Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 540 - 73: Starry Sky Cloud Code

The so-called database refers to a warehouse organized, stored, and managed according to a data structure.

However, ’Database 0’ is somewhat special. Its storage space is not filled with millions, tens of millions, or over a billion data entries but instead with an endless array of viruses.

So, the moment Gao Gong took his first step inside, the all-pervasive viruses infiltrated his data layer.

When Gao Gong’s simulated vision recovered, the red radiance already covered his view. Countless strange symbols streamed out, not only covering his pupils but even overflowing along the pupil to the outer corners of his eyes. What overflowed was the source code of Gao Gong’s data entity.

His blood volume started to drop rapidly.

Similarly, when Gao Gong’s hearing returned, his ears felt as if holes had been opened, and a mercury-like substance poured in effortlessly, filling his brain in just a few breaths, confusing all his perceptions. Under this ’mercury’ effect, various brain regions started to disintegrate, a significant amount of unconscious waste code appeared in Gao Gong’s human body system, causing his body to convulse as if in spasms. His limbs not only disobeyed him but twisted to 90, 180, 360 degrees randomly, and his head spun like an engine.

Furthermore, more viruses, like a pack of wolves smelling blood, evolved senses and emitted maddening laughter and shouts. Those that hadn’t evolved jostled to infect human organs, delete human system functions, format an arm, eyeball, or thigh.

The attack notifications on the system panel were nearly nonstop—

[You’ve been attacked by a level 35 Worm virus, Neural Network blocked]

[You’ve been attacked by a level 38 Trojan virus, Respiratory System, Digestive System are being invaded, 29%, 35%, 41%...]

[You’ve been attacked by a level 39 Script virus, Data Personality being modified...]

Different from ordinary physical attacks depleting blood, data-level attacks, if without countermeasures, even the lowest-tier virus could take out an Advanced Mechanical Body.

Especially here, the types of artificial viruses are exceptionally varied. Forget about ordinary electronic defense walls; even enterprise-level electronic defense walls couldn’t block so many types of viruses, especially some newly bred network viruses that haven’t even appeared on the market.

Thus, since his reincarnation, Gao Gong, a former Master of the Virtual, for the first time displayed his true skills. The Flame Code in his hand was like a dexterous scalpel, or like an armor without a gap. It would sometimes surge from the neural endings, miraculously modifying the ’Virtual Personality’ invaded by viruses, slicing off some chaotic virus fragments implanted who knows where. Each slice would result in a twisted face screaming in agony.

Or it would dive into the deepest layer of the human data layer, to complete work that requires dozens or hundreds of Neural Editors simultaneously working, cleaning code, rewriting code, in the code layer like a heap of dung, eating and drinking. An arm suddenly reappears and is restored, the swollen belly cleared of those madly reproducing data worms. The backdoor opened by a backdoor virus is like the yellow stamens swayed by a gale, opening and closing, opening and closing.

Those Tier 2 viruses appear frantically and are quickly cleaned out. Those with weak survival abilities are simply eradicated entirely, unable to even preserve their underlying code.

Truth be told, if not for this hellish level of difficulty, this would actually be a treasure trove for monster farming, inexhaustibly spawning monsters.

[You’ve expelled the Script virus "Valianka", Experience +30,000, Hacker Reputation +100]

[You’ve closed the Backdoor virus "Hesley", Experience +20,000, Hacker Reputation +50]

[You’ve killed the Program virus "Silver Shell", Experience +100,000, Hacker Reputation +1000, Specialization Points +1]

[You...]

Just like how Advanced AIs have their own ’identification’, high-tier viruses mostly also have their titles. Such titles are usually nicknames given after they’ve caused mischief on countless data nodes and invaded many Personality Chips.

Any one of these viruses released would be notorious, causing havoc wherever it goes.

But now, they are confined in the virus repository, slaughtering each other, devouring each other, evolving with each other.

