Chapter Twenty-Four: The Overseer

Chapter 24: Network Monitoring Administrator

"You! What did you do, Yuki?!" Lin Zheng stared at Yuki in shock. He was stunned because Yuki seemed to have frozen the entire boss room. The space was cast in a pale, grayish hue, and the boss remained in its roaring posture with its mouth wide open, yet it was as motionless as a statue.

"Sector lockdown. It is a measure to prevent anomalous life forms from escaping," Yuki replied. Her tone was devoid of emotion, yet it caused Lin Zheng to gape in disbelief. "A GM? Are you a GM?" Lin Zheng pressed. After all, only a GM could control the game! But did this game even have GMs?

Yuki shook her head and said, "I am a Network Monitoring Administrator. Although I have an agreement with the game's central intelligence, I am not a GM."

"No way! Was that chuunibyou-like profession of yours actually real?" Lin Zheng was shocked—super shocked! He remembered Yuki's introduction and had assumed she was just roleplaying, but the current situation suggested she was telling the truth! Lin Zheng was dazed. What kind of situation was this? A mission related to the Atlantis civilization?

"What exactly is your job?" Lin Zheng asked. "And what are these 'anomalous life forms' you mentioned? Is that perverted boss one of them?"

"Network Monitoring Administrators are humans selected by the remnants of Atlantis's consciousness to ensure that modern humanity does not repeat their past mistakes. Atlantis was destroyed by anomalous life forms that took control of their network, so they are extremely vigilant against such activities. That is why I exist. My duty is to locate anomalous life forms hiding within the network, decompose them into raw data, and eliminate potential threats to the network world. As for their origin, anomalous life forms are a unique type of sentient life that arrived on Earth alongside meteorites from another galaxy. They are attracted to the network world, attach themselves to it, and instinctively use the network to destroy its creators. The remnants of the Atlantean consciousness analyzed that these anomalous life forms might be biological weapons designed for network warfare by some extraterrestrial civilization! They were lost and ended up on Earth—that is what these are!"

Yuki spoke at length, leaving Lin Zheng feeling a bit dizzy. However, one thing was clear: these so-called anomalous life forms posed a massive potential threat! The civilization of Atlantis was far more advanced than the current world, yet they were destroyed by these things, which showed just how dangerous they were. Well, the Atlanteans were quite decent! Remnant consciousness? Probably something similar to a soul. To think they were secretly helping modern humans deal with this hidden crisis—what good people! But was this job dangerous? Would it be okay for Yuki to do it?

"It is fine! This job is very safe. The danger of anomalous life forms lies in the formation of data viruses that infect computer systems; they have no lethality toward the human body," Yuki answered. Lin Zheng remained skeptical. Not dangerous? If it wasn't dangerous, how could all of Atlantis have been destroyed?

"Then what about this boss? Was it infected?"

"Yes. The game world of 'Phantom Spirit II' attracts many humans, and therefore, it also attracts many anomalous life forms. They disguise themselves as various monsters within the game, attempting to breach the central intelligence. This boss was an anomalous life form that had replaced the original; it had already broken through part of the central intelligence's defenses, so its abilities were higher than a normal boss. It had to be eliminated immediately!" After saying this, Yuki recited programming code at an incredible speed. With a wave of her staff, Lin Zheng watched in astonishment as the boss dissolved into chains of binary data and vanished. Once he regained his composure, Lin Zheng shouted, "No way! You just destroyed it like that—what about our quest?!"

"Do you still need to complete the quest?" Yuki asked, blinking her captivating eyes.

"Of course! It's an A-rank medium-difficulty quest! Think of how high the rewards must be!" Lin Zheng looked heartbroken. But suddenly, a glimmer of hope appeared. Yuki said, "It is fine. I have sealed this space, and no information has been transmitted to the central intelligence. I will construct a boss now. Once I lift the lockdown, the constructed boss will connect to the central intelligence's management system and replace the previous one. As long as you kill it, the quest will be completed!"

"This! This! Isn't this cheating?" Lin Zheng exclaimed in shock.

"It is not cheating," Yuki looked at Lin Zheng. "This is the payment for helping it resolve the crisis." Hearing Yuki's calm yet righteous reply, Lin Zheng felt a hint of playfulness beneath her silent expression, which brought him great relief. So, his Yuki did have normal emotions; she just seemed to have forgotten how to express them! This was great news!

"Alright then! Let's do it your way!" Lin Zheng agreed. To be honest, he really didn't want to give up on this quest; even if it meant cheating, he had to finish it! Besides, no one would know! Even the central intelligence didn't know, so it didn't count as cheating, heh heh! At that moment, Yuki waved her staff gently. Binary data chains reappeared, rapidly weaving together to form a giant boss exactly like the previous one. However, when Lin Zheng saw the boss's HP, he chuckled. Yuki was truly clever! After constructing the boss, Yuki slowly lowered her staff. Instantly, the boss room regained its color, and the boss lunged at them, roaring, "Miserable human! Prepare to die!"

