The dozens of Machina parted, and a black-haired, black-eyed man approached.
"Just a passerby. At Miss March 7th's request, I came to handle the Antimatter Legion invasion."
"Stop! Don't come closer!"
Seeing Ryuga approach closer and closer, both Silver Wolf and Kafka's expressions became very tense.
Being able to command these intelligences, and even daring to come before them—this showed the other party was definitely no weakling.
Although unclear about the other party's background, in interstellar society, the unknown was the greatest danger. If they continued letting him approach, they might lose the initiative.
After multiple warnings proved ineffective, Silver Wolf didn't hesitate in the slightest, aiming the quantum driver in her palm at Ryuga.
"Hmph! If you won't listen to warnings, taste this. Weakness Implant!"
Strike first to gain the upper hand. Although she didn't know what Path Ryuga walked, that didn't stop her from first planting a DEBUFF on him.
As a gaming master, Silver Wolf was also a combat expert.
A beam of light shot from the driver in her palm—light-speed attacks were rarely avoidable by anyone.
"Whoosh!"
As expected, this strike successfully hit the target.
However, Silver Wolf showed no joy. Instead, she frowned.
"Weakness Implant failed? No, it was defended!"
After putting on the quantum glasses on her forehead, she finally noticed a thin energy shield in front of Ryuga.
Her attack had struck his energy shield and been completely decomposed, never having a chance to take effect.
"Heh! Interesting opponent!"
Seeing such an enemy, the girl's fighting spirit ignited instead.
This was much more interesting than those Machina who could dominate through sheer numbers!
Watching Silver Wolf's eager eyes, Ryuga looked at her with equal interest.
"So this is Aether Editing technology? Using energy to affect the rules of matter, gamifying reality—this mechanism has excellent utility and can even evolve iteratively..."
Using energy to interfere with matter was one of the most fundamental rules of the universe.
Strictly speaking, all divine authorities operated according to this rule.
Authority concepts needed divine power to manifest in reality. Even Altertius's seemingly unreasonable energy that appeared to violate thermodynamic laws actually required drawing on imaginary energy to truly affect reality.
Aether Editing technology expressed this rule in the form of games or programs. After writing the basic rules of energy interfering with matter into a program, one only needed to rewrite the program to change energy output and thereby rewrite the world.
In a sense, divine authority was a specific program within Aether Editing—you only needed to input the corresponding energy to get a fixed output according to predetermined rules.
Compared to already-packaged divine authorities that couldn't be disassembled, programs built on Aether Editing had the greatest advantage of being rewritable and evolvable.
Therefore, this technology's prospects were far more exaggerated than singular authorities.
"If you could obtain enough programs and perform sufficient iterations, this power could ultimately parse the source code of everything in the world directly, granting users power equivalent to a creator god!"
Ryuga sighed with such sentiment.
Truly worthy of a space-age universe—technologically advanced by an entire generation.
When Aether Editing developed to its extreme, it would inevitably become similar to Spirit Speech or the Reality Stone.
"Oh? You've got good taste!"
Hearing this, Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow.
Though trying hard to conceal it, everyone present could see the proud smile at the corner of her mouth.
Kafka shook her head slightly. This companion had good abilities but was too childish—a little praise and she'd lose her bearings.
But forget it. Compared to other problem children, Silver Wolf was already one of the better ones.
"Since you appreciate it, I'll go easy on you. Surrender now and I'll let you pass out painlessly!"
Getting carried away, Miss Silver Wolf decided to show off her abilities further. She patted the driver on her right hand, summoning a semi-transparent quantum short blade, then crouched slightly, as if preparing to rush at Ryuga for close combat.
Seeing her confident expression, Ryuga shook his head.
"You're overthinking it. I was only praising Aether Editing's future potential. As for current technology—at least the technology in your hands—it's not mature enough."
Hearing this, Silver Wolf's eyebrows shot up in anger. Her slender, pale legs bent slightly as she crouched low like a hunting cat, while her other hand hid behind her back, apparently setting something up.
"Hmph! Such big talk!"
To her ears, Ryuga's words were mocking her weakness.
Someone actually dared call her, Punklord's stealth emperor, weak?
"Looks like I need to teach you a lesson!"
After a light snort, the girl's slender figure explosively shot forward.
The next instant, even with Ryuga's eyesight, he couldn't see her figure.
Because at this moment, Silver Wolf wasn't in front of Ryuga—she had very abruptly appeared behind him.
