279: Chapter 256 Cyber_2 279: Chapter 256 Cyber_2 Bathed in the afterglow of the sunset, a splendid rainbow erged.
“Damn it, weren’t the Whale Song Guild supposed to be a crowd of honest and unassuming coders, rational and peaceful, averse to martial conflict?”
Gray Rain couldn’t help but retort, “Why so violent?”
“Your view is outdated, these days coders also need to learn martial arts.”
Bartmos chuckled, “Moreover, I am an E/Acc advocate.”
E/Acc, short for Effective Accelerationism, is a niche social trend that erged in recent years, originating as a parody among Silicon Valley programrs against Effective Altruism (EA).
It can be broadly summarized as the extre pursuit of technological developnt, opposing all social restraints on technology, believing that societal problems arising from the rapid advancent of technology can be solved through even faster technological progress.
Technologies like AI, neural implants, Mars exploration, and even artificial wombs and consciousness upload should just be accelerated more and more.
It sort of has an anarchist touch, one step further and it’s techno-insanity.
Bartmos fired repeatedly, forcing Li Cheng and Gray Rain into constant tactical evasion, occasionally even relying on dium Self-Aiming Gravity Energy Balls to prevent themselves from being thrown into the sky.
The Shattering Gun crushed the earth, splintered the trees, drained the seas, leaving the once beautiful park a chaotic ss, resembling the lunar surface.
And as the terrain suffered damage, the dodging space for Li Cheng and Gray Rain beca increasingly narrow—the soft ground could no longer support Gray Rain’s weight.
‘Information, gathered enough.’
Li Cheng calmly observed, his Information Integration Glasses clearly displaying that the Fractal Compression Gun had one shot left.
Now’s the ti.
He activated the Fog Concealnt Skill, generating thick fog on the spot, quickly shrouding the surroundings.
Bartmos’s eyes swirled with data, subconsciously elevating and retreating, distancing himself from the dense fog.
The fog created by the Fog Concealnt Skill cos paired with stealth detection capabilities, which takes only two seconds for soone of his abilities to penetrate…
Step!
As he retreated, Gray Rain’s figure leapt out of the fog.
Inverted gravity pulling her upwards into the sky, she swung the Skull Shattering Hamr diagonally upwards towards Bartmos’s head.
[Alert: Extre Danger]
[Potential Damage Assessnt: Fatal]
A flood of data flashed before Bartmos’s eyes.
At this mont, his existence, sowhere between physical and virtual, was still susceptible to physical impact; otherwise, he would not have needed the TM lock to shield against bullets before.
All calculations showed, if this hamr hit, death was certain.
Without hesitation, Bartmos pressed the trigger of the Shattering Gun in his hands.
Data travels faster than the swing of a hamr, according to the calculations, he should be able to fractally compress Gray Rain and her Skull Shattering Hamr before the blow lands on his head…
In the nick of ti, Gray Rain halted her attack.
Her right hand grasped the hamr, left hand four fingers together, leaving only the middle finger extended, flicking the international hand gesture towards Bartmos.
Then, she suddenly activated a skill nad [Subtle Spirit Raid].
This skill was given to Li Cheng by the Red Driver as a thank you for saving his life, passed on to Gray Rain through a Skill Learning Device.
At this mont, as she used the skill, Gray Rain’s tallic body instantaneously vanished into the void, disappearing from sight.
And the Shattering Gun’s beam of data shot through the air, striking the distant ground.
Bad.
A sense of dread sank into Bartmos’s heart.
The enemy had not activated their skill sooner or later but precisely the mont when the Fractal Compression Gun was reloading for an ambush.
It was clear they had so Detection Skill, capable of seeing the remaining shots in the Compression Gun.
He swiftly retreated, releasing Defense Skills to brace for an attack that could co at any mont.
The next second, Gray Rain re-erged from the void.
She did not continue her hamr attack; instead, maintaining the middle finger gesture, her finger was stuck into Bartmos’s chest.
Subtle Spirit Raid allows one to gather strength in an alternate dinsion, and if contact is made with an object upon exiting, it gets stuck right in it.
Ordinary people using this ability might have to worry about getting stuck in walls, the ground, or inside vehicles,
but as a Liquid tal Robot, Gray Rain has none of these concerns—even if she got stuck in a reinforced concrete wall, she could easily crush the steel bars and chew her way out,
without having to call for Li Cheng to rescue her with the words, “Brother Step, I am Stark.”
“Goodbye.”
Gray Rain grinned, and under the effect of the Demon Exchange skill, swapped places with Li Cheng.
Now it was Li Cheng’s left hand embedded in Bartmos’ chest.
He slightly withdrew his fist and hamred down, combining with the Condensed Qi Explosion to blow Bartmos’ upper body to smithereens.
Boom!
Green fragnts scattered and vanished into ash in the air.
With the dissolution of Bartmos’ phantom, the smart vending machines, water level monitors, pest monitors, and other devices in Southern City Park finally stopped emitting data streams.
The park’s gravity also returned to normal.
“Phew…”
Gray Rain, with her feet firmly planted in the ground, took a deep breath and scratched her head, saying, “Why is it so hard to fight?
There’s Flying, altering gravity, Explosive Guns.
And this is just a level 21 from Whale Song Guild, not even the strongest competitor.”
“It’s normal, after all, it’s the elite of a large guild.”
Li Cheng landed nimbly back on the ground.
The biggest advantage of large guilds over lone wolf players is their systematic approach; the complete and comprehensive Power System provided by the guilds can well compensate for individual shortcomings.
He withdrew his palm and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, “What we just shattered was only Bartmos’s data projection; his real self is still hiding sowhere else in the city.”
Previously, Bartmos ntioned sothing about Cyber Secret Technique·Super Link, which can import prepared elents directly from afar.
His real body is probably hiding in so internet café or a company’s server room.
“Eh?” Gray Rain tilted her head, “So, what now?”
Li Cheng fell silent for a mont, observing the gradually dissipating green light in the sky, activated the Special Effect of his glasses, and traced the light’s path, “Chase after him, box him in.”
————
Several kiloters away in a private booth of an internet café, Bartmos took off his VR glasses, his face dark and uncertain.
In reality, he looked like a round-faced young man wearing a red checkered shirt, with hair as ssy as a bird’s nest.
Whale Song Guild was ford by a group of programrs, Bartmos included.
Before becoming a player, he was a coder, and even after turning into a player, he still kept the habit of wearing checkered shirts.
“Ugh…”
Bartmos rubbed his ssy hair.
He originally thought to pick the softest persimmons first, to dispose of this level 16 guildless newbie, to use data manipulation techniques to control him, to use him as a puppet and a fighter against other players.
Unexpectedly, he failed to resolve the opponent cleanly and instead got his Avatar blown up by the Ant, his Erosion Level now reaching 250/1000, as if it were silently mocking him.
“Trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice, more than seven hundred bucks deducted, lost a lighter, account banned for a month…”
The backlash from the collapse of his Avatar threw his thoughts into disarray, and he smacked his forehead to calm himself down.
“Whatever, what’s done is done; regretting won’t help.
The priority now is to relocate and use items to replenish the drained Spiritual Power.”
Bartmos muttered to himself, stood up from the gaming chair, and packed the keyboard, mouse, VR glasses, and all such devices into his backpack, “Hmm…over at the dump in East City, there seems to be a battle breaking out, between Gouchen from GOC and Frankenstein from the Evil Science Alliance…”
He walked out of the booth to pay and leave, headed for the next internet café.
Not long after, he saw a paper crane slowly flying towards him in the sky.
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