Act II: The Confrontation
Chapter 5: Operation Ascend and the Engineering Goddess
Chen Fan felt like he was back during finals week, his brain buzzing with overclocked excitement.
"Information Tagging." He stared at a dilapidated billboard covered in wanted posters and ads.
In his eyes, the wall wasn't just plaster; it was a stream of data.
[Ad: Old Li's Flying Sword Repair Shop / Danger Level: Low / Value: None / Note: The owner is trying to retrofit the sword into a drone. May explode.]
Chen Fan couldn't help but chuckle. This was essentially a hardcore RPG with a built-in, real-time strategy guide!
"A System? No, I'm better than a System," he thought, rubbing his hands together. "A System gives you fixed templates. I have real-time, Big Data Analysis! I can see the world's source code!"
His first priority: Survival resources. "Heal the injury, get cash, find a safe house."
He quickly targeted a seemingly abandoned corner.
[Corner: Abandoned Metal Crate / Danger Level: Very Low / Value: Low-Grade Healing Potion x1 / Note: Smells terrible, but life-saving.]
He rushed over, flipping the crate open. Sure enough, a clear vial lay inside, labeled [C-Grade Nutrient Solution, External Use].
"Got it!" Chen Fan quickly injected the liquid into the burns on his arm. The cooling sensation instantly subsided the pain, and the wound began to close visibly.
With confidence restored, Chen Fan locked onto a higher-value target. That confidence, however, was about to be obliterated by his "Engineering Goddess."
"You mean, you tracked me here?" Lin Xi's voice was cold, sharp, and laced with suspicion. She was done playing the gentle campus academic.
"Tracking? No, Senior Sister, you misunderstand!" Chen Fan tried to use his old, casual, overconfident charm. "I just knew we were fated! We kept running into each other on campus, and now in the 'Fusion World' too! It's destiny!"
Lin Xi pushed her glasses up, the impatience clear in her eyes. "You always were like this. Did you think I didn't notice you sitting next to me in the library, reading those ridiculous fantasy novels, pretending to be deep? I didn't like your self-satisfied, 'I see through everything' expression."
Chen Fan froze, his arrogant smile melting away. The Confidently Average Man trope he embodied was just crushed.
[Lin Xi: Trust Level: -99 (Aversion) / Relationship: Dangerous Stalker / Emotion: Agitated.]
"This isn't the time for that!" Chen Fan pleaded. "A Tier B Sovereign is chasing us! The world is falling apart!"
"Ordinary person?" Lin Xi scoffed, grabbing the engineering notebook on the table. "I stopped being ordinary when I found an ancient text in the university library: 'On the Structural Stress Resistance of Buildings During Spiritual Qi Resurgence.'"
"All your 'coincidences' were my preparations!" she declared, pointing to a diagram in her notebook. "You thought I was at the courier station buying furniture? I was picking up military-grade structural alloys! You thought I was admiring you in the library? I was studying how to use statics and dynamics to defuse a Tier D-level Runes Array!"
She lifted her wrist, where a seemingly simple bracelet glowed faintly.
[Low-Grade Defense Bracer / Attribute: Defense 10 / Power: Three Low-Grade Spirit Stones / Note: Self-designed by Lin Xi. 30% more efficient than comparable artifacts due to Structural Engineering principles.]
Chen Fan stared, slack-jawed. His "Damsel in Distress" was a hardcore survivalist who used college textbooks as her cheat sheet.
"I can offer information, but I need execution," Chen Fan quickly stated. "My Tier E body is trash, but my Info-Tag is Tier S. Your Structural Engineering knowledge is Tier A, but you lack global information."
"Deal." Lin Xi shook his hand firmly. "Mutual necessity."
Just as they sealed the deal, the Ghoul they'd escaped burst through the wall.
[Target: Mutated Ghoul / Combat Rank: Tier D (Late Qi Refinement) / Weakness: Frightened by Light/Fire, Neutralized by Wood-Attribute Runes.]
"Wood element, go!" Chen Fan shouted, reading the tag.
Lin Xi pulled a small device from her bag. Chen Fan instantly spotted the flaw: [Energy Slot: Empty.]
"Needs power!" Chen Fan yelled.