This wasn't high-speed movement but spatial teleportation. Her charging motion was complete misdirection.
Switching the quantum blade to a setting that wouldn't injure but would definitely knock someone unconscious, activating the forced unconsciousness program, Silver Wolf leaped into the air, raising her blade high to strike down on Ryuga's head.
"Tell me—who's weaker now?"
After playfully delivering her victory line, Silver Wolf expected to see panic on the face before her.
However—
"Aether Editing spatial teleportation is only this level?"
What she saw were only faintly disappointed eyes and unavoidable defeat.
Before she could knock out her opponent, before she could even swing her weapon, her power to resist was stripped away by an irresistible force.
The quantum driver on her hand was immediately confiscated, the imaginary energy in her body suddenly disappeared completely, reducing her to the level of an ordinary human girl—she nearly collapsed to the ground.
"So this is the device that assists Aether Editing?"
Holding Silver Wolf's driver, Ryuga had almost instantly completed a full replication and analysis of its structure.
Having understood the technical principles, even the hacker divine technique that was Aether Editing was quickly mastered by Ryuga.
"The core really isn't this complicated at all. Making it this shape—could it be because of chuunibyou?"
After complete analysis, Ryuga discovered that ninety percent of this driver was useless decoration—the real core was only a fingernail-sized chip. He glanced somewhat surprisingly at the girl before him, though upon reflection, he wasn't that surprised.
Treating the universe as a game—if she wasn't chuunibyou, who was?
Seeing Ryuga's somewhat enlightened gaze, Silver Wolf's small face immediately flushed red.
Even though she'd now lost most of her power, weak as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, she absolutely couldn't tolerate this humiliation.
"I'm not chuunibyou! Give my driver back!"
She immediately bounced up, trying to snatch back her weapon from Ryuga.
Her slender body unconsciously rubbed against Ryuga, but no matter how high she jumped, having lost her power, she couldn't reach the weapon in Ryuga's hand—she could only futilely rage.
Damn guy, actually bullying her for being short!
In just one exchange, the notorious Stellaron Hunter Silver Wolf had been defeated by Ryuga.
Watching her bounce and struggle yet still unable to reach, Kafka's tense nerves slightly relaxed.
Not using heavy force against the powerless Silver Wolf—it seemed the other party indeed shared the same stance as those intelligences and wasn't an enemy.
However, even so, rescuing her companion was necessary.
So she immediately stepped forward and spoke.
"Listen to me—stop this conflict."
For someone possessing Spirit Whisper, using words to resolve conflict was the most effective method.
Though this power also worked on intelligences, networked intelligences would judge it as a mental attack, so it hadn't been convenient to use earlier.
But if the master of these intelligences appeared before her, that changed things.
She only needed to pacify Ryuga before her, using psychological suggestion to isolate the conflict, and they could withdraw completely.
At least, that's what Kafka thought in her heart.
However—
"Not listening."
Ryuga's response far exceeded her expectations.
"Kafka, listen to me—give up resistance!"
In Kafka's career as a Stellaron Hunter, it wasn't that she'd never encountered individuals immune to her Spirit Whisper.
Simply put, Spirit Whisper was just psychological suggestion—only effective on those with cracks in their hearts, ineffective against those with firm wills.
However, no matter how experienced she was, she'd never seen someone who could not only be immune to her Spirit Whisper but then turn around and use Spirit Whisper on her instead.
And even more terrifying—the other party's Spirit Whisper actually worked!
"Clatter!"
Two concealed short guns and a purple short blade—all weapons fell to the ground together.
The one doing this was none other than Kafka herself.
As if completely unable to control her own body, after throwing these weapons to the ground, Kafka watched helplessly as her body spontaneously raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
Completely different from her Spirit Whisper that manipulated hearts and induced spontaneous human action.
The other party's Spirit Whisper was domineering and crude, like a mandatory command, leaving her completely unable to resist.
If the other party wished, he could probably even make her commit suicide—her body would completely fulfill that wish, wouldn't it?
Realizing this, Kafka's body trembled slightly. Born on Pteruges-V in New Babylon, she'd never known fear since birth. Yet at this moment, she only felt an unfamiliar tremor.
She didn't know what emotion this was, but it was definitely something she'd never experienced before.
Just through words, making her body produce such a reaction—exactly what kind of existence was this person before her?
To be continued…