Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Chapter 10 Energy Central Tower

After leaving the control room, they walked east along the street for about twenty minutes.

The old square was much larger than Jiang Chen had imagined.

The ground is paved with neat square stone slabs, at least a hundred meters in diameter, and in the center stands a broken statue—its head is completely shattered, leaving only a torso and a hand pointing to the sky.

Most of the words on the base have been eroded away, leaving only a few scattered words:

[...For...the dawn...to live on...]

The square is surrounded by a four-story ring building, each with arched windows.

But the glass was already shattered, and the windowsill was covered with grayish-white dust.

Shi Yu walked in the center of the square, her pace slowing down.

"This place used to be very lively."

She said, "On the day the crystals are exchanged, the square is filled with stalls. There are people selling equipment, materials, and food—and some even set up a fighting arena in the middle of the square."

Her tone was flat.

But Jiang Chen could tell that the calmness wasn't like forgetting, but more like a piece of paper that had been folded repeatedly.

You can flatten it, but the creases will always be there.

As you cross the square and enter the fourth administrative district, the density of ruins increases significantly.

The building had almost completely collapsed, and piles of rubble and tiles formed an undulating wasteland, with the air filled with the smell of rust and decay.

Jiang Chen had just stepped onto the edge of the ruins when a system notification popped up.

[Anomaly detected: Ruins of Dawn City, Fourth Administrative District (Unmarked)]

The current area is not included in the recommended exploration routes.

[WARNING: The area has unstable structures, and some buildings are at risk of secondary collapse]

[Recommendation: Leave as soon as possible]

Jiang Chen turned it off after reading it.

"The system is telling us to leave," he said.

Shi Yu sneered, "That means we've come to the right place."

The two walked through the ruins.

The collapsed building blocked most of the road, and they had to go around it several times, sometimes climbing over the rubble.

Jiang Chen noticed the things in the ruins—metal boxes buried under rubble and scraps of paper scattered on the ground.

He picked up a piece of paper; it was as brittle as a dried-up leaf, its edges crumbling at the slightest touch. But the words on it were still legible:

Three more people left today.

They said they would find their own way to the surface.

No one stopped them, because staying here meant certain death...

Several more rows below were completely submerged in water.

Jiang Chen put the piece of paper back.

After walking for more than an hour, they passed through the ruins of the Fourth Administrative District.

At the end of the ruins was a relatively flat open space, and in the very center of the open space stood a tall tower. The tower was slender, about a dozen stories high, and was made entirely of black metal and gray stone.

The tower's surface has no windows, only rows of vertical grooves—grooves that were once inlaid with luminous crystals, most of which are now broken or fallen off.

At the top of the tower is a hemispherical device that looks like some kind of transceiver antenna.

Energy hub tower.

There is no information about the tower on the system panel.

There was no mark on the map—even its location was shown as a blank space.

Jiang Chen and Shi Yu walked to the bottom of the tower.

At the base of the tower is a heavy metal door—dark gray, with no rust on its surface—which contrasts sharply with the dilapidated surroundings.

Instead of a keyhole, the door handle has a circular groove with a complex pattern engraved in the center, resembling the wires on a circuit board.

Shi Yu pushed the door, but it didn't budge.

"It's locked," she said. "You need a key."

Jiang Chen squatted down to examine the groove.

The patterns radiate outwards from the center, unfolding layer by layer like tree rings.

"Verification slot," he said.

"What?"

"During the game testing, some hidden areas were accessed not with keys, but with credentials."

Jiang Chen said, "If you have something that meets the requirements, you can put it on and it will open."

He took out a fragment of rules from his backpack; the fragment emitted a faint golden light above the groove.

He didn't put it on immediately.

The energy of the rule fragments is decaying—it was 87% before, and now it's 85%.

While he hesitated, Shi Yu took out the crystal fragment of the mineral beast from his backpack.

"Try this," she said.

Are you sure?

"Old Shen said that this tower uses Dawn City's own energy system. The crystals of the mineral crystal beasts are themselves a kind of energy core—in the old version, this tower was powered by this."

Jiang Chen took the crystal fragment, aligned it with the circular groove, and gently placed it inside.

Click.

The moment the crystal fragment was embedded in the groove, a ring of pale blue light spread outward from the center along the pattern.

The lines lit up one after another, as if activating something layer by layer.

The door at the base of the tower emitted a low rumble—not a mechanical sound, but more like the resonance of a device starting up.

Then, the door opened.

It didn't open inwards, nor outwards—the door, like a camera aperture, narrowed from the center outwards, revealing a circular passage.

There was no light in the passage, so Jiang Chen lit the last tinderbox.

The moment the firelight flared up, he saw the inside of the passage—circular, about two meters in diameter, with dense patterns covering the metal walls.

