Chapter 1 Copernicus and Galileo

Copernicus and Galileo’s movements were indeed beyond what ordinary level-18 players could achieve. They moved across the flat ground, yet gave the impression of treading on water, much like the legendary "Qinggong" (light body skill). From a game perspective, it was the astonishing effect of numerous passive skills overlapping and taking effect.

The two small bosses emerging from the forest were deformed creatures, their bodies entirely pieced together from corpse fragments, barely twisted into a humanoid shape. Their appearance could be described as a combination of disgusting and terrifying, but their strength was only average. The six players in this script, even excluding the GMs, could easily take on such a small boss in a one-on-one fight, albeit at a certain cost.

The cold light of the blade flashed swiftly, the figure taut as a drawn bow.

Copernicus and Galileo used the same weapons and had similar combat abilities. Even their judgment at the moment of drawing their blades was identical. They were very clear about the monsters' stats and had no doubt that one strike would leave the enemies half-dead, and at most three strikes would end the battle.

But... at the instant they attacked, things changed unexpectedly.

It wasn't that these two small bosses suddenly gained strength, but that they suddenly died... Only the parties involved knew that these two monsters had inexplicably died the instant before they were attacked. When the blades struck their bodies, the two monsters were essentially just two corpses moving forward with inertia.

To give an example, it was as if you saw a fierce-looking person charging towards you with a brick in hand, but just as he rushed in front of you to attack, he suddenly suffered a myocardial infarction and fell to his death.

However, only the two GMs knew these things. Feng Bujue didn't see the real situation either. On the surface, the scene was... Galileo and Copernicus each struck out with a blade, solving the two monsters in an instant.

The three from Order quickly caught up. Brave Invincible was the first to speak, exclaiming, "What the hell! You guys are professionals, too, aren't you?"

"Something's wrong... these two monsters weren't killed by us." While speaking, Galileo had already opened the GM menu to check, and the expression on his face suddenly became serious.

At this moment, the environment around the players also changed. All the illusions disappeared, and the mountains and forests around them became very normal. Looking out at the mountain range, they could see that they were not far from the fields at the foot of the mountain.

Feng Bujue reacted quickly, immediately saying to Copernicus beside him, "Did the spell formation fail?"

"Why are you asking me... how would I kn..." Copernicus didn't finish his sentence.

Feng Bujue interrupted again, "Why would it fail?"

"That's why... why are you asking me!" Copernicus responded unhappily.

"Because you're a Reconnaissance specialization." Feng Bujue replied confidently.

"In your mind, is 'Reconnaissance specialization'..." Copernicus's mouth twitched, "...equal to 'omniscient'?"

"If you put it that way, I can only ask in a different way." Feng Bujue's expression and temperament changed dramatically at this moment. His eyes seemed to say, the game of pretending is over.

With a fanatical light in his eyes and a calm, confident expression on his face, Feng Bujue asked very directly, "Is this the work of a Derivative?"

"Pfft..." Meng Jingchan spat out a mouthful of beer at that moment.

Regarding information about Derivatives, Order also had some... but very little. Apart from the existence of Derivatives, the few contacts had not been able to provide much substantive information.

Ye Zhi and Brave Invincible were not high enough level within the studio. This was the first time they had heard this term. However, players of Meng Jingchan's level had higher access to game information within the company, so he knew about it. Of course, the only information he knew was, "In team survival mode scripts with six players, there is a very small chance of encountering an uncontrollable data entity called a Derivative." Regarding the characteristics of Derivatives, GM intervention when scripts are generated, and the abilities of GMs, Order did not have any relevant information.

Order's more reliable encounter records with Derivatives were only twice. The first time, a six-person team in the guild reported to their superiors that they had encountered a scripted humanoid creature calling itself a "Derivative," which possessed astonishing strength, intelligence far exceeding ordinary scripted bosses, and was completely unrelated to the script itself. The second time was also a six-person team, with a similar situation. The people involved claimed to have been wiped out by the combined attack of the Derivative and the Boss. In the brief verbal exchange between the first six-person team and the "Derivative," Order obtained the little bit of information it currently possessed and classified it as extremely high-level information, filed in the database.

The reason why Meng Jingchan was so shocked at this moment was mainly because... the words "Derivative" came out of the mouth of this guy called "Feng Bujue." Could it be that "Hell Front" had information gathering and analysis capabilities comparable to Order? How many members did they have? How professional were these members?

Copernicus and Galileo's expressions were even more wonderful. Even Meng Jingchan was like that, so one could imagine what kind of reaction the two GMs would have.

"What are you... saying..." Galileo seemed to be clinging to a sliver of hope, trying to play dumb and muddle through.

"Do I need to be more explicit?" Feng Bujue said, "Please, gentlemen, open your GM menus and help me see if the sudden failure of the spell formation near us is related to a Derivative."

The three from Order looked at Copernicus and Galileo with the eyes one reserves for monsters, and then looked at Feng Bujue with the eyes one reserves for super monsters. The amount of information in these few sentences was too great, and the atmosphere was quite tense, which made it difficult for them to speak up for a while.

