Chapter 666 - 568: Unexpected Rout
Chapter 666: Chapter 568: Unexpected Rout
A few days later.
Jeming stood at the edge of the experimental area, watching the bustling scene before him, his mouth twitching slightly.
After proposing the concept of a network virus, there was hardly anything left for him to do, as the research capabilities of this group of High Level Wizards were ridiculously exaggerated.
Just relying on a concept proposed by Jeming, within a few days, more than a dozen new Witchcraft Models were simultaneously created.
Those High Tier Wizards were too lazy to test them one by one, and directly made all the plans.
"Lord Jeming, you’ve arrived."
A Fifth Level Logistics Wizard responsible for reception approached, face filled with barely suppressible excitement: "The experiment is about to start, Lord Martin requests you go to the observation deck."
Jeming nodded and followed him through layers of security barriers, arriving at an open-view high platform.
On the platform, Heart of Ashes Martin and more than a dozen Seventh Level Wizards were already in position.
In front of everyone was a gigantic light screen, displaying the situation of the distant black fissure in real-time.
"You made it?" Martin glanced at Jeming, a smile on his lips, "Just in time, come and have a look."
"Yes."
Jeming walked to the edge of the platform, looking towards the direction of the fissure.
There, a group of cannon fodder units were assembling — Elemental Puppets, artificially bred War Beasts, and hundreds of specially cultivated void creatures.
Their surfaces were etched with dense Runes, the carriers of the newly developed "Virus Witchcraft."
"Twelve different Witchcraft Models have been prepared," explained a Seventh Level Wizard beside him, "some are adept at consuming Calculation Power, some at creating logical conflicts, some can directly contaminate the information core. Which one will be effective, we’ll find out by trying."
Another Destiny Element Seventh Level Wizard introduced: "We’ve also thought of many methods regarding how this Witchcraft can self-propagate, and ultimately confirmed that it still needs to use the enemy’s Calculation Power as a foundation for self-propagation..."
"We’ve changed our approach as well; the activation of this Witchcraft doesn’t require extra Elemental Power or Spiritual Power but relies purely on information and Calculation Power operations..."
Jeming nodded, his gaze tightly fixed on those cannon fodder units.
"Deployment begins."
With Heart of Ashes Martin’s command, those cannon fodder units simultaneously activated, rushing towards the fissure in the sky.
They passed through the blockade layer, diving into the pure white light.
The image on the light screen instantly switched—real-time visuals transmitted by the Visual Sharing Witchcraft carried on the cannon fodder units.
A sea of pure white light.
Countless information creatures.
Identical to the scene Jeming had seen before.
As soon as the cannon fodder units entered the plane barrier, these information creatures noticed the intruders.
Jeming could clearly see the outer Energy of those information creatures beginning to fluctuate.
They were reading the information of these cannon fodder units.
This was their instinct, any foreign entities entering their territory would be immediately analyzed and then erased or "ordered."
Then, the virus attacked.
On the light screen, the movements of those information creatures suddenly halted.
Their surfaces began to flicker wildly, the pure white light brightening and dimming like a faulty light bulb.
"It’s successful!"
Someone showed an excited expression, but more Wizards looked more solemn: "Wait, it’s still unclear what the exact effect is."
Jeming squinted, staring intently at the image.
He saw that the information creature that first read the cannon fodder information, its outer Energy starting to twist madly.
It attempted to analyze those Witchcrafts, but those Witchcrafts were designed specifically against them—in the process of handling these information viruses, those information viruses were also relying on its Calculation Power and information for self-replication.
Every Calculation Power unit occupied would become a new virus production factory.
They divided, proliferated, and spread, crazily extending along the connections of that information creature with the surrounding nodes.
Thus, that information creature instinctively sought help from nearby comrades.
This is the characteristic of a flattened network; when encountering an issue it cannot handle, it automatically requests shared Calculation Power.
But it didn’t know that this request itself was the best channel for virus propagation.
The nodes that were requested for connection, as soon as they were accessed, were invaded by the virus.
Then, the surrounding uninfected information creatures began to flicker and distort.
Soon after, they also began to seek help from their connection nodes, thus expanding the infection further.
Jeming watched the image on the light screen, nervously licking his lips.
In this situation... they could almost say that they had already succeeded.
The area of the Information Plane facing the Ship Plane, those densely gathered information creatures, were now falling in batches, entering a "down" state.
Their surfaces flickered wildly, some outer Energy completely dissipating, exposing the core information; some core information began to self-contradict, falling into logical dead cycles.
Others were even worse, the viruses directly polluted their information core, causing them to attack their neighboring counterparts chaotically.
One patch after another.
Layer after layer.
The originally impregnable defense line was now collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The observation deck was dead silent.
Everyone stared wide-eyed at the image on the light screen, momentarily speechless.
Jeming even heard someone swallow.
After a while, a Wizard’s voice resounded, carrying a trace of barely noticeable shock.
"If I remember correctly... we originally... just wanted to probe a bit?"
Heart of Ashes Martin turned to look at Jeming in response, his gaze complex.
Jeming awkwardly smiled, not knowing what to say.
He did propose an idea, but never expected the effect to be so exaggerated.
The flattened networks proudly boasted by those information creatures—the quantum entangled connections, the perfect consensus algorithm—before the virus, instead became the most fatal weaknesses.
Because they were too "flat."
No hierarchy, no isolation, every node directly connected to countless nodes.
Normally this was an advantage, capable of instantly mobilizing Calculation Power across the entire network.
But faced with an information virus, this was a disaster.
There’s simply no firewall, no isolation zone—a single node gets infected, and the entire network can be contaminated instantly.
"These information creatures’ outer defenses broke." murmured a Seventh Level Wizard, "Just... broke like that?"
"It’s not over."
Another Wizard pointed at the light screen, his voice trembling, "Look, the virus is still spreading!"
Jeming looked at the light screen.
Those first batch infected information creatures had completely collapsed, some fading into light spots while others lost their ability to act, floating in the pure white sea of light.
Yet the viruses they left behind had not disappeared.
Those virus programs were still running, still searching for new hosts.
Second batch, third batch, fourth batch...
More and more information creatures began to flicker, collapse into light spots, or crash.
And the speed was increasing.
"Holy shit..."
Jeming heard someone behind him curse.
He didn’t turn around because he himself wanted to say the same thing.
On the light screen, the once impregnable outer defense line had now turned into a sea of brilliance.
And those uninfected information creatures were retreating frantically.
They attempted to sever connections with the outer region, tried to establish isolations, tried to halt the virus’s spread.
But it was already too late.
The information virus had long spread deeper through the network.
On the observation deck, everyone watched the image, silent for a long time.
Finally, it was Martin who broke the silence.
He turned to gaze at Jeming, a slow smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
"Jeming."
"Here."
"What do you think... this thing should be called?"
Jeming paused, then looked at the "plague" crazily spreading on the light screen.
"Let’s call it..."
He paused.
"Let’s call it ’Information Plague’."