Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

```

Such a vast space, if he had to rely entirely on himself to meticulously plow through it, he feared it would simply wear him out.

Blindly charging ahead without any clues, like a headless fly, was not a wise choice.

Miss Assistant, holding a tablet computer in her hands, replied with a tight face and a serious expression, "It's hard to say, as of now there hasn't been any discernible pattern."

"How soon after it starts stealing do you notice?"

"Immediately."

Pansen's brows were furrowed, but he also knew that impatience was not the mindset to have at the moment.

"Then we wait."

Subduing a "virtual world" that might stem from the remnants of an electronic demon and knowing what kind of efforts would be needed was still a mystery, but ensuring his mental state remained optimal was the best response at this time.

He had used up quite a bit of Spiritual Energy along the way to help the convoy evade enemies; now was a good time to recuperate and face the upcoming challenges in peak condition.

"Notify me immediately when you find any sign of the target."

Without further ado, Pansen found a corner and squeezed into it.

While the Cultivation Skills of human spiritual energy practitioners and the Breathing Skills of elves have their differences, what was common between them was the need for absolute personal tranquility.

Bai E watched from a distance, curious about the human Cultivation Skills.

Even though he had learned the Elf Breathing Skill, it was after all adapted by himself to better suit the physique of a human baby; it was different from the original Elf Breathing Skill and even more so from the intrinsic Cultivation Skills of humans.

He wondered whether the original human Cultivation Skills would suit his physique better, accelerating his own cultivation.

Unfortunately, the spiritual practitioner Pansen had no patience to teach someone irrelevant.

Without an intimate communication of Spiritual Energy to guide him, Bai E couldn't perceive any detailed aspects of the Cultivation Skill, and naturally was unable to trigger a possible teaching mission. Therefore, he couldn't cheat by paying with his experience to learn a new skill.

"Did you offend him?" Assistant Miss, as lively as ever, leaned close to Bai E's ear, covering her mouth with her palm and asked in a whisper.

"..." Bai E shook his head gently, his eyes glancing at Pansen who was meditating in the corner, "Shh~"

The capabilities of a third-stage spiritual energy practitioner were still unknown, and while being strong in Spiritual Energy didn't mean a comprehensive augmentation of physical attributes, if it were Bai E in Pansen's position, he would definitely not hear the murmurs here. But one couldn't be too sure whether this third-stage practitioner, whose primary ability was "information," could pick up on any form of "information exchange."

"Oh~" Miss Assistant's eyes danced with curiosity, her youthful face adopted a look of meaningful reservation. She seemed quite adorable.

"May I take a look at the control log?" Bai E inquired softly.

"You want to see that?" Miss Assistant was startled, her eyes briefly darting towards Minister Eric not far away.

The minister himself was busy operating something at the enormous control console. Sensing Miss Assistant's hesitation, he immediately waved his hand, "Go ahead, Bai is one of us, we are all humans."

Enjoy new adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

As long as they were human, it didn't matter who mastered the technology.

"Thank you, Minister."

"..." With a wave of his hand, Minister Eric faced a prompt that suddenly popped up on the screen in front of him, "Requires higher-level authorization to unlock," and he looked utterly troubled.

Miss Assistant, who had seen this scene from behind, rushed up on tiptoe and clicked to confirm the authorization.

"How come you have high-level permissions?" Minister Eric's forehead creased with questions, "Did you find the manual from that era?"

There was no explanation in the current myriad of documents on how to obtain server mainframe access. How could his own student grasp the operations that he himself did not know?

There was no second possibility other than her finding something during her watch.

"Ah~" Miss Assistant looked utterly baffled, "I don't know... somehow I just have it."

Only those without permissions are aware of the existence of "permissions." Those who have them are usually totally unaware of such restrictions.

"..." Minister Eric scratched his cheek, deciding not to delve further.

The technology from the Golden Age was beyond the comprehension of people now, and it seemed normal for something like cameras or biometric detectors to automatically recognize their owner through some underlying logic in regular use.

"Carry on with your work." He said offhand and stood in front of his section of the control panel, pondering and operating something.

Miss Assistant happily pulled Bai E over to the front of the control panel.

```

"Having been here these days, I've familiarized myself with everything." The assistant's voice was lighthearted, "You can look at anything you want."

Bai E pursed his lips, holding back from operating the system himself.

As the one with the highest authority, he had just entered the control room when he heard the welcoming voice from the host computers—

"Welcome home, my master. You can execute any command with your will."

Even though he could have done it himself, Bai E could not move a finger.

Through the assistant's operations, the system's log records unfolded before Bai E's eyes.

"... At 03:43:19 AM in Zone B2, the host computers' operating efficiency decreased by 3%, lasting for 38 seconds."

"... At 07:13:22 AM in Zone A5, the host computers' operating efficiency decreased by 4%, lasting for 19 seconds."

"... At 10:51:07 PM in Zone E4, the host computers' operating efficiency decreased by 6%, lasting for 7 minutes and 35 seconds."@@novelbin@@

...

Bai E closed his eyes slightly, and an overhead map of the entire host computer cluster appeared in his mind.

A clear line connected all the involved areas in sequence and marked the duration and intensity of the theft.

The start times were random, the durations were random, the extraction points were random, but overall, it seemed... the intruder was getting bolder?

Like a mouse that sneaks around, avoiding the watchful eye of its owner to steal grains, after several acts, it found that the owner's nose didn't seem so keen, and so it gradually became more reckless.

But gradually, the frequency, duration, and intensity of the thefts had decreased significantly, as if it had "eaten its fill."

Was this the "virtual world" developing a "self-consciousness"?

Or some other kind of free will?

"Have you noticed anything?"

Without knowing when, a cold voice suddenly rang out beside his ear.

"..." Bai E's expression unchanged, glanced at the side profile of the spiritual energy practitioner Pansen who had silently recovered and approached, "No, my lord."

It seemed that even the server's host itself had no method against this thief who was stealing computing power resources.

Even in the deeper layers that were beyond the assistant's access rights, the host had tried various "resistances" when facing reduced efficiency — including but not limited to locking down the computing power or shutting down the data flow of the area.

But all were in vain.

It also meant that even with the highest authority over this server host cluster, he had no advantage in this operation to capture what might be the "legacy" left by an electronic demon.

'This is troublesome.'

Bai E never considered himself to be special.

Without the trump card of the server host's authority, technically, he was not as comprehensive as Minister Eric, and in terms of power, not as strong as the spiritual energy practitioner Pansen.

Did it mean that this virtual world "legacy" had nothing to do with him?

Bai E frowned slightly, when suddenly a faint buzzing alarm sounded beside his ear.

The next moment, a clearer and louder buzzing began to sound at the top end of the control console.

The assistant's face instantly turned serious, her slender and pale hands operating quickly on the console, and immediately locked on the location of the abnormal alarm—

The host computers, Zone C5.

"C5 zone, hurry!"

"..." Pansen's expression darkened as he looked at the assistant, his eyes holding a glint of reproach.

Do you expect me to know what this code means?

He then grabbed the back of the assistant's collar and lifted her up, carrying her as they both soared towards the host computers in the dark below.

"Guide me."