Chapter 115

Chapter 115: Death By One’s Own Hand

“The USB’s data was compromised? By that Amari Yota guy?”  

An Easter researcher slammed his keyboard in fury.  

This meant not only had they failed to eliminate the hacker who dared infiltrate their organization, but they’d become his stepping stone—with all of Easter’s data now laid bare before him?  

“It seems he’s fused with the USB’s data…”  

“Can we regain control?”  

They could afford to lose Branch Two—their most important site after headquarters. But losing the USB’s data was unacceptable.  

How could this happen? A universal program left by one of their founders, cracked by some disgusting shut-in? The worst part? Every piece of intel confirmed Amari was a complete waste of space.  

“I’m trying, but don’t get your hopes up… Wait, this is strange. The USB’s data—along with Amari—is rapidly disappearing?”  

“What?”  

—

Meanwhile…  

Amari Yota’s consciousness in the data world seethed with rage.  

He hadn’t even seen what Mi Xiaoliu used to erase his presence. Was it the “Blue Flames”? It had to be.  

But it doesn’t matter. Even those bizarre “Blue Flames” couldn’t kill him completely. This confirmed it—he was truly invincible!  

The Little Demon King? The Sixth Fractal? All just stepping stones for his future growth. Yiwen was too close to Mi Xiaoliu—better lay low and scout other candidates. If one body died, he’d just pick another. These people were like game characters to him, interchangeable at will.  

His consciousness hovered above the game world, calmly assessing options.  

The more he looked, the less satisfied he became. Maybe he should just threaten the feds with nuclear strikes and force them to hand Yiwen over.  

Then—  

This strand of consciousness vanished. Abruptly.  

What?  

His remaining consciousnesses in the data world froze, completely baffled.  

Next, the minds controlling his mechanical soldiers blinked out… More and more fragments of himself were being erased, the pace accelerating.  

Panic set in. Amari split his consciousness endlessly while desperately searching for the cause.  

The Blue Flames?  

No. Those didn’t spread like this.  

Then he saw it—a streak of white sword energy, like cheap RPG special effects.  

It tore through reality and data alike, multiplying endlessly until the data world was flooded with attacks targeting his consciousness.  

He recognized it.  

A game item: the one-time scroll [Wind Demon Blade].  

“Launches a guaranteed-hit wind blade dealing high damage.”  

He’d created this item himself—early-game loot.  

On a mandatory path for new players, it was essential for defeating a certain roadblock boss. That boss could create shadow clones; as long as one remained, it wouldn’t die, endlessly respawning duplicates.  

But each clone counted as a single entity. So when using this “single wind blade” item against it, the game would fire countless blades simultaneously, wiping out every clone.  

Now that he thought about it… his infinite consciousness division wasn’t so different from that [Boss].  

Why? How could a game item cross dimensions to attack his data directly??  

Amari tried altering the Wind Demon Blade’s parameters, only to find it had no data—as if it physically existed in reality!  

He rushed into the game world, attempting to code himself an invincibility command.  

That consciousness died too.  

He split another strand, logging in as a player and cheating his magic resistance and defense to max.  

Still died.  

WHY??  

This was just some low-tier item he’d designed! The kind that dropped from the first damn boss!  

He could only keep splitting his consciousness to resist. No time for anything else—yet even that couldn’t outpace the Wind Demon Blades.  

Because the blades multiplied with his consciousness, while his consciousness dwindled from the blades.  

HOW?? How did that brat—that Sixth Fractal—pull this off?!  

No. I’m the chosen one. There has to be a way—like when Easter attacked me. A reversal is coming!  

Gradually, news broadcasts returned to normal. People finally slept peacefully.

—  

At the time, just before being kicked out of the server, the item Mi Xiaoliu frantically snatched from the guild’s shared storage was this—a one-time-use blue-tier item that had gone entirely unnoticed since the second [Boss] was cleared.  

