Starting as a Mechanical Hunter-Chapter 378 - 142: Gallery_2

"Not sure."

"What do you mean?" Yanzi asked.

"I mean, after we hand over the task, it’s likely not the end of this matter, but the beginning. We’ve been dragged into a chessboard, and both sides playing see us as mere pawns."

"So what? As long as the task rewards are ample, being a pawn, even cannon fodder, is fine," Yanzi shrugged, indifferent.

She then suddenly changed her expression, "Hey, you’re not suggesting I shouldn’t hand over the task, are you? I won’t do that."

Liu Dehua sighed, "That’s not what I mean. Just be extra careful. You’re right; after all, this is just a game, overanalyzing it is pointless."

"Yeah, you should take it easy too," Yanzi nodded, stood up to leave, then paused, and added, "But this kind of intelligence sharing is quite nice, let’s continue next time. Now, in the entire clan, you’re the only one I can truly trust, don’t let me down."

Liu Dehua calmly watched her leave, and once she had completely left, he took out an encrypted communication device and pressed a number.

"Hello, please connect me to that person’s phone and tell him I have important news to inform him."

...

Meanwhile, in another room, Hei Bing No. 2 was also lost in thought, reminiscing about his memories from last night.

Last night, he had infiltrated the Twin Tower through the abandoned sewer system and was about to rendezvous with others when his mind was suddenly pulled into a world full of electronic rain.

There, he unexpectedly met with Baozi’s boss, the mysterious NPC named Mr. G. Without a word, this NPC directly modified the forbidden chip installed in him, making him instantly regain his reason.

Only then did he realize that unknowingly, he had undergone a significant change within the game.

This change went unnoticed in reality, sending a cold sweat down his back.

Then, this Mr. G issued a special mission to him.

Soon after, he was teleported back outside the Twin Tower.

"Mission, mission—"

[Mission: Infernal Affairs]

Difficulty: Difficult

Mission Briefing: Within the Evil Jade Clan, there are pawns from different forces. Investigate their backgrounds.

Mission Objective: Find the mole

Mission Rewards: Experience +14000, one customized brain skull chip modification

The mission itself wasn’t problematic, but Hei Bing No. 2 was starting to question his existence.

Is my current personality still the original version?

’Customized brain skull chip modification?’

Hei Bing No. 2 took a deep breath, realizing he had work to do again.

...

At the same time, in a secret base of the Biochemical Geisha Group, with a splash of water, a figure under harsh interrogation was revealed.

It was the missing Scissorhand.

"Oh my, such a cute boy, how could you be so harsh with him," a lazy voice rang out.

"Boss, he won’t confess no matter what we do—"

In the anxious voice of a geisha, a stunning courtesan slowly emerged. Her beauty was to the extreme, yet it felt very unreal, like a kind of holographic image.

This feeling was also present in another woman, Lady Red Dream, from the previous era’s remnant.

The boss walked up to the unconscious Scissorhand, placing her palm on his cheek, slowly seeping in.

"Hmm, personality distortion modification, that’s indeed a bit troublesome. I wonder who twisted this little guy like this," the boss smiled strangely, "In that case, let’s turn him completely into one of us."

"Boss, you mean—" the geisha was surprised, "inject him with the geisha serum? But that’s a modification drug for women."

"He’s so pretty, even more beautiful than some women."

...

At the same time, Gao Gong appeared in the Old Town District of Crime City.

Unlike the gang-filled Old Town of Nightless City, this Old Town District was desolate to the extreme. He walked three streets without seeing a single person.

Gao Gong toyed with a palm-sized black box in his hand, glancing at the taskbar.

[Task completed: Experience +30000, Mechanic Favorability +1000, Nightless City Reputation +2000, Mechanical System Fragment*1, Biomimetic Origin Fragment*1]

With the help of a ’small-scale Void Realm’ from a Level 4 Civilization, Gao Gong’s performance last night was not inferior to a complete form ’Brain-in-a-Vat’, turning the Twin Tower into an information realm, where all encryption methods appeared transparent to him.

As expected, the task was completed.

Under normal circumstances, he could already report back to the old Mechanic.

However, while searching through the memories of Evil Jade Clan players, he stumbled upon something interesting.

This made him decide to check it out.

"It should be around here."

The place where the Evil Jade Clan player last received a task.

"Gallery?" The Collider scratched his head, crushed the door lock with one hand, and entered the abandoned gallery.

A thick dusty smell hit his face, resembling ashes.

"The signal is interrupted," Pupil encountered the same issue as last night’s hacker, but as a Level 40 Elite, she had plenty of ways to handle it.

"Number One! Number Two! Restart the gallery’s power system for me."

"Okay, Sister Pupil!"

Two loli voices came from the air, followed by the sound of heavy objects moving.

Then, Neural Modeling began to activate, with human neural models appearing and sharing neural currents with one another, quickly forming an ’artificial signal tower.’

In the next moment, all the lights turned on, and various mechanisms either shut down or were controlled.

"Wow, so many paintings!"

The walls on either side were lined with various oil paintings, depicting a wide array of people. Due to the realistic painting style of oils, the people in these paintings appeared lifelike, with even their expressions almost perfectly captured.

"The expressions of these people," The Collider pondered for a long time, unsure of how to describe it, and finally uttered three words, "So strange."

Gao Gong looked over and noticed that these people’s expressions embodied two characteristics: those of kindness and evil.

For example, kindness and malevolence; ferociousness and benevolence; jealousy and tolerance.

The two emotions were intriguingly fused together, revealing different nuances from varied angles.

"Interesting paintings," The Collider chuckled.

"More than just interesting," Pupil snorted coldly, "I’ve never seen paintings that depict neural systems so vividly."

The Neural Modeler used ’programming’ techniques, and in the next moment, countless neural lights appeared within the paintings.

Then, the people in the paintings walked out one by one.

The Collider was stunned, "What is this?"

"Hidden neural nodes within the paintings, allowing some cybernetic spirits to use these nodes to leap around."

"Aren’t these network nodes, jumping from one virtual community to another?" The Collider nodded in understanding.

"Its scope is narrower and demands stricter conditions, more like a network surrogate."

"So who would do such a thing? A hacker from Crime City?"

"There’s another possibility, like the remnants of a Mechanical Main Brain," Gao Gong smiled, "You might as well come out. Given your current state, it’s unlikely you could handle a fully committed Neural Modeler."

"Finding you out could get ugly, and when that happens, your chances of negotiating with us would be slim."

Gao Gong stretched out his palm, and a metal gyroscope appeared.

"Once the Void Realm is activated, it’s not so easy to shut it down."

As soon as the gyroscope appeared, all the viewers in the paintings turned their gaze toward it, seemingly viewing it as a small data black hole.

Finally, a steady voice echoed.

"A treasure of an Advanced Civilization; are you Cloud Nobility?"

Gao Gong chuckled but did not reply, casually spinning the gyroscope in his palm, like a data black hole opening and closing at will.

"Turns out you’re not. Cloud Nobility wouldn’t have such means, so it was you masquerading as me last night?"

"I am Mr. G, Speakerless, I’ve long admired your fame."