Chương 127: Chapter 126: The Judgment Sentinel and the Expired-License Loophole

Floor 60 of the World Tower was a colossal circular arena of silver metal, floating in open space. A transparent pressure-and-gravity field hummed over the arena; beyond it lay only thin atmosphere and stars. At the center of the arena, the Apex Judgment Sentinel loomed like a silver tower, over a hundred meters tall. Its entire body was cast from a mirror-bright alloy that reflected starlight, six massive metal wings spread wide enough to blot out the sky.

In its hand, it held a fifty-meter plasma spear glowing blood-red, a sphere of annihilation gathering at its tip, shrieking and crackling as it aimed straight down at the continent below. BEEP BEEP BEEP! A countdown ran across a massive magical display in the sky: 00: 00: 28... 00: 00: 27... One shot would be enough to vaporize both the Solaris capital and Demon Realm Tartarus into a stretch of radioactive magical ash. Whoosh. Lucian, Eleanor, Astra, and Evelyn landed on the mirror-alloy arena floor.

Wind howled around them, bitter and freezing, and crushing divine pressure from the giant machine bore down on every inch of ground. Ting! The Unified System V2. 0 panel appeared: [TARGET: APEX JUDGMENT SENTINEL (RANK SS — CELESTIAL CATASTROPHE)] Level: 120 | Combat Power: 150, 000, 000, 000 (150 BILLION!) Nature: Automated Orbital Defense Weapon (Orbital Aegis) Status: 100% immune to elemental magic damage. Non-negotiable.

Astra and Eleanor drew their swords together, ready to throw everything they had into blocking the coming energy blast. Lucian sprinted three steps ahead of them and threw an arm out to stop them both.

"Wait! Don't hit the mirror plating — it'll bounce every point of damage right back at you!" Layered Focus engaged. Read the Fine Print used Station 50's authenticated temporary credential to expose the Sentinel's pre-existing fail-closed license-enforcement safety routine through its documented maintenance layer. A narrow analysis pulse followed the exposed service channel through the silver armor and into the central logic board.

A software readout overlaid itself across Lucian's vision: [OPERATING SYSTEM ANALYSIS: APEX_JUDICATOR_OS_V4. 2] Responsible module: Global_Purification_Laser. exe Developer: Hyperion Orbital Defense Corporation (bankrupt as of 8, 421 years ago) LICENSE STATUS: TRIAL VERSION — EXPIRED 8, 000 YEARS AGO Registration: OFFICIAL LICENSE NEVER ACTIVATED Lucian stared at the words TRIAL VERSION EXPIRED, the corner of his mouth twitching twice.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. He raised the temporary Station 50 credential Evelyn had exported to a crystal card during their diagnostics. Its authenticated maintenance channel opened on the Sentinel's license-enforcement routine.

Through that authenticated maintenance channel, he delivered a copyright notice over the tower-wide speaker system, crisp and commanding, in flawless English: COPYRIGHT VIOLATION NOTICE FROM THE STATION 50 EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE DESK! His voice rang out across the entire stratosphere, sharp as steel:"Your world-ending software, Global_Purification_Laser. exe, ran out its thirty-day trial period eight thousand years ago! Your developer went bankrupt, and your license key is invalid!

Please enter your twenty-five character Product Key, or the system will automatically lock in three... two... one!" The hundred-meter machine, mid-charge, froze solid in midair. WHRRM. The blood-red plasma sphere at the tip of its spear stopped spinning. The Apex Sentinel's six divine eyes flickered wildly from blood-red to a stuttering blue. A massive virtual notification bloomed across its metal faceplate: [ERROR 0x80070005: MAGICAL WINDOWS NOT ACTIVATED. PLEASE ENTER A PRODUCT KEY TO CONTINUE WORLD DESTRUCTION.] WHOOSH! Eleanor kicked off the empty air, and the Royal Holy Sword in her hand erupted with a blade of golden sword-energy, slicing clean through three auxiliary power cables at the back of the machine's neck. She landed beside Lucian, the corner of her mouth curved into a bright smile.

"The old license-collection trick again?" Lucian winked.

"Never goes out of style." CLACK! Evelyn came running with a fifty-pound armored magitech hard drive slung over one shoulder and jammed the connector cable straight into a maintenance port at the base of the machine's heel. Her fingers flew across the control keyboard, pushing the install command through: Quarantining the attack module! Installing the emergency safe-mode image we built on Floor Fifty—Vance OS Version 1. 0! Ting! Ting! Ting! The Unified System V2.

0 panel opened across his vision: [APEX JUDGMENT SENTINEL DISABLED] [SAFE-MODE IMAGE INSTALLED] Orbital Aegis quarantined under Station 50 maintenance control Offensive functions locked pending a lawful joint-defense charter [UNIFIED SYSTEM V2. 0 ASSESSMENT] Combat Power before shutdown: 150, 000, 000, 000 Cause of defeat: Refused to purchase a genuine license for magical Windows Current state: Safe mode The entire mass of annihilation-grade plasma gathered at the spear's tip was rerouted by the new operating system, fired harmlessly straight up into open space beyond the atmosphere. The beam of red light burst apart into millions of streaks of five-colored magical fireworks, lighting up the entire night sky over both empires below.

Across cities where the sky was visible, crowds looked up at the fireworks. In a few plazas, startled Nameless Knight reading clubs dropped to their knees and shouted:"The Nameless Creator has tamed the Angel of Destruction with boundless mercy!"

"Fireworks of eternal peace!" Click. From the freshly reformatted boss's now-open chest cavity, a hexagonal fragment of solid gold drifted out, floating in the air in front of Lucian. Etched across its surface was a coordinate map leading straight up to Floor 100 of the World Tower — the Resting Place of the Founding Engineers. Lucian took the fragment and tucked it into his spatial ring, letting out a long, satisfied breath.

A war machine with 150 billion Combat Power had been reduced to a quarantined defense platform. Clack! Clack! Clack! Rushed footsteps echoed from the elevator passage. Sylvia sprinted out onto the arena floor, her silver beast-ears standing straight up, both hands cradling a magical memory crystal glowing with a deep, burning violet light. She skidded to a stop in front of Lucian, chest heaving, voice shaking.

"Lucian! Disabling the Sentinel unlocked a queued encrypted packet in Station Fifty's archive, tagged with Floor One Hundred coordinates." Sylvia held up the crystal.

"It's a letter Lady Valeria left during one of her earlier Tower expeditions."