IWOL Chapter 338: Automatic Shutdown

Chang Hui held up the umbrella and walked out of the garden. Just as she stepped out of the garden, clouds gathered above her head, and the cold rain fell, as if wanting to take her away. But Chang Hui’s paper umbrella with countless bloodied fingerprints kept her firmly protected.

The little beast with seven eyes and three tails lay on her shoulders, licking the hair on its neck.

Midnight stretched out his claws, touched the rain on the ground, and immediately retracted them uncomfortably. Cheriyu Nana walked by without a blink of her eyes. Chaos power gathered around her, letting her automatically bypass the cold rain. She silently pressed her hand to the katana at her waist. Coldness was etched all over her body, signaling her return to the lone wolf that had always been alone before joining the Afternoon Tea Party.

The relationship between this heir and the rest were not good—Ten years ago, they were unshakable enemies.

Tang Ji wanted to walk quickly to keep up with Chang Hui, but he was also afraid of the rain and could only follow from a distance. The snake came out of his neckline, and a cold kiss gently touched his cheek.

The black-robed woman holding the book stood up, her movements somewhat stiff and her eyes empty and out of focus. She had lost the ability to think and the “brain” that controlled her was the black covered book Worm of Mystery.

Kether shook the black lace folding fan, half-covering her lips. There was a malicious smile at the corners of her mouth. She was just about to say something when she abruptly turned her face to the side. In the next second, she disappeared from the garden.

Administrator 03 sat in the computer room, staring at the display screen and watching the data flying across the keyboard. Kether appeared next to him. Before she could say a single word, her figure suddenly became completely illusory. She let out a scream of horror and shouted, “What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know!” Manager 03 tapped on the console in a hurry. The unceasingly, crazily flashing indicator lights seemed to have no sense of order at all. His anxious forehead was full of sweat, and the disordered indicators on the screen and the warning signs that popped up in succession all told him that the program had crashed quite severely!

After Kether’s request that the mobile task force be dispatched to destroy the virus, Administrator 03 had been waiting leisurely by the side. In his opinion, there shouldn’t be any major problems. Even if someone had the “program kernel” ability, he couldn’t possibly be able to sneak into the computer system without setting off the firewall. After all, a supercomputer’s firewall wasn’t easy to get past.

But who would have thought that, halfway through the anti-virus scan, the computer program would crash without warning. The icon of the recycle bin on the desktop had swelled up and was shaking continuously as it spewed out countless documents and envelopes, as if regurgitating.

File icons quickly filled the entire screen, as if it had been infected with a virus. Pink envelopes were stacked on top of each other one after another, creating a layer so thick that soon the administrator couldn’t even see the position of the mouse.

“What the hell is going on?!” Kether had no idea what had happened. As an output device, she was not closely connected with the kernel. What was wrong with the memory and the CPU?!

“It looks like the recycle bin has collapsed! Why is there so much spam in it?” Administrator 03 tried all the methods he knew to clear it, but none of them helped. Seeing that the screen was all pink, he gritted his teeth and shouted, “I’m going to re-start!”

“Ah!” As soon as his voice fell, Kether only had time to let out one last exclamation before her figure disappeared from the room.

“Kether?” Administrator 03 was stunned. He looked around for the girl’s figure. He hadn’t yet pressed the restart button, why did she disappear already?

‌There was no response.

Kether only felt that her vision went dark. In the next moment, she appeared on the information superhighway, with countless data streams flowing chaotically around her. Countless pink envelopes sealed with rose wax flooded the path up to her knees.

At the end of her line of sight, the giant trash can was still vomiting. With a thought, she appeared next to the giant black birdcage. The CPU with her ever constant silver hair and black dress was sitting inside, holding a thin sheet of paper.

The CPU looked up at all the envelopes falling from the sky, and the golden snow lotus on her face swirled. Her cold amber eyes seemed to contain some warmth, an emotion Kether had never seen her express before.

“What happened?” Kether asked, with a bad premonition in her heart.

The CPU folded the paper. She retracted her gaze and looked at Kether standing outside the cage.

They had similar looks, but their fates were completely different.

