Chapter 464: 068
Staring at the folder titled with his own name, Charles was perhaps driven by curiosity or a need to confirm something and decided to click open the folder.
A chill traveled down his spine as he laid eyes on the list of file names within: "Soul," "Organs," "Torso" and more
He couldn't pinpoint the reason, but he came to the conclusion that the computer folder he had just moved was essentially himself. His entire being had been digitalized into bytes and bits in front of this computer.
No, it wasn't just him; everyone on Island 68 had been turned into data. Anyone could use this computer to control the real world, effortlessly copying, dragging, or even deleting anything within it!
While Charles was still reeling in shock from the realization, the stick figure of Tobba leaped from behind the folder interface into the folder itself.
Tobba didn't have time to engage Charles in a conversation. Instead, he barged into one of the folders, and the two bizarre triangles followed closely behind and entered the same folder.
Charles' eyes lit up in horror, and a tremor coursed through him when he saw that the folder was labeled "Soul."
Tobba had brought the two "chalkboard erasers" into his "soul," and the three of them were on a rampage. If they messed up anything within, it could possibly spell his doom!
Charles speedily moved the cursor and clicked into the "Soul" folder that belonged to him. As soon as the new interface appeared, he saw Tobba diving into the "Memory" folder.
"Stop running around in my soul! How can I save you?" Charles yelled at Tobba through the screen.
"Hover the cursor over the things chasing me, then click and hold them! Hurry!" A speech bubble appeared above Tobba.
Charles moved the cursor over one of the black triangles, and upon clicking, he instantly felt as though he was grasping the whirring end of a drill operating at maximum speed. His hand holding the mouse trembled violently
Within the screen, the triangle constructed from bizarre strings of characters was fidgeting under the cursor.
"Now what? What am I supposed to do?" Charles asked, his voice strained as he applied his entire weight to the mouse to press down on the left click.
Meanwhile, Tobba was still being chased by the other triangle.
"Move it! Move it out! Only 068's power can stop them!" Tobba said through the speech bubble as he sprinted upside down across the file bar. He was still desperately trying to evade the pursuing triangle.
"Where to? The Recycle Bin or the Desktop?" Charles strained every muscle to keep the mouse under his control.
"What's the point of those two places? They're still within 068! Move it out of the screen!"
"What?" Charles was slightly taken aback by the instruction. In that brief moment, the triangle slipped free from the cursor's click and darted after Tobba once again.
Charles didn't dare to take any more chances. He quickly recaptured one of the triangles with the cursor and exerted all his strength to move the mouse.
Slowly, the violently trembling triangle was moved out of Charles' memory folder and onto the desktop.
As he moved the mouse even further, he stared wide-eyed as the black triangle that had been captured by the cursor edged slowly toward the desktop's gray boundary before eventually breaking the confines of the grayscale screen to hover in the empty air beyond.
Seeing the cursor and the trembling triangle hovering in mid-air, Charles suddenly released his finger on the left mouse button.
Snap!
The white mouse cursor snapped back into the grayscale screen, while the black triangle that had been moved out of the computer vanished into thin air.
Charles didn't have the time to contemplate the bizarre phenomenon. He swiftly hovered the cursor on the other black triangle that was chasing Tobba and dragged it out of the computer screen.
The moment both triangles were gone, Tobba's stick figure collapsed on a video file within Charles' memory folder.
"Oh my god, they are finally gone. I almost died under their pursuit."
As Charles stared at the stick figure representing Tobba, he wanted to say something but a series of intense tremors hit him. The next moment, the sound of rushing water and human screams and cries from outside assaulted his ears.
The commotion tightened around Charles' heart like a vice grip. He turned to Tobba and asked, "What's happening? Don't tell me that while trying to get rid of your pursuers, we have flung those 'chalkboard erasers' into the real world?"
"Shhhh!" Tobba avoided giving a direct answer, but the implications in his words were evident. "Hurry, now's the best chance to escape. They can't find me for the time being."
"Are you crazy! Many people could die! The entire population on Island 68 is being implicated here!" Charles growled as he quickly opened a file and dragged the one named Sparkle into the interface of hidden files.
Flash!
Sparkle instantly appeared next to Charles.
"What are you afraid of? Do you really think that those humans are real? They just look human; in actual fact, they are the neurons of 068. Even if they all die, restarting the machine brings them right back.
"They all live as a collective consciousness here, the consciousness of 068, which is this computer right in front of you."
Charles had no time to start a moral debate with Tobba. He swiftly searched through the four hard drives for the names of his crew members.
If the perspective policethe "chalkboard erasers"were allowed to go on a rampage out there, his crew would be in grave danger. Charles needed to gather everyone.
As Charles dragged the folders named after each crew member into the window of hidden files, the member instantly materialized next to Charles.
Dipp, flailing his arms wildly, landed with a splash on the ground. Surprised, he glanced around, then swiftly wiped the seawater from his drenched face with his hands before hurrying over to Charles's side.
"Captain, what's going on? Why am I suddenly here?" the Deep Dweller asked.
"I've no time to explain. What was happening out there before you appeared here?" Charles asked as he continued his execution on the computer.
"I don't even know what's happening. They were trying to get a woman to seduce me; then water flooded in all of a sudden. The woman was spreading her legs in front of me when half of her body suddenly vanished."
Hearing this, Charles sped up his actions and gave full attention to locating each crew member.
With every new member found, the originally cramped room got increasingly crowded.
"First Mate, roll call!" Charles instructed as he continued his search in the file directory.
Soon enough, the Narwhale's first mate confirmed that all crew members who had descended the vessel were present in the room. By comparing the numbers on the bands tied around their arms, they confirmed that no one was missing nor were there any extra members.
While hearing Bandages' report, Charles finally found the folder named after the Narwhale. Upon clicking into it, he saw that the crew members left on the ship were all accounted for inside it.
Just then, Tobba suddenly climbed out of an adjacent folder and appeared in front of Charles.
"Those things are now inside 068. If we shut down 068 now, they'll be trapped here forever! I would have truly escaped their pursuit then."
"Shut down the machine? Don't forget; we're in 068 too! If we shut it down, we would be all gone too!" Charles replied with a furrowed brow.
"What's the problem here? Just find someone to shut down the machine for you and the others can escape."
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