[Desperation: The Choice Refused]
The air in the ruins was thick with the chilling silence of Executive Zero's ultimatum. He sat upon the altar, radiating technological dominance, the perfect clone of Aria resting beside him.
"You have twenty-nine minutes remaining to witness the end of your world," Executive Zero stated, his voice devoid of pity.
Li Yunzhou looked at the untouched Technology Crystal Pillar, the Spiritual Vein Anchor, and then at the clone. He understood the trap: destroying the anchor meant turning his back on Zero, allowing the clone's formatting to proceed. Attacking Zero meant allowing the timer to expire, destroying the Wasteland.
He refused the terms. All-consuming Furnace True Qi erupted from his body, not as a controlled stream, but as a wild, violent conflagration. It was the primal rage of the All-Material Furnace unleashed.
"I refuse your choices!" Li Yunzhou roared, hurling his Wasteland Shard not at Zero, but at the Anchor Crystal.
Executive Zero didn't flinch. The halo of combat drones—the Divine Legion—surrounding him instantly intercepted the blade, vaporizing it with hundreds of concentrated energy beams.
"Predictable and foolish. You are already locked down, Primitive. You cannot hope to breach my defense, let alone stop the vessel."
[Code Awakening: The Administrator's Fury]
Miles away, in her secure bunker, Aria watched the scene unfold through the Ring's feed. The sight of her flawless, emotionless replica—a vessel prepared to steal her identity and erase her soul—shattered her control.
[Executive Zero, you used my backup file to create a mere 'Recycling Bin'!] Aria's consciousness surged with pure, agonizing rage.
The immense mental pressure triggered a catastrophic breach of her own suppression protocols. The dormant Aether Administrator authority, violently repressed by the Senate, awakened.
[Warning: Permission Check Passed. Engaging Administrator Privilege: 'Data Override'.]
A torrent of majestic Golden Code erupted within Aria's consciousness. She channeled this raw, overwhelming power—the privilege of a system architect—through the Quantum Ring and slammed it directly into the Clone's receptor ports!
[The Duel: True Queen vs. False Queen]
On the altar, the perfect clone began to tremble. Executive Zero's eyes flashed with alarm. "What? Her data signature is active? How did she bypass the containment field?"
The clone's face, pristine and perfect, was suddenly overlaid by faint Red Data Streams, identical to the streams that defined Aria's augmented eye.
[Li Yunzhou! I've hijacked her 'Receiver Port'! She is a 'Puppet' now, but I can't maintain the sheer volume of code needed for long!] Aria's voice, now vibrating with effort, reached his mind.
"A puppet is enough!" Li Yunzhou yelled. He saw his chance and charged Executive Zero, True Qi blazing.
Simultaneously, the clone moved. It walked with a strange, unnatural elegance toward Li Yunzhou. She had no weapon, but as she stepped, a shimmering, watery Spatial Distortion Field erupted around her body.
"Code Sequence: Gravity Function Lock," the clone spoke in a cold, synthetic voice.
Li Yunzhou felt crushing pressure slam into him, as if he were suddenly submerged beneath the ocean floor. His knees buckled, the raw power of the clone's attack threatening to crush his bones.
[Li Yunzhou! This is the ultimate defense code I once wrote! You must use the Matrix Refining Divine Art to counter it! Align your True Qi frequency to the 'Resonance Critical Point' of the code!] Aria screamed, guiding his every fiber.
Li Yunzhou forced his muscles to ignore the pain, driving his True Qi into rapid, high-frequency oscillations precisely instructed by Aria.
CRACK!
The True Qi and the clone's gravity field clashed in a spectacular, localized burst of Resonance. The gravity lock was instantly broken. Li Yunzhou shot forward, aiming for Executive Zero.
[The Final Sacrifice: Forging a Destiny]
Executive Zero sneered. "Clever, Primitive! But too slow."
He raised his colossal Energy Scythe, not to strike Li Yunzhou, but to touch the Spiritual Vein Anchor. He intended to activate the final sequence and destroy the wasteland, now that his systems had compensated for Aria's attack.
Li Yunzhou knew he had run out of time for tactics. He had to choose one target—and he had to choose Aria.
He spun around, abandoning Zero, and charged the clone. The clone instantly reapplied the Gravity Lock code, attempting to immobilize him.
[No! Li Yunzhou! Save the Anchor! You're risking the world for me!] Aria pleaded, her control failing.
"I will not let them erase you!" Li Yunzhou bellowed, slamming into the clone's body. He used the full, destructive force of his Furnace Constitution to endure the twisting Gravity Field. His flesh and armor screamed under the pressure.
[Aria, this is the final synergy! Your code and my Furnace! One last fusion!]
Clutching the clone, Li Yunzhou did the unthinkable. He forced the clone's internal, perfect Tech Core—the source of its powerful Administrator Code—to physically link with the Spiritual Vein Anchor crystal.
"Refine it!"
The pristine clone code surged violently into the Anchor Pillar. The Pillar, designed only to receive, could not handle the sheer volume of Administrator-level code. It overloaded instantly.
"Noooooo!" Executive Zero shrieked in genuine horror, realizing the savage brilliance of Li Yunzhou's move.
The clone and the Anchor—the perfect vessel and the destructive weapon—were fused together by Li Yunzhou's True Qi, and in the next instant, they erupted in a catastrophic Code-Energy Detonation, disintegrating into white-hot vapor and smoke.
[Aftermath: The Unseen Threat]
The explosion silenced the countdown. Li Yunzhou, heavily scorched and battered, stumbled back from the blast zone. The Anchor was gone, the clone was gone, and the Wasteland was saved.
Executive Zero's silver armor flashed menacingly, his digital faceplate radiating pure, concentrated fury.
"Primitive! You have defied the immutable logic of the Senate! You destroyed my vessel, but you failed to grasp the Orbital Balance Destroyer's true purpose!"
Zero's armor began to shed its outer layers. The dark, shattered sphere high in the sky, which had stopped its countdown, violently fractured, releasing not debris, but thousands of tiny, glowing Red Tracking Beacons that descended like a swarm of metallic locusts.
[Warning! Warning! These are 'Heavenly Lock Beacons'! Their mission is to tag and locate all life forms with a spiritual signature on the ground!] Aria's voice, now a mere rasp, transmitted the final, desperate alert.
"Now, everyone on the Wasteland is a marked coordinate!" Executive Zero laughed, his voice a distorted howl of rage. His armored feet moved toward the gravely injured Li Yunzhou.
As Zero raised his energy scythe for the killing blow, the Ring on Li Yunzhou's finger pulsed with a final, desperate light. It forcefully pulled Li Yunzhou's consciousness away from his ravaged body, into the secure haven of the Ring's Data Space.
[Li Yunzhou! Enter deep sleep! This is my 'Final Protocol'! I will use my last energies to shield you while you complete your Foundation Establishment breakthrough! You must ascend now!] Aria commanded, the conviction in her voice a shield against the coming storm.
[Next Chapter Preview:] The ultimate endurance test! Li Yunzhou's consciousness is trapped in the Ring's Data Space, facing the final hurdle of Foundation Establishment while Aria's near-extinguished mind must defend his body against the overwhelming power of Executive Zero. The roles are reversed: the Queen must protect the King.
Chapter 7: Sanctuary in the Ring: Code and Consciousness Defense is next!