Code??? Clone I

When that clone appeared, the guards still had some resistance to Honkai Energy thanks to their protective suits. But the civilians who had failed to escape had no way to avoid its corrosion. In barely ten minutes, most of the people on the streets had turned into zombies.

One zombie after another appeared by the roadside, wielding scythes or sporting long claws. Compared to what Li Ming had seen at the airport in Qingming City, the transformation here was unbelievably fast.

For now, the zombie situation was still somewhat contained, but that counterfeit Boss Yang was completely beyond control. When the guards opened fire on him, nearly every bullet was cleanly blocked by the energy shield surrounding him.

Seeing this, Li Ming could not help grumbling inwardly, What the hell is Anti-Entropy doing? A clone can actually do this?

Although the clone moved stiffly and looked incredibly dull-witted, he merely had to release Honkai Energy and create a gravitational field around himself to render the guards helpless. Even when they brought out heavy weapons and fired a rocket at him, the gravitational field directly altered its trajectory.

Just as the guards began to lose heart, the counterfeit Boss Yang stopped maintaining his energy shield. Instead, the clone simply revealed the core within his body. A ray fired from it, and everything along its path seemed to collapse.

The ray plowed a deep trench through the ground, even slicing down the low-rise buildings behind the guards in a single stroke.

Dust and smoke billowed again. Some guards could not dodge in time and were crushed beneath the ruins, while those who managed to evade were scattered out of formation and forced into close combat with the zombies.

As Li Ming watched the clone, the counterfeit Boss Yang suddenly raised his head. A faint gleam flickered in his blue eyes, and his stiff facial muscles twisted into a terrifying smile.

Li Ming's heart skipped a beat. What was going on? Could Anti-Entropy have upgraded this clone's technology in such a short time?

But when he looked again, the counterfeit Boss Yang's movements were still stiff and slow. Li Ming sensed that something was wrong. Suddenly, the counterfeit Boss Yang raised the core in his hand, and his body slowly began to rise. He was not fast, but reaching the rooftop would not take long.

Li Ming's expression darkened. Fighting this counterfeit Boss Yang was not a problem, but fighting on the rooftop was another matter entirely. Never mind the potential damage—Li Ming could clearly sense that as the counterfeit Boss Yang continued rising, the area blanketed by dense Honkai Energy was expanding as well. It had already spread to the third floor.

Li Ming gritted his teeth. This counterfeit Boss Yang was far stronger than the one at the airport.

With no other choice, Li Ming opened the system and selected the Candlelight Armor: First Light. Once the system confirmed the armor had been equipped, pale blue light appeared around him. As the blue radiance spread, Candlelight Armor: First Light materialized over Li Ming's body.

The armor resembled a martial arts uniform. Its upper half was a light-blue short jacket, with grayish-purple ornaments hanging from the shoulders. A large character for "Ming" covered the back, while four jet ports opened and closed behind him, venting hot air.

His silver-white pants gleamed with a metallic sheen and possessed exceptional toughness. Tiny scale-like armor plates lined the sides of his legs and the cuffs. Blue and red intertwined around the pockets and belt, and a holster was designed into the back of his waist, where Moon God's Protection appeared.

Staring at the counterfeit Boss Yang, Li Ming leaped up. He had no idea why this counterfeit Boss Yang had targeted him, but he certainly would not back down. Stepping onto the railing, Li Ming jumped straight off the rooftop.

Using the force of his fall and the recoil from his leap, Li Ming became like a massive war hammer. Pale yellow streaks of light emerged around him. Veins bulged on his forehead, while the scale-like armor on his legs was dyed yellow by the flowing light and gave off a faint glow.

"Inch Punch: Azure Dragon Emerging from Water · Soaring Qilin!" His furious roar rang through the street like spring thunder.

Himeko had finally recovered by then. She had just rushed out of the utility room to look for Li Ming when she heard his spring-thunder-like shout.

Leaning over the railing and looking down, she saw Li Ming, wreathed in yellow light, charging toward a blue-haired, blue-eyed man floating upward.

