[Current Status: Data Recycle Bin · Collapse Countdown]
[Entity Number: 1307 (Seventeen)]
[Evolution Stage: Lord of Abyss]
[Warning: This entity is assimilating abandoned data across an entire dimension.]
...This is no longer a silent graveyard, but a boiling purgatory.
Seventeen awoke.
But the way he awoke was more terrifying than his slumber.
He held the dying Shen Qingqiu, suspended in the collapsing data void.
The floating corpses of gods and demons abandoned by higher-dimensional civilizations, the broken code, the fragments of abandoned worlds—all seemed to be summoned by some sovereign, surging madly towards him.
Whoosh— A black storm spun around him.
The "garbage" filled with resentment and viruses, upon contact with his body, was forcibly refined by his crimson karmic fire, transforming into the purest and most violent black energy.
His body was rebuilding.
The original humanoid silhouette began to blur and grow taller.
Two massive gashes tore open at his shoulder blades, unfurling a pair of jet-black bone wings composed of **Dead Code**. The wings were covered in shattered star fragments, each flap accompanied by a mournful groan from the space itself.
He was no longer the gentle, refined Seventeen.
He was a monster born from this junkyard.
He was the abyss itself, devouring all despair.
"Qing…Qiu…"
Seventeen looked down at the woman in his arms.
His voice was like countless terrifying roars superimposed, accompanied by the scraping of metal.
In those purple eyes, chaotic data streams surged wildly, reason being overwhelmed by an endless, murderous urge.
He wanted to hold her tight, yet feared that the raging energy within him would shatter her fragile spirit.
His fingers transformed into sharp, black-gold claws, frozen in mid-air, trembling, afraid to fall.
"Seventeen…"
Shen Qingqiu lay in his arms.
Her body had become semi-transparent. Her soul had been nearly exhausted in her quest to reclaim the core fragment.
But she wasn't afraid.
Looking at the grotesque, terrifying demon lord before her, radiating an aura of destruction, her eyes held only heartache.
"Don't be afraid." Shen Qingqiu laboriously raised her hand, her fingertips piercing through the raging black aura surrounding him, gently touching his face covered by a bone mask.
"No matter what you become..."
"I picked you up."
"Roar—!!!" Seventeen let out a painful growl.
The energy within him was too much, too chaotic.
Billions of deleted vengeful spirits screamed in his mind, trying to seize control of this body.
[Kill! Kill everything!]
[Destroy! Destroy this world that abandoned us!] His pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints; in that instant, killing intent overwhelmed love.
The black-gold claw tightened uncontrollably, about to pierce Shen Qingqiu's shoulder.
"Dad! Stop! That's Mom!!" Ah Ling, hiding in the distance, was so terrified her data core felt like it was about to shatter.
Just as the claw was about to touch the red dress,
Shen Qingqiu made a move.
She didn't dodge, nor did she defend herself.
With her last bit of strength, she grabbed his claw, powerful enough to tear stars apart, and pressed it forcefully against her heart.
She pressed it against that…silver heart that was beating for him.
Thump.
Thump.
The familiar heartbeat traveled through her palm into Seventeen's frantic sea of consciousness.
Like a lighthouse suddenly illuminating a stormy sea.
"Seventeen, look at me."
Shen Qingqiu's voice was soft, yet it resonated clearly throughout his world through the soul connection.
"You're not trash."
"You're my…glitch."
She propped herself up, amidst the collapsing data fragments, in the heart of the black storm capable of destroying everything.
She tilted her head back and kissed those cold lips, those lips covered by a bone mask.
[Concept Overwrite · Ultimate Command]
[Command Name: Love (True Love)]
[Execution Effect: Logic Restructuring]
BOOM—!!!
That kiss didn't produce a deafening explosion.
But rather…a blossoming.
Centered on the point where the two embraced.
The originally pitch-black, violent, chaotic black energy suddenly froze.
Then, a gentle, radiant red flowed from Shen Qingqiu's lips into Seventeen's body.
It was the color of longing.
It was the color of red beans.
"The exquisite dice are inlaid with red beans, do you know the longing that penetrates to the bone?"
Shen Qingqiu's poetry transformed into the highest-level antivirus code.
The vengeful spirits, viruses, and gibberish that were rampaging wildly within him were forcibly "formatted" the moment they came into contact with this warm red current.
They were no longer hatred.
They were rewritten as…guardianship.
Crack, crack.
The bone mask on Seventeen's face shattered, dissipating into specks of light.
Revealing his handsome, pale face, streaked with tears.
The chaos in his eyes faded, his purple eyes regaining their clarity and depth, now tinged with a bewitching red halo.
