When K3 regained his consciousness, he realized that he was present in a completely unfamiliar place in his physical form. His last memory was a battle with the players in the yard of an abandoned shrine.
K3 found himself in a blue-gray world that had a metallic feel to it. He could not logically predict the actual size of the space around him because his sense of distance was fuzzy. The slate of blueish grayness on the horizon was a wall or the floor—it was hard to tell. In the sky, there were several red, floating strands of data trailing about. They were of indeterminate length and seemed to reach beyond the horizon. From afar, they looked to be immaterial objects, and their shapes would change from the refraction of light based on the angle of observation. In this relatively simplistic world, they worked as quite beautiful decoration, but they were probably worthless as a point of reference.
There was breathable air and wind, and the temperature was maintained at about twenty degrees. The sky was turquoise, and there were no clouds, nor any astronomical entity like stars, the moon, or the sun. The sky itself was glowing. His auditory receptor was working like usual. Other than his own voice, he could hear the sound of the wind.
“Are you feeling alright?” A young voice came from behind K3. K3 turned around, but there was no one there. He looked down and finally saw a child standing behind him. She was wearing a fully dark outfit, and she looked to be an eight years old girl.
“You are…” K3 studied the girl from a data-level and realized with a shock that the ’glow’ within the girl was the brightest he had ever seen.
“X2-Wings,” X2 replied. “Do you remember how you ended up here?”
“No,” K3 answered.
“Hmm… Partial short-term memory hasn’t been completely converted… But it should be fixed soon,” X2 said.
“What is this place?” K3 asked.
“They call this place the ’desktop’. It is a part of the inner world. It is also the largest part,” X2 replied.
“The inner world, is it?” K3 said. “No wonder your code name is two, and that light…”
“Now your code name is also two,” X2 said. “You are now K2-Red Iron.”
“Hah… So, I’ve finally reached level two,” K2 said with a smile. “How come I don’t feel any significant changes?”
“Technically speaking, there should be no change at all,” X2 explained. “By entering the inner world, your code name will rise to two, but that only mean you possess the basic condition of a level two. It doesn’t mean that you have obtained the power of a level two.”
“Then how should I…”
Before K2 finished, X2 cut him off. “Before you think about that question, the damage on you’ve sustained seems to be bigger than I predicted. Your memory circuit shows no sign of normal recovery.”
She tilted her head. A glow of data current appeared in her eyes. She was likely examining the degree of damage to K2.
“If we allow this to persist, there is a chance that it might turn into permanently redundant data. The recovered data piece will overlap with similar parts that have recovered but can’t be read, and that might lead to some non-lethal error and affect the normal operation of the memory circuit,” X2 said as she reached out with her right hand. “Give me your hand. I will help you reform and correct the error.”
K2 placed his hand into X2’s small palm. X2 said, “Go back to your last memory layer before coming here. Hold on, I will help you load it.”
Soon, K2’s eyes were glowing with the shine of the data flow as well…
…
“Brother Zen, you are prepared to die as well, aren’t you?” Feng Bujue asked Zen Dream.
“It doesn’t matter.” Zen Dream kept his brain sharp. “If I quit, I need to receive the punishment of abandoning the game, but if I die in battle, I wouldn’t face that problem.”
“Then… try your best to keep up with me and assist my attack,” Feng Bujue said. “We are going to start a long fight with this Anomaly.”
You want me to keep up with you? Are you kidding? I can take on two of you at once, Zen Dream mocked internally. Your weapon is that broken stool. Do you think I can’t keep up with you?
“I will try my best…” Zen Dream did not dare voice his real thoughts. Mainly, he was afraid that if Feng Bujue was annoyed, he might toy with the plot armor system. Based on what he knew of the man, it was not below him to do something like that.
Feng Bujue turned his palms, and the Death Poker cards spread like fan. He formed four flushes, and the twelve cards exploded in fireworks. As Feng Bujue extended his shoulders, four shadows rushed at K3 from four different angles. At the same time, Feng Bujue himself morphed into a red streak of light. Like a rocket, he blasted right at his foe.
Zen Dream was caught by surprise. Abandoning factors like fighting mastery and fighting skill, just from the speed alone, Feng Bujue was faster than him.
“A cute trick.” K3 stood where he was, opening his arms, and his aura returned. Operating the aura armor, he closed his palms and shot out energy blows. Fog exploded in midair, stopping the cards. Instantly, the shadows of palms filled the sky, like there were millions of them. The power of this skill was so great that even the two GMs were shocked by it.
The four flushes were taken down before they even had the chance to get close to K3, and they disintegrated into snippets of light. However, Feng Bujue himself had arrived before K3. He had a single card in his hand, but he only needed this one card.
With a burst of speed, he slashed with his arm. The speed with which he made his attack was as fast as light. The card moved in an arc, leaving a golden trail of light in the air.
After making that attack, Feng Bujue leaped into the air and once again reintroduced some distance between them.
In those short few seconds, Feng Bujue utilized all his sorcery skills. His attacks were numerous and complimentary; he even accounted for the cooldown time. Unfortunately, before K3’s absolute power, the attacks did not have an obvious result. However, it did not mean that it did not work at all.
A red gash appeared next on K3’s neck. He moved his eyes downward and touched his neck, and he saw the fresh blood on his palm. After being stunned for a second, he laughed. “Hah! Not bad! Again!”
He even turned to tell Zen Dream, “This time, come at me together.”
Feng Bujue had the same idea. He had no time to lose; he no longer had health potions to exhaust. Once his Life Points dropped to zero, he would lose the buff from Body Enhancement Spell, and he could only become a punching bag.
To drop from eighty-nine percent to one percent, with the decrease of two percent every five seconds, not counting the exhaustion during combat, Feng Bujue only had two hundred and twenty seconds left. The battle would have to end in the next four minutes.