Elegy from Another World

Following the coordinates provided by Mia Reilly, the Ring Belt cautiously navigated this bizarre and surreal abyss of data. The surrounding scenery grew increasingly eerie, with twisted code entwining broken geometry like vines, and a viscous feeling permeating the air.

Suddenly, the ship jolted violently, followed by an unsettling scraping sound, before coming to a complete stop. The engine's roar became muffled, as if it were being held back by something.

"What's going on?" I immediately checked the control panel and found that the propulsion system readings were normal, but the speed display showed zero.

"Tsk," Noreljung's electronic eye swept across the screen, letting out a sneer, "Lysia, you're 'navigating' your ship 'really well,' you didn't even realize you were stuck?"

"Huh?" I was taken aback and quickly moved closer to the porthole to look out carefully.

At first glance, the outside world remained the same chaotic void of data. But upon closer inspection, I was horrified to discover that an extremely fine, almost completely transparent, viscous network had somehow adhered to the metal hull of the Ring-belt. The source of this network was a seemingly empty area beneath the hull. Looking closer, it wasn't void at all; it was clearly a gigantic, sundew-like plant-like structure, also nearly transparent, its presence only revealed by the occasional refracted light. Even more chilling was that the ship's conventional detection equipment showed absolutely no reaction to this thing!

"Damn it, it's a very well-disguised trap!" I cursed under my breath. "I'll go out and take care of it."

"Be careful," Mia Leili flew over, her face filled with concern. "Try not to... hurt that 'daemon' too much. It might just be... doing its job."

I nodded, put on the makeshift protective suit, and opened the airtight hatch. The moment I stepped outside, a powerful adhesive force surged from beneath my feet; the transparent, sticky net was incredibly resilient. I immediately channeled my magic: "Water Magic - Fluid Manipulation!" attempting to manipulate the slime and neutralize it.

However, just as I was casting the spell, a sharp whooshing sound came from my side and behind! I instinctively dodged to the side, and a transparent "leaf" with serrated edges grazed past my protective suit!

Upon closer inspection, I inwardly exclaimed, "Holy crap!" What was attacking me was a giant Venus flytrap that had suddenly appeared from the void, magnified a thousand times! It opened its "giant mouth" covered in sticky mucus and lunged at me again!

"Not so easy!" I pulled out the special steel bar I always carried with me, poured energy into it, and a blazing laser beam shot out from the tip. "Sizzle!" The laser precisely pierced the center of the Venus flytrap's leaf, which twisted violently a few times before turning into a shower of scattered data fragments.

But the trouble had only just begun. As if a hornet's nest had been stirred up, with the death of the first Venus flytrap, the surrounding void rippled like water, and one after another, giant Venus flytraps revealed their ferocious forms, surrounding Ring and me from all directions! They had clearly found that their camouflage was ineffective, so they simply stopped hiding.

"Yisen! Take control of the pilot and try to break free of the adhesion!" I shouted into the cabin while swinging the steel laser in retaliation.

"Boss! I don't know how to operate this thing!" Yisen's voice was trembling with tears.

Noreljung? Letting him steer the boat would probably just send him crashing into a pile of Venus flytraps.

"Yisen! Immediately contact Edseys remotely and have her try to remotely access the Ringbelt's control system to pilot it! At the same time, use the ship's deep-scanner to find out where the core or weakness of these things is!" I made a quick decision.

"clear!"

Meanwhile, I was engaged in a fierce battle outside the ship. Laser beams were firing from both sides, constantly evaporating the Venus flytraps that swarmed towards me, but there were too many of them, and they regenerated extremely quickly. As soon as one patch was cleared, a new one would be born from the data background.

Just then, the airtight hatch opened again, and Noreljon's tall magical doll stepped out, its shoulder-mounted energy turrets already charging.

"Why are you out here?" I asked in surprise.

"Hmph, I'm not here to watch the show. How can a battle be complete without me?" His scarlet electronic eyes flashed with a warlike light. "Perfect timing to stretch my muscles!"

"Alright! Let's go together!" With Noreljohn joining the fray, the pressure was immediately relieved. His energy cannon was incredibly powerful, often clearing out a small area with a single shot.

