My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 389 Illusion, Betrayal, Chessboard (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

In a pool of thick, black blood, the body of the boy in the overalls lay riddled with holes.

His head slumped, his eyes vacant, his limbs hanging limply to the ground, like a deflated doll. Not a single patch of skin on his face was intact; through the numerous holes, one could see the bone. Even the bones were broken, chunks of white debris flowing through the blood and spilling out of the holes.

The hacker is dead.

Su Zimai lowered her head slightly, panting heavily.

She stared at the boy in the overalls on the ground, and after confirming that he was completely dead, she moved past the hacker's corpse and walked step by step toward Rukawa Chiba.

Su Zimai looked up from her stray hairs and saw that Rukawa Chiba now only had his left hand left; his right hand had been burned by the fireball. Blood was gushing from the severed wrist.

In the silence, the distant rumble of a train and the sound of fog bombs exploding could be heard. The dark moonlight enveloped Su Zimai's face, but she completely ignored it all, her eyes seemingly filled only with Rukawa Chiba.

She clenched her fists, the magic patterns on her gloves radiating a faint light, but at that moment, Rukawa Chiba suddenly spoke, breaking the silence.

"Excuse my bluntness... Miss Su Zimai, don't you want to confirm who died just now?" Rukawa Chiba adjusted his glasses with his left hand and suddenly laughed.

Su Zimai frowned sharply: "You still want...you still want..."

But at that moment, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, and her words came to an abrupt halt.

She lowered her head and stared blankly, only to see that the hacker's corpse had suddenly changed; the jumpsuit had turned into tattered restraints.

Supported by restraints, Gu Wenyu staggered to his feet from the pool of blood. With a rotting, ugly face, he approached Su Zimai step by step.

With each step he took, blood gushed from the holes in his body, splashing onto the ground.

A moment later, he opened his bloodied lips and let out a hoarse sound from his throat, "Cough...why..."

Su Zimai was stunned. She shook her head and backed away, her face gradually turning pale.

At this very moment, in the real world, on the long street of silent films, painted in black and white.

Rukawa Chiba looked down at Su Zimai, who had collapsed on the ground, and said calmly, "This is a recurring dream. You think you've woken up... but you're still in the dream. As long as a person is in a dream, their judgment will be weakened. I only need to manipulate her emotions slightly, amplify her confusion, fear, and anxiety... to affect her judgment and make her feel as if she is in a dream."

At that moment, in the phone held in the doctor's right hand, the data hacker lowered his head and sighed.

He said disdainfully, "Doctor, just deal with her directly... Stop dawdling. Tong's mother and Andrew are still struggling over there. Either grab her and bring her over for negotiations."

“Don’t rush…” Rukawa Chiba shook his head. “I’m a little curious about this girl’s memories. Understanding the existence of that thing called ‘Black Chrysalis’ is very important to me.”

"Why?" the hacker asked. "Why are you and the leader so concerned about that 'black chrysalis'?"

Rukawa Chiba put his hands in the pockets of his white coat and looked down at Su Zimai.

He murmured, “All I know is that the ‘Black Chrysalis’ is unique. I can tell from her memories… Black Chrysalis, like Xia Pingzhou, is a person without emotions. And her memories are strange, as if they were implanted by some kind of ability, but they also seem to be real memories. It’s a contradictory and chaotic state… It’s really creepy.”

"A person without emotions? A state of contradiction?" The hacker was stunned.

But the next second, a movie screen suddenly appeared behind Su Zimai—Ke Qirui, who was in the distance, noticed the situation and, in a moment of respite from confronting Andrew, tried to use the power of the movie demon to take Su Zimai away.

"It's no use. How could I fall for the same trick twice?" The hacker had anticipated this.

The instant he saw the black and white screen, he transformed Su Zimai's body into a stream of data. Then, he manipulated that stream of data to fly up from directly in front of the screen.

The next second, just as the movie screen was about to close, the roar of a train engine suddenly came from it, and the dark red front of the train rushed towards Rukawa Chiba.

Rukawa Chiba was slightly taken aback. A hacker's "datafication" could not be used frequently, so he had nowhere to escape at this moment.

He was instantly blasted more than ten meters away, crashing into a white house. Blood flowed from his nostrils, and he was dented in a crack, completely devastated.

"I managed to digitize parts of your body at the last second, saving your most important organs. Are you alright?" the hacker asked hurriedly.

"I'm fine, much better..." Rukawa Chiba pondered, slowly getting up from the crater. "Where's that girl?"

The hacker on the phone screen raised his hand, and Su Zimai materialized and appeared beside him.

