[Authors Note : I move this part here to improve transition ]
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As my vision came back, I found myself in another space. This time, everything was bathed in blue color, and I could see something resembling a giant metal brain on the horizon.
The giant object took on the shape of a human brain, yet instead of blood, vains, and soft tissues, it was covered with intricate metal structures.
Streams of light coursed through it, creating a neon-like display that served as a peculiar form of neurotransmission.
The ground beneath me was black. Blue neon lights adorned it in a pattern that hummed with energy, which synchronized with the impulse of the metal brain. It was as if these neon lights were extensions, akin to a tree, and these strips were the roots.
[System : Mission - Kill all the anti-virus ] [Reward Skill : Digital Defense ]
"Anti-virus?" I was confused. 'What anti-virus? '
As if on cue to my question, the sky and neon light shifted from blue to red, casting a tense glow.
What followed was a buzzing sound, and then, a horde of flying mechanical snakes, each adorned with a single, colossal, unblinking eye, pierced the air, descending to attack me.
I didn't know how these snakes were able to fly without wings, but in this place, a flying snake would be the least weird thing, so I just accepted it as it was.
'My powers are back!' I thought to myself, elated after being able to access the system interface again.
"This will be much easier now," I chuckled aloud. No matter how many of these things came at me, one quantum magnetic or Aegis Projection would be enough to destroy them.
Raising my hands, I attempted to use Telekinesis first to try and check them out. I didn't want to instantly zap them with my overpowered powers. I figured it's polite to at least say hello before obliterating them.
However, I quickly realized that something was wrong. There was no invisible energy in this place, meaning that one of my most powerful abilities was rendered useless at the moment.
As my command pushed through, black liquid began oozing from every pore of my body. It resembled blood, but the inky substance had an different quality.
Dripped by the black fluid, the ground was voraciously devoured, creating a black pool.
Simultaneously, an empowering connection surged within me, as if my thoughts could manipulate and guide this black liquid .
When the black pool was large enough, an actual brain started to stick out from the ground until it fully surfaced. This brain was smaller than the one I saw earlier, and unlike that colossal structure , this thing was mostly made of soft tissues. Only some parts had bits of metal, kind of like a computer chip.
It was a fascinating sight to behold, unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury to savor the view.
I commanded the black liquid to surge like a tsunami, a dark wave against the swarm of mechanical snakes.
The black substance intertwined with the metallic serpents, creating a swirling dance of darkness and machinery. Each mechanical snake fought against the intrusion, its mechanical body contorting and writhing in resistance.
Unfortunately, even my strongest malware was getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of Anti-Virus entities. The mechanical snakes seemed endless, and it was only a matter of time before my black liquid would be pushed back.
With that in mind, I unleashed another type of virus, code-named "ITS." Originally designed to destroy memory drives , it had the power to replicate files until the memory was completely filled.
I wanted to test if this would work here. After downloading it, my darkness virus began to expand faster and faster and the swarm of snakes began to be pushed back.
But it was not enough. I downloaded another virus called "AZUR MORPH" This thing had the ability to change any files into virus files. It worked miracles, as the swarm of mechanical snakes, instead of being destroyed, started turning on each other.
The tide of this battle shifted to me , and I began to finally see some hopes .
I've been thinking about it. Maybe the system sent me here to manually destroy that brain thingy. I'm pretty sure it was the one that tried to invade my brain.
So instead of me being corrupted, my job here was to destroy that brain first.
'Let's see who will last longer,' I sneered in contempt.