65: Chapter 64 Divine Descent

The roar of the engine gradually died down on the dilapidated streets of Pacifica. The tires rubbed against the rough ground, emitting a short hiss before finally coming to a stop at the somewhat hidden entrance below the West Wind Apartments.

V practically kicked the car door open and jumped out, clutching the shielded container holding the relic chip tightly in her hand. Jackie followed closely behind, his massive frame carrying the smell of gunpowder from the hail of bullets they had just experienced.

"Bang!" The apartment door was pushed open somewhat roughly by V. Her face was a mixture of the adrenaline from the successful mission, the relaxation of surviving a near-death experience, and an "anger" aimed at a certain guy that was just waiting to be vented.

"Lin Yi! You bastard! Get out here!" She yelled at the somewhat empty living room while taking off her jacket stained with dust and coolant. "Plans? Plans?! You almost got my plans stuck in Alt's throat! If I don't teach you what 'family status' means today, I'll write my name, V, backwards!"

However, there was only her own echo in the room, along with the faint, never-ending roar of Pacifica outside the window.

There was no familiar, slightly teasing response, nor was there the figure usually busy in front of the workbench.

The look of excitement instantly faded from V's face, replaced by a trace of doubt and rapidly spreading unease.

"Lin Yi? Nothing actually happened, right?" She lowered her voice, quickened her pace, and walked toward the room where Lin Yi was diving.

Jackie also sensed something was wrong. He suppressed his smile, tightened his grip on his ajax, scanned the living room vigilantly, and then followed V.

The room door was ajar.

V pushed it open, and the sight before her made her heart sink suddenly.

Lin Yi was indeed there, slumped in that customized hacker chair equipped with basic cooling.

He wasn't connected to any visible data cables; he looked like he was just taking a nap after being overworked.

However, his cybernetic eyes were glowing abnormally. That light wasn't the soft standby glow of usual days, but an ominous, dark red like a red-hot soldering iron, and it was flickering at an extremely high frequency.

"Lin Yi!" V rushed to his side, reaching out to pat his cheek to wake him up.

However, her hand recoiled abruptly when it was still a dozen centimeters away from his skin.

"Hiss—hot, hot, hot!"

A scorching wave of heat rushed toward her, as if she weren't approaching a human body, but a high-speed, about-to-melt-down engine.

The skin on his exposed neck and arms was an extremely abnormal wheat color, as if he had gone for a spray tan, and one could even see the air on the surface of his skin slightly distorting due to the high temperature.

"Jackie! Jackie!" V's voice carried a tremor she hadn't even noticed. Ignoring the scorching temperature, she put her hands under Lin Yi's armpits, trying to drag him up from the chair. "Lin Yi's condition isn't right! He... he's about to burn up!"

"What's wrong with Lin Yi, chica?" Jackie's massive figure instantly blocked the doorway. Seeing V struggling to drag Lin Yi, who was radiating abnormal heat, he immediately understood the severity of the situation.

He stepped forward, and those arms capable of easily snapping steel carefully but firmly scooped Lin Yi up by the waist.

"Bathtub! Hurry! Run cold water!" Jackie roared, holding Lin Yi as if holding a burning piece of charcoal, and rushed toward the small bathroom of the apartment.

V reacted immediately, rushed into the bathroom, turned on the bathtub faucet, and icy cold water poured out with a splash.

While running the water, she helped Jackie carefully place Lin Yi into the gradually accumulating cold water.

Sssss—!

A slight steam rose up. The moment Lin Yi's body touched the water, it even made a sound similar to a red-hot iron being quenched.

He was still unconscious, with only that pair of cybernetic eyes flickering wildly like broken indicator lights.

"I'm going to get some ice!" Jackie took one look at the rising water level in the bathtub and the still-alarming heat on Lin Yi's body, then turned and rushed out.

There was a twenty-four-hour convenience store downstairs; he hoped their freezer stock was sufficient.

In less than two minutes, the sound of heavy footsteps came from the corridor.

He was carrying a huge, full transparent plastic bag filled with square ice bricks.

"Move aside, chica!" Jackie rushed to the edge of the bathtub, ripped open the bag, and dumped the ice into the tub with a splash.

The white ice cubes struck Lin Yi's burning body. The ice cubes close to his skin melted rapidly, and the water temperature in the tub dropped at a visible speed. The icy water even spilled over and soaked V and Jackie's pants, but neither of them noticed.

V sat on the edge of the bathtub, one hand tightly gripping Lin Yi's hand, which was soaking in the ice water and still scalding, while her other hand futilely brushed away the wet hair sticking to his forehead.

She could feel that under the continuous effect of the ice water, the burning sensation of his skin seemed to gradually diminish a little.

"Come out already... you bastard... didn't you always act all badass? How could this happen?" She murmured in a low voice, her eyes filled with anxiety and helplessness.

Jackie watched the rapidly melting ice in the bathtub, his brow furrowed.

"This isn't enough, it won't last long." He dumped the remaining ice from the bag into the kitchen freezer, turned, and rushed out the door again. "I'm going to get some more!"

Only V and Lin Yi, soaking in the ice water, were left in the room.

The cold, damp air permeated the small bathroom, forming an eerie confrontation with the abnormal heat radiating from Lin Yi.

