Gate of Apocalypse

Hanging up the phone, Chen Xiaoliang gently sighed, his expression was a little grumpy.

“Why, or are you worried about your team?” Miaoyan looked at Chen Xiaolian with a faint smile.

The two of them are situated in a small, obvious Arabic water bar with Middle Eastern music in the speaker. The night outside the window was dark and there were not many guests in the water bar. They occupied a corner with a cup of fresh squeezed juice in front of each other. By the table, is a large water cigarette holder.

“There's nothing to worry about. Meteor Squads are Meteor Squads, whether I'm here or not.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head and smiled: “I know my team well enough. ”

“Then why are you sighing?” Miaoyan raised her eyebrows: “Is it because... you want to separate from your girlfriend? ”

“Yeah, can't you?” Chen Xiaocai's natural expression: “If you were to leave your boyfriend for so long, wouldn't you even sigh? Oh... I forgot, you're from the upper world. Maybe... you're actually a tough guy in that world. ”

Chen Xiaolian smiled and gazed at Miaoyan's body for a moment: “You know what? When I was playing online, the person I built was always the female number. After all, that guy on the screen, that's what I'm gonna keep watching. A beautiful woman, more comfortable than the big men. Would you also..."

“If one day you had the chance to go to the upper world, you'd know.” Miaoyan smiled, as if he had not been annoyed by Chen Xiaolian's words. He lowered his head and drank the juice from the glass: “It tastes good, unfortunately there is no wine. ”

“Alcohol is forbidden throughout the country. The black market secretly bought the possibility, looking for a bar or something, don't even think about it.” Chen Xiaolei smiled and removed a cigarette butt from the cigarette holder attached to the skin and handed it to Miaoyan: “Although there is no alcohol, try this, the famous Arab cigarette. ”

“I don't smoke.” Miaoyan frowned and looked at Chen Xiaocai's cigarette butt and shook her head.

“Unlike tobacco.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head: “Trust me, try it. This pot is cardamom and should be perfect for you. ”

Miaoyan glanced at Chen Xiaolian, half a letter reached out and took a light breath, slowly spitting out a cigarette ring.

“Tastes good.” Miaoyan rejuvenated and smiled. “Okay, let's get back to business. What exactly happened to you after that day's farewell? I'm curious. ”

“Do I have to answer you?” Chen Xiaocai raised eyebrows.

'Cause you still owe me a question. ”Miaoyan squeezed his cigarette butt with two slender, long fingers and lowered his head to play with it:“ The last time we came out of Zero City, we agreed that everyone could ask each other three questions - I only used two. ”

“Your memory is really good...” Chen Xiaolei chuckled: “But the answer to this question can be long. ”

“It's okay, I have plenty of time.” Miaoyan smiled.

“Since then, a lot has happened. A lot, a lot of things.” He thought about it: “I went to the end of the world, got Jojo back, and...”

“Have you been to the end of the world?!” Chen Xiaolian hasn't finished talking down yet. Miaoyan suddenly stared at Chen Xiaolian. “How did you get there?! You don't have the seeds of a world tree! At least… without all the seeds of the world tree! ”

“Entering the end of the world has nothing to do with the seeds of the world tree.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head: “All the awakeners will enter there when they die. It's just... if you want to come back from there, you have to be prepared in advance. And you're talking about the seeds of the world tree, and they're actually another thing. ”

“What is it?” Miaoyan leaned forward slightly nervously, staring at Chen Xiaolian.

“What do you care so much about this thing for?” Chen Xiaoliang smiles: “Do you... want them? ”

“Can't you? ”

“Absolutely.” Chen Xiaocai shrugged: “I'm just curious, how do you know that I don't have the seeds of the World Tree? ”

“Guess.” Miaoyan replied without hesitation: "After escaping from Zero City, you don't know exactly what the seeds of the world tree are. It's only been so long, I don't believe you can collect all seven. Is there a problem with that logic? ”

“Sounds reasonable too. However, I prefer to believe another explanation -” Chen Xiaoliang held his elbows against the table in front of him and looked close to Miaoyan: “You have at least one seed of a world tree in your hand! ”

The eyes of the two men looked at each other as if they were fighting in the air. After a moment, Miaoyan suddenly smiled: "Yes, I do. But it doesn't talk about anything unseen, and there's no need to hide it from you. ”

“Tell me, what are you going to do collecting it for?” Chen Xiaolian retracted his arms and the whole person leaned back against a soft cushion.

“Let's talk about you first.” Miaoyan smiled cunningly: "You haven't answered my question yet. ”

“Okay.” Chen Xiaoxiao rolled his eyes: “After leaving the end of the world, I... well, it took me a little while to really get Joe back. Then I was forced to take to Zero City, to attend a meeting. Um, some real big guy meeting. ”

“Big shot? ”

“The first lookers in the world. Including Chen, is one of them. There, I learned a part of the truth about the world and gained some… well, the power that I didn't dare to think about before.

But the problem now is that Chen wants to do something, something that will make all our loopholes disappear completely. So to stop him, the old monsters rolled their faces with Chen and fought.

Ultimately, the old monsters, all sealed up in a collapsed Zero City. But the problem is that Chen is too strong, even if Zero City collapses, it will not be able to trap him for long. Before he leaves, I have to make some other preparations, some that will make me stop him!

