122: Chapter 122, Fourth Floor: The Legend of Room 404
The fourth layer of the Abyss, the Forgotten Void.
If the first three layers were still worlds of matter, then the fourth layer was a desert of logic. As the tianhe no. 1 fleet passed through that flickering mosaic barrier, alarms on all warships sounded simultaneously, but the sounds they emitted were not sirens—they were eerie, fragmented nursery rhymes.
"Two... tigers... zzz... running... zzz..."
Lei Wanjun stared at the instrument panel before him, his face pale. "Dean! Something's wrong!" "All physical constants are going haywire! Gravity points upward one moment, then to the left the next! Just now, my water cup suddenly turned into a duck, and then into a pile of code!" "The rules here are... shattered!"
Li Mo stood by the porthole, gazing at the scene outside. There was no sky, no earth. Only countless fragments floating in the dim Void Realm. There was a half-broken mountain range, a palace reduced to half its size, the massive skeleton of an unknown creature, and even what appeared to be remnants of modern civilization—such as a massive traffic light floating in the air (which reminded Li Mo of the three unfortunate Elders of the Wanfa Immortal Sect).
This place was like the **Recycle Bin** in a computer. Everything deleted by the Universe, forgotten by civilizations, or lost due to bugs eventually converged here.
"Don't panic." Li Mo adjusted his glasses and activated the Eye of Truth at its highest power. What others saw as chaotic fragments, he saw as streams of deleted data.
[Current Region: pangu-003 OS System · Temporary Cache (Temp).] [Warning: This region contains numerous logical bad sectors. Avoid random read/write operations to prevent loss of existence.]
"Just as I thought." Li Mo's lips curved into a faint smile. "This isn't an abyss—it's this warship's **'data dump'**."
Just then, a massive, writhing shadow suddenly appeared ahead of the fleet. It had no fixed form, morphing at times into enormous tentacles, at other times into countless weeping faces. It drifted through the Void Realm, devouring all the fragments around it.
"Where... am I... Who am I..." "Don't... delete me..." The shadow uttered bone-chilling whispers.
"That's a **Void Scavenger**." The Emperor of Great Zhou (the diplomat) trembled as he clutched an ancient text. "Legend says it's an amalgamation of the resentment of the forgotten! Anything it touches is assimilated, completely erased from existence!"
The shadow seemed to sense the presence of the living and abruptly changed direction, lunging toward the fleet. Its speed was extreme, and it ignored physical defenses. As soon as a frigate at the front made contact with the shadow, its hull began to pixelate and disintegrate like a data stream.
"Attacks are ineffective!" Butcher Xiao roared. "Physical attacks pass right through! Spell attacks are consumed by it!" "This thing has no physical form! How do we fight it?!"
"If it's 'deleted data'..." Li Mo calmly opened the **Heavenly Dao Editing Room**. "Then it must be dealt with using an Administrator's methods."
He didn't summon any earth-shattering spiritual power. Instead, he directed a simple command toward the massive shadow in the Void Realm: [Ctrl + Z] (Undo Delete).
*Bzzzt—!* A beam of golden light, embodying the rules of existence, struck the shadow with precision.
A miracle occurred. The shadow, once chaotic, frenzied, and filled with resentment, stopped writhing the moment it made contact with the "undo" command. The dark aura around it began to dissipate, and its pixelated body started to reorganize.
A few seconds later. The shadow vanished. In its place floated a translucent... old man. He wore ancient star-official robes, held a compass in his hand, and looked around in confusion.
"I... I'm alive?" The old man looked at his hands, then at the massive pink fleet before him. "Wasn't I repairing the 'Star Chart Navigator'? How did I suddenly fall into that '404 bug'?"
Li Mo maneuvered the command console closer. "Greetings, Elder. I am the new captain of this ship. What is your name?"
Seeing the glow of Administrator Privilege around Li Mo, the old man trembled and immediately knelt in the Void Realm. "This guilty subject... Heavenly Secret, was the chief maintenance officer of the pangu-003 navigation System. Thirty thousand years ago, I accidentally lost a piece of the 'Star Chart Fragment' and tried to retrieve it from the Recycle Bin, but ended up slipping in myself..."
"Heavenly Secret?" Li Mo's eyes lit up. *What a fortunate coincidence.* He had been worried about repairing the radar without a detailed star chart, and here one was delivered right to him. Moreover, since this old man was a former maintenance officer, he surely knew many secrets of the warship.
"Rise." Li Mo waved his hand. "What's past is past. I hereby rehire you." "However, before rejoining the crew, I need you to help me find something."
Li Mo pointed at this vast "dump." "This place is too cluttered with random things, taking up too much System memory." "Since you've been here for thirty thousand years, you should know where the valuable items are, right?" "For example... the ship's **black box** (Voyage Log Recorder)."
Heavenly Secret nodded eagerly. "I know! Of course I know!" "That black box was thrown in here as trash by the previous captain because its memory was full! It's in the 'Recycle Bin Core' over there!" "But... there's a watchdog guarding it."
"A watchdog?" Li Mo followed Heavenly Secret's pointing finger. In the deepest part of the Void Realm, there was a massive door flashing with red light. On it were three large characters: [404 NOT FOUND]. And in front of the door lay an electronic hound composed of countless "error pop-ups."
[Warning: System Watchdog (Dog.exe).] [Function: Prevents garbage data overflow.] [Attack Method: Frenzied pop-ups (to freeze you).]
Li Mo smiled. "Pop-up ads, huh?" "I'm familiar with these."
He turned to Lei Wanjun and said, "Director Lei, summon our **'Abyssal Tentacle Monster Hacker Group'.**" "Issue each of them a **[360 Powerful Uninstall Ball]**." "Today, we're conducting a 'full-System virus scan.'"
...
The battle process was utterly absurd. The "watchdog" frantically spewed various red error pop-ups, attempting to freeze the tianhe no. 1 fleet's operating System. But the well-prepared Tentacle Monsters, wielding their "Uninstall Balls" (a type of rule-based Magic Treasure), accurately clicked the "Close" button on every pop-up. *Pop! Pop! Pop!* The pop-ups shattered one by one. The watchdog was forced to retreat step by step, until finally, with a howl, it dissolved into a pile of garbled code.
The door opened. Li Mo flew into the "404 Door." Atop a mountain of "data garbage," he found the black box. It was an unremarkable black metal cube.
The moment Li Mo's fingers touched it, a sealed memory flooded his mind. It wasn't text—it was an image. In the image, a giant in a white lab coat (possibly pangu-003), whose face was unclear, stood before the control panel, sighing helplessly: "Engine overheating... navigation failure... cleaning System on strike..." "This broken ship is undrivable." "Forget it, let's just park it by the roadside and take a nap. Hope the next Administrator who takes over is a bit smarter..."
Li Mo: "..." *So this is just an abandoned project? The previous captain ditched the ship because it broke down and he didn't want to fix it?*
"Fine." Li Mo stored the black box and shook his head resignedly. "Administrator it is, then." "Since I hold the keys now, no one can stop me from driving."
He glanced back at the fourth-layer space being "recycled." Under Heavenly Secret's direction, countless pieces of "data garbage" were being converted into pure spiritual energy, replenishing the fleet's energy reserves.
"Reorganization complete." Li Mo looked downward—toward the final and most mysterious fifth layer of the Abyss. The Bottom of the Abyss: Chaos Core. That was also the location of this warship's **Central Processing Unit (CPU)**.
"Let's go." Li Mo took a deep breath. "Time to meet this so-called 'Abyssal Consciousness'." "Or rather... that **'artificial idiot'**."