“Huff… I say…” Feng Bujue, who was running across the tabletop plain, was already showing signs of fatigue. He took the opportunity to adjust his breathing and asked, “How much further… until we reach our destination?”

Leading the way ahead, D2-Red and D2-Blue were still showing no change in expression or breathing.

Red immediately replied, “At the current speed… about ten more minutes, I suppose.”

“Hey… didn’t you say that five minutes ago…?” Feng Bujue said.

“That’s right… because you’re running slower and slower,” Red replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

She was right. Compared to when they first started, Feng Bujue’s running speed had indeed decreased significantly. Moreover, his body had already exhibited many fatigue responses, such as increasing cardiovascular pressure, muscle soreness, slight dizziness, and so on… Similar sensations existed in Thriller Paradise’s “surface world,” but they were nowhere near as rapid and obvious as they were now.

These phenomena were naturally related to the System Boundary.

Under a 100% System Boundary, all the pain a player experienced (not just physical pain, but also various other discomforts) had a fixed peak value. The system simply wouldn’t simulate anything beyond that value. If a player felt pain exceeding the system’s limit, it was definitely a psychological effect. For example, eating shit… the disgust the system could simulate definitely wouldn’t make you want to die, but your brain would still use its experience and common sense to tell you – it’s better to die than eat this.

However, in the inner world, it was a different story… Here, the pain a player experienced was roughly equivalent to two-thirds of the real-world sensation.

Imagine… in reality, pain alone has many forms, such as drilling, explosive, tearing, crushing, blunt force, burning, and so on; any one of these, as long as it reaches a certain intensity, can instantly deprive a person of the ability to act, or even knock them unconscious from the pain.

In addition, there are disgusting, exhausting, itchy, sweltering, freezing, and other unbearable physical sensations…

A 30% System Boundary can simulate most of these feelings, transmit them to the player’s brain through neural connections, and make their brain believe that their body is suffering such pain…

Therefore, Feng Bujue, who wouldn’t even pant after running for an hour in the surface world, was already exhausted like a dog after running for only half an hour in the inner world. Even though his stamina hadn’t bottomed out yet, the feeling of fatigue still came.

“Haa… by the way…” Feng Bujue continued, “Can you not tell me the time, and give me an accurate distance?”

“Don’t know,” Red replied impatiently. “The tabletop is sometimes big and sometimes small, the area and structure are constantly changing; the entire tabletop is made up of the most basic eight-bit data, and it’s constantly flowing, so it’s impossible to identify and measure.”

“Wait…” Feng Bujue said, “In that case… how are you leading us?”

“Following the radar,” Red said, turning her head while running, and pulling down her lower eyelid with her right index finger.

At first glance, she was making a funny face, but Feng Bujue looked closely and saw the trick.

“Eh? This…” Jue-ge pondered, “…is it a unique identification program for you Derivatives?” He discovered a set of extremely small, inconspicuous spherical matrix code in her eyes, and then tentatively asked.

“That’s right, after leveling up to level two and breaking through the system barrier, we can enter the inner world and be formatted in the process, becoming a more adaptable, complete state for the inner world,” Red readily replied.

“Oh… I see,” Feng Bujue nodded in response.

“You understand?” Ruoyu, who had been silently beside Jue-ge, asked at this moment.

Speaking of which… Lady Li was quite impressive, she, like the two Derivatives leading the way, showed no signs of physical exhaustion.

“Yeah,” Feng Bujue replied, “It’s actually quite easy to understand…” He knew that Ruoyu was asking him to explain, so he directly added, “The ‘formatting’ of Derivatives after reaching level two is like upgrading a 32-bit system to 64-bit. After completion, their true potential will be unleashed, and the limit of their strength will be greatly increased. At least in this inner-world operating environment, they won’t be suppressed by the ‘script’ or the ‘System Boundary,’ and can exert all their…”

*Boom*—

A loud explosion came from behind the group, interrupting Jue-ge’s words.

Hearing this sound, Feng Bujue had vaguely guessed the reason for the explosion…

So, he immediately stopped, adjusted his breathing, and turned around.

Ruoyu, D2-Red, and D2-Blue also stopped and turned back.

They saw, hundreds of meters away… a data stream, like a towering pillar, rising into the sky.

A violent energy was being released from the core at the bottom of the stream, distorting the surrounding air.

“They’ve come after us…” Feng Bujue whispered, his black data streams running endlessly in his eyes, his expression also particularly serious. “Well… although I was prepared for him to become stronger, to be this strong… I really don’t know what to say…”

“V1-War God?” Ruoyu took two steps forward, came to Jue-ge’s side, and asked in a questioning tone.

“Ah…” Feng Bujue responded, “To be precise… it’s the complete V1-War God.”

“Difficult to deal with, right?” Ruoyu asked this question with the same calm demeanor.

“Let’s put it this way…” Feng Bujue sighed softly, “Our trip to the inner world may very well end here. Next time… we better come back at max level.”

Having said that, Ruoyu also understood that there was no need to say anything more. Jue-ge’s implication was – let’s wait until we’re level fifty before considering “dealing” with him.

“What’s going on?” D2-Red quickly scanned V1-War God as well. For the first time, she showed an uneasy look in front of Jue-ge and the others, and asked, “Is that Source going after you?”

“That’s right, and he has obvious hostility,” Feng Bujue’s eyes were fixed on the distant pillar of light, without turning his head, he said, “So… I strongly suggest you and Blue leave here, this is none of your business.”

Unexpectedly, Red showed a hesitant expression at this time: “In your human world, ‘abandoning friends in danger’ doesn’t seem like a good thing, does it?”

“Ha…” Feng Bujue smiled, he turned his head, “Don’t worry, we’re not in any danger, at most we’ll just leave the inner world, we’ll come back anyway.” He paused, “On the contrary, you and Blue will be in great danger if you stay by our side.”

“Yes, you guys leave quickly,” Ruoyu also said, turning her head.

“Feng! Bu! Jue!” Just as they were talking, a roar pierced the sky.

*Whoosh*—

V1-War God’s figure, carrying a vortex-shaped stream of light, tore through the air and roared towards them.

“You don’t have to worry about others!” V1-War God shouted as he rushed, “I won’t attack my compatriots casually… I want to kill you humans… I want to kill… you!”

When the last “you” was uttered, V1-War God’s figure had arrived in front of Jue-ge.

A earth-shattering punch came crashing down!

Even without Zero Time Difference Calculation, Feng Bujue knew very well… he couldn’t dodge or block this punch.

Defeat seemed inevitable.

However, his journey did not end there.

Perhaps what he said before was right – countless codes form the so-called “choice,” and countless choices ultimately weave “fate.”

In this world composed of data, any thinking data entity, at any moment, with any thought that arises, can change the “fate” of the entire world.

For example, now… V1-War God did not choose to directly attack with his momentum, but suddenly stopped and jumped in front of Jue-ge, delivering this punch from a diagonal upward direction.

The reason he chose this angle of attack was to avoid the aftershock of the punch affecting Red and Blue behind Jue-ge.

And this decision of his slowed his attack by a split second.

It was this split second that allowed Feng Bujue, who was originally certain to die, to survive…