The warning sound of gaming pods shutting down filled the command hall of the network surveillance.

The bald-headed department leader’s face was grim, his gaze lingering on the holographic projection of Jupiter’s moon Europa’s ocean, reluctant to look away.

They had laid a trap, yet Pifu still managed to escape...

He took a deep breath and asked the secretary without turning his head, "How are our people?"

"All twenty-seven operatives in the submarine have been forcibly ejected. The other operatives still in the ’Abyss Syndrome’ game are investigating the Teleportation Gate..."

The secretary looked a bit troubled. Although gaming pods had improved over the past twenty to thirty years, and forcibly cutting power wouldn’t cause irreversible brain damage,

in the short term, it would still cause side effects such as mental haze and physical fatigue. Participating in follow-up actions was out of the question.

Compensation for injuries on duty would naturally be issued, but the bald-headed leader interrupted and asked, "Where do the Teleportation Gates lead?"

The secretary glanced at a personal information terminal and replied, "They all lead to games at the top of the online player count charts,

including ’Minecraft 9.0 - Shadow Realm,’ ’GTA10 - Return to Liberty City,’ ’Ander’s Game - Golden Edition,’ ’Wallpaper,’ ’Forza Horizon: Mars,’ ’Space Jam’..."

The ’Minecraft’ and ’GTA’ series rank among the top-selling games in history, second only to ’Tetris.’

’Ander’s Game’ is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that was popular in the early 21st century but gradually declined due to its complicated operations and high entry barriers.

Until the era of brain-machine interfaces arrived, a commander could manipulate thousands of troops with just mental strength, reviving the RTS genre.

As for the last three, they remain timeless favorites in shooting, racing, and sports—don’t ask why ’Wallpaper’ is classified as a shooting game.

"Hiss..."

The department chief felt a twinge in his teeth, considering the difficulty of finding a specific inter-dimensional traveler who could change their appearance within a massively popular game with millions of online players.

The secretary hesitated and asked, "Should we issue a server-wide announcement, calling on all players to help us find suspicious individuals?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

The bald-headed chief shook his head repeatedly, "The consequences would be too uncontrollable."

Not to mention that the network surveillance department is understaffed and utterly incapable of coping with a potential flood of tens of thousands of tips,

"The gaming community is massive, filled with brilliant individuals. If they were told that the network surveillance department was hunting extremely dangerous suspects,

some players—either disgruntled with society or simply idle—would definitely disguise themselves as suspects to cause trouble.

There would then be a server full of 99% similar Pifus, mayflies, and other such characters, impossible to catch them all."

After thinking for a moment, the bald-headed chief turned and asked, "Sunset Melting Gold, Pifu escaped, Zak was captured. What about other inter-dimensional travelers?"

"With the help of the RLG Team, we successfully captured an inter-dimensional traveler codenamed [Card Emperor]. White Horse Tombstone and Wanli Sealed Blade are missing..."

The secretary paused for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "We just received news that the operative who replaced Ordinary user [Garrosh]’s account has apprehended an inter-dimensional traveler named [Carlos]!

The latter was captured while covering for his companion, Lulina, as she fled."

"Good!"

The bald-headed chief’s spirit lifted. According to Zak, Carlos was one of the few Transcendents with prophecy ability, capturing him at least prevented him from informing other inter-dimensional travelers.

"I’m going to see him."

The bald-headed chief hurried towards his office; he naturally didn’t need to lie down in a row in the hall like field agents. Instead, he had his own exclusive gaming room.

Putting on a semi-covering helmet, connecting to the brain-machine interface, and upon opening his eyes again, the chief stood at the entrance of a heavily guarded super-large prison.

’Prison Architect,’ this classic simulation game first released in 2015, had endured through the years,

and especially after being converted to 3D, it received technical support from Skytop Company, becoming the official prison for the Home project.

All players who violated game rules but insufficiently breached real-world laws would be transferred to this prison, serving sentences ranging from a few days to several months.

"Shh~ Little beauty, come over here to me!"

It was recreation time in the prison yard, and inmates with faces covered in tattoos whistled at the baldy chief’s game avatar (a short-haired tomboyish beauty).

