313: Your universe is about to be formatted!

In the laboratory, the air was suffocatingly quiet.

Only the glowing octopus stuffed inside the glass tank was emitting bursts of high-frequency screams.

"Don't! Please! Don't enter my core database!"

"There are firewalls there! Logic locks! You'll burn out my brain!"

The octopus's tentacles frantically slapped against the glass wall, the light in its eyes flickering violently with fear.

Lu Chen stood in front of the tank, one hand pressed against the glass.

His pupils had completely transformed into golden and white vortexes; countless tiny data streams flowed down his arm like a school of greedy piranhas, frantically drilling into the octopus's body.

"Firewalls?"

A cold sneer curled the corner of Lu Chen's mouth, his tone as contemptuous as if he were evaluating a riddled-with-bugs floppy disk.

"In front of me, all firewalls are just curtains that haven't been kicked open yet."

"heavenly craft, crack it at full power."

"Strip its memory frame by frame for me!"

"Yes! Father!"

Boom!

Following an extremely shrill shriek, the octopus went completely limp, its entire body's radiance instantly dimming, like a discarded battery.

On the massive holographic screen in the center of the laboratory, a hair-raising image suddenly popped up.

It was the octopus's first-person perspective.

A pure white space.

No stars, no darkness, only an endless, despair-inducing white.

In this white void, twelve massive thrones of light were suspended.

On each seat sat a figure whose face could not be seen.

They were not physical entities, but humanoid creatures woven from pure "rule lines."

Aloof, indifferent, and... arrogant.

"Purification Council."

Su Qingying watched the screen, the recording pen in her hand being squeezed until it creaked, "Is this the so-called 'divinity'?"

In the image, the figure sitting in the very center spoke.

The voice was grand, carrying a metallic texture that directly made the laboratory's speakers buzz.

"Universe No. 9832, the abnormal data overflow index has exceeded the critical value."

"'South Heaven Gate' vulnerability has been confirmed."

"This universal civilization has developed a tendency for 'self-ascension,' violating the 'Third Quadrant Management Regulations.'"

The figure slowly raised its hand, and a ball of ink-black light condensed at its fingertips.

"Approval to activate the 'Seraphim' fleet."

"Execute order: Format."

"Roll back the timeline of Universe 9832... to the primordial soup state."

Hearing the word "format," Wang Peng (the fatty) standing behind felt his legs go weak, almost dropping to his knees.

"Roll back to... primordial soup?"

Wang Peng's teeth were chattering, "That means turning us back into single-celled organisms? My money! My group! That room full of my figurines! All gone?!"

"Not just gone."

Ye Qingcang stared fixedly at the screen, his eyes bloodshot, "It is total erasure. Our history, our glory, even the traces of our existence, will all be cleared."

"These bastards... don't even see us as life!"

The video continued to play.

The leading figure seemed to sense something; the octopus's perspective at the time was trembling.

"Arbiter No. 13, go."

"As the vanguard scout, go mark that 'error code' (referring to Lu Chen)."

"Three days later, 'Seraphim' will descend."

"Let that dirty universe return to nothingness."

The image stopped abruptly.

The laboratory fell into dead silence once again.

Only Wang Peng's heavy breathing and the cracking of Ye Qingcang's knuckles could be heard.

Three days.

There was only a three-day countdown.

Facing a Higher Dimensions civilization that could treat the universe like a hard drive to be formatted, feelings of despair grew like poisonous weeds in everyone's hearts.

"What? Scared?"

A light, airy voice broke the suffocating silence.

Lu Chen turned around.

There was not a shred of fear on his face, not even a hint of tension.

He was leisurely wiping the fingers that had just pressed against the glass with a wet wipe, as if he had just touched something dirty.

"Lu Chen, that is a rule-based attack."

Su Qingying's voice was somewhat dry, "Timeline rollback... this is already beyond our technological understanding. Our current shields cannot block it."

"We can't block it."

Lu Chen tossed the wet wipe into the trash can and nodded.

"Because that is an 'administrator command'."

"Just like when you click 'system restore' on a computer, can the software inside the computer stop it? It can't."

"Then... then what do we do?" Wang Peng said with a crying tone, "Are we just going to wait to die? Turn back into amoebas?"

"Fatty, have you been drinking too much brain supplement lately?"

Lu Chen walked over and slapped Wang Peng on the back of the head.

"Who told you we were going to block it?"

Lu Chen walked to the holographic screen, looking at the frozen Higher Dimensions figure, his dual-colored divine pupils suddenly contracting to pinpoints.

"They want to format us?"

"Sure."

Lu Chen reached out and fiercely drew a red X over that aloof "divine face."

"Then we'll add some ingredients to this 'formatting program.'"

"Ingredients?" Ye Qingcang was stunned.

"Yes."

Lu Chen turned around, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile of extreme madness.

It was the fervor of a gambler before going all-in, and the ferocity of a hunter seeing prey fall into a trap.

"heavenly craft!"

"Present! Father!"

"Extract that lowest-level 'logic lock virus' from the 'pangu archive' for me."

"Since they want to turn us back into primordial soup."

"Then we will crawl along that network cable."

Lu Chen pointed overhead, toward the direction of the "South Heaven Gate."

"Before they press the enter key."

"We'll burn their motherboard... first!"

"This..." Long Weiguo (though not on site, he was connected the whole time) gasped, "You want to initiate an invasion? Attack divinity with a virus?"

"Not just a virus."

Lu Chen straightened his collar, his eyes becoming infinitely profound.

"We are also going to send them a big gift."

"A Trojan horse... named 'Earth Civilization'."

He looked at Su Qingying, his tone suddenly becoming gentle, yet carrying an unquestionable domineering air.

"Wife, get ready."

"Three days from now, we aren't defending the base."

"We are going on an all-out offensive."

"Go to the meeting table of that so-called 'Purification Council'..."

Lu Chen paused, grinned, and revealed a set of stark white teeth.

"And take a massive dump!"