The passage went straight down, with no end in sight. The steps beneath our feet were spiral-shaped, each one very narrow.

"Wait for me here," Jiang Chen said.

Shi Yu glanced at him: "No."

"It might be dangerous inside."

"Then I should go even more."

Shi Yu's voice was calm. "The message Lao Shen left for me wasn't for you."

Jiang Chen did not argue.

He walked in front, and Shi Yu followed behind, the two of them walking down the spiral steps one by one.

The steps were very long, so long that when he counted more than three hundred steps, half of the fire tumbler burned away.

The air began to feel humid—a stuffy, moisture-laden atmosphere. The patterns on the walls grew increasingly dense, and at a certain depth, they began to emit a faint blue light.

It's not the cold light of crystals, but rather the fluorescence of an electric wire.

Finally, the steps came to an end.

At the end of the passage is a small circular room of about twenty square meters.

In the very center of the room stood a cylindrical metal pillar, reaching chest height and about half a meter in diameter.

The patterns on the surface of the metal pillar shimmered regularly, as if it were still in operation.

As Jiang Chen approached, he saw that the top of the metal pillar was a transparent panel, and underneath the panel was a notebook.

A very ordinary notebook with a brown leather cover.

The edges have been worn white.

There were no words on the cover, only a string of numbers—the same format as the numbers on the wooden crates in the control room.

Jiang Chen gently picked up the notebook and turned to the first page.

The handwriting on the first page is exactly the same as that on the last stone slab in the control room; it's Old Shen's handwriting.

He read aloud in a low voice by the light of the tinderbox.

"On the 5th of this month, the system sent an update notification."

The update includes: fixing map bugs, optimizing the dungeon matchmaking process, and adjusting the values of some class skills;

A very ordinary log update;

But I've been doing inventory registration for six years;

The thing I've been most interested in for the past six years;

It's the difference between the system announcement and the actual update content.

He turned a page.

"What this update really did was not to fix bugs or optimize processes;

It means delete.

The old version of the Abyss game had a flaw in its underlying logic;

This vulnerability prevents the system from verifying the identity of players in the real world;

Some players then discovered a way to exploit this vulnerability;

They exploited this vulnerability to write things into the game that weren't part of the game rules;

Some people say they are tampering with the data;

Some say they are creating new rules;

I don't know what the truth is;

But I know one thing;

The system's response was to delete the entire old version;

It's not fixing vulnerabilities, it's deleting everyone.

Jiang Chen paused, took a deep breath, and continued reading.

"They closed all entrances to the ground;"

They cut off the supply of materials and crystal energy;

The system locked all the players from the old version underground;

Then, it cleared the data.

When I wrote this notebook, the version update was already in its final countdown;

I don't know how many people are still alive in the old version;

But there's still one thing I haven't finished;

Shigure,

If one day you see this notebook;

That means you do remember what I said;

I said that once the update is finished, I'll take you to see the surface.

I didn't do the last step;

But you did it;

You went to a place I couldn't see;

I left something here;

It's not a rule fragment, and it's not equipment;

It's something more important than all of these.

Jiang Chen turned to the last page.

There were no words on the last page of the notebook.

There is only one picture, a hand-drawn map.

The map doesn't label any places; it only shows a winding route that starts from a certain point, passes through three forking passages, and finally reaches the destination.

The finish line was marked with a circle—and inside the circle were two numbers.

07-02.

Jiang Chen looked at the string of numbers.

"07-02," he repeated softly.

Shi Yu, standing behind him, suddenly spoke:

"07 is the area code."

"02 is the layer number."

Jiang Chen turned to look at her: "What do you mean?"

"In Dawn City's complete numbering system, the first digit represents the administrative district—07 is the seventh administrative district. The second digit represents the underground level—02 is the second level."

Shi Yu said, "But the Seventh Administrative District is not on the official planning map. In the old version, all maps only showed the First to Sixth Administrative Districts. The number Seven has never appeared in any public document."

Jiang Chen glanced at the route on the map.

Starting from the energy hub tower, there is a virtual route heading northeast.

Then it forks three times. Take the leftmost path, pass through a section marked as an unstable zone, and arrive at the entrance to the 02nd floor of the 7th Administrative District.

"Old Shen left behind more than just a notebook."

Jiang Chen closed the notebook and put it in his backpack.

"He left a map that led to the outside world."

Shiyu did not speak.

But there was something in her eyes that Jiang Chen had never seen before—not fear, not doubt.

It is a very quiet and firm determination.

It's like finally knowing where the end of a road is, even if that road is difficult to travel.

Jiang Chen put away his notebook and stood up.

"Let's go back and resupply. Next time we come, we'll bring enough supplies."

Shi Yu nodded.

The two walked back up the spiral staircase.

As Jiang Chen approached the entrance, he suddenly stopped.