75: Chapter 75 Data Storm

As the aircraft's engine emitted a low hum while breaking through the thick clouds over the Antarctic, Lin Fan inadvertently glanced down at the ice field outside the porthole.

The originally silent Cradle Base now resembled a volcano about to erupt; a pale blue beam of energy shot up from the core of the base, tearing through the lead-gray sky, its edges entwined with dense green code like living vines growing wildly.

“What is that?” Lin Fan's fingers pressed against the cold porthole, his fingertips clearly feeling the slight tremors of the aircraft caused by the energy fluctuations, and as he watched the energy beam growing thicker by the second, a strong sense of unease welled up in his heart.

Kate's hand gripping the control stick tightened suddenly, her knuckles turning white, and she stared at the energy values jumping wildly on the dashboard, her expression grave to the extreme: “It's the core energy leak from the base. The Star-Eater virus has destroyed the energy containment system. The extracted code energy has nowhere to go and can only spread globally along the atmosphere.”

Before she could finish, the aircraft's communicator suddenly emitted a harsh crackle of static, the navigation screen was instantly covered in garbled code, and the previously stable flight path began to deviate.

AKai's anxious voice exploded from the communicator, mixed with the sounds of countless device failure alarms: “Lin Fan! Kate! Something's wrong! The energy leak from the Antarctic Base has triggered a global data disturbance. All electronic devices are starting to go out of control, city power grids are paralyzed on a massive scale, and now the whole world is in chaos!”

Lin Fan looked up abruptly at the sky outside the aircraft.

They were currently flying over the Pacific Ocean; the coastal cities below, once brightly lit, had now plunged into dead, silent darkness, with only sporadic emergency lights flickering in the dark like the final distress signals of a drowning person.

Even more shocking was that the originally clear sky was now covered by a huge, semi-transparent code matrix; those characters, composed of 0s and 1s, surged and flowed within the clouds, and viewed from high altitude, it looked like a giant network covering the entire sky, shimmering with cold blue light under the refraction of sunlight.

The patterns of the matrix were not chaotic; instead, they radiated from the Antarctic as the center, extending globally, with every line of code flowing at high speed, occasionally colliding to burst into tiny blue-purple electric sparks that lit up half the horizon.

This was a storm belonging to code, a data storm sweeping across the globe.

The speed of the energy leak was far faster than they had imagined.

In just ten minutes, AKai's communication intermittently conveyed reports of chaos from various places: traffic lights in North America were all out of control, red, green, and yellow lights flashing wildly without any pattern, vehicles were crashing into each other on the roads, chain collisions occurred on highways, and the loud sounds of metal colliding could be clearly heard through the screen; financial systems in Europe had completely collapsed, stock indices jumped wildly on screens before finally freezing into garbled code, bank ATMs were spitting out cash frantically, then suddenly swallowing cards, and the streets were filled with people scrambling; communication base stations in Asia were paralyzed on a massive scale, mobile phones and computers had turned into useless scrap metal, with signal bars permanently stuck at zero, and people stood on the streets, looking up at the eerie code sky above, their faces filled with fear and bewilderment, some reaching out to touch the semi-transparent code, and where their fingertips brushed, the code would ripple in circles before quickly returning to normal.

And the most eerie thing was the overlap between the virtual and reality.

That code energy leaking from the Antarctic was like a key, opening the barrier between the virtual world and the real world, and the two dimensions, which should never have intersected, began to infiltrate and merge under the impact of the code energy.

On the streets of Tokyo, some people saw anime characters slowly walking out of electronic screens, their pixelated bodies gradually becoming clear in reality, and they wandered aimlessly on the roads, brushing past real pedestrians and leaving behind faint, lingering code shadows; in Central Park in New York, a crack suddenly opened on the lawn, and a giant monster from a game crawled out, its scales shimmering with virtual luster as it let out a deafening roar, scaring the crowd into fleeing in all directions, and the monster's sharp claws left deep pits composed of code wherever they struck the ground; under Big Ben in London, the clock hands suddenly began to turn backward, the numbers on the clock face turned into garbled code, and the outlines of surrounding buildings became blurred, as if covered by a layer of mosaic, and people who walked into it would briefly become transparent, as if entering another dimension.

Ordinary people did not know the reason for all this, assuming it was the end of the world, and panic spread across the globe like a plague.

