Villain MMORPG: Almighty Devil Emperor and His Seven Demonic Wives - Chapter 1767: Defensive Protocol Buffs

Chapter 1767: Defensive Protocol Buffs

Villain Ch 1767. Defensive Protocol Buffs

Allen’s sword was already drawn—just in case.

He turned to the others. “Should we get in?”

That wasn’t really for them.

“Is it safe?” he added, this time aloud—for her.

No immediate answer.

Of course not.

“…Kafra?” Allen tried again.

Still silence.

Zoe shifted beside him, crossing her arms with a sigh. “She’s stalling.”

Vivian tilted her head and raised a brow. “Think she’s being watched too?”

“No,” Allen muttered. “She’s thinking.”

Kafra finally spoke, her voice softer than usual. A little too careful.

“Gimme like… a couple minutes. Please.”

That tone? Not her usual high-energy mascot voice. That was real worry tucked behind the syntax.

“Alright,” Allen said quietly. “We’ll wait.”

The girls didn’t argue.

So they waited.

The wind howled around the factory gates, pushing waves of powdery snow down from the cliffs like tired ghosts. The steam from the broken pipes hissed in irregular bursts, adding eerie rhythm to the stillness. Somewhere deeper inside, machinery clicked and stopped again. Over and over.

No one spoke for a moment.

Then Larissa broke the quiet, her voice distant. “Never thought we’d face something like this. I mean… yeah, we’ve cleared broken dungeons. Glitch bosses.”

Bella snorted.

Larissa continued, gaze fixed on the factory, “But this? This isn’t even game design anymore. I thought the worst we’d deal with was some crazy monster. Maybe some big-headed PvP players who scream about honor and kill-steals.”

“Annoying, loudmouths with guild names like ‘I’m Awesome’ or ‘UrZuck’,” Alice added, dry as ever.

Vivian chuckled. “Ugh, and the guys who call their followers ‘fan guilds’ but can’t land a critical hit without spamming auto.”

Allen didn’t laugh.

Larissa’s expression stayed unreadable. “But this… this is different. It’s deliberate. Feels like we’re inside someone else’s plan.”

Shea shrugged, folding her wings. “Yeah. But honestly? Not that shocking.”

The others turned to her.

Shea glanced at the factory, her eyes glinting like ice. “Most hackers target the biggest servers. Especially after a major expansion drops. They want the attention. They want chaos. They want a bug to trend. Some are from rival companies. Others are solo weirdos with too much time and way too much ego.”

Alice grunted. “Party poopers. With code degrees.”

Bella rolled her eyes. “They want to show off control in dumb ways. It’s like—cool bro, you made the sky turn green and made someone’s shoes explode. That’s not how dominance works.”

Jane muttered, “It’s annoying. That’s what it is.”

Allen didn’t say anything yet. Just listened. Let them speak.

Then, finally—

Kafra’s voice returned. Sharper now. Focused.

“Okay. I spoke with the team. We… ran some simulations using the real-time logs. They’re still combing through the injected code, but there’s no sign of direct deletion protocols. So you can enter. We’ll be monitoring everything.”

A pause.

“But—there’s a catch.”

“Obviously,” Allen said.

“We’re sending you… Buffs.”

Vivian perked. “Buffs?”

And then—

[System Notification:Temporary Buffs Granted]

[Anti-Corruption Layer (Prevents avatar manipulation from outside scripts)]

[Skill Execution Lock (Prevents forced-skill trigger anomalies)]

[Avatar Integrity Buffer (Protects against transformation-type bugs)]

[Visual Override Block (Immunity to forced hallucination or UI overlays)]

[Damage Desync Correction (Corrects real-time damage mismatches due to bug effects)]

Bella blinked. “Okay… that’s not normal. That’s not like fortitude up or crit boost. That’s…”

“Defensive protocol buffs,” Jane finished.

“Exactly,” Kafra confirmed. “These aren’t here to help you win. They’re here to stop the environment—or whatever’s in there—from corrupting your character data or hijacking your control inputs.”

Allen frowned.

“They think the hacker might try to take over our avatars?”

“Or force a desync,” Kafra said. “We’ve seen signs of it. Code loops. Player command echoes. It’s like someone’s playing with the inputs from a second layer.”

“That’s new,” Alice said quietly.

Shea’s expression darkened. “No… that’s bad. That means they’re learning how to override skill chains. That’s deep access.”

Larissa muttered, “They’re not just playing god. They’re testing how far the game will let them.”

Allen turned his gaze back toward the factory.

It loomed like a bad dream left running on old hardware.

Mismatched design. Wrong texture resolution in spots.

One of the trains had its lights on.

No power source.

Just… on.

Inside, something knew they were here.

He gripped the handle of his blade tighter.

The Devil Emperor didn’t ask for permission.

He tore down thrones that shouldn’t exist.

“…We’re going in,” Allen said quietly.

Zoe sighed. “Figures.”

Jane raised her head. “Let’s go find the bastard rewriting our reality.”

Vivian flashed a grin. “Hope they like whips.”

The party moved as one.

Boots crunched into the snow. The sky remained that strange, frozen shade of gray—not quite evening, not quite day—like time itself was glitching.

Wind howled through the broken train yard they passed. The rusted husks stood like frozen animals, their shadows long and crooked across the white floor. Frost clung to everything: cables, pipes, broken wheels half-buried in snow. Steam hissed from a cracked exhaust pipe, trailing upwards like a signal.

And through it all—something pulsed.

A rhythm. Mechanical. Uneven.

Like a heart, but not.

Like something trying to feel alive.

Kafra’s voice broke through the silence, warm and cheery but slightly thinner than usual.

“Okay, I’ll monitor you guys. Just say a word if you need me. I’ll be in your ears the whole time.”

Allen nodded to himself, keeping his sword drawn but pointed down. “Roger that.”

There was a short pause. Then Vivian spoke, squinting as the factory’s jagged silhouette came closer.

“Wait—Kafra. You’re sure this isn’t Emma’s doing?”

Kafra answered without hesitation. “No. I thought that too at first. I even double-checked and called her. But this? This isn’t her.”

“Confirmed?” Allen asked.

“Confirmed,” Kafra replied.

Jane’s voice was flat, dark. “Then this is worse.”

They passed another derailed train—graffiti half-rendered on its side, looping code symbols that flickered in and out. Some sections of the snow around it shimmered oddly, like the residual ghost of an old level design still trying to load.

Kafra’s voice softened. “Be careful, okay? We have isolated this place from the rest of the game, so if something happens to you here—there’s no global death announcement. No player alerts. No system flags.”

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600 Power Stone = 1 bonus chapters

400 Golden Ticket= 1 bonus chapter

Magic Castle= 4 bonus chapters

Space Craft= 6 bonus chapters

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