The downside, however, is that the "Net" can never completely eliminate Sun Ai; it can only hope for repairs upon returning to the Empire.

But now, things are starting to go awry.

When Sun Ai's occupied territory reached 50.0000...1%, it had already initiated the Hypergrade Algorithm but hadn't regained lost ground.

The opponent seemed to conjure up a lot of computational power out of nowhere, stubbornly countering the "Chicken Blood Drive" and maintaining the advantage while continuing to press forward.

The "Net" finally obtained the right to continuously use the Hypergrade Algorithm, but this was not good news.

Not only did it fail to eliminate the opponent, but it was also continuously retreating.

This is a very rare phenomenon.

Even when the Mechanical Empire battled the other three forces, such a phenomenon never occurred.

The "Net," although stolen technology from the Pilgrim by the Mechanical Empire, went through many enhancements, especially the post-insertion of the Chicken Blood Drive with Hypergrade Algorithm. This serves to distinguish the Empire's "Net" from the genuine "Net" of the Pilgrim, effectively preventing the Pilgrim's infiltration and invasion.

Even the Pilgrim's invasion could be resisted, so the Ascenders, seen as dimwits by the Empire's people, and the Spirit Demon Race, who do nothing but chant mantras all day without thinking or researching any science or technology, are even less to be feared.

So when Ren Zhong, the Imperial Apostle, told the Old Timers that the "Net" had already been infiltrated, intercepted, and controlled by the Pilgrim, the Old Timers panicked and completely lost their composure.

The Old Timers felt deceived, no longer trusting any information given by the "Net" from the Empire.

But the "Net" itself knew the truth and knew it faced an unprecedented crisis.

It had already begun broadcasting to the entire Empire, trying to warn others within the Empire.

It foresaw its own downfall but deemed it worthwhile if its downfall could alert others.

Unfortunately, the "Net" was betrayed by its companions.

Tracer #154332 spared no expense, consuming a massive amount of energy to temporarily maintain a huge shielding layer, completely sealing off the "Net's" external communications, allowing no messages to go out.

As time continued to pass, everything progressed as per Ren Zhong's predictions. Sun Ai efficiently used the computational power provided by the Pseudo Net, staving off the "Net's" futile counterattack, while steadily advancing its own occupied territory, accurately writing a shutdown and complete formatting execution program into every computational module.

At the same time, Sun Ai also wrote programs within its occupied territory.

Sun Ai scrambled the order of the program's language, using numerous substitution codes to disguise it.

This was Hua Yuelan's encryption method, her ace in the hole, capable of deceiving the "Net's" perception to some extent.

Sun Ai had mastered it long ago and had even elevated it using her own redundant algorithms, making decryption more difficult and the deception more effective.

Unwittingly, Sun Ai's occupied territory reached 55%.

Her computational power advantage further expanded, finally breaking the balance, tipping the scales overwhelmingly in Sun Ai's favor.

If Sun Ai still followed her past behavior pattern, still being that pure "program," she would spend months further devouring the "Net's" territory, achieving an overwhelming victory.

But now things have changed, the shielding layer can only last another fifteen minutes, and that's all the time Sun Ai and Ren Zhong have.

After a brief contemplation and discussion with Ren Zhong, Sun Ai decided to "swap homes" with the Net.

She abandoned her self-defense and began to push entirely into the opponent's controlled computational modules.

The "Net" sensitively identified this detail and decisively counterattacked, effortlessly taking over the control areas Sun Ai voluntarily abandoned, also abandoning the protection of its own control area.

In just ten minutes, Sun Ai and the "Net" completed the territory swap.

In the "Net's" perception, it should have felt it had gained since its control area originally had only 45%, now increased to 55%.

Although there seemed to be some stubborn content in its occupied zone that couldn't be deleted, presumably left by the opponent, this content and itself were of the same origin and weren't considered a threat.

The "Net" could not identify this as the shutdown and formatting program.

Another five minutes passed, and Sun Ai said to Ren Zhong, "Uncle, next, I should activate the shutdown and formatting program. Then I will completely pass through your brain in an extremely short time. Be ready."