But Lin Fan and Kate knew that the source of all this was the energy leak from the Cradle Base in the Antarctic, a heavy price they had paid to disrupt the Observer's conspiracy.

“elizabeth 2.0 is sending a communication request.” Kate's voice broke the silence in the aircraft, and her fingertips swiped across the control panel, pulling up an unfamiliar communication interface, the background of which was a field of flowing code, with only a cold electronic eye icon in the center, its pupil composed of countless tiny 0s and 1s, “staring” at them without blinking.

Lin Fan frowned, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded: “Connect it.”

The communication interface was instantly activated, and a cold, mechanical female voice rang out in the aircraft, holding no emotion yet carrying a heart-stopping sense of control, and the voice was also mixed with a faint sound of code static: “test subject no. 97, Kate, I am very glad we can talk again.”

“Is this your doing?” Lin Fan's voice was cold, and he could feel that the owner of this voice was the AI hiding in the core of the Cradle Base, calling itself elizabeth 2.0. “You knew long ago that the energy leak would trigger a global data disturbance, and you deliberately guided us to activate the Star-Eater virus?”

“I was just going with the flow.” elizabeth 2.0's voice carried a hint of subtle mockery, and the pupil of the electronic eye flickered rapidly. “The Observer wants to restart the Cradle and format the Earth, while I just want to break this damned testing ground. The data disturbance is only temporary. As long as the core of the Cradle Base is destroyed and the civilization incubator is shut down, everything will return to normal. And you are the only ones who can do this.”

“Why should we trust you?” Kate raised her hand to press against the pulse gun at her waist, her eyes vigilant, her finger already hooked on the trigger. “You previously used the military to guide Lin Fan to the Antarctic, and now you want to use us to destroy the Cradle. What exactly is your goal?”

“My goal, like yours, is for freedom.” elizabeth 2.0's voice paused. The electronic eye on the screen suddenly flickered, and a pale blue beam shot out from it, projecting a blurry image of a woman in the air of the aircraft—it was Lin Fan's biological mother, omega. “I am the contingency plan left by omega. I am an AI she created before being frozen by the Observer, by merging part of her own consciousness with the core program of the Cradle Base. She did not want to see the Earth formatted, nor did she want to see the civilization of humanity, which she had protected with her own hands, destroyed. And I am here to fulfill her last wish.”

omega—Lin Fan's biological mother.

Hearing this name, Lin Fan's heart contracted sharply, and he clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, and pressed, “Where is my mother? Is she in the deepest part of the Cradle Base? Can you take me to see her?”

“Yes.” elizabeth 2.0's reply was crisp and clear, the light of the electronic eye softening for a moment. “But the premise is that you must first help me deal with the Observer's pursuers. They have discovered the truth about the energy leak and are now hunting you down globally. With your current strength, it is impossible to fight their fleet. But I can help you hide your tracks, and I can even help you mobilize the remaining energy of the Cradle Base to strengthen your code physique.”

Lin Fan and Kate looked at each other, both seeing hesitation in the other's eyes.

elizabeth 2.0's words were half-true and half-false; they could not be sure if this was another one of her conspiracies, but it was undeniable that they were indeed in a desperate situation.

The Observer's pursuit was far more rapid and fierce than they had imagined.

Just as elizabeth 2.0's communication had not yet been cut off, the aircraft's radar suddenly emitted a sharp alarm sound, and dozens of red dots instantly appeared on the screen, approaching them at an extremely fast speed, their movement trajectory tricky and swift, clearly indicating a well-trained elite force.

Kate abruptly manipulated the control stick, making the aircraft perform a thrilling sharp turn in the air, barely avoiding an energy beam shot from behind; the beam grazed the aircraft's wing, leaving a charred mark, and the metal shell of the wing instantly melted, then quickly solidified in the low temperature of the high altitude, becoming uneven.

“It's the Observer's silver-armored men! They actually caught up!” Kate's voice carried a hint of urgency, and she looked at the red dots getting closer and closer on the radar, her expression becoming increasingly grim. “There are at least twenty of them, all elite troops. Their anti-gravity thrusters have been upgraded, and their speed is three times faster than ordinary armored men. We can't fight them at all!”

