I Was Once a Legend

Just like when he fell into Fu Zhe's fantasy many times before, after a dark journey, Dong Zheng's eyes suddenly blurred, and when he was clear again, he was already standing on the dark green information highway.

The firewall was breached to create a large gap, and the protective sky above the head was also full of cracks. Black and illegal data overflowed piece by piece, and security phages were flying towards the gap from all directions, repairing it as quickly as possible.

[Service access rules... repaired. 】

[Verification tool... repaired. 】

Dong Zheng glanced over there and then withdrew his gaze. During these days of training, he found that in his program kernel, the self-repair function of the firewall is very powerful. If there is no large-scale breach, he does not need to participate in the repair.

Of course, there has not been any large-scale damage so far.

The data on the expressway moves rapidly, automatically bypasses him in the middle of the road, and flies to the distance along the unknown established track.

The moment Dong Zheng turned his gaze away, at the end of his peripheral vision, a slender figure seemed to appear, standing quietly on another road and looking at him.

[You saw it. 】

Dong Zheng immediately looked over there, but when he looked closely, he found nothing.

Dong Zheng: ………………………

"It will make the victim turn their head, pass the window, the mirror, and suddenly see the abnormal creature when they open the door, and will be constantly disturbed and attacked by the abnormal creature in their sleep..." Cui Zuojing's voice seemed to echo in his ears, and Dong Zheng took a deep breath , understand that this is probably the test given to him by Fu Zhe.

Being able to implant a complete illusion in the core of his program and the world he dominates, Fu Zhe's ability to control is really unfathomable.

Dong Zheng closed his eyes and calmed down his breathing and heartbeat. The surrounding data, security phages, and reptiles all seemed to be under his perception.

After coming here for a long time, until he seemed to be about to fall asleep, Dong Zheng suddenly opened his eyes.

A slender humanoid was standing less than a meter in front of him, reaching out with an oversized hand, trying to touch him.The moment Dong Zheng opened his eyes, the fingers of this hand almost touched his throat.

It has pure white eyes and a mouth sewn together with needlework.

Aware of being discovered by Dong Zheng, panic appeared on the brown face of the humanoid creature, it quickly withdrew its hand, turned around and ran away at an extremely fast speed.

Dong Zheng immediately stepped forward to catch up, but the humanoid creature ran too fast, just like when Dong Zheng turned his head and disappeared instantly, it seemed that it was about to disappear in a blink of an eye.

In desperation, Dong Zheng grabbed the leg of a reptile beside him, thinking about it.

[Grab it. 】

The reptile turned around and led Dong Zheng to chase after the slender figure.Dong Zheng jumped onto its broad back, riding a horse, staring at the figure in front of it.

The reptile was very fast, and quickly caught up with the human form. The thing looked back, saw that Dong Zheng was about to chase, and suddenly stopped, gave up running, turned around and stretched out a broad hand.

【It touched you. 】

The moment the hand touched the reptile, everything, including time and space, seemed to stand still, and the human figure smiled at Dong Zheng with an unknown meaning, and disappeared before his eyes.

Then the reptiles under Dong Zheng disappeared.

[Packet filtering... repaired. 】

Dong Zheng fell to the ground, he got up, looked around, only to realize that he was in a completely strange place.

The highway intertwined like a spider web is the only one left. The sky is no longer full of strange-shaped objects floating in different colors, but is as pure white as the ground under your feet.

Clean, pure white.

He felt the wind blowing on his cheeks, only the firewall was still standing far away, silently guarding this world.

This is still his core world, or in other words, the core of the core.

And in the middle of the pure white space, there is a touch of extremely bright green.

Dong Zheng walked over and knelt down beside it.

This is a small green plant. Delicate emerald green stems emerge from the rosette-like basal leaves, and white flower bags the size of rice grains grow from the top, small and small, wrapped in yellow-green stamens.

Arabidopsis.

This kind of roadside can be seen everywhere, and the humble grass grows there quietly and blooms.

Dong Zheng stretched out his hand, and lightly touched its fluffy leaves with his fingertips, the grass trembled, and the leaves hugged his fingers intimately.

The feeling that he and Cui Zuojing were connected because of the blood contract reappeared with unprecedented intensity and clarity.

At this moment, he felt the panic and depression from the young man. It seemed that something was firmly stuck in Cui Zuojing's chest, blocking all the surging emotions that were about to erupt.

Dong Zheng suddenly thought of Cui Zuojing's eyes as cold as ashes.

Could he be flustered too?

He hesitated for a moment, and stroked the leaves lightly, like stroking a small animal or the top of a child's hair.

The panic from Cui Zuojing was relieved almost immediately, unlike Cui Zuojing who could see the outside world through his eyes and ears when he was in the prisoner's space, Dong Zheng couldn't clearly see what was happening on Cui Zuojing's side , can only perceive the state of the other party.

Shouldn't Cui Zuojing be waiting for him to wake up at this time, or be with other people in the castle?Why are there such strong negative emotions?

Dong Zheng didn't know.

But he still used his own methods to try to alleviate these emotions as much as possible. The leaves of Arabidopsis hugged his fingers, as if in a precarious wind and rain, trying to find a support.

Dong Zheng just sat beside Xiaocao for a long time, staring at the only color in this pure white world, he suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed it in the void.

A small watering can appeared in his hand out of thin air, and Dong Zheng watered the small plant.

He waited patiently for a while, and felt that the negative emotions from Cui Zuojing were relieved again.

If he guessed correctly, this Arabidopsis is the reflection of Cui Zuojing under the blood contract in his spiritual world. The state of the grass always reflects the state of Cui Zuojing, and he can also take good care of its method to improve Cui Zuojing's physical and mental condition.

