After receiving Nicole's consent, IES slowly said, "That bad hacker said that the contents of the safe have a value similar to the Rosetta data, the only Hollow master data preserved by the officials. With it, one can freely enter and exit the Hollow.
If that's true, we should be able to use it to get out of the Hollow! If you're willing to let me open it."
Nicole said without hesitation, "I agree! I just said so! We're at such a critical moment of life and death, if I can't get out, who will deliver the safe to my client? Open it!"
So, IES entered the password and opened the safe.
Everyone leaned in to look, only to see a palm-sized black chip lying quietly among a pile of red velvet.
Ling manipulated IES's hands and inserted it into IES's chip slot.
Suddenly, IES seemed to enter some kind of overloaded state, flickering with crackling lights.
Immediately after, it suddenly started to sprint, carrying everyone all the way to the exit.
However, even after everyone left the Hollow, IES's body continued to twitch non-stop.
Hu Tao felt something was wrong and immediately put Zhe on speakerphone: "Ropemaker, IES seems to be having problems."
At this moment, Zhe's anxious voice came from the other end of the phone: "It's not IES that has a problem, it's the entire hdd system! Ling has fallen into a coma, still twitching and muttering!"
This sentence was like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the relief everyone felt from just escaping the Hollow.
Hu Tao's face turned pale, and she clutched her phone tightly: "What? How could this happen? Then, then Ling..."
IES's body was still twitching violently and irregularly, its metal joints making harsh grinding sounds, and the light strips around its eyes flashed frantically, as if a destructive war was raging inside.
Nicole suddenly snapped back to reality, her previous straightforwardness and decisiveness replaced by a chilling fear. She quickly grabbed IES, shaking it tremblingly: "Ling! Don't scare me! Wake up!"
However, her calls were useless; IES's twitching intensified instead.
Seeing this, Hu Tao became even more anxious: "Zhe! Tell me, what exactly is Ling's situation now? What can we do?"
"I'm watching over her, but I'm helpless! Her physiological signs are stable, but her brainwave activity is extremely abnormal!"
"Preliminary judgment is that the chip had an unknown conflict with the hdd system, and Ling's consciousness core has been swept into the center of a data storm!"
Zhe spoke quickly, and the sharp alarm sound of the hdd system could faintly be heard in the background.
"Malicious conflict... data storm..." Amber suddenly remembered something: "Zhe, can we find an underground hacker to solve this?!"
Hearing Amber's words, Zhe and Nicole both regained some composure, then, they both simultaneously spoke the same name: "Find Rui'en!"
A few minutes later—
"Beep... beep..."
"Hello? Nicole? Do you finally have the money to pay me the commission for hacking the Red Fang Gang's surveillance last time?" A female voice sounded, with the rapid clatter of keyboard keys in the background.
"Rui'en! No time for nonsense! This is urgent, a matter of life and death!" Nicole's voice was more serious than ever, even with a hint of imperceptible tremor, "Something happened to Ling!"
"Her consciousness has been swept into an out-of-control HDD data storm! I know you live not far from their shop, hurry over with your portable equipment! We'll be right there!"
"What... Ling?! The video store manager? HDD out of control? Consciousness storm?!" The voice on the other end of the communication instantly rose, "I'll be there immediately!"
Nicole let out a long breath, but her eyes showed no sign of relaxation. She turned to the still twitching IES, picked it up: "Quick! Let's go to the video store! Ling doesn't have much time left!"
Immediately after, Nicole took the lead, rushing towards the Ropemaker's shop with a clear goal, while everyone followed closely behind her, their faces filled with worry.
Soon after, the group finally rushed into the video store. Rui'en was already there, having connected her equipment to the hdd system and operating it rapidly. Zhe was by her side, tending to Ling while assisting Rui'en in navigating the hdd system seamlessly.
"HDD data received!" Rui'en saw everyone arrive and quickly said to a prepared data cable, "Zhe, connect IES, extract the chip's real-time status and abnormal data flow! Quick!"
Without a word, Zhe grabbed the data probe and precisely inserted it into a hidden maintenance port on IES's back.
At this moment, IES was twitching extremely violently, the red light in its eyes flickering wildly, almost burning out.
"Chip activity is abnormally soaring! Something inside it is inversely corroding the HDD master core! Data storm intensity is growing exponentially! Ling's anchor signal... is dissipating!" Rui'en's voice carried extreme panic.
On the screen in front of her, the light spot representing Ling's consciousness core was being torn and devoured by two violent data streams, becoming extremely faint.
Everyone became even more desperate: Was there really no way?
...At this moment, in Ling's consciousness space—
No up, down, left, or right, no colors, only an endless, howling gale composed of fragmented information and sharp noise! This was the inside of the data storm.
Ling felt her consciousness body was like a falling leaf in a storm, ready to be torn to shreds at any moment.
Intense pain squeezed her from all directions; it was the final duel of two intelligent entities.
Suddenly, the data storm mixed with Ling completely dissipated, and her consciousness immediately felt incredibly light.
At this moment, a never-before-heard female voice appeared in Ling's mind, but because her consciousness had just been impacted, she could only hear fragments: "Data occupation complete... terms and conditions of use... no authorization to others..."
"...not to be transferred or otherwise assigned..."
"...you agree that if necessary to protect your and this entity's common interests, full authorization may be granted..."
"...Do you agree to the above user terms?"
Ling knew she had no choice but to answer: "I agree."
Female voice: "Authorization agreement signed. Glad to be of service."
"...Let us together, New Ailidou..."
...At the same moment, in the video store, Ling, who had been unconscious and twitching, suddenly jolted, coughed violently, and then slowly and with difficulty opened her eyes.
Her eyes were dazed, weak, and filled with the shock of surviving a disaster, but deep within her pupils, that familiar spark of intelligence finally rekindled.
"Ling, Ling is awake!" Zhe was the first to react, his voice choked with tears and wild joy.
Everyone quickly gathered around Ling, concerned if she was alright.
At this moment, Rui'en was still tinkering with the hdd system: "Strange, it's trying to restart itself."
Hearing this, Zhe waved his hand and said, "Then let it restart, as long as my sister is fine."
So, Rui'en completely withdrew from controlling the hdd system.
Suddenly, before anyone could react, all the display screens of the entire hdd system simultaneously began to flash with eerie blue light. After they returned to calm, a huge blue eyeball suddenly appeared on the central display screen.
"System startup complete."
"I am the ||| type general-purpose integrated universal artificial intelligence, development code name [Fairy]."
"Hello, Master."