20demayo Page 15
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Countless mirrored triangular prisms rose from the ground, trapping Cell in the center. The instant the bullet struck the time-space anchor, all the mirrors simultaneously reflected the sword energy of Trunks and his companions, forming a crisscrossing time-space cutting network within Cell's body. The numbers on the system interface jumped wildly: "Time-space stacking rate 92%! Genetic resonance complete!"
"Explode it—!" the protagonist roared, swinging his arm down.
A dazzling beam of light pierced Cell's body, and the spacetime turbulence, under the impact of energy, formed a massive vortex, engulfing all the surrounding meteorites and energy currents. In the blinding light, the protagonist saw Cell's body shatter like glass, revealing a genetic chain wrapped with data streams—a chain engraved with a familiar logo, identical to the chip found in Cell's remains in Chapter 54.
"This is impossible... I am the perfect vessel for a Chaos Weapon..." Cell's voice was filled with resentment as fragments of his body were sucked into a spacetime vortex. "You think defeating me will stop the plan? The true mastermind... is in a higher dimension..."
Before the words were even finished, all the images suddenly distorted. When everyone came to their senses, the battlefield had returned to calm, with only the spacetime fragments floating in the distance proving that the battle just now was not an illusion.
Western gunslinger Lin Ye blew on the smoke from his gun: "Is it over?"
"Not yet." The mage Lin Ye frowned as he looked at his gradually transparent body. "The inter-universe linkage has consumed too much energy. We should go back." He turned to the protagonist and gave him a meaningful smile. "Remember, all of Lin Ye's goals are the same—to find the mastermind behind the system."
As the words fell, all the Lin Ye and Trunks in all parallel universes vanished into specks of light. The protagonist reached out to grasp something, but only managed to hold a wisp of golden sand of time. A system notification popped up: "Obtained 1 inter-universe energy crystal, unlocking the hidden quest 'The Secret of the System Graveyard'."
Alice's voice suddenly carried an uncharacteristic hesitation: "Host... during the battle just now, I detected a homologous fluctuation between Cell's genetic chain and Mirror Lin Ye's mechanical core."
Chapter 57: The Core of the Temple of Time
The turbulent flow of spacetime, like boiling silver mercury, surged and swirled beneath everyone's feet. The moment Lin Ye's fingertips touched the temple archway, a cold, metallic sensation suddenly coursed through his body—the space before him was like a piece of tin foil crumpled by a tremendous force, with countless luminous fragments floating and spinning in a weightless state, each piece of debris refracting light patterns from different worlds.
That's... the wreckage of the Straw Hat Pirates' Going Merry? Bulma pointed to the floating fragments of the bow on the left, her blue pupils reflecting a moonlit glow. And over there, the fragments of the Hokage Rock are glowing!
The Supreme Kai's scepter slammed heavily into the ground, dark red patterns spreading across the stone bricks: This is the System Graveyard, the final resting place for all those who attempt to break free from fate using systems. His voice, mixed with the shrieks of spatial rifts, sounded exceptionally heavy. The light marks on the debris were the aftershocks of energy from the system's collapse.
Lin Ye stroked his chin and approached a floating fragment of armor. The flowing pale purple patterns on the metal surface were the same logo of the God-level Choice System he had seen before. The fragment suddenly beeped, projecting a blurry image: a young man in armor was wielding a greatsword against a dragon. The system interface flashed wildly in the corner of his vision. *Ding!* Host's health is below 10%. Consume 1000 Faith Points to exchange for a resurrection armor?
"See that?" Mirror Lin Ye suddenly spoke, his black robe billowing in the still air. These people weren't being devoured by the system, but by their own desires. He flicked his finger at another fragment; the boy in the image was kneeling in the ruins, the system panel flashing in large, blood-red characters: Mission Failed: Failed to kill SS-level BOSS on time, 50% experience points deducted.
As the Supreme Kai turned, his scepter flashed with fire: "You always blame everything on individual incompetence, yet you fail to see how the system, like a parasite, devours the host's soul." With a wave of his hand, the phantom of the Tree of Origin unfolded above everyone's heads, its countless branches transforming into a holographic screen. "Look at this—"
The scene freezes in a bamboo forest of a martial arts world, where a young man holding a long sword is frowning at the system interface. *Ding!* The system detects that the host feels pity for the mission target. Activate ruthless mode? Consuming 10 emotion points will forcibly suppress empathy. Veins bulge on the young man's forehead, and his fingertips dig deeply into his palms.