In that instant, Su Zimai's body suddenly transformed into a stiff, upright scarecrow. The scarecrow slowly grinned, revealing a sinister smile to Rukawa Chiba and the hacker.

The hacker paused for a moment, slightly taken aback. The next second, the scarecrow demon vanished, replaced by Rukawa Chiba's body covered in a thick layer of straw, bound to a cross-shaped wooden pole, unable to move.

Meanwhile, Su Zimai appeared in the distance, raising her glove and aiming it at Rukawa Chiba. Magical light patterns instantly filled to their full potential, and a fireball roared forth. Then, her body was engulfed by a movie screen and vanished from the spot.

Rukawa Chiba's body instantly became data, detaching from the wooden pole as the fireball grazed past him.

At this moment, Tong Zizhu, who was engaged in close combat with Xu Sanyan, suddenly distanced himself from her.

She glanced at the scene in the distance, then raised her hand to cover the fox mask. Like a scene from a movie with skipped frames, Tong Zizhu's figure twitched and swayed, disappearing from the spot in an instant, leaving only a hazy phantom.

"Not again... Which side does she plan to attack from this time?" Xu Sanyan frowned.

He immediately picked up his umbrella and pointed it at his feet. With a "whoosh," thick white mist spread out from the tip of the umbrella, enveloping Xu Sanyan for a hundred meters around him.

This fog was his domain. As long as Tong Zizhu appeared in the fog, he could immediately sense her presence. No matter which angle she attacked from, he was confident he could defend himself.

Surprisingly, Tong Zizhu didn't attack him. Instead, she returned to Rukawa Chiba and the hacker's side. She walked towards them expressionlessly, without saying a word.

"Aunt Tong, why are you back?" the hacker glanced at her and asked.

"I think it's more fun to bully a little girl. It's too boring to fight with grown men until you're drenched in sweat, isn't it?"

After saying that, Tong Zizhu suddenly sprang up and kicked Rukawa Chiba to the ground with a sweeping leg.

The doctor was slightly taken aback as the phone slipped from his right hand, revealing a shocked expression on the screen.

Before either of them could say anything, Tong Zizhu punched the phone screen. With a "bang," the phone shattered, sending charged pieces flying out.

The hacker's data lost its place, detached from the phone, and returned to reality.

"What are you doing?! Menopause?" The hacker fell to the ground with a thud, looked up at her with confusion and shock.

"She is Su Ying's child..."

After speaking, Tong Zizhu's body transformed into a phantom, twisting and dissipating. A moment later, she suddenly appeared beside Ke Qirui and slowly walked towards her.

Just then, Ke Qirui had used the movie screen to shake off Andrew and Robert. She glanced sideways and met Tong Zizhu's eyes in surprise.

"So Sanyan convinced you?" she asked.

"It wasn't her who convinced me, it was me who convinced myself," Tong Zizhu said casually. "How is that girl?"

Ke Qirui wrapped her arms around Su Zimai's waist and legs, pulling her into her embrace. Su Zimai's eyes were closed, her face contorted in pain. "Xiaomai," she whispered, "Are you alright?"

In an instant, Su Zimai frowned, raised her magic glove, and pointed her palm at Ke Qirui. The patterns on the glove were instantly filled with blue magical fluorescence. But in that second, by the fluorescence, she saw the other person's face clearly and opened her mouth blankly:

"Captain?"

"I'm glad you're alright. Can you stand up?" Ke Qirui asked softly.

"Ah."

Su Zimai nodded.

"Then be careful," Ke Qirui said, slowly putting her down from his arms.

Su Zimai's legs felt weak, and she sat down on the ground. Turning her head, she saw Tong Zizhu and, after a moment of surprise, couldn't help but ask:
"And what's the deal with this person?"

“She betrayed us.” Ke Qirui said, looking up at Tong Zizhu. “So, what are you planning to do next?”

"Let me make it clear first, I'm only responsible for protecting this child," Tong Zizhu said in a low voice. "If she dies, Su Ying will be heartbroken."

"Is that so?" Ke Qirui said calmly. "I am Su Ying's father's adopted daughter. You can call me Auntie, and can't you protect Auntie for a bit?"

"……what?"

Tong Zizhu tilted his head, stunned, his mind not quite processing what was happening.

"Surprised? That's normal... Welcome to our amazing family."

Su Zimai said meaningfully, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. Then she rubbed her throbbing head, forced herself to stand up, and looked up at the long street directly in front of her.

At that moment, a portal appeared on the surface of the Gothic house, and a man in a denim jacket roared as he charged out. He had a cigar in his mouth, a sniper rifle in his hand, bloodshot eyes, and throbbing veins on his forehead.