Lin Xi didn't hesitate, ripping a low-grade Spirit Stone from her own bracer and jamming it into the device. A green laser instantly shot out, forming a Wood-Attribute barrier that fried the Ghoul.
"We have three minutes before my energy runs out!" Lin Xi said. "We need the Apex Dojo Headquarters—the safest place in the city, provided we can bypass its defenses."
Chen Fan scanned the ruined building: [Ventilation Duct: Safe Escape (Leads to Dojo Outer Wall) / Danger: Very Low (Contains a Rank 1 Electrical Trap, bypassable via Lin Xi's structural knowledge)].
"Duct! You lead the way, Engineering Goddess! You know the wiring, I'll tell you the voltage!"
Chapter 6: The Dojo Labyrinth: A Battle of Broken Laws
The ventilation duct was hell for Chen Fan. Every step was a near-death experience.
"Stop! Left front! Three-Tier Static Rune Trap!" Chen Fan hissed, his Tag Eye flashing red.
[Three-Tier Static Rune / Weakness: Aged paper, can be neutralized by avoiding the metal current loop.]
"I don't need water," Lin Xi's calm voice echoed from behind him. "It's a Mechanically Induced Array. Shift five centimeters to the right; you'll avoid the conductive stress point in the wall."
Chen Fan shifted, and the Rune fizzled harmlessly.
"You can't see the trap, but you can see the circuit?" Chen Fan panted.
"I design bridges, not traps," Lin Xi retorted. "But physics is universal. Now, tell me the recharge time on that Psionic Barrier ahead!"
Their unorthodox partnership was their only salvation. Chen Fan's [Info-Hack] and Lin Xi's [Engineering-Magic] navigated the collapsing world like a pair of meta-gamers exploiting a broken engine.
They finally dropped into the ruins of the Apex Dojo Headquarters. The former training hall was now a full-blown battlefield.
[Area: High-Value Resource Zone / Combat Ranks: Tier C (Core Formation/Star Level) x 2; Tier D (Foundation/Planetary) x 10 / Danger: EXTREME.]
A chaotic fight was underway: Yellow Maple Sect cultivators were trying to protect a spiritual leyline, while Gene Warriors (in sleek combat suits) were trying to storm the position with Gauss rifles.
"The cultivator in the yellow robe!" Chen Fan pointed. "Tier C (Core Formation), but his Golden Core is rotating counter-clockwise because he took a bad Gene serum! His defense is 50% lower!"
"The Gene Warrior with the energy shield!" Lin Xi countered. "His shield is rated for blunt force, but only has 35% resistance to Fire Attribute Spiritual Power!"
The two factions were fatally weakened by the very fusion that created them. Their skills clashed, creating predictable gaps.
Chen Fan plotted a path to the reinforced underground vault. "Left side! That Yellow Maple guy is guarding a 'Blind Spot' I see on his array! He's focusing on the centerpiece and ignoring the structural instability in the wall!"
They moved, guided by Chen Fan's rapid-fire intel on "Skill Cooldown Timers" and "Potion Side Effects."
Finally, they reached the vault door. It was an advanced alloy structure.
[Alloy Door: Tier B Defense (Universe Level/Nascent Soul) / Opening Method: Voiceprint (Tier B Authority) or Exploiting the Fused Circuitry (Emergency Crank).]
Lin Xi immediately went to the broken emergency crank. "I can bypass the voice command if I rewire the power flow!"
"Hurry!"
Suddenly, a terrifying pressure descended, silencing the chaotic battle in the hall.
"Miserable rodents! Who permitted you to touch the property of the new order!"
Chen Fan spun around, his blood running cold. A figure in golden combat armor, with three black, stylized flying daggers hovering behind him, slowly descended from a hole in the ceiling.
[Target: Commander Lucius / Unified Rank: Tier B (Sovereign) / Fused Systems: Universe Level (Swallowed Star) + Late Nascent Soul (Mortal's Journey) / Weakness: His Nascent Soul (Core) is vulnerable to high-velocity physical impact, avoid lightning/psionics.]
"Oh, my God! It's a fusion monster! Universe Level Telekinesis PLUS Nascent Soul Lightning Magic!" Chen Fan stammered.
