Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 876: Chapter 44: Mission in Progress (5)

The plane’s status, to put it in one sentence, was: the man died, the bird flew to the sky.

The man was dead, the bird had flown.

That was the current situation.

”But the plane told me before—”

Seeing Baozi about to say something but stopping, Eldest Brother Hui paused, then said:

”After his Transformation Rate in the reproductive system exceeded 50%, he got a special Talent, which is that after his flesh dies, he doesn’t completely die, and can revive a second time from the ’super big bird.’”

”Damn, this brat also has a second-life mechanic,” Baozi was shocked for a moment, then his face filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

As a pay-to-win whale, what he hated most in life were Luck Gods; he wished the whole world were Kings of Bad RNG.

”But this kind of life recovery needs a cast bar. He didn’t say the exact time, but it should be at least 30 minutes.”

”So, where’s the bird?”

Yagami Suuji, who had been quietly listening, pulled out something like a ”Dragon Ball Radar” when she saw this. With a light press, a light dot soon appeared on the radar, seemingly staying in one direction.

”This is a ’Radiation Beast Searcher’ developed by the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division. The higher the level of the Radiation Beast, the more obvious the radiation fluctuations.”

After Yagami Suuji finished speaking, she handed Eldest Brother Hui over to Baozi, then ran with Agent J toward the direction of the light dot.

Baozi hurriedly followed.

Eldest Brother Hui had a belly full of questions, so he started crazily @-ing Baozi on the forum, signaling with his eyes for Baozi to log in.

’Where on earth did you hire these two NPC bosses from?’

Baozi replied.

’You’re curious how I managed to airdrop supplies to you through all those layers of encirclement, right? These two are the patch-note answer. That Miss Yagami Suuji, as the former first combat captain of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, knows a lot of loopholes in the Six Ministries’ mechanics. It was all with her help that those supplies could arrive safely. The two of them were busy with this before.’

’As for how I met them—strictly speaking, it’s not me knowing them, but them knowing me. They have a list in their hands, and everyone on that list is a Player. I just happen to be on it.’

’You’re definitely going to ask why such a list exists. The reason is simple. In the underground world, there’s a mysterious NPC named ”Aramaki” who shows up from time to time to post tasks. As an old driver, of course I have a great relationship with this NPC. On our first login after the upheaval, these two came to me with Aramaki’s list. After I repeatedly confirmed it, I found that these two are NPCs from the Rebel Camp.’

Although there were still some other questions, Eldest Brother Hui more or less understood. After thinking for a moment, he asked again.

’What I just ran into, was that an ”Electronic Brain Graveyard”?’

’Yes!’

Eldest Brother Hui fell silent for a moment, then said:

’Worthy of being a Heaven-Level Task!’

Isn’t it Heaven? A task that directly deletes your account—terrifying!

And very soon, another ”Electronic Brain Graveyard” appeared.

Eldest Brother Hui’s facial features blurred again. In a daze, he once more saw those ”zombies” staggering toward him.

Attacks miss, defense invalid, and he couldn’t even run away. For him, this thing was simply unsolvable.

Luckily, this time he didn’t have to deal with this trouble himself.

The NPC man named ”Agent J” was the first to act. One transparent tentacle after another squeezed out from his mouth, whipping the zombies hard. With each lash, those ”zombies” would become translucent, then gradually disappear.

As for that top-tier Bionic Man called ”Yagami Suuji,” her whole body seemed to emit a transparent Radiance, and this Radiance actually looked somewhat similar to those zombies. She pushed off hard, her whole body appearing in midair. With a twist of her waist and spin, the ”tombstone” collapsed once again.

The Radiance on Yagami Suuji’s body faded; she seemed extremely exhausted, with a faint scorched smoke rising from her body surface.

As for Agent J, he could no longer maintain a Human Form, turning into a very strange-looking Alien Species. His body was in a semi-transparent state, his hands and feet all turned into blue tentacles, his nose, eyeballs, and ears disappeared, and there were two fewer tentacles at the mouth.

”Can you still hold on?” Yagami Suuji asked.

Agent J nodded, then shook his head, and said, ”Forcing a Tier 3 information conversion can indeed destroy these information graves, but if we keep getting entangled like this, how are we ourselves supposed to not end up buried in the grave?”

Yagami Suuji fell silent.

They’d been lucky enough not to run into the previous few waves of Cyber Wave, but now this kind of ”Electronic Brain Graveyard” affected all life information; they couldn’t stay out of it.

”Right now the only way is to awaken Mr. G. Only he can be the Savior of the world.”

”Let’s hope so,” Agent J nodded.

...

At the same time, the Players also finally realized that a ”Heaven-Level Task” is not something easy to do.

In a high-end players’ group—

’My Blood Volume got permanently cut by 50%. Is this a bug!?’

’Holy shit, my account’s gone!!!’

’My custom-made Tier 2 Divine Spear—how did it just disappear after someone touched it once!?’

