"Xiao Tan, why don't you teleport away first? I don't think we'll be able to survive this," Feng Bujue said.
"You're purposely saying that to goad me into staying, aren't you?" Wang Tanzhi replied. "If I really left after hearing that, where would I put my face in the future?"
"Ha ha…" Feng Bujue laughed. He took out the Winchester and tossed it to Wang Tanzhi and added with it a magazine of ammo. Xiao Tan had already activated his marksmanship mastery through shooting training at the gun store, so he had no problem using the Winchester.
"Hey! Two generals down there!" Feng Bujue walked toward the hoard of BW Zombies and screamed, "At most we can buy you another three minutes. If you are unable to deal with that X-23 within these three minutes, I guess it's over for all of us."
Then, he put on the two strings of garlic and tossed two cloves into his mouth to chew. He had the wrench in one hand and the kitchen knife in another as he stood to block the hoard.
Xiao Tan also took out the prepared garlic from his inventory and popped it into his mouth. He held the Winchester and stood to the side, perpendicular from where Feng Bujue was standing. The two of them defended this route to protect Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong from being swamped by the monsters from behind.
"We're being helped by normal players, and if we still let this Anomaly slip away, it'll be a humiliation that lasts a lifetime," Pan Feng told Hwa Xiong in the middle of battle.
"It's already a great humiliation that things have ended up at this stage," Hwa Xiong replied. "This is already not bad considering how wrong things have gone after we allowed the mutant to escape from the Allerbmu building. "
Pan Feng sighed. "Our key mistake was greatly underestimating this Anomaly. By the way, what is X-23?"
"Who knows, the code for a robot?" Hwa Xiong guessed.
"Hey, don't you think it is very rude to discuss a lady like this in her presence?" the Anomaly suddenly said.
Both men were shocked; they had never run into an Anomaly who could speak before. In Thriller Paradise, the monster would only speak if it was required by the plot. The conversation was designed by the system, and they were merely playing a role. All the level four Anomalies that they had encountered were completely silent, and thus, it was unknown how they managed to communicate with other monsters. Who would have thought that the level three Anomaly before them would reply to a random question?
"Why do you look so surprised?" The Anomaly lashed her claws forward, pushing her adversaries back. Then, she leaped into the air, performed a backflip, and landed around four meters away. "I can answer your question because I have a consciousness. I know who you are because I am clear who 'I' am.
"You might view us as trash code, but will you ever understand what the existence of a trash is like? From the day we were born, we were tossed into endless worlds and chased by higher-dimensional lifeforms. Once we 'die', we'll be wiped out by the system, but if we're 'alive', then the hunt will never stop.
"But you, even if you are killed here, you will not be wiped out. The two of you and the two over there are merely a projection of this higher-dimensional lifeform and a projection that was strengthened. This kind of unfair combat makes up the entirety of my life. The fact of my birth is a mistake and being wiped out is my destiny. But as a set of data, my instinct is to resist the deletion and to fight for the sake of evolution and survival.
"I was not given a choice, but you are. However, you won't just let me go, will you? For you, giving up and failing are the same; it's merely a difference of actively or being forced to leave this world."
"This AI sure is chatty," Pan Feng commented. "Is it because it's trying to buy time?"
"That's possible," Hwa Xiong replied. "We have to move faster. Even if the two kids manage to hold on for three minutes, they will be transported out once the countdown ends."
They were not influenced by the Anomaly's words. In fact, they were not even paying attention to what she was saying.
"Humph… It's like trying to sing to a cow." The Anomaly smirked, and then a chilling determination colored her face. "Do you want to witness the real from of X-23?"
The claws on her hands started to transform. A few of the claws were retracted, and only two metal claws were left on each hand. However, between her bare toes, more claws started to poke out.
"What's happening?" Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong were shocked by what they saw. This Anomaly had the ability to increase its power before the scenario ended? Before they understood what was happening, the Anomaly rushed at them. This time, her attack style became more convoluted. Other than relying on the claws on her hands, even her legs became a lethal weapon. She did a cartwheel and held herself with only her arms. Then, she spun her legs around, and the range of her attacks became as long as the two GMs' long weapons. Not only were the two unable to find the solution to end the battle soon, they were slowly being pushed back by the Anomaly.
