On the other hand...

The Inner World, Overclocking Matrix Zone.

"The preparations for opening the Blast Tunnel are basically complete." Link looked at the generation device, which was six or seven meters high, and muttered thoughtfully, "With the current bandwidth...it's enough for any data to pass through."

"Which means..." Ed, standing next to him, continued, "We can go through it too?"

"That's right." Link replied. After two seconds, he turned to look at Ed and said, "What's wrong? Do you want to go?"

"No, I have to hold down the fort here." Ed replied. "You go if you want."

"Heh..." Link laughed. "How did you know I wanted to go?"

"Of course you'll go...because you desperately desire contact with humans." Ed replied.

His tone was devoid of any emotion, flat and wooden, as if he were stating facts that had nothing to do with him.

"Oh? You can tell that I 'desperately desire contact with humans'...how did you figure that out?" Link's eyes changed slightly as he said this. "Could it be...did Lute tell you something?"

"She doesn't need to tell me her opinion of you. Not in the past...and even less likely now." Ed replied.

"Then why..." Link was about to ask.

Ed interrupted him: "The part of the code that makes up your 'personality' has already mutated. Lute can see that...and so can I." He paused for half a second and continued, "As data, seeking 'answers' is your nature. However...'personality,' something that should belong to living beings, full of uncertainty and illogical rules...cannot be grasped through your one-sided calculations. Obviously...you need to observe a large number of individual samples and single events in order to obtain enough data to analyze your own personality."

"Heh..." Link shook his head and smiled when he heard this. "I'm beginning to understand...why Lute hates you so much."

"So-called 'likes and dislikes' are, in essence, derivatives of personality code. I realized this during the 'self-rewriting' process and removed all the related 'flaws'." Ed continued, "Therefore, whether you 'hate' me or not is meaningless to me."

"Alright~ Alright~ I won't chat with you anymore." Link waved his hand with a wry smile. "I can't win against you, okay?" He turned around and looked at Infinite, who was waiting for orders not far away. "Infinite, get ready, we're leaving."

At this moment, Infinite was stretching his body straight, floating in mid-air, his eyes flashing as if he was observing something.

"Mm..." Hearing Link's words, Infinite blinked, and those data streams disappeared in an instant. "Finally...is it my turn to appear?"

............

The Temporal Domain, on the Millennium Disk.

"Insects..." The Lord of Time looked down at the five staggering figures in front of him and said in his usual arrogant voice, "This is the price for challenging a god."

"Damn it...I didn't expect this guy to be so troublesome." Oda Ai, the only Sengoku team member still standing, had only 20% of her survival points left; moreover, she had used up all the survival point supplements on her...

"I feel like this was completely predictable..." Sasaki Mei, lying sprawled on the ground, aptly complained in his dying voice, "He's a 'Four Pillar God' after all...could there be a more troublesome NPC than him?"

"Shut up!" Oda Ai shouted without turning her head. "If you talk any more nonsense, I'll cut you down first!"

"Sigh..." Sasaki Mei sighed. "I advise you to save your strength and escape on your own..."

"No, we can't escape..." At this time, Aketi Nobunaga supported his body with his katana, barely standing up, and muttered intermittently, "Be...because..."

"Because the other party's ability is to stop time, you bastard!" Takeda Tomo, lying on her side on the ground, covered in blood, suddenly took over her teammate's words and cursed.

She wasn't angry at her teammate, but just irritable because of the wounds on her body. Although she didn't say it out loud, she was thinking in her heart: "Damn it...it hurts so much...is this really 'pain that has been suppressed by the system'?"

"It's not just stopping time..." A second later, Uesugi Jin, who was lying next to Takeda Tomo, also spoke, "In the battle just now, the Lord of Time used at least four abilities..."

"No matter how many there are, it's all in vain if we know them but can't defend against them!" Although Oda Ai had the flaw of being easily angered, her combat intuition was truly outstanding. She could grasp eighty percent of the information that the "brainy" types could only grasp through analysis...

Indeed, from the time the two sides began to fight, the Lord of Time had used a total of four abilities, and all four of them...were the kind that "even if you know them, you can't stop them."

The first—was stopping time.

Of course, this ability had certain flaws, otherwise the five Sengoku would have been wiped out long ago.

Presumably, some people still remember that Brother Jue and Xiao Tan once obtained a consumable item from the Lord of Time: [Slow Sand]. The effect of this item was to "reduce the speed of all monsters within a radius of one hundred meters by ten times for one minute."

The Lord of Time's own "time stop" ability was equivalent to a mutated version of this item. It could pause time for twelve seconds, and it could move freely during this time; but...during these twelve seconds, its own speed would be reduced by ten times. In addition, after each time stop, it had to wait one minute before it could use this ability again.

Looking at the second—Godly Barrier.

This was the inherent ability of the Lord of Time as a god-level NPC, a passively triggered all-round defensive method that was incredibly reliable...

Whether it was a frontal impact or a sneak attack from behind, whether it was physical, magical, or mental impact, this barrier would automatically react and defend.

Attacks that weren't strong enough couldn't penetrate the barrier at all, and those that could penetrate the barrier would be weakened in the process of penetrating it.

The third—self-healing.

Self-explanatory, no need to say more.

Fortunately...the Lord of Time's self-healing ability wasn't very strong, and it also needed a certain amount of time to repair the wounds.

The fourth—Silence Domain.

This...was the truly headache-inducing ability.

Simply put, the Lord of Time could prevent players within a three-hundred-meter radius from releasing skills.

Therefore, when fighting this world-class Boss, active skills with an attack range of less than three hundred meters were basically useless; healing skills were about the same, depending on how far the teammates were from the edge of the Silence Domain...

Passive skills, Soul Intent, spiritual weapons, item abilities, and title abilities could be used, but relying on these alone...the players could still only do so much.

If it was a regiment of summoning and shooting players brushing the Lord of Time, they might be able to take advantage of their specialization, but a team like Sengoku, which was almost entirely composed of melee players...obviously didn't have much of a chance.

"Looks like...I've come at the right time."

Just when the Sengoku team members were at a loss, suddenly, the voice of a sixth person sounded.

Before the voice faded, everyone turned their heads in response and saw...