We worked side-by-side for about five minutes when Yisen's voice finally came through the communicator: "Found it! Boss, the core energy reaction has been found!"

"Where?" I asked anxiously, while using a laser to cut off a Venus flytrap that was trying to entangle Noreljon.

"Right beneath your feet! That area that looks like land! Scans show that all the energy flows from the Venus flytraps ultimately converge there!"

"Under my feet? In the soil?" I looked down at the seemingly solid ground beneath my feet, composed of solidified data and energy.

"Yes! It's that 'land' itself! It's alive!"

"Uh... okay!" It felt a bit far-fetched, but I trusted the scan results. I yelled to Norelljohn, "Cover me! Get away from me!"

Norell understood and used concentrated firepower to temporarily clear the Venus flytraps around me. I then adjusted the output power of the steel laser to the maximum and aimed it at the "land" beneath my feet.

"Whoosh—!" A thick, almost tangible laser beam slammed into the ground. There was no explosion, only silent annihilation. A large area of ​​"land" instantly vaporized and vanished.

The effect was immediate! The attack speed and regeneration ability of the surrounding Venus flytraps were significantly reduced!

"It works! Continue!" I was overjoyed and gathered my magic power again, keeping the laser power at maximum.

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz...!"

A series of maximum-powered laser strikes caused the "land" beneath their feet to vanish at a visible speed, revealing a deeper, darker data void below. Just as the "land" was about to be completely evaporated, a sudden change occurred!

A mass of objects, composed of countless grains of sand-like data units and constantly changing shape, suddenly shot out from the remaining "land" and fled into the distance!

"That's the core!" Noreljon roared, immediately activating the puppet, its engine at full power, and it chased after me like an arrow, instantly creating distance between us.

I wanted to follow suit, but just as I was about to move, countless slender, centipede-like or data worm-like things suddenly gushed out from the "land" ruins that were about to disappear beneath my feet! They were numerous and seemed to have a common consciousness. As soon as they appeared, they frantically spread towards me and the Ring-belt, more like a single, infinitely branching, terrifying giant worm!

I hurriedly swung the laser to sweep the area, and some of the insects that were hit turned to ashes. But what was chilling was that some of the limbs that were severed by the laser were able to quickly re-merge with the individuals next to them, while other severed parts were launched at an astonishing speed, like bullets, and attacked me!

I couldn't dodge in time and was struck on the shoulder by an insect limb. Although my protective suit blocked the direct penetration, a strange sense of data erosion instantly came over me, making half of my body feel numb.

"What are these things?!" I gritted my teeth and continued to attack, but these insects seemed endless. They could regenerate if they were broken, and they could reassemble if they were scattered. It was simply endless!

"Boss! The adhesion to the hull has weakened! Edseysis says we can move now!" Yisen's voice rang out again, filled with anxiety. "Mia also said the structure here is becoming unstable; the core has been disturbed, and the entire area is about to go berserk! Let's get out of here!"

Looking at the endless swarm of bizarre insects before me, and glancing again at the direction where the Noriljon Pursuit Core had long since vanished, I knew that lingering in battle was no wise course of action. This thing was more troublesome than I had imagined.

"Noriljohn! Come back! We're retreating!" I shouted into the communicator while fighting off the swarm of insects.

A loud explosion came through the communicator, followed by Noriljun's excited yet impatient reply: "Tsk! This thing's interesting! It's gotten into some data turbulence! You guys go first! I'll play with it for a bit and won't be back for a while! Once I've dealt with it, I'll find my way back myself!"

"That battle maniac!" I cursed inwardly, but the situation didn't allow for delay.

"Then be careful! Keep your communication channels open!" I knew I couldn't stop him, so I could only offer this advice.

"So verbose!"

I quickly retreated from the airtight compartment. Before entering the inner compartment, I was instructed to remain in the isolation chamber for initial decontamination to prevent the spread of unknown data viruses or parasites.

"Edsis, get out of here immediately! Full speed ahead!" I ordered into the communicator, my heart filled with worry for Noreljun's condition.

"Understood!" Edseys' calm voice came through, but a hint of seriousness could also be heard.

The Ringbelt's engine roared as if it were overloaded, breaking free from the last bit of adhesion, turning around, and escaping the terrifying, completely rampaging data jungle at top speed.