413: Chapter 410 We are best friends!

Lu Jianchuan was currently balancing the Rabbit King on his head while reaching out to tease a fluffy Little Grey Rabbit in front of him. The little rabbit jumped back after being poked by his finger, only to curiously lean back in, its nose twitching incessantly.

Right at that moment—

Beep— Beep— Beep—

A piercing alarm suddenly exploded, originating from the room next door. The sound was sharp and urgent, clearly not a common fault notification, but an intrusion alarm.

Lu Jianchuan stood up abruptly. The Rabbit King wobbled atop his head, its four legs instinctively gripping his hair. Ignoring the pain, Lu Jianchuan rushed out with the Rabbit King in his arms, kicking open the door next door in a few strides.

The room was in total chaos.

Seven or eight programmers sat at their respective workstations, fingers tapping frantically on their keyboards. On the large screen directly ahead, data streams rolled down like waterfalls, and red warning boxes popped up one after another. Someone was shouting, "Stop him! Don't let him into the core area!" Another person's voice cracked, "I can't, he's too fast!"

Lu Jianchuan leaned in behind the nearest programmer. "What's going on? What's going on?"

Without looking back, the programmer's fingers didn't stop. "Network intrusion! A detected network intrusion!"

"Who has such guts? To dare to invade while knowing this is the The Authorities?"

"I don't know! The opponent is like a ghost—"

Another programmer nearby chimed in, "He wants to hack our database for all species types! No, we can't let him succeed!"

Another row of red warning boxes exploded across the screen.

"No, how can his speed be so fast?!"

Lu Jianchuan couldn't understand those rapidly jumping codes, but he could see the expressions of the programmers—anxiety, tension, and even a hint of terror. Some were desperately pounding their keyboards, while others had already stopped, staring at the screen and muttering to themselves, "This is impossible..."

"Can we hold him off?" Lu Jianchuan asked.

"We can... barely hold him off..." that programmer gritted his teeth, "But only for a little while."

"How long is 'a little while'?"

The programmer didn't answer. He just stared at the screen, his fingers twitching.

On the screen, the speed of the data stream seemed to have accelerated again.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

Lu Jianchuan stood there, watching the increasingly desperate expressions on the programmers' faces, his mind racing. He didn't understand these codes and data streams, but he knew how to ask for help.

He gently placed the Rabbit King on a nearby table, took out his phone, and tapped the icon with a grey background and white border.

Lu Jianchuan: @.** Are you there? Something happened.

Lu Jianchuan: Someone is hacking GUPA's species database. We're about to lose our defense here.

After sending the message, he stared at the screen, his heart beating a bit fast.

A few seconds later, a reply popped up.

.**: Huh?

.**: What?

.**: Someone actually dares to hack this database besides me?

Lu Jianchuan stared at that line of text, stunned for a moment.

Besides me?

He seemed to have heard something he shouldn't have.

Forget it. He instinctively suppressed that thought and continued typing.

Lu Jianchuan: Please, could you—

.**: No problem.

.**: This The Authorities database can only be hacked by me.

.**: Let me handle it.

[Consciousness Space]

Han Chengyu sat cross-legged in that void of white space. A light screen in front of him was displaying the GUPA database's defense interface in real-time—those red intrusion alarms were rolling down like a waterfall.

"System," he spoke, "can you do it?"

[No problem.]

The System's voice rang out, carrying its usual calm.

[However, judging by the situation, the opponent seems to be a Data Lifeform.]

Han Chengyu was stunned for a moment. "A Data Lifeform? Can we beat him?"

[Let's put it this way.] A rare ripple appeared in the System's tone, [Me fighting him is purely like an old man playing with a child. Understand?]

"An old man playing with a child..." Han Chengyu repeated, standing up and stretching his wrists. "Alright, then let's go meet him."

[host, get ready. We are now entering the data level.]

The surrounding white space began to twist and blur. Han Chengyu felt his body being stretched, compressed, and reorganized—the next second, he was already standing in a virtual space composed of countless streams of light and data chains.

In the distance, a black figure was floating there.

