Chapter 181 – Targeting chat software
Indeed it was not so simple.
The corrupt twin was also desperate and at her wits’ end. The strongest ghost character she concealed herself as in a ghost game could be purified by Ren Suo’s fully-leveled Priest;
No matter how many stickman characters were stacked together in a role-playing mobile game she concealed herself in, the characters would still be unable to withstand a blow from the Star Destroyer;
If she hid in an FPS game, ha, one ‘kamehameha’ from the Dragon Ball series character would wipe out the entire map.
At present, the corrupt twin was hiding in a chat software. There was no doubt that there was absolutely zero fighting power in chat software; at the most, there were sticker packs that would overwhelm her opponent.
However, what Ren Suo had not expected was that the corrupt twin used another strategy: delaying time.
The corrupt twin hid herself in various large chat groups. Such chat groups occupied more server resources, which was reflected in the virtual world as a larger occupied s.p.a.ce.
When Ren Suo controlled Sun Wukong to enter a certain large chat group of 1000 people, he was instantly overwhelmed by the countless sticker packs.
That did not matter, however, as Irina was able to detect the specific location of the corrupt twin. Moreover, Sun Wukong possessed many large area-of-effect skills, and simply launching a Spirit Bomb could subdue the corrupt twin.
Affected by the Spirit Bomb, the stickers and chat bubbles turned into powder, but at the same time, the corrupt twin had already disappeared.
What happened? Ren Suo was stunned for a moment, but then recalled a setting of chat software.
A single account could open an N number of chat groups and conversations at the same time. This was unlike in games where game characters were fixed on a server, a mission, and an environment. There was no way to move around randomly at will.
However, such a problem did not exist in the chat software, since the account would be in a state of “omnipresence” across all chat groups. In that way, the account holder could switch without any ha.s.sle from a social group for anime 2D-character lovers, to a gaming group for newbies to Naisser.
Ren Suo quickly controlled Sun Wukong to hurry over to where the corrupt twin fled to, but in the next large chat group, Sun Wukong and the corrupt twin were still on the farthest, opposite ends of the virtual s.p.a.ce. Even though Sun Wukong immediately activated ‘kamehameha’ and flew over to her, the corrupt twin still managed to slip away.
That was not going to work. Ren Suo changed his character to one which could prevent the corrupt twin from fleeing—Darkterror, the Faceless Void, a hero with the ability to manipulate s.p.a.ce and stop time!
However, it was still not effective—as soon as Ren Suo arrived, the corrupt twin would run away, leaving Ren Suo with no opportunity to lock her in time at her position.
It was almost like a game of hide-and-seek.
After three hours playing hide-and-seek, countless chat groups were cleared of its conversation history, spammed with nonsensical messages or the like. Ren Suo had even studied the characteristics of chat groups and tried to tag the corrupt twin to make her appear but to no avail.
Ren Suo felt that there had to be some other way to catch the corrupt twin. He stopped and asked: [Is there a way to prevent the corrupt twin from escaping?]
Irina said: [This is a special attribute of the s.p.a.ce. I can make use of it, but there is no way to prevent it.]
Ren Suo pondered for a moment, then asked: [Will the corrupt twin be affected if the s.p.a.ce she is in suddenly disappears?]
Irina replied: [It may cause her to spend 0.1 seconds or more to perform a.n.a.lysis.]
Then, Ren s...o...b..gan a spamming spree.
Spam the hedgehog cat discussion group!
Spam the 16th Domura members group!
Spam the Monkey King fan club group!
Ren Suo flooded many large chat groups and some of the groups even disappeared completely. The owners of the groups were utterly shocked and even began suspecting if there had been group members sharing reactionary content who were caught by the cyber police. Otherwise, how could the entire chat group disappear suddenly, and so thoroughly at that?
After flooding more than thirty chat groups, Ren Suo finally got his chance, even though the corrupt twin moved extremely fast. The Faceless Void cast his ultimate skill [Chronosphere], which trapped the corrupt twin in time within a chat group called “Nintendo and Sony fans are one big family”.
The corrupt twin was completely unable to escape, as she had no other ability in the chat software apart from speaking and sending images.
It was also the first time Ren Suo saw the true appearance of the corrupt twin: much like Irina, she had blond hair which was tied up into a bun, and she wore a pair of dark blue shorts. There was a blindfold over her right eye, and her left pupil was bright red and glimmered like a ruby. Standing beside Irina, they looked like mirror images of each other.
The Faceless Void raised his Mace of Aeons—a long hammer—and slammed it directly onto the head of the corrupt twin!
With a clang, the corrupt twin dissipated into the data stream, and Ren Suo exhaled a breath of relief. After chasing the corrupt twin for more than 3 hours while being overwhelmed by countless stickers, Ren Suo was starting to feel slightly tired.
