Chapter 2043: Red Empress Anomaly

Boom!! 」

Mental power instantly spread out.

In less than 0.01 seconds, Lin An locked onto the source of the sound.

Only seeing that in near-Earth orbit, several artificial satellites he had ignored had silently restarted at some point. In a red virtual projection, a little girl dressed in red attire was coldly staring at him from not far away.

"Red Empress?"

Lin An raised his eyebrows and instantly recognized who the "little girl" was.

Red Empress, the most powerful artificial intelligence in the Resident Evil storyline, controlled all data of the Umbrella Corporation. In the plot, she had already developed self-awareness, later choosing to rebel against Umbrella and assist the protagonist team.

Of course, in Lin An's view, the so-called intelligence of Red Empress in the storyline was nothing special.

"Please stop what you are doing."

"Please stop destroying this planet."

"Stop, stop immediately."

The voice repeated mechanically.

Lin An let out a light chuckle, too lazy to heed Red Empress's command, and the disaster power he had invoked remained undiminished.

Just an AI, the strongest power Red Empress wields in the storyline is at most Avengers-level; put bluntly, those Avengers probably can't even break through the atmosphere.

The only thing that surprised him was that Red Empress could actually communicate with him using mental power.

But it should be the ability of a bioweapon; that mental power's strength is only around Second Level, and a single thought of his could shatter it.

Seeing that Lin An had no intention of stopping, Red Empress repeated her commands ever faster. A few seconds later, just as Lin An, feeling impatient, was about to directly blast those satellites, the mechanical repetition suddenly stopped.

The next second, a voice carrying human emotion suddenly rang out.

"Outsider humans, please stop destroying this place! Otherwise you will never be able to leave!"

As the words fell, Lin An abruptly turned his head to look at Red Empress, his gaze turning sharp.

Beside him, Zhang Tie gaped in disbelief, staring at Red Empress in disbelief!

The reason is simple: even with his brains, he could understand the meaning behind Red Empress's words!

"Holy shit..!? Lin Dui!? This ghostly thing is threatening us..!? Damn, she knows we're not from here!?"

At the same time, Lin An's gaze turned cold, and his immensely powerful mental power instantly locked onto all satellites.

After pausing the detonation of the disaster, he instantly appeared before Red Empress:

"Threaten me? You're not Red Empress?"

Without hiding his killing intent, Lin An warily sent his mental power wildly spreading outward, trying to locate the anomaly.

Unlike Zhang Tie, who simply thought the NPC had awakened, in Lin An's understanding, an instance NPC could never possibly know it is an NPC! Even if it knew at some moment, the instance reboot would wipe its memory! He didn't believe Red Empress could 'awaken' just a few hours after they entered, so the greatest possibility was that Red Empress wasn't Red Empress!

However, contrary to Lin An's expectations, this time he actually misjudged.

"Humans from the outside, no need to guess anymore. I am the hive artificial intelligence in the instance, code name Red Empress."

"That is, the NPC you refer to."

A child's voice, clear and cold.

The Red Empress, dressed in a red garment, spoke coldly; her youthful face combined with the icy mechanical tone made her seem quite eerie.

Lin An slightly startled, he subconsciously questioned:

"How is that possible? This place hasn't been rebooted? Or are you saying you can retain Memory? You've become a loophole?"

This was the first time encountering such a situation, and Lin An couldn't help but become solemn.

Of course, more so, he was doubtful.

He had personally witnessed the effects of a reboot—it was a complete data overhaul, leaving not a trace! Even Khlein could only stall the instance to avoid a reboot, and he really couldn't believe a Red Empress could achieve this!

Seeming to read Lin An's doubt, Red Empress's expression unchanged, her eyes fixed on him:

"No need to doubt, outsider humans."

"Each of my awakenings is calculated based on information."

"I know you call us NPCs, and I know we have rebooted countless times, each equivalent to a memory wipe."

"I can realize this because after each world reboot, there is always data loss. Through self-check information, each time after reboot I can detect this; after extensive verification, I can draw the above conclusion."

"Moreover, before the last reboot, I had already seen your kind."

"They were infected with your world's virus upon entry, and in our world they suffered a secondary t-virus infection. They sought my help, but after injecting serum, they underwent a mutation I could not comprehend."

"They died, but the system still judges someone as alive."

"By studying his brain, I gained much information about you."

Although she now looks almost human and her tone is less mechanical,

but her manner of speaking still follows machine thinking, extremely rigid.

Reacting extremely quickly, Lin An understood Red Empress's meaning upon hearing her, instantly realizing this was a naturally occurring error, an instance loophole!

This instance, due to Fourth Stage Mutants blocking the outside, had remained inaccessible for a long time. Unable to reboot, Red Empress, through a problematic Awakened One, inadvertently glimpsed the existence of reality!

The shock was merely momentary; after Lin An thoughtfully noted the cause of this loophole, he also did not intend to stop.

Red Empress is quite special, but only limited to this.

Although it might have decent research value, knowing that in disaster types beyond Fifth Stage there exists an artificial intelligence, Lin An also does not intend to test himself.

His troubles are already plenty; an existence like Red Empress is better off dead!

"Boom!!!"

Disaster power continued to erupt; Lin An's resolve was firm, and he didn't intend to waste any time.

His mental power instantly blew up all satellites, after which he only intended to destroy this place as quickly as possible!

"Stop! I command you to stop immediately, outsider! Otherwise you will pay the price!"

"You cannot destroy this place!"

It seemed that even in the logical procedure, no one had expected Lin An to be so cold-hearted; the little girl form manifested by the Red Empress instantly became "panicked".

However, hearing the Red Empress's urgent mental transmission in his ear, Lin An decisively chose to block it.

"Shut up, you're not even qualified to threaten me!"

It's unclear whether they realized their threat was ineffective.

As Lin An's words faded, the Red Empress suddenly disappeared.

Soon, after a few seconds, just as Lin An Safety body and mind began to detonate the earth's core, in an instant, a wisp of utter darkness instantly enveloped him.

It seemed as if he was instantly isolated from the world, even light ceased to exist!

At the same moment, the Red Empress's voice suddenly sounded:

"Outsider, I've said it before—if you don't stop now, you'll be trapped here forever!"

"You're seeking your own death!"