from before...

But at this moment, Icarus seemed somewhat distracted.

Returning from the upper realm, or rather, from the city on the edge of the upper and lower realms, he noticed a small detail.

That place seems to bear traces left behind by the "Legendary Crystal Core" stand-in.

Could it be... that Liao Qi also went there? (End of Chapter)