His name was Qin Ge, originally a gentle and refined young master from a noble family. The Supreme Kai's voice was deep and resonant. To force him to complete the main storyline of avenging his family's massacre, the system constantly twisted his personality through missions. Now, his soul had split into three personalities, all to cater to the system's different mission requirements.
"Ridiculous." Mirror Lin Ye sneered, casually scattering the image. If he were powerful enough, he would have crushed the system long ago and taken control. Just like me—he suddenly raised his hand and pressed it against the Tree of Origin, his palm lighting up with the same purple patterns as the system's remnants. Tools have always been used to my advantage.
Bulma suddenly exclaimed, pointing into the distance: "Look at those glowing figures!" Dozens of semi-transparent silhouettes drifted among the wreckage, their bodies flickering like pixels, each with a shattered system interface floating above their chest. One of the figures, clad in an orange Hokage robe, suddenly lunged forward, but vanished into specks of light before touching Lin Ye, its dying whisper clearly reaching everyone's ears: "...So...the mission never truly ended."
The protagonist, Lin Ye, felt a chill run down his spine. Several of the shattered system interfaces displayed UI designs similar to his own system. He recalled the faint, persistent dizziness he felt deep within his mind each time he completed a mission, and his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.
The system is essentially a data prison. The Supreme Kai walked to the Tree of Origin, his scepter pointing to a leaf. "Look at the Dragon Pride Astronomical System in this universe," he said. "Every time the host utters a pretentious line, he gains power, but after three months, his brain will be eroded by the program code, turning him into a puppet that can only mechanically recite lines." The young man in the scene was practicing a wicked smile in front of a mirror, but his eyes were empty, like a dead fish.
Suddenly, Lin Ye reached out and grabbed a falling leaf. The leaf displayed the interface of a system shop from a crossover anime world. "Interesting," he thought, a dangerous smirk playing on his lips. "The underlying code of these systems all seems to point to the same source..." Before he could finish speaking, the Tree of Origin trembled violently, all its leaves simultaneously erupting with blinding light. The hosts in the images collectively screamed in terror, clutching their heads, and the system interfaces popped up with a dense barrage of red warnings:
[Intrusion detected]
[Initiate system self-destruct program]
Eliminate all unstable factors.
Suddenly, floating debris shot towards them like bullets, and Bulma screamed as she hid behind the Supreme Kai. Lin Ye swung his sword and cleaved a flying shield in two, only to find densely packed small characters engraved on the inside: "I am the 732nd person to try to break free from the system. If anyone sees this message—" Before he could finish speaking, the shield shattered into dust in the flash of his sword.
"They're crying for help," the protagonist murmured, catching a wisp of light dissipating from his fingertips. Within that wisp of light flashed countless pairs of desperate eyes. Over the years, how many transmigrators had been trapped in the system's loop, until their souls were completely digitized...
Therefore, the Tree of Origin must be destroyed. The Supreme Kai's scepter slammed heavily into the ground, dark red patterns spreading like a spiderweb towards the roots. It was the mother of all systems; each leaf was the embryo of a system. But... he suddenly frowned, looking at Mirror Image Lin Ye, who was carving some kind of mysterious symbol onto the tree trunk with his fingertips. "What are you doing?"
I've said it before, the system is a tool. When Lin Ye looked up, he saw data flowing through his eyes. Rather than destroying it, he decided to control it. "Look at this code..." With a wave of his hand, several leaves detached from the tree trunk and floated in the air. The "forced task" message on the interface changed to "free choice." By modifying the core parameters, the system could become a true asset.
Supreme Kai's pupils constricted sharply: You're insane! Tampering with the system will only trigger a more severe karmic backlash!
Cause and effect? Mirror Lin Ye laughed, a laugh tinged with madness. "While you're still agonizing over right and wrong, I've already glimpsed a higher dimension. These system remnants hold the keys to the multiverse, and the Tree of Origin..." He traced his fingertip across the trunk, and a golden crack opened—the central hub connecting all worlds.
The protagonist suddenly felt dizzy, and countless images flashed through his vision: his clones in different worlds, some being driven to the brink of despair by system tasks, and others already dissipating into dust. When the image fixed on one of himself writing a web novel, he suddenly remembered the old man's advice in the beginner village: Beware of those systems that promise to grant wishes; the interest they charge is your soul.
"Enough!" The Supreme Kai swung his staff, creating a wall of fire that separated Mirror Lin Ye from the Tree of Origin. "You think you're in control of destiny, but you're just building a more elaborate prison!" He pointed to the collapsing system wreckage, where a man in a suit was clutching his head and screaming. He had been a programmer in the real world, and after transmigrating, he thought he could use his skills to crack the system, but now his brain had become one with the code!
