Chapter 1136: Chapter 370: Antarctic Icefield in Cyberspace
According to the original settings, the Endless was supposed to be a supercarrier, but the version players built has neither carrier-based aircraft nor any miscellaneous missile systems.
All Demonic Puppets took the form of ship guns, and on the five-kilometer-long deck, turrets stacked upon turrets created a bizarre sight, exaggerated to an extreme. It screamed of a devoted follower of the multi-turret cult. Once in battle mode, it looked just like a violation-constructed Fuso-class battleship.
The battlefield scene was even more fantastical.
Every corner of the Endless was awash with chaotic data, resembling the Hell demons depicted in religious scriptures, with twisted shapes of malicious software dozens of meters to even hundreds of meters long, disappearing and reappearing amid data waves.
Because this was the first deployment of the Lego-assembled battleship, the data’s informational content far exceeded previous player squads, drawing in an unprecedented number of malicious software.
They carried data waves, constantly attacking the uninvited guest from every direction, trying to find vulnerabilities in the firewall, breach it, and then pull out the human consciousness inside and tear it to pieces.
However, the Endless’s counterattack was equally fierce, with the scene of a thousand guns firing reminiscent of World War I battleship cannon duels. Every shot fired was overwhelmingly powerful.
No matter how effective the damage was, the cinematic scene was most definitely there.
But the things shot out were a bit strange.
Despite looking like rifled cannons, what came out was all sorts of things, from live ammo to lasers, fireworks, and even BB pellets, and there were even water sprays and mosaic emitters.
Yet all these weapons, upon hitting the malicious software, would release their original form constraints and transform back into Demonic Puppet programs to invade the malicious programs themselves. Externally, it looked like a drop of colored ink falling into a pool of water, either disappearing with a virus-killing effect or bursting outward, completely disintegrating the software itself.
The Demonic Puppets that broke through the malicious software would consume the leftover code, replicate themselves, or strengthen their bodies to attack other software. Finally, these Demonic Puppets would return to the players’ AI, boosting their bodies, which was essentially gaining experience.
The demons were shrieking and roaring.
They madly assaulted the ship’s firewalls, with the pale blue force field teetering as if adding a little more force would make it collapse entirely. But no matter how hard they tried, they never made any progress, always being bombarded and eventually shattered under the siege of the Demonic Puppets.
The battle outside was intense, yet few players went out to join in; only a few hacker players were overseeing the battle, while the others stayed inside the cabin to watch the spectacle.
With an intelligence no higher than four to six at best, if they left the group, they would be wiped out by the malicious software outside. Providing their computational power here was the greatest value they could offer.
And Johnny’s performance added quite a bit of charm to this grand battle.
"Nice! Well played, mate! What do you do in real life? Do you have Weibo or Douyin accounts? I’d like to follow you and seek some advice when I have time."
The Beatles’ lead singer would bow down.
In cyberspace, playing so well on a fixed string rhythm and even better in reality; he’s probably top-notch at a professional level, not something a second-rate street band like his could compare to.
"I don’t have those things you mentioned. Here’s your guitar back."
Johnny just dismissed those "Weibo" things as something that came up in the past few decades and didn’t pay much attention.
Ecstasy immediately approached with a drink.
"You’re really awesome at playing the guitar! If I had this skill in university, I wouldn’t have been single for four years, never even holding a girl’s hand!"
"Flirting?"
Johnny leaned back in his chair, propping his legs on the table. Talking about flirting piqued his interest.
"Why learn guitar to flirt? I’ll teach you; go to a bar, order a drink, find someone pleasing to the eye, and strike up a conversation. Say some flirty lines, flatter those women to the skies, and then you can do whatever you want next."
"A bar?"
Ecstasy rolled his eyes at Johnny.
"Who’s going to fall in love with the women there? I want sweet and pure campus romance where holding hands makes you blush, not some decadent one-night stand."
"Heh, idiot. In this world, there’s only lust, not love."
Johnny didn’t expect someone still to believe in love; to him, it was really stupid.
He asked nonchalantly,
"So, where’s this ship headed?"
Realizing their ideas of love were worlds apart, Ecstasy could only sulkily reply,
"Antarctica."
"Huh?"
Is there an Antarctica in cyberspace?
Seeing Johnny’s confused expression, Ecstasy explained,
"It’s the Antarctic Research Station, a super large-scale dungeon we discovered recently. It contains at least a three-figure number of AIs, possibly including a super BOSS. We’re going there to explore."
"Blah, blah, blah. I don’t get it."
Johnny scratched his ear.
"Tell me about your company."
"Our... company?"
Ecstasy gradually sensed something was off, realizing only then to check Johnny’s panel.
"Damn, you’re an NPC!"
When did another NPC appear in No.1 Square?
It’s been a year, and in the entire No.1 Square, there were just two NPCs, Kasper and Song Zhaomei, with everyone else as players.
Plus, with Johnny’s face, Ecstasy naturally assumed he was just a player and didn’t take a closer look.
"Why didn’t you say so earlier?"
Ecstasy rubbed his head, unable to help complaining,
"This game’s AI is so advanced that I can’t distinguish between players and NPCs. System doesn’t even give a prompt. What the hell is going on? How did I run into a bug?"
