Zero Day Ascension

The spiritual root chip has monopolized the cultivation of immortals for two thousand years. People without microchips are called "grey people" and they are not worthy of spiritual power, not worthy of going upstairs, and not worthy of living. Ji Ling is a gray man. To be precise, he is a low-level hacker in the basement of Chenluo District who makes instant noodles by cracking spiritual power locks. It took nine hours to crack seven layers of encryption, and the settlement was 340 universal points, enough to buy half of an expired neuroamplification patch. Until he unlocked a lock that shouldn't exist. Hidden in that lock is a set of underlying protocols left by ancient immortal cultivators - no chip, no spiritual root, or anyone's permission is needed to directly call upon the source of spiritual power. Zero-day protocol. The loophole that Taiyi Zhishen used to block for two thousand years was found by a gray man who couldn't even afford a chip. Then came the chase. 72 Hours blocking countdown. All 17 former carriers died. The carbonation of the circuit starts from the left hand and spreads. An old man from a second-hand bookstore who has been waiting for thirty years, a welding gun that does not belong to him, and an abandoned spiritual power pipeline that has been welded and sealed for thirty years. And on the 287th floor of the Taiyi Tower, the man who had his emotional nerves cut off said: "Raise the priority. I want to know who this person is." Ji Ling discovered that the zero-day protocol was not a backdoor, but a key. And what's inside him is not transformation, but inheritance. Inherited from a man who chose "distributed storage" over death seventeen years ago. "Would you like everyone to be like you?" "It's not like me. Everyone has the right to choose."