Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 646 - 208: What Is Aberration? Your Only Value Is in Your Hands, Nothing Else

Without the visual effects of solidified programs, the old network within Cyberspace appears very abstract in the players' visual experience.

The individual avatars of players seem to have been pulled back to the pixel era of decades ago, with the overall quality dropping to 720P. There are no fine models within Cyberspace, only massive streams of binary code, countless lines, and frameworks.

If you look closely, even they themselves are data bodies made up of small codes.

Movement is not by walking, but by the command [move in a certain direction].

In such a world, moving carelessly can result in getting lost in the sea of data. To avoid losing one's way, a basic ability in program recognition is essential.

However, most players lack this ability. Hence, it is up to Lucy or other hacker players to leave secret marker programs along the way for ordinary players to identify locations.

"What kind of place is the Prometheus Laboratory?"

The Giant felt uncomfortable throughout his body in Cyberspace. It wasn't just his low intelligence that bothered him; there was no sense of assuredness like having his feet firmly on the ground. It wasn't even like floating in the sky; rather, it was akin to drifting in a weightless space, surrounding him in void with nowhere to exert force. Movement felt unreal, as if he were sliding on layers.

Brother Ni: "I asked Red Barrel outside to check online. There's currently no company or laboratory by that name, but there used to be one, just with very little information."

Wildman: "In the past, it might have been, right? Didn't they say that many companies disappeared when the old network collapsed? Perhaps this laboratory was one of them."

Potato: "Well, having some information is better than none. Even in a raid, you need an introduction, right? Let's hear about it."

In the few lost data fortresses that Lucy initially explored, the Prometheus Laboratory was the closest to the players, so most players chose it as the first place to conquer.

Along the way, they didn't encounter any monsters or demons; it was rather calm and peaceful.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of a virtual building composed of thick lines, discussing their initial plan.

Pandora silently transmitted a piece of information to each player present. In their data body forms, they received information much faster than they could see or hear, and they immediately understood what the Prometheus Laboratory was about.

This was a research laboratory established in 1973 under a nuclear energy group, aimed at developing more efficient, cost-effective, and clean nuclear energy.

The old nuclear power station in Santo Domingo, which frequently had issues, was partly their work, but ultimately went bankrupt during the old network's collapse.

The Giant scratched his head in confusion and said, "So, does that mean we're in Los Angeles now?"

"Of course not, meow."

Jackal explained again,

"Cyberspace has no geographical boundaries, only the flow of information. It's like a cloud storage world shared by the whole world, with very little influence from local storage hardware, meow."

It's rumored that decades ago, a wandering AI moved terabytes of data to other hard drives as if it were child's play, something nearly impossible to occur in reality.

In reality, the fastest and most efficient data transmission method was still transporting trainloads of hard drives.

Sword Saint: "Nuclear industry... doesn't seem like it would yield any gold coins."

The only valuable thing in Cyberspace is information. Players need to gather data hidden in information fortresses and bring it back for appraisal to see how much it's worth.

Advanced prosthetics or physical equipment are definitely out of the question.

Wildman: "Let's go in and take a look. Standing at the entrance isn't helpful."

The players from Super Earth rushed to the front.

"We'll go first! We'll go first in the raid!"

Before others could even blink, over a hundred people surged into the data fortress of the Prometheus Laboratory.

The most absurd thing was that after so many people rushed in, the data fortress showed no reaction from the outside, as if a mud bull had entered the sea.

Immediately, the player channel saw the Super Earth players who had just rushed in shouting in a frenzy.

Truth Department: "What's going on! How did I get instantly killed?"

Good Brother: "Bro, I saw it; that thing flickered, and your head was off in no time!"

Publicity Department: "Unexpectedly, I didn't even last ten seconds in this first dungeon."

The avatars of over a hundred people greyed out in an instant, indicating they entered resurrection cooldown, spreading rapidly.

Half of them died in an instant.

The casualty rate was terrifying, even more exaggerated than the hard battles a few days ago.

The players who were eagerly following behind Super Earth, fearing they might miss out, suddenly calmed down.

They weren't afraid to die, but they couldn't die for nothing in a meaningless way.

Until the last player from Super Ball, who was also their hacker, Er Zhuzi, also died suddenly, the group quickly asked for details.

The Giant: "What's happening? You all died way too quickly."

Truth Department: "We were mistaken. This is not an ordinary dungeon; the difficulty is on par with rule-based horror stories. We don't know what happened; as soon as we entered, we were overwhelmed with red skies, and suddenly a monster rushed out and killed us all."

Regarding the company's data fortress, even hacker players knew little, as these weren't like the Voodoo Gang's own makeshift servers, which only came up briefly when learning under Lucy.