Elegy from Another World

Inside the brightly lit control center, the atmosphere suddenly plummeted from a furious crater into a frozen abyss.

The project manager rested his hands on the control panel, his eyes glued to the main screen. On the screen, the red elimination command orb representing the "Guardian" had already cornered the target, "Lysia," and that damned magical doll. In the next second, this damned bug would be completely eradicated, avenging their humiliation!

However, just as the red orb was about to engulf its target—

brush!

The screen flickered eerily, like static on a television with a poor signal. Then, something happened that left all the technicians speechless: the bright spot representing "Lisma" didn't disappear as expected, but instead… split? Or rather, multiplied?

The single signal, which was originally clearly located in the ruins of Valencia, spread out instantly like ripples on water after a stone has been thrown in! On the world map on the main screen, dozens, hundreds, or even more signal sources marked "Lysia" lit up simultaneously on different continents, different cities, and even some remote wildernesses and oceans!

"This...this is impossible!" a technician in charge of signal tracking exclaimed in disbelief, frantically pounding on the control panel, his face ashen. "Signal instability! The target...the target has suddenly produced a large number of clones! And the number is increasing! The positioning system can't identify which one is the original!"

"What did you say?!" The head of the department whirled around, grabbed the technician by the collar, and lifted him almost off the ground, spitting in his face. "A clone?! Bullshit! She's just a player character! How could there be a clone?! It's a system error! Investigate it immediately!"

"No...it's not a system error!" another senior engineer reported in a trembling voice. His screen displayed a complex stream of data. "We just forcibly cracked part of her encrypted source code structure...and discovered that her 'unique identifier' has been modified using a technique we can't understand! Now, her identity information is simultaneously mapped to tens of thousands of pre-set 'empty shell' data nodes! The 'Guardian's' locking mechanism has failed! It can't distinguish which of these many 'Lysias' is the real 'threat'!"

"Modifying the identifier?! Who has that kind of permission?! On our own servers?!" The person in charge felt his sanity was about to collapse. "Analyze these signals immediately! Find the source! Find her true location!"

"We're trying... but... most of the signal sources have a higher level of encryption than before! And they're constantly jumping and switching, like some kind of AI is interfering with and redrawing our tracking in real time!" The engineer's voice was filled with despair. "We... we can only barely locate a few of the weaker encrypted signals, but we can't confirm if they're the real ones!"

"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!" The head of the department slammed the technician he was holding to the ground, pacing back and forth in the control room like a caged beast, his eyes bloodshot. He felt like he wasn't managing a game, but fighting against an invisible ghost whose technical prowess far surpassed theirs.

"Director!" the operations manager in charge of the live stream spoke timidly again, pointing to another screen, "The live stream signal... has been interrupted again because the target was lost. As for the viewers..."

"Connect it! Connect it immediately!" The head of the team abruptly stopped, his face contorted with an almost manic obsession. "Switch the view to the 'Guardian's' perspective! Let it clear! Eradicate it! Find every single 'Lysia' signal that's been detected, and eliminate them one by one! Let all the players see! See how this bug, and the troublemakers behind it, are crushed by us! Even if there are ten thousand fake targets, wipe them all out! No matter the cost!"

"But... Director, such a large-scale deployment of 'Guardians' for indiscriminate elimination may cause irreversible damage to the stability of the world servers..." A senior engineer in charge of system architecture tried to dissuade him.

"Shut up!" the chief commander roared, interrupting him. "Stability? What do we need stability for now! This is war! A war for absolute control of this world! Execute orders!"

"Yes...yes!" The operations manager dared not say anything more and immediately switched the main live stream screen to the unsettling "first-person" perspective of the "Guardians," which was composed of garbled text.

And so, before all the players watching the live stream, a bizarre and terrifying scene unfolded: the red garbled code representing supreme administrative authority no longer focused on a single target, but transformed into a raging red lightning bolt, flashing and leaping wildly across the globe. It appeared in a bustling city square, instantly obliterating a seemingly ordinary NPC passing by; it appeared in a deep forest, reducing an innocent wild beast to nothing; it even appeared on the vast ocean, "deleting" a wave...

It is carrying out a ruthless and inefficient "purge" in order to find the real "Lizia" from among thousands of false targets. And all of this is being broadcast live, sparking unprecedented panic, doubt and anger.

In the control center, the chief engineer stared intently at the "Guardians" frantically searching for help on the screen, their efforts futile, his fists clenched white. He knew he was gambling with the future of the entire project, but at this moment, he was blinded by anger and a thirst for control, with only one thought in mind—

Win this cat-and-mouse game at all costs!