In the Hall of Illusions, thousands of "Slayers" charged at the original in the center, wave after wave like tireless androids in a suicide attack.
Explosions, lightning, frost—energy of every color ravaged the hall.
The Slayer stood in the eye of the storm. The flames on his reflective armor blazed, incinerating any clones that got too close. But he didn't launch an offensive. He just stood there quietly, as if waiting for something.
In his helmet, Singularity's voice suddenly became unusually solemn and filled with a sense of ritual:
"Great Hero, get ready."
"Since naked eyes cannot distinguish the real from the fake, and since conventional detection methods have failed, we will 'see' from a more essential level."
...
Netherworld, Control Center.
Singularity took a deep breath and slammed his hands into the interface ports on the console.
"Call external computing power!"
"Target: Celestial Court 'Thirty-Three Heavens Skynet' Backup Server!"
"Verification Code: ...Is the one Taibai Jinxing gave me last time still valid? Forget it, brute force crack!"
With Singularity's frantic operations, the data stream on the screen surged instantly. A thick golden data cable descended from the sky, piercing through the planar barriers between the Netherworld and the Abyss, connecting directly to the Slayer's helmet HUD.
"Sky Eye System · Entropy Analysis Module, Activate!"
HUMMM————!!!
The Slayer's tactical visor suddenly erupted with a burst of blinding golden light.
The original simple infrared thermal imaging interface disappeared. Replacing it was a brand-new vision composed of countless complex lines and numerical values.
In this vision, the surrounding world was no longer concrete matter, but transformed into flowing "information streams."
Those seemingly realistic "Slayer Clones" instantly revealed their true forms under this gaze.
Although they had the same appearance as the original, and even the same attack animations, inside their bodies, the values representing "Life Complexity" and "Information Density"—also known as "Information Entropy"—were pitifully low.
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They were like balloons with only an outer shell and nothing inside. Their data structures were simple, repetitive, and filled with mechanical loops.
[Target Entropy: Low]
[Status: Clone/Projection]
This low entropy meant they were "dead objects," mere programs created artificially.
The Slayer's gaze swept across the hall.
Those mirror images that had originally annoyed him now looked like a pile of boring textures in his eyes.
He slowly turned his head. His line of sight passed through layers of illusions, through the mirror reflections trying to confuse his vision, and finally locked onto a dark corner at the top of the hall that appeared empty but actually concealed a massive spatial fold.
There, a purple ball of light existed. It was extremely massive, extremely chaotic, and its entropy value was so high that the Sky Eye System started to sound alarms.
The data structure inside that light ball was hideously complex. Countless parallel thought threads were spinning madly, generating massive amounts of control instructions every second.
That was the source of the chaos.
That was the entity that truly possessed "Self-Awareness" and a "Soul."
[Target Entropy: Critical]
[Status: True Body]
Found you.
The corners of the Slayer's mouth (under the faceplate) curved up slightly.
It was the expression of a sniper who had finally found the enemy commander's head amidst an army of thousands.
He paid no more attention to the clones around him that were still bombarding him.
He slowly raised his right hand.
This time, he didn't use any fancy firearms.
He extended his index finger—covered in Demon Dragon leather and burning with Samadhi True Fire—and across hundreds of meters, through countless illusions, pointed precisely at that dark corner.
The action was filled with absolute confidence and disdain.
As if to say:
I see you.
Stop hiding.
The Thousand-Eyed Tyrant hiding in the dark felt a chill rise from the depths of its soul in that instant. It had been smugly manipulating the illusions, but now it felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over its heart.
"He... how can he see me?!"
The Tyrant tried to shift its position.
But the Slayer's finger was like the Grim Reaper's crosshair, locked dead onto it.
No matter how it teleported, or how it folded space, that red locking box remained firmly fixed on its head.
Because in the world of "Information Entropy," such a high-density soul was like a torch in the dark night; there was nowhere to hide.
The Slayer retracted his finger.
He lowered his body, adopting a sprinting stance.
Thrusters preheated.
BOOM!
The Slayer launched.
Ignoring all obstacles, he was like a green meteor, diving straight toward that corner.
...
Netherworld, Control Center.
Singularity watched the Slayer's unstoppable charge on the screen and waved his fist in excitement.
"That's it! As long as you see through the essence, illusions are just a joke!"
However, just then.
Beep—Beep—Beep—
A rapid alert sound broke the atmosphere of victory.
Singularity looked down and saw a red popup window on the billing interface connecting to the Celestial Court's computing power:
[Warning: Insufficient Account Balance.]
[Service: "Thirty-Three Heavens Skynet" Computing Power call for 15 minutes.]
[Cost: 3000 Years of Merit.]
[Status: Service Suspended due to Arrears.]
"Holy sht!"
Singularity nearly choked.
"Three thousand years?! That's robbery! Is the Jade Emperor looting money?!"
"Great Hero! Hurry up! There's only one minute left! The cheat code is about to expire!"
Next Chapter: The Tyrant's True Body. The Slayer finally drags that guy out of the rat hole. Since illusions are useless, let's have a real brawl—if it dares.

