Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 867 - 280: Shout My Name Loudly! Zeta (Not) !_3

The Hellhounds on the screen are engaged in a firefight with the Netherworld Dog soldiers, successfully pushing the opponents back step by step.

Just looking at the screen is quite unremarkable, as Dog Town has been embroiled in a messy three-way battle, except for the Long Beach Waste Yard and a few major hotels.

He pointed at the underground parking garage behind the Netherworld Dogs and asked the Truth Department, "What's that place for?"

"There?"

The Truth Department rummaged through the database for a bit.

"Got it, the info leaked from a Netherworld Dog soldier's mouth, said that it was filled with heavy weaponry that's either unused or unsellable, rusting away in the warehouse, like self-propelled grenade launchers and such. They were remnants from the Unified War era that the New American forces couldn't take away, all piled up there by Hansen."

The artillery range is long, but Dog Town is only so big, and it's packed with tall buildings everywhere; players don't have armored units, so Hansen has no need to pull out these toys.

Unless... it wants to use these things to hit the city center...

So what exactly is in the city center that's worth this AI going crazy over?

"Holy shit! Wildman! Look at this!"

The Truth Department suddenly shouted, pointing at a live broadcast sent back by a player.

Wildman glanced at the stream ID and was momentarily stunned. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Cattlehorse? Did Red Barrel make it inside?"

On the screen, Red Barrel, wearing an MT-3, had shoulder-mounted sleeve arrows modeled after QN202 designs, 40mm infantry rockets, a box of 12, electrically launched, no technical guidance relying entirely on firepower coverage.

Red Barrel: "Double-tap 666 for me, brothers, I'm about to give these dog bastards on the other side 12 rockets!"

Saying this, a volley of rockets shot from his shoulder, 12 mini-rockets diving like ospreys into the water, hitting the Hellhounds in the corridor with brutal intensity, flipping them over backward.

But the focus wasn't those Hellhounds; instead, behind the blown-open mechanical gates at the end of the corridor, dozens of human brains were floating in vast culture vats.

The vats' bases had a large [Zetatech] logo engraved on them.

Rather than technological artifacts, there was an uncanny aura of a cult.

Upon posting the pictures in the public channel, the Truth Department inquired:

"What is this thing?"

The hackers who had just escaped from Mewtwo quickly provided answers.

[Er Zhuzi: I know, it's the infinite reading space built by Madara]

[Truth Department: Are you freaking out here again? Careful, or I'll subject you to a Truth Department personality correction.]

[Jackal: He's telling the truth, meow, the thing is similar to infinite reading. It uses Mewtwo to trap human brain consciousness at minimal levels, then reallocates the remaining computing power to serve as a processor]

[Wildman: So, if we blow that thing up, these robots will stop?]

[Street Runner: No way! If you break the can, the brains inside will die along with it!]

[Wildman: They're only dozens, and they seem almost dead already]

Winning at the cost of dozens of bystanders was really insignificant.

[Pandora: I wouldn't recommend doing that]

[Wildman: Reason?]

Pandora, a home-grown hacker, her opinion carried more weight.

[Pandora: Because even if you break the device, you won't stop these Hellhounds and might make the situation spiral out of control]

[Pandora: This central processor has been infiltrated by a runaway AI, which then expanded to invade Chimera and other Hellhounds. However, Hellhounds themselves serve as computational tools, capable of bearing certain computing needs]

[So even if you dismantle this central processor, those Hellhounds won't stop; they'll reconfigure into a local network and continue following the runaway AI's orders. Keeping it allows us to vie for control over the Hellhounds or attack the runaway AI via the central processor]

[Wildman: Without other player assistance, could you defeat that runaway AI?]

[Pandora: Very difficult, but I suspect deeper inside the lab, there's a medium through which the runaway AI invades the Hellhound control system. Dismantling it and leaving this runaway AI in the local network, then utterly crushing it counts as the true end]

Wildman no longer brought up the issue of blowing up the central processor, although he sensed Pandora was backing Street Runner, trying to save those brains, pursuing the perfect ending is a common trait among most players, nothing blameworthy.

The so-called necessary choice is merely a result of inadequate ability.

As a player, I want it all.

Furthermore, Pandora's information sparked a great idea in Wildman; he remembered the cult ritual Brother Ni was always tracking, where a woman was sacrificed to the runaway AI as a vessel. But afterward, the official catalogue clarified that it was an incomplete descending body.

And now, the Zeta Technology-derived biological brain technology's threat clearly surpasses that of the previous modified body. Though different in method, the goal is the same; AIs lack a human-like form, but they need a means to scale the Black Wall.

If we hypothesize that the runaway AI's real target is Zeta Technology's company building, then the direction of these Hellhounds' offensive makes sense.

They want to seize the Netherworld Dog's heavy artillery to pave the way for the frontline troops.

Boom!

A violent tremor suddenly hit the underground laboratory—that was an explosion, but the sound wasn't caused by Red Barrel and the others; it came from deeper within.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Alex swerved swiftly past one Hellhound after another in his Sianweistan, shrieking

"Li De! Once this operation is over, I'm heading straight to the Special Intelligence Bureau to resign. Screw being an agent, I'm done with it!"

PS: Erebos, the fourth primordial deity born from Chaos in ancient Greek mythology, husband to Nyx, goddess of night, symbolizes the darkness of the underworld, wedged between the human world and the underworld, sometimes interchangeably used with the Tartarus of QQ lifeforms (not).

In the game, Cyberspace's past deep web or the current old net subtly represents Hell, the underworld. Skylark delving into Little Beidou, deeper underground, can also be seen as a step-by-step descent into an inescapable Hell, ultimately facing Erebos and falling under His control.