The electronic graveyard stretched endlessly, littered with flickering fragments of corrupted code.
Lucian crushed a discarded graphics card underfoot, dragging Arthur by the collar like a dead dog through mountains of digital refuse. The former protagonist's mouth leaked golden, viscous code instead of blood—mechanical cockroaches scurried over to lap up the precious "fortune energy" with greedy mandibles.
"He's leaking oil," Sylvia muttered, gripping her makeshift steel-rebar knife while scanning their surroundings.
"Let him leak." Lucian didn't bother looking back, his gaze passing over floating purple **[Texture_Missing]** blocks. "Once we reach that fortress ahead, this battery's getting scrapped anyway."
A piercing alarm shrieked across the wasteland.
Dozens of twisted shadows dove from the server cliffs—half-bodied "scrapped characters" wielding unrendered weapons that crashed into the ground, kicking up clouds of rust and debris.
The earth shuddered.
A three-meter-tall silver power armor slammed down, blocking their path. Its chest reactor hummed ominously, though the ID floating above it reeked of cheap production values:
**[ID: Klang the Iron Tyrant]**
**[Source: "Mech Storm" (Dropped at Chapter 5)]**
"Perfect energy core..." Klang's bargain-bin electronic eye locked onto Arthur, emitting a greedy metallic grinding sound. "Leave the golden one, or I'll crush you into corrupted data!"
Arthur stirred with a death rattle, catching sight of the mechanical giant. A malicious laugh bubbled from his throat:
"Ha! You're finished, Lucian! This is the scrapped boss from 'Mech Storm'—he's got 'Absolute Defense' settings! Your pathetic editor can't break through his shields!"
"Shut up, battery."
Sylvia didn't waste words. A salvaged liquid nitrogen canister flew from her hand, aimed straight at the mech's faceplate.
*BOOM!*
White mist exploded outward, spreading arctic cold.
Klang didn't even flinch. A pale blue hexagonal honeycomb force field materialized around him.
**[Damage: 0]**
**[Effect: INVALID]**
The sub-zero temperature that could crack steel rebar didn't leave so much as a scratch.
"Useless!" Klang roared with laughter, raising a door-sized war hammer. "My programming grants immunity to all physical and energy damage! Here, code is law!"
The massive hammer descended with crushing wind pressure.
Sylvia's face went pale. She instinctively grabbed for Lucian: "Move!"
Lucian didn't budge.
Instead of dodging, he folded Arthur's leg like a camping chair and sat down on the "former protagonist," casually fishing a crumpled cigarette from his pocket.
"Got a light?"
Code sparks flickered from his fingertips, igniting the tobacco.
The war hammer froze three meters above Lucian's head—he'd modified the gravity parameters, though Klang kept pouring power into the strike.
"Absolute Defense... such a retro setting." Lucian exhaled a smoke ring, studying Klang like a programmer examining spaghetti code. "So as long as that shield's active, even a nuke can't scratch you?"
"Exactly!" Klang bellowed. "I am an immortal steel fortress! Die, insect!"
"Mm, the shield is indeed invincible." Lucian nodded thoughtfully, wearing the expression of a developer who'd just spotted a critical bug. "It perfectly protects the 'interior' from harm. But here's the thing..."
His cigarette-holding fingers tapped the air, and cascading green data streams poured down like a waterfall.
"That tin-can shell of yours is on the *outside* of the shield, isn't it?"
**[Target Locked: Heavy Power Armor]**
**[Material Scan: High-Strength Titanium Alloy]**
Klang paused, his electronic brain clearly struggling with this logic: "What are you planning?"
"Time for a chemistry lesson."
Lucian hit enter.
**[Edit_Parameter: Oxidation_Rate]**
**[Value: 0.001% → MAX (100000%)]**
**[Time_Scale: Accelerated x 10000]**
No explosion. No flashy effects.
Klang's magnificent, gleaming silver armor began changing color.
Dark red rust spots spread like a virus across every surface, metal plating visibly flaking and peeling away. Tooth-grinding *crack-crack-crack* sounds filled the air—the death song of metal fatigue.
"What's happening? My legs! My arms!"
Klang screamed in terror. His supposedly indestructible war hammer disintegrated mid-swing, crumbling into red rust powder that dusted Lucian's face like snow.
Chest plate, helmet, knee guards—all followed suit.
The pale blue "Absolute Defense" shield continued glowing faithfully, completely intact. It had indeed blocked external damage, but couldn't prevent the "natural aging" of its own equipment.
*CRASH!*
The final armor piece collapsed.
When the dust settled, Sylvia stared in disbelief.
The mighty Iron Tyrant had vanished. Inside the invincible shield crouched a pale, flabby fat man wearing nothing but bright red triangle underwear, shivering like a hermit crab stripped of its shell.
"That's... it?" Sylvia nearly dropped her knife.
"Physical laws are rigid. Parameters are flexible."
Lucian stood up, brushing rust flakes from his clothes. He kicked Arthur aside like discarded furniture and approached the shield.
Klang stared at Lucian through the barrier, sweat beading on his chubby face: "You... you're a demon! What did you do to my mech?!"
"A little accelerated oxidation reaction." Lucian's tone was conversational. "Also, your shield doesn't seem to block hands."
He reached directly through the force field, placing his palm on Klang's scalp.
"Don't! I have money! Access passes! I have—"
"I know."
Green light flashed from Lucian's fingertips.
**[Execution: SHIFT+DELETE]**
The screaming cut off instantly. The fat man dissolved into a string of green corrupted code. Seeing their boss deleted, the surrounding minions fled with terrified shrieks.
Lucian swayed, clutching his chest.
**[Entropy Level Rising: 7%]**
Blood trickled from his nose—the price of large-scale matter manipulation.
He wiped away the blood and picked up a black magnetic card from the ground, tossing it to Sylvia: "Here. Fortress access pass."
Sylvia caught the card, her expression complex: "You planned this from the start?"
"Professional habit."
Lucian activated the card. A holographic map materialized in the air, showing a red dot pulsing deep within a black fortress in the canyon.
Arthur suddenly shrieked, his voice trembling: "Don't go! I remember now... that's the marker! That's the 'Story Farm' slaughterhouse! All defective characters get processed there for recycling!"
"Slaughterhouse?" Lucian's eyes narrowed.
The floating map suddenly shuddered, displaying a blood-red warning in bold text:
**[WELCOME TO THE RECYCLING CENTER]**
**[Current Deletion Target: Sylvia Frost]**
**[Estimated Execution Time: 00:09:59]**
"What?" Sylvia froze.
She instinctively raised her hand, only to discover her right arm was becoming transparent—like a hologram with poor signal reception. Her fingertips had already begun pixelating.
That cold, slippery data texture crept up her arm.
"Sylvia!" Lucian grabbed her wrist. Her skin no longer felt warm.
The Narrative Correction Bureau had lost patience. Instead of sending assassins, they were deleting her account directly from the server's foundation.
Lucian watched the frantically counting timer, green fire blazing in his eyes with a hundred times more fury than when facing Klang.
"Ten minutes left."
He hoisted Arthur over his shoulder and grabbed Sylvia's dissolving hand with iron determination, charging toward the black fortress.
"Time to run. We're going to smash that goddamn shredder!"