Li Ming twisted his body and kicked toward the counterfeit Boss Yang, but did not actually hit him. Just as Li Ming's kick was about to connect, a translucent energy shield appeared above the counterfeit Boss Yang's head.

The blow, carrying the force of a thousand tons, struck the counterfeit Boss Yang's energy shield. Though it failed to hit the exposed core directly as Li Ming had hoped, it still forced the counterfeit Boss Yang downward, though it did not knock him out of the air.

Using the recoil, Li Ming kicked off the nearby wall, raised his hand, and delivered another heavy blow. Energy poured forth like a landslide and tsunami. "Inch Punch: Azure Dragon Emerging from Water · Rock Break!"

His heavy fist pressed against the energy shield and drove the counterfeit Boss Yang toward the ground. Li Ming's fist struck the shield, producing only a faint shimmer across its surface, as he forcibly dragged the counterfeit Boss Yang down with him.

When they landed, Li Ming saw through the transparent energy shield that the dark-red, jewel-like core flashed. His heart tightened. The strange ray from earlier had charged up the same way.

With a slight movement of his feet, he used Vermillion Bird Treading Clouds to pull away from the counterfeit Boss Yang. Yet the dangerous feeling in his heart did not fade. The counterfeit Boss Yang stiffly turned his head toward him, his target unchanged, and raised the core in his palm at Li Ming.

A dark-red flash vanished in an instant. An arm-thick ray shot straight at Li Ming. He had barely landed before it was already before his eyes. He stamped his foot and used Vermillion Bird Treading Clouds again, hastily firing an energy blast from his hand at the same time. "Inch Punch: Thunderbolt!"

The attack had been too rushed. The energy blast did not even last a second before being erased by the ray.

Li Ming barely dodged, but the ray grazed the left side of his waist. Landing on the ground, he clutched his left side. The wound where the ray had touched him was bizarre—it felt as if he had been struck by a heavy blunt object, yet the mark looked like an abrasion.

But Li Ming did not have time to dwell on it. He had only just exchanged blows with the guy and had already been injured. He had nearly lost a kidney. How did this counterfeit Boss Yang have so many tricks up his sleeve?

Both of them held a counterfeit Star of Eden. Both were fakes, yet this counterfeit Boss Yang used his completely differently. The other one had only managed to form a Pseudo Black Hole right before dying, while this one was even more outrageous—he could fire rays outright.

"Damn it, has this counterfeit Boss Yang been upgraded or something? How can he be this ridiculous?"

Enduring the pain, Li Ming saw the system's combat interface appear before him. Perhaps because he had equipped the armor, the interface had changed. A health bar appeared above the counterfeit Boss Yang's head, marked with *2. Below it was the shield value. Between Li Ming's two attacks and the guards' gunfire, they had only shaved off one-third of the shield. As for the health bar, less than three or four percent had been depleted.

Li Ming twitched the corner of his mouth. That health bar was absurdly thick. He had something he did not know whether he should say. Still, he held back his curse and instead became more curious about the name displayed behind the counterfeit Boss Yang's health bar.

Code??? Clone I

Hm? What the hell was that?

No, man, why did your name come with a title?

Unfortunately, Li Ming had no time to think. Code??? Clone I raised the core, light flashed, and a dark-red ray shot out alongside dense Honkai Energy.

Two rays shot forth, directly cutting the building behind Li Ming in half. As it collapsed, Li Ming had no choice but to dodge repeatedly. Fortunately, it was not the building Himeko was in, or she would have been in danger.

But Li Ming understood now that he could not keep dragging things out with Code??? Clone I here. Who knew what would happen otherwise? That last attack had made the guards' already dire situation even worse. Besides, Li Ming had some suspicions in his heart and could not understand certain actions of Code??? Clone I.

Having made up his mind, Li Ming took off at full speed, constantly using Vermillion Bird Treading Clouds. Seeing that Li Ming was running, Code??? Clone I floated up and gave chase.

