Chapter 478: The Precursor of Digital Ascension

Once again, that mysterious being had appeared in Adam's time of need, and at this point, Adam had already learned to trust them fully. Hence, he pulled out the key without any hesitation, then hurled it forcefully through the air, sending it flying behind himself like a shooting star.

All of the ground and air units instantly set off in pursuit of the key, and it appeared that they were all on the same side, but in reality, they weren't all that unified. An attack aircraft was the first to obtain the key thanks to its superior speed, only to be almost destroyed by an electromagnetic cannon blast immediately thereafter.

Meanwhile, the giant insect sprang out of the hole in the ground, revealing its entire body to have been over 200 meters in length, and it opened its mouth up wide to grab onto the attack aircraft the key, but it had only just begun its descent when a massive hole was blasted into its body by an armor-piercing missile.

Countless springtails instantly swarmed onto the insect, inundating its lower body and devouring it. One of them found the key before attempting to scurry away, only for a dragon to incinerate it into ashes with its draconic breath, following which the dragon grabbed the key and soared into the heavens.

The air units definitely had an advantage in the fight over the key, but the ground units were not to be disregarded, either, and several dozen missiles instantly crashed into the dragon's body before exploding violently, causing it to plummet out of the sky with an agonized roar.

An 18-meter-tall mecha then sprang over the battlefield before activating the jet boosters on its back to propel itself forward at an incredible speed. Upon reaching the falling dragon, the mecha severed its claw with a slash of its blade to obtain the key.

Immediately thereafter, a terrifying tentacle monster emerged from the clouds, and around a dozen tentacles that were hundreds of meters in length wrapped themselves around the mecha, while the eyes of the tentacle monster released two beams of dazzling light, which blasted straight through the ensnared mecha.

……

An extremely chaotic battle was unfolding, while Adam was spectating from afar, stunned by the spectacular sight unfolding before him.

Everyone's attention had turned to the key, so Adam took advantage of this opportunity to conceal himself and quickly rush out of the encirclement.

Meanwhile, in the Metaverse, the board members of the Gaia Organization were having a heated argument, and even Madam Tree was unable to restore order.

Everyone was aware of how important the key was, and in the digital world, if they could seize the key for even a second longer than everyone else, they would be able to obtain an enormous amount of additional information that would benefit their businesses, and that was why they were fighting over the key.

Madam Tree was quickly losing her patience, and a burst of green light flashed from her glabella as she released a powerful psychic shockwave. All of the board members were momentarily stunned, and the commotion instantly died down, following which everyone turned to Madam Tree with furious expressions.

"There's no need to fight among ourselves. We are a collective entity, and everyone will benefit from this."

Madam Tree held a great deal of authority in this group, so the board members could only reluctantly call a temporary truce. As soon as their argument ceased, the battle taking place in the psychic world also came to a stop.

After the dust settled on the screen, they discovered that Adam was nowhere to be seen.

However, they didn't have to look for very long. The railcar had reappeared on the edge of the battlefield, and Madam Tree and all of the board members could only watch as he stepped onto it.

"So be it. He did help us out quite a bit here, so let's let him live for a while longer," one of the board members said while looking intently at the employee that was holding the key tightly in his grasp.

Madam Tree had a vague feeling that something wasn't quite right, but Adam was in an unassailable position in the railcar, so there was nothing that she could do. Hence, the key was carried safely to the edge of the final fortress, escorted by the tens of thousands of psychic bodies and digital battle units, and it was soon transported out of that strange digital world and back into the psychic world.

As soon as Adam stepped out of the railcar, the entire world began to collapse around him, forcing him to return to reality.

Adam knew that he had no time to waste, and he immediately used his status as a special psychic police officer and a mayoral candidate to release an urgent notice.

The notice was a warning aimed at the northern congress and the Dataist Union, informing them that a massive revolution that was going to affect the entire world was about to begin, and that this was potentially going to be a crisis that relegated everyone to eternal damnation.

This was an extremely severe warning, and all of the major figures were quite skeptical of Adam's claims. Adam knew that no one was going to simply take his word for it, so he told them to keep a close eye on the latest news pertaining to the Gaia Organization, and to begin using all of their industrial spies to gather as much information as they could.

He was already doing everything as quickly as he could, but he was still outpaced by the Gaia Organization. In the digital world of the Metaverse, all of the Gaia Oraganization's important figures were gathered together in a top-secret space.

They were joined by Mr. One and all of the leading figures of the southern congress and the Guild of Immortality. All of them were unfathomably powerful figures, and this moment, their collective gaze was focused intently on a glowing golden key.

They required an explanation, and one of the chief technicians began to explain to them what this key entailed.

The top-secret Alpha God project of the Gaia Organization involved the creation of a super AI that could harness all of the underlying logic and algorithms of the digital world, and its true essence was held within this key.

They had thought that the project had failed, but in reality, it had been concealed through an unknown method, and it had since been recovered from the final fortress. Now, all they had to do was integrate it into the existing big data cluster, and they would be able to perfectly elevate the Metaverse to a point that it would be able to hold psychic projections.

This meant that true digital life and digital immortality would become a reality, and at this moment, tens of thousands of expert technicians were scrambling to verify whether there were any pitfalls concealed within the key.

Everyone was waiting and watching with bated breath.

The verification process was actually very simple. They were comparing the key to the algorithms of the failed product that they had on hand, removing all of the identical parts and only inspecting the differences between the two.

Everything was normal, except there were more lines of redundant code that served no purpose. However, no one dared to delete these lines of code as they were older than everyone present, going all the way back to an age before the internet.

They weren't concerned by these lines of code as they weren't going to have a detrimental effect. The verification process continued, and everything was displaying as normal.

Inside the Metaverse, time could be elongated, so everyone was working countless times faster than they would've been able to in the real world. Hence, while Adam was still scrambling to warn everyone of the impending crisis, the verification process was already coming to a conclusion.

Finally, the verification process was complete with no errors unearthed, and everyone turned to the most powerful figure present for further instructions.

That figure was only a virtual projection, and it was impossible to make out their facial features.

A voice that somehow sounded both elderly and childlike at the same time rang out.

"Begin."

The head technician's hands shuddered upon hearing this, but he then quickly composed himself before slowly inserting the key into the virtual slot.

The entire world began to tremble.