The person wore a mask and a black hoodie with the hood pulled very low, making his face completely invisible. He stood in the center of a data stream, his fingers lightly plucking at those light chains as if he were browsing his own collection of books.

Han Chengyu appeared behind him.

The black figure spun around abruptly.

"Who are you?"

Han Chengyu crossed his arms over his chest and slightly raised his chin.

"Hmph," he spoke, his voice not loud, but it echoed exceptionally clearly in this data space, "the world calls me—the Emperor Hantian."

The other side was silent for a second.

"...A hacker is just a hacker, where did all this 'Emperor Hantian' nonsense come from?"

The black figure's tone carried obvious disdain, but he then narrowed his eyes, sizing up Han Chengyu.

"I didn't expect the The Authorities to have an Evolver like me."

Just as Han Chengyu was about to speak, the System's voice rang in his mind.

[host, I've investigated. He's a hacker. He used to sit in front of the computer every day, eating instant noodles while playing. One time, the noodles spilled on the computer, nearly electrocuting him to death.]

[In the end, he fused with the computer, becoming a half-human, half-machine Data Lifeform. His consciousness can be stored in any electronic device, and he still has part of a flesh-and-blood body in the outside world, but he can travel freely through the network like a Data Lifeform.]

Han Chengyu listened and nodded.

"So that's how it is."

He suddenly realized something.

"Wait, System, how do you know that?"

[Oh.] The System's tone was nonchalant, [I hacked him.]

[As a Data Lifeform, his biggest flaw is—being very easy to hack. Although being in the data is convenient for him, his defensive capabilities are actually mediocre. I just hacked him while I was at it and read through all his memories from childhood to now.]

Han Chengyu was stunned.

"...Huh?"

After hearing the System's report, a thought suddenly popped into Han Chengyu's head.

"Wait, System," he communicated through his mind, "I have a bold idea."

[What idea?]

The corners of Han Chengyu's mouth curled up slightly as he transmitted his plan through his thoughts.

The System was silent for a second.

[...It's possible. This is quite wicked.]

"It's called tactics," Han Chengyu corrected it.

Only a moment had passed in the outside world. The hacker was still floating in place, staring warily at Han Chengyu.

"You don't acknowledge me as the Emperor Hantian, do you?" Han Chengyu spoke, his voice carrying a hint of disdain, "Fine. Then let me show you—the power that belongs uniquely to me."

The hacker sneered, "What power?"

Han Chengyu raised his right hand and lightly snapped his fingers.

"Domain Expansion—"

The surrounding data space instantly twisted, deformed, and reorganized.

In the next instant, they were standing in a sun-drenched agritainment farmhouse. Underfoot was dirt ground, above was a grape trellis, and the sounds of chickens and ducks drifted from afar, while the air was filled with the fragrance of a wood-fired stove. A few simple tables were set out in the courtyard, with teapots and melon seeds placed on them.

The hacker was stunned.

"This is... what?"

He didn't notice that at this very moment, deep within his brain, a certain memory was being silently modified.

It was elementary school.

A thin, small boy sat in the corner of the classroom, a loner with no friends. One day, another boy walked up to him and handed him half an eraser.

"What's your name? Let's play together."

That boy's face became Han Chengyu's face.

Then it was middle school.

The two boys climbed over the wall to skip class together, went to the internet cafe to play games together, and shared a bottle of soda at the entrance of the convenience store. That hacker, who was always alone, had a friend for the first time.

"We are best friends, right?" that boy asked him.

"Yeah," he nodded.

That face was still Han Chengyu's face.

Memories flooded in like a tide, frame by frame, terrifyingly clear. Those childhoods he never had, those friendships that never existed, were all being stuffed into his mind at this moment, feeling as real as if he had experienced them personally.

The hacker stood frozen in place.

He slowly raised his hand and touched the mask on his face. His fingers were trembling.

Then he took off the mask.

What was revealed was an ordinary young man's face, now covered in tears and snot. He tilted his head back, looking up at that fake blue sky above the farmhouse, his voice hoarse, carrying an uncontrollable tremble and sob:

"We..."

"Are best friends..."