After a while, Jackie returned with another large bag of ice, repeating his previous actions.

Watching V keeping watch by the bathtub, distraught, the rough man tried to comfort her in his clumsy way: "Hey, chica, don't be like this. Didn't Viktor say? The cyberware on Lin Yi's body is something even Alt might not be able to beat! He'll definitely make it through; he'll be fine."

V looked up, her eyes slightly red, her voice filled with frustration and lingering fear: "But Viktor also said that his 'Baize' access port is a prototype. Behind its powerful performance lie extremely high risks and unknowns! No one can guarantee its stability... If only I had a deep-dive access port too... At least... at least I could try to bridge in and help him share some of the pressure, instead of just watching like this..." As she spoke, she slammed her fist against the nearby wall.

Hearing this, Jackie also remembered the instructions Viktor gave after installing it for Lin Yi. He opened his mouth, but in the end, said nothing, just sighed heavily and patted V on the shoulder.

A sense of powerlessness, like cold tide, permeated their hearts.

Meanwhile, in Cyberspace, the battlefield before the Blackwall.

The confrontation between Lin Yi and Alt Cunningham had entered the final, white-hot stage.

Alt had clearly "seen" that with the limit-breaking computing power competition and the crazy counter-current of data streams, Lin Yi's solid data image began to become unstable. The edges flickered and blurred like a holographic projection with a bad connection. This should have been a clear sign that his physical body in the real world was reaching its limit and the consciousness connection was about to be interrupted.

She was like the most patient hunter, waiting for the prey to collapse on its own.

However, just when she thought victory was in her grasp, the opponent's flickering image eerily stabilized again. Although not as solid as it was at the beginning, it no longer continued to deteriorate.

"It seems that relying on consumption alone, it is impossible to force him to disconnect from the physical level in a short time." Alt's massive consciousness, composed of bright red data clusters, immediately made a judgment.

She did not hesitate and sent out a silent summons.

In an instant, a large number of subroutines scattered across the vast ruins of the Old Net, acting as her extended tentacles and eyes, were forcibly cut off from their current tasks. They turned into streams of crimson data, like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, shooting in from the darkness in all directions, and frantically pouring into her massive body!

The "holes" torn into her by the "Baize" counterattack were instantly filled and repaired, and the damaged data clusters were replaced by richer, more violent, newborn data.

Her image not only recovered as before but expanded further. The pressure and light she radiated dyed large areas of the dim space around her a heart-palpitating blood red.

Countless more complex, vicious, and malicious programs containing decades of predatory evolution experience condensed and materialized around her, like billions of crimson spears ready to fire.

"You are an error that should not exist." Alt's voice resonated through the data space, cold, vast, and carrying the tone of a judgment. "With a weak human body, you are actually able to oppose high-level existences like us. If you were to survive by luck, or even become an AI equal to us in the future, the consequences would be unimaginable. I must completely annihilate you here!"

The reason was just an excuse for a different stance, but the intent was the erasure of his existence.

A data torrent a hundred, a thousand times more violent than before, mixed with primitive malicious viruses capable of burning any known ICE, surged toward Lin Yi's relatively tiny data image in Cyberspace like a starburst at the beginning of the universe!

Space itself was wailing, as if unable to bear this power.

Lin Yi's Baize core was sending out frantic warnings.

"Baize's" computational analysis told him that theoretically, he could construct a defense and complete a countermeasure, he could try to deconstruct and eliminate, he could... but the physical body in the real world absolutely could not bear the exponential load brought by this hedging at this stage! His nervous system would be burned out in one ten-thousandth of a second, and his brain would be directly carbonized.

There was no retreat, no evasion.

"This asshole AI won't let go, I have no choice but to... fight!"

A flash of determination crossed Lin Yi's eyes.

He stopped thinking about the limits of his physical body, stopped worrying about the consequences, and had to pour all his will and all his faith into "Baize"! Full power activation! Operating beyond the limit!

"BOOM—!!!"

The pure white radiance and the crimson torrent of destruction collided violently, like two stars crashing head-on!

The lightning, indescribable in color but representing extreme destruction, erupted and sputtered at the point of collision, turning the space near the Blackwall into a chaotic mess of garbled code.

Lin Yi's data image, which had just stabilized, began to flicker and flash violently again like a candle in the wind, and the edges even began to show signs of data dissipation.

He felt his consciousness beginning to blur, as if falling into a boundless, warm, dark ocean, wanting to just fall asleep...

Just at the very last moment before his consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by that warm darkness and his data image was about to completely collapse—

"Baize's" notification sound pierced through all the noise, pierced through the data storm, and rang directly in the deepest part of his consciousness.

[External protocol connecting...]

[Network authorization party identified: [Europa]]

[Content transmission receiving -- [Bridge Protocol - TheTranscendence-86 - LONG]]

[Connection successful.]

An indescribable, cool, and vast power, like a released galaxy, instantly poured into "Baize," into Lin Yi's consciousness that was on the verge of collapse.

The load that was originally as heavy as a mountain disappeared.

The pain that was burning his soul subsided.

His originally blurred and collapsing consciousness instantly became unprecedentedly clear and... vast.

He "looked" at the still-surging, destructive crimson torrent, and suddenly felt that the attack that had once been desperate, at this moment in his "eyes," became... so simple.