Soon, Gao Gong’s accumulated experience reached two million and started rising toward three million. If not for worrying that ’Dida’, his friend from a past life, couldn’t handle reality, Gao Gong wouldn’t even think of leaving without farming several million experiences—after all, the chance to breach a planet-level firewall and enter Database 0 might just be this once.

At this moment, under the wild operation of the Flame Code, Gao Gong had already transformed into a humanoid flame entity. Code flames flickered along his skin, his facial features madly refreshing data streams, more AI than AI itself.

And he also ’saw’ that ’Skull Mountain’, and the dreamlike weave covering ’Skull Mountain’.

This layer of ’High-tier Information Mist’ firmly trapped the ’Colorless Fire’, the fortress’s firepower, without the slightest leak.

Just upon seeing the ’High-tier Information Mist’, Gao Gong decisively cut off his vision system, hearing system, respiratory system, taste system, and all sensory systems, entering a ’silent’ state at the data layer.

It’s no wonder he’s so cautious. Already ’physically’ ascended knowledge, crystallization of high-tier civilization, bewildering cosmic laws—no matter which one, it was far beyond what he could bear now, and even a brief encounter would result in immediate collapse, or as they say in games, an instant KO.

This level of discrepancy is beyond what skill can bridge; otherwise, the numerous civilizations in the universe wouldn’t all strive for ascension.

Without ascension, one is an ant, no matter how powerful, still just an ant.

And at this moment, Gao Gong, this ant, is attempting to grasp power that doesn’t belong to him.

Theoretically, this is impossible.

However, from a technical standpoint, there’s actually a feasible possibility. The reason lies in—this ’High-tier Civilization Mist’ has undergone safety processing in the earlier stages.

Although Gao Gong couldn’t understand why the Memory Mother at this stage could produce High-tier Civilization Mist, he knew well enough that if this thing wasn’t safely processed, anyone using it would immediately go insane, be it Carbon-Based Humans, Mechanical Life, or Energy Life, with no exceptions.

Given that it has been safely processed, Gao Gong can attempt to stealthily, without alerting anyone, steal a wisp of the ’mist’s’ power, after all, its owner is light-years away, maybe even beyond the Star System, and with the interstellar network not yet unfurled, even a high-tier Information Life as powerful as it couldn’t possibly cross light-years to smack someone.

So, all Gao Gong had to face was the danger inherent in the ’High-tier Civilization Mist’ itself, although dangerous, this danger was controllable.

[You are intimidated by the ’Artificial Physical Laws’, all Attributes -90% (temporary)]

The numbers on the system panel did not bring any change to Gao Gong’s expression, and the high-intensity pressure that threatened to dismantle his entire data entity similarly failed to evoke any emotional change. After all, he had faced terrifying oppressions before, and in his past life, his own oppression could virtualize an entire planet’s life.

However, this was, after all, the past life.

Now, on the virtual level, he is merely an under-level 20 little hacker, and one of the planet’s top codes, the Flame Code created by Paradise Bird, notorious for its formidable antivirus abilities, is utterly useless before this level of existence.

What he is deploying now is the method from his past life, also one of the underlying codes he used to edit ’Ideal Land’, the High-tier Code—’Starry Sky Cloud Code’.

This code’s strength lies in directly utilizing a nebula to generate a cloud server, without needing any external resources, and upon upgrading, it can even seamlessly transform a nebula into a Star System server.

During programming, the nebula-level rays, energy streams, and dark matter are stirred, forming a grand ’nebula vortex’, a rare spectacle in the universe.

But now, what Gao Gong crafted was just a ’glass bubble’ smaller than his palm, seemingly on the brink of bursting at any moment.

And even just creating this glass bubble, Gao Gong was at his limit, feeling the familiar sense of weakness, his legs trembling, as the phantom of the rich lady’s white legs flashed before his eyes.

Finally, when this ’glass bubble’ moved to that thin weave, a few strands of radiance were inexplicably drawn into the glass bubble.