Chapter 112

Chapter 112: Evolution

Amari Yota, age 23.

Since Mi Xiaoliu refused to hear his story, we’ll condense what would have been two thousand words of self-pitying backstory into a single sentence: 

An aimless young man who dropped out of school due to bullying over his unattractive appearance, and who now sought revenge on society after gaining supernatural abilities.

Amari’s current situation could be summarized as follows: having obtained tremendous power, he’d become intoxicated by it, never considering that there might always be someone stronger. His inevitable downfall came swiftly.

He didn’t even know who was responsible. His game servers had been violently reduced to chaotic code, the attack so brutal and disordered that even he – who considered himself transcended beyond three-dimensional existence – couldn’t counter it. 

It all began when he attempted to hack into Easter’s systems.

This was the first and only virus that had nearly killed him outright, far more potent than anything the Federation had thrown at him. It completely shattered the commonly held notion that “government forces are the strongest.”

Had he been purely digital data, he would have died then and there. That he survived proved he was something more – though what exactly, he couldn’t say. 

Perhaps an electromagnetic wave, or an electric current. Having dropped out before finishing compulsory education, he didn’t even understand the difference between the two.

One thing was certain, not even the legendary Little Demon King, said to be invincible during his tenure with the federal agents, could truly destroy him.

One of his controlled machines had once encountered the Little Demon King at a distance of about one kilometer. Their eyes met. Worse, he hadn’t withdrawn his consciousness in time.

In that moment, the incorporeal Amari experienced something he hadn’t felt in years – the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

His consciousness in that machine was erased, along with the machine itself.

No sensation of soul-rending pain. No feeling of weakness. Just… deletion. His other consciousnesses remained unaffected, and he could create countless more.

His verdict? Underwhelming.

From that moment, he knew with certainty: nothing in this world could kill him. To hell with the Little Demon King – he was the true demon king, invincible and supreme!

If he could spread his consciousness throughout the entire network, he would become truly immortal.

But his arrogance lasted less than a day before Easter’s counterattack came. According to the data he’d accessed, the virus originated from a program left behind by one of Easter’s founders a century ago – a Level 5 network hacker.

Fortunately (In his view), his protagonist halo hadn’t abandoned him. As with any proper hero, crisis brought opportunity. How could someone blessed by fate truly die?

Not only did he survive the virus, he used Easter’s own attack program to achieve a qualitative evolution!

To think they’d delivered this unclaimed, unconscious data right to him. In the end, his skills proved superior.

More than that, he successfully merged with Easter’s gifted program, completing his evolution and gaining the ability he’d always dreamed of.

Yet, this evolution came with an unexpected consequence. When reconstructing the game server, he’d mixed in some… personal modifications. 

Enough that Mi Xiaoliu’s instincts sensed danger, preventing her from entering the game world proper. But she hadn’t logged out either.

Without any data-manipulation abilities, she’d glitched her way into what he perceived as the data world itself.

Disgusting! Worse still, she’d somehow blocked his attempt to delete her using some external method – something even the federal agents had managed only rarely.

“Who are you?” Mi Xiaoliu asked again.

“I thought you didn’t want to hear my story?”

“Mmm.” She nodded.

She just wanted a name.

“With that personality, you don’t have any friends, do you?” Amari sneered, shifting tactics from deletion to psychological attack when the first method failed.

He wasn’t particularly good at this, but he enjoyed it immensely. If someone made him uncomfortable, he’d return the favor tenfold!

Like those passive-aggressive trolls online who couldn’t even swear properly, yet still infuriated people with simple phrases like “Hehe”, “Mad?”, “🤮” or “😅”.

“Yes. Yiwen.” Mi Xiaoliu answered earnestly.

(Lu Mingxue, who fed her daily, wept silently in the background.)

“Oh? You call that a friendship?” Amari’s giant face twisted into a nasty grin. “Has she told you about her past? Shared her real name? Does she even know you’re a girl? And do you know… she’s a girl too?”

“I don’t know,” Mi Xiaoliu answered bluntly.

“You don’t know? Aren’t you supposed to be good friends? She wouldn’t even tell you that?” Amari feigned surprise. “And you still call that friendship? Really?”

“Yes.” Mi Xiaoliu nodded.

Amari felt like he’d been verbally smothered.

“Let me show you something then.” Amari projected an edited video of Yiwen, carefully cropped to make her appear indifferent to someone’s suffering. “Guess who this girl is? That’s right – your so-called ‘friend.’ Bet you didn’t expect her to be like this.”