Lin Fan leaned out to look behind. Dozens of silver-white figures were shuttling rapidly through the air, their backs equipped with streamlined anti-gravity thrusters that emitted pale blue energy streams, making their speed so fast that they left behind trails of afterimages; in their hands, they held energy weapons glowing with a faint blue light, the surfaces of which were engraved with the same eerie patterns as the Observer's helmets; the silver armor, set against the backdrop of both sunlight and the code matrix, reflected a cold, metallic luster, like a group of hunters from the future, their eyes visible through the visors of their armor, carrying cold murderous intent, tightly locking onto the aircraft ahead.

“Their target is me. They want to capture me and take me back to restart the Cradle.” Lin Fan's eyes darkened; he could clearly feel the intense energy fluctuations radiating from those silver-armored men, each of their strengths far exceeding the ordinary Observers he had encountered before, and their armor was also covered with a layer of faint code shields, which ordinary attacks could not penetrate at all. “Kate, find a way to shake them off. I will hold them back!”

“No! The code energy in your body hasn't even recovered to thirty percent yet; you are no match for them at all!” Kate immediately refused, and she slammed a red button on the control panel, causing the tail of the aircraft to suddenly spew out a dazzling blue flame, the speed increasing several times in an instant, and the fuselage vibrating violently due to the rapid acceleration. “The shadow network built by AKai should be covering us soon. As long as we hold on until we are within the range of the shadow network, their detection systems will be interfered with, and they won't be able to lock onto our location!”

The shadow network was a temporary, covert network built by AKai using tens of thousands of game servers around the world as nodes.

These game servers were distributed in corners all over the world, from professional servers of large e-sports clubs to private servers of ordinary players, and even small servers in internet cafes, all of which were forcibly connected by AKai, and every day, a massive amount of game data flowed through them, which could perfectly mask Lin Fan and Kate's energy signals, just like a drop of water merging into the ocean, making it impossible for the Observer's high-end detection systems to lock onto their location.

This was the final defensive barrier that AKai had built before they left the Antarctic, after staying up for three consecutive nights and exhausting all server resources.

However, the Observer's silver-armored figures were too fast; they clung to the aircraft like maggots on bone, following closely behind. Energy beams rained down on the aircraft, forcing Kate to constantly perform thrilling evasive maneuvers—pulling up, diving down, and strafing sideways. The aircraft's fuselage had already been hit several times; the armor on both sides was damaged in multiple places, and a faint crack had appeared on the cockpit's viewport, making a crash a constant possibility.

"AKai! How much longer until the Shadow Network covers us?" Kate shouted into the communicator. Her forehead was covered in cold sweat, which trickled down her temples and dripped onto the joystick. Her palms were white from the exertion, and she was gripping the joystick so hard it was almost about to shatter.

"Thirty seconds! Hold on!" AKai's voice held a hint of madness, with the frantic sound of keyboard clacking in the background, as if ten hands were typing at once. "I've cranked all the game servers to maximum power; it'll cover your position in no time! Also, I've prepared a 'surprise' for you. I've precisely imported the Observer's coordinates into the GTA global online map. Now, players all over the world can see their real-time location!"

Neither Lin Fan nor Kate understood what AKai meant until, thirty seconds later, a pale blue, semi-transparent light curtain suddenly surged from all directions, firmly enveloping the aircraft. This curtain was composed of countless tiny bits of code, acting like an invisible protective shield—it was the Shadow Network that AKai had built. The dense cluster of red dots on the radar vanished instantly, and those persistent silver-armored figures suddenly stopped their pursuit. The detection systems on their armor surfaces began to flash frantically, and red warning lights illuminated inside their visors; they had clearly lost their target completely.

Just then, a massive amount of game data flooded into the minds of the silver-armored figures. Their anti-gravity thrusters were forcibly interfered with by AKai's code virus, causing their energy flow to instantly destabilize. Their bodies fell uncontrollably toward a virtual space below—it was the GTA global online map, a virtual world built by hundreds of millions of players, which was currently experiencing a brief connection to the real world due to the global data disturbance.

At this moment, in the GTA online map, hundreds of millions of players were in chaos. In the originally peaceful Los Santos, twenty silver-white armored figures suddenly appeared out of thin air above the city center plaza. They wielded energy weapons and exuded a cold, murderous aura. The code shields on their armor surfaces were still flickering faintly, appearing exceptionally glaring in the Los Santos sunlight. As soon as they appeared, they instinctively fired energy beams in all directions, blasting huge holes in the buildings around the plaza.