The grass got enough water and let go of Dong Zheng's fingers.

At this time, the feeling of being watched appeared again.

Dong Zheng's originally relaxed eyebrows and eyes became dignified again. He put down the watering can in his hand, stood up, and at the moment of turning his head, he caught a glimpse of a slender figure passing by.

Dong Zheng chased after him.

Fu Zhe's test is far from over.

……

Cui Zuojing hurriedly turned into the alley, carrying a black schoolbag, and walked towards home as he did many times in the past.

Today is his 16th birthday, and his parents specially told him to go home early to celebrate his birthday.

So he took a leave of absence for evening self-study. As the teacher's most beloved good student, this leave naturally passed smoothly.

The street lamp in the alley was probably broken, and it kept flickering, leaving alternate dim and bright scenes on the retina.

Cui Zuojing was a little scared, he quickened his pace, intending to pass this section of road as fast as possible.

The light flickered twice, then dimmed again. At the end of the alley, a slender figure was staring at him silently.

Cui Zuojing:? ! ? ! ? ! ? !

The moment Cui Zuojing saw it, the figure turned around and fled quickly.

The boy stopped stiffly. He was absolutely sure that a man with a strange figure suddenly appeared at the end of the alley just now, and he was still looking at him!

It was quiet all around, the whistle of the car on the main road was distant and indistinct, fear was fermenting and spreading, and Cui Zuojing couldn't restrain his breath.

Don't be afraid, it might just be a mistake. In this world, how could there be someone who looks like that?

He tried his best to convince himself, forced his mind, and thought of his family's instructions before going to school, he took another step forward.

The moment his footsteps fell, a pair of hands suddenly stretched out from behind, tightly covering his mouth and nose, the blade sank into his body, and the sharp pain was whipped from the back along the nerves all the way to the brain, which also made the panic in his heart reached the extreme.

The knife was pulled out mercilessly, bringing out a large stream of blood, and then stabbed in again.

Only then did Cui Zuojing understand that in the real extreme pain, a person cannot utter any screams at all.

His vision gradually blurred, and that long and thin shadow appeared in front of his eyes again. It stood there without making any sound, watching Cui Zuojing being stabbed once, and then again.

Stop, stop——!

He tried to make some resistance, but his body was already in constant motion.

Just when Cui Zuojing thought that he would die like this, all the fear, panic and deep despair seemed to be wiped away by a pair of invisible hands, making him suddenly clear again.

He tried his best to separate the man's hand and break free from the confinement. With a loud roar, he turned around while the knife stabbed again——

There is nothing behind him.

There was no murderer with a knife, the light of the street lamp was as usual without any signs of breaking down, and there were no dozens of deep wounds on his body, and there was no blood.

Cui Zuojing breathed heavily, he closed his eyes, took two steps back, and leaned his back against the wall, as if this was the only way to prevent him from falling.

No matter how much he experienced and struggled in the pure white world, what frightened him the most was the moment when he was killed on the night of his 16th birthday.

Fu Zhe's bell brought him into the deepest part of his heart, where he feared the most.

He leaned quietly for a while, and for some reason, the negative and chaotic emotions that should have appeared did not become stronger.

Although he entrusted his feelings to the clown for safekeeping, there will still be emotions.

It shouldn't.

Cui Zuojing frowned, and looked towards the end of the alley, where the slender figure stood there as expected.

As long as you catch up with it, you can get out from here, right?

【Application gateway repair 98/100...】

[The application gateway has been repaired. 】

The last line of defense of the firewall was finally successfully restored. Under Dong Zheng's gaze, the slender human body gradually turned into a series of black 0s and 1s starting from the feet, floating in the air and gradually fading away.

The illusion created by Fu Zhe was finally cracked under the defense of Dong Zheng's program core.

The dark blue protective force field is as smooth as ever, and everything in the inner core is running in an orderly manner, maintaining the rules and balance of this world, which seems to be the same as before.

But Dong Zheng knew that during this exploration, he had found the core of the inner world, the pure white space completely controlled by him, and the Arabidopsis thaliana in the center that might represent Cui Zuojing.

He stretched out his hand, and the surface of the firewall touched caused a series of data ripples, which gradually became translucent, revealing a passage that only he could safely pass through.

He went out.

Dong Zheng opened his eyes, and was blinded by the bright white light.

His chest was so heavy that he was a little out of breath. He lowered his head, Cui Zuojing was lying there motionless, with half of his body pressed against his chest, the earphone fell to the side, and the bell fell on the bed, telling What happened to Dong Zheng.

Dong Zheng raised his hand to pinch the center of his brows, and lay down for a while, then got up and hugged Cui Zuojing, who was still immersed in the illusion, and let the boy lie on the bed.

He himself took Cui Zuojing's earphones and put them on, carefully sealed the bell's tongue with tape amidst the sound of music, and put it into the box.

After finishing all this, Dong Zheng took out his mobile phone again, sat by the bed and continued to read Fu Zhe's information.

……

"Um……"

The young man's groans pulled Dong Zheng back from Cthulhu's world view. Dong Zheng turned his head, and Cui Zuojing was staring at his back with squinted eyes. Apart from doubts, there seemed to be some indescribable sadness on his face. .

"How long have you been awake?" Cui Zuojing's voice was very soft.

Dong Zheng glanced at the time: "It's almost an hour."

Cui Zuojing raised his hand to cover his eyes, and sighed sincerely: "As expected of a brain domain developer, I've only been awakened for a month, and I can't catch up with you."

Dong Zheng smiled, thinking of all the emotions Arabidopsis conveyed to him in the core, he wanted to ask Cui Zuojing what he had experienced in the illusion, but he didn't open his mouth after all.

What the blood contract can bring to them seems to be far more than what they have seen.