Chapter 6 — Death Exam

I was sitting on the edge of the bed, still holding half an uneaten piece of Banh Ti. I looked at the Nine Princesses trampled under his feet, looking at those eyes that were still empty but slightly trembling with pain. I slowly put down the pepper cake. Using a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, he leisurely adjusted his shirt. Then I raised my head and retracted the stupid smile that had been there for months. My eyes became cold and sharp, like a surgical blade just pulled out of its sheath.

“When did Your Majesty discover?”

My voice is calm, without ripples. Ta Canh Hoa was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting me to admit it so decisively, nor did he expect that when I wasn't pretending to be stupid, I would have such a strong aura.

“Part of the drawing on the ground of Lenh Cung was wiped away by someone.” Ta Canh Hoa laughed coldly, "Other than you—that idiot—no one can enter that place. Furthermore..."

He pointed to his temple, "It told me, the smell on you is more fragrant than hundreds of other trash combined."

"He's hungry, and I can't stand it anymore."

The tip of the sword in Ta Canh Hoa's hand lowered a bit, cutting the delicate skin on Princess Nine's neck, fresh blood immediately flowing down the blade.

"Decode the system's deadlock, I'll spare its life. Otherwise, I'll cut it into pieces and feed it to the dogs!"

Nine Princess looked at me and shook her head. She used her eyes to tell me: don't worry about me, run away quickly. I looked at her, an unprecedented anger welling up in my heart. It's anger towards this cannibalistic world, it's hatred towards these animals that trample on lives like objects.

“Okay.”

I stood up and walked step by step towards Ta Canh Hoa.

“Due to a logic conflict at the base layer of the system, leading to the accumulation of a large amount of redundant data, it is true that the highest level authority is needed to reset the whole thing.”

As I spoke, I let out a string of specialized terms that he didn't understand. He really didn't understand, but seeing my professional appearance, the crazy light in his eyes subsided somewhat, replaced by lust.

“How?” He asked impatiently.

I looked into the distance—a place only I could see—where a black mist of chaotic letters twisted wildly. The corner of my lips curled up in a cruel smile.

“Very simple.”

“Just enter a… logical paradox.”

07

“Logic… paradox?”

Ta Canh Hoa repeated that phrase, a flash of confusion flashed in his eyes. But he was quickly brought back to reality by the intense pain caused by the reaction system, and the black lines on his face began to wiggle like living worms.

“Less nonsense! Quick action!” He roared, the tip of the sword on the Nine Princess's neck pressed down further.

We have to be very calm. This is my only chance—and yours, too.

“Let her go.” I said coldly. “I need absolute quiet to operate the control panel.”

Ta Canh Hoa hesitated a bit, but the death warning sounded from the system forcing him to give in. He kicked the Nine Princesses to a corner, then took two steps back, the tip of the sword still pointed straight at me.

“Don't play tricks. As long as you do anything strange, my sword will be faster than your mind.”

I didn't pay attention to him and went straight to the dragon's bed. We raise our hands and make a "call the control panel" gesture. To ordinary people, in front of us is empty air. But on our retina, A semi-transparent panel with flickering red light slowly appeared. It is the terminal of the "Thien Dao System". It's so rudimentary, it's not even as good as the test server at our company before time travel. But these tattered piles of codes control the lives and deaths of millions of people, and have swallowed up countless living souls. [Administrator rights required…] System notification appears. I took a deep breath and started typing on the keyboard in mid-air. My fingers move so quickly like a blur, I can no longer see the image clearly. Ta Canh Hoa stared at me. He didn't understand what I was doing, but he felt the air current in the main hall changing—a huge, suffocating energy was gathering.

“What are you doing?” He asked uneasily.

“Healing you, Your Majesty.” I didn't turn around, my voice was full of sarcasm. “If you want to clean up trash, you have to open the trash can first, right?”

Actually... I don't have real access. But just now on the drawing of the Nine Princesses, we saw the weakness of the system—it was a program built on the foundation of “absolute reason” and “maximizing benefits”. As long as we introduce a logic loop that cannot be calculated, it will collapse on its own. We enter the code we prepared a long time ago. It is a variation of the “barber paradox”, but we have adjusted it to suit the greedy nature of the system, turning it into a death knot: IF System_Goal == “Protect Dynasty” AND System_Action == “Consume Dynasty_Luck” THEN System_Status = “Self_Destruct” Translated as: If the ultimate goal of the system is “maintain the survival of the dynasty”, but the actual behavior is “corrosion dynasties (including talents)", then to achieve the ultimate goal, the system must "self-destruct". As soon as we press the Enter key. The air in the main hall seemed to freeze. Then—a deafening electronic sound exploded in everyone's brains! [WARNING! Logical contradiction detected!] [Calculating… Calculating…] [Error: Conflicting goals!] The chaotic mass of black mist in the air began to boil violently, like a pot of tar being boiled. The lines of black code that were crawling just now suddenly stopped, then went crazy—copying themselves, overlapping each other, and then deleting themselves.

“AAAAA!!!”

Ta Canh Hoa held his head and screamed, emitting a scream that was no longer human-like. He and the system are symbiotic. The system collapsed—he was the first victim.

“What are you doing! Stop! Stop!”

He was horrified to discover that his body was aging at a rate visible to the naked eye. Her jet black hair turned white in the blink of an eye, her toned skin shrank like a dried orange peel. The system is sucking his life to fix the logic error!

“I'm helping you kill the virus, Your Majesty.”

I turned around, looked at the dying tyrant, and gave my first sincere smile since coming to this world.

“Only—that virus… is you.”

"You lied to me! You villain! I have to kill you!!"

Ta Canh Hoa staggered, brandished his sword and rushed towards me. But now he still has difficulty walking, with every step a piece of rotten flesh falls off his body. Before he could get close to me, with a "thump" sound, he fell face down on the ground. The sword, stained with the blood of both fake and innocent people, fell with a "clang" sound and broke in half.

“Save… save me…”

He crawled on the ground, his hands were now tools of murder just like a rotten branch, tremblingly reaching towards me. “I… don't want to die…”