Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

The deafening roar of the collapsing giant face still echoed in my ears.

Jiang Chen felt like all the bones in his body were about to fall apart, and a strong taste of blood rose in his throat.

He gasped for breath, struggling to get up from the cold metal floor.

My vision is still a bit blurry.

The nauseating stench in the air was quickly dissipating, replaced by a pure and pungent ozone smell.

Shiyu knelt not far away, the silver light on the blade already dimmed.

Her breathing was equally rapid, and her face was paler than the wall.

Having just escaped death, the two were so exhausted, both mentally and physically, that they could barely lift a finger.

Jiang Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, enduring the throbbing pain in his temples.

He quickly activated the "Reconnaissance" skill that had just cooled down, carefully looking around before activating it to ensure the environment was safe.

Pale golden light poured out like water, instantly enveloping the entire area.

The scattered fragments of jumbled text and the ruins appeared exceptionally clear under this strange light, revealing even the finest details.

After a careful scan, no trace of the enemy was found within the field of vision.

He let out a long sigh of relief, his tense nerves relaxing slightly.

His gaze fell to the end of the corridor.

There, a huge silver-gray metal door stood silently in the darkness, radiating a cold metallic luster.

The door surface had no extra decorations, except for a warning line written in scarlet letters in the center.

[System Core - Unauthorized Access Prohibited]

The line of red text flickered faintly in the dimly lit corridor, like a blood-red eye coldly observing.

Jiang Chen squinted at the door that represented the ultimate truth of the game, and his heart began to beat faster involuntarily.

In his diary, Chung Yuan mentioned that he tried to open the door to the system core, but his privileges had been completely revoked by the system.

Now, this door is truly blocking their way.

"We've arrived," Jiang Chen said in a hoarse voice.

He strode toward the massive metal door and reached out to touch its cold surface.

The piercing chill from his fingertips instantly snapped him back to reality.

He pulled out the decompiled core, trying to find the physical interface.

However, the pale golden light from the decompilation core, upon contact with the surface of the door,

It vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

Insufficient permissions

The core asset protection protocol has been activated; any unauthorized hacking will trigger the highest level of elimination.

The cold, impersonal system notification sounded in his mind, and he frowned.

"The physical interface is completely blocked, and no data stream can be read even after decompiling the kernel."

Jiang Chen withdrew his hand and sighed.

This door not only lacks a keyhole, but even the gaps in the underlying code are sealed off; it's completely impenetrable.

Shi Yu stepped forward, her cool eyes fixed on the line of red characters, her brows furrowing slightly.

She stretched out her unarmed hand and made a slight gesture in the air, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes.

"Jiang Chen, what does the door you see look like? Why do I feel like... this door is breathing slightly?"

She asked in a low voice.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then looked at the metal door in front of him again.

Aside from its cold texture and scarlet warning, it was utterly lifeless.

"It wasn't breathing; it was just an ordinary silver-gray metal door with a sign that said 'Do Not Enter.'"

He answered truthfully.

Shi Yu shook her head, her eyes becoming somewhat vacant.

She seemed to be trapped in some distant, terrifying memory:

"No, in my eyes, this door is made of brass and is covered with intricate gears and mechanical structures."

She pointed to the center of the door:

"And where that warning sign is located, there's an old version of the physical key wheel."

Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately understood what Shi Yu meant.

Her eyes still retain the vision from the old version of "Abyss Game".

The system has redesigned the door model in the new version, covering up the old version's mechanical structure with a cold metal door.

But in the eyes of Shiyu, the "survivor of the old version," the system's disguise was stripped away, revealing its true nature.

"This is the crack in the rules."

Jiang Chen's eyes lit up, and his brain worked at lightning speed.

In order to save computing power, the system directly applied the new model without completely removing the underlying interaction logic of the old version.

"Shiyu, tell me the structure of that old version of the password wheel, and its current rotation status."

Jiang Chen spoke very quickly.

He immediately turned the "Reconnaissance" skill to maximum power—the 180-second cooldown hadn't finished yet, but he couldn't worry about that now.

The forced activation caused the consumption of mental energy to double instantly, and his temples twitched violently, causing his vision to briefly go black.

The pale golden gaze was fixed on the spot where Shigure's fingers were.

