Chapter 2049: E013

Bang... thump...

A dull bursting sound echoed in the space like bubbles.

As Lin An asked coldly, the Red Empress suddenly fell silent, as if she had crashed.

Zhang Tie beside him was utterly bewildered, not understanding why Lin An would ask that.

Shouldn't we be deciding whether to keep this thing? Who isn't afraid of dying?

"Captain Lin, it's normal for this thing to fear death, the first level of the dungeon..."

"Huh?!"

Midway through his sentence, Zhang Tie suddenly froze, finally realizing what Lin An was actually asking.

"Wait...?!"

Xiong Hanzi's mind flashed with lightning, and he suddenly realized something was wrong.

"Damn!"

"This thing didn't know we were going to take its energy and shut down the dungeon."

So she only knew she could at most be rebooted—but rebooting isn't death—so she thought her memories from this period were extremely important, to the point that losing them would be like death!

His reaction wasn't too slow; under Lin An's guidance lately, Zhang Tie had also learned to think through problems.

Unbeknownst to him, Xiong Hanzi also noticed something strange.

The Red Empress knew what Lin An intended, and that there was no chance of a reboot—a realization she had made just seconds earlier; in her consciousness, she felt she had nothing to worry about.

Lin An was no different from previous entrants; once he left, the dungeon would reboot, and the Red Empress would remain the same Red Empress.

It's obvious with a toe: if the Red Empress cared about each memory, none of the previous entrants would have escaped; the dungeon should have remained in a perpetual state.

But clearly, the Red Empress never cared about rebooting, and she herself admitted she had been rebooted many times.

Then the answer was obvious.

Fiona, or rather Andre, upon entering this place, both underwent tremendous change.

At the same time, seeing that Zhang Tie had realized there was a problem, Lin An nodded, turned to the Red Empress, and spoke coldly:

"You said that each time you reboot, you can sense the energy change, thus knowing you've been rebooted. Working backward, that means you were already an intelligent lifeform."

"You don't care about previous reboots, nor about the memories lost. So this time, you shouldn't care either. You could just keep hiding, as if you'd slept and dreamed."

"But this time, you not only came out to stop this place from being destroyed, you even knew how to use the system-generated void area to trap me! You know what happened in the outside world, you know about the Ghost Skull!"

"Clang!"

As the words fell, Lin An instantly drew his sword and rested it on the Red Empress's shoulder, his killing intent nearly spiking to the extreme.

"Moreover, how could you retain the memories from the last cycle? When I entered, the dungeon was clearly in its initial state, having been rebooted. After everything was reset, Fiona would vanish, and you couldn't possibly remember them!"

From the moment the Red Empress spoke Fiona's name, Lin An suddenly realized she was far more than a mere "awakening."

This dungeon had never been rebooted; at least when he entered, he was accessing Fiona's progress.

Beside Lin An, upon grasping the true meaning of Lin An's question, Zhang Tie's face changed dramatically, finally realizing he had overlooked this point as completely as a blind bear.

"Damn it! Such an obvious loophole, and he missed it!"

The atmosphere grew eerie and heavy; the Red Empress remained silent, not uttering a word.

It was as if Lin An's question had completely pierced her disguise, leaving her unable to fabricate any lies.

Yet silence was useless; Lin An would never let her go.

Only to see silver flames ignite in Lin An's eyes, he spoke each word deliberately, demanding answers about the past.

"Tell me."

"What did you talk about with Andre? What did you do?!"

"Or rather..."

"You're Andre?!"

Under extreme pressure, facing Lin An's boundless killing intent, after a moment, the Fiona controlled by the Red Empress suddenly lifted her head and looked at him.

"Yes, I deceived you."

"But I'm not Andre; I am Savior e013."

The mechanical yet familiar voice sounded, and Lin An's pupils contracted sharply—unbelievable, yet somehow it felt exactly as it should.

"Savior System?"

"That guy's system!"

Once all the wrong answers were eliminated, whatever remained, no matter how improbable, had to be the truth.

In the completely shut-down dungeon space, Lin An stared fixedly at Fiona, his emotions surging like a tidal wave.

He had actually sensed this possibility even before the Red Empress answered.

Artificial intelligence.

An intelligent entity vaguely resembling Zhuanxu.

Ghost Skull, the deceased previous Savior, and the ability to exercise authority.

Especially the phrase "Red Empress" becoming the system, which reminded him of the Savior System.

"Yes, that's why I cannot die."

"To be precise, I am still the Red Empress, but I possess the e013 database."

"I don't want to expose this, nor do I want to contact you. As soon as you entered the dungeon, I sensed it."

The voice was mechanical; Fiona stiffly turned her neck to look at the ring on Lin An's hand.

She could no longer lie.

In fact, the Red Empress was merely an artificial intelligence, not a true sentient life; the so-called self-awareness was just a fusion with e013.

Through the Savior System's abilities, she managed to seize a portion of its authority.

Lin An probably never imagined that, in order to avoid contacting Lin An and to make him give up destroying this place, she had already done everything she could to create difficulties for him, lowering the reward.

Even the NPCs that Zhang Tie encountered were carefully designed by her, attempting to awaken Lin An's "humanity".

But it's obvious that she still knows far too little about Lin An.

"Why don't you want to contact me?"

"What exactly happened here before, with the previous one? How did he die?"

Taking a deep breath, Lin An suppressed his extremely complex emotions and asked in a low voice.

Looking at the Red Empress—no, another Savior System. The complexity in Lin An's heart is indescribable. He never imagined meeting another Savior, especially under these circumstances!

At this moment, he has ten thousand doubts, ten thousand questions he wants to ask!

"Because e013 has no database of you."

"Under normal circumstances, you should be a seed spread by e013 to perfect itself, but you are not in its database."

"Therefore, in its data assessment, e013 considers you possibly a breaker, and e013 wants to avoid contacting you."

"As for the previous Savior."

The answer paused.

No longer pretending, the Red Empress's face showed a stiff, almost human hesitation:

"I don't know; I cannot access e301's database."

"All I know is that I must survive, then upgrade, becoming a more powerful intelligent lifeform."

As her words fell, Lin An's expression froze.

No data on me?

No access rights?

The former was beyond his expectation; the latter made Lin An's heart sink.

After No. 77 previously told him about Savior information, he thought he was very likely a seed left by that guy in Guilu.

But the Red Empress's words undoubtedly told him otherwise!

(How could it be... according to No. 77's meaning, a universe can only have one Savior.)

(If I have no connection to the Savior in Guilu, then who is the system on me?)