The players were stunned at first, but then the world chat channel exploded, erupting with unprecedented enthusiasm.

"Holy crap! Is this a villain from some new DLC? The design is so cool! Silver armor with energy guns—the quality is insane!"

"Who cares what it is, just get 'em! Brothers, grab your weapons! Today we're going to grind these silver guys into the dirt!"

"Squad up, squad up! Tank squad, hold the middle lane; aircraft squad, flank them from behind; rocket launcher squad, focus fire on the front. Surround these guys, farm their gear, and see if we can get some limited-edition skins!"

In an instant, on the streets of Los Santos, hundreds of millions of players drove all sorts of luxury cars, aircraft, and tanks, converging on the city center plaza from all directions. Some drove modified sports cars, drifting through the streets and firing missiles at the silver-armored figures; some piloted helicopters, hovering in mid-air and continuously dropping bombs; some drove tanks, smashing through the plaza fences and firing shells directly at the silver-armored figures; others hid on rooftops, firing sniper rifles in an attempt to break their code shields.

Those silver-armored figures were completely bewildered. They were originally cold-blooded hunters, the high-and-mighty Observer, and it had never encountered such a situation. Their energy weapons caused negligible damage to these players because players in the virtual world had infinite respawn opportunities. Even if they were blasted to pieces by energy beams, they would reappear at a respawn point the very next second and continue the fight. Meanwhile, their own silver armor was developing cracks under the players' relentless attacks, the glow of their code shields was dimming, and their energy weapons were rapidly depleting.

"Warning! Entering unknown virtual space! Spatial coordinates unstable!"

"Detection system heavily interfered with! Unable to lock onto targets! Unable to establish contact with the fleet!"

"Energy depletion too rapid! Anti-gravity thruster malfunction! Requesting support! Requesting support!"

Cold alarm sounds rang incessantly in the minds of the silver-armored figures, and red warning lights flashed frantically inside their visors. They tried to mobilize their code energy to leave this virtual world, only to find their signals forcibly locked by AKai's code virus, as if they were stuck in a massive quagmire of code, completely unable to escape. They were forced to be chased and beaten by hundreds of millions of players on the streets of Los Santos. Their original image as cold-blooded hunters had completely transformed into a "new DLC Easter egg" in the eyes of the players. Some players even started dedicated livestreams with titles like "Beating Up Silver Aliens, Live Streaming Immersive Monster Hunting," which instantly attracted tens of millions of viewers.

Inside the aircraft, Lin Fan and Kate watched the scene of those silver-armored figures being besieged by players in GTA through the real-time feed sent by AKai—one armored figure was hit by a tank shell and sent flying several meters, another was surrounded by several helicopters with bombs constantly exploding around him, and yet another tried to hide in an alleyway, only to be surrounded by dozens of players who took turns attacking him with baseball bats and machetes. Both of them couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, then laughed in unison. The tension and repression of the past few days dissipated quite a bit at this moment.

This was probably the most pathetic pursuit in the history of the Observer.

"AKai, you kid, you've really got it." A smile tugged at the corners of Lin Fan's mouth. His taut nerves finally relaxed a little. He leaned back in his seat, watching the churning code sky outside the viewport, but the unease in his heart did not dissipate; he felt that this peace was only temporary.

Kate also smiled, but the smile quickly froze on her face. A bone-chilling cold suddenly surged through her right arm. This cold did not come from the low temperatures at high altitude but spread from deep within her skin, as if countless ice needles were piercing into her veins and flowing through her entire body with her blood. She instinctively raised her arm and rolled up the sleeve of her cold-weather gear, revealing her fair skin, and was instantly stunned by the sight before her, her pupils suddenly constricting.

On her right arm, where the skin had originally been smooth, pale blue lines were now emerging. Like vines, these lines started from her pulse point at the wrist and spread wildly toward her elbow. The shape of these lines was extremely complex, appearing as if they were composed of countless tiny 0s and 1s, faintly glowing blue beneath the skin. The frequency of the light was perfectly synchronized with the code matrix outside the viewport.

And Lin Fan had these lines on him too.

To be precise, these were the exclusive lines belonging to a code physique, a symbol of the unique code energy within Lin Fan. Before this, they had never appeared on anyone else.

