"Is this the research center?"

Atomic Island wasn’t big; from a tall building, you could see the coastline at a glance, and the research center was at the heart of this ’amusement park.’

"Stop talking; there are quite a few people here. Be careful not to be discovered."

The group quietly made their way to the edge of the area. Baozi released his bionic eye, which sprouted wings from its sides and flew into the air to observe the situation.

Apart from a few old friends, they had some new companions, like ’Simp,’ ’Master Baoo,’ and ’Brother Cha,’ all top players, either level 29 or 30, who had survived the first wave of prosthetic zombie onslaughts and gathered together.

"There’s quite a crowd."

Based on the experience players gained from ’getting themselves killed,’ the perception range of these ancient robots was linked to your ’prosthetic body level.’ In other words, the higher your weapon and equipment level, the higher your chance of being detected.

It’s a peculiar ’detection range.’

Even Baozi could only monitor from afar; the ’flying eyeball’ was the most basic Tier 1 Whiteboard, functioning solely for surveillance, much like an ancient remote drone.

And this number clearly exceeded what they could handle.

"I’ll lead a wave first, then you higher-modified ones lead another wave. Finally, Brother Umbrella, Brother Cha, and other biological transformers will find a way to sneak in, locate Professor Xie’s projection, and concoct the antidote to proceed to the next stage of the mission."

They were all high-end players, excellent in operation, richly skilled, their communication had low costs, basically without cursing.

At this moment, Sister Ji’s long hair and implant threads flew wildly, and as these ’implant threads’ swirled, her entire biological signal quickly transformed into a sensory signal. One after another ’Sister Ji’ projections emerged, numbering in tens, hundreds, and thousands, swarming into the ’research base’ like a tourist flood.

"Holy shit, it’s only been a few months, Sister Ji! How did you become so awesome!?"

Baozi was dumbfounded by this sight. Just holographic projection would have been fine, but the key was, he couldn’t tell the real from the fake with his naked eyes.

"Nonsense, do you know how popular my sales of films have been? Stop talking crap and get moving; this skill’s cooldown is long!"

Soon, gunshots, cannon blasts, and various improvised weapon sounds erupted from all directions. Someone uninformed might think there was a legion attacking here.

Meanwhile, Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella silently looked at Brother Cha and suddenly said, "Did Carbon Fusion fail?"

Brother Cha, who looked very much like a ’Limb Replacer Greck,’ raised his head in astonishment.

"The biological rejection didn’t reset. The failure probability is indeed high."

"Did you... succeed?" Brother Cha asked suspiciously.

"We’ll discuss it in detail after the mission. I have a way to reset it."

"Alright!"

The two were silent for a moment, then finally received the attack signal. Brother Umbrella made a sudden flip, his muscular outline evident under his black skin-tight clothing, disappearing in mid-air before he landed.

As for Brother Cha, his eyes immediately turned crimson, and an endless agony seemed to press from each cell, oppressing his nerves. His shoulder suddenly grew a hand, grabbing the protruding bone spike from his body and pulling out a meter-long bone blade. He stomped fiercely, and despite his robust, fearful physique, he had an abnormal mastery over his body, dodging 99% of the bullets as he flashed past, metal flying wherever he went.

The plan was quite smooth. When Brother Cha, responsible for fighting in the wild, attracted the last wave of enemies, Brother Umbrella successfully infiltrated the core area. As he pