My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 367 Zero Unit, Black Chrysalis's Reconnaissance Time (Two-part series, please vote!)

"This place is so cold, I should have brought more diapers... Well, thankfully my restraints are warm. It's not too bad."

At midnight local time on August 19th, a tall, slender figure wearing a dark red mask and a black trench coat was suspended in the snow.

A restraint strap extended from the back of the trench coat, encircling the magnificent glacier overhead, while the remaining straps wrapped the garment around itself, resembling a pupa.

At this moment, the giant black pupa hung upside down in the white world, motionless, as if about to emerge as a butterfly. A cold wind blew from the high glacier peak.

Hofsjökull Glacier, Iceland.

Looking out, this vast frozen land is not just white. There are black volcanic rocks, lakes covered by ice, and the rustling sound of melting snow. There is no sign of human presence. Staying on the ice field for a long time might make you feel so lonely that you want to shout out loud.

Hofsjökull is the third largest glacier in Iceland and also the largest active volcanic area in Iceland.

Located in the heart of the highlands, it is extremely difficult to reach, and only a few polar adventurers make a special trip here. Yet, it is the source of many of Iceland's rivers.

All of this was nonsense to Black Chrysalis. Even though this place was a living hell where one would be crushed to pieces once they stepped in, he had no choice but to come.

The reason is simple: the Salvation Society's base is hidden here, and he must find that location.

The biggest turning point is just around the corner.

Once he finds the other party's stronghold, the Salvation Society will become a tangible organization in his eyes, rather than something intangible and unfathomable. At that time, the organization will shed its veil of mystery.

If something truly exists, then there must be a way to dismantle it.

Icelandic time is several hours slower than Chinese time, so while it was already sunrise in Lijing, it was only early night here at Hofsjökull Glacier.

At this moment, the clear glacier reflects a solitary crescent moon, and the crescent moon on the horizon and its reflection on the lake form a complete circle.

At this moment, Gu Wenyu was hiding inside the pupa, turning the pages of a book with his eyes down, while controlling his restraint avatar, swinging the restraint around the glacier.

The restraints materialized and gripped the restraints like a seeker grasping a spider's web in the darkness. With a leap, it crossed the swirling snow and the towering volcanic rocks.

But what he saw in his empty pupils was still a vast expanse of Shirakawa, and the cold wind blowing in his face was chilling, as if this endless frozen land would stretch all the way to the ends of the earth.

But the restraints did not stop; instead, they raised their hands and peeled off a restraint trap, which hung from the top of the glacier.

In the following time, the black pupa controlled its avatar to travel non-stop to the central area of ​​the Hofs Glacier, leaving behind a series of restraint traps on both the east and west sides. The restraints' senses were fully activated, observing every movement around the traps.

Meanwhile, the avatar continued its journey north towards the Hofs Glacier, where it remained to guard the area, while the black pupa itself hung upside down in the south, leaving no corner untouched.

If members of the Salvation Society were to travel here, they would most likely pass through the four lines of defense set up by Black Chrysalis. But unfortunately, for at least the entire day, Black Chrysalis failed to detect any strange activity on this vast frozen land.

"So where exactly is that hellhole?" Kuroyo scratched his chin, thinking, "Urushihara Ruri said it's below the glacier, so is it actually at the bottom of an active volcano? Aren't the Salvation Society members worried about a volcanic eruption someday? Or do they only plan to use this place as a short-term base?"

He sighed. "Could it be that they actually sensed something was wrong after Urushihara Ruri died, and then transferred my original body beforehand?"

Black Pupa quickly shook her head, pulling herself out of her jumbled thoughts.

If the Salvation Society were to relocate its base, Ji Minghuan's true form would inevitably sense it. After all, he hadn't been anesthetized recently.

Moreover, to be fair, building a base that looks exactly the same would be a considerable undertaking, and at least Ji Minghuan didn't notice any difference in the environment.

"Let's take our time. There's plenty of time. Luckily, this body is a superhuman, so it's fine if I don't eat for a month or two. I refuse to believe that those Salvation Society bastards can hide forever." With that thought, Black Chrysalis brought up the gear panel in the lower right corner of her vision and found the last page, [Character Split Progress].

[The split progress has not been completed yet, and a new game character cannot be created. 】

[Note: The number of Splitting Points required to create the next new game character is 999. (Once you have collected a total of 999 Splitting Points, you can create the next "game character" in the real world. The next game mech will be identified as: Mech No. 0.)]

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine split points, it's basically safe to say we'll never be able to gather them all in this lifetime... Of course, that's a different story if the inhibitors injected into the main body are removed."

Black Chrysalis scratched her chin, thinking, "So what exactly is this Zero Unit? Does it symbolize the true power of a restricted-level superpower?"

As he imagined himself using the Zero unit to rub a black hole, he raised his fingers, which were wrapped in restraints, closed the split panel, and then used the restraints' senses to look at the surrounding scenery.

The snow and ice swept in, yet they brushed past the edges of the transparent pupa quite naturally, without settling on it. The clear moonlight shone down from above, but it couldn't outline the giant pupa's shape.

In order not to reveal his whereabouts, he had to keep the restraints in a color-changing form. Now, the Black Chrysalis has been cultivated to its final form, and its ability to conceal its presence has reached a new level.

Even if it were a mythical powerhouse of the Salvation Society, he was confident that he could deceive the other party, which was the source of his confidence in coming to the other party's headquarters alone.

Even if we sacrifice one unit to find the enemy's base, it would still be a worthwhile deal.

"So here's the problem: once we find the exact location, we need to gather the people. I'm confident I can lure the Lake Hunters and the Demon Army to Iceland, and the White Raven Brigade is also under control. It's a certainty that the Third Prince will come to help. The only things left to be decided are... Rainbow Wing, and what about Father and Big Brother?"

With her thoughts lingering on this point, Black Chrysalis sighed softly, tilted her head, and stretched her stiff neck.

"I wonder if my little sister's Ghost Train crew will get involved. Although I really don't want to see Ke Qirui, her train demons might have a surprising effect, like when they took down the queen bee on the deserted island."

He lowered his head, flipping through the comic book "Looking Back Suddenly" while thinking, "How can I appear in front of my older brother and the others next time?" Thinking of this, Black Chrysalis stroked his chin and began to imagine the scene, but his mind was a mess.

If he could, he would never want to see those family members again. If things continued like this, he wouldn't be able to tell whether they were "fake family" or "real family." In the end, he was just an abandoned orphan and didn't know how to get along with family.

But at that funeral, when he hid in Caesar's pocket with Unit 3 and looked at Su Zimai's red, tear-filled eyes and Su Wei's haggard face and white hair, he suddenly felt as if a part of his heart had been touched.

He had originally planned that once the original body was rescued, he could put all these troublesome relationships behind him and run far away with Kong Youling.

Just like before, they were two people at the beginning, and they were still two people in the end.

But is he really clear-headed?

The black pupa lowered its eyes, raised its fingers, and quietly turned the pages of the comic book. The restraints rubbed against the pages, making a rustling sound inside the pupa.

"Should I go directly to Sea Sail City to find them, or send a text message through a private channel known only to us, telling them that I am in Iceland and asking them to come find me here... If all else fails, I should go see them in person, otherwise the credibility is very low."

"How am I supposed to escape their family's wrath then...? Will the diaper devil just cry from anger?"

"But I should have told them the truth then, saying something like, 'Gu Wenyu is just a fake person, and your family doesn't exist at all.' Well... although they definitely wouldn't listen, they would just think I was being ridiculous."

"Forget it, if all else fails, I'll just entrust my personality to someone else, but then I'll really become a lunatic."

Under the moonlight, on the clear glacier, a transparent pupa hangs upside down all alone. The boy inside the pupa puts the comic book back into his trench coat pocket and slowly closes his eyes.

Meanwhile, inside the Salvation Society base, in the children's playground on floor F2.

Two small figures in hospital gowns sat on a swing, shoulder to shoulder. Shang Xiaochi looked down at her palm-sized English vocabulary book, while Ji Minghuan swung on the swing absentmindedly.

A melancholy blue light shone overhead, the swing swayed up and down, Ji Minghuan's eyes were vacant, her soul seemed to have flown away somewhere.

Every now and then, he would look up at Sun Changkong and Kong Youling, who were chatting on the somersault cloud, and then at Filio and Mario, who were playing a two-player game on a Switch not far away.

At this moment, Ji Minghuan's mind was filled with the two things that had just happened in the detention room.

One of the things the instructor showed them was a real-life video of "Wu Qingjie," the name of the child who possessed the fragment of Zeus.

According to his mentor, just a few hours earlier, he had single-handedly wiped out the Indian queen bee and the three newly born queen bees.

Although the video was incomplete, Ji Minghuan could tell from those few short clips just how powerful the mythical fragment "Zeus" was. Perhaps this guy was even stronger than Sun Changkong.

So he was racking his brains trying to figure out what kind of fighting power he needed to hold Zeus back as much as possible.

In fact, from the very beginning, Ji Minghuan did not expect that the people he summoned from various forces could defeat a mythical enemy, as that was an extremely difficult task.

Take the queen bee "Jo" as an example. Even a mythical bee with abilities that can be described as "particularly specialized" would be nothing more than a flock of lambs to the slaughter in front of her, compared to the so-called natural disaster-level bees.

But Ji Minghuan's goal was to use the time these people had to delay to distract the Salvation Society and take the opportunity to rescue his own body.

Once the black pupa enters the Salvation Society base, this machine will move freely and quickly find the location of the original body. The restraints and senses are not fake; Ji Minghuan is confident in this.

However, if Zeus cannot be held back and confined to the Hofs Glacier, then there is no point in even discussing entering the Salvation Society to rescue the original body.

He was certain that even a fully formed black pupa would be instantly pulled out by Zeus, thus ruining his plan.

“So annoying…” Ji Minghuan shrugged, his thoughts wandering. “If Dad comes, would he have a chance to hold Zeus back? No matter how fast Zeus is, he can’t outrun the pause time.”

He thought for a moment, "Forget about Zeus for now, what about the prophets?"

The word "prophet" forms the second source of Ji Minghuan's troubles.

Just minutes before, it seemed that the being known as the "Prophet" had arrived in the imprisonment room. At that moment, time suddenly stopped in all directions, and only Ji Minghuan and the humanoid afterimage created by the other party could move in the empty world.

"I will come to see you in two days. Wait for me. This time, I will not repeat the same mistake." These were the words left by the prophet at that time.

Ji Minghuan recalled the afterimage of the figure draped in a white cloak in his mind and couldn't help but click his tongue.

Since this prophet was able to deceive the Salvation Council and deliver information to him so openly, his strength must be considerable, at least at the level of a functional natural disaster, and that's a conservative estimate.

Although Ji Minghuan knew he wasn't in mortal danger—otherwise, the Salvation Society would have already dealt with him—he still felt immense pressure facing such an unknown figure, especially with his powers restricted, fearing something unexpected might happen.

He sighed softly, lowered his eyes, and silently stared at the soft sand beneath his feet, thinking to himself, "Two days later, on the evening of August 21st?"

"It's still uncertain whether the prophet is friend or foe. If he's a bad guy, should I report what just happened to my mentor and tell him that the prophet will be here in two days?"

"But if the prophet came to save me, why did he have the Salvation Society lock me up in the first place? What's the point? It doesn't make sense no matter how you look at it." As Ji Minghuan thought about this, his thoughts were interrupted by the voices coming from beside him.

"Traitor, how do you pronounce that word?" Shang Xiaochi suddenly turned her head and asked softly. "Word?"

Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow and turned her head to meet her gaze. Under the cool light, their eyes met.

"Ah."

Shang Xiaochi held the vocabulary book in her hand and pointed to the English word "Abandon" on it.

"I don't know. I'm illiterate and came from an orphanage. You've asked the wrong person." Ji Minghuan looked at the word. "If it's Japanese, I can teach you. After all, I watch a lot of anime and I've already learned it without a teacher."

"Never mind then." Shang Xiaochi frowned.

"Why have you started learning English recently?" Ji Minghuan looked up at him.

"I was so bored, so I learned it..." Shang Xiaochi said softly. "If you guys go abroad to travel in the future, I can be your translator. I've learned some pinyin these past few days, but I don't know all of it yet. Also, I'm not very good at communicating with people, so you're not allowed to laugh at me then."

“I don’t think you need to learn it. Back then, we would definitely have our tutor act as the translator,” Ji Minghuan said casually. “He looks respectable and talented, and you can tell at a glance that he is proficient in multiple languages.”

“My advisor is going too, so I won’t go,” Shang Xiaochi said.

"I'm just kidding."

"What a terrible joke."

Just how much do you hate your mentor?

"I don't dislike you guys here, you're still under observation," Shang Xiaochi said softly.

"Haha, the observation period is here, so I'll try my best not to become someone you dislike," Ji Minghuan said casually. "Although it will be difficult."

Why is it difficult?

"Because I'm annoying."

Shang Xiaochi was silent for a moment, then said, "Big Sister said... she and you just watched a video of Zeus."

"and then?"

"Did your advisor show you...my videos?" Shang Xiaochi thought for a moment, then asked.

"Uh... what do you mean?" Ji Minghuan asked, puzzled.

"Didn't your mentor tell you?" Shang Xiaochi said haltingly, "I lost control once before. At that time, I turned into a huge tree, and many, many people were swept into it. They were either impaled by thorns or crushed by the tree roots. Many people died. They were all the test subjects here..."

She paused for a moment: "He didn't show you the video from that time? I thought you had already seen it."

"When was that?"

"Just a short time ago, before I even knew you."

"So you mean you became the World Tree and killed a lot of people?"

"Ah."

“Even the eldest sister lost control once, back then she also… never mind, it’s not good to comfort you with that.” Saying this, Ji Minghuan turned her head and glanced at Somersault Cloud.

Two girls sat cross-legged on a cloud. Kong Youling placed a penguin doll on her head and shook her head seriously, making Sun Changkong laugh so hard he clutched his stomach.

“You don’t need to comfort me. Actually, I haven’t taken it to heart either,” Shang Xiaochi said.

"Really?"

"Yes, because I hate those experimenters."

"But no matter how much you hate them... once you know you've killed someone, you'll definitely feel some fear."

"I'm not afraid."

"Who are you kidding?"

Shang Xiaochi lowered her head, her eyes suddenly reddening. She frowned as she looked at her vocabulary book. "Actually, back then, I kept thinking that it would be better to just die like this, but my tutor wouldn't allow it, nobody would allow it. I felt like every day here was empty. When I looked up, all I saw was the same ceiling. It was so scary, like being a manipulated puppet..."

Ji Minghuan remained silent.

"Fortunately, I met you all later," Shang Xiaochi said. "It's so good to meet you all. I suddenly had the motivation to live... I want to see the outside world with you. Maybe if we can hold on a little longer, things will get better."

After a long pause, Ji Minghuan spoke up, "Can elementary school students please stop using words like 'survive' all the time? What do you know? The outside world is so big and you've never seen a thing of it."

"You...aren't you a primary school student too?"

"I am a wise elementary school student, not on the same level as a low-level corrupted elementary school student like you."

"Mingming, you used to say you were a corrupted elementary school student." Shang Xiaochi sobbed, her voice filled with grievance and annoyance.

"I've already evolved. A person can't stay a dark elementary school student forever, right?" Ji Minghuan said irritably.

Hearing the sobbing, Filio came over and said, "Don't cry, Little Ruler. Look at my amazing ear-wiggling skills." As he finished speaking, his wolf ears suddenly perked up and then drooped down again.

"Mature content? How come you made her cry again while we were talking? Do you have some hidden talent?" Mario walked over with his game console and asked curiously.

Ji Minghuan rolled her eyes at them, somewhat speechless, and didn't even bother to explain anything.

“It’s not the traitor’s fault,” Shang Xiaochi said.

"Did you hear that?" Ji Minghuan asked.

He had barely finished speaking when Shang Xiaochi abruptly changed the subject, muttering, "Never mind, it's the traitor's fault..." At this point, she suddenly burst into tears.

“Rated R, you’re something else,” Mario said.

“Ji Minghuan, a big bad guy,” Filio said.

Sun Changkong also flew over on his somersault cloud, bared his tiger teeth with a "Wow!" and pointed at Ji Minghuan, "Why did you make Little Chi cry again?"

Kong Youling also puffed out her cheeks slightly. Although she could speak, she seemed unwilling to reprimand him verbally, so she subconsciously wrote on the notebook, the rustling sound of the pencil scratching the pages coming from the notebook.

Ji Minghuan sighed softly and simply stopped talking. He just hung his head and swayed quietly on the swing, staring blankly at the soft sofa on the ground, his eyes empty.

The thought that in a few days these children would become the final bosses he had to defeat, each one more ferocious than the last, who could easily wipe out the people he had attracted like insects with a single small skill.

Perhaps with a "snap," Ayase Origami and Gu Qiye will turn into a cloud of blood mist and die on the glacier. Perhaps many more people will die—many, many, many people he knows, people he tricked into coming here, people who know nothing about it…

But now, he has to do everything he can to take care of these children's feelings and treat them as friends.

Sometimes, he didn't even know what he was doing. He was just acting, acting, acting with his own body, and acting with other people's bodies. Thinking about this, Ji Minghuan felt a little tired.

He desperately wanted to crawl out of there and never see their faces again.

“You should all just die…” he suddenly said, his lips moving slightly.

"What did you just say?" Mario was taken aback. "We're all going to die?"

Ji Minghuan was slightly taken aback.

He slowly raised his eyes, looked at Mario and Filio who were staring at him in surprise, then turned his head to look at Sun Changkong and Kong Youling who were stunned.

Suddenly, the park lights went out, plunging everything into complete darkness. The instructor's voice came through the monitor, "It's time to rest, kids."

After a long silence, Ji Minghuan said, "It's nothing... I probably haven't been sleeping enough these past two days. I'm so sleepy that I'm starting to talk nonsense."

He yawned, got up from the swing, and said, "Goodnight, everyone...see you in a couple of days." With that, he walked out of the children's playground first and followed the experimenter into the elevator.

With a "ding," the elevator doors slowly closed and ascended.

Ji Minghuan glanced at the experimenter operating on the elevator panel, then looked up from under her bangs and silently watched the figures disappear through the crack in the door.

The elevator car hummed as it descended. The boy in the hospital gown let out a long sigh, leaned his back against the elevator wall, and slowly closed his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep.

Meanwhile, at 8:8 AM Beijing time on August 19th, inside the underground bar "Grey Raven".

[Hint: The perspective of Unit 2, "Chess Player," has been loaded.]

"Thump, thump thump..."

A knock came at the door, and Xia Pingzhou immediately opened his eyes, only to be met with an unfamiliar ceiling. He remained silent for a moment, then got up from the bed in the private room, glanced down at the black gloves beside his pillow, and then at the raven tattoo on the back of his right hand.

Just then, the Ripper's voice came from outside the door, "Let's go, Sleepyhead, it's time to go to Sea Sail City."

"coming."

As Xia Pingzhou spoke, he slowly put on his gloves, covering the crow pattern on the back of his hand, and then raised his head.

(End of this chapter)