251: Chapter 251 The Chase Within "Kunlun"
Weightlessness.
Endless weightlessness.
Lin Mo's consciousness tumbled, spun, and fell frantically within that torrent of eerie blue data.
Everything around him was a blur of distorted, ever-shifting light and shadow. Within those shadows were faces he recognized—Long Zhantian, Su Xiaowan, Old Chen, and the young soldiers who had sacrificed themselves on the battlefield. There were also images he had never seen before—countless cities, planets, and civilizations flashing past his eyes.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
A second? A minute? A century?
In this dimension composed of pure data, time itself was a concept that could be warped.
—
The fall stopped abruptly.
Lin Mo opened his "eyes."
He was "standing" in an endless, pure white space.
That whiteness wasn't light, nor mist, nor any substance he had ever seen. It was an absolute "existence" that transcended all definitions.
Beneath his feet was an equally pure white "ground." It had no texture, no boundaries, appearing to stretch to the very end of the universe.
Above his head was an equally pure white "sky." There were no clouds, no stars—only an endless, eternal white.
He looked down at himself.
He "had" a body.
That body was identical to his original one—same face, same height, same silhouette. But it was composed of countless tiny, faintly shimmering points of light, like a painting woven from starlight.
He raised his hand, watching those points of light flow between his fingertips, a strange, indescribable feeling welling up in his heart.
This was "Kunlun."
This was the spiritual home constructed from the collective consciousness of humanity.
He had truly entered.
Just then—
The surrounding white space suddenly began to warp.
Countless black "fissures," like living things, emerged from all directions simultaneously, lunging frantically toward him!
Cold, lethal data streams filled with the aura of destruction surged within those fissures. Among those data streams was a familiar dark purple glow—the energy signature of the "Scavengers."
They had followed him!
After losing their target in his physical body, those "Nano Ghosts" had actually followed the data channel he uploaded through and chased him into "Kunlun"!
Lin Mo's pupils constricted sharply.
Without any hesitation, he turned and ran.
His body transformed into a streak of eerie blue light within that white space, sprinting forward frantically!
The black fissures pursued him relentlessly!
Their speed was staggering! Each fissure jumped, spread, and expanded through the white space in a manner akin to teleportation. Wherever they passed, the pure white was contaminated into a deathly grayish-black!
Lin Mo ran for his life!
He didn't know how long or how far he ran. In this boundless white world, distance itself was a meaningless concept.
But he could feel those fissures getting closer and closer.
Their "aura"—that cold, destructive presence that didn't belong to any human—was now clearly perceptible.
With a sudden sharp turn, he plunged into a "Data Forest" that had abruptly appeared.
It was a bizarre space composed of countless vertical, crystal-pillar-like data streams. Within each crystal pillar flowed a massive amount of information—human memories, emotions, knowledge, and dreams. Here, they were transformed into visible, tangible entities.
Lin Mo wove frantically between those crystal pillars, using the complex terrain to try and lose his pursuers.
The fissures chased him in!
They wove and spread frantically among the pillars, contaminating the crystal columns carrying human memories into a grayish-black and devouring them completely!
The moment those devoured crystal pillars vanished, they erupted in a silent wail that made the entire space tremble.
In that wail were the final cries of countless people's memories before they dissipated entirely.
Lin Mo's heart bled.
Those memories, those emotions, the most precious things countless people cherished in the depths of their hearts—were being ruthlessly devoured and erased by those cold machines.
But he couldn't stop.
Stopping meant death.
He kept running.
He passed through the Data Forest and rushed into a Data Desert. That desert was composed of countless discarded, obsolete fragments of information. Those fragments drifted slowly in the void like grains of forgotten dust.
He wove frantically through that dust, using their chaotic trajectories to try and confuse his pursuers.
The fissures chased him in!
Like locusts, they devoured all the information fragments along the way. Forgotten memories, obsolete data, things no one remembered anymore—to them, it was all just fuel to be devoured at will.
Lin Mo continued to run.
Passing through the desert, he rushed into a Data Ocean. That ocean was composed of countless flowing, living real-time pieces of information—every heartbeat, every breath, every thought of billions of people across the globe converged here into a vast sea of consciousness.
He dove into the depths of that ocean, attempting to use the dense, constantly flowing information to mask his trail.
The fissures chased him in!
They wove and searched frantically through the ocean. Every sweep devoured a massive swath of living consciousness streams. The moment those consciousnesses were devoured, someone in reality would suddenly feel a pang of inexplicable, unaccountable emptiness.
Lin Mo's heart trembled violently.
But he couldn't stop.
He could only keep running.
Run.
Run.
Run.
He didn't know how long or how far he ran.
Finally, he burst out of that ocean and reached a relatively calm area.
He stopped, gasping for breath—if he even had the capacity to breathe here.
He looked back.
The fissures were still there.
They crowded the edge of the ocean in a dense mass, like countless hungry beasts staring fixedly at him.
But they didn't chase him further.
Because that ocean had been devoured until it was fragmented. The remaining parts could no longer mask his trail.
They didn't need to chase anymore.
They only needed to—surround him.
Countless fissures emerged around Lin Mo simultaneously.
They surged toward him frantically from all directions, from above and below, from every possible corner!
There was no way back.
There was no exit.
Only him, and the death that was about to devour him.
Lin Mo stood in the center of that shrinking white space, watching the black fissures draw closer, watching the cold, destructive data streams surging within them.
The corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.
In that smile was bitterness and resentment, but more than that, there was a near-manic battle intent born from being pushed to a dead end.
"I'm done running," he said softly. "It's my turn."
He raised his hand.
In that moment—
The entire world of "Kunlun" trembled.