This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 578.2: Plan 03

Yang Xiaoyang nodded solemnly. "Mm... I’ve thought it through."

Night Ten nodded, inhaling deeply. "Then I’ll believe you."

"Thank you..."

Seeing her earnest gratitude, Night Ten urged, "Too soon for thanks. Just take me there."

"Mm!" Yang Xiaoyang nodded nervously and took the lead.

Night Ten quickly followed behind her. Together they walked through the pitch-black basement until they reached a secluded storage room, where an iron door was hidden behind some wooden crates.

Rust spread from the handle into the door’s seams, making it hard not to wonder how long it had been since anyone last came here.

"This is it..." Yang Xiaoyang said timidly, shrinking behind him as she looked at the rusty door.

Night Ten stepped forward, grabbed the rusty doorknob, gave it a tug and found it heavy, so he engaged the power of his exoskeleton and yanked it backward with force.

The heavy door would have been impossible for a six or seven year old girl to move, but for him in an exoskeleton, it was as light as paper.

With a grating squeal that made one’s teeth ache, the rusted iron door swung open under his might, revealing a hidden passage behind it.

"Good grief... It really wasn’t locked?"

The passage beyond was spotless and orderly, with metal flooring underfoot and cement-grey paint on the walls. Compared to the dusty basement and that rust-covered door, this hallway was a completely different world.

Staring at the corridor stretching into the unknown, Night Ten’s face lit up with surprise, his eyes gradually sparking with excitement. He turned to Yang Xiaoyang. "You wait here... if anyone comes in, run straight through the door."

Yang Xiaoyang nodded hard, replying earnestly. "Mm!"

With her confirmation, Night Ten wasted no time. He raised his rifle and carefully stepped inside, following the clean corridor further in.

The place looked like a clinic, or a laboratory. Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, he could see a dazzling array of instruments and sci-fi-like display screens.

All signs suggested the place had been abandoned, and only very recently.

Whether they left in a rush or deemed unnecessary to clean up, the monitors were still lit, and some of the experimental equipment was still running, humming with strange sounds.

Night Ten’s shock deepened.

It was hard to imagine such a research facility existing beneath an unremarkable ranch.

And could the expenses for something like that really be shouldered by some mere farm owner?

Everything he was looking at cost far more than building a fancy building.

He stepped into one of the labs, he started to look around. On the nearest screen, the interface was blank, whatever data had been there was clearly wiped.

Leaving that lab, Night Ten pressed deeper down the hall, until he reached the room at the very end.

Stepping inside, he was immediately stunned by the sight.

A massive metal cylinder stood in the center, linking floor to ceiling, thick cables as wide as forearms stretching from its base into the walls and into another machine.

The thing looked familiar.

As soon as he recognized it, Night Ten’s eyes widened, shock etched on his face.

"... A Spirit Interference Device?!"

It was almost identical to the one he had seen in the eastern suburbs of Clearspring City! Even the core structure was unchanged with only slight modifications.

"Could this thing... be what drove everyone outside mad...? Wait, no, wasn’t this supposed to have no effect on people with higher mental faculties?"

Not that it was useless, but its influence was extremely limited, enough to nudge trivial decisions, like persuading someone to buy or not buy something.

But on major matters of life, society, or civilization’s future, the device had almost no effect.

Otherwise, when the technology was first invented, it wouldn’t have been used merely for advertising, it could have overturned the Federation.

Suddenly, Night Ten recalled a crucial detail. "Na Fruit...?"

Under normal circumstances, the device had little effect on humans, mainly it was used to ward off low-intelligence mutants on a wide scale.

But if someone ate Na Fruit and entered the Divine Trance...

"Good grief... so the so-called Gospel was this thing all along?!"

Other settlements might well be hiding similar machines!

The thought made his scalp tingle.

However, he knew it was no time to dwell on it.

He moved to the terminal connected to the cylinder, pulled a cable from his VM, and after a quick search, he found the right port to plug into.

