Chapter 71: The World of Data and Integration

Even at extreme speeds, their bodies remained agile, deftly flipping and weaving to find the safest path through the dense rain of green beams. After ten seconds of acceleration, the demons behind them were out of sight; after fifteen seconds, even the green beams faded away. By twenty seconds, there was no sense of pursuit whatsoever. Now was precisely the moment to circle around and strike from behind.

“Prepare for combat,” came the calm voice, as a beam saber materialized in Zhuang Xiaosi’s hands. The wings on her back began to emit a radiant glow, ready at any instant to form sharp, slicing blades of energy.

“Hey, I can already see them,” said Zhuang Xiaoyuan, retrieving her dual Flame War God Gatling guns from her arsenal. Eight Dragoon systems hovered and swirled around her.

To keep pace with Zhuang Xiaosi, Zhuang Xiaoyuan had forsaken many of her heavy, powerful weapons; apart from the indispensable Dragoon systems, her personal arsenal now consisted only of the pair of Flame War Gods and a beam saber for close combat.

As the two surged forward at superhuman speed, the turret-class demons, once mere shadows, grew rapidly in size. The demons noticed the two attackers approaching from behind, but by then, it was far too late.

“Die, all of you, demons. Ratatatatata!” Without slowing down, Zhuang Xiaoyuan swept through the horde, her Flame War God blazing with tongues of fire. Each demon she neared was shredded and obliterated in the metallic storm. Those further away were beset by the Dragoon systems, their cores shattered and ashes scattered as Zhuang Xiaoyuan raced through.

Compared to Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s fierce and chaotic assault, Zhuang Xiaosi was almost understated in her efficiency. From afar, she appeared as nothing more than a streak of white lightning, darting back and forth. Each demon was sliced into fragments, its core destroyed, vanishing without a trace.

When the two broke through the wall of demons, every enemy had been eliminated. Even the stray survivors were easily hunted down and dispatched.

“All clear. What next? Möbius Ring, do you have a plan?” With her Dragoon systems and Flame War God stowed away, Zhuang Xiaoyuan flew to Zhuang Xiaosi’s side to ask.

She was growing ever more adept with her mechanized body. Compared to humans, these bodies had clear advantages—especially against demons. Even turret-class demons struggled to threaten them; with a bit of foresight, their attacks could easily be evaded.

By contrast, human pilots, even in powered armor, lacked the reflexes to evade the turret-class demons’ attacks.

“According to the central server’s data, as long as our speed reaches a certain threshold, we can break through the Möbius Ring.” Flying as she spoke, Zhuang Xiaosi had already finished her analysis. They were now at the heart of the Mecha Girls’ world, and the Möbius Ring was its final barrier.

The central server had detected that the demons were invading the world’s core by other means. Zhuang Xiaoyuan and Zhuang Xiaosi had to reach the core before the demons, awaken the World Crystal, and activate its self-defense functions.

The attack they suffered upon being teleported here by the central server was likely a deliberate attempt to hinder the Mecha Girls from reaching the core and awakening the World Crystal.

“A speed threshold?” Zhuang Xiaoyuan recalled the strange energy from their contact point half a month ago.

“Let’s try it. Speed is life.” Her eyes narrowed, breaking her usual composure. The propulsion device on Zhuang Xiaosi’s back erupted in a torrent of flame, boosting her speed another notch.

“So fast—I’ll have to push harder too.” As Zhuang Xiaosi suddenly accelerated, she shot past Zhuang Xiaoyuan, and the gap between them widened. Watching her partner’s receding figure, Zhuang Xiaoyuan ramped up her own propulsion output.

As they accelerated, in the pitch-black Möbius Ring space—empty save for streams of green data—two white streaks could be seen racing forward, one after the other. Their speed continued to climb, until it reached a limit; the Möbius Ring seemed to split, the white streaks carving three distinct paths: left, center, and right.

“I’m at my limit, Xiaosi—can you go any faster?” The prolonged extreme speed had strained Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s propulsion device; at this rate, she wouldn’t last much longer.

“I must go faster, faster—there’s no other way.” Gritting her teeth, she pushed her propulsion device to its absolute edge, but her speed refused to increase further; she had reached her limit. Machinery could not be strengthened by sheer will. Perhaps this was the Mecha Girls’ greatest flaw.

“Xiaoyuan… let’s merge…” Realizing her limit, Zhuang Xiaosi’s rationality told her she could not go any faster, yet a new feeling surged within—an urge to break through, a refusal to accept defeat. Driven by this restlessness, she recalled the state of super speed once recorded in her chip.

Remembering the sensation and the place where the energy was generated, Zhuang Xiaosi proposed merging to Zhuang Xiaoyuan.

“Merging?” At such high velocities, ordinary speech was impossible; instead, they communicated directly via neural waves transmitted by their info-exchange tools. In this mode, misunderstandings or errors were impossible—so Xiaosi’s suggestion meant exactly what it sounded like: merging their bodies and data. That was precisely why Zhuang Xiaoyuan was confused—how would they merge?

“Our world is half-data, half-material. That’s why constructs like imagination generators and virtual weapon systems are so easily created. The world’s core is pure data. In such a realm, any data can be combined—even us. Merging data can create stronger data.” Sensing Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s doubts, Zhuang Xiaosi, for once, explained in detail.

“But if we merge our data, won’t the originals become scrambled?” Zhuang Xiaosi’s theory of data fusion reminded Zhuang Xiaoyuan of her own transmigration—wasn’t this fusion akin to a blending of souls? If she merged with Zhuang Xiaosi, wouldn’t both of their original selves disappear?