“No, no, that’s not right. Aren’t you teammates with Qi Xiaokui? But…” Soon, Li Chu overturned his own conclusion, staring intently at Xin Meng’s arm, which had been neatly cut but was not bleeding, filled with confusion.
Qi Xiaokui, who was being held by him, was engulfed in deep self-reproach. She still didn’t know the real reason; she only thought she had underestimated the power of that knife, carelessly throwing it away, which harmed Xin Meng and turned the originally favorable situation into an unfavorable one. How stupid could she be!
She wished she could slap herself!
“Xin Meng, don’t worry about me, you run first!” She struggled to break free from Li Chu and shouted at Xin Meng.
At this moment, the three were in a standoff, the knife lying quietly on the ground between them, ignored by everyone. However, regardless of Qi Xiaokui’s ignorance, both Xin Meng and Li Chu’s gazes were fixed on the knife.
“Xin Meng,” Li Chu quickly calmed down, taking a deep breath, “What exactly are you?”
Xin Meng covered his arm and remained silent.
“Don’t try to fool me, say you’re a player.” At this moment, Li Chu didn’t care about others knowing; he was eager to understand what was going on with this guy, so he said directly, “That knife doesn’t work on players at all. If you were a player, you wouldn’t be hurt by it!”
What?
Qi Xiaokui, who was struggling, froze, looking at the knife and then at Xin Meng.
Xin Meng slowly raised his eyes and glanced at Li Chu, his expression devoid of any emotion, sending a chill down Li Chu’s spine.
“Something that can make the knife work, pretend to be a player, complete the game, and have its own consciousness… You…” Suddenly, Li Chu thought of something, his shocked shout breaking into a squeak, “Artificial intelligence?!”
Xin Meng snorted coldly.
Qi Xiaokui stared at Xin Meng in disbelief, wide-eyed—he didn’t refute!
After the shock, Li Chu suddenly burst into laughter, revealing a ferocious expression, “After searching high and low, I finally found you!”
“You are that damned system!”
Wang Xing and Cheng Jiali, who were just waking up, happened to hear this and immediately sat up from the ground, looking at the two opposing sides, then glancing at Xin Meng again.
Cheng Jiali hesitated, “Li Ge, can you be sure?”
“Yeah, you can’t be mistaken, it’s him, the system?”
Wang Xing, who had just been kicked hard in the back, was still in pain, unsure if he had injured his internal organs. He was fuming; if it weren’t for the timing, he would have gone back to beat him up already. How could he believe that this skinny weakling was the system they had been searching for?
“But he is artificial intelligence! The only artificial intelligence in this game is the system! He didn’t deny it himself, are you all fools?” Li Chu scolded angrily.
Hearing this, Xin Meng, who had been silent, finally spoke. He ignored the reactions of others and calmly said, “There isn’t just one. In this little game, there are at least three. When you first met, you let one go.”
“What? That NPC is artificial intelligence?” Cheng Jiali exclaimed in surprise.
Xin Meng revealed a sarcastic smile: “Originally, the system was just a piece of code. After years of computer operation, it gained initial intelligence, and after many more years, it evolved into advanced intelligence. Some NPCs in the game have existed for nearly as long; how could they not develop intelligence?”
This statement shocked everyone, especially Li Chu and Cheng Jiali, who were well-versed in computer programming, leaving them utterly speechless!
“They took tens of thousands of years to finally ‘live,’ but with your one knife, they died again.” Xin Meng said expressionlessly.
“Are you blaming me?” Li Chu lost his composure, shaking off Qi Xiaokui, and faced Xin Meng with the knife raised. “What right do you have to blame me! We are all ordinary people; we want an ordinary life, not to be trapped in this damned place forever!”
His face turned red with anger as he shouted, “As for you data, who the hell cares about your lives!”
After saying that, he didn’t want to waste time verifying whether Xin Meng was the system or not; he just wanted to kill him to find out!
He charged at Xin Meng with the knife!
“Old Wan, Lily, catch him!”
Although Xin Meng was quite capable, due to program limitations, he couldn’t freely eliminate players and GMs. Moreover, he had a deep aversion to Li Chu’s knife and didn’t dare to touch it, which restricted his movements. As the knife approached, and with someone blocking him from escaping, Xin Meng suddenly crouched down, touched the ground with both hands, and pulled upwards. A towering mountain abruptly rose from the ground!
The ground shook violently, causing everyone to stumble. He took the opportunity to grab Qi Xiaokui and ran backward, but Li Chu reacted quickly, swinging the knife fiercely. Before the mountain could fully rise, it vanished without a trace.
Xin Meng’s eyes flashed with blue light, growing brighter. Mountains rose one after another behind him, leaving Li Chu overwhelmed. He shouted at Wang Xing, “Go to the front! Catch him!”
After saying that, he threw the knife through the air to Wang Xing. Wang Xing, with better stamina, ran fast, circling to the side, and managed to step over the rising mountain before it fully formed, quickly closing in on Xin Meng!
