The giant wolf that was Shen Feng’s consciousness and the giant bird that was Jingwei charged forward through the black void, ducking into the "Space Wormhole."
A silken thread trailed behind each of them, connecting back to their point of origin.
Transmission in the digital world occurs at near-light speed. An instant later, they materialized in a new location, faced with a black concrete wall.
The wall’s length and width were impossible to determine; it stretched infinitely in every direction, appearing to completely block off the digital void they occupied.
"This is Poseidon’s outer firewall. Let’s tear it down together!" Jingwei cried out, extending its talons toward the black, eternal wall. It instantly ripped away a large chunk of rubble, revealing a patch of pixels beneath.
Shen Feng, too, began swiping with his claws, tearing into the firewall.
Yet, every ti they tore a piece away, the firewall imdiately repaired itself.
Jingwei snorted. Its body suddenly twisted and deford, transforming in the blink of an eye into a tunnel boring machine. With its drill spinning, it began to bore its way inward.
Shen Feng understood that everything before his eyes was rely a visual representation. In reality, Jingwei was likely acting like a virus program, relentlessly attacking the enemy’s firewall until it could breach it completely.
Seeing this, he quickly shifted from his giant wolf form into that of a man wielding a giant axe. He followed closely behind Jingwei, breaking down the wall as he moved forward.
Since this was his first ti entering the digital world purely as a conscious projection, his offensive capabilities were still quite limited; he could only rely on brute force for destructive attacks.
Against the outer firewall, however, that was enough.
Jingwei was clearly more adept at this. In less than ten seconds, they had penetrated the outer firewall and entered the area enclosed by the high wall.
Inside was a vast ocean with no end in sight. The only other feature was the firewall behind them—a large hole bored through its center—stretching out to either side until it disappeared over the horizon.
Shen Feng let out an involuntary whistle.
’The sheer volu of data here is incredible.’
Every drop of water in this ocean contained endless amounts of data, all of it from various information stockpiles compiled before the war.
Apparently, the Eagle Country’s nuclear strike system was perfectly preserved and also retained massive amounts of pre-war data.
’But where exactly is "Poseidon," the artificial intelligence presiding over all this?’
The conscious projections of Shen Feng and Jingwei now stood on the surface of the ocean, looking around for Poseidon.
The vast ocean before them suddenly began to boil, and monts later, towering waves surged, creating a massive tsunami.
Shen Feng and Jingwei scrambled onto the firewall, dodging the impact.
At the sa ti, a colossal, thousand-ter-tall figure slowly erged from the seabed. It wielded a giant trident, looking down on the axeman and the bird, Jingwei.
It had a curly, salt-and-pepper beard, a bare torso, and wore a garnt in the style of ancient Greece. Its entire body was muscled with the beautiful, fluid lines of a sculpture.
It was the controller of the Trident and Minuteman missiles, the very embodint of the North Arican nuclear strike system: Poseidon!
"JINGWEI—" Poseidon roared. With a flick of his hand, waves lifted from the sea, transforming in mid-air into a volley of tridents that blotted out the sky as they shot toward Shen Feng and Jingwei.
These tridents were all destructive programs, aid directly at the core consciousness of Jingwei and Shen Feng.
Jingwei spread its wings, instantly firing off a dense volley of feathers that ford a round shield in front of them, blocking the tridents.
This was its defense program.
Shen Feng’s consciousness also shifted rapidly, and he once again beca a giant wolf, pouncing toward Poseidon.
The trident-shaped destruction programs landed on the giant wolf’s body, making a pleasant, chiming sound—CLINK! CLANG!—as they were all deflected aside.
The giant wolf’s body was made of transparent crystal, making it incredibly difficult to destroy.
This was, in fact, a form of mirrored protection that Shen Feng had created by referencing Jingwei.
In the blink of an eye, the giant wolf was in front of Poseidon. It leaped up, lunging for Poseidon’s throat and chest.
That was generally where an AI’s core code was located. Destroy the core code, and he could annihilate Poseidon.
Just then, the ocean abruptly froze over. An instant later, thick, mountain-sized spikes of ice erupted from the surface, stabbing at the crystal wolf in the air.
The vast stores of past information could also be used as a powerful weapon. If one of those spikes pierced a target’s conscious projection, the sheer volu of data would cause it to overload and rupture.
"Shen Feng!" Jingwei shouted, its wings beating to stir up a gale.
The gale transford in mid-air into a swarm of crimson Eastern dragons that instantly lted the ice pillars.
This was one of Jingwei’s subroutines: the control program for the Dongfeng strategic nuclear missiles.
Poseidon snorted and slamd his giant trident onto the frozen sea. Instantly, dozens of icen wielding tridents erged and clashed with the crimson dragons.
anwhile, the giant wolf that was Shen Feng reached Poseidon. Still in mid-air, it transford again, this ti into a young man with a giant axe, who brought it down on Poseidon from above.
Poseidon quickly raised his trident to block the axe, forcing Shen Feng back.
The battle raged on for what felt like over half an hour. Both sides had sustained damage, but neither could land a fatal blow.
With a solemn expression, Shen Feng snapped his fingers. In the next instant, plus of black smoke billowed from his body, quickly forming several dozen ferocious-looking monsters in front of him.
There were one-horned lizards, spiny octopuses, and unidentifiable black shadows, to na a few. They all let out a roar and lunged at Poseidon.
These things were all legitimate viruses, originating from data he had copied from his own computer—especially from the "Research Materials" folder!
Compared to the kiloter-tall Poseidon, these ten- and twenty-ter-tall virus-monsters were insignificant. Their advantage, however, was their sheer number. They sward Poseidon’s body like locusts and began to tear and bite.
anwhile, Shen Feng and Jingwei joined forces and, in a flash, had dispatched the icen subroutines.
The crimson dragons circled Poseidon, spitting fire and creating a wall of flas.
Shen Feng leaped directly onto Jingwei’s back. Man and bird soared into the air, diving toward Poseidon.
Shen Feng stood on the bird’s back, axe held in both hands, ready to deliver the killing blow to Poseidon at a mont’s notice.
Just then, a cryptic smile appeared on Poseidon’s face.
In the next instant, the clouds obscuring half the sky suddenly froze over. Below, spikes of ice shot up from the sea of data, connecting with the frozen clouds like the bars of a fence. In the blink of an eye, they had ford a cage of redundant data, trapping both Shen Feng and Jingwei inside.
The volu of data was imnse, more than enough to completely bury Shen Feng and Jingwei.
"Two arrogant fools, trying to challenge in the world of data. You truly don’t know your own limits," Poseidon said with a cold expression, crushing the last virus monster in his hand.
Just then, Shen Feng let out a sly chuckle and quickly recited, "252.13870514843748, 39.83643042174908; 286.41604889843745, 37.64299573536318; 274.46292389843745, 53.48350787766046..."
In a flash, he had spoken five sets of coordinates before he stopped. By then, Poseidon’s face was ashen, its body trembling.
"You..."
Before it could finish speaking, its entire body began to shake violently, turning slightly transparent as if it had suffered a massive blow.
"How about that? I sent my last few remaining nukes your way. So? Did you enjoy it? Did you?" Jingwei asked with a curious expression.
The coordinates Shen Feng had recited were the real-world locations of the core servers where Poseidon’s consciousness resided!
And just monts ago, three of those five core server locations had been struck by Dongfeng strategic nuclear missiles, which had bored through their protective shells.
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