Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

The sound from the vents stopped.

Instead, there was the sound of something crawling inside the metal pipe, a soft, wet sound, like countless legs moving slowly.

Jiang Chen did not move.

He stared at the vent grille, the beam of his flashlight locked onto the metal bars.

A black liquid was seeping out from the gaps in the fence, dripping onto the elevator floor with a soft "drip-drop" sound.

The pages of the book are getting hot.

Shigure: "What did you hear?"

"There's something in the vent," Jiang Chen whispered. "It's talking—it's talking about OBS-07."

The other side remained silent for a few seconds.

Then Shigure's handwriting became very forceful: "It's not talking to you."

It's identifying that the remaining data carries the identification protocol of the old version of the system; it's confirming whether you're part of that older version.

"Does it think I'm one of its own?"

"No, it sees you as a target."

The core logic behind the residual data from the old version isn't attack; it's searching. It's looking for a host that can receive it.

And your body, having previously come into contact with older versions of core data within the system, became its ideal recipient.

Jiang Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

Suddenly, the ventilation grille made a loud noise—the entire metal grille detached from the ceiling, crashed onto the elevator floor, bounced twice, and rolled into a corner.

A hand reached out from the vent.

It's not a human hand.

It is a hand formed from black matter, with five disproportionate fingers.

The fingers are long and slender with prominent joints, and the nails are transparent, like shards of glass.

It grabbed the edge of the vent, and then its other hand reached out and grabbed the other side.

It's crawling out.

Jiang Chen almost instinctively took a step back, his back hitting the elevator wall.

His flashlight beam shone on the thing, revealing a humanoid silhouette formed from a black, viscous substance. It had no facial features, no hair, and its surface flowed like asphalt, but the outlines of its limbs were clearly visible, like a person being molded.

It crawled out of the vent and landed on the elevator floor with a "thud".

Then, it stood up.

He was about 1.8 meters tall, about the same height as a human, but every joint in his body was bent backward, with his knees pointing backward and his elbows pointing forward, like an insect.

The book pages began to heat up rapidly: "Jiang Chen! Report the situation!"

"It's out," Jiang Chen said in a low voice, "a black, humanoid thing crawled out of the vent."

"Don't let it touch you," Shigure wrote. "Your body is a data receiver for the real world right now, and if it touches you, it will directly access your nervous system."

"What will happen?"

"Two possibilities. Either it successfully parasitizes you, and your consciousness is overwritten by the old version of the data. Or your body rejects it, and then you both physically explode."

Is there a third possibility?

"Yes...you kill it."

Jiang Chen stared at the humanoid figure.

It didn't move; it just stood there, its head tilted to one side.

If that thing had a head, it would look like it was sizing him up.

Then, it opened its mouth.

The voice seemed to be coming from an old radio, intermittent and filled with static: "You—are not—the old version—you are—the carrier—of the new version—."

"You—carrying—the—core—mark—you—have—passed—the trial—"

Jiang Chen's fingers tightened slightly.

"You are the key."

"key?"

"The key to open the door—is the key to the true core of the old version."

The humanoid figure took a step forward.

Its foot stepped on the floor, leaving a black footprint that spread across the ground like ink.

A thought flashed through Jiang Chen's mind: the chain of rules.

Those blue lines he saw downstairs earlier. If the chain of rules exists in the real world, then this thing in front of him should also have its own rules.

He closed his eyes and tried to reactivate that sense.

The blue lines reappeared in his field of vision.

This time, they not only connect to the walls and ceiling, but also to the human figure in front of them.

Those blue lines extend from its body like transparent blood vessels, connecting to the elevator ceiling and then to the rule chain network of the entire building.

He saw it.

The chain of rules governing this thing—its weakness.

The rule chain shows that its core is located in the very center of the chest, the same location as the human heart.

But that core is not fixed; it moves slowly, sliding inside the body like a bead rolling in liquid.

Only at the moment of its attack will the core be briefly fixed in place.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes, and the beam of the flashlight shone on the chest of the humanoid figure.

"When it moves, the core will freeze," he quickly wrote on the page. "I need it to attack me once."

Shi Yu: "Are you crazy? It'll be finished if it touches you!"

"As long as we don't touch it, it'll be fine."

Jiang Chen closed the book and looked at the humanoid figure.

"Hey," he said, "weren't you looking for the keys? The keys are right here."

He pointed to his chest.

"Come and get it."

The humanoid figure tilted its head and remained silent for two seconds.

Then, it moved.

It's not moving, it's being ejected.

Its body sprang up from the ground like a spring compressed to its limit, lunging at Jiang Chen with its five slender fingers spread out, aiming straight for Jiang Chen's chest.

Jiang Chen did not dodge.

He stared at its chest; the rule chain showed that the core had frozen in that instant.

It was less than ten centimeters from his chest, just from its fingertip.

Jiang Chen turned sideways, used all his strength to kick the elevator wall, used the force to turn, and clenched his right fist, slamming it hard into the chest of the humanoid figure.

The fist pierced through the black substance and struck something hard.

It's like a stone, or rather, like a steel ball buried in asphalt.

The humanoid figure froze abruptly, then began to tremble violently.

Cracks began to appear on its body surface, spreading outwards from its chest like a dried-up riverbed.

A black substance gushed out from the crack, but it wasn't a liquid; it was a gas. Like a cloud of black smoke, it quickly dissipated into the air.

In less than five seconds, the humanoid figure completely disappeared.

Only a black circular mark remained on the elevator floor, like a burn mark.

Jiang Chen leaned against the elevator wall, panting heavily.

His right fist was covered in a layer of black powder, which was slowly peeling off to reveal the intact skin underneath.

The pages of the book grew hot: "Jiang Chen! Jiang Chen! Answer me!"

"It's all over," he wrote. "Done."

"How did you kill him?"

"The chain of rules. It also has a chain of rules in the real world, with its core in the chest, which will freeze the target instantly upon attack."

Shi Yu was silent for a few seconds, then wrote: "You're becoming less and less like a college student."

"What does that look like?"

"Like a real tester."

Jiang Chen smiled and then glanced at the elevator's control panel.

The lights were still off, but through the crack in the elevator door, he saw a sliver of light—not from outside, but a pale blue light shining down from above the elevator shaft.

"The elevator is still stuck," he wrote. "I have to climb up."

"Climb up? Are you serious?"

"The vortex on the roof is still there; I have to go up and check it out."

Jiang Chen looked up at the open ventilation vent.

That humanoid figure climbed down from there. He put the flashlight in his mouth, grabbed the edge of the vent, and with a strong push, climbed up.

The ventilation ducts were so narrow that you could only crawl forward.

He crawled forward for about ten meters and then an exit appeared in front of him—the elevator lobby on the ninth floor.

He jumped down from the ventilation shaft and landed on the ninth-floor floor.

The ninth floor was pitch black, with only the green fire escape signs emitting a faint glow.

The corridor is flanked by glass doors to offices, but the interiors are completely dark and you can't see anything clearly.

But at the end of the corridor, the door to the fire escape was open, and a faint blue light shone through the crack.

Jiang Chen clenched his fist and walked towards the door.