At the top of the deathly pale lighthouse, the wind was dead.
Chu Qing's fingers tightened abruptly. With a crack, he forced the crystal ball recording the river path's resource distribution into the armrest of the [Emperor Seat].
[Warning! Core permissions detected leaking!] [Warning! Host attempting to parse underlying protocols. Deployer's logic protection triggered!]
Within his sea of consciousness, the once-docile dark gold Profession Column suddenly exploded into millions of blinding red rays.
Chu Qing's body abruptly stiffened.
A piercing numbness shot up his spine to the crown of his head. He clenched his teeth, the muscles in his cheeks bulging. Under the excessive force, his teeth made faint grinding sounds that set one's teeth on edge.
"Trying to delete me?" A low growl spilled from Chu Qing's throat.
His cheeks began twitching unnaturally. Everything in his vision warped. The once gray, murky Chaos Sea became strings of red code frantically reporting errors before his eyes.
[Initiating forced formatting...] [Purging redundant mutated 'seed'...] [Countdown: 10, 9...]
Chu Qing felt his right hand fading from reality. It was not becoming transparent—it was disappearing on a logical level. He looked down at his fingertips. His fingerprints were being smoothed away, his flesh turning into insubstantial white light.
Thud.
He dropped to one knee. His left hand clamped onto the stone chair's edge, his nails gouging five bone-deep white scars into the hard ancient-corpse stone seat. Cold sweat fell from his forehead into the dust, instantly evaporating into wisps of bluish smoke.
(Motivation): The Scribe wanted to use the system's backend to prune him away completely, like a potted plant that had grown crooked.
(Action): Chu Qing did not try to resist with energy. He knew that muscles meant nothing before code.
He abruptly closed his eyes and sank