I escaped before the collapse of Zero City. But because I am temporarily unable to control my newly acquired power. So... if you just leave Zero City and go back to the main world, the development team will find me soon. ”

“So you hid yourself in a copy first?” Miaoyan thought about it: "But the system found you as usual. The red danger warning in that copy should be the result of detecting an abnormal condition on your body. ”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolei nodded: “When I left Zero City, I chose an ongoing copy, threw myself in, and temporarily made a copy of my personality to control my body. And my own personality, used to blend in with singularity. ”

“Singularity?” Miaoyan repeats the word.

“is the very core of Zero City. Or… is part of this world template.” Chen Xiaoliang smiles: “Fusion takes a certain amount of time, during which time it is possible for the system to discover singularities at any time. But if it's in a copy, there's an extra barrier, and the system detects my difficulty even more. Even so, it is possible that the system is positioned to my presence. So the role of that personality copy is actually to make me die the last time.

Of course, I can't let myself die too fast because I need some time to blend in with singularity. So —— I retrieved all of my powers, and most of my offensive props, leaving only one piece of defensive equipment. Well, the armor you were wearing when you saw me.

Although I don't have that memory, the other ‘I’ did a great job. He was delayed long enough, and when he was killed, I happened to have done the fusion. ”

“Continue.” Miaoyan listened attentively to Chen Xiaolian: “Now what? ”

“Everyone, ordinary or awake, has a unique symbol in this world. You can…” Chen Xiaocai thought about it: “Understand it as the ID number. Even our vulnerabilities are recorded in the system. ”

“Including the loophole?” Miaoyan frowned slightly: “If the system is marked for you, how can you not be found all the time? ”

“If it's like I was before, then it's really hard for the system to find us.” Chen Xiaocai thought about it: “For example, you are alone, standing in a huge, boundless square. And in the square at your feet, climbing hundreds of millions of ants. Even if you've documented several of these special ants and even painted them in different colors, it's still hard to find them at a glance when it climbs back into the other ants. All you can see is the black pressing of an endless colony of ants under your feet.

But what if, suddenly, one or more of these ants is bigger than their kind? An ant the size of a dragonfly may still be hard to spot at a glance. But if it keeps growing up, becoming as big as a cat and a dog, even as big as a cow and a horse, it'll be hard to even deliberately want to be invisible by then. ”

“So... with that power, you've become an ant the size of a cow horse?” Miaoyanguan smiled.

“Pretty much. It's just a metaphor, don't be so precise.” Chen Xiaoxiao stall: “So I have to make some preparations to keep this giant ant out of sight. ”

“You just said you died in this copy once. It's like... you ripped your ID off? ”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolian looked at the smile on Miaoyan's face and smiled herself: “Now I'm a black family. Correspondingly, though it is difficult for the system to find me again, the consequences will be even worse once I am discovered. So I can't be with my old teammates for now. ”

“It does smell good.” Miaoyan picked up the cigarette butt, took another light breath and nodded with a smile: “So... what power did you get? How strong is it?”

“Isn't that the second question?” Chen Xiaocai raised an eyebrow.

“Don't fool around.” Miaoyan glanced at Chen Xiaocai: “I asked you what happened since then, which of course included. ”

“Okay.” Chen Xiaocai shrugged and thought, “Actually... this question is not a very good answer. ”

Miaoyan did not answer the phone, but looked seriously at Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaozheng pondered carefully for a moment and slowly said: “Strictly speaking, my real strength is probably only about A level. Take it easy...”

When he saw Miaoyan's eyes staring up, Chen Xiaolei smiled and waved: “I'm not finished yet. I am referring to the power of the body, which is to calculate only this part of the power derived from the system, including skills, attributes, and equipment. But beyond that, there is something else.

I got two pieces of equipment in Zero City. Though the guy who gave it to me didn't have a detailed description, in my estimation, these two things must not have been made by the system, but by him using his own power. With these two pieces of equipment alone, I should have reached S-level. ”

“Gear?!” Miaoyan's eyes shocked: "Equipment alone? ”

There is essentially a consensus among players and awakeners - to be recognized as S-rated, at least two of all attributes must be S-rated and equipment not included.

But according to Chen Xiaocai, these two pieces of equipment alone can raise his strength from A level over A + to S level?

“In addition, I got a part of the initial template for the world, and…” Chen Xiaoliang thought about how to describe the ability to read the world code from the wings of angels for a while: “Overall, I have a more thorough understanding of the way the world works. Now I can make use of the rules. Together, it also gives me a much deeper understanding of pure ‘power’. So even if I don't use those two pieces of equipment now, the average S-level shouldn't be my opponent. ”

“Taking advantage of the… rules?” Miaoyan chewed Chen Xiaocai's words: “In the copy, you let all the electronic guardians fail because of this power? ”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaoliang nodded: “If it's really ‘combat’, I'm not afraid of electronic guards, but it's not that easy to kill all of them. But while electronic champions are created by development teams, they must ultimately conform to the laws that exist in this world. So it's easy to fix them. ”

“So let's... let's get this straight.” Miaoyan winks twice: "Who else is threatening you now? ”

Chen Xiaocai thought about it and slowed down: “First of all, Chen that guy, I can't fight for sure. Now he has reached the point of rewriting the rules. And the other old monsters, like Mr. Umbrella, they're choking enough, I'm afraid. Although they and I stand at the same level of use of the rules, after all, the level of proficiency varies too much. But..."

Chen Xiaocao paused for a moment: “If I just want to save my life, I should still be able to escape. ”

“So, where's the copy? ”

Chen Xiaocai changed a light expression: “The monster in the copy and the electronic guardian are just things set up by the development team. These things are no longer a threat to me. ”

“So... you can be a monster now. A little monster.” Miaoyan looked deeply at Chen Xiaolian, slowing down.