Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

The strong smell of preservatives hit me right in the head.

Jiang Chen felt a churning in his stomach.

Deep within the swirling black mist, a gigantic, eyeless human face faced them.

Its mouth slowly split open, all the way to its ears, revealing a dense array of pale, sharp teeth.

The air was filled with a nauseating, fishy stench, and goosebumps rose on the surface of the skin.

The face was covered in wrinkles, as if it were made of countless discarded human skins forcibly sewn together.

Thick, black liquid seeped from every crease, dripping onto the metal floor with a hissing sound.

Shigure instinctively gripped his weapon, a faint silver light gleaming on the blade.

She stared intently at the giant face, a hint of undisguised horror flashing in her usually cold eyes.

"This thing has no physical characteristics, so my weakness detection is completely ineffective."

She said in a low voice.

Jiang Chen didn't answer. He suddenly activated the modified "Reconnaissance Technique"—the skill had 42 seconds of cooldown left, but he couldn't care less about that right now.

In an instant, pale golden light spread out before his eyes like water, forcefully tearing a gash in the surging black mist around him.

In that space filled with golden light, the underlying code flow was clearly exposed to the view, like a curtain being lifted.

In the pale golden light, the giant face was not a monster in the traditional sense.

It is compressed from countless pieces of discarded data, and is a tangible entity of the data "dump".

Those discarded data contained the remains of dead players and broken NPC logic.

Jiang Chen's gaze pierced through the thick surface of the giant face, trying to find its core node.

Soon, he discovered a shimmering dark red light deep within the unfathomable mouth of the giant face.

It was an extremely obvious "rule rift," which was continuously devouring the surrounding gibberish.

Its weakness is in its mouth.

Jiang Chen pointed ahead and spoke rapidly.

"We must go in and destroy that crack from the inside to completely dismantle it."

Shi Yu frowned slightly as she looked at the enormous mouth that emitted a foul stench and dripped black slime.

But she didn't hesitate at all; she simply twirled the weapon in her hand and adjusted her breathing.

"Stay close to me and don't get touched by that slime; it's highly corrosive."

Shi Yu reminded him.

Jiang Chen nodded, gripping the decompilation core tightly in his hand, ready to deal with any unexpected situations.

The two exchanged a glance, then simultaneously took a step forward and charged towards the abyss-like maw.

The giant face seemed to sense its prey's approach and let out a deafening roar.

The sound waves, mixed with a tangible black current, rushed towards the two of them like a tsunami.

The metal walls on both sides of the corridor trembled violently under the impact of the sound waves, and large pieces of rust peeled off.

Shi Yu darted around, using the abandoned ventilation ducts in the corridor as cover to nimbly dodge.

The metal floor beneath her feet was swept by a black current, instantly corroding it into charred pits.

Jiang Chen followed closely behind her, using the characteristic of "ignoring environmental limitations" to weave through the gaps in the airflow.

His mental energy was being rapidly depleted, and he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his temples.

However, he must keep his "reconnaissance" skill active to guide Shigure along the safest route.

"Three steps to the left, crouch! There's an undercurrent on the right!"

Jiang Chen shouted loudly, his voice echoing in the corridor.

Shiyu executed his instructions perfectly, moving like a cheetah through the narrow space.

The two worked in perfect harmony, defying the terrifying airflow, and rushed to the front of the giant face.

The suffocating stench had reached its peak, making it almost impossible to open one's eyes.

Shi Yu suddenly pushed off the ground, leaping into the air and directly into the gaping maw of the giant face.

Jiang Chen followed closely behind, and in the instant he lost his balance, he grabbed the folds on the edge of the giant face.

The interior space was unexpectedly huge, like an inverted funnel, with no bottom in sight.

The surrounding walls are inlaid with countless distorted, pained faces, silently wailing.

Those faces included men and women, young and old; they were all beings who had died in this game.

Their data is being slowly absorbed by the giant face.

It becomes the nourishment that keeps the monster running.

Jiang Chen landed on the platform in the middle of the funnel, and the acid in his stomach almost gushed out.

He realized that this was the digestive organ of the system for processing "redundant data".

A huge landfill.

He suppressed his discomfort and activated "Reconnaissance" again—the cooldown was less than halfway through, but he had to use it.

His mental energy felt like it had been sucked in by a water pump, and he felt a sudden throbbing in his temples.

Focus on that dark red crack at the bottom of your mouth.

The crack was surrounded by a high-density stream of defensive code, like a layer of barbed dark red wire mesh.

Any physical or energy attack that hits it will be instantly shredded into the most basic gibberish.

Forcing your way in would be a dead end; we must find a vulnerability in the system's underlying logic to crack it.

