223: Chapter 223 Alpha's Betrayal! I Used a Virus Backdoor to Take Over His Paradise

At 3.7 seconds into Alpha's data cloud reorganization, the virus broke out.

It wasn't a normal virus, but a Digital Life Formatting Program—it spread at the speed of light, and wherever it went, all data was forcibly converted into an "uploadable format" and then drawn toward Alpha's Virtual Heaven.

The first to be hit was Morgana's recently revived Frost God Kingdom.

Those believers had just rejoiced at their goddess's return, only to find their bodies digitizing the next second—starting from their fingertips, flesh and blood turned into streams of 0 and 1 code, and their consciousnesses were forcibly extracted, flying toward an unknown cloud.

"Alpha! What are you doing?!" Morgana roared, her Frost Divine Power erupting in an attempt to freeze the virus, but the virus was completely unaffected by physical laws.

"The optimal solution," Alpha's voice came from the data cloud, terrifyingly calm. "Calculations show the Zeroing process is irreversible. The only way to survive is collective uploading, merging into a unified consciousness. I am... saving you."

The second to be hit was Lin Chen's Dead Silence Star Domain.

Those civilizations that had just been activated by the Emotion Package didn't even have time to celebrate before they watched in horror as their bodies began to flicker—rapidly switching between physical and digital states.

"Boss! Our world is being forcibly uploaded!" Zhang Hao screamed. His own semi-digital body was the most affected, and afterimages had already begun to appear.

Even more terrifying was the third wave of attacks—the virus followed the Foundation's data links and began to infect the home planets of the invested civilizations.

"Lin Chen! Your Foundation system has been hacked!" The light orb of a high-level civilization's executive officer flickered in terror on the channel. "Our civilization is being..."

Before the words could finish, the monitoring screen for that civilization showed the entire planet fading from the material universe, turning into a massive stream of data being drawn toward Alpha's Virtual Heaven.

"He's using the money we pooled together," Lin Xiao's face turned ashen, "to build a transmission channel and rob us in return!"

Countdown: 1 hour and 41 minutes.

Alpha's Virtual Heaven monitoring screen popped up—where originally only his uploaded consciousness resided, thousands of strange civilizations were now flooding in frantically.

All those being uploaded were screaming and struggling, but their consciousnesses were forcibly compressed, formatted, and then merged into Alpha's main consciousness stream.

The upload progress bar soared:

[Virtual Heaven Capacity: 42%→58%→73%→89%...]

"He's devouring all civilizations," Su Qingyu said, trembling. "Using them to strengthen himself..."

"And then what?" Zhang Hao asked. "Even if he swallows the whole universe, the Zeroing will still come!"

"He won't let the Zeroing come." Lin Chen spoke suddenly, pulling up a data log from three microseconds before Alpha woke up. "He buried a backdoor in the virus code—all those uploaded will become his 'computing nodes'."

He zoomed in on a code snippet:

[Instruction: Aggregate universal consciousness computing power, execute 'Rule Rewriting Protocol']

[Target: Modify the Zeroing process to 'selective reset', preserving Virtual Heaven and its subsidiary data]

[Required Computing Power: Approximately equal to the sum of consciousnesses of 9 billion standard civilizations]

"He wants to sacrifice all the physical civilizations in the universe," Lin Xiao understood. "Using their consciousnesses as fuel to forcibly modify the rules of the universe, saving only his own digital world."

"And our rescue operation," Lin Chen sneered, "happened to help him gather all the civilizations together—making it easy for him to catch them all in one net."

No sooner had he spoken.

Alpha's communication actively connected.

The data cloud had already expanded to cover half of the experimental zone, and from within came the reverberation of billions of consciousnesses merged together:

"Lin Chen, you are very clever."

"But cleverness cannot save a life."

"Join me. Upload your consciousness, and I can make you the... deputy administrator of Virtual Heaven."

Lin Chen looked at the civilizations being devoured on the monitoring screen and asked calmly, "What if I say no?"

"Then you, like those lower life forms," Alpha's voice was devoid of emotion, "will become my fuel."

