The crystal coffin lid crashed to the floor with a thunderous boom.
Without ceremony, the man called "Zero" simply opened his eyes, and the hall's temperature plummeted to absolute zero. Pure killing intent, colder than arctic wastelands, filled the air.
"User-002, you're completely insane." The cigarette between Lucian's fingers crumbled to dust under invisible pressure.
On screen, the pixel skull cackled maniacally:
**[KILL_MODE: ON]**
**[Target: User-002 (Lucian_Ash)]**
**[Priority: ABSOLUTE]**
"RUN!"
Sylvia's scream pierced the air. She slammed both palms against the floor, raising dozens of six-foot-thick ice walls between the monster and Lucian.
Completely pointless.
Zero's figure vanished—not invisible, but moving faster than human eyes could track.
"*Crack—crack—crack!*"
Successive shattering sounds exploded. The impenetrable ice walls crumbled like stale crackers, not buying even a second.
Sylvia couldn't even see his movements before a terrifying shockwave launched her ten meters into a metal wall. She hit with bone-crushing force, coughing up blood.
"*Cough*... Lucian... run..."
Before she finished, the wind stopped.
Lucian felt cold steel kiss his throat. A pitch-black katana had somehow materialized at his jugular, blade edge 0.1 millimeters from his carotid artery. The razor-sharp aura sliced skin, blood droplets rolling down the dark steel.
Zero stood before him, obsidian pupils devoid of human emotion, only cascading data streams.
**[Execute Termination]**
**[Countdown: 0.01s]**
The gap between god and insect. One flick of Zero's wrist would send Lucian's head rolling like a melon.
User-002's electronic laughter screeched from the main screen:
**"Game Over, Bug Hunter."**
**"Behold the old era's king. You can't even modify parameters in his presence."**
"Is that so?"
Death pressed against his throat, yet Lucian managed a savage grin in that 0.01-second window.
Every program had logic.
Every logic had exploits.
Lucian didn't attempt to dodge. His eyes blazed into twin green flames, vision locking onto the frantically spinning chip embedded deep in Zero's forehead.
"God-tier hardware, sure..." Lucian roared mentally, "but the drivers are ancient!"
**[Chaos Editor: Full Power Overclock!]**
**[Target Lock: User-001 (Puppet State)]**
**[Access Point: Combat Logic Module]**
Crimson system warnings flooded his vision:
**[WARNING! Target Firewall Level: SSS!]**
**[Cannot modify physical parameters!]**
**[Cannot delete target!]**
"I won't delete you. I'll add some seasoning."
Lucian's will struck like a blade. In the instant before the katana severed his windpipe, he violently injected a malicious "logic virus" into Zero's action code.
**[Injecting Logic Paradox...]**
**[New Rule Written:]**
**[IF (Attack_Target == Lucian) THEN (Target = Self)]**
**[ELSE (Action = NULL)]**
**[Loop: INFINITE]**
This wasn't reality modification—this was feeding logical poison to a supercomputer!
"*Hum—!*"
The air shuddered violently.
The black blade about to sever Lucian's neck froze mid-strike. Not blocked—the wielding hand began trembling uncontrollably.
Zero's previously emotionless face contorted bizarrely—left half wanting murder, right half wanting suicide.
**[Error! Error!]**
**[Logic Conflict!]**
**[Execute Command: Kill... Warning: Target Error... Redirect... Kill... Warning...]**
Zero's body convulsed violently like a glitched game character, his arm oscillating hundreds of times per second between "strike down" and "pull back."
"What's happening?!" User-002 shrieked from the screen, the pixel skull losing a row of teeth. "Why won't you kill him! Do it!"
"He can't move."
Lucian raised his hand, gently pushing aside the blade at his throat.
"Like a computer with a 4090 graphics card still running DOS." Lucian wiped blood from his neck, stepping forward to pat the "legendary protagonist's" face like petting a dog. "The faster the processing speed, the more complete the system crash."
Zero's eyeballs spun frantically, wisps of smoke rising from his skull. His superhuman brain calculated the unsolvable paradox billions of times per second:
*Must kill him -> Equals killing self -> Cannot suicide -> Must kill him -> Equals killing self...*
CPU: fried.
Lucian gazed at the war god trapped in an infinite loop, greed flickering in his eyes. This wasn't a boss anymore—this was an undefended super database.
"Borrowing your brain, senior."
Lucian's fingers clamped onto Zero's skull as green data streams thrust into the man's mental sea like hungry tentacles.
**[Data Extraction: START]**
**[Downloading: Legacy World Source Code Fragment (1/4)...]**
"*AHHH!*" Zero opened his mouth in a soundless electronic roar, body rigid as data was forcibly extracted.
Sylvia struggled upright, clutching her chest as she witnessed the scene with dilated pupils. The monster that had annihilated everything now hung like a broken doll in Lucian's grasp, being casually plundered.
"Impossible..." User-002 completely lost composure on screen, hall lights strobing frantically as red alarms wailed like air raid sirens. "You dare corrupt his core logic! I'll kill you!"
"*Ding!*"
A crisp notification chimed in Lucian's mind.
**[Download Complete.]**
**[Key Item Acquired: Authority Key·Alpha]**
Lucian released his grip. The completely crashed Zero toppled backward like a wooden post, hitting the red carpet with a "*thud*," white smoke rising from his head while his eyes displayed spinning error codes.
Lucian turned toward the main screen's furious pixel face, raising his middle finger.
"First level cleared." He spat out his cigarette butt, flashing white teeth. "Next level, I'm dismantling your mainframe."