Without a doubt, this stone statue was the broken system's final hiding place.
The secret of the New World came to light at the same time.
The system had settled for the next best option, choosing a stone statue within the Instance and feeding on humanity's faith to sustain and repair those cold strings of code.
Before learning that someone else stood behind the system, Shen Ru could understand its desire for a physical body.
But ever since discovering the Puppeteer's existence, Shen Ru had found the system's pathological obsession puzzling.
A system possessing a physical body would pose some degree of threat to its creator, no matter how one looked at it, especially when that system also had self-awareness.
Otherwise, Mo Yu could never have established a lasting partnership with the system.
Shen Ru could think of only one absurd possibility: the Puppeteer had already tacitly abandoned this system.
His encounter with the Puppeteer had hardly been hostile, and nothing the Puppeteer said betrayed any frustration over the system's destruction. To him, it all seemed like a trivial, everyday matter.
That clinging gaze was impossible to ignore, making Shen Ru's brows knit tightly. Before he could react, the pitch-black wings behind him had already transformed into two sharp swords, viciously stabbing toward the stone statue's eyes with murderous intent.
Bang!
The clash rang out with the sound of metal striking and stone shattering, sending deafening echoes through the air.
Smoke spread through the vast space, mingled with tiny stone fragments and a thick, bloody stench.
For a moment, their surroundings became dizzying and blurred. The colors of the scene twisted and writhed as though blending together, and the two men and the enormous stone statue seemed to have been isolated by something unknown.
The livestream channel instantly went dark.