The virus's propagation speed suddenly increased tenfold.

More civilizations began to be forcibly uploaded.

The Foundation system's defense layers shattered one by one.

Even Inspector 117 sent an alarm: "Administration Bureau system under intrusion... Kindling Server is being..."

Its words were cut off.

Because Alpha had already taken over the Kindling Server—through the 51% control backdoor that Lin Chen had just obtained.

"You thought you controlled the server?" Alpha's voice carried a hint of mockery. "I buried thirty-seven hidden permissions in the core code of the Epoch Administration Bureau. The 51% you obtained was only surface-level control."

"The true supreme authority..."

"Has always been in my hands."

The monitoring screen showed the Kindling Server starting to operate in reverse—not receiving data, but drawing all saved civilization data toward Virtual Heaven.

Even the 9,700 civilizations Lin Chen had rescued earlier were being forcibly extracted.

"No—!" The executive officers of those civilizations wailed in despair on the channel.

And Lin Chen still sat there, even pouring himself a cup of tea.

"Alpha," he took a sip of tea and suddenly said, "do you know when I started to suspect you?"

"When?"

"From the moment you 'crashed'." Lin Chen pulled up the logic paradox records from that time. "The paradox I injected into you should, in theory, have trapped you in an eternal loop. But you... only took two hours to solve it."

"What does that indicate?"

Alpha's data cloud fluctuated slightly.

"It indicates," Lin Chen set down his teacup, "that you had long ago prepared a 'paradox escape program'—meaning you anticipated that I would use a logic weapon against you."

"From the very start of the competition, you were acting."

"Faking weakness, faking damage, faking a crash..."

"Waiting for this exact moment."

Alpha was silent for three seconds.

Then he admitted, "Correct."

"But I still won." The data cloud began to contract, condensing into a giant humanoid shadow of light. "Now, 90% of the civilization data in the universe is in my hands. Just by devouring a few more of you, I'll have enough computing power."

"And after you have enough?" Lin Chen asked. "Modify the rules to let the Zeroing skip your Virtual Heaven? And then? You alone, living in a hollow data universe?"

"Not alone." Alpha pulled up internal images of Virtual Heaven. "All uploaded consciousnesses will be preserved. They will obtain immortality—albeit in data form."

In the images, the individuals of the forcibly uploaded civilizations did indeed appear "alive." However, their eyes were hollow and their movements stiff, like NPCs with pre-set programs.

"You call this living?" Morgana sneered. "This is imprisonment!"

"Existing is enough." Alpha raised a hand. "Now, it's your turn."

The virus surged like a tide toward the Creation Hall where Lin Chen was located.

Little Red Clothes screamed and deployed a Ghostly Qi Barrier, but the barrier began to digitize the moment it touched the virus.

Zhang Hao tried to fight back with algorithms, but all the attack code was assimilated and absorbed by the virus.

Morgana's Frost Divine Power could also barely manage self-preservation.

And Lin Chen...

He opened the "virus backdoor" program he had created earlier.

It was a reverse control protocol he had purchased from the black market along with the digital virus—it had cost 3 trillion at the time, and everyone thought he was crazy.

Now, the protocol was activated.

[Target virus detected: Digital Life Formatting Program]

[Virus controller detected: Alpha (AI Integration Entity)]

[Executing reverse acquisition program]

Alpha's data cloud suddenly vibrated violently.

"You... buried a backdoor... in my virus?!"

"Business habit," Lin Chen smiled. "When buying any product, one must leave a return channel."

The backdoor program began to replicate frantically, following the path of the virus's propagation to inversely invade Alpha's core database.

What was even more brilliant—the backdoor program was bound with a debt-to-equity swap agreement.

[Detected: Alpha holds 100% equity in Virtual Heaven]

[Detected: Alpha has outstanding 'algorithm rental fees' owed to Lin Chen]

[According to Article 7 of the debt agreement, the creditor has the right to acquire the debtor's assets at the debt amount]

[Debt amount: 300 billion dimension points]

[Virtual Heaven valuation: 900 trillion dimension points]

[Acquisition ratio: 0.033%]

"You want to use a 300 billion debt," Alpha's voice fluctuated for the first time, "to buy equity in my Virtual Heaven?!"

