Thriller Paradise

A giant burst of energy blasted downwards. The wave that could shake the world cracked the data flow in the arrow and bloomed out layers of light illusion. Of course, these splashy effect did not possess any damaging effect, these ‘flow of lights’ were merely air that was influenced by energy until their colors changed.

“Bujue!” When the attack landed, Ruoyu’s expression dropped. She called after Feng Bujue’s name loudly to confirm his state, because at this place, the team tab in game menu had been removed as well. So the players could not check the survival of their teammates through the menu.

“he’s fine.” It was a female voice who responded to Ruoyu. To be more precise, it was ROOT.

“Qie…” V1- War God whose attack had not finished grumbled with annoyance. The next second, V1 dropped to the ground and put away his aggression.

“You do not appear that happy.” In the dissipating fog of light, ROOT’s appearance slowly materialized. She still maintained her liquid metal state, her figure and face looked female; other than the facial organ, there were no other physical details (like belly button, nail, hair, genitalia, Anomalies did not need them), even her face was as common as it could be.

“Why do you stop me?” V1-War God answered ROOT’s question with one of his own.

“Do I need to explain my decision to you now?” Root did the same.

“Understood…” V1- War God did not argue. Such was the communication between Anomalies most of the time… They would not say some meaningless lie due to ‘face’ or convenience like human; and they would not injure each other with words due to ‘feelings’. Their conversation sometimes would be so complicated that people would be lost or they would be so simple, it would befuddle people too. In any case… suffice to say their method of conversation was hugely different from the one between human beings.𝑜𝑽𝑙xt.𝔠𝑜𝗆

“Very good.” Root continued, “I will take over these two people now.” She paused. “Other than that, I have a new mission for you.” V1- War God hesitated for half a second before replying, “Of course, sir.”

Even though ROOT was not V1’s direct superior, she was still one of the three leaders of Origin, so she had the right to order V1. But V1’s short hesitation proved indirectly… the internal struggle within Origin (after making the deal with Feng Bujue, ROOT was in some turmoil with the other two leaders) was now an open surface. The question of how much longer this surface peace could remain… was a large question mark.

“Hue hue… Such an obedient boy.” At that moment, Feng Bujue who stood behind Root (At the last moment, he was saved by ROOT) finally found a chance to chime in. “Then… can you make him dance for you?”

“Anymore out of you and I will kill you myself.” Root gave Brother Jue a side eye and warned.

“Fine, fine…” Feng Bujue smile. “I was just asking.”

After Brother Jue’s interruption, Root turned back around to tell V1, “The Watchers from Z (I believe most have forgotten about this already so here’s a footnote. This Z is the anomaly group led by ZERO, the leader of the organization that X-23 and Red Iron belong to. They have been mentioned earlier and they have been watching Feng Bujue for a long time already) have already made their move, their target is obviously Feng Bujue.” At this point, she suddenly paused for 2 seconds.

Feng Bujue realized… during this pause, ROOT already swiftly transferred a small stack of data to V1. They definitely used some kind of transfer method unique to members of Origin but the process was incredibly hard to detect. If one was not observing closely, one could not capture the strand of data mixed in the air (Because from the layer observation layer, the air itself was a pile of data).

“I have already given you the coordinate and identification signal.” 2 seconds later, Root continued, “You should know what to do, right?”

“Of course…” V1 raised both of his arms gripped his fists before his chest. “I will not let them get any closer.” He said then as he prepared to turn away. Before he left, V1 used his giant eyeball to glare at Brother Jue, his unwillingness to leave was quite clear.

Bang. Following a dull blast, V1- War God kicked under his feet. He fired off like a cannonball and soon disappeared down the horizon.

“Nice to meet you, Li Ruoyu.” After V1 left, Root turned around to greet Ruoyu. If Feng Bujue was the one being addressed, he would definitely ask… how Root came to know his real name.

“Pleasure, Root…” But Ruoyu merely responded in kind. From this point, Ruoyu handled things much better than Brother Jue. It was not that she was incognizant of certain problems but she was born with an innate detachment to everything, so she was not that invested on knowing all the ‘answers’.

“Well, let’s follow me back to the LJN Park and we can talk things out.” Root began. “It is… not that safe to stay too long at the desktop.”

“Sure.” Feng Bujue replied, “We were going there to find you.”

“Yes…” Root nodded, then she turned her gaze to D2- Red and D2- Green several metres away, “And you two… are with them?”

She did not need to ‘greet’ other Anomalies because Red and Green knew Root. The latter appearance and code had very high identification; and ROOT naturally could identify Red and Green, she only needed to scan them. Furthermore… as Anomalies, they did not need to stand on normal human social formalities.

“We’re friends!” D2- Red said proudly. Even though she was rather prideful when she was dealing with Brother Jue and Ruoyu, but one could see that… she hoped and was willing to interact with humans.

“Then would you like to come along?” Root asked.

“Erm…” Red did not answer immediately but turned to ask Green. “To go or not to go?”

“You decide.” Green uttered with the same lack of interest.

“Okay!” After thinking for a second, Red said, “Then we shall go!”

…

At the same time, at the entrance/exit of π maze.

“I knew… things wouldn’t be so simple.” Link narrowed his eyes on the broken fragment of data on the ground and grinned coldly. “Hmph… you sure are fast, quick, brutal and clean… My people manage to stay so long inside the π maze and came out alive but they could not last even 5 minutes before you.”

“You flatter me.” A soft, coquettish voice replied, “I was merely…” As X-23 replied, she placed a cd into the bag around her waist, “trying my best…”