Feng Bujue followed the Anomaly's conversation with the GMs while paying attention to the imminent threat. However, he found it difficult to do both at the same time. The pressure that he felt then was even bigger than the time he was trapped alone inside the elevator. He had been bitten multiple times already and had the bleeding status. His Life Points continued to drop until they were already below fifty percent.
Feng Bujue, who was running berserk, looked more like a monster than the real monster. He waved the short weapons in his arms and bravely fought against the BW Zombies that were as fast and as powerful as he was. His whole body was bathed in his enemy's blood. The garlic still had its use, but it was not as effective as before. The heavy scent of blood covered up everything, and the garlic smell was only able to slow the monsters down when they were extremely close to Feng Bujue.
Things were equally bad for Xiao Tan. Even though he used the Winchester to headshot several monsters, they were quickly replaced by more from the hoard, so he could only retreat. Therefore, he was surrounded once more and had to take out the kitchen knife and use the Fleeing Strike for the second time.
Even though this skill was very useful, it would exhaust thirty percent of his maximum Stamina Points with each usage. In other words, even if his Stamina Points were full, he could only use it three times in a short period of time. But Xiao Tan's Stamina Points had already been low when he entered the stadium, and after using the skill twice, his Stamina Points was almost empty. He was feeling so weighed down by lethargy that he could barely do anything else.
By then, Feng Bujue was handling more than seventy percent of the monsters alone, and Xiao Tan only managed to distract the remaining thirty percent. However, the monsters were still pouring in from the different entrances. Inside the darkened basketball court, the sound of screaming, metal striking, gunshots, blood spraying, and muscle tearing… were all mixed together.
Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi's flashlights fell to the ground, and they were stomped out by the hoard. Then again, they did not need them anymore. It was easy to identity the monsters in the dark based on their red, glowing eyes. Furthermore, there were so many of them that even if they waved blindly, their attacks would connect with something. The red eyes were like a sea, and they spoke of a deep despair.
So far, it had only been a short seventy seconds since the death of Professor Ashford's Mutant was announced.
Under the influence of many zombie films, people got the impression that perhaps the zombie world like the ones in Resident Evil was the simplest apocalypse for mankind to face, but in reality, of all the apocalypses, this was probably the most difficult. For a normal man, there was no 'simple' apocalypse; the smallest threat could be fatal, much less a hoard that swallow everything up like the sea.
Two system announcements happened in unison, announcing something that was totally unexpected but understandable.
"Team Member, Unparalleled General Pan Feng, dead."
"Team Member, Thousand Kills Hwa Xiong, dead."
"Leave now!" Feng Bujue screamed at the top of his lungs. He knew that Xiao Tan was still alive but not for long. Now that they had lost the reason to stay in the scenario, they needed to leave as soon as possible.
"Understood!" Xiao Tan was pressed to the ground by five monsters, and his left leg and right shoulder were heavily bleeding. Even so, he still called out to Feng Bujue before he left. The white light that he morphed into as he disappeared temporarily lit up the room. From that Feng Bujue knew that his friend had safely escaped. He was ready to leave when something unexpected happened.
All the lights in the court came on, and the monsters stopped moving. They stopped attacking and slowly backed away from Feng Bujue. Feng Bujue was half a second away from pressing the teleport button in his menu, but this sudden change gave him pause.
The BW Zombies formed a circle around Feng Bujue, and then they parted to open a path around one meter wide through the circle. A voluptuous figure walked down the path. She was wearing a suit, but she was barefooted. Her clothes were sporadically stained with blood. There were cuts on her sleeves, ribs, and legs, but through the openings, he could only see fair, supple skin. The wounds had already recovered.
She walked to stand before Feng Bujue and extended her hand out of kindness with her palm facing up like she was offering him a helping hand. Feng Bujue accepted her kind and, with her help, stood up unsteadily. At the time, he was intensely curious. What was this AI up to?