The New Alliance’s Scientific Expedition Team had provided hacking programs to LV3 players and above, basic functions like breaching firewalls, opening locks, and grabbing data were all available.

They were designed for pre-war civilian security systems.

Most of the time those generic scripts were unreliable, especially given the limited computing power of a VM, but considering the place didn’t even bother with locks, it was worth a try.

The entire settlement was under the device’s field of influence.

If his guess was right, every believer there was essentially a pair of eyes for that Archbishop hiding in the Sanctuary. Even the owner himself was unknowingly a puppet of the Torch Church.

There was no need to hide anything from locals, the device itself was the best defense.

If someone wandered in by mistake, they only had to do exact;y as they had done. They could shut down the intruder’s consciousness and knock them out.

Night Ten stared tensely at his VM screen, silently counting the time.

He needed to pull as much data as possible, but also had to consider how much pressure his teammates were facing.

If nothing was gained within two minutes, he would slap C4 on the cylinder, set a timer, and physically demolish the facility.

Perhaps hearing his inner prayers, just as the countdown ticked down to 10 seconds, a pale blue window popped up on the VM screen.

[Read-only access acquired]

[Acquiring operation permissions]

Seeing that, Night Ten, who had nearly given up, almost shouted for joy.

"Holy shit? It actually worked!"

Yin Fang is a genius!

Or maybe it’s Little Seven Qi who’s the genius!

The terminal’s display lit up with a simple interface. Though the dense symbols were unreadable to him, the VM’s plugin automatically translated them into player-friendly language.

The copying program began running.

Though most of the data had been deleted, fragments remained. They were retrieved and reorganized.

While the program worked on gaining shutdown permissions, Night Ten opened one of the organized files. A title quickly appeared before his eyes.

"... Plan 03?"

What the hell is this?

The title gave nothing away.

Curious, he scrolled down with a finger, reading the summary aloud.

"... In the event that a project is deemed at risk of exposure, the relevant unit must immediately terminate research, destroy experimental data, and initiate Plan 03."

"Experiment contents are to test and record subjects’ clinical responses and combat value under signal stimulation in the Frequency Band 03... goddamn, are these bastards even human?"

Night Ten’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard.

What combat value could they possibly have...?

They were basically a bunch of Crunchers!

In fact, they were weaker than Crunchers! At least those things didn’t need to resupply and could survive without eating.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t the main issue.

The issue was that, just to verify something so pointless, they had willingly sacrificed a settlement of 50,000 souls... Even though the settlement had already pledged allegiance to them...

These bastards...

What do they see people as?!

Wait!

Night Ten suddenly noticed something.

Though the facility’s staff had withdrawn, if Plan 03 itself was part of the experiment, surely someone had to remain to monitor and collect results? Otherwise, wasn’t the experiment wasted?

Almost immediately, a chill crawled up his spine.

Before he could pinpoint its source, Night Ten reacted on instinct, he swung his rifle toward the door and fired without hesitation, even if he couldn’t see anything there.

Ratatata...

Orange muzzle flashes spat toward the empty doorway.

The next second, a bizarre scene unfolded. The barrage struck something like an invisible wall, sparks bursting as concentric ripples shimmered into view.

The outline of an exoskeleton appeared in the air.

The figure stumbled back under the spray of bullets, nearly losing balance.

Clearly, he hadn’t expected his nearly flawless optical camouflage, combined with muffled footsteps, to still be detected.

Steadying himself, the man raised his weapon to fire back, but after only two shots, a blood-stained dagger whipped toward his face.

He reflexively raised an arm to shield his head. The move saved his life, but it also meant his arm had to meet the blade head-on.

"Ahhh!"

The blade cleaved through the exoskeleton, split flesh, and hacked through the bone. A searing pain shot through his body. Blood and sweat gushed forth as he screamed.

Slamming the man to the ground, Night Ten wrenched his blade free with a flick, leveled his rifle at the man’s head, and grinned viciously. "Good grief... I was just hoping to catch one alive, and you walked right into my arms."