Countdown to world destruction, day 24.
"…Second week?"
After staring at the man in front of him for a while, Bai Zhi suddenly asked.
Under the current premise that there was no source of intelligence, someone suddenly jumped out and said that he had a lot of information he wanted. All Bai Zhi could think of were the players who had restarted in the second game.
"That's right. How about cooperation?"
As if he was not surprised that he would guess this, the man put a stiff smile on his face.
"I already have some clues about the cause of death in this world, but I still need a few helpers. Are you interested?"
"We'll talk about this kind of thing later. May I ask, how did you fail before?"
Looking at the man in front of him, Bai Zhi raised his eyebrows slightly.
"The prerequisite for cooperation is openness and honesty. You shouldn't keep this kind of information confidential, right?"
"… certainly."
After staring at him for a while, the man spoke.
"The arrival of the disaster begins when there are of course 21 days left before the world is destroyed. On the 21st day, existences similar to players will begin to appear in the world. This is the initial collapse. Unfortunately, Yes, most of the players who initially gained extraordinary powers were children."
"child?"
Bai Zhi frowned slightly.
"Yes, the average age is under five years old, including babies who have just been born. The younger the age, the more immature the mind, and the stronger the power. Especially those babies who are just born, the power they use even reaches the level of idealism. Degree."
The man's tone was flat.
"The initial disaster was caused by these children. They basically had no control over their own power. They could tear off an adult's arm with a wave of their arms, and countless murders occurred as a result. Those five- and six-year-old children are fine, but the most terrifying thing is the babies. The disasters caused by babies' unconscious thoughts have a wider impact, and there has even been an incident where an entire city turned into a big pile of marshmallows. "
"Marshmallow... sounds good?"
"Really? But you don't think so when you're a marshmallow."
The man's face was expressionless.
"At that time, one of my teammates wanted to find the source of the disaster from these babies, but when he came to the baby, he was turned into a humanoid shape under the gaze of all of us. The marshmallow was eaten bit by bit by the baby happily."
"Uh... what happened to your teammate afterwards?"
"I was lucky enough to save a life, and the upper limit of my sanity was reduced by half. Coupled with the superimposed penalties, the whole person is basically useless."
The man had a sneer on his face.
"It's just the impact of one of the babies, just imagine it for yourself."
"Then what?"
After thinking for a moment, Bai Zhi continued to ask.
"And then? Everyone went crazy."
The man glanced at him.
"More and more people have gained incredible abilities. Scenes of gods fighting have become common. The rituals have broken down and the world has been in chaos. You lift an entire building with one hand, and I transform into a man several hundred meters tall. Giant, you transformed into a giant several hundred meters tall. I raised my hand and pulled out a sword several thousand meters long. As time went by, those abilities began to become more and more outrageous. In the beginning, it was flying, with huge strength and so on. Yes, in the final stage, moving mountains and filling seas, changing days and days, time standing still, immortality... all these things came out."
"...Is it so outrageous?"
After listening to the other party's words, Bai Zhi's expression couldn't help but look very subtle.
"You can choose not to believe it. Anyway, I have said everything I can say."
The man's mouth twitched slightly.
"In that kind of environment, it is already difficult to protect yourself, let alone find the origin and truth of everything... This is the main reason for my failure. How about, I have said so much, do you want to cooperate?"
"...ask you a question."
After a long silence, Bai Zhi reached out and pressed his forehead as if he had a headache.
"How far has your plan progressed so far?"
"..."
The man looked at him and said nothing.
"Don't even think about denying it. You have already started your plan from the first day, right? No, or in other words, you have already started your plan since the last time you failed."
Bai Zhi sighed helplessly.
"That free message was left by you, right? Although I didn't believe that message much, it was still slightly affected after all... What a pity."
"The contents of that message are all true."
Just staring at him closely, the man finally spoke at this time.
"How did you see through my plan? We have only met for less than a few minutes, and you are so sure that the message was left by me?"
"I like to collect some details in my daily life, and then when I encounter a suitable thread, I can connect all those details, and you are that thread."
Leaning back on the back of the chair, Bai Zhi stretched out a finger and tapped his head.
"Indeed, the content of the free message you left is true, but it can only prevent the death of the player and does not play any role in solving the puzzles of this world. As for the uncertainty..."
Bai Zhi shrugged slightly.
"I was really unsure just now, but now I am sure. After all, I didn't even say what the content was."
"...Talk?"
The corners of the man's mouth pulled upward slightly.
"I don't think there was anything wrong with my message."
"There is no problem, but you successfully bought yourself enough time with this message. The accumulated information gap and time gap are enough for you to have a huge advantage in this."
Bai Zhi curled his lips.
"The players in the second week really took advantage."
"What about my plan? When you said that you had an insight into my plan, were you also deliberately trying to deceive me?"
The man had a stiff smile on his face.
"Again, I don't think you can understand my plan in just a few minutes."
"Why, is it difficult to do something like this?"
Bai Zhi slightly rolled his eyes speechlessly.
"If I were in your position, I might also formulate this plan. Plus, the fact that you will appear here at this point in time is obvious enough, right?"
"So, what's my plan?"
The man had a rather unyielding attitude.