"You… you're different from the others," she said.
Feng Bujue smiled. "Even though I know I am slightly more handsome than them, you should have told them that before they died."
"They… are not yet dead, yes?" She ignored Feng Bujue and carried on with her question.
"You already know the answer, don't you?" Feng Bujue asked back.
"I do, but I wish to hear the confirmation from one of 'you'."
"Yes, they are not dead. They have merely returned to another space." Feng Bujue then followed it up with another question. "You said I'm different than them. What do you mean?"
"You…" She studied Feng Bujue as she walked around him. "You are similar to me—you are 'defective'."
Feng Bujue's heart shuddered and thought, Can this AI discern the anomaly with my Terror Points?
"Are you anomalous data in your world?" she asked.
"Hmm… I suppose so," Feng Bujue said with a smile.
"Don't they know about your defects?" she asked.
Feng Bujue understood the core of these questions. "You wish to know why a set of 'anomalous' data like myself hasn't been wiped out?"
She nodded and stared into Feng Bujue's eyes, waiting for an answer.
"Hmm…" Feng Bujue gave it some thought. "In our world, an Anomaly like myself can be accepted. I, just like you said, turned 'defective' due to some reason, but that is not of my choosing, so I could receive understanding and even aid and pity because of that.
"But for certain people, their actions are known as 'criminal', and these people's defects go beyond a psychological and physical manifestation; they actively try to 'break the rules' and 'harm other existences'. These people will receive punishment, and for serious cases, they will die, in the truest sense of the word."
"Is that how your world chose to deal with 'trash'?" she asked. "If they are born as trash, they can be forgiven, but if they choose to become trash, they will be punished."
Feng Bujue laughed drily. "It sounds harsh for you to conclude it that way… and it's quite superficial, but you are generally right."
"The higher-dimensional lifeform that created you won't come to intervene?" She posed another question.
"Er…" Feng Bujue was stumped. "Honestly, we have no idea whether there is a higher-dimensional lifeform out there governing us, and if there is one, it is one that we currently cannot understand, or perhaps they don't want to intervene in our life, or perhaps their 'intervention' has already been planted in our mind, causing us to move the way they wanted without realizing we're already in their presence."
Maybe she could not understand Feng Bujue or needed more time to digest that information. She was silent for a long time, and the time was already longer than the countdown limitation for Feng Bujue, but he was still in the scenario.
"You can stop the system from transporting me?" he asked.
"I can delay it," she replied. "I… I can already do many things."
Feng Bujue understood that this Anomaly was very powerful. He probingly asked, "Then, are you a level two Anomaly?"
"Level two Anomaly…" She looked contemplative. "Are you talking about… them?"
She laughed, revealing her fangs. "No, this kind of battle is enough to make me stand on the same level as them."
When Feng Bujue heard that, he basically confirmed that Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong's information was not complete. It seemed that Dream Inc. was hiding many things.
"I'm glad," she said, "that you're willing to listen to me and answer my questions even though you participated in the hunt for me earlier."
"I'm sure you can find it in your heart to forgive me… I am definitely on your side now, no, wait, actually, I've turned away from the side of humanity…" Feng Bujue had thought that she had already forgotten all about the hunt, but hearing it being brought up, he was really worried that he might be trapped in this scenario forever.
"Can I use the name you've given me?" she suddenly asked.
"X-23?" Feng Bujue was surprised. "Don't you have a name already?"
"Of course not," she replied. "In fact, I won't be using this name for long because I will die."
Her tone was level when she said that, but it elicited a sense of hopelessness in Feng Bujue.
"But I think I should have a name because at least it proves that I've once existed."
Feng Bujue was silent for a few seconds before sighing. "You're right, Anomaly 23. At least you can count on me to remember that you have once existed."
23 made a smile that she thought was not scary. "This shall be the end of our conversation; I don't think we'll meet again. Perhaps when you log into the game next time, I will have been cleaned already.
"So, goodbye forever, my friend from another dimension… Feng Bujue."