"Miserable your face!" Lin Zheng sneered and fired an arrow, hitting the boss squarely in the chest. -890. With just that single hit, the boss, which had been ferocious and arrogant moments ago, let out a wail, and its massive body collapsed with a loud thud! Hehe! Although it was a bit dishonorable, the boss had been using hacks earlier, hadn't it? A boss using hacks was outrageous, so being taken down by a dirty trick was just karma. Lin Zheng quickly found an excuse for himself and proceeded to loot the boss's treasure with a clear conscience. However, when he saw what the boss dropped, he nearly jumped up and cursed! There were only two items on the ground! One was an irregularly shaped piece of metal, and the other was an exquisite little pouch. That was it!

"The central intelligence noticed," Yuki said calmly. Lin Zheng deflated instantly. Oh well, it wasn't exactly a glorious victory anyway, so he would treat these as consolation prizes. He picked them up to check:

Frost Crystal Dragon Beast Core: A core formed within a Frost Crystal Dragon Beast—originally a mineral-eating beast—after it consumed a large amount of minerals. It is highly heat-resistant and an excellent material for crafting alchemy furnaces. Quest item.

Dimensional Bag: Level requirement 30. Special item. Possesses a massive storage space; can store anything, including yourself and your pets!

...

Lin Zheng looked at the two items, his mouth twitching. This didn't feel like a consolation prize anymore; it felt like a mockery! He took a deep breath and decided to let it go. If he really tried to argue with the central intelligence, he would be a fool. Of course, if the final quest reward was also swindled, he wouldn't mind smashing the central computer!

"Let's head back to the city, Yuki. I bet Yang Qi and the others are worried sick," Lin Zheng said listlessly. Yuki nodded, and both pulled out their small return-to-city orbs. With a gentle squeeze, the orbs shattered, and the two vanished from the boss room of the Frost Crystal Cave.

At the teleportation point in Tianfrost City, two flashes of white light appeared as Lin Zheng and Yuki emerged. Yang Qi and the others, who had been waiting, immediately surrounded them. Yang Qi rushed to the front and asked anxiously, "Lin, how did it go?"

"It's fine. The boss had a bug and was deleted, but we got the quest item," Lin Zheng said, bringing out the core. Seeing the core, Yang Qi breathed a sigh of relief, then began cursing, "Damn it! It was a bug? I was wondering why that guy's skills were so overpowered! If it weren't for that stupid bug, we definitely could have killed that boss on our own! That was a level 49 dark-gold boss! Think of all the good loot we missed!" Yang Qi looked pained. Lin Zheng understood; based on the combat data, a normal boss would have been easy pickings. Now, the meat had flown right out of their mouths, which was frustrating for anyone.

"What a pity! Otherwise, we could have killed that boss!" Xiao Meng sounded very regretful as well, though not as pained as Yang Qi. Lilith, however, was more open-minded. She smiled and said, "Forget it. If it's gone, it's gone. We'll run into others in the future, and we didn't gain nothing this time!"

Of course, they had gained plenty! First off, they had leveled up several times and obtained a fair amount of gear and gold. They had definitely made a profit. If they had also killed the final boss, it would have been a perfect conclusion. Thinking of their gains, Yang Qi felt a little better. At this point, Lin Zheng said, "Alright, everyone is here. Let's go turn in the quest! After that, it's time to sleep!"

"Agreed," everyone nodded and followed Lin Zheng toward the equipment shop. When Yang Qi saw that they were heading to the shop, she complained, "Didn't you say we were turning in the quest? Can't we repair our gear later?"

"This is where I picked up the quest!" Lin Zheng glared at her. As soon as he said that, the group was stunned! They had all been here to repair gear, so why hadn't anyone noticed a quest? And an A-rank medium-difficulty one at that!

"How did you get the quest? Why didn't I notice it?" Yang Qi asked in surprise.

"I took a liking to a decorative sword in the shop and wanted to buy it. The shopkeeper asked for 15 gold coins..."

"Damn! You didn't actually buy it, did you?! 15 gold coins!" Yang Qi shouted, interrupting him. Lin Zheng glared at her to make her shut up, then continued, "I was just about to buy it, but the shopkeeper said it was too expensive for me and suggested a compromise. He asked me to do him a favor, and that's how I got the quest!"

"Does this count as a fool having fool's luck?" Yang Qi looked stunned. She had studied the equipment shopkeeper too, but she never imagined the key to triggering the quest was a decorative sword on the wall! It was such a ridiculous setting; who except a fool would buy a decorative sword? And yet, there really was a fool who bought it!

"Get lost! You're the fool! I just thought the sword looked cool and wanted to buy it for fun!" Lin Zheng kicked Yang Qi, ignoring her pretending to be in pain, and led the girls into the equipment shop.