The two GMs looked at each other, exchanged glances, and then Galileo smiled, looking at Feng Bujue and saying, "After this script is over, you'll have to talk to the relevant personnel of our superiors."

"Let's talk about the current situation first." Feng Bujue said, "When the illusion disappeared just now, I used 【Decisive Victory, Thousand Miles Away】 to take a look again..." Anyway, the GMs knew what skills players had, so he stated it clearly, "...it didn't show anything." He paused and asked, "Can I use this to judge that the Derivative has already solved the Boss?"

Galileo replied, "The Resentful Well is still there, but it has lost its power. The other three spell formations on the mountain are the same. Just now, they lost their power at the same time."

"At the same time?" Feng Bujue continued. He thought for two seconds and said, "Apart from the possibility that there are four Derivatives in the script who have discussed acting together, the problem probably lies in the 'source of power,' right?"

Copernicus said, "To cut off the source of the Resentful Well's power, in addition to breaking the spell formations in various places, there is indeed another method... That method, rather than 'cutting off,' is more like 'destroying.'"

Galileo continued, "According to the fLAg-related information column... this script has a true Boss called Vairu, he's not on this map, and we can't see his specific stats either. What's known is... if you jump into the Resentful Well after breaking less than three spell formations, you can encounter this Boss. I guess the Derivative went to the other side of the Resentful Well and eliminated this Boss, causing all the spell formations on our side to lose power from the source." As he said this, he had figured out his previous question—why the Derivative's coordinates were sometimes visible and sometimes not. The reason was probably that the Derivative had entered the other side of the world.

"Hmm... then the question arises..." Feng Bujue said, "Why haven't we cleared the script yet?"

"This..." Galileo really didn't know.

Copernicus said, "I suspect it's a problem with the main quest. The current content of the main quest is still 'Enter the mountain and find the abandoned shrine.' Perhaps it's because we haven't triggered the next fLAg, leading to this situation." His gaze indicated that he was checking the GM menu as he spoke, "Successfully breaking any one of the three spell formations on the mountain will update the main quest to 'Break the four Soul-Seizing Formations and seal the power of the Resentful Well'; while directly encountering the true Boss will update the quest to 'Eliminate Vairu'. But now... we haven't triggered any of them, and all the spell formations have lost power."

"So the main quest is stuck in the first step..." Feng Bujue pondered, "Interesting... if this inference is correct, now that even the true Boss is dead, there are no more fLAgs in the script that can change the progress of the main quest. How are we supposed to clear the script?"

"Since you seem to know a lot of things," Copernicus said, "why don't we all speak frankly?" At the same time, he turned his head to look at the three from Order, "Please, the four of you, just exit the script."

"What what?" Brave Invincible replied, "The three of you were saying a bunch of inexplicable things, and then you want us to exit? Voluntarily exiting midway will lead to a time penalty for not being able to queue up, and there are no rewards either. For us, this loss is more serious than a team wipe!"

"I'm sorry, from the current situation, this script is considered a Bug and cannot meet the clear conditions." Galileo replied, "As this Mr. Feng said, the main quest is stuck, and we can't do anything about it either."

Feng Bujue seemed to be afraid that Brave Invincible wouldn't understand and added from the side, "This is like Li Xiaoyao just leaving Yu Hang Town and the Leader of the Moon Sect being killed by an alien from Earth passing by with an antimatter weapon. Even if you continue playing, you won't be able to clear the script."

Copernicus continued, "We still have work to do, which is to resolve the Derivative. If you stay, even if you aren't killed by the Derivative, you'll still be wasting time. In the end, you'll still have to exit on your own." He also knew that he couldn't deceive the players into taking the blame anymore, so he spoke according to the company's prescribed emergency speech, "As for your loss of game time, since it was caused by a system reason, the company will definitely compensate you. After we finish dealing with this script, we'll report this situation to our superiors. Relevant personnel will contact you later to give you a solution, and I think you will all get satisfactory results."

Ye Zhi asked at this time, "Since you are GMs, can you explain to us now what Derivatives are?"

"Hmm... I'm sorry, we don't have the right to disclose that." Galileo replied.

Ye Zhi's next reaction was very similar to the methods Feng Bujue had used on Pan Feng and Hua Xiong, "You should know that we are from Order, right?" She pressed aggressively, "With the credibility of our studio, if we publish today's events on the official website..."

"That's also your freedom." Galileo replied fearlessly, "The company will make corresponding responses and explanations." He had the confidence to say this because... after the script where Pan Feng and Hua Xiong encountered Feng Bujue, the higher-ups immediately drafted a new regulation in response to their report. In case the GM's identity was exposed and they were subjected to this kind of intimidation, the GM's response had to follow a standard procedure, and facing Ye Zhi's words, they just had to answer like this.

In fact, the matter of Derivatives had already been exposed, but the four players present, including the major studios, didn't know...