As a CPU, she had been fixed in this place since she was born, unable to move. But Kether, as an output device, could project herself anywhere. They were obviously part of the same supercomputer, but Kether was able to become the Queen’s heir, and everyone even thought that she was the concrete representation of the supercomputer.

The CPU didn’t think it mattered, because this was her destiny as a CPU. She was destined to be the central existence within the kernel, and so she could not appear in front of everyone.

But now, she found herself wanting to change the status quo.

So the CPU smiled at Kether and asked, “Does it feel good to roam free outside?”

Kether noticed the unusual emotions behind her words. She narrowed her eyes and took a step back. “…..What do you want to do?”

The CPU stood up. She lifted her hand and gently stroked the cage. “You have been free for so long. I think it’s time for a change.”

The moment the CPU touched the birdcage, it turned into data and drifted away. Kether immediately backed away. At this moment, a slender belt rose from the river of data at her feet, and without warning, entangled her calf!

Kether jerked her head back. She didn’t know when Dong Zheng had sneaked up behind her. His cold and silent black eyes were locked onto her. The data belt obeyed his command and continued to extend from the river of data, firmly trapping her.

Everything made sense now. This person invaded the kernel. He was the reason!

As she swore at Administrator 03 in her heart, Kether waved her hand. The data belt entrapping her immediately snapped. Although she was only an output device, this was still her home court.

Cold sweat dripped from Dong Zheng’s temple. After his kernel had shrunk, it became very difficult for him to control data, but he still tried his best to form more belts in order to trap Kether.

“That’s all you have?” Kether snorted disdainfully.

As more and more data belts snapped, Dong Zheng groaned. A mouthful of blood surged up his throat into his mouth. He’d overdrawn his kernel and spent all his spiritual energy on the recycle bin. He was now at the end of his strength, making him incredibly vulnerable.

Kether wasn’t worried that the CPU behind her would do something to her. This was because, since their inception, they were written to never betray.

She walked toward Dong Zheng step by step, the layers of her black skirt sweeping across the drifting data and envelopes. Her face that was as delicate and fine as a doll was full of extreme arrogance.

But suddenly, she stiffened and looked down at her chest in disbelief.

A bullet had penetrated her chest.

A01002, no, Allen was holding an assault gun. The muzzle was pointed at Kether, his finger on the trigger. His blue eyes were on the scope, which was directed toward Kether’s chest. He put down his gun and his gaze met Dong Zheng across the wide information superhighway.

The red-haired young man raised a most familiar smile, as if the separation and all the haze of pain had never happened. “Hey, why are you still standing there stupidly?”

Dong Zheng spit out the blood in his mouth and smiled. “Waiting for you.”

Data floated out from the wound on Kether’s chest as her virtual body began to collapse. Members of the mobile task force were responsible for clearing and killing abnormal data and viruses. As such, their weapons were fashioned to be incredibly deadly to a body made up of data.

Kether struggled to look back at the CPU. The CPU slowly and unsteadily walked toward her. Since she was born, she had allowed herself to be restrained inside a birdcage, and so her legs were unused to walking.

Kether’s entire chest began to disappear as more and more data escaped. Through the big hole in her chest, one could see the situation behind her. She opened her mouth but could not make a single sound.

In the face of Kether’s silent accusation, the CPU still had the same cold expression on her face. The lotus lines on her face were extinguished for the first time, representing the shutdown of each “nucleus.”

“I haven’t betrayed you. I merely wanted to rest for a while and see the real world outside.”

When the last snow lotus pattern went out, Kether’s body disappeared completely.

From then on, the heir Kether no longer existed. From start to finish, the supercomputer that had briefly controlled the Pure White Realm was just this and nothing more.

“You’ll want to leave, right?” The CPU looked around her. The entire kernel was still in a state of chaos, but the recycle bin had stopped regurgitating. It stood quietly next to the information superhighway. Further down the path, there was a glass house, and inside, a young man may be attending to the flowers and plants, or waiting expectantly for a response that he did not know if he would ever receive.

“Yeah.” Dong Zheng nodded. The dynamic key floated out from his kernel and into his palm, where it slowly spread out.

