The frenzied assault of the Redundancy Legion had turned every corner of the game space into a chaotic battlefield.

Players, system guardians, and the Redundancy Legion were engaged in a bloody struggle across various dimensions.

The NPCs and redundant soldiers who were killed turned into data fragments, while the dying players turned into white light.

However, those who turned into white light did not return to the login space, nor did they log off...

No one knew where they went...

Many players who had fled back to the login space after the invasion tried to contact their friends who had died not long ago through social functions, but the relevant system menus were disabled.

Of course, trying to connect to the outside world through the touch screen's network function... was also impossible.

And even more strangely, all the timing devices in the game had stopped working at this moment...

Time seemed to have stopped permanently at midnight.

...

Mall, Area 1.

"How is it? What's the situation inside?"

[Yu Zhong Ji Chang] had just walked out of the elevator door when [Qiu Feng Se] turned his head and asked.

At this time, the two masterminds of the "Tian Di" and "Shan He" studios had led their respective guilds to form a temporary alliance. They created a defensive position in Area 1, where the number of players was the largest and the overall quality was very high. With the help of the NPC guards, the players had apparently controlled the situation, suppressing the Redundancy Legion outside the defensive circle.

"The warehouse is still usable..." Yu Zhong Ji Chang replied with a solemn expression, "But most of the functions on the touch screen are out of order, and logging off is naturally impossible."

"Then... is the login space still safe?" Qiu Feng Se asked again.

"Not safe." Yu Zhong Ji Chang shook his head helplessly, giving a disappointing answer, "Just when I was exploring the storage room, several monsters (they didn't know the term 'Redundancy Legion') tore through the outer wall of the storage room and rushed in. I think... whether it's the login space, the conference room, the storage room, or the scare box, they're all the same as here—they can be 'invaded'. It's safer to be in this wide environment than to hide alone in a narrow space."

"Tch..." Qiu Feng Se spat after hearing this, "This is really bad." He looked up at the battle line at the edge of the defensive circle, "Although the enemy's deployment speed has begun to slow down, it hasn't stopped yet, and the proportion of that 'humanoid powerful monster' is increasing... God knows how long we can last." He paused, "In addition, the ten people I sent to explore other mall dimensions... only three came back; according to them, other areas... basically haven't established any large-scale resistance. Most players are just acting in groups of three or five, rushing to escape back to the login space..." At this point, he lowered his voice and said, "What I'm worried about now is... after the monsters in other areas have cleared out the players on their side... will they transfer dimensions again and continue to attack."

"In that case..." Yu Zhong Ji Chang's cold sweat broke out when he heard this, "Even if we withstand the current batch of monsters, the enemy will still have a massive amount of reinforcements coming from other phase spaces."

...

At the same time, Mall, Area 13.

Perhaps because this place's number wasn't very auspicious, twenty minutes after the invasion began, the players here... were all wiped out.

This "wiped out" naturally didn't mean that all the players in this area were killed.

In fact, less than half of the people "died" here, and the other half fled back to the login space after the conflict broke out.

However, whether they escaped or died, at this point in time, there wasn't a single player in this area.

According to the system's principle of preserving phase spaces, a mall dimension without players would be directly closed.

So, in that instant, all the system guards who hadn't yet died, and the space itself, began to disintegrate automatically... all the concrete objects were reversely converted into data form.

At this time, if a player in the login space tried to enter Area 13, the operation would also fail... the door to this space could no longer be opened.

And those redundant soldiers and sweepers that existed in the area were all turned into data like the surrounding materials and re-entered the data layer... moving towards their next destination...

...

On the other hand, besides those malls, countless personal login spaces... had also been invaded by the Redundancy Legion.

After all, not everyone got Feng Bujue's reminder like Shiva did. Most of the players in the mall, after seeing the terrifying scenes of the dome tearing and monsters invading... their first reaction was to run back to the login space.

But soon after they returned to the elevator, they discovered... that the login space wasn't safe either.

Just as Yu Zhong Ji Chang said to Qiu Feng Se, the Redundancy Legion could invade anything—elevators, storage rooms, conference rooms, or scare boxes.

As long as they detected signs of "data activity," they would rush in.

As a result, a large number of players were ambushed in their most frequently used elevator rooms. It was obviously disadvantageous to fight against redundant soldiers as sturdy as giant beasts in this narrow space... many players with low levels or poor fighting skills were killed inside.

Even if some players could survive in this environment, as the six walls of the elevator collapsed, they would gradually lose their footing and fall into the data layer outside the walls...

So, the question is, where would they go after falling into the data layer?

There were roughly three outcomes: First, they would be directly annihilated in the data stream; second, after a short period of drifting, they would "fall out" of a relatively large data interface. To put it more specifically... they were very likely to suddenly appear at the dome gap of a certain mall dimension, and then have a high-altitude free fall; third... although the probability was very small, after falling into the data layer... players had a certain chance of entering the Inner World.

...

Also in the twentieth minute after the invasion began, in [Fei Chai Shu]'s storage room.

Bang—bang—crack—

After a series of impacts and tears, two redundant soldiers climbed into this white room through the cracks in the wall.

At this time, Fei Chai Shu was undoubtedly not here; he was still in the competition...

So why would the redundant soldiers come to a space where no one was? The reason was very simple... there was "active data" here.

Viewers with good memories should remember... it was mentioned earlier that in the early stages of the game, Fei Chai Shu had, by chance, captured a Boss-level creature.

Although this creature could not be summoned by him in the scripts, it could survive in his storage room and provide him with much help.

It could be said that Fei Chai Shu's unfathomable strength was inseparable from the support of this mysterious creature.

And today, several uninvited guests disturbed this creature's peace...