"What are you all babbling about? Let me out right now, you hear me? I'm going to fight those bastards from Lake Hunting, I don't have time to play hide-and-seek with you guys!"

Andrew glared angrily and roared loudly.

At this point, he had completely lost his mind. He even loaded a "Dragon's Ember" that was supposed to be reserved for the Lake Hunter into his sniper rifle and then pulled the trigger sharply in the direction of the three men.

"Bam—!"

The deafening gunshot rang out, and the blood-red bullet flew from the barrel.

At that moment, a faint dragon's roar seemed to echo in the air, and surging dragon flames enveloped the bullet's surface. Soon, the bullet exploded. Crimson flames burst forth, spreading like a mushroom cloud, irresistibly engulfing the entire street.

All the Gothic buildings were reduced to ashes in the devastating dragon flames, leaving behind a massive hole. The hole connected to the port of Seafaring City.

From the port, one could see the figures of Enma Rin, Shirayuki, and others. At this moment, they also turned their heads in surprise and looked through the spatial hole at the scene inside the movie.

"If miracles happen with great effort, then we don't need to keep struggling."

Robert scratched the mechanical box's head and sighed, "That train girl isn't good at anything else, but she's a master at escaping. Dealing with them is just a waste of your time."

“Where are the hacker and the medic? Let’s go,” Andrew said coldly, lowering his sniper rifle.

At this moment, Rukawa Chiba and the hacker quickly approached. They looked up at the spatial rift and then at the clock tower in the distance.

At this moment, beneath the black moon, atop the enormous clock tower, stood four figures: Su Zimai, Ke Qirui, Xu Sanyan, and Tong Zizhu.

It seems that Ke Qirui had used the power of the movie demon to transfer their bodies to the top of the clock tower before "Dragon Ash" exploded.

Xu Sanyan could barely hold the cigarette in his mouth. He murmured in shock, "What the hell is this bullet? It shattered the space of the movie world."

“I don’t know, but if this bullet is used against Lake Hunter, I can hardly imagine what would happen…” Ke Qirui’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. “Zhou Jiuya, Lin Xingshi, you must not let your guard down.”

"Commander, my dad and older brother are still outside," Su Zimai said.

“We can’t control them. According to the plan, we have to leave here immediately,” Ke Qirui said. “Trust your brother. He must have taken care of those two members by now, and even if your father and the chairman are no match for the enemy, they will definitely be able to escape unscathed.”

Su Zimai hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "That makes sense."

She looked up at Tong Zizhu and asked, "Are you going with them?"

Tong Zizhu remained silent for a while, then removed the fox mask, revealing his true appearance.

She shook her head. "No... I have no reason to stay with the troupe anymore."

As she spoke, she looked down at the four members of the group on the long street. At this moment, Andrew had already gotten up and walked towards the port without the slightest hesitation.

"Hey, are we just leaving like this? What about Tong Zizhu?" the hacker asked.

"Can't you see? She's no longer one of us." Robert put his hand on his shoulder, lowering his mechanically magnetic voice.

Without turning his head, Andrew said gloomily, "Our opponents aren't them, they're the Lake Hunters... Never mind that."

Rukawa Chiba remained silent, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, a faint smile on his face.

The three members of the group walked forward, and the moonlight from the harbor shone through the spatial rift into the interior of the movie world.

The hacker turned around and took one last look at Tong Zizhu. Then he followed Andrew and the others into the huge spatial rift, returning to the port of Sea Sail City.

Not long ago, inside Xia Pingzhou's Black King Domain.

Looking around, all that could be seen was an empty world, the ground composed of a black and white checkerboard. The edges of the checkerboard, like an arena, were enclosed by an invisible wall, intended to prevent the fighting warriors from escaping.

He held Ayase Origami's right hand, "Don't leave my side for even a moment."

The girl in the kimono nodded silently.

The two looked up and saw a young man standing directly in front of the chessboard. He was wearing a black sweater and jeans, and black sparks were crackling on his body.

Gu Qiye raised her head, slowly looked around, and finally turned her gaze to Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami.

"You reacted quite quickly," Gu Qiye praised expressionlessly.

Xia Pingzhou remained silent, simply gazing at him quietly. He then released the Sky Chaser, and streams of black and white light surged forth, converging to form a chessboard that surrounded him. The chessboard's shadow slowly rotated like a satellite orbiting the Earth.

On the vast chessboard, the two men stared at each other.

In an instant, the roar of lightning shattered the silence, and the battle was about to begin.

(End of this chapter)