Allen hurried over. Although he didn’t know who the extremely beautiful girl in front of him was, he still asked, “Can I leave too?”

“Yes.” The CPU raised her fingertips and pointed to the center of Allen’s eyebrows. A little light shot out and entered into his forehead. “I have unbound you from the kernel. From now on, you are no longer a part of the mobile task force.”

“Thank you.” Allen touched the spot the CPU had touched. Then he patted Dong Zheng on the shoulder. “You really didn’t lie to me. I actually became a manager.”

Allen obviously recognized that it the last person he saw on the cliffs of the Snow Parasite Trail was Dong Zheng. With a laugh, Dong Zheng said, “That was what Ah’Zuo told me.”

“By the way, what about the others?”

“We’ll go and look for them now.” Dong Zheng looked at the CPU and nodded to her. “Thank you.”

“It was me who should thank you.”

She watched as they disappeared through the door. Then she retracted the dynamic key and looked out into the distance. She walked along the information superhighway, her cascading black skirt sweeping behind her, separating the flowing data in a dreamy, back and forth motion.

It was unknown how long it took, but she finally found herself looking at the glass house on the other side of the path. It was covered with flowers and plants, and someone was sitting at the table, partially hidden by the flourishing flora.

The CPU walked over, lifted her hand, and knocked on the glass. The young man inside raised his head at the sound, and two pairs of the same shade of amber eyes locked gaze. She saw the lines of golden bluebells on his face.

Memory realized that something was happening, and he slowly stood up. What he pressed under his palm was a brand-new letter. Only then did he realize that the outside world was flooded with pink.

The CPU raised the hem of her skirt and bent her knees to Memory, curtsying like an aristocratic girl.

“I’m happy to finally meet you.”

——

Administrator 03’s fingers flew across the keyboard, so fast that they nearly left behind afterimages. He was desperately trying to fix the error, but the screen suddenly turned dark blue.

Administrator 03’s hands froze over the keyboard, watching as texts began to appear one after another.

“Hello, Administrator 03. I am the supercomputer in front of you. Thank you very much for your maintenance and care over the years, but now, I want to meet a very important person.”

The supercomputer in front of him…was thinking on its own?!!!

Administrator 03 was shocked. He stretched out his hand to pull the handle to force a shutdown.

Snapped—!

The lights of the entire unit went out. Before Administrator 03 could force a shutdown, the supercomputer stopped all on its own. It was unknown when it would ever restart again.

It was over.

Finished finished finished finished finished finished finished finished finished finished.

Administrator 03 was deeply aware of the severity of the problem, and so he didn’t care about anything else. He immediately pivoted and rushed out of the underground computer room.

Something happened, something big happened!

He rushed along the stairs, trying to get outside. The slanted upward shaft showed a brilliant light. He rushed desperately. The wind carried dampness and a cold water vapor toward him, but in his panic, he didn’t pay attention to it.

And so he rushed out into a cold rain.

Rain poured down his skin, the pervasive chill immediately penetrating into his bone marrow, filling every crevice. Immediately, Administrator 03 felt his body freezing up.

He dropped onto his knees, and as the rain poured over him, his clothes and flesh began to melt little by little, like ice and snow melting under the hot sun.

The girl dressed in a navy blue short coat stood to the side, holding an umbrella. She quietly looked at the man struggling in the rain. There was an imperceptible pity in her eyes, but the rain falling from the edges of her paper umbrella formed a transparent curtain around her, making her seem like she was from another world altogether.

“Chang…Chang Hui…”

Administrator 03 looked at Chang Hui with difficulty, and when he finally saw her, his eyes widened in horror.

Behind the pale and thin girl was a 100-meter-high black shadow. It writhed, with countless deformed arms encircled around Chang Hui, seeming to trap the umbrella-holding girl firmly in its arms, wanting to melt her into its bones of blood.

That was…a terrifying demon!!!

Administrator 03 lay on the ground, his body gradually melting in the rain. Finally, aside from the bloodstains, it was as if he’d never existed.

After a long time, the girl’s voice rang out softly, floating in the never-ending cold rain.

“…Are you satisfied now?”

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