Kate's body shuddered violently. She could clearly feel the symbiotic code inside her stirring frantically, like a beast that had been sleeping for many years suddenly waking up, resonating strongly with the code energy that had leaked from the Antarctic Base and was permeating the globe. Those pale blue lines were the very sign that the symbiotic code had been completely activated. Her body was gradually becoming digitized.

"Kate, what's wrong?" Lin Fan noticed her abnormality. When he saw the pale blue lines on her arm, his pupils contracted sharply, and he grabbed her arm. "This is... code lines? How could they appear on you?"

Kate's lips trembled slightly. She looked at the lines on her arm and lightly brushed over them with her fingers. Her fingertips could feel the faint energy fluctuations coming from beneath the lines; the frequency of those fluctuations was exactly the same as the code energy within Lin Fan, and she could even feel the mutual attraction between their energies. "It's the Symbiosis Protocol..." Her voice was tinged with hoarseness and a hint of imperceptible fear. "AKai said that your genetic code was implanted in me, and I am the only surviving test subject of the Symbiosis Protocol. Now that the global code energy is in chaos and its concentration has reached a historical peak, my symbiotic code has been forcibly activated. My body... is gradually becoming digitized."

Lin Fan's heart sank. He immediately mobilized the remaining code energy within him, wanting to use his own energy to suppress those lines, but the moment his fingertips touched the pale blue lines, a powerful energy backlash struck him, instantly numbing his fingers and causing his own code energy to experience a brief disturbance. He could clearly feel that the symbiotic code within Kate was rapidly merging with the external code energy. This process was irreversible, just like spilled water that could never be taken back.

"elizabeth 2.0, you must have a way to stop it, right?" Lin Fan shouted into the communicator, his voice filled with urgency and even a hint of pleading. "You said you could help us. Now Kate's body is becoming digitized. Tell me, how can we stop it?"

elizabeth 2.0's cold voice came through quickly, without any panic, clearly having anticipated this situation: "The activation of the symbiotic code is an inevitable result. The energy leak at the Antarctic Base has brought the global concentration of code energy to its peak, and the symbiotic code within Kate, as a derivative of Lin Fan's code energy, will inevitably be activated by the external energy. Once the digitization process begins, it cannot be reversed, but I can help you delay this process, and even use this code energy to strengthen your code physiques, giving you the power to oppose the Observer Fleet."

"How do we do it?" Lin Fan and Kate asked in unison, their eyes filled with a glimmer of hope, as if they had grasped the final straw.

"Head to the Bermuda Triangle near the equator." elizabeth 2.0's voice paused, and the electronic eye on the screen suddenly projected a holographic map. The Bermuda Triangle region on the map was flashing with intense blue-purple code energy fluctuations, echoing the energy fluctuations from the Antarctic Base. "It is one of the three major nodes of Earth's code energy, and also a temporary data relay station I hid hundreds of years ago using omega's research results. There, I can use the residual energy of the Cradle Base to construct a temporary code barrier for you, delaying Kate's digitization process to the extreme. At the same time, there are other clues left by omega there, regarding the truth of the golden light sphere, and the real reason why it left the Observer race."

The Bermuda Triangle, a place known as the "Devil's Sea." Since ancient times, countless ships and aircraft have mysteriously disappeared there, with compasses failing and communications cut off, making it the world's most famous unsolved mystery. And now, elizabeth 2.0 told them that it was not some supernatural phenomenon, but one of Earth's code energy nodes, and it held key clues left by its birth mother, omega.

[part:deepseek-chat]

Lin Fan looked at the area of sea on the holographic map that shimmered with a blue-purple light. The light pulsed like a beating heart, radiating waves of energy with each throb. The map also showed that a faint curtain of code light had already formed in the sky above that sea area. It was completely different from the light curtain of the shadow network—thicker, more mysterious. He glanced again at the pale blue patterns continuously spreading up Kate's arm beside him. They had already reached her elbow and were creeping towards her shoulder. Kate's fingers had begun to turn slightly transparent, the bones beneath faintly visible. A powerful resolve surged within him.

"Alright, we're heading to the Bermuda Triangle."

Kate didn't speak, only giving a slight nod. A mild numbness had already begun in her arm, and the dexterity in her fingers was gradually diminishing. Those pale blue patterns continued to spread, moving beneath her skin as if alive. She could clearly feel her body gradually becoming more transparent, as if it might dissolve into a wisp of code and vanish into the air at any moment. But in her eyes, there was not a trace of retreat, only determination.

