Free Web NovelChapter 137: Chapter 137: The Archive Room of the Headquarters Building
Daylight was brightening, and as time adjusted, the temperature also began to rise slowly.
"Will you appear again?" Bai Wu looked toward the merchant.
"Of course, I should make another appearance if you choose to delve deeper. By the way, you’d best purchase this, it’s on a limited-time special offer. Next time you want to buy it, it’ll cost several times more, ho ho ho ho..."
The merchant showed Bai Wu a strange item that looked like a pocket watch.
[Temporary Save Device. Triggers before the Resurrection Coin upon death, forcing a time node to return to when you possessed it, memories retained.]
[Wake up, such treasure only appears in games, don’t think you can take it out... But if you really do manage to clear the game in one life, you indeed can take it out. Although its functions will be greatly reduced once you leave the game area, it can still, for you alone, revert you back to the state you were in half an hour ago, including your physical state and physical location, and it can only be used four times. But even as I say this, you still want it, don’t you?]
Isn’t this a divine artifact?
Although the ability it displayed in the game was far stronger than its actual ability, if this item could be taken out... it would at least add an extra layer of security when encountering danger in the future.
But even though the thing was on special offer, it caused Bai Wu great concern because it cost 50 gold coins.
Purchasing it basically meant saying goodbye to other items.
"Buy it," Wu Jiu also saw the uniqueness of the item, although he couldn’t see the second note.
"What about other items?" fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"As you’ve seen, no matter how much we enhance our attributes, the monsters we would face upon going further in are probably not something we can handle. At least it would increase our margin for error."
Bai Wu nodded, the captain had become cautious, huh.
"Ah, you’ve saved up so many gold coins, what a pity, but I hope you can save up even more in the future."
Bai Wu said:
"How about collecting something else in the future?"
"What could be more interesting than gold coins?"
"Such as... fear?"
Bai Wu spoke offhandedly, but interestingly, although the merchant wasn’t a merchant from Black Gold Island, its behavior and thought processes in the game were much like the Island Master of Black Gold Island.
So, the merchant pondered for a moment, then had an epiphany, suddenly enlightened:
"Ah! Ho ho ho ho... that’s an excellent suggestion, I’ll give you another item as a gift. It’s free, take it and go fight!"
The merchant directly handed Bai Wu a knife.
That could work?
Wu Jiu froze, Bai Wu hadn’t expected this either; he suddenly had a very odd suspicion...
Could it be that the Little Octopus originally liked to collect gold coins, and then it encountered him here, was awakened by his words, and started valuing fear as currency?
Of course, this was just a preposterous thought.
"Goodbye! Looking forward to seeing you again." The merchant merged back into the ink.
This scene, along with the previous conversation, made Tan Lei feel like her worldview had collapsed; was this octopus a creature from the Cthulhu mythos?
Were these two, one tall and one short, gods?
Bai Wu looked at the knife in his hand, its price unknown, but the design of the knife was quite extravagant, with a sense of gaudy flashiness reminiscent of those online game weapons from a past life. Of course, the pixelated art style limited some of its exaggerated design.
Upon visual inspection, the knife seemed to be stronger than the captain’s new Original Sin Series weapon.
Wu Jiu also looked at the knife, the note that popped up in his eyes left him puzzled:
[Imitation of Original Sin: Remaining attack count: twenty-five. Non-upgradable.]
At first glance, Wu Jiu thought there was a problem with the blade, but when Bai Wu saw the knife, he reacted like Shang Xiaoyi upon encountering Evil Fallen.
[The fake remark ultimately differs from my genuine one. Since you asked earnestly, let me reveal it to you, generously, its true power is far from simple. As an imitation of the Seven Sins weapon, it has a limited number of uses, only twenty-five, but with each one, it can take away seven point five percent of the opponent’s maximum health.]
Thus, the twisted rules outside the tower had created not just powerful humans and monsters but also many terrifying and exaggerated items.
The Original Sin Series Weapons were probably the items previously seen with a price tag of a thousand gold coins. Could mere imitations be so powerful?
And who had imitated this weapon?
After the clock disappeared, the backpack had just enough space to store the knife.
Bai Wu didn’t know if his action just now was designed in the game, or if he had unintentionally triggered some unexpected benefit that wasn’t originally part of the game?
"Judging by the performance of these NPCs... they may be real people or something else, but it seems that under a certain power, they all have their own independent thoughts. So if their thoughts are free, anything they do is possible; maybe I’ll utter a word that offends the merchant, and then he’ll kill me?"
Thinking this, Bai Wu felt that perhaps obtaining this knife was not within the original design scope of the game creators?
