Chapter 254

Lin Yu's attention was drawn to a row of special servers nearby, where the data flow was unusually active, the blue light flickering at a frequency far exceeding other areas. "These servers... are connected to what?"

Xuanyuan Qing looked in the direction he pointed, her face turning pale instantly, and she gasped. "Heaven... that is..."

Each server casing was cold and smooth, marked with regional codes in the simplest bold font, dense and numerous, corresponding to the streets and alleys scattered across Si Jiu City.

The most eye-catching one was the one in the center, marked simply but glaringly: "Donkey Meat Burger Shop - Signal Tower Main Control."

The moment the handwriting entered his mind, the receiver patterns on the back of Xu Chen's school uniform burned scalding hot, the blue light flaring up, as if a red-hot probe was pressing against his skin, and a tyrannical signal flow followed those patterns, frantically drilling into his brain.

"Fuck... they took the entire Si Jiu City... and wove a net!" Xu Chen's brain buzzed, his consciousness being forcibly dragged away, and he clutched his head in pain, his teeth clenched tight, "Every district... is a point!"

A look of near-compassionate emotion appeared on Zhou Weihong's huge projected face, the compassion of a victor: "Exactly. And that inconspicuous little shop of your father's is precisely the heart of this giant net."

A low roar came from Lin Yu's throat, his white hair exploding, and the gold-black energy condensed into the shape of a blade at his fingertips. Without any hesitation, he slashed fiercely toward the server marked "Xizhimen": "Smash them!"

The energy blade tore through the air, bringing up a sharp whistle, but the moment it touched the smooth casing of the server, an invisible force field appeared out of thin air, violently deflecting the energy blade.

Lin Yu was caught off guard, and the entire person was sent flying by this recoil force, hitting the cold wall in the distance heavily, making a dull thud.

"Don't waste your effort." Zhou Weihong's voice didn't carry any emotion, stating the facts flatly, "Under the protection of the Zero Machine's core algorithm, physical interference is ineffective, little ones."

Xuanyuan Qing was quick-witted, pressing the last piece of silver bell fragment, already covered in cracks, onto the scalding tattoo on Xu Chen's back, trying to use the bronze's weak energy to block the invading signal: "Xiaochuan, hold on!"

But the signal was too overbearing.

Xu Chen's vision went black, and his eyes uncontrollably glowed with a chilling blue light. His back receiver resonated strongly with the server array, and the light in the entire pure white space flickered uncertainly.

His consciousness was like being forcibly torn away from his body, falling into a boundless virtual space composed of countless light points and circuits.

Every light point carried a familiar yet strange aura; that was... the consciousness of every ordinary person in Si Jiu City! They were connected by invisible lines, converging into a vast ocean of data.

And in the very center of that ocean, at the eye of the storm, a blurry yet incomparably familiar figure was resisting the surging data torrent with all his might.

That back, that standing posture, even if only a silhouette remained...

"Dad?" Xu Chen's consciousness drifted uncontrollably toward that figure, his voice trembling with disbelief.

In the data torrent, Xu Jianhua's shattered image turned around with difficulty. His image was very unstable, as if it could collapse at any time, and that iconic, knuckle-less right hand lifted, pointing toward the deeper part of the data network, a corner that was difficult to notice.

"Core... is over there..." The voice was intermittent, barely audible.

Xu Chen looked in the direction he pointed, penetrating layers upon layers of code and light flow, and finally saw the so-called "core."

A huge, complex, yet unusually familiar data structure was floating there.

The shape... was actually a fucking donkey meat burger?

"This... this thing is the Zero Machine core?" Xu Chen's consciousness was almost crashing; this was completely different from what he had imagined!

Xu Jianhua's data image nodded laboriously, light points beginning to escape from the edges of the image: "Virus... I hid it in... the last steamer... of buns..."

Reality.

Xu Chen opened his eyes abruptly, the blue light in his pupils fading instantly, replaced by a near-maniacal clarity.

He grabbed Xuanyuan Qing's wrist, his eyes burning: "I know! Give me your bell fragments!"

Xuanyuan Qing didn't hesitate at all, stuffing the bronze fragment, which was almost about to shatter, into his palm: "What do I do?"

Xu Chen pressed the cold silver bell fragment against the scalding receiver tattoo on his back with his backhand, feeling the two completely different energies colliding fiercely.

"Help me amplify the signal," he said rapidly, staring at Xuanyuan Qing, "just like in the laboratory earlier, transmit my 'feelings' out!"

Lin Yu climbed up from the wall, wiping the blood foam from the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse: "What do you want to do?"

"Hack into the Zero Machine core!" Xu Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, "My dad left a backdoor virus in the core, but it needs a specific 'key' to trigger."

"Impossible!" Zhou Weihong's projection appeared with violent fluctuations for the first time, his old face twisting, "The core algorithm has autonomous defense, external intrusion is impossible!"

Xu Chen grinned, pulling out a bloody, incomparably provocative smile: "Who said I'm external?"

"I'm surnamed Xu, Xu Jianhua is my dad!"

"My DNA is the highest authority! Not convinced? Hold it in!"

He closed his eyes abruptly, no longer paying attention to anything outside.

The steaming mist of the bun shop, the burnt aroma of a donkey meat burger just out of the oven, his father's clumsy yet never-absent care, the pocket money and game coins secretly stuffed into his school uniform pocket, and that sentence he never seemed to have the chance to finish, "Dad, I'm back"...

Scene after scene, bit by bit, carrying temperature, carrying scent, carrying the most real touch, surged in the depths of his heart.

Not some grand ideal, not some saving-the-world sentiment, just a son's purest longing and attachment to his father.

The receiver patterns on his back resonated violently with the silver bell fragments.

The blue light representing intrusion and the bronze light representing protection and memory intertwined and merged miraculously, finally converging into an unprecedented energy beam with a certain warm texture, tearing through the air and shooting with precision toward the "Donkey Meat Burger Shop - Signal Tower Main Control" server in the center of the hall!

"No!!!" Zhou Weihong's projection lost control completely, his facial features twisting out of shape, "Stop! Stop quickly! You will destroy everything!"

Xu Chen's consciousness was pulled into that vast data network again.

This time, there was no confusion, no obstacles. The entire network seemed to be making way for him.

He rushed straight toward the huge, donkey meat burger-shaped data structure floating in the center, reached out his virtual hand, and touched its seemingly ordinary shell.

A line of cold system prompts appeared on the surface of the data structure: "Please enter access key:"

Xu Chen smiled, that smile carrying tears.

He didn't hesitate to "enter" the answer he had only just truly understood:

"327 kcal."

The surface of the donkey meat burger data structure instantly lit up with soft and warm light, like a freshly baked burger. A hidden interface opened quietly.

Xu Chen's consciousness probed into it.