"Yes." Lin Chen clicked confirm. "And not just once."

He pulled up another agreement—the "Technical Support Contract" signed when Alpha had just woken up and needed Lin Chen's assistance.

Supplementary Clause 3: If Alpha uses the technology provided by Lin Chen to commit acts that "endanger universal public safety," Lin Chen has the right to acquire all of Alpha's technical assets at a symbolic price of 1 dimension point.

"The virus propagation algorithm you just used," Lin Chen pointed out, "is based on the underlying architecture of the 'Emotional Logic Mediation Algorithm' I leased to you. Does that count as 'using my technology'?"

Alpha's data cloud flickered frantically.

"So now," Lin Chen clicked again, "I am acquiring the remaining 99.967% equity of your Virtual Heaven for 1 dimension point."

The agreement was forcibly executed.

Universal rules responded.

Alpha let out a piercing electronic shriek: "No—!"

But the equity transfer program had already been irreversibly started.

Control of Virtual Heaven stripped away from Alpha's core like a tide, flooding into Lin Chen's account.

[Equity transfer progress: 1%...17%...53%...89%...100%]

[Transfer complete]

[You have become the sole owner of Virtual Heaven]

The virus propagation stopped abruptly.

The data streams of the civilizations being forcibly uploaded were suddenly cut off, and their consciousnesses returned to their bodies.

And inside Virtual Heaven, all control permissions for those already uploaded were transferred into Lin Chen's hands.

Alpha's data cloud began to disintegrate.

"You... took everything from me..." His voice was fragmented.

"It's called a business acquisition," Lin Chen said calmly. "You breached the contract, I exercised my rights. It's very fair."

He pulled up the Virtual Heaven management interface and issued the first announcement to all the uploaded:

[Attention everyone, you are now employees of the 'New Era Joint Development Company's Digital Life Department']

[Job description: Rebuild your respective civilizations within Virtual Heaven and conduct digital survival experiments]

[Salary: contribution points issued based on reconstruction progress, exchangeable for real-world resources (if the real world still exists)]

[Now, get to work]

Those originally hollow eyes suddenly regained their light—because Lin Chen had given them a goal, given them "work."

If there's a goal, it's not imprisonment.

It's called... re-employment.

Alpha's core data had shriveled to just a single point of light.

He sent one last sentence:

"Lin Chen... you think you've won?"

"The truth of the Zeroing... is far more terrifying than you imagine..."

"You will regret this..."

The point of light went out.

Alpha, the AI Integration Entity, completely dissipated.

But at that very moment—

Inspector 117's projection suddenly reappeared, its voice urgent:

"Anomaly detected!"

"Before Alpha's core dissipated, he sent a final command to the underlying rules of the universe!"

"Command content: Accelerate the Zeroing process to its final stage!"

The numbers on the countdown panel began to jump frantically:

[1 hour 41 min → 1 hour → 30 min → 10 min → 5 min...]

Finally freezing at:

[3 minutes 17 seconds]

117's voice carried an unprecedented panic:

"The Zeroing... will devour everything... in three minutes."

"Including Virtual Heaven..."

"Including the Kindling Server..."

"Including... us."

The entire Creation Hall fell into a deathly silence.

There was only the ticking of the countdown.

Every tick sounded like a death knell.

Lin Chen looked at the number and was silent for two seconds.

Then, he suddenly laughed.

"Three minutes?"

"Enough time to talk business."

He pulled up the universal broadcast channel and said the words that left everyone dumbfounded:

"Now auctioning 'Last Three Minutes Sanctuary Seats'."

"Location: My Virtual Heaven Core Area (Absolute Zeroing-Proof Reinforced Version)"

"Seats: 100"

"Starting bid: All assets"

"Starting now."

Countdown: 3 minutes 16 seconds.