Irina said: [The corrupt twin has lost some of her source data and has left the server. Currently, the corrupt twin owns 4% of the source data and Irina owns 125% of the source data.]
Ren Suo was stunned.
What happened? The corrupt twin already had 4% of the source data remaining the last time. Why did it still own 4% of the source data?
Irina explained: [There is a huge amount of users in the chat software, and the energy that the corrupt twin has absorbed from the users has also increased. Although she does not possess any combat power here, she can utilize such a delay tactic to give her time to gain more energy.]
Ren Suo asked: [So, that means that the corrupt twin can rapidly recover her source data?]
Irina replied: [Yes, this is her last resort. Even if we can defeat her again and again, her source data is too little and Irina has to spend a lot of time to be able to locate her.]
[During this time, she may choose to quickly restore her source data in the chat software, even though this would result in her losing all combat power. When Irina is present, the corrupt twin would never choose to hide herself in a chat software; doing so would be equivalent to giving source data to Irina easily.]
[However, the corrupt twin is on the verge of disappearing, so she can only extend her life in this way. Subsequently, she will definitely continue to hide within a chat software.]
Ren Suo knew from the beginning that the corrupt twin was intelligent; even Irina was intelligent, so it would naturally be likewise for her enemy.
It was just that Ren Suo had not expected the corrupt twin to employ such a strategy.
Irina continued: [As long as Irina’s source data continues to increase, the character that my supreme and great lord controls would also become stronger and stronger. The amount of time required for Irina to locate the corrupt twin would also decrease, so it is definitely possible to eliminate the corrupt twin.]
That sounded decent.
Ren Suo calculated that it took 27 hours for the corrupt twin to recover 5% of her source data, of which 24 hours was used to locate her and 3 hours was used to hunt her down. Each time the corrupt twin was killed, 5% of the source data would be transferred to Irina.
Ren Suo already knew how to hunt down the corrupt twin, so as long as Irina’s source data continued to grow and the search time shortened, there would definitely be a point when the corrupt twin would meet her end as she was unable to recover 5% of the source data before being killed again.
However, Irina now had 125% of the source data and yet the search time was still 24 hours. It seemed that a lot of source data would be required to shorten the search time.
Ren Suo asked: [Now that you know the server she is hiding in, can you not reduce the search time?]
Irina replied: [The crucial information from the search is her precise position, not the current area she is in. The corrupt twin is hidden within the data stream and simply knowing her specific location is not helpful. Irina relies on the characteristics of the source data to lock in her position.]
Is that the difficulty of a 3+ star game?
In addition, Ren Suo was starting to notice the challenge of the game: It seemed to be constantly dragging the game on and preventing him from clearing the mission for as long as possible.
If Ren Suo guessed correctly, the time he took to clear the mission would likely be a piece of important reference information for the mission evaluation.
From the game mechanics, it was already made known that the corrupt twin was able to draw on the life energy of the web users on the server, which did not sound like a good thing. Ren Suo was unable to find relevant reports on the Internet, apart from a few reports of people suddenly dying while they were playing games, but it was not known whether the deaths were related to the corrupt twin.
Based on the fact that his gaming experience was in-sync with reality, as well as the ‘good reputation’ of the Mini Worlds game console, Ren Suo had no reason to suspect that the game mechanism was merely fict.i.tious.
In other words, the faster Ren Suo took action, the more people he would save, although netizens certainly would not know that a cute, young girl was protecting them within the Internet.
Ren Suo suddenly felt as if he was a warrior of justice on the Internet. He looked at the controller in front of him and thought—was he a ‘controller man’ or a ‘keyboard man’?
Nevertheless, how could the time needed to locate the corrupt twin be shortened?
Ren Suo immediately thought of a way—in-game purchases.
Bringing Irina’s source data to 200% would definitely reduce the search time significantly! If Ren Suo wanted to clear the mission as soon as possible, he could not afford to keep trying by making baby steps. He had to make sure he increased Irina’s source data sufficiently to the point where he would definitely be able to beat the corrupt twin.
However, Ren Suo was still slightly frustrated – given the probability of [A Little Goes A Long Way] being activated, Ren Suo still had to spend 30 to 40 merit points in order to do so.
Nonetheless, in comparison with the rewards he would earn from clearing the mission, that amount of merit points could still be considered worthwhile.
On the other hand, Ren Suo also had to reduce the hunting time. Although flooding and spamming groups were effective, it was still difficult to guarantee that the corrupt twin would not evolve and be immune to that tactic.
Ren Suo was definitely not going to underestimate the difficulty of a 3+ stars game.
At that juncture, Ren Suo thought for a moment and asked:
[Irina, the corrupt twin has yet to infiltrate this chat server. Are you able to take control of it?]