"What else could it be? Use the information gap and time difference obtained from the previous layout to control the countries in this world, and then use large-scale nuclear weapons to destroy the world before disaster strikes, and reduce the number of people to the greatest extent to avoid chaos in the later period... Do you need me to continue? How many countries have your team controlled so far? Six days should be enough for you, right?"
Looking at the man in front of him, Bai Zhi looked noncommittal.
"Although you must be hiding something, the general plan should be like this. As long as no other players come to cause trouble halfway, then you will definitely be able to win the final grand prize. Am I right?"
Volume 2 The Miracle of Microprobability: Chapter 1098 Chapter 184 Viruses and Anti-Virus Software
Bai Zhi's reasoning method is actually very simple.
Think of the whole story as a puzzle, with the scattered clues and details being the pieces.
Anyone who has done puzzles understands this thing.
As long as more than half of the puzzle is put together and the remaining pieces are easy to piece together, the overall difficulty trend is from difficult to easy.
Therefore, it is precisely because of this that Bai Zhi pays great attention to the collection of details.
It's just that although this method of reasoning seems simple, it is actually like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle without knowing the base plate. The most difficult part is often the first step.
"...So, do you choose to cooperate or not?"
After a moment of silence, the man spoke.
"Judging from what you just said, you shouldn't be a Madonna type character."
"Hey, hey, hey, I've said so much, do you still think I'm the kind of person who counts money for others after being sold?"
Reaching out and pressing his temples, Bai Zhi rolled his eyes.
"You just said it yourself, the mutation occurred on the 21st day, but yesterday, two players were eliminated for unknown reasons. Does this kind of thing have something to do with you? After everyone hides it like this Under the good premise, I have reason to suspect that the two players who were eliminated early are most likely your teammates."
"If you are worried, we can make a contract."
As if he didn't want to continue this topic, the man took out a parchment scroll from somewhere and placed it on the table.
"It will be notarized by the system. Those who violate the contract will be punished. Also, are you sure you don't want to listen to the contents of the contract first?"
"What is the content of the cooperation?"
Bai Zhi glanced at the parchment scroll on the table and after thinking about it for a moment, Bai Zhi asked.
"The destruction of this world comes from the explosion of uncontrollable forces. Although the methods of destruction are different, the reasons are the same."
While using his fingers to outline a faint shadow in the air, the man spoke.
"The first time, the world was destroyed by the tearing of the sky. The second time, the world was destroyed by the disintegration of the earth. The third time, the world was destroyed by disorderly cannibalism."
Along with the man's movements, he outlined those lines in the air to form three animated gifs, vividly showing the scene of the world's destruction in front of Bai Zhi.
"Even the world itself doesn't know where those large-scale forces that exceed the world's conventions come from, and what we have to do is to explore the source of this power."
"so what?"
Looking at the earth-shattering scenes shown in the three animations in front of him, Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly.
"From the perspective of the world itself, He noticed that ghost stories had quietly invaded the world on the 21st day, so from that day on, players appeared in the world simultaneously."
When he said this, the man glanced at Bai Zhi.
"You should have a general understanding of the connection between the player, the system and the world, right? Generally speaking, the world itself has its own protective mechanism. I call this protective mechanism the world's own. Firewalls and those weird stories about intrusions are equivalent to viruses, and players are anti-virus software.”
As he spoke, the man continued to draw shapes in the air with his fingers, and the shapes were beautiful.
"In most cases, due to the existence of firewalls, the invasion of viruses like Guitan is a gradual process. The final system collapse or not depends on how developed the player's anti-virus software is... You can understand this statement. Bar?"
"According to your statement, being targeted by the evil god and Doomsday is equivalent to directly physically destroying the host?"
This was the first time he heard this metaphor, and Bai Zhi started to discuss it with great interest.
"What about memes? What do memes mean?"
"... The existence outside the specifications will not be discussed for the time being. I know too little about those things to give an accurate definition."
Looking at him extra, the man paused slightly in his mouth.
"In short, the situation in this world is equivalent to an extremely powerful virus that has bypassed the world's own protective mechanism. The world itself did not even have time to react, and it quickly fell in just over 20 days."
The man's face was expressionless.
"And if this happens once, it can happen countless times in the future. If we can't seize the time to find the virus itself and how to bypass the firewall, countless worlds will be destroyed because of this weird rumor."
"So the point of a mission like this is that we need to find that bug and fix this terrible loophole?"
After hearing what the other party said, Bai Zhi raised his eyebrows slightly.
"We players are constantly upgrading, and Kaitan is not idle either, but is constantly upgrading, right?"
"Yes, this is a protracted war."
The expression on the man's face remained unchanged, but his tone became inexplicably colder.
"I call the players who appear in this world normal players, and those ordinary people who have acquired extraordinary abilities, I call them alien players. Alien players will consciously hunt down normal players, even if they are a loving couple. A friend who cuts both ways and a brother who has a harmonious relationship, the former will never show any mercy."
"That's why you say they've gone crazy?"
Bai Zhi reached out and touched his chin, with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yes, ordinary people who have gained those extraordinary powers have indeed gone crazy."
As if he had thought of something, a sneer appeared on the man's face.