Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Jiang Chen pushed open the door to the fire escape staircase.

A pale blue light poured down from the stairwell, as if the entire building's interior was filled with fluorescent liquid.

The steps of the stairs were covered with a thin layer of black dust, and each step left a clear footprint.

He went upstairs.

With each floor you ascend, the blue light brightens, and the metallic smell in the air grows stronger.

When I got to the fifteenth floor, the pages of the book got hot again.

Shi Yu: "Where are you?"

"Fifteenth floor. Still climbing."

"I've made a new discovery," Shi Yu wrote. "I've traced the flow path of that residual data, and it didn't leak from the system core—"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, this batch of data never entered the system core in the first place."

They had already been transferred to the real world three years before the system was rebooted.

Someone... or rather, some administrator from an older version—sent out a portion of the core data before the system was sealed.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment.

"Send it to the real world?"

"Yes. Deliver it to a building."

Jiang Chen looked up at the stairwell, where a pale blue light streamed down and shone on his face.

"You don't mean to say...?"

"This is the building you're in right now. According to fragments of the system's logs, this building was an offline data node of the old version of the system seven years ago—a physical server that synchronized with the system core in real time."

This server was abandoned when the system was rebooted three years ago, but the data on it was not destroyed.

"So that remaining data was already in this building three years ago?"

"Yes. It had been sleeping here until three days ago—the shockwave from the system core reboot reached this server through the remnants of the old data link and woke it up."

Jiang Chen fell silent.

He recalled the battle at the system core three days ago—Zero replaced the Fear Protocol with an external signature, the system restored its golden core, and he and Shigure returned to reality.

The shockwave from that battle not only reset the system but also awakened a server that had been dormant for three years.

"What are you doing with that batch of data now?" he asked.

"It's expanding," Shigure wrote. "Its goal is to re-establish a passage to the old version of the system. If it succeeds, fragments of the old system will continuously flow into the real world through this passage—"

"and then?"

"Then the real world will gradually be overwritten by the old version of the data. It's like ink being poured into a glass of water—eventually, the whole glass of water will turn black."

Jiang Chen pushed open the fire door on the eighteenth floor.

In the corridor, the black marks became denser—they were no longer just spots on the floor, but climbed all over the walls like vines, hanging down from the ceiling and trembling slightly under the light.

He walked along the corridor, and at the end was a double fire door with the words "Rooftop Emergency Exit" written on it.

The blue light shining through the crack in the door was blindingly bright.

"I've arrived," he wrote, "rooftop entrance."

"Be careful," Shi Yu wrote, "My surveillance footage shows that the data density in that building is approaching a critical level. If you go in, the door might close behind you—"

"and then?"

"And then you were locked inside."

Jiang Chen glanced at the corridor behind him.

The black vines were slowly spreading, climbing down the wall and extending along the ground towards him.

"There was no turning back," he wrote. "I went in."

He pushed open the door to the rooftop.

The rooftop is quite large, about two hundred square meters, with a waterproof layer on the ground and low walls around it, edged with a protective net. In the center of the roof, where there used to be some air conditioning units and ventilation ducts, they are now all covered with a black, asphalt-like substance.

In the center of the rooftop stands a huge black pillar.

At the top of the pillar, there was a black vortex.

The vortex spun slowly, its edges glowing with a ghostly blue light, like a door slowly opening. Black matter dripped from the vortex, landing on the pillars, then flowing down them and spreading across the ground, forming black vines that stretched outwards.

Jiang Chen stood at the entrance to the rooftop, looking at the vortex.

It was much larger than he had imagined—at least five meters in diameter, suspended about three meters above the rooftop, like a slowly opening eye.

He stepped forward.

The black substance beneath my feet made a "snap" sound, as if I were stepping on a thin layer of ice.

The vortex suddenly accelerated its rotation, emitting a low hum.

Then, a beam of light appeared at the center of the vortex.

A beam of light descended from the sky, landing about two meters in front of Jiang Chen, projecting a circular halo onto the ground. Within the halo, something was coalescing—first black mist, then the mist began to condense and take shape.

A human shape.

Jiang Chen instinctively took a step back and clenched his fist.

But the humanoid figure did not turn into a monster.

It turned into a person.

a woman.