He was not fast, but he periodically fired two rays at a time. It did not seem like suppression fire so much as an attempt to kill Li Ming outright. Even when zombies blocked the way, Code??? Clone I simply shot them dead with his rays, showing not the slightest mercy.

Just as I thought. This damned thing has locked onto me. What the hell? I obviously never offended Anti-Entropy. Or does this have nothing to do with Anti-Entropy?

Li Ming pondered inwardly, unable to make sense of Code??? Clone I's strange behavior. He was also suspicious of that bizarre designation.

But one thing was clear: this damned thing was coming for him. As Code??? Clone I moved, however, the area covered by the Honkai Energy force field grew larger and larger.

More and more people were gradually transformed into zombies. Those who had previously watched the chaos without concern finally remembered to run for their lives.

Some even pulled out guns to intercept Li Ming. Clearly, not everyone was stupid—they could tell that Code??? Clone I was targeting Li Ming. But their bullets could barely damage his armor. It had been made from Fluid Alloy, after all, and ordinary firearms could not penetrate it.

Still, the fly-like barrage annoyed Li Ming to no end. It even caused a ray to graze his back once.

Several of the auxiliary jet ports on his back were damaged.

Li Ming was genuinely furious, but he gritted his teeth. There was no time to deal with these people. Taking down Code??? Clone I was the top priority.

Moreover, after continuously maneuvering, Li Ming had figured out the range of this monster's Honkai Energy influence. It only covered an area around fifty square meters in diameter, while its height was lower, roughly five meters.

The monster had not released its gravitational field, but the energy shield and strange rays were already an enormous threat. However, the rays could not extend beyond the area covered by Honkai Energy, whether because it was intentionally limiting them or for some other reason.

Li Ming could not be sure whether this thing truly had no mind of its own. Seeing that Himeko had already left the area that the battle could affect, he steadied himself and performed a swallow flip to dodge another ray that had just been fired.

He landed in the middle of an intersection and turned to look at the monster. More than ten zombies surrounded it. Looking around again, he saw that all the survivors had vanished. Li Ming could only curse their luck, but his thoughts were more focused on how to deal with this huge problem.

He drew Moon God's Protection from his waist. In his view, the priority now was to stall for time and see what reinforcements America—or Anti-Entropy—would send.

Checking his condition, he saw:

HP: 1700/2000

SP: 45/265

After equipping the armor, Li Ming's HP had increased by 1,000 points and his SP by 20 points. The system's combat panel had also been optimized.

From the moment Li Ming began fighting Code??? Clone I, his Signets had started taking effect. The first to trigger were still Discipline and Deliverance.

There was no helping it. He had taken a hit right at the start.

Deliverance: Sword Edge · Sword Tomb · Sword Scar: The lower your HP, the higher your total damage. Every 100 HP lost increases total damage by 1.0% (maximum 180%).

Discipline, Second, No Deception: Gain 5 Admonition stacks per second in battle, up to 200 stacks. Increase the character's total damage reduction by 0.3% of Admonition stacks. Using a summon deducts 50% of current Admonition stacks.

After thinking it over, Li Ming decided to keep his distance from the monster first and wear it down with stamina. Judging by America's methods, which differed from those of Shenzhou, Li Ming still did not want to go all out.

The twin guns in his hands fired continuously as he used his movement techniques and marksmanship to keep maneuvering around Code??? Clone I. During that time, Li Ming tried using Moon God's Protection's skill, [Crescent Strike], to send him into a spacetime fracture state.

But when the bullet hit the energy shield, it did not even produce a ripple. He could only see the shield value drop by the tiniest amount, making Li Ming curse repeatedly under his breath.

Still, there was no alternative. For now, he could only keep wearing the monster down. Li Ming had also realized that the monster needed to charge before firing its rays, and the surrounding Honkai Energy concentration dropped every time it fired.

But Li Ming's armor was not equipped with a system capable of detecting energy fluctuations. Otherwise, he would have discovered that the monster's Honkai Energy level was steadily rising over time.

With no better solution, the situation between the two sides remained locked in a stalemate for the time being.