Chapter 7: The Source Code and the Deleted Plot
"Tier B! We're dead!" Chen Fan cried. "He's charging a Lightning Blast! We can't outrun it!"
[Commander Lucius: Skill Prediction: 'Triple-Blade Trinity Strike' in 5 seconds. Defense Difficulty: Extreme.]
"We can't dodge, but we can deflect!" Lin Xi yelled, tossing her heavy toolkit into the air, which had a small yellow Talisman (Rune) affixed to it.
"Detonate!"
The toolkit exploded into a shower of screws and metal shards. The Talisman, a low-grade Lightning Conductor Rune, diverted the path of the three daggers by a hair's breadth.
The daggers whizzed past Chen Fan's head and embedded themselves in the concrete wall behind, crackling with purple energy.
"Go! Go! Go!" Lin Xi rewired the final junction and threw open the vault door.
They tumbled into the dark passage. Lucius raged at the entrance but was wary of entering the narrow passage, which would negate his range advantage.
They ran until they reached a large, round chamber. In the center, a huge, semi-transparent screen floated, displaying a chaotic torrent of blue light.
The screen wasn't showing camera feeds; it was showing text.
Chen Fan walked closer and gasped. It was the core plotline of countless web novels.
[Novel ID: 416550 / Title: A Mortal's Journey to Immortality / Chapter: 2800 / Event: Han Li Ascends to Higher Realm / Status: COMPLETE]
[Novel ID: 101889 / Title: Swallowed Star / Chapter: 1999 / Event: Luo Feng Reaches Universe Level / Status: COMPLETE]
"This is the Source Code of the world," Chen Fan whispered, his blood pounding.
Then he saw the alarming red text:
[Main Line ID: FA-001 / Conflict: Seven-Leaf Ice Heart Grass / Status: Occurred / Result: FAILURE (Han Li escaped) / Log: Information Leakage. Plot Character deviated from designated path.]
[Main Line ID: DR-002 / Conflict: Nibelungen Protocol Test / Status: CANCELED / Log: World Engine could not resolve weather variables due to Fusion Conflict.]
Then, a massive red warning flashed in the center of the screen.
[WARNING: World Fusion Exceeds 75% / Logic Collapse Rate 90% / ERROR: Main Characters Interrupted by External Information Source.]
[WARNING: Initiating Automatic Correction Program (The World Corrector).]
Chen Fan looked at the bottom line, shaking.
[Correction Target: Delete All External Information Sources—Chen Fan.]
"I'm the target?" Chen Fan stammered.
Lin Xi pointed to the right corner.
[Operator: The Entropy / Authority: Administrator / Goal: Restore Singular World Logic.]
"Someone is editing reality!" Lin Xi realized.
Chen Fan finally understood: His deep, deep knowledge of plots wasn't a cheat code; it was a virus. And now, the "World Corrector" was coming to delete him.
Chapter 8: Exploiting the Bug
"We're trapped! He'll find us!" Lin Xi shouted over the continued thudding on the alloy door.
Lucius was right outside. Chen Fan stared frantically at the screen, ignoring the massive [DELETE CHEN FAN] warning. He had to find another Bug.
He saw a familiar, recurring Dragon Raja command that kept failing due to the Swallowed Star world's lack of atmosphere synchronization.
[Event ID: Rain_Night_003 / Description: Chu Zihang's Blood Rage / Status: STALLED (Missing Rain Environment)]
And next to it: the powerful, yet currently inactive, [Han Li's Small Green Bottle (High Concentration Aqueous Spiritual Energy)] command.
A crazy idea flashed in Chen Fan's mind.
"If the world is a game, I'll force a plot conflict to crash the server!"
He swiftly used his mind to drag and drop the [Han Li's Spiritual Energy] command onto the [Rain_Night_003] command.
Force Execution: Cross-Plot Fusion!
"Bring the rain, you buggy server!" Chen Fan roared, hitting the virtual Enter key.
The physical laws in the chamber fractured.
Instead of water, a wave of intensely concentrated green spiritual liquid erupted from the ceiling.
Lucius, who had just managed to tear open the door, was about to unleash his purple lightning. But the potent, water-like spiritual energy instantly short-circuited his attack.
