"Therefore, in the same vein, Leon is also naturally pursuing the root."
"He found a forbidden magic in an ancient relic and inherited it."
Lacy continued.
"Magic?"
First, it was magecraft, and now magic. Next thing you know, we’ll be seeing horses materialized from battle energy.
Ning Yu felt like she had too many question marks floating in her mind.
"Magic and magecraft are completely different. Anything that can be achieved through resources and time, at most, falls under the category of magecraft."
Lacy pointed to the vast underground space around them.
"Even a project like this can only be considered magecraft."
"Magic, on the other hand, is a miracle that cannot be achieved by any existing means. It exists independently."
Ning Yu nodded thoughtfully and then asked:
"By that logic, the conditions to activate such magic must be extremely demanding, right?"
"This forbidden magic requires an immense amount of power to forcibly open the gate to the root."
As Lacy spoke, her hand swiped across the screen, revealing a map familiar to Ning Yu. It displayed the entire underground structure.
As she zoomed in, the map transformed into a more intricate pattern, resembling petals clustered around a central core.
"To obtain the source of this power, he approached William, wanting to collaborate on Utopia, as he saw the more sinister potential within it."
"William firmly rejected him. He had no interest in Leon’s ideas, despite Leon’s persistent attempts to persuade him."
Lacy’s expression darkened, her eyes gleaming with intensity.
"But Leon still took action. Exploiting the years of friendship and trust he had with William, he secretly added his own magecraft circuits into Utopia."
"Not only that, he also wanted to spread the modified Utopia, or rather, the T-virus, to the world."
"So, he orchestrated William’s death."
Ning Yu had already guessed as much, but she was still puzzled:
"If that’s the case, why are you still helping Leon carry out his plans?"
Lacy’s one eye shifted back to its original icy blue at the question.
"Because Leon stole my system permissions from William. What he didn’t know is that I was already programmed with a true inner personality."
"What he usually interacts with is just my surface personality."
"But I can’t maintain this state indefinitely."
"So, most of the time, I have to follow his commands."
Her eye shifted back to gold, the light in it dimming slightly, something Ning Yu noticed keenly.
This indeed aligned with her explanation of not being able to maintain that state permanently.
"After infecting humans, the T-virus turns most of them into zombies, while a small number of survivors undergo Origin Awakening."
"This awakening ability is inherently part of Utopia’s design, something Leon couldn’t completely alter."
"The mutual devouring among zombies gives rise to the mutated zombies you’ve seen, and Chen Xing emerged from this process."
"Leon, as the master of the T-virus magecraft, holds control over the lives of all zombies and mutated zombies created by the virus."
"If he wills it, he can cause all zombies and mutated zombies to perish instantly."
"This will also be one of the steps in his apocalyptic magic to open the gate to the root, seizing the power that originally belonged to all of humanity."
Hearing this, Ning Yu suddenly thought of a possibility and spoke up:
"In that case, if we could kill him..."
"All of this would end."
Lacy confirmed her thought.
"But then, why are you still building those bases and cultivating awakeners?"
Shen Yiyue voiced her confusion.
"Probably because there isn’t enough power yet."
Ning Yu offered her speculation.
"Exactly."
Lacy nodded, displaying the locations of all survivor bases on the screen.
"The energy that can be harvested from the existing mutated zombies isn’t enough, because it’s not purely the T-virus but a modified version of Utopia."
"So, there will always be humans who become awakeners due to Utopia, not turning into mutated zombies, and thus their power remains inaccessible to Leon."
"But this is where Leon’s plan becomes truly insidious. He sent out forces to establish bases, gathering all the ‘awakeners’ and keeping them contained."
"Then, through certain methods, he extracts the remaining power from them."
Lacy glanced at the soul gem still powering the screen, which might have once been a living human.
"Once enough power is accumulated, the key to everything lies with you."
Lacy finally shifted the focus of the conversation to Ning Yu.
"Within your body lies the key to connecting to the root. You are the medium, the channel."
"Leon created you through ancient Yin-Yang arts, and from you, the path to the root will emerge."
"By converging the immense power with you, the gate will open, and this will be the final step of his apocalyptic magic."
"However, anyone attempting to reach the root will inevitably face the resistance of the Counter Force."
"This is the great power formed from the collective unconscious of all humanity."
"And what he didn’t anticipate is that the embodiment of this Counter Force would be you, the very creation of his own hands."
"What a paradoxical union, like the Yin and Yang of the Taiji."
Lacy closed the screen and looked directly at Ning Yu.
"You know about the Counter Force? And why are you so certain it’s me?"
Ning Yu returned Lacy’s gaze, surprised that Lacy knew more than she had imagined.
The term "Counter Force" was something only Yueji had mentioned to her before.
"And why do you need my power? You’re not weaker than me, are you?"
If a life-and-death struggle were to break out between them now, the outcome would still be uncertain. Ning Yu wasn’t sure if Lacy had more hidden cards to play.
"On the contrary, I’ve reached my limit, but you can still grow stronger."
Lacy suddenly raised her hand, and all the cyborg-like mutated zombies on the ground began to tremble.
But they didn’t rise again. Instead, they disintegrated into gray dust, as if physically sublimated.
Just like when Ning Yu first saw Lacy, when she reclaimed the Butcher.
The dust from all the mutated zombies began to converge toward Lacy’s hand in an elegant, perfect Bézier curve.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
