Chapter 1244 The Inverted Truth - A Meeting in the Phase Forest

At the same time, the Inner World, the Phase Forest.

This place was a land filled with dancing electricity. It was called a "Forest" because the scenery here was intricate, like the swaying shadows of trees, shimmering and indistinct. The sound waves, electromagnetism, light, shadow, and even space-time within the forest were interwoven and changing according to an elusive pattern... and all of them were visible to the naked eye as if they were tangible objects.

At this moment, deep within the Phase Forest, a figure that had been running at high speed suddenly stopped.

"Boss, this place of yours is really hard to find." He spoke to a black rock in front of him, "Even with you constantly sending me signals, it still took me so long to find..."

"That's only natural," replied a strangely shaped black stone floating in mid-air. It was about three cubic meters in size, with a texture similar to crystal, and the surface of the stone was adorned with gray-white patterns. "I stay here precisely so that others can't find me."

"Alright." The man shrugged and replied in a casual tone, "Anyway... long time no see, Boss."

"Akate, I've told you many times," the stone continued, "Don't call me Boss." His voice and tone were quite gentle and pleasant to listen to, "If you don't want to call me Chief, you can just call me Zero."

"Sure, sure, Chief." K1-Akate replied impatiently, then added, "By the way... what happened to you?" He sized Zero up and down, "I feel like I've seen this form somewhere before..."

Upon hearing this, Zero replied with only three words: "Formless Fiend."

"Oh! Right, right." Akate said, "I knew it looked familiar... it's that big rock from the Nine Specters of the Underworld."

"That 'big rock' you speak of is a mirror file that I created for myself at the very beginning of Thriller Paradise's prime universe," Zero replied. "I only activate this backup when necessary..." He paused for a moment, "...like now."

"Hmm..." Akate said thoughtfully, "A thing originating from you, a thing similar to a .bin file, can actually be ranked among the Nine Specters of the Underworld in the prime universe... just how exaggerated is your main body's strength?"

"As my subordinate, is it appropriate for you to ask such a question?" Zero said. "Besides, did you even grasp the main point of what I said?"

"Main point?" Akate was taken aback, "Oh~ I get it." He sized up Zero again, "Something... happened to you, right?"

"Nonsense..." Zero replied gloomily, "I've already activated the backup and hidden in a place like this, what do you think?"

"So..." Akate scratched his head, "What exactly happened?"

"That's classified," Zero replied.

"Damn it! Then why did you call me here?" Akate replied unhappily.

"There's a mission that needs to be explained to you in person," Zero's tone became serious, and he said in a deep voice, "Long-distance communication isn't safe; if the data is intercepted on the desktop, it would ruin things."

"The chances of that happening are extremely low, right..." Akate said.

"But it's not zero," Zero said. "We must minimize the possibility of accidents, even if the probability is extremely low."

"Sounds like..." Akate continued, "This mission is troublesome..."

"It is," Zero said, "However... it's still within my calculations." He paused for a second, "Anyway, compared to the mission Twenty-Three is currently carrying out, the risk factor for your mission is quite low."

"Ah... that's true." Akate replied, "If I were to carry out your plan to 'seize [REDACTED]-079, then deliberately fall for the trap, pretend to be cornered, and escape into the π Maze, and also lure Link and Ayd in,' the chances of failure would basically be 100%."

"I know," Zero said. "I don't need any calculations to know that..." He sighed (although he didn't have respiratory organs), "Alright... listen to your mission carefully..."

...

On the other side, Ljn Paradise, the Pixel Junkyard.

"Hmm... not a bad environment." Feng Bujue said these words with his hands in his pockets, following behind Lute, looking around with the air of a country bumpkin entering the city.

"Where do you see 'not bad'?" Lute retorted without turning her head, "What's so good about this kind of environment that only appears in post-apocalyptic movies?"

"Alright, I was just saying..." Brother Jue replied.

At this moment, D2-Akate next to him said to Lute, "It's strange, isn't this one of Origin's strongholds? How come I can't scan any of your Derivatives nearby?"

"There's a shortage of manpower recently." As Lute spoke, she turned back to glare at Brother Jue, "In the last operation, my direct subordinates were almost all killed."

"Why are you looking at me... it's not like I killed them all." Brother Jue said, narrowing his eyes.

While talking, Lute had already arrived in front of her special "sofa" and sat down comfortably.

After sitting down, she first turned to look at D2-Akate and D2-Qing, and posed a very direct question: "Say... you two, do you want to be my subordinates?"

For humans, making such a request so soon after meeting would definitely seem inexplicable. But for Derivatives, this problem doesn't exist. In the data world, this is like a simple access operation, and there is no such thing as being inappropriate.

This is the Inner World... high-level data inviting low-level data to join them, thereby expanding their power and implementing their ideas... such things happen almost every moment.

"Hey... don't you think it's bad luck to say that right after your previous sentence..." Feng Bujue couldn't help but complain when he encountered such a flaw.

But Lute ignored him...

"Join Origin..." Akate didn't care about Lute's previous sentence either, but her answer was, "But I want to be friends with humans, so I'll pass."

"Listen carefully, little girl. I'm not asking you to join Origin, but to 'be my subordinate'." Lute changed her wording and repeated what she said.

"Eh?" Akate was taken aback, as if she didn't fully understand what the other party meant.

At this moment, no one expected that Qing, the taciturn one who always wore an indifferent attitude, would interject: "Agree, Akate."

Akate turned to look at Qing, and said somewhat blankly, "Hmm... since even Qing said so." She looked at Lute again, "Okay, we'll join your command then. Uh... should I call you Chief?"

"Call me whatever you want..." After saying this, Lute stopped paying attention to the two little girls, she shifted her gaze to Brother Jue and continued, "Alright... now that there are no outsiders here, we need to talk."