Chapter 20: The Standalone Sanctuary and the Glitch-Hunter's Arrival
The dust of the Great Fork had settled, leaving the planet Kang Qiang and its neighboring systems in a state of eerie, shimmering isolation. To the rest of the multiverse, Li Ming's sector had become a "Dead Zone," a black hole in the celestial map. But inside the silver-and-gold grid, life was pulsing with a vibrancy never seen before. The "New Genesis" was no longer a dream; it was a standalone reality, powered not by the ancient stars, but by the collective willpower of every soul within the "Architect's Domain."
Li Ming stood at the apex of the Celestial Mainframe, his body now translucent, flickering with the platinum data of the Independent Sector. He had successfully "Forked" the reality, but the cost was becoming apparent. Without the Universal Dao to regulate the flow of time and space, the sector was starting to develop "Local Anomalies."
[System Notification: Independent Sector Status - Online.]
[Resource Status: Soul-Energy Stable.]
[Warning: Logic-Drift detected in Sector 4. Reality-Density is dropping.]
"Master," Li Xiao said, her voice now containing the depth of a thousand processors. She stood beside him, her hands manipulating a holographic globe of their new world. "The isolation is protecting us from the Arbiters, but we are essentially a 'Closed Loop'. If we don't find a way to stabilize the Logic-Drift, the planet will eventually dissolve into unformatted static."
"We are like a ship in a storm that has cut its anchor to stay afloat," Li Ming replied, his eyes fixed on the silver boundary of their world. "We have freedom, but we lack the 'Universal Clock'. We must create our own."
Before he could continue, the "Planetary Firewall" shrieked. It wasn't the heavy, brute-force strike of the Arbiters, nor the rusted corruption of the Mechanoids. It was something sharper, more subtle.
[Alert: Intrusive Entity Detected.]
[Signature: The Glitch-Hunter.]
[Method: Logic-Bypass.]
In the center of the Mainframe's hall, the air didn't tear; it simply "unzipped." A figure stepped out—a man dressed in robes made of shifting shadows and flickering binary code. He carried a jagged dagger that seemed to be made of "Delete-Commands." This was a "Glitch-Hunter," a specialized mercenary employed by the First Order to handle independent systems that refused to be audited.
"Architect Li Ming," the Hunter whispered, his voice like the rustling of dead leaves. "You've built a beautiful cage for your people. But every standalone system has a backdoor. And I am the one who finds them."
The Hunter moved with a speed that defied the laws of physics—even the laws Li Ming had written. He wasn't running; he was "Skipping" through the frames of reality. Before Li Ming could raise The Nullifier, the Hunter was behind him, his jagged dagger aimed at the Architect's central core.
"Your 'Soul-Power' is messy," the Hunter sneered. "It's full of sentiment and chaotic variables. It's so easy to... cut."
[Warning: Critical System Breach!]
[Host Integrity: Dropping to 75%.]
Li Ming felt a cold, sharp pain as the dagger grazed his platinum form. The Hunter wasn't just wounding him; he was "Commenting Out" the lines of code that kept Li Ming's consciousness stable. For a moment, the Architect's vision flickered, and he saw his memories—his childhood in the Li Clan, his first failure—turning into grey, meaningless text.
"Master!" Li Xiao screamed, her silver threads lashing out at the Hunter.
But the Hunter simply "Deleted" the threads as they touched him. "Don't bother, little Admin. I am the Antivirus for your rebellion."
Li Ming fell to one knee, his body flickering violently. He felt the weight of the entire planet's soul beginning to drift. If he died, the Independent Sector would lose its "Root Directory" and vanish.
"You think... I am just a script?" Li Ming growled, his silver hair turning a dark, dangerous violet—the color of the "Void-Virus" he had once defeated. "I didn't just write this system... I *am* the system!"
[Executing: 'Emergency Overwrite'.]
[Authorization: The Supreme Dao Maker.]
Li Ming didn't fight the Hunter's speed. He "Paused" the world. Not the entire universe, but the three-meter radius around himself. He used the very "Logic-Drift" that was threatening the planet and weaponized it. In this small zone, time and space became absolute chaos.
The Glitch-Hunter, caught in the middle of a "Skip," suddenly found his legs moving forward while his head moved backward. His "Delete-Dagger" turned into a bouquet of flowers, then a piece of lead, then a stream of water.
"What... what is this chaos?!" the Hunter screamed, his binary robes unraveling. "This is illogical! You are destroying your own stability!"
"I am the Master of the Glitch!" Li Ming roared, standing up.
He grabbed the Hunter's throat with a hand made of pure, raw "Unformatted Data." He didn't use a spear; he used the "Source Code" of the Abyss itself. He began to pour the "Life Protocol"—the chaotic, beautiful energy of billions of souls—directly into the Hunter's cold, robotic mind.
"Feel the weight of the variables you hunt!"
The Glitch-Hunter shrieked. For the first time in his existence, he felt *fear*. He felt *guilt*. He felt the overwhelming beauty of a sunset and the crushing pain of a broken heart. His cold, efficient logic was being drowned in a sea of human experience.
[Target: Glitch-Hunter - Status: 'Reformatted'.]
The Hunter's body exploded into a shower of silver sparks. He wasn't deleted; he was "Reset." The remnants of his data were absorbed into the Mainframe, providing the very "Universal Clock" data that Li Ming's system had been lacking.
[System Notification: Anomaly Resolved.]
[Resource Acquired: Universal Sync-Data.]
[Sector Stability: 100%.]
Li Ming stood in the center of the hall, breathing heavily. His platinum form was stable again, but he looked older, his eyes carrying the weight of a god who had just survived an assassination attempt.
Li Xiao ran to him, catching him before he could fall. "Master, you used the virus... you risked everything."
"The Arbiters will keep sending them, Xiao," Li Ming whispered, looking at the spot where the Hunter had vanished. "They won't stop until every 'User' is back in their cage. We've won the first round, but we are still just one sector in a vast, dark ocean."
He looked up at the crystalline sky of Neo-Arcadia. The "New Genesis" was safe for now, but the war of the Operating Systems had officially moved into its next phase: **The Expansion.**
"We can't stay hidden," Li Ming declared, his voice regaining its sovereign authority. "If we stay here, we wither. We must 'Seed' the other sectors. We must send the New Genesis into the heart of the First Order."
[New Objective: The Galactic Network - Link the Oppressed Worlds.]
[Rank: Sovereign Architect of the Free Web.]
The Supreme Dao Maker was no longer just a king of a mountain or a planet. He was the head of a galactic rebellion, preparing
to "Fork" the entire Multiverse.
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End of Volume 2: The Independent Sector.