’I’m coughing blood here, literally. My hand is gone, my Sports System dropped by 13% in one go, and my Carbon Fusion went black all of a sudden. Can the Prosthetic Doctor even save this kind of injury?’

’How is this a Heaven task? This is clearly sending people up to Heaven!’

A lot of Players chickened out on the spot.

Even though the quest rewards are really nice and super strong, the losses from this quest are even more terrifying.

The high-end players have been grinding day and night without stopping, and only after two years since launch have they managed to push their levels to around 50.

If their accounts get deleted and they have to reroll a new character, it’ll take at least another year to grind their levels back up.

Scary, seriously scary!

But as a veteran driver, someone had long predicted this would happen.

Somewhere in an Electronic Brain Graveyard.

A dozen high-end players were running for their lives, just like playing a map-running game. Once you ”win the lottery,” no amount of godlike操作 can save you.

”Help me take care of my Seventh-Grandpa-in-law!”

A certain player let out a dying shout, got grabbed by a zombie, and his whole person vanished on the spot.

”Tch, I’m gonna have to reroll anyway, so I’ll go all in with you!”

A player roared, turning himself into a human bomb and exploded right where he stood.

However, that explosion only made the phantom of the ”Electronic Brain Zombie” flicker for a moment; it didn’t deal any damage at all. Then the ”Electronic Brain Zombie” continued playing the map-running game with the players.

As they ran, the players entered a maze. The walls of the maze were shifting, complex code, and every time the code changed, the maze’s paths changed as well.

Not every firewall is of the ”kill-everything” type. Many firewalls exist just to create endless mazes, trapping both electronic Virus and players inside forever.

Then, halfway through their ”map run,” the players realized that at some point, raging flames had surrounded them.

”What the hell, we’re actually gonna be burned to death?”

”Does this count as a plot kill?”

”How come there’s a fire attack in an Electronic Brain Graveyard?”

But to their surprise, the death they were expecting never came. Instead, something else happened.

[You have received the blessing of the Planet Firewall ’Colorless Flame’. Your Consciousness +100 (temporary), and you gain Resistance to High-Density Information Streams]

So this is... a buff?!

Meanwhile, at the core of the maze, which was the Planet Firewall layer within the ”13-Layered Space.”

More than a dozen Electronic Brain Zombies were being hemmed in by layers of flames. Within the fire, vague, flickering humanoid shapes of flame could be seen now and then.

This time, facing the Planet Firewall, these ”zombies” weren’t as lawless as before. Under the burning flames, they kept melting; their skin turned into the shells of Memory Worms, and their corpse oil turned into Neural Signals.

”There’s a saying that when a person gives rise to a single thought, ninety-nine other thoughts die with it. This isn’t wrong. To be precise, even the same line of thinking, when interfered with by different conditions, will lead to different results. The human brain does not have the ability to process different ’thoughts’ simultaneously. That’s what you call a mental breakdown.”

”But as Brain-Machine Interfaces become widespread, human brain Computational Power will further expand, and this expansion becomes the breeding ground for ’Electronic Brain Zombies’. Those dead ’thoughts’ will nurture new Electronic Brain Zombies. That is the source of the Electronic Brain Graveyard.”

”Brother, how strong are those zombies?”

”That depends on how strong the Graveyard they’re in is. If it’s just a normal place, the Information Monsters birthed will only be Tier 3. But if it’s a dangerous place, like the Source of the Cyber Killer, Database 0, or a Super Enterprise Database, then those big zombies will reach Tier 4.”

Outside the flames, Gao Yuanyuan silently watched this scene.

Tier 4 Electronic Brain Zombies— even for her, they might not be opponents she could handle.

This is also why her brother kept nagging her over and over: absolutely do not personally take the field. The late-stage Cyber Tide is terrifying beyond imagination.

But these ”players” can.

Gao Yuanyuan closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was already in another area, continuing to refresh buffs.

”Whoa, I feel like I’m back in business. With the Planet Firewall buffing us, these Electronic Brain Zombies can’t break through!”

”Latest intel: these flames can be enchanted. With weapons imbued with this flame, even those things can be chopped to death!”

”Hey hey, what’s this flame you’re talking about? Why don’t I have it?”

”Means your campaign run wasn’t on point. Based on my excellent game sense, this is a special tile effect.”

”The guy upstairs is bragging again.”

”Just here to eat melon.”

...

Meanwhile, deep within the Information Ocean.

An ancient Planet Host with blue hair and curled beard, imposing and majestic like Grandmaster Wenn, was staring thoughtfully at the board. After a long while, he moved a piece one square.

”Your move.”

The one sitting opposite him looked at the white pieces caught in a ten-sided ambush, thought seriously for a bit, then suddenly swept his arm across the board, mixing black and white together.

”Not playing, not playing, taking a break.”

War hates people who don’t follow the rules the most, so he said coldly, ”You lost.”

Gao Gong chuckled:

”This world isn’t black and white, little brother.”