Looking at the rusty axe in his hand, it suddenly seemed far less appealing.
"Let’s go, regardless of what’s inside, we should check it out," Wu Jiu said.
The trio finally entered the headquarters building of Denglin Technology. The intense daylight outside dimmed considerably once they were inside the building.
This was the first floor, which was different from the branch buildings; the Evil Fallen did not congregate here.
"It’s very quiet, but it shouldn’t be this quiet," Wu Jiu said, looking up at the ceiling.
Bai Wu turned to Tan Lei:
"You mentioned earlier that your colleagues are trapped in this building, but besides a host of Evil Fallen, there’s also an infection source here. So if your colleagues have managed to hold on until you bring someone to rescue them, does that mean they’re in a safe haven?"
"Yes... yes! Because we study Evil Fallen, and there have been accidental infections before, we established a temporary shelter to deal with emergencies," Tan Lei nodded.
"Your colleagues are inside the shelter, so the Evil Fallen must be gathered outside it, right?"
"Yes."
"Can the shelter withstand the destruction of the Evil Fallen?"
"Probably not for long. It was built to withstand level one ballistic standards, but from the images sent back by my colleagues earlier... the situation outside is very bad. The Evil Fallen inside the headquarters are far stronger than those outside. They are gradually destroying the defenses of the shelter."
"Which floor is it on?"
"The twentieth floor."
"Well, that’s quite a journey. By the way, where is the experimental data hidden?"
"On the seventh floor. That’s where all kinds of experimental data are stored. But there isn’t much data on men and women there... because all of that is stored in the mind of our head of the science team, Mr. Tao Xingzhi," she replied.
"In his mind?"
"Yes... Mr. Tao is the closest thing to a machine we have ever seen. His thinking is extremely logical, and he cannot understand many human behaviors. However, when it comes to computation and memory, he’s superior to anyone. He never forgets what he memorizes in his mind. He believes these materials are too precious to be absolutely safe stored in a machine."
"So you’re saying there is data in the machines after all?"
"Yes, on which floor is the machine?"
"The twenty-seventh floor."
"Are there any other floors that I should pay special attention to?"
"The laboratory on the sixteenth floor... Although later a new laboratory was established on the twenty-fourth floor, there might still be something... useful on the sixteenth floor."
Bai Wu noticed something off about her words:
"What useful thing is that?"
"It’s some of their old records, records?"
"Yes, some recreational stuff. They were willing participants in our research, and frankly... we were actually quite grateful to them. It’s just that later, perhaps we disappointed him, and, uh... the man’s condition got worse and worse. We had to transfer him to a new lab, which is on the twenty-fourth floor. Anyway, on the sixteenth floor, there might be something that could improve his condition."
Tan Lei didn’t speak with much confidence. In her view, if they really encountered that person, no one would survive.
Bai Wu understood. Since it was voluntary, although the test subjects were dangerous, they had gotten along well with the scientists initially.
Therefore, these two were different from Hong Yin and Bai Xiaoyu; they weren’t mistreated.
The scientists were friendly to them, and aside from necessary experimental procedures, they had their own living spaces and various forms of entertainment within the building.
The sixteenth floor might have retained many of their cherished memories from life.
"First, let’s check out the seventh floor, then head to the sixteenth floor, followed by the twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh floors, and finally go to the twentieth floor. We’ll take the stairs," Bai Wu said.
Tan Lei seemed scared, but Bai Wu patted her shoulder and said:
"Stay calm. You should know that under certain circumstances, people can attract Evil Fallen. Although my friend can cleanse them with ’truth’, we’d better not waste our energy."
Truth can cleanse them?
"What is ’truth’?" When Tan Lei asked, she actually calmed down a bit.
Bai Wu’s reply made her more at ease.
"The truth is in our hands."
In Bai Wu’s hand was an axe, kind and friendly.
In Wu Jiu’s hand was a knife, approachable and unassuming.
...
...
On their way to the sixth floor, Bai Wu and Wu Jiu encountered Evil Fallen, mutants with a movement speed of 2, an attack power of 12, a life value of 25, and a defense of 4.
With this data, Bai Wu was certain that Dwarf would get hurt, and if hit twice, he would be instantly killed by the Evil Fallen.
The Evil Fallen in the headquarters building, perhaps because of their proximity to the source, had a combat power that was not at all on the same level as those outside.
Without hesitation, Bai Wu threw the dice.
He was lucky, rolling a 5 for movement speed. For the next thirty minutes, Dwarf would move as fast as a vehicle.