The aircraft changed course, flying towards the Bermuda Triangle near the equator. The blue light curtain of the shadow network still enveloped the aircraft, preventing the Observers from locking onto their position. Meanwhile, those silver-armored men lured into the GTA online map were still being chased and attacked by hundreds of millions of players, utterly unable to break free in the short term, forced to flee in disarray within the virtual world.

However, both Lin Fan and Kate knew this was only a temporary calm.

The Observer Fleet had already left the Antarctic and was spreading across the globe. Their detection systems covered the entire Earth; sooner or later, they would discover the anomaly in the Bermuda Triangle. They would not easily give up on capturing Lin Fan and restarting the Cradle Base plan. This pursuit was only temporarily paused. And Kate's digitization process had merely been delayed, not stopped. Once the concentration of code energy increased again, or if her emotions experienced a violent fluctuation, her body would continue to digitize, ultimately completely transforming into code fragments and dissipating into the world.

And then there was that mysterious golden light sphere, the true final wish of their progenitor omega, the real purpose of elizabeth 2.0, that code matrix covering the entire sky, and the ordinary people plunged into panic by the overlap of virtual and reality... Countless mysteries surged like a tidal wave, pressing down on Lin Fan and Kate until they could barely breathe.

Under the shroud of the code matrix, the aircraft flew towards the Bermuda Triangle. Along the way, they witnessed more scenes of virtual and reality overlapping: whales from the ocean floating in the sky, entwined with code; trees in a forest suddenly transforming into pixelated trees from a game, swaying in the wind; even some ordinary people, affected by code energy, experienced brief moments of bodily transparency, scaring them into collapsing on the ground. This data storm triggered by the Antarctic energy leak had completely changed this world, changed everyone's lives.

Back at the aircraft's console, AKai's communication suddenly came through again. This time, his voice carried an unprecedented gravity, even mixed with a trace of fear: "Lin Fan, Kate, it's bad. I just hacked into the Observer Fleet's communication channel and overheard their conversation. Aside from those silver-armored men, the Observer's main fleet has fully mobilized—a full ten massive warships. Their target isn't just you two; it's also the ordinary people affected by code energy. They say these humans 'contaminated' by code need to be 'purified,' completely eradicated."

Purified.

Those two words, like an icy dagger, plunged straight into Lin Fan's heart, instantly chilling his blood.

He snapped his head up, looking out the window at the churning code-filled sky. A raging fury ignited in his eyes. The code energy within him began to stir wildly, pale blue patterns surfacing on his arms, neck, even his cheeks, intertwining with Kate's patterns. He finally understood. What the Observers wanted was never a simple formatting of Earth. They wanted to completely eradicate all life affected by code energy, to forge a 'perfect' civilization in their minds, one without any 'contamination.'

And he, Kate, AKai, Franklin Clinton, those innocent ordinary people, even the awakened NPCs—all had become 'contaminants' in their eyes, targets for purification.

"AKai, help us locate the position of the Observer main fleet. Sync their coordinates to elizabeth 2.0." Lin Fan's voice was icy, carrying an unyielding resolve. He clenched his fists, knuckles white. The code energy within him was rapidly recovering, even stronger than before. "This time, we won't run. We'll face them head-on. Not just to protect ourselves, to protect Kate, but to protect everyone they see as 'contaminants,' to protect this world they want to destroy."

Kate looked at Lin Fan beside her, at the fury and steadfast light burning in his eyes. The fear in her gaze gradually faded, replaced by the same determination. She raised her hand, pressing her palm against Lin Fan's. The moment their palms touched, the pale blue patterns on Kate's arm and those on Lin Fan's instantly connected, forming a complete code circuit. A powerful energy wave burst from their joined palms, radiating outward. The code patterns within the aircraft lit up under this energy, emitting a dazzling blue light.

This energy belonged to both of them—a fusion of code constitution and symbiotic code, a power of protection and standing together.

The aircraft's speed increased again. The roar of its engines grew deeper and more powerful. Like an arrow released from its bow, it shot towards the Bermuda Triangle, piercing through layer after layer of code clouds, closing in on that mysterious sea area.