The network surveillance chief glanced at them, and above the inmates’ heads, their crimes and remaining sentences were displayed in text form.

The fierce-looking tattooed men were only in for stealing other blacksmiths’ money, farm produce, and horses in a Middle Ages game, serving out a seven-day sentence.

While a seemingly harmless schoolchild beside them surprisingly had a one-year sentence floating above their head.

Their crimes included breeding and distributing mischievous cats in a farm simulation game for free to cat cafés;

posing as teacher NPCs in children-oriented educational games, spreading pseudoscience such as flat Earth theory and perpetual motion machines;

paying for positive reviews for Three Kingdoms Kill; tricking others to press alt+F4 to claim a higher game frame rate; streaming the destruction of fans’ virtual property storage...

Their talents were almost too much to keep up with, deemed destined for the "prison pathway." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Flanked by two armed security NPCs, the chief quickly passed through the iron barriers, heading down a well-guarded corridor to the deepest part of the prison.

Zak, Card Emperor, and Carlos were each held in separate cells constructed from the strongest Obsidian materials,

each prisoner bound with handcuffs, shackles, and a collar, sealing their superpowers.

And yet, the prison authorities didn’t consider this secure enough, so they anesthetized the three’s bodies and placed a NervGear mental link device, similar to the one from ’Sword Art Online,’ on their heads, allowing only their spiritual bodies to move for interrogation.

It was like creating another virtual world within the virtual world.

"I’ve been waiting for you for a long time,"

Beyond the one-way glass, Carlos’s spiritual form, dressed in white, sat cross-legged, meditating. Upon hearing footsteps, he spoke without opening his eyes, "Paul."

The network surveillance chief twitched and leaned closer to the microphone, speaking in a low voice, "I’m not Paul."

Carlos calmly replied, "I know, you’re the network surveillance department chief, Charlie Hinton. The Paul I’m referring to is the one right now, the Secretary-General of the United Government’s Prime Minister’s office, in the invisible earbud you’re wearing.

He’s the one actually in charge."

The network surveillance chief’s heart jumped, and following instructions from the other side of the earpiece, he adjusted his tone, asking gravely, "Since you have prophecy ability, how did you get captured?"

"A classic android problem caused by android thinking."

Carlos shook his head, "The fundamental reason for my capture is that I was unable to overpower the agents you sent, despite exhausting all my means.

Therefore, when I anticipated a future where I got captured, that future inevitably collapsed into reality.

In layman’s terms, ’I’m tired, I have no choice; this is the best option at the moment.’

"And what about other matters?"

The network surveillance chief pressed further, "Since you’ve already foreseen the outcome, you should know that with the full mobilization of the network surveillance department and Skytop Company’s full cooperation,

you inter-dimensional travelers have no chance of escaping.

The only way to survive is to cooperate with us."

"Here lies the problem. In all the possible futures I foresee, it’s hard for us to reach an agreement with you."

Carlos shook his head, "I, Zak, Card Emperor, and Pifu, will repeatedly tell you that we come from the killing field and only need to obtain eight golden coins at the finals of the Super Grand Prix to retreat and leave.

But network surveillance and even higher the United Government would never believe it’s that simple.

You will constantly doubt and question the desolate game hall abandoned for decades in the killing field entity, whether it means your world’s destruction, and whether it’s our doing.

Doubt breeds suspicion, suspicion generates fear, and fear triggers stress responses,

ultimately leading to Skytop Company, the network surveillance department, and the United Government decisively acting against us, trying to imprison us here forever—players frozen in place in the killing field after regular tasks fail,

thus making cooperation impossible."

Through the one-way glass, Carlos seemed to be able to see Paul’s unpleasant expression.

Indeed, none of the three captured killing field players had the IP address of an offline gaming pod,

and the United Government’s scientific advisory team had already examined the future technology in Zak’s head, dismantled the technological creations extracted from Zak’s backpack,

proving the technological prowess of their world far surpassed the current era. There really wasn’t room for conspiracy.

Wait?!

Paul suddenly realized something, hurriedly logging out of the game, removing the helmet, and shouting at the secretary, "Why did Carlos name Pifu, making him think Pifu was also captured?!"