Although Jiang Chen couldn't see the brass gear, he could see a bunch of highly compressed old version data gibberish there.

As long as Shigure provides accurate visual information, he can use the decompilation core to forcibly bridge the logic of the two versions.

"The wheel has three rings: the outer ring has Roman numerals, the middle ring has a star chart, and the inner ring has some kind of runes that I don't recognize."

Shi Yu stared intently at the illusory figure that only she could see, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead, her voice trembling with tension:

"The outer ring stops at VII, the middle ring points to Orion's belt, and the inner ring's runes... resemble an inverted hourglass."

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen directly pasted the decompiled core onto the "non-existent" physical turntable that Shi Yu had indicated.

He closed his eyes, transforming his mental energy into countless fine needles, and forcefully pierced the highly compressed old data through the core.

"The outer ring VII represents the seventh major update of the old version, and Orion is the coordinate anchor point mentioned in Zhong Yuan's log."

He quickly analyzed the meaning of this information in his mind.

While inputting cracking commands into the decompilation core—energy remaining at 38%.

"The system believes that the new version has overwritten the old version, so this door is absolutely locked under the new logic."

"But if we prove to the system that we are using older, legitimate credentials, it cannot deny access!"

Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes, his hands moving across the virtual keyboard in a blur of motion.

Forcefully inject the old version of coordinate data.

The pale golden light collided violently with the unseen old data on the surface of the door.

It emitted a piercing friction sound.

[WARNING: Old version of the protocol request detected]

[Version verification in progress... Verification passed]

[Logical Conflict: The current environment is a newer version, but the credentials belong to an older version]

[Recalculating priority...]

The scarlet warning lettering began to flash wildly, and the surface of the silver-gray metal door even showed ripple-like distortions.

The brass-colored mechanical door in Shi Yu's eyes began to turn slowly, its gears making a dull meshing sound.

Jiang Chen stared intently at the system notification. He knew that this was a temporary crash caused by the system's underlying logic contradicting itself.

A crisp "click" sounded particularly clear in the deathly silent corridor.

A crack appeared in the seemingly indestructible metal door.

There was no deafening roar, nor any glaring alarm.

Only a stale, dry breeze blew out from the crack in the door.

The air carried a faint smell of ink and musty paper, clashing with this world filled with metal and code.

Jiang Chen and Shi Yu exchanged a glance, both seeing undisguised shock and deep apprehension in each other's eyes.

Behind the core of the system is not some cold server room at all.

Rather, it was something completely beyond their comprehension.

Jiang Chen gripped the decompilation core tightly, signaling Shi Yu to remain vigilant.

He then squeezed sideways into the narrow doorway that only allowed one person to pass through.

The space behind the door was not as high-tech holographic projection as he had imagined.

Instead, it was a dimly lit, retro-style study.

The walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves piled high with yellowed paper books and scattered parchment scrolls.

In the center of the room was a large mahogany desk, on which sat a brass oil lamp that was still burning, its flame flickering slightly.

Behind the desk sat a dark figure with its back to them.

He was holding a quill pen, scribbling something on a piece of paper.

Jiang Chen felt his breath catch in his throat.

The silhouette of that dark figure, its posture, even the slightly tilted shoulder as it wrote.

They were all exactly the same as the "watchmaker" Zhong Yuan who left 137 log entries in the S-07 management office in his memory.

But Zhong Yuan is clearly dead. His data has long been archived by the system as obsolete gibberish. How could it still be here?

Just then, the dark figure stopped writing, slowly turned its head, and revealed a smooth face without any features.

Immediately afterwards, a very familiar voice, tinged with a hint of mockery,

It suddenly rang in the depths of Jiang Chen's mind:

"You've finally arrived, Test Subject No. 074. Or rather... should I call you Jiang Chen?"

The voice was clearly Zhong Yuan's, but the tone was cold and mechanical, with an air of superiority and no emotion.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted sharply, and he turned around abruptly to look at Shi Yu behind him.

But he found Shiyu staring at his back in horror.

"Jiang Chen... the face of that person behind you..."

Shiyu's voice trembled violently, and the blade was already pointed at him.

"Isn't my face your face?"

The voice rang out again, this time with a chilling laugh.