Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

The next morning, Jiang Chen was awakened by a tremor.

It wasn't an earthquake, it was the vibration of his phone. He pulled his phone out from under his pillow; the screen displayed a message from Shiyu:

"The cracks are widening. Come to the river."

He glanced at the time—5:17 a.m. It wasn't fully light yet; the sky outside the window was a greyish-blue, and the streetlights were still on.

Jiang Chen didn't ask any more questions, put on his clothes, and went out.

When he arrived at the riverbank on a shared bicycle, it was just dawn. Shi Yu was squatting next to the bridge pier, holding a flashlight and shining it on the black crack on the pier.

"When did you find it?" Jiang Chen walked over and squatted down to examine it.

"Around 4:30," Shi Yu said, "I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk. When I passed by here, I noticed that the cracks were much bigger than yesterday."

Jiang Chen activated the rules-based reconnaissance and aimed it at the crack.

[Rule Reconnaissance (Lv.1) in use]

[Consumed: 15 Spirit Points | Current Spirit Points: 75/90]

[Target: Dual-boundary fracture - Unstable]

Status: In progress (7%)

[Source: Data layer penetration test of the old version]

[Penetration rate: 0.008%/minute (accelerating)]

[Estimated stabilization time: Approximately 8 days]

"Yesterday the progress was 1%, with an estimated 21 days," Jiang Chen said. "Now it's 7%, with an estimated 8 days. The speed has tripled."

"It's not just this one." Shi Yu stood up. "When I left at four o'clock, I ran through all seven fissures, and the formation speed of each one had accelerated."

She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, on which was the data she had recorded:

Office building exterior walls: 34% → 41% (originally estimated 3 days, now about 2 days)

Sidewalk paving tiles: 12% → 18% (originally estimated 7 days, now about 5 days)

Alley walls: 8% → 13% (originally estimated 10 days, now about 6 days)

Bus stop sign: 5% → 9% (originally estimated 14 days, now about 8 days)

Street tree trunks: 3% → 6% (originally estimated 20 days, now about 10 days)

Abandoned railways: 2% → 4% (originally estimated 30 days, now about 15 days)

Riverside railing: 1% → 7% (originally estimated 21 days, now about 8 days)

Jiang Chen took the data and quickly scanned it.

"The speed of all the cracks is increasing, and the acceleration is greater for the outermost cracks."

"What does this mean?" Shi Yu asked.

"This means that the door is 'attracting' them," Jiang Chen said. "After the center point stabilizes, it begins to accelerate the formation of cracks on the periphery, as if it is speeding up the construction of the entire network."

Shi Yu remained silent for a while.

"At this rate, the fastest door—the one on the exterior wall of the office building—may be stable in less than two days."

"Yes." Jiang Chen handed the paper back to her. "So we need to act now."

"In advance to when?"

Jiang Chen thought for a moment: "Tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, once the door is stable, we'll go in."

"Tomorrow evening..." Shiyu repeated, then nodded. "Okay, I'll go prepare."

"What are you preparing?"

"Equipment," Shigure said. "If what's behind that door really is the old version of the world, I know better than you what's needed there."

Jiang Chen looked at her without refuting her.

After the two parted ways, Jiang Chen did not return to his residence, but instead went to the crack in the exterior wall of the office building.

There were more pedestrians on the streets during the day than yesterday. The crack was embedded in the glass curtain wall of the second floor. From the outside, it looked like a black stain, but if you stared at it for a while, you would find that it was actually slowly rotating—like a miniature vortex, slowly swirling on the glass surface.

Jiang Chen stood across the street and observed for about ten minutes.

He noticed a detail—whenever someone passed directly beneath the fissure, its rotation speed would increase slightly, as if activated by some kind of energy. And the more people passed by, the faster it rotated.

"Will the aura of a living person accelerate its formation?" Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

"You guessed right."

A voice suddenly came from behind him.

Jiang Chen turned around abruptly and saw a young man in a black hoodie standing behind him. He looked to be in his early twenties, wearing black-rimmed glasses, holding a cup of milk tea, and smiling at him.

"You can see these cracks too, right?" the young man asked.

Jiang Chen didn't answer immediately, but first sized up the other person. This person didn't look like a player—he didn't have the tension of someone who had just gone through a life-or-death ordeal; instead, he had a very relaxed demeanor, like someone who was out shopping.

"You can see that too?" Jiang Chen asked back.

"Of course." The young man pointed to the black spots on the glass curtain wall. "I've been observing that thing for three days now. Back then, it was just a tiny black dot, no bigger than a pinhead, and now it's grown to the size of a fist. The growth rate is getting faster and faster, right?"

"Who are you?"

"Me? Just passing by." The young man took a sip of his milk tea. "But I'm different from you. You're not an ordinary player; you're—the one who posted about 'rule rifts' on the forum, right?"

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

Forums? He has never posted on any forums.

You've mistaken me for someone else.

"Stop pretending." The young man chuckled. "I checked your ID—Jiang Chen, right? You're the one who took the B route in the dungeon and used the old version data to fight the mineral crystal beasts. Kuangzhan Tianxia posted on the forum about your team, and even mentioned your name."

Jiang Chen remained silent for a few seconds.

This person has more information than he imagined.

"You investigated me?"

"It wasn't really an investigation, just a quick search," the young man said. "After all, not many people in this city can see these cracks. Since I finally met one, I should at least say hello, right?"

He extended his hand: "My name is Lin Bei, and my profession is... well, you can call me 'Data Hunter'."

"Data hunter?"

"They're the people who specialize in collecting hidden data from the game," Lin Bei said. "After Abyss was launched, I've been studying its underlying data structure. I discovered something very interesting—the game's data doesn't just exist on the game servers. Some of the data has somehow seeped into the real world."

He pointed to the crack in the glass curtain wall:

"This is the evidence."

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Bei, his mind racing.

This person's timing was too perfect. The rift had just accelerated when he appeared, and he knew so much about him. He was either a truly capable person, or someone like Zhou Yuansheng—no, Zhou Yuansheng was an opponent in the game, this person was someone encountered in the real world.

"You say you're a data hunter, so what have you discovered?"

"Yes." Lin Bei pulled a USB drive from his pocket and shook it. "This contains all the data I've collected. It includes the formation patterns of these fissures, the structural diagram of the old version of the data layer, and—a very important question."

"What's the problem?"

"These cracks didn't form naturally." Lin Bei's smile faded, and his expression turned serious. "Someone deliberately created them."

Jiang Chen paused for a moment.

"Who?"

"I don't know," Lin Bei said, "but I do know one thing—that night, on the rooftop of that office building, besides you, there was another person."

He pointed to the office buildings in the distance:

"I saw it. That person was standing on the edge of the rooftop, and before you arrived, he spoke to that vortex for a long time."

A scene flashed through Jiang Chen's mind—the avatar of the old version of the system, the being that called herself "she".

"What did she say?"

"I don't know, it's too far away," Lin Bei said. "But I recorded her voice. If you want to know, you can come with me—I live nearby and have equipment to analyze the recording."

He turned and walked deeper into the alley. After a few steps, he turned back and glanced at Jiang Chen again.

"Are you coming or not?"

Jiang Chen stood there, watching Lin Bei's back, and remained silent for a few seconds.

Then he took a step and followed.