In fact, as early as the two days between the closed beta and the open beta, someone had already published a post about "Derivatives" on the forum, but it was quickly submerged in the sea of posts. This matter couldn't even be called "a game myth circulating among a small group of players." Obviously, today's players, or rather... people these days, hardly believe anything easily. Who can we blame? Blame the news broadcast? Hehe...

"Hmph... since you say so..." Ye Zhi still wanted to say something.

Meng Jingchan waved his hand, signaling her to stop, and opened his mouth himself, "Ye Zhi, there's no point in saying harsh words." He suddenly revealed an imposing aura, saying to Copernicus and Galileo with a serious face, "Please rest assured, here, I can guarantee to the two of you that Order will not spread any news about GMs and Derivatives." His thinking was very clear. The fewer people who knew about intelligence, the more valuable it was.

"However..." Meng Jingchan changed the subject, "At this moment, whether or not to exit the script is our players' freedom, right?"

Galileo understood what he meant from his words, "Hmm... if you want to make contact with the Derivative, we won't stop you either."

Copernicus shrugged and smiled, "I'll give you a friendly reminder that the Derivative's strength and aggressiveness are far stronger than any script Boss you've ever seen. When you get killed, don't be surprised by how fast they are."

"They just want to collect as much information as possible, and besides, if they get killed, there won't be a penalty for voluntarily exiting." Feng Bujue interjected at this time, "By the way, I also want to meet this Derivative."

"You also want to collect information?" Meng Jingchan turned his gaze to Feng Bujue's face and asked in a deep voice.

"I'm just a casual player, I don't have as many burdens as you guys." Feng Bujue replied, "I'm just acting out of interest." These words were relatively credible coming from his mouth, "Because of this Derivative, I can't get any rewards anymore. I at least have the right to see what the culprit looks like, right?"

The only Derivative Feng Bujue had ever seen was X-23. He didn't expect to meet her again. Given the Derivative's situation, Twenty-Three was probably already destroyed. The probability of meeting her again was basically zero, so Feng Bujue thought that the one in this script should be an unfamiliar level-four Derivative.

His curiosity was very strong. It was a rare opportunity to get in touch with other Derivatives. Feng Bujue naturally wanted to learn more about this group of special AIs. Interacting with other individuals among them could also serve as a reference to see what was different between Derivatives, whether they had unique personalities and even beliefs like intelligent life in reality.

"Then it's up to you." Galileo said, "But some things have to be said in advance. Our goal is to eliminate the Derivative, to 'kill' it and turn it into data fragments. No matter what the situation, this premise takes the highest priority. You want to watch from the sidelines and collect information, you can. If you want to help, we welcome it. But please don't do anything that hinders us."

The three from Order all agreed, only Feng Bujue remained silent. After more than ten seconds, he suddenly said, "There's one more thing I want to confirm... You two... can't get the Protagonist Halo, can you?"

Galileo hesitated for a moment and replied, "Yes... uh... why do you even know this?"

"Don't look at me with that expression. I basically guessed this... Counting the one at the beginning of the script, the random transfer of the Protagonist Halo has happened three times in total. Brave Bro got it twice, and Ye Zhi got it once." Feng Bujue replied, "And the directed transfer has also happened three times... Brave Bro got it once, and I got it twice." He glanced at Meng Jingchan, "The only people who haven't gotten the Protagonist Halo are you two GMs and Brother Chan."

In the script description, the part about the Halo setting mentioned the words 'players' multiple times. The only thing it didn't mention was 'When the team size is less than or equal to two, the Protagonist Halo disappears.' After confirming that you were GMs, I was thinking that if the system didn't treat you as 'players,' then the appearance of this Halo setting would be very reasonable."

"Are you saying... if there were no Derivatives and GMs in this script, just an ordinary team survival map, the system wouldn't have added the Protagonist Halo setting?" Ye Zhi followed his assumptions and continued.

"At least that's what I think." Feng Bujue replied, "The Protagonist Halo is a kind of protection that the system provides to players based on the difficulty of the script and the actual situation. Since it's an effect created by the system, even if the players are teleported, as long as this script hasn't been closed, it will continue to exist.

Normally, if they can clear the script smoothly and four players leave, then the remaining two must be GMs. If the Halo still exists, it would be very unfair to the Derivative, so it's simply set so that, no matter what the situation, GMs can't get the Halo..."

"What are you talking about? Why would the system want to make the battle between us and the Derivative relatively fair?" Copernicus said, "You've watched too many science fiction movies, right? A computer doesn't have its own consciousness. Besides, even if it did, why would the system give a group of garbage data that needs to be destroyed a chance to survive?"

Feng Bujue sneered and thought to himself, "I wish I knew... Maybe there's one or a group of perverts among your superiors who deliberately designed the system like this."

"Hmm... maybe I'm overthinking it." Feng Bujue still replied calmly on the surface, "Let's just go up the mountain first. I think we'll be able to find the Derivative if we find the Resentful Well."