As for whether she had genuinely grabbed the wrong thing in her panic or if her rapidly processing Morphett network brain had deliberately swapped it out upon seeing Amari Youta about to attack Yiwen, even Sasha didn’t know.  

In fact, not even Sasha knew.  

Neither did Mi Xiaoliu herself.  

After all, she hadn’t retained her memories of the game world.  

A Level 5 ability user capable of triggering a human crisis—permanently incapacitated.  

Just as Nightingale’s “Prophet” had foreseen: dead within three days, and in a way that could be considered suicide.  

The Dream Game incident resulted in over 200,000 deaths. Easter also lost the Omnipotent Program in the process.  

The whereabouts of the Dream Game server remained unknown.  

—  

“That guy’s… gone?” Yiwen shook her head in confusion. The discomfort had faded, leaving only a faint mental exhaustion.  

She turned to Mi Xiaoliu. “Did you do that?”  

Mi Xiaoliu ignored her, busy adjusting the hastily reinserted colored contacts by rubbing her eyelids.  

Yiwen hadn’t closed her eyes. She always used to obey when Yiwen told her to shut them.  

Annoying.  

Though curious about what Mi Xiaoliu had done, the immediate priority was to alert the police about Amari Youta’s impending attempt to possess someone else. 

Mi Xiaoliu’s secrets could wait.  

—  

“Communications are back. We’ve confirmed normal sleep functionality, though we can’t be sure if it’s temporary like last time.”  

This was the first thing Officer Chen said when Yiwen arrived at the station. He studied her with a meaningful gaze before continuing, “Also, after we realized you were still offline post-game, I sent Devil to track you down.”  

A Level 3 intuition ability, combined with a clairvoyant’s support, made locating someone far too easy.  

“Still showed up as late as cops in TV dramas, though,” Yiwen quipped.  

“Not entirely.” Officer Chen glanced down at the paper in his hands—Mi Xiaoliu’s medical report. “He witnessed Mi Xiaoliu grabbing your head and releasing some kind of white… slash?”  

“Huh?” Yiwen blinked.  

A healing-type mutant emitting slashing attacks?  

Impossible. Even more absurd than a healer evolving eyes that could perceive parallel dimensions.  

“Coincidentally, shortly after that white slash, the news and sleep functions normalized.” He handed the report to Yiwen.  

The words “Level 2 Healing Ability User” stood out glaringly.  

“I suspect falsified records.”  

“What if it’s a newly awakened ability?” Yiwen raised a tentative hand in Mi Xiaoliu’s defense. “He’s still in his teens—new powers can still manifest.”  

Officer Chen stared at her in silence.  

—  

After an afternoon of testing, it was confirmed: Amari Youta could not be reached. Presumed actually dead.  

But caution was still necessary. Protective gear during sleep remained advised. After all, this was only a presumption—his state of existence didn’t leave a corpse for verification.  

Meanwhile, Mi Xiaoliu found herself once again seated in the interrogation room, happily munching on a pork cutlet rice bowl.  

Beyond the one-way glass, Lu Mingxue read her thoughts: Officer Chen is such a good guy.  

She was… enjoying this??  

This girl is ridiculously easy to please.  

Lu Mingxue felt she was the one being interrogated. Why was she the only one suffering here?  

“Xiaoliu, what did you use to save me earlier?” Yiwen pressed.  

“Not telling.” Mi Xiaoliu turned her head away.  

This had to be the first time someone spoke to the police like this in an interrogation room.  

“Xiaoliu,” Officer Chen said sternly, “do you know how many years withholding ability information can get you? This goes on your permanent record.”  

Yiwen took a guilty sip from the water he’d poured for Mi Xiaoliu.  

Mi Xiaoliu, mouth full of salty pork and no water to wash it down, stared at her longingly.  

Suddenly, the door swung open.  

Jim’s father stepped in, phone in hand, and whispered into Officer Chen’s ear:  

“Mrs. Lasvedo just called. She’s demanding we release him (her).”  

“…”