Physics Note: Water conducts electricity, but high-concentration Spiritual Liquid causes 'Spiritual Power Overload'.
"ZZZZT—BOOM!!!"
Lucius's lightning attack exploded, backfiring on him! He screamed in pain and was thrown across the room.
"Go! Now!" Chen Fan grabbed Lin Xi, adrenaline pumping.
"What did you do?" Lin Xi demanded. "You drowned a lightning cultivator?"
"No," Chen Fan grinned, shaking off the shock. "I used a Dragon Raja environmental cheat and Mortal's Journey resource overflow to create a localized Weather Bug that short-circuited his Spiritual Core. Let's call it a software update."
Chapter 9: Welcome to the Glitch Sector
They ran through the hole, only to find the city outside had become truly horrifying. This wasn't just chaos; it was digital decay.
The road surface was missing textures, replaced by blinking purple squares. Lampposts were wedged sideways into the walls. A distant skyscraper seemed to shrink and grow.
[Current Zone: Logic Failure Sector / Common Name: Bug Street / Danger Level: Random (May gain artifact from stepping on an ant, may die from running into an invisible wall)]
"The laws of physics are completely broken here," Lin Xi stated, watching a screw she tossed hover in a figure-eight pattern. "My structural engineering is useless here."
"This is the 'Deleted Scene' trash bin," Chen Fan muttered, his eyes wide. "All the bad plots, the incomplete chapters, the contradictory settings—they piled up right here."
A handsome young man in ancient aristocratic robes floated into view, the lower half of his body a glitching mass of code.
[Target: Li Aotian (Arrogant Young Master) / Status: Stuck in 'Face-Slapping' Loop / Combat Rank: Schrödinger's Tier (Strong when needed, weaker when convenient)]
"Stop! This is the territory of I, Dragon Aotian! That woman, I see your excellent potential, you shall be my eighteenth concu—"
He twitched, instantly teleported five meters back, and repeated the line.
"Stop! This is the territory of I, Dragon Aotian! That woman, I see your excellent potential, you shall be my eighteenth concu—"
"He's lagging," Chen Fan diagnosed. "The author abandoned the novel here, so he can't proceed without a female lead response."
"I accept! But your father forbids it!" Chen Fan yelled, interrupting the looping dialogue.
The young man froze. His internal program clearly lacked the "Father Forbids" variable. His face twisted.
[System Alert: Undefined Interaction Detected / Recalculating... / ERROR! ERROR!]
"AAARGH! Who is my father?! I'm an orphan!" The Young Master screamed in logical agony, dissolving into a stream of data.
[Loot: Protagonist Halo (Incomplete) / Effect: Luck MAX for 1 minute / Cost: Extreme Bad Luck for 3 days.]
Chen Fan pocketed the ring. "See, the power of a reader," he smirked. "I knew his character flaw was 'Orphan Protagonist Opening.'"
They almost made it out of the Glitch Sector when Chen Fan's body slammed to a halt.
Standing at the end of the street was a figure in a black trench coat, holding a featureless book.
The problem?
Chen Fan's Tag Eye showed absolutely nothing.
No name. No rank. No weakness.
Just a stream of code: [?? / ?? / ??]
"Senior Sister," Chen Fan whispered, backing away, "My cheat code... it's been disabled."
The figure slowly raised its head, revealing a face like blank paper.
"Target located."
The voice echoed directly in their minds—cold, purely digital.
"Error Code: Chen Fan. Execution: Complete Deletion."
Black, needle-like spikes of data erupted from the ground.
"Use the ring!" Lin Xi screamed.
Chen Fan jammed the [Protagonist Halo] on his finger. "Luck MAX, ACTIVATE!"
At that moment, the ground beneath Chen Fan's feet spontaneously caved in. Not from the attack, but because of a missing manhole cover.
"Aaaah!"
They plunged into the sewers. The black spikes missed them by inches, freezing at the hole.
Above them, the Faceless Man's voice registered confusion:
"Anomaly detected... Plot Force Correction? Protagonist Immortality Axiom?"
Chapter 10: Bad Luck Comes Like a Wrecking Ball
"PLOP."
Chen Fan and Lin Xi landed on a pile of... giant Spongebob-themed slime monsters.
"A soft landing," Chen Fan sighed, relieved, trying to stand up with dignity.
