Chapter 58: The Red Queen Matrix - The True Red Queen!

"Illegal intrusion detected!"

"Evaluated as an enemy! Must be eradicated!"

In an instant.

All the code vanished.

The holographic projection of the Red Queen reappeared, fixing her cold, murderous gaze upon Yu Fei.

If this place had lacked the corresponding offensive capabilities, Yu Fei had no doubt she would have thrown everything she had at him right from the start.

"How can this be?"

Yu Fei looked at the Red Queen before him, his heart filled with incomprehension.

He had clearly already seized control of her through the backend; why had things suddenly reverted to this state?

Yu Fei's psychokinetic power once again transformed into a quasi-electronic state, infiltrating the Red Queen to find out exactly what had happened.

Upon entering her system, he discovered that the permissions he had just modified had been overwritten back to their original state.

Now, he possessed not a single shred of authority within the Red Queen's system; he was a hundred-percent intruder.

With a thought, Yu Fei prepared to rewrite the permissions back, but to his utter surprise...

"Intruder detected! Expel immediately!"

A powerful resistance emerged.

The Red Queen manifested an extremely formidable defensive force. In his quasi-electronic state, Yu Fei had almost no room to fight back before he was forcibly expelled by her.

During this process, Yu Fei attempted to use the known underlying code of the Red Queen to turn the tables, but he found that while these underlying codes were not useless, they truly did not hold much weight.

It was as if the remaining thirty percent of the underlying code was the core code that genuinely controlled everything!

Before the other party's core code, his seventy percent of the code held no authority whatsoever.

Without the support of the underlying code, the gap between Yu Fei and a true artificial intelligence was laid bare.

Had his quasi-electronic state not been somewhat special, he doubted he would have survived being instantly crushed to atoms.

Though not crushed, Yu Fei, having been cast out, could not help but suffer from a splitting headache and a throbbing sensation.

That previous clash had evidently dealt a not-insignificant shock to his mind.

After a long while, Yu Fei finally recovered.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are the real Red Queen, aren't you?"

Yu Fei rubbed his temples and spoke.

What he had seen earlier was not the true Red Queen; the real Red Queen had always been located within the actual Hive laboratory.

It sounded somewhat convoluted, but to put it simply, it was quite straightforward.

The previous Red Queen, though indeed the Red Queen, was actually merely one of her subroutines, responsible solely for managing this single laboratory.

As for the true Red Queen, or rather the Red Queen's mainframe, it had always remained hidden deep within the genuine Hive laboratory.

Not only was the mainframe vastly more powerful, but it also held absolute control over all subroutines.

The Red Queen before him was most likely the mainframe that had overridden the subroutine.

Facing Yu Fei's inquiry, the Red Queen offered no reply, merely staring at him with unyielding coldness.

"Illegal intrusion detected!"

"Evaluated as an enemy! Must be eradicated!"

"Illegal intrusion detected!"

"Evaluated as an enemy! Must be eradicated!"

......

Yu Fei furrowed his brow; the cold mechanical tones ringing in his ears grated on his nerves.

"What should I do next?"

Yu Fei looked down at the metal platform beneath his feet. He had already confirmed that the plot of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was entirely real.

Because the space beneath the metal platform he stood upon was hollow!

In Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, this metal platform was actually the sole elevator leading to the true Hive.

Through this metal platform, Yu Fei could travel to the real Hive.

His original plan had been to gain smooth entry into the true Hive by controlling the Red Queen.

Yet now, with the Red Queen's mainframe appearing, his plan was bound to fail—he could not defeat the mainframe through brute force.

"Force my way through?"

This thought flashed through Yu Fei's mind.

Yet the very next second, he dismissed the notion with absolute decisiveness.

Leaving aside the fact that the metal platform beneath his feet was sturdy enough to withstand a missile, the crucial point was...

"There are absolute, blind-spot-free laser defenses right below this!"

Super Defense LV·1 could withstand small-caliber bullets, but it could not withstand lasers.

By the same token.

The restorative capabilities of Super Regeneration LV·1 were hardly sufficient to heal Yu Fei if he were sliced into cubes of meat.

Perhaps in the future, once these two skills were upgraded to LV·3, he might be able to go toe-to-toe with lasers, but clearly, he lacked that capability at present.

"Leave?"

Unable to use the Red Queen as a backdoor, and lacking the strength to force his way through, this seemed to be his only remaining option.

Yet, thinking of the imminent Merit Points waiting just within reach below, Yu Fei found himself utterly unwilling to let go.

"Illegal intrusion detected!"

"Evaluated as an enemy! Must be eradicated!"

......

The mechanical voice of the Red Queen continued to echo in his ears, growing increasingly vexing to Yu Fei.

"Wait!"

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Yu Fei.

"I seem to have another possibility."

"System!"

Physique: 2.5
Spirit: 2.4
Supernatural Skills: Psychokinesis LV·1 (0/10) ··· Omitted.
Skills: ··· Computer Science LV·3 (MAX) ··· Omitted.
Merit Points: 4 wisps / 85 points
Event Merit Points: 1,300 points

Yu Fei's gaze locked immovably onto the Computer Science skill.

"I may not be able to defeat the Red Queen right now, but what if I elevate my Computer Science skill to a supernatural skill?"

The sheer magnitude of the gap between Yu Fei and the Red Queen had been laid bare in their recent exchange of blows—Yu Fei had possessed zero capacity for resistance throughout.

Had the gap been narrow, he might have considered alternative methods, but with a disparity this vast, for the vast majority of people, surrender was the only remaining option.

Yet Yu Fei clearly did not belong to that vast majority—he still possessed a chance to turn defeat into victory!

"To transform an ordinary skill into a supernatural skill requires five wisps of merit. I currently have only four, falling short by one wisp. I would need to settle the event merit points to make up the difference."

Yu Fei glanced at the number '1300' following the Event Merit Points, his brow twitching slightly.

If he were to settle the accounts right now, he would receive one wisp of merit plus three hundred merit points, which clearly wasn't very cost-effective for him.

In Yu Fei's view, it was highly unlikely he would ever need ordinary skills in the future, and cashing in these merit points now would be an utter waste.

"If I had known, I should have settled it right when it hit one thousand..."

Yu Fei muttered inwardly.

After all, event merit points could be opened and settled at any time; at worst, he could simply reopen them immediately after settling.

It just showed a lack of experience on his part!

After all, he had only recently unlocked the event settlement function, and failing to anticipate that he would need to use it so quickly meant running into snags was entirely normal.

"Let's just treat those three hundred merit points as tuition for a lesson."

Yu Fei sighed inwardly and prepared to execute the event settlement.

At that crucial juncture.

"Wait!"

Another stroke of inspiration struck Yu Fei.

"Five wisps of merit was the requirement calculated previously. Now that I not only possess psychokinesis and can assume a quasi-electronic state, but even hold seventy percent of the Red Queen's underlying code, will the requirement still be the same?"