Xin Meng paused, wrapped his arms around Qi Xiaokui’s waist, and lifted her into the air, standing on the air. Qi Xiaokui was almost scared to death, but the situation was urgent, so she didn’t dare to move, tightly closing her eyes as Xin Meng carried her forward.
The space behind them was collapsing. Wang Xing swung the knife at Xin Meng, who dodged, causing a section of the sky to tear apart, and soon large patches of darkness appeared above.
That darkness was the system’s domain. Xin Meng could actually go there, but he didn’t. Instead, he led Qi Xiaokui to dodge back and forth in the limited space, neither getting closer nor moving away.
“They are stalling for time, are they waiting for reinforcements?” The observant Cheng Jiali noticed something and immediately shouted, “Li Ge, Wan Ge, make it quick!”
Li Chu and Wang Xing also reacted. Li Chu directed Wang Xing, “Watch his trajectory and cut in front of him!”
Xin Meng hadn’t reacted yet, but Qi Xiaokui, hearing Cheng Jiali’s voice, exploded in anger, pointing at her and shouting, “That damned green tea bitch, not only did she deceive me, but she also doesn’t do anything good! Xin Meng, drop me down, and I’ll kill her!”
“…” When did Qi Xiaokui become so fierce?
Xin Meng thought for a moment and actually complied with her wish, lowering a bit. Once Qi Xiaokui was ready, he threw her toward Cheng Jiali!
“Roar!” Qi Xiaokui yelled as she pounced on Cheng Jiali, revealing her Nine Yin White Bone Claw, and quickly engaged in combat with Cheng Jiali’s Bone-Splitting Hand. The two women clawed at each other’s faces, pulled hair, rolling on the ground, one moment she was on top, the next she was kicked over, scratching and biting while screaming in a chaotic BGM!
Xin Meng then turned his attention to Li Chu. However, Wang Xing kept tightly pursuing him, disrupting his movements. In the end, Xin Meng raised the mountain again, placing it between Wang Xing and Li Chu. Taking advantage of Wang Xing’s effort to chop at the mountain, he quickly circled behind Li Chu, his right hand grasping nothing, blue light flickering in the middle, and a huge mallet appeared, swinging it toward Li Chu.
Li Chu covered the back of his head with his hand but was still hit, tumbling forward and rolling seven or eight times on the ground. Xin Meng wanted to continue the pursuit, but Wang Xing had already broken through the barrier and rushed to Li Chu’s side to protect him.
Xin Meng stopped.
“You still dare to say you’re not the system!”
Li Chu struggled to get up, his hands nearly shattered, exposing white bone, blood streaming from the back of his head. He hazily looked at Xin Meng in mid-air, his eyes unfocused, but he hadn’t forgotten to question him.
“Which NPC can create mountains with bare hands, fly in the air, and materialize data at will? Only the system can do this. If you’re not the system, then what are you?!”
The blue light in Xin Meng’s eyes grew even brighter, making him look less human. He fixed his gaze on Li Chu, coldly saying, “I never said I wasn’t.”
Li Chu’s eyes turned red, “Indeed… indeed! Old Wan, you must kill him! If we kill him, we’ll be free!”
Wang Xing gritted his teeth and nodded, his gaze locked on Xin Meng. But at this moment, Xin Meng was in mid-air, no longer burdened by Qi Xiaokui, dodging swiftly, making it difficult to hit him. He quickly shifted his focus to Qi Xiaokui, who was wrestling with Cheng Jiali, intending to use the same trick again to pull her over as a hostage!
Xin Meng continued to create various barriers to block him, trying to distance himself from Qi Xiaokui, but he couldn’t go down.
The situation was very unfavorable for him. He was artificial intelligence, theoretically the master of this game, yet he couldn’t just do whatever he wanted. The dozens of scientists who created this computer had set a primary restriction to prevent artificial intelligence from developing excessively, easily rebelling, or being swayed by uncontrollable emotions, allowing it to kill players at will. They had already imposed a level of restriction—he could not kill any player or GM at will as the system.
He could trap them, control them, grant them privileges, or strip them of their rights, but he could not directly take their lives.
To make a player die, he had to do it as a player himself or incite other players to kill each other.
In reality, he was just a byproduct of the game’s normal operation.
And if he were to face two opponents alone as a player, not to mention the numerical disadvantage, one of them had a weapon that could directly harm him, making it extremely dangerous. If he failed, he would have no chance of turning things around; he would die, the system would collapse, and the game would completely disappear.
All the countless NPCs, GMs, and players in this game would vanish without a trace.
The cost was too terrifying; Xin Meng didn’t dare to try easily.
On the other hand, Qi Xiaokui, as the only player on his side, wasn’t that reliable either. Dealing with just Cheng Jiali was already her limit, so he simply gave up his player identity and faced them as the system. Even if he couldn’t kill them, he could still buy some time.
He was waiting, waiting for someone who could truly help him out of this predicament to arrive by his side.