[System Alert: Protagonist Halo Side Effect Active / Current Luck: -999 (E-Rank Jinx)]
The "Spongebob Slime" sneezed, spraying sticky residue. Chen Fan slipped and went down, grabbing wildly for balance. He snatched Lin Xi's backpack buckle.
"Clink."
The backpack flew off her shoulders. Lin Xi stood still; Chen Fan, holding the heavy pack, face-planted into a murky water channel.
He surfaced, spitting out a piece of rotten cabbage and a... sandal?
[Item Acquired: Old Landlord's Slipper / Attribute: Attack +1 (Only effective on cockroaches) / Note: Highly scented.]
"What kind of garbage curse is this?!" Chen Fan yelled, tossing the slipper.
"Stay quiet," Lin Xi warned.
They were surrounded by a group whose aesthetic was hilariously contradictory: Wuxia Beggar Clan robes mixed with smartphones and delivery scooters (operated by wizards in robes).
The leader was a blind man with dark sunglasses, playing a Chinese two-stringed fiddle.
[Target: Ah Bing (Cyber-Musician) / Faction: The Pauper's Union / Combat Rank: Tier C (Soundwave Cultivation + Heavy Metal Rock) / Note: Plays 'Gokuraku Jodo' on the Erhu.]
"Who trespasses?" Ah Bing demanded, drawing a distorted electric guitar chord from his erhu. "Don't you know this is the territory of the Pauper's Union?"
Chen Fan tried to be cordial. The curse had other ideas. The words came out:
"What's up, useless trash?"
Silence. Lin Xi covered her face in shame.
"Useless trash?! GET HIM! Strip the man and hang him from a lamp, and the woman... ask her if she wants a membership card!"
The chaotic mob rushed. Chen Fan tried to flee but slipped on the slipper (bad luck), falling and knocking the knee of a passing beggar.
"Ow! He attacked me! Master, he's a martial arts expert!" the beggar shrieked.
Lin Xi sighed. She pulled out a handful of old-world paper currency.
"Toll."
Ah Bing's ears twitched. "Ah, the scent of hard currency! VIP customers, I see! Welcome, family!"
Chapter 11: The Logic-Defying Sect
After paying the outrageous "protection fee," Ah Bing led them to the [Shelter 404] base. The walls were covered with banned novel covers, and the members were furiously typing on ancient computers.
"This is our front line against the Corrector," Ah Bing boasted. "We may be weak, but we have the strongest weapon: Logical Paradox."
The leader was a huge, oily man in a t-shirt emblazoned with the Chinese characters for 'KEYBOARD, COME!' (a parody of a famous Cultivation phrase). He was eating fried chicken while yelling into a microphone.
[Target: Wang Pangzi (Fatty Wang) / Faction: Pauper's Union Leader / Profession: Troll King / Rank: Tier E (Body), Tier A (Verbal Attack - Trash Talk Mastery) / Note: Has the speed of an esports pro and the bulk of a tank.]
"Oh, new faces!" Fatty Wang greeted them, wiping grease on his shirt. "I heard this guy called us all useless trash? Spicy! I like a man with good trash talk!"
"That was the curse," Chen Fan muttered.
"Perfect! We need you!" Fatty Wang grinned. "The Corrector has no logical fallacies, but we are the Logic-Defying Sect! We survive by breaking the system."
Fatty Wang gestured to his core team: A silent, cold girl polishing a dagger (The Assassin who got canceled before her character arc), and a ridiculously handsome man narcissistically talking to a mirror (The "Mary Sue" lead whose power was forcing every woman within ten feet to fall in love with him, but whose brain was 50% air).
"We found that if we create a massive Logical Paradox at a key moment, the Correction Program crashes," Fatty Wang explained.
"Like what?" Chen Fan asked.
"Last time, a high-Tier Cultivator was sent to eliminate us. We sent the Mary Sue up to him and had him 'CEO Wall-Slam' the cultivator while saying, 'Boy, you're playing with fire!'"
"And?"
"The cultivator was on the Path of Emotionless Dao. The clash between his Dao Heart and the Tyrannical CEO Logic caused him to have a Qi Deviation and he exploded," Fatty Wang said triumphantly.