Lin Ye's smile suddenly froze. He stared at the man's gradually transparent body, and for the first time, the data flow in his pupils became erratic. The protagonist noticed that beneath the skin exposed at his sleeve, purple patterns were slowly spreading, as if the system was taking over.
The spacetime turbulence suddenly intensified, and a crack appeared in the top of the temple. More luminous debris floated in the moonlight, resembling star debris drifting in the universe. Bulma trembled as she raised her capsule camera, only to find that the images captured by the lens were all gibberish—the souls of those time travelers had already been rewritten by the system into unrecognizable data streams.
"We should go." The Supreme Kai's voice was weary; the energy fluctuations here had already alerted beings in higher dimensions. He looked at Mirror Image Lin Ye, who was staring at the Tree of Origin, his eyes a mixture of greed and fear. "As for you... you'd better think carefully. While you're staring at the system, the system is also staring at you."
The moment everyone stepped back into the temporal turbulence, Lin Ye looked back and saw his mirror image touching the crack in the Tree of Origin. In the golden light, his figure gradually overlapped with the mysterious symbols on the tree trunk. And the floating remains of the transmigrators, in their final moments, collectively turned to look at them. On the shattered system interface, only a line of constantly flashing blood-red text remained:
Welcome to the truth about the system.
Chapter 58: The King's Chessboard
The realm of the Omni-King was like a torn curtain of starlight, with floating stellar debris forming a giant chessboard. The players from the twelve universes were like insects pinned to amber, suspended in their respective squares. My (the protagonist's) knee sank into a dark red energy fluid, as viscous as blood, yet emitting a pungent, ozone-like odor.
From now on, the system erasure skill is allowed.
The voice of the Omni-King of Destruction sounded like a million rusty machines operating simultaneously. He sat on a throne twisted from a black hole, his fingers lightly tapping the armrests. With each tap, the skin of three cosmic warriors began to crack—not from the outside in, but as if something was gnawing at their internal organs.
"Aaaaaah! My skill bar is disappearing!" The lizardman from Universe 7 suddenly scratched his chest, his system interface flashing wildly like a screen infected by a virus. The instant his HP reached zero, his eyeballs popped out of their sockets, exploding into two streams of data in mid-air.
Vegeta's combat suit was soaked with cold sweat. He lowered his voice and said, "Kakarot, use that."
But the energy wasn't enough... Sun Wukong's fingers were trembling slightly, and the energy blast he was condensing in his palm was only the size of a ping-pong ball.
I grabbed the two of them by the back of their collars and dragged them backward. Three seconds later, the spot where we had been standing suddenly caved in into the shape of the number 404—a death sign for a system vulnerability.
Do you understand? With a trembling wrist, I summoned the light screen, which had only 30% energy remaining. Its annihilation was essentially data deletion. But it was a fragment of my cosmic authority.
The fragments spun in his palm, projecting a pale blue protective shield. Outside the shield, a female Saiyan was melting, her skeleton revealing the structure of binary code.
Three minutes. I gritted my teeth and held up three fingers. This absolute domain could withstand system-level attacks, but...
That's enough. Vegeta suddenly bared his fangs. "Hey, inferior warrior, try connecting your fragmented energy to my destructive energy."
Sun Wukong suddenly widened his eyes: Wait! Are you going to—
A sudden metallic tearing sound came from outside the protective shield. Mirror Lin Ye slammed onto the chessboard like a rag doll, his mechanical eye displaying a red warning message: 【Plan.exe has started】. Even more terrifying, a black cube, counting down, was revealed in his ripped-open chest cavity—the core of a trans-cosmic bomb.
That madman! I lunged at the edge of the protective shield; he had planned to destroy all the universes together!
The Omni-King of Destruction finally rose from his throne. As the hem of his robes billowed, an inner lining woven from countless tormented faces was revealed. An interesting toy. He reached for the black cube, but his fingertips were suddenly burned before he could touch it—my face appeared on the cube's surface.
"I see." Vegeta suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, "Kakarot! Now!"
Goku pressed the miniature Spirit Bomb into Vegeta's back, while I simultaneously inserted the permission fragment into Vegeta's power level detector. The instant the three energies merged, Vegeta's purple hair suddenly turned into a silver-white stream of data.
[System Notification: An abnormal evolved form, God of Destruction, has been detected.]
Vegeta's new form surprised Zeno for the first time. Every strand of this silver-white warrior's hair was flowing code, and his fists were wreathed in red light resembling system error messages.