Again possessing great speed, Wu Jiu felt more comfortable and efficient. In the game, there was no such thing as attack range; humanoid Evil Fallen had the same range as humans.
Wu Jiu, with the conviction that the Evil Fallen must die, killed this one.
Tan Lei recognized the Evil Fallen from the employee badge on its chest, belonging to a member of the neighboring serum group.
So she began to doubt this world:
"Why... does Tian Yu have so many gold coins on him?"
Bai Wu picked up five gold coins, saying gleefully:
"Mortal, everything is permitted, and everything is unreal."
"..."
A monster dropping five gold coins, although it cost them a die, but a die that can’t roll a six is even despised in a game of Ludo, Bai Wu didn’t care at all.
They arrived at the seventh floor.
The trio from Bai Wu moved lightly, and after confirming there were no monsters in the archives, Wu Jiu stood guard at the door.
Tan Lei and Bai Wu then went in to search through the archives.
Although Tan Lei didn’t know why they were searching through these archives, she always felt that a person as inscrutable as Bai Wu should know everything.
Bai Wu didn’t say much either. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
After a cursory glance, he felt the constraints of the game.
The game was like this: what should be realistic wasn’t, and what shouldn’t be realistic was quite so.
This place was meant to be realistic, and many of the props Bai Wu found were damaged, such as—Page Four of the damaged experiment notes.
They often recorded only some general information, and the observation of Prayle’s Eye was—
[Ordinary paper, if you have enough space in your backpack, you can take some with you. When you get back to High Tower, you’ll find a place to use them, I mean in the toilet.]
Clearly, the entire city was simulated under a certain scenario, and the purpose of pixelation was to prevent people from realizing it was a simulation.
This wasn’t a real archive room; the files here were just some useless scraps of paper.
Prayle’s Eye failed here, with information depending only on the game’s own notes.
[Target 07, Evil Fallen, we regret that a former security guard turned into an Evil Fallen, but with him, we made some progress. The new restraining method has been found; we have successfully made them afraid of salt.]
[Fear of light, fear of salt, oak resin can cause them to corrode. It indeed is a coincidence; we didn’t do it on purpose, but everything makes Evil Fallen look more like vampires. Perhaps one day, the holy light will come?]
[If this thing really is made, could we successfully attract Evil Fallen elsewhere? But obviously, without the help of those physicists, we can’t make it alone.]
There were many similar game notes because most of the archives were incomplete, Bai Wu could only see a sentence, and the specific details of the research were unknown.
However, Bai Wu found that the scientists had indeed almost solved a big problem for post-apocalyptic survival—the Evil Fallen.
They not only found some weaknesses of the Evil Fallen but also could implant various mutant attributes into the Evil Fallen, making them weak or fearful of certain things.
The last experiment these scientists conducted was an attempt to find out why Evil Fallen thirsted for negative emotions, Trying to create a brainwave frequency that matched the production of negative human emotions, to attract the Evil Fallen.
The ultimate goal was to make the Evil Fallen friendly.
They would provide the Evil Fallen with emotions, and once their needs were satisfied, the Evil Fallen would no longer slaughter humans.
But... this concept did not receive technical support.
Because many scientists had already entered High Tower.
The scientists from Denglin Technology’s headquarters could do it, but they refused. In a piece of incomplete archive, Bai Wu saw a passage that was quite moving—
[Entering High Tower, that is certainly a good choice. But who knows what will happen after going in? Why does no one believe we can find a solution to the Evil Fallen? Why would they prefer the mysteriously risen High Tower over supporting us, staying on the land that has nurtured human civilization? I am not content... There are like-minded friends who are not content either. We all choose to stay, even if what awaits us is becoming monsters loathed and feared, but as long as there is a possibility of saving this world...we will not give up.]
This possibility, now it seems, did exist, but unfortunately, the scientists had only completed the theoretical concept and could not wait for the day of practice.
At least from 700 years later... the fate of these scientists was tragic.
The last file was "Denglin Technology Headquarters Building Fragmented Notes (Part One)", marked as damaged and unreferable.
And Bai Wu just happened to have bought "Denglin Technology Headquarters Building Fragmented Notes (Part Two)" from the merchant.
When he took the archive out of his backpack, a note popped up:
[Merge?]
[Merge completed, unlocking Denglin Technology Headquarters notes, now available for reference.]
(In order to join Keanu Reeves in burning the City That Never Sleeps tomorrow, I have decided to stay up late and update tonight, but the next Chapter will probably be released during the day. Cough cough, having waited for this game for over a year, not experiencing it is truly difficult to accept~)
