Chapter 438: First Meeting with the Architect

Neo punched Shi Shi Misi back, and Ye Nan pulled Neo back.

"Keymaker, go open the door. Neo and I will hold them off." Ye Nan said urgently, then turned his head to Neo. "Do you remember when we used the labyrinth to kill the Agents?"

"I remember." Neo nodded, then asked with confusion, "But this is not a labyrinth, and we cannot escape."

"But this place is narrow." Ye Nan tapped the wall of the hallway. "There is an old Chinese saying: 'One man can hold the pass against ten thousand.' The two of us are enough to form a wall and block them all."

"Oh, so that is the plan you two have, but you shouldn't have said it out loud." Shi Shi Misi shook his head, looking at them with pity. He pulled a pistol from his coat and aimed it at Ye Nan and Neo.

"You can block us, but can you block our bullets?"

Behind Shi Shi Misi, an unknown number of Smiths pulled out pistols, aimed at the two, and pulled the triggers.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! *

Countless gunshots rang out in succession.

Neo reached out, his palm facing the Smiths, and activated his telekinesis, blocking all the bullets. He then smiled, "I can block them."

"Oh, fuck." Shi Shi Misi cursed and charged forward.

"Although you obtained Neo's special program and gained the ability to constantly replicate yourself, your own power is declining." Ye Nan formed his hands into claws and charged forward. The moment he made contact with Shi Shi Misi, he struck violently.

His sharp claws dug fiercely into Shi Shi Misi's eyes, gouging them out. "Having lost your power, you are nothing but a lamb waiting to be slaughtered."

Because Shi Shi Misi had betrayed the Mother, he had lost the ability to dodge bullets and constantly resurrect, and his strength had dropped to an appalling level, despite having more powerful abilities.

"How vicious." A Shi Shi Misi behind him thrust a palm into the back of the Shi Shi Misi he had just gouged, ending that Shi Shi Misi's suffering. "But I happen to be immortal."

"I know you are immortal." Ye Nan shook his head. "But I never intended to kill you. Let's go."

Ye Nan grabbed Neo and turned to sprint, his target being the door opened by the Keymaker. It turned out that while he was chatting with Shi Shi Misi, the Keymaker had already opened the door.

From the moment he deliberately revealed his purpose to draw Shi Shi Misi into conversation, he had been stalling for time.

"Damn it, I fell for it." Shi Shi Misi cursed and immediately gave chase.

"Bye-bye." Ye Nan threw Neo inside, then turned to mock Shi Shi Misi before closing the door, blocking all the Smiths outside.

After mocking Shi Shi Misi, Ye Nan immediately turned his head to the Keymaker. "Give me the key."

The Keymaker looked at Ye Nan with confusion, then glanced at Neo. Seeing that Neo had no objections, he immediately took a key from his neck and handed it to Ye Nan.

Ye Nan took the key, walked to Neo's side, and said, "Let's go. Ahead is the Source. Once we are inside, we can get some of the answers we want."

Ye Nan pulled out the key and opened the door. After a flash of white light, he and Neo walked into the Source—a place filled entirely with white screens.

In the Source, an old man wearing a white suit, with his white hair neatly combed and looking spirited, turned around. He was the Father of the Matrix, also known as the Architect, the master of the Machine City, and the ruler of the Machine Empire.

"I am the Father of the Matrix, but I prefer people to call me the Architect." The Architect did not feel surprised at all to see Ye Nan and Neo enter together. "Neo the One, and Iris's man."

Ye Nan frowned upon hearing this. "I don't like the title 'Iris's man.' It makes me feel like I'm a kept man."

"Then what would you like me to call you?" the Architect asked with interest.

"You can just call me Emperor." Ye Nan smiled faintly.

"Emperor?" The smile on the Architect's face froze, and he didn't recover for a long time. The Americas were the territory of his Machine Empire, Europe was the realm of those Fire Dragons, and Asia and Africa had already been occupied by zombies, with ordinary humans shivering under their tyranny.

On this planet, humans had been reduced to lower-class creatures; they had no such thing as an empire. Ye Nan's self-proclamation as Emperor made people mutter.

"Could it be that there is a place on Earth I haven't explored?"

"I am the Emperor of the Space-Time Empire, and my realm spans two planets." Ye Nan held his head high, his expression proud.

"You are one of the original survivors?" The Architect's expression changed, and he said sinisterly, "I didn't expect you survivors not only to avoid becoming cosmic dust, but to live well and even conquer new planets. God truly loves you too much."

