The air in the corridor seemed already to be distorting. Even through the heavy door, Fu Songcheng could still feel the madly climbing temperature in the core server room behind him.
He kept his head down, his pace hurried yet not appearing panicked.
He’d just turned a corner when he ran head-on into a group of engineers, their faces anxious.
“Hurry, hurry! The main trunk network latency suddenly spiked, and the data feedback from liquid cooling pumps two and three has all gone offline!”
The lead engineer was drenched in sweat, clutching a tablet, frantically swiping the screen as he walked, cursing, “Why would the servers malfunction at a critical time like this.”
Fu Songcheng immediately shrank his chin into his work uniform’s collar, hunching his shoulders slightly, putting on a look of equally frantic worry.
The instant the two sides passed each other, he deliberately pressed himself toward the wall.
“Hey, you there!”
An assistant engineer following behind suddenly stopped and turned suspiciously toward Fu Songcheng’s back. “Which team are you on? The core server room’s in big trouble—why are you running outward?”
Fu Songcheng’s steps paused, the muscles in his back instantly tensing. He didn’t turn around, lowering his voice to sound very impatient: “I’m from the line inspection team. I have to go to the C Zone warehouse to get the hydraulic pliers—want to go in my place?!”
The assistant engineer was startled into a daze by the shout, then waved a hand. “Go, go! What are you dawdling for!”
Fu Songcheng quickened his pace and shifted out of position, rapidly distancing himself from the server room about to become a purgatory.
Those engineers might now reach the door, but they couldn’t endure the heat inside; and the temperature within would melt all electronic components into scrap before they could shut down the servers.
Next, he needed to find an absolutely safe place to wait for the results.
Fu Songcheng skillfully avoided three squads of fully armed patrol guards and circled back to the storage room where he’d originally hidden, and opened the computer.
By now, the 5.0 version update progress was past halfway.
[Update progress: 52/100]
Just then, with a soft beep.
The storage room’s electronic lock suddenly turned a glaring red, and immediately after, the heavy metal door was pushed open from outside.
The instant the alarm sounded, Fu Songcheng had snatched up a dagger from the storage room and hidden behind the cabinet door, poised to strike.
In the interplay of light and shadow, Shen Ning’s assistant—followed by two quadruped combat robots and four fully armed Source Star guards—quickly locked onto Fu Songcheng’s position.
“Come see President Shen with me. Don’t make things hard on yourself.”
Shen Ning’s assistant spoke unpleasantly.
Hearing this, the corner of Fu Songcheng’s mouth suddenly curved into a mocking arc. He straightened up and looked directly into her eyes without evasion.
“Then lead the way.”
Shen Ning’s office was on a very high floor, far from the underground server room, and the security measures there were bound to be top-tier.
Going there to use their escape route—not too much to ask, right?
Soon, escorted by the assistant, Fu Songcheng stood before Shen Ning.
“You’ve ruined this game.”
Shen Ning was in the middle of handling a pile of matters. Seeing Fu Songcheng, she accused him bluntly without looking up.
“Game?”
Fu Songcheng’s voice was very soft, yet pierced everyone like a blade. “Treating billions of people on a planet as consumables for your entertainment—you call this a game?”
“Even if you seeded other planets, you have no right to interfere with their lives.”
“This is murder.”
Hearing this, Shen Ning finally looked up, her gaze toward Fu Songcheng complicated.
“Why can’t you accept this—play this game with us? Whatever you want, I can give you.”
Fu Songcheng flipped his wrist, and an ordinary fruit knife spun into a dazzling flourish at his fingertips, then was gripped in reverse in his hand, just as he gripped a dagger in battle within his game.
Even an ordinary fruit knife, in Fu Songcheng’s hand at this moment, radiated a bone-chilling killing intent.
His legs bent slightly, his center of gravity lowered—in this stance, he could burst out instantly and slit the throat of anyone who came close.
Looking at Fu Songcheng’s eyes that held not a shred of fear—even faintly tinged with madness—a surge of anger rose in Shen Ning’s heart.
Threats, inducements, gentle persuasion—this man was impervious to all of it.
“Restrain him.”
Before the words faded, the two combat robots let out a mechanical shriek and lunged at Fu Songcheng like hunting leopards.
The four guards simultaneously drew their electric batons, closing in from both sides.
Fu Songcheng was surrounded by enemies.
The instant the robot swung its mechanical arm, Fu Songcheng’s body slid past the arm. The fruit knife in his hand stabbed precisely along the gap in the robot’s neck armor, and with a violent flick, severed part of the circuitry inside!
Pssht—
The robot sparked, half its body instantly paralyzed.
But at the same time, a guard’s electric baton had already come down on his back. Fu Songcheng could only thrust the fruit knife backward.
The baton struck Fu Songcheng, and the fruit knife carved a bone-deep wound into the guard’s hand.
“Urk—”
He and the guard let out muffled groans at the same time.
The guard cried out in pain, the baton flying from his hand.
Fu Songcheng caught the baton midair and backhanded a strike into the face of another guard lunging at him.
The entire sequence flowed like water, ruthless and decisive. Even outside the instances, with this body lacking attribute point bonuses, his grasp of timing and mastery of human weak points had already turned him into a perfect killing machine.
Shen Ning watched her guards and robots being taken down one after another before Fu Songcheng, her expression as ugly as it could be.
Bang!
Fu Songcheng dodged a robot’s sweeping leg kick, then backhanded the baton viciously into the robot’s joint gap, thoroughly ending its movement.
He panted heavily, gripping the now-blunted fruit knife, and looked coldly at the last two remaining guards.
The two guards exchanged glances, their hands holding the batons actually trembling slightly, for a moment not daring to advance.
Shen Ning’s chat box was flickering with a flood of messages.
One of them was from the engineers, who lacked the authority to shut down the servers and were requesting her authorization—otherwise the server room would explode from the heat.
But before she could check the messages, she lowered her head to stare at the update progress bar on the screen.
[Update progress: 89/100]
[Update progress: 92/100]
Hold out until 100%. Once the Death Party system version finished updating, they wouldn’t be able to make any waves. The Source Star people trapped on Blue Star could also be rescued.
Everything could still be remedied.
“Fu Songcheng, the one who loses in the end will be you.”
Shen Ning watched the progress bar jump to 95%, the corner of her mouth finally revealing a cruel smile. “Soon none of you will be able to stir.”
Fu Songcheng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his chest heaving violently—but the way he looked at Shen Ning was like pitying a naive child.
His voice was hoarse. “Then let’s die together.”
[Update progress: 98/100]
Shen Ning was just about to mock his wishful thinking when, the next second—
BOOM—!!!
A huge explosion came from deep within the building, and immediately after, the entire building shook violently!
The wall coating crumbled down in showers. The ceiling lights flashed madly twice, then went out completely amid a burst of piercing static.
Crimson emergency lights immediately lit up in the corridor. A powerful shockwave swept through the ventilation ducts and corridors, slamming the storage room door heavily against the wall.
Even at a great distance from the explosion’s center, that terrifying tremor still made it impossible to stand steady.
The server room had blown up.
The instant the high-voltage electricity pierced through the conductive silicone grease, it ignited the coolant in its high-temperature, high-pressure state.
This liquid, absolutely safe in normal times, had become the most terrifying high-energy explosive under extreme conditions.
The entire server room was transformed into a sea of fire. Those servers carrying all Blue Star humanity’s data and identity IDs were, in this moment, utterly reduced to ashes.
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