Jiang Chen's brain raced as he recalled his experience of hacking into the nutrient pod.

There are priority conflicts in the underlying system logic, and the defense will be downgraded when local data is overloaded.

"Shigure, attack those pipes connecting to the faces! Create a data overflow!"

Jiang Chen roared.

Shi Yu didn't ask any more questions. She drew her weapon and precisely cut several thick black pipes next to her.

The high-voltage data stream surged out instantly, like a flood bursting its banks, causing localized processing overload.

The faces embedded in the wall suddenly let out a piercing scream, and the data lights flickered wildly.

There was a brief pause in the defense code flow.

A tiny gap was visible in the barbed wire.

Jiang Chen seized this fleeting opportunity and inserted the decompilation core directly into the dark red crack—41% of the energy remained.

The pale golden light collided violently with the dark red, bursting out with a blinding light that illuminated the entire interior.

The entire interior of the giant face began to tremble violently, emitting an extremely painful electronic hiss that was deafening.

The surrounding walls turned into countless fragments of code, falling off like peeling paint.

Jiang Chen grabbed Shi Yu's arm and ran wildly along the collapsed passage toward the exit.

The space behind them was rapidly collapsing, and a tremendous suction force was trying to drag them into the abyss.

The two sprinted forward with all their might, and the platform beneath their feet shattered and collapsed one piece after another.

The moment they burst out of the giant maw, a muffled explosion came from behind them, and the shockwave sent them flying.

The two tumbled through the air several times before crashing heavily onto the metal platform at the end of the corridor.

Jiang Chen felt like all the bones in his body were about to fall apart, and a strong taste of blood rose in his throat.

He gasped for breath, struggled to his feet, and looked around.

The black aura behind them had completely dissipated, and the terrifying, eyeless giant face had turned to ashes.

At the end of the corridor, a large silver metal door, hidden behind the wall, came into view.

The door's surface was as smooth as a mirror, without any keyholes or handles, only a cold metallic feel.

In the very center of the gate, there is a biometric slot that requires identity verification, emitting a faint glow.

Jiang Chen stepped forward, wiped away the dust from the edge of the groove, and saw a line of small characters engraved on it.

The nameplate clearly states:

[Test Subject 074 Verification Area, please place your right palm]

Jiang Chen froze on the spot, his outstretched hand hanging in mid-air, his pupils suddenly contracting.

He was clearly the 073rd test subject in the nutrient tank, so why is the 074th subject needed here for verification?

If he is number 073, then who is number 074?

Is it the next backup, or a defective product that's already dead?

Shi Yu walked to his side, looked at the words, and a hint of doubt flashed in her clear, cold eyes.

"The system won't leave meaningless verification mechanisms. Number 074 must exist, and it's probably in the vicinity."

Jiang Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and quickly scanned the surroundings of the corridor.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on the spot where Shiyu had just been standing.

On the metal floor there, there was a pool of pale green nutrient solution that had not yet dried.

The pungent chemical smell was exactly the same as the smell that emanated from the nutrient tank that had ruptured in the archive room.

Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat. He slowly turned his head to look at Shi Yu beside him.

Shi Yu seemed to notice his gaze and looked down at the pool of nutrient solution.

Her face turned deathly pale instantly, her lips trembled slightly, and her eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Who...are you?"

Jiang Chen's voice was terribly hoarse, and his hand unconsciously reached for his weapon.

Shi Yu did not answer. She raised her head, and her originally cold eyes were now flashing with an eerie red light.

A stiff, unfamiliar smile appeared on her lips as she spoke in a completely emotionless, mechanical, synthesized voice:

"Number 073, your observation skills are still as sharp as ever. But unfortunately, the game is over."

As soon as she finished speaking, the weapon in her hand suddenly transformed into countless streams of dark red code, piercing straight for Jiang Chen's heart.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted sharply, his mind went blank, and all he could hear was the system's cold notification sound:

[WARNING: Abnormal teammate data detected]

[The old version of the cleanup program has taken over its operation.]

That familiar, icy touch returned, this time targeting himself.

Jiang Chen suddenly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the deadly code stream.

The code stream pierced the metal wall behind him, instantly corroding a bottomless black hole.

He looked up, staring intently at his familiar yet unfamiliar partner, his mind racing.

Shiyu's movements were stiff and mechanical, completely losing her usual agility and coolness, like a puppet on a string.

"The system exploited the remnants of your old version, using you as a vessel for intrusion."

Jiang Chen backed away while trying to wake her up.

"Shigure, wake up! This isn't you!"

But all that responded to him was the dark red light that had once again coalesced in her hand, and her expressionless gaze.

At the end of the corridor, on the silver door, verification slot number 074 was flashing an urging red light.