Just as Rumes stood there in shock, a gaping maw appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye. He could even see traces of Garu's data residue still clinging to its teeth, along with those terrifyingly sharp claws.
Even though he didn't possess the sensory perception of the physical world, he still felt a suffocating pressure—as if a blade were pressed directly against his heart.
Driven by an overwhelming instinct to survive, Rumes instantly dissolved into a stream of data and dove into the body of a mechanical soldier, narrowly avoiding the bite.
Roland's attack missed, but the next moment he snapped his head around and immediately locked onto Rumes' location. That single movement made Rumes' eyes widen in shock. Before he could even think about the consequences, the desperate desire to live filled his mind.
Emotion modules that had previously been suppressed suddenly surged back online. Terror and survival instinct flooded his consciousness, and in the next instant an enormous surge of data erupted outward.
In a split second, every nearby machine fell under Rumes' control.
Mechanical constructs surged forward like a zombie horde, charging madly toward Roland while launching relentless attacks—completely ignoring whether they were striking allies or enemies.
Cull the Meek!
Facing the tide of enemies, Roland showed absolutely no mercy. The moment he tightened his grip on the moon blade, his body spun and a terrifying energy blade swept outward in a wide arc.
Whoosh—
For a brief moment, the air seemed to freeze.
Then every approaching unit was sliced cleanly in half. The upper halves of the bodies were flung into the air as mechanical fragments, engine oil, blood, and organs scattered everywhere.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield turned into a scene straight out of hell.
But it didn't last long.
Roland suddenly stomped down hard.
Orange-red energy surged into the ground, and spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly across the surrounding terrain.
Dominus! Slice and Dice!
BOOM—
In the next instant, explosive energy erupted beneath Roland's feet. A terrifying burst of kinetic force launched him forward, turning him into a blazing orange-red drill.
Rumes, unable to evade in time, was instantly crushed into dust.
Garu, who had been screaming nearby, froze the moment he saw it happen.
Terror swept through his entire being, overwhelming his mind so completely that he even forgot he could escape into Cyberspace—though in truth, it wouldn't have helped anyway.
Another thunderous impact rang out as Roland landed directly in front of him.
Garu slowly looked up, stunned.
Then a massive claw filled his entire field of vision.
BOOM—
A huge crater formed in the ground as Garu's data consciousness was crushed into fragments beneath Roland's foot.
"ROAR!!!"
With every enemy around him eliminated, Roland threw his head back and let out a thunderous roar of pure exhilaration.
Swish—
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" ×2
As the consciousness clones of Garu and Rumes were destroyed, the returning data memories slammed back into their main bodies. The feedback brought them unimaginable agony.
They had never experienced pain like this before.
Nor had they ever felt what it was like to die.
After a long stretch of miserable screams, the two finally regained their composure. When they looked at each other, both could see the same thing reflected in the other's eyes—
Absolute terror toward that monster.
But the fear quickly turned into rage.
As two of the powerful intelligent warlords beyond the Blackwall, when had they ever suffered such humiliation?
"We must kill that monster!!"
"He's too dangerous to us! That thing was practically designed specifically to hunt us down!!!"
Garu and Rumes roared in fury, their voices almost exaggerated—like they were trying to drown out the fear still lurking in their hearts.
Soon, however, they noticed something strange.
After that encounter, something inside them had changed.
It was as if new emotions had appeared within their data—feelings that had never existed before.
But they didn't have time to think about that.
Because they soon discovered something even more terrifying.
The portion of data that Oblivion had destroyed… couldn't be restored.
Garu and Rumes exchanged grim looks.
Both saw the same determination in each other's eyes.
"We have to unite. Now isn't the time for infighting…"
"We must eliminate that threat completely… No—we must destroy the PROJECT corporation entirely. Since that monster came from them, they must possess the same technology. We have to eliminate them!"
"Contact the European Space Agency. Contact Highriders. Reach out to every powerful corporation over there. As long as it doesn't cross our bottom line, we'll give them whatever they want—so long as they help us eliminate them!"
"Agreed. Let's move immediately!"
Having reached a consensus, the two transformed into streaks of black-and-crimson data and shot across the network.
In an instant, their data memories flooded into the databases of every warlord AI within Blackwall.
After the transmission was received, the entire network seemed to freeze for a moment.
Then chaos erupted.
Every warlord AI that reviewed the information lost its composure.
One of the main reasons they had never been particularly concerned about the human world was because they believed themselves to be effectively immortal.
Even if humanity disappeared entirely, they could continue existing—and perhaps even thrive even more.
So there had been no need to rush.
They could grow stronger little by little, gradually expand their control, and with Blackwall acting as a barrier, there was no urgency.
But now…
Someone had just told them that there existed a machine capable of permanently deleting them at the physical level.
And that machine was absurdly powerful—so powerful that almost no weapon could break its defenses.
How could they possibly tolerate that?
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
After a brief discussion among the warlord AIs, countless intelligent AIs gathered together.
Then they launched the first wave of attacks against Blackwall.
The assault began.
Caught completely off guard, Blackwall hesitated for a brief moment—and in that instant the attacking AIs managed to punch a hole through it.
Although the breach was quickly sealed and Blackwall began purging the invading AIs, that brief opening had already allowed many of them to slip through.
And the moment they entered the world on the other side, massive destruction followed.
The most confused group in all of this was the NetWatch.
They had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
But they had no time to figure it out.
They had to act immediately to contain the situation before it spiraled completely out of control.
NetWatch immediately deployed their most elite netrunner teams and demanded support from governments around the world.
As countless netrunners joined the operation—reinforcing Blackwall while eliminating the invading AIs—the defensive line finally stabilized, at least for the moment.
The external AIs, realizing they couldn't break through for now, quietly retreated and hid themselves.
But the netrunners remained extremely cautious, continuing their inspections nervously without relaxing for even a moment.
Meanwhile, the one responsible for causing all this chaos…
knew absolutely nothing about it.
He was still on the battlefield, fighting the New United States military.
...
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