364: Watching a new legend unfold before my eyes

Abandoned district, broken walls and ruins.

That black hovercar, which once represented absolute authority, now hung crookedly in mid-air like a spine-broken dead dog.

"Get in the car."

Lu Chen stood before the car door, lightly nodding toward the Butcher, who was still clutching his chest, his electronic eye leaking electricity.

The Butcher trembled.

He glanced at the group of ragtag fellows he had just been trampling underfoot, and then looked at the indifferent man.

Finally, gritting his teeth, he obediently slid into the driver's seat like a chauffeur.

"Teacher!"

Just as Lu Chen was about to get into the car.

A heart-wrenching cry came from behind him.

Jack rushed out.

His mechanical arm, still smoking, was clenched tightly into a fist, his face a mixture of engine oil, tears, and snot.

"Take me with you!"

"I'm not afraid to die! I want to follow you! I want to watch you overthrow that damned company!"

The other youths also gathered around, their eyes full of longing.

It was the longing of a drowning person for the light.

Lu Chen stopped walking.

He turned around and looked at the group of ragged children.

"Take you with me?"

Lu Chen smiled and reached out to straighten Jack's messy mohawk hairstyle.

"Jack, do you remember the first lesson I taught you?"

Jack froze, then subconsciously recited:

"Find... find the underlying logic, and overthrow it."

"Correct."

Lu Chen pointed to this dark, damp, sunless Lower District.

"I am different from you."

"I am a passerby."

"I will overturn this place, dust off my hands, and leave."

"But you still have to live here."

Lu Chen's voice was light, yet it struck the heart of every youth like a heavy hammer.

"The real hero is not the one who kills the dragon."

"But the one who..."

Lu Chen pointed to Jack's heart.

"Dares to stand up after the dragon is dead and rebuild the homeland."

"This place is your battlefield."

"I have left a backdoor in the code of that mechanical arm."

"That is the 'Kindling'."

Lu Chen patted Jack's shoulder and pushed him back into the crowd.

"Guard it well."

"When I punch a hole in the heavens up there..."

"Remember to catch some rainwater for me down below."

Having said that.

Lu Chen did not look back again.

He pulled Su Qingying and brought Wang Peng, who was still muttering about not getting a free meal, into the black hovercar.

"Roar—"

The engine roared.

The black stream of light shot up from the ground, piercing the eternally gray smog of the Lower District and soaring straight into the clouds... On the ground.

Jack stared blankly at the receding stream of light.

Until his neck ached, until his tears ran dry.

"Boss... Teacher, did he... really go to fight the Company?"

A subordinate asked timidly.

Jack lowered his head.

Looking at his mechanical arm, which was still faintly warm.

In his mind, the line of golden code left by Lu Chen was flashing wildly.

It was not an ordinary program.

It was a key.

A universal key capable of unlocking the locked-out prosthetic bodies of millions in the entire Lower District... the **Omni-Key**.

"He's not going to fight."

Jack clenched his fist, his gaze shifting from confusion to determination.

That determination made him no longer look like a street thug.

But like a... **believer**.

"He is going to..."

"Pave the way for us."

Jack suddenly turned around and looked at the brothers behind him, who had once only known how to steal chickens and dogs.

"Stop standing around!"

"Back to the warehouse! Find every single part!"

"Teacher is fighting in the sky, we can't be idle on the ground!"

"We are going to assemble an army!"

"An army... that belongs to us!"

The wind rises from the smallest ripples.

At this moment, no one knew.

A storm capable of overturning this world was quietly taking shape in this inconspicuous, broken warehouse... Ten thousand meters high in the sky.

As the hovercar pierced through the thick layer of clouds filled with industrial exhaust fumes.

The scene before them suddenly opened up.

Sunlight.

Real, dazzling, unfiltered sunlight.

A magnificent, suffocating **Sky City** floated silently above the sea of clouds.

Golden spires stabbed toward the heavens, and huge circular orbits connected one floating island to another.

And at the very center of the city, the black skyscraper marked with the "Metaverse Company" LOGO stood like a sharp sword, suppressing the entire world.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Wang Peng pressed against the car window, looking at the scene below with a look of indignation.

"Where there is wealth, there is corruption; where there is poverty, there is suffering."

"The people below can't even breathe fresh air, and these bastards actually built a golf course in the sky?"

"Isn't this a typical case of 'folding space'?"

Su Qingying commented coldly.

"Using technological barriers to highly concentrate resources, then physically isolating them to cut off any possibility of class mobility."

"Very efficient, and very... disgusting."

Lu Chen sat in the back seat, still holding that half-bottle of 'Synthetic Happy Water'.

He looked at the approaching black skyscraper, his eyes as calm as stagnant water.

"Efficient?"

Lu Chen shook his head.

"In my eyes, this is called... **courting death**."

"Butcher."

Lu Chen kicked the back of the driver's seat.

"Is this your headquarters?"

"Y-yes."

The Butcher's voice was trembling.

He didn't know if bringing these three devils back was the right choice.

But he knew that once they entered that door, there would be no turning back.

"Go through the main entrance."

Lu Chen took a sip of the happy water, as if issuing an order to buy vegetables at the market.

"But... the main entrance has security checks! And a defense matrix!"

The Butcher shouted in terror, "Without an appointment, we will be shot down immediately!"

"Shot down?"

Lu Chen smiled.

He extended a hand and placed it on the car window glass.

In his palm, the 'bio-skeletal chip' from Universe No. 0001 was faintly heating up.

"In this world."

"There is no door that I, Lu Chen, cannot enter."

"Charge through!"

"But..."

"I told you to charge!!!"

Lu Chen let out a low shout.

An invisible pressure instantly filled the entire cabin.

The Butcher's mind went blank, and his body instinctively obeyed the command.

Throttle floored!

"Vvvvmmm—!!!"

The black hovercar turned into a cannonball, ignoring all air traffic control signals, and slammed directly into the main entrance of the black skyscraper!

"Alert! Unauthorized intrusion!"

"Defense Matrix activating! Annihilation Mode!"

Countless red lasers instantly locked on.

Hundreds of automatic defense turrets simultaneously turned their barrels.

"It's over... we're dead..."

The Butcher closed his eyes in despair.

However.

Just as the first laser was about to hit the car body.

Lu Chen snapped his fingers.

"Snap."

"**I command, let there be a path.**"

Buzz!

The bio-chip suddenly erupted with an invisible wave.

It wasn't a data intrusion, nor an energy shield.

It was... **rule tampering**.

The turrets that had locked onto the hovercar suddenly, as if possessed, raised their barrels by an inch in unison.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!"

The sky full of lasers grazed the roof of the car, exploding into dazzling fireworks in the sky.

As if... **firing a salute**?

"This..."

The Butcher opened his eyes and was completely stunned by the sight.

This was literally speaking reality into existence?!

"See."

Lu Chen leaned back in his seat and showed the Butcher in the rearview mirror a terrifyingly kind smile.

"I told you so."

"They are quite enthusiastic."

"They are setting off fireworks to welcome us."

"Since the Master is so polite."

"Then shouldn't we 'applicants' also..."

Lu Chen pointed to the increasingly close, high-strength alloy door.

"Slightly... show off some talent?"

"Fatty!"

"Here!" Wang Peng said excitedly, rubbing his hands.

"Smash through it!"

"Knock that door down for me!"

"We are here to be directors."

"Our aura..."

"Cannot be lost!"