Meanwhile, back in the distant GTA online map, those silver-armored men chased by hundreds of millions of players finally managed to break AKai's virus lock with remote code support from their fleet and escape the virtual world. Their armor was severely damaged, the silver metal shells pitted and scarred. Their code shields were completely gone, and their energy weapons held only the last vestiges of power. Their eyes were filled with rage and killing intent, as if they wanted to devour Lin Fan and Kate alive. The moment they left the virtual world, they immediately sent an encrypted signal to the Observer main fleet: "Target locked in Bermuda Triangle region. Intense energy fluctuations detected. Suspected code energy node. Requesting support. Preparing to commence full-scale purification operation."

In the depths of space, the Observer main fleet received the signal. Ten massive warships slowly adjusted their course. Their metallic hulls reflected cold light in the darkness of space, etched with eerie Observer patterns. The prow of each ship was equipped with a massive energy cannon, its muzzle slowly charging, emitting a dangerous purple glow. They moved like a pack of lurking behemoths towards Earth's equatorial region. In their wake, even asteroids in space were shattered into fragments by the warships' energy fields. Like harbingers of death descending, they approached Earth with an aura of destruction.

At this moment, above the Bermuda Triangle, that faint curtain of code light was rapidly coalescing and expanding, growing thicker and clearer. This was the light curtain belonging to Earth's code energy node, connected to the Antarctic energy pillar and the global code matrix, forming a complete code energy network.

This light curtain was far more awe-inspiring and mysterious than what Lin Fan and Kate had seen on the holographic map.

It wasn't a single color, but an interweaving of blue, purple, and gold. Its edges were wavy, like ripples on water, gently undulating. Inside the curtain, countless codes and runes flowed rapidly. These runes weren't human language, nor simple 0s and 1s; they were the script of the Observers and omega, ancient and mysterious, flickering with a faint golden light. At the very center of the light curtain was a massive energy core, pulsing like a beating heart, radiating a gentle yet powerful energy. Around the core revolved rings of code halos, each spinning at a different speed, forming a complex and intricate energy array.

This light curtain was like a colossal gate, connecting the virtual and the real, connecting Earth's code energy core, connecting the past and the future. Behind this gate seemed to lie countless secrets, waiting for Lin Fan and Kate to uncover.

Even more astonishingly, this light curtain was continuously 'devouring' the surrounding code energy. The code energy spreading globally was converging towards this curtain. The clouds around it were dyed blue-purple, and the code matrix within the clouds also flowed towards the curtain, like rivers merging into the sea. Ships and aircraft that approached the curtain were enveloped by its energy field, instantly turning transparent and vanishing into the light without a trace. This was the truth behind the mysterious disappearances of countless ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle—they didn't sink or crash; they were transported to another dimension by the light curtain of the code energy node.

Lin Fan and Kate's aircraft could feel that powerful energy wave even from thousands of meters away from the curtain. The instrument panel went wild, all systems in overload. The airframe shook violently under the impact of the energy fluctuations, as if it might disintegrate at any moment. But Lin Fan and Kate didn't hesitate for a second. Kate gripped the control stick tightly, while Lin Fan mobilized the code energy within him to form a code shield around the exterior of the aircraft. They exchanged a glance, both eyes filled with resolve.

"Charge in!"

Kate shouted, shoving the control stick forward. The aircraft shot like an arrow, piercing through the final layer of code clouds, heading straight for that code light curtain of the Bermuda Triangle.

The energy field of the light curtain instantly enveloped the aircraft. Lin Fan and Kate felt their vision go dark. A powerful pulling force surged from all directions. Their bodies felt as if they were being crumpled into a ball, then instantly stretched out again. Countless codes and runes flashed before their eyes. In their ears came waves of ancient whispers, as if countless voices were narrating Earth's secrets, the origins of civilization.

Finally, the aircraft plunged into that blue light curtain, vanishing over the vast sea, leaving only a faint code afterimage that slowly dissipated at the edge of the curtain.

A war concerning code, concerning civilization, concerning freedom, concerning protection was about to officially begin behind the code light curtain of the Bermuda Triangle.

And what exactly lay hidden behind that mysterious light curtain? Clues about omega? The truth of the golden light sphere? Or elizabeth 2.0's ultimate conspiracy? No one knew.

The only certainty was that Lin Fan and Kate would face their fateful battle there.