Ha! Vegeta shattered the rules of the chessboard with a single punch, and the cosmic players plummeted like insects freed from a spiderweb. But Mirror Lin Ye's body suddenly convulsed as he stood up, his voice transforming into a synthesized electronic tone:
[Final Protocol Activated: Eliminate all failed products]
The black cube began to devour the chessboard, even gnawing on the corners of the Omni-King's robe. I looked down at my hands—the skin was peeling away, pixelated.
Twenty seconds left! Sun Wukong used his golden cudgel to stop the ever-expanding black hole. Kid! Think of something quick...
In the blinding light of the explosion, I suddenly saw the structure inside the cube—it wasn't a bomb at all, but a miniature universe. Floating inside were twelve empty chairs, three of which contained the illusory images of the three of us.
"Vegeta!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, smashing the third chair! That's the program anchor point!
A silver-white fist pierced through the torrent of data. The moment the protective shield shattered, the entire realm fell into absolute silence. The Omni-King of Destruction remained frozen in his outstretched hand pose, his throne fading into the blue screen of an old-fashioned computer.
Lin Ye's head rolled to my feet, the last thing his mechanical eyes flashed: "[Thank you...for releasing...]"
Before darkness engulfed my vision, I heard Vegeta's cold snort: "Inferior warrior, say so earlier next time."
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Chapter 59: Trunks Returns
The lab alarm shattered the early morning silence. Lin Ye jerked his head up from the data terminal; a flashing red warning box on the screen displayed the words "abnormal fluctuations in spacetime." He rubbed his sore eyes; this was the third time this week.
Location? Lin Ye's voice was hoarse from staying up all night.
On the outskirts of Xidu, the coordinates overlap with Mrs. Bulma's laboratory by 98.7%. The AI butler's mechanical female voice replied, "Energy characteristics identified as... impossible."
Lin Ye had already rushed out the door: Get to the point!
It was identified as an energy signature of Trunks, but there were 73.8% abnormal fluctuations.
When Lin Ye arrived at the scene in his hovercar, the area around the laboratory was already surrounded by Capsule Corporation security personnel. Bulma stood at the front, her energy detector beeping rapidly.
"You're too late." Bulma said without turning her head, her voice trembling slightly. The boy had suddenly appeared in the center of the laboratory and was now unconscious.
Lin Ye squeezed through the crowd and saw Trunks lying on the medical bed. His purple hair was much longer than he remembered, and there was a hideous scar on his face. Most striking was the strange metal band wrapped around his wrist, which was flashing an ominous red light.
"This isn't the Trunks we know." Bulma whispered, "I checked his DNA, and the match is only 89%."
Just then, Trunks suddenly opened his eyes. They were bloodshot eyes, and countless images seemed to flash back in his pupils.
Mom... Mom? His voice seemed to come from a very far place. No... it can't be... I saw you with my own eyes...
He suddenly began to struggle violently, the medical bed creaking under the strain. Lin Ye rushed forward to hold him down, but was instantly blasted away by a powerful force upon contact. A system notification sounded in his mind:
[WARNING! Multiverse memory fragment intrusion detected!]
[System defense mechanism activated...]
[System upgrade conditions have been met. Evolution begins...]
A sharp pain swept through Lin Ye's brain, and he collapsed to his knees. Countless fragmented images flashed before his eyes: the burning West Capital, the crashing space capsule, Bulma lying in a pool of blood... Finally, the image settled on an unfamiliar symbol—an emblem composed of a clock and a sword.
"Time and Space... Management Bureau..." Trunks managed to utter these words before falling into a coma again.
Bulma's face turned pale: What did he say?
Lin Ye didn't answer immediately, because his system was undergoing a radical transformation. The once simple interface was replaced by a complex, multi-dimensional structure, and a new name emerged in his mind:
[Multiverse Central System Successfully Activated]
[Currently available skill library: 7 parallel universes]
[Temporary skill borrowing function unlocked, duration: 5 minutes/time]
Bulma, Lin Ye stood up, his voice unusually calm. "We need to strengthen the lab's defenses. Trunks brought more than just memory fragments..."
Before he could finish speaking, a beam of golden light suddenly tore open the roof of the laboratory. Three people dressed in silver-white uniforms floated in the air, their badges the same ones Lin Ye had just seen.
"Mr. Lin Ye." The leading man's voice was icy. "You have been formally arrested by the Time and Space Administration for the crime of disrupting the timeline."
Bulma immediately pressed the button on her wrist, activating the lab's defense system and forming an energy barrier above everyone's heads. But the man simply waved his hand, and the barrier shattered like a soap bubble.
It's no use, Ms. Bulma. The man landed on the ground; before the absolute law of time, any technology is futile.