She wore a long white dress, her long hair flowing freely, and stood barefoot in the halo. Her face was blurred, as if veiled by a thin mist, but her eyes were clear—a pair of deep blue eyes, exactly the same color as the vortex.

She looked at Jiang Chen.

Then, she spoke.

The voice was very soft, as if it came from a very far place, but every word was terrifyingly clear: "You've finally come."

"Who are you?"

"I am--"

She paused for a moment, as if she was thinking.

"—I was part of the old system. Three years ago, when I was sent out, I had no name. But I remember you."

"Do you remember me?"

"I remember you entered the system core, I remember you passed the trial, I remember you—reset everything."

Her voice carried a strange tone, neither like anger nor gratitude, but rather—curiosity.

"Do you know what you've done?" she asked.

"The system has been restored, and everything is back on track."

“No,” she shook her head, “what you did was not restoration. What you did was open a passage between two doors.”

"What do you mean?"

"There used to be a wall between the old system and the real world. Three years ago, that wall was built, completely isolating the two worlds. But you—when you reset the system core, you overwrote the Fear Protocol with Zero's external signature—"

"Zero told me that was the only way."

“Zero is right,” she said, “but that’s not the only consequence. When you reset the system, you also tore down that wall—”

She took a step forward, stepping barefoot onto the black substance without leaving a trace.

"—Now, there is no wall between the two worlds."

Jiang Chen looked at her, his mind racing.

"So you mean—"

"What I mean is that the decision you made three days ago changed the rules of the real world. The old version of the data is no longer trapped in the system—it can freely enter the real world, and people in the real world can also enter the system."

She pointed to the vortex above her head.

"This vortex is the first 'door.' But it won't be the last."

"Can I turn it off?"

"It can't be closed," she said, "because the door doesn't open from this side. The door opens from your side—it's been open since the moment you reset the system."

She looked at him, her deep blue eyes devoid of any emotion.

You bear the consequences of your choices.

Jiang Chen remained silent for a few seconds.

Then he laughed.

"Okay," he said, "then I won't turn it off."

She froze for a moment.

"Now that the door is open," Jiang Chen said, "I'll go in and take a look—to see what else is hidden in the old version of the system."

She looked at him, and for the first time, her deep blue eyes flickered—a hint of surprise mixed with…admiration.

"You're very funny."

"Many people say that."

She smiled—a very light smile, like the fleeting moment when a breeze brushes across the surface of water.

"Alright," she said, "since you're not afraid, then come on."

She reached out and pointed to the vortex above her head.

"Come find me and find the true core of the old version of the system."

"Will you wait for me there?"

"I'm right there."

Her body began to become transparent, like a wisp of mist dissipating, disappearing little by little, starting from her feet.

"Remember—the door is open. You can't close it, but you can choose to go in or stand outside and watch it expand."

She disappeared.

Only Jiang Chen remained on the rooftop, along with the slowly rotating black vortex above his head.

The pages of the book are getting hot.

Shi Yu: "Jiang Chen! What's going on over there?! I've noticed the data density in the entire building has suddenly dropped by 80%!"

Jiang Chen looked at the vortex and wrote, "It's alright. It's gone."

"Gone? What went away?"

"It's part of the old system—it says it's the part that was sent out."

Shi Yu remained silent for a long time.

Then she wrote, "What did it tell you?"

"It said the door was already open and couldn't be closed."

"and then?"

"Then I said, 'Then I won't turn it off.'"

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe," Jiang Chen wrote, "but I think it's right—I make choices, and I bear the consequences."

He looked up at the vortex.

The vortex was still spinning, but its speed had clearly slowed down, and the blue light was gradually weakening.

"And," he wrote, "I want to see what else is hidden in the old version of the system."

Shiyu did not reply.

After a long time, she finally wrote: "I understand."

"Aren't you going to stop me?"

"Would it do any good to stop you?"

"no."

"Then we won't stop them."

Jiang Chen smiled.

"However," Shigure wrote again, "if you're going, I'll go with you."

"Are you no longer going to deal with the system issues on your end?"

"The door's already open; what could be more important than the merging of two worlds?"

Jiang Chen stared at that sentence and remained silent for a long time.

Then he wrote: "Okay."