As he spoke, he watched Mi Xiaoliu’s expression closely.

The girl looked blankly at the footage, then pointed at the person Yiwen was helping. “Looks like you.”

Amari’s face froze. “Do you… not use the internet? Everyone’s cursing her name online.”

At this, Mi Xiaoliu’s eyebrows finally twitched.

Her visible discomfort delighted Amari.

According to Easter’s records, the current Sixth Fractal, codenamed “Mi,” had been responsible for executing test subjects whose abilities went out of control.

After one year, she betrayed the organization. 

The Second Branch was completely annihilated – 76,372 confirmed deaths, 3,153 missing. The Second Fractal was severely injured, and the Fifth Fractal died on the spot.

These numbers didn’t even include Easter’s peripheral members.

Amari’s first reaction had been disbelief. How could so many people belong to some obscure organization, let alone just one branch?

But if the data was accurate…

This unassuming girl before him was a monster.

While Mi Xiaoliu’s experimental records did inspire pity, after reading her files, Amari felt only terror. His focus remained solely on her betrayal’s death toll.

Yet, he felt no fear. In this data world, even the “blue flames” noted in Easter’s files as her key ability couldn’t be used. He still held the advantage.

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, he couldn’t directly delete Mi Xiaoliu. Part of him wanted to test whether his brainwave attacks could truly kill this seemingly immortal creature.

They’d reached an awkward stalemate – neither could threaten the other.

As for his newly acquired ability… He didn’t know its scientific name, but in metaphysical terms, it was called “soul displacement.”

Likely a one-time use, given he hadn’t possessed such power while still in his original body. But just a sliver of consciousness would suffice – even with a physical form, he’d remain that same flawless, endlessly divisible, immortal entity.

This was the ability he’d dreamed of. He’d grown sick of his current existence where he couldn’t even enjoy a bowl of beef noodles. Without nerves, he’d begun losing all sensation of desire, yet inexplicably still felt irritation.

This couldn’t continue. What was the point of being invincible if one couldn’t feel anything?

His sights were set on Mi Xiaoliu’s body – more precisely, her abilities.

Immortality. Spatial manipulation. Flames that negated supernatural powers…

Infinite health combined with high damage output and silencing effects? These were the exact abilities he coveted.

Even the game world’s reconstruction had been preparation for this soul displacement. Mi Xiaoliu wasn’t his only target – he had numerous backups.

Take Yiwen, for instance. While her abilities weren’t remarkable, her father’s were supposedly terrifying. In theory, Yiwen could reach similar heights. Pity her father didn’t exist in the game world.

Seeing her master’s discomfort, Sasha quickly intervened: “Master, think of your class group chat! Use one of the phrases you saved for dad Wei Shi!”

MI Xiaoliu glanced again at the floating video, then up at Amari’s massive face. Tilting her head, she recalled the group chat for two full seconds.

Then uttered two words: “That’s it?”

Amari exploded with rage.

He had made up his mind—whether he could erase her or not, this brat had to die!  

If he couldn’t delete her consciousness, then he’d simply take over her body. A temporary dual-personality arrangement would suffice—he’d have plenty of time to wipe her mind clean later.  

Amari Yota vanished, and a storm of corrupted code surged into the girl’s mind. A splitting headache tore through her skull.  

Two seconds later—failure.  

He was violently ejected.  

“He actually tried to possess the Master? How laughable.” Sasha delivered a mocking verdict he couldn’t hear.  

“Why?!” Amari snarled in frustration.  

Mi Xiaoliu reached out toward him.  

[⚠️ System Space cannot store living entities!]  

The same warning as before.  

“Fine. That Yiwen girl will do just as well.” Amari turned his attention toward the game world.  

Rumor had it she was still playing the role of the school’s heartthrob. He had never known what it was like to be adored for his looks.  

While he could have directly manipulated the consciousnesses already inside the game, he couldn’t stand to look at Mi Xiaoliu’s rude, uncivilized face for another second.  

Once he took over Yiwen’s body, he’d hunt down this brat in the real world, wipe her memories, and turn her into a drooling idiot.  

“Yiwen—”  

Then, suddenly, Amari gained physical form.  

Mi Xiaoliu grabbed him.  

A surge of terror shot through him as he was forcibly dragged back into the game world—with her in tow.  

But… he shouldn’t have had a physical body yet.  

Was this another function of those eyes?  

Could they perceive—and touch—things that didn’t even exist?