Chen Fan was speechless.
"But the Faceless Man... he has no emotions, no logic," Fatty Wang sighed. "Your knowledge is the only key. And Lin Xi..." He pointed to a smoking server. "Can you fix our Causality Server? The cooling fan is jammed by the Mary Sue's hair."
Lin Xi immediately grabbed her tools. "I can install a Liquid Cooling Spiritual Array for a fee."
Chapter 12: Mission: Steal a Waifu
After a night of rest (during which Chen Fan choked on water three times, the toilet exploded once, and his bed frame spontaneously collapsed twice), Fatty Wang announced the next mission.
"We need to go to the Abandoned Commercial Sector and steal something," Fatty Wang said.
"Weapons? Artifacts?" Chen Fan asked.
"No, a Paper Waifu," Fatty Wang revealed. "Specifically, an unawakened Misaka Mikoto Clone from A Certain Scientific Railgun. She's stuck in a vending machine."
"If we get her out, we get a Tier C+ electrical esper! We need that kind of firepower!"
"We're stealing the Railgun Girl from a vending machine," Chen Fan deadpanned. "This mission is pure anime trash."
"Two mid-grade Spirit Stones each," Fatty Wang offered.
"Deal!" Chen Fan and Lin Xi agreed instantly.
Team Lineup: Chen Fan (The Jinx), Lin Xi (The Engineer), Fatty Wang (The Getaway Driver), and the silent, deadly Assassin Girl.
They piled into a modified Wuling Hongguang-Optimus Prime Edition van.
The moment they reached the surface, Chen Fan's luck struck.
"PFFFT—"
The tire exploded.
"Chen Fan! Did you breathe again?!" Fatty Wang screamed. "That tire was Kevlar-coated!"
They proceeded on foot. The Commercial Sector was a mess.
A group of ridiculous low-Tier enemies (The 'Team Rocket' goons, complete with matching uniforms) were surrounding a vending machine. Inside, a bewildered girl in a high school uniform was banging on the glass.
[Target: Misaka Mikoto No.10086 / Status: Stuck / Combat Rank: Inactive]
"They're after our waifu! Get them!" Fatty Wang shouted, hiding behind the van with a megaphone.
"Attack Move: Zu'an Rhapsody!"
Fatty Wang launched a terrifying barrage of highly personalized, emotionally devastating insults through the megaphone. The Team Rocket goons instantly suffered a 50% reduction in movement speed due to cognitive dissonance.
"Assassin Girl, go!"
The silent killer moved instantly, slicing the goons' belts with blinding speed.
"Now, Lin Xi, hack the machine!"
Lin Xi rushed to the vending machine with a power drill. "Chen Fan, hand me the wrench!"
Chen Fan grabbed the wrench, but his foot slipped (bad luck). The wrench flew out of his hand.
"SWISH—"
The wrench flew over the vending machine and slammed with perfect accuracy into the head of a silent, black-robed figure watching the fight from a distance.
"THUNK!"
The figure slowly turned around. He had no face.
It was The Faceless Man!
Silence descended.
"...I can explain," Chen Fan whispered, terrified.
The Faceless Man didn't speak. He simply raised his hand, and a terrible black energy beam began to coalesce.
In that split second, Fatty Wang performed a maneuver worthy of a true hero. He charged forward, using his massive body to shield Chen Fan.
"Fatty! What are you doing?!" Chen Fan cried out.
"Get the girl and run!" Fatty Wang yelled back, a look of grim determination on his greasy face. "I'm the Tank! Tanks are for taking hits!"
"Besides," Fatty Wang coughed, blood staining the "Keyboard, Come!" t-shirt, "I read the script. This chapter... the Tank must fall for the Protagonist to stand up!"
"BOOM!!!"
The black beam hit Fatty Wang dead-center. The mountain of a man collapsed slowly.
Chen Fan watched, horrified. The reckless, loud, yet loyal Fatty Wang—gone, just like that.
The glass on the vending machine shattered from the impact force. Misaka Mikoto No.10086 stumbled out, seeing the fallen hero. Blue-white electricity crackled in her eyes.
RAILGUN!
A coin, charged with angry lightning, shot toward the Faceless Man.
The battle had just turned tragic.