That was the demonic power tamed by love.
The bone wings on his back remained black, but instead of remnants, they began to sprout crystalline, data-driven spider lilies.
The kiss continued.
Shen Qingqiu's originally transparent body began to solidify.
Because Seventeen was nourishing her.
He purified the energy from the entire recycling center he had just absorbed and transferred it to her without reservation.
This was dual cultivation (cyber version).
You are my system, I am your patch.
We are each other's…completeness.
After a long while.
Their lips parted.
The red light in Seventeen's eyes stabilized.
He looked at Shen Qingqiu, whose face had regained its rosy hue, in his arms, his fingers gently caressing her lips.
That claw that once wanted to tear everything apart was now incredibly gentle.
"Qingqiu."
His voice had changed.
No longer that mechanical, synthesized tone, nor that violent roar.
It was a deep, magnetic voice, carrying a regal authority and a languid grace.
"I had a dream."
Seventeen said softly.
"The dream was all darkness, and I wanted to kill."
"But then… you gave me a red bean."
He grasped her hand and pressed it to his chest.
There, around his silver heart, red bones grew, like a cage, or a shrine, fiercely protecting the heart.
"Now, the red bean has sprouted."
"It's grown into my bones."
"This is called… ingrained."
Shen Qingqiu smiled.
Tears clung to her eyes, yet her smile was radiant.
She reached out and smoothed his slightly disheveled silver hair.
"Then don't pull it out."
"Take it with you, take me with you…"
"We…fight back."
…
"Alarm over! System reconfiguration complete!"
A-Ling cautiously flew over, looking at her father whose demeanor had drastically changed, and tentatively called out:
"Dad? You…are you crazy?"
Seventeen turned her head and glanced at the small ball of light.
His purple eyes narrowed slightly; the suffocating pressure was still there, but with a hint of humanity.
"Crazy."
Seventeen said calmly.
"But your mother…kissed me."
A-Ling: "…"
(Life is hard enough as a system, why feed a single system dog food?)
Seventeen stood up, holding Shen Qingqiu.
He looked around.
This vast data recycling station had been mostly drained by him.
What remained was only empty nothingness.
"Time to go." Seventeen's bone wings unfolded, their wingspan blotting out the sky.
The spider lilies above swayed, emitting a dangerous yet alluring red glow.
"That administrator who threw us in…" Seventeen's lips curled into a cruel smile.
"They're still waiting outside."
He didn't want to look for an exit.
In the eyes of this man who had become the "Lord of the Abyss," there was only one exit—
That was… tearing the ceiling off.
"Seventeen." Shen Qingqiu leaned against him, pointing to the dark void above.
"Use your sword."
"Tell them…"
"The trash in the recycling center can bite too."
"Yes, my lady." Seventeen raised his right hand.
The once shattered **[Slaying Evil] Blade** had now been reforged and reborn through the melting down of countless discarded divine weapons.
The blade was long and black, with two faintly visible blood dragons coiled around it, and arcs of chaotic electricity powerful enough to sever cause and effect pulsed at the edge.
Blade Name: [Ash of Calamity].
(Taken from the phrase "after the ashes of a calamity, the dead rekindle.") Seventeen, wielding his sword in one hand, swung it fiercely at the empty sky.
[Abyss Technique: Dimensional Tear - Reverse!] *Rip—!!!*
A sound of tearing cloth.
But what was torn wasn't cloth, but a dimensional barrier.
A massive, ferocious red rift was forcefully cleaved open in the void.
At the other end of the rift, the deep blue, code-filled sky of the primordial world was revealed.
And… that enormous white cursor, not yet fully gone.
"What?!"
Outside, the high-dimensional administrator emitted a shocking ripple.
He'd just thrown the trash in, and the trash can exploded?
Seventeen, holding Shen Qingqiu, flapped his wings.
Transforming into a black and red meteor of destruction, he rushed out of the recycling bin.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
He strode through the void, step by step, onto the sky.
With each step, he left a black footprint in the primordial sky.
He stood before the colossal cursor.
Compared to the cursor, a symbol of "divine authority," his figure was still insignificant.
But the aura emanating from him was deeper than the abyss.
Seventeen raised his head, his purple demonic eyes fixed on the cursor.
He extended his index finger, pointed at the cursor, and then…
Slowly, he made a throat-slitting gesture.
"Your trash is cleaned up."
"Now…"
"It's my turn to clean you up." A kiss to the abyss, bones turning red.
The Avenger returned from hell, cradling his god in his arms, carrying his ashes in his hands.
In this primordial world covered in code.
He launched the first… counterattack against dimensions.