"But we aren't bad either. God did not abandon us after all, driving that hateful guy away. But now, you so-called survivors who fled Earth have actually returned. I feel ashamed for you."

Neo looked at Ye Nan and the Architect. He couldn't understand a word of what they were saying—what Space-Time Empire, what survivors? He couldn't understand any of it; he only wanted to know who he really was.

Seeing that Neo was getting impatient, Ye Nan immediately shifted the topic to Neo. "I know you have many confusions, but in reality, he will not give you the answers."

"Compared to the Architect, I might know more."

"What do you know?" the Architect sneered. Ever since he learned that Ye Nan was one of the survivors and their leader, the fire of anger in his heart had been burning fiercely. "Destroying Zion is as easy as flipping a hand for us, just like the five times we destroyed it before."

"Please note, it was twice. Iris told me you only destroyed it twice. The purpose was to promote the technological development of the Machine Empire. You need human inspiration to help you complete scientific breakthroughs." Ye Nan snapped his fingers. "Of course, I know the so-called destruction is not true destruction. Perhaps 'memory purge' would be more accurate and appropriate, even though everyone thinks they have lived a full life."

"Your guess is correct. To make humans useful to me, I designed this scam, created the confrontation between machines and humans, and let war catalyze the birth of technology. I have to admit, God is truly too partial to you humans. No matter how powerful our program's deduction capabilities are, we cannot find that spark of inspiration."

"If we lose humans, our technology will not progress, but this will not be a reason for you to threaten me, because if there are no humans, I can just catch another batch. Machine life is eternal."

A thick sense of threat emerged from the Architect's words, as if the moment Ye Nan made any threat, he would destroy all the humans in the Machine City.

"But if you kill all the humans, I will destroy your entire Machine City. Without a real-world carrier, how long can the Matrix world exist?" Ye Nan threatened back. "You should be clear about my power. I can destroy your Machine City in an instant. Your so-called technology has no effect in front of me."

The Architect fell silent upon hearing this. He was aware of what had happened in Machine City No. 03. It was precisely because of this that he dared not act rashly. Otherwise, he would have killed all the humans inside long ago and thrown a few missiles at them.

"We both have leverage over each other, and neither can do anything to the other. But you must understand, my foundation is at the far end of the starry sky. Even if you kill all the humans, you will only invite my wrath. In fact, after I left the Matrix world and returned to the real world, you had already lost." Ye Nan sneered.

Before returning to the real world, he was like a mouse in the Matrix world, needing to maneuver and ally to survive. But after he returned to the real world, the situation had reversed. Whether it was Shi Shi Misi, the Architect, or the Merovingian, in Ye Nan's eyes, they had all become clowns. If he wanted to, he could wipe them all out at any time.

The Architect was silent. He understood Ye Nan's words, which was one of the reasons why he couldn't be tough even though he had caught Ye Nan's weakness.

"Hateful. If I had wiped him out when he was unconscious, things wouldn't have turned out like this." The Architect hated deeply. "That damn Iris, it's all her. If she hadn't helped Ye Nan leave the Matrix world, things wouldn't have reached this point."

When Ye Nan first returned, he was beaten into unconsciousness during a fight. He had wanted to wipe out this man who was as powerful as a god, but Iris had stopped him. Later, he wanted to study Ye Nan's power, so he allowed Ye Nan to enter the Matrix world. But who would have thought that this idea would put him in the greatest passive position? One wrong move, and he would be completely destroyed.

"Release all the humans. That is my demand." After achieving a verbal victory, Ye Nan finally made his request.

"No." The Architect refused Ye Nan's proposal without a second thought.

"Do you really want me to take action?" Ye Nan threatened viciously. "You know my methods—every move is lethal. If you really anger me, I would rather lose the humans than not kill you, Architect."

"I cannot release all the humans. That would be equivalent to handing my life over to you. I have never needed anyone's pity; I would rather die than that." After a silence, the Architect finally stated his reason.

For a ruler like him, entrusting his life to others and begging for an enemy's pity was a stupid decision. For this, he would rather perish with the enemy.

"I misjudged once, and I don't want to misjudge a second time. For this, I am willing to pay the price."

Looking at the Architect, Ye Nan could not see any cunning in his eyes. After a long while, he said, "Fine, I don't want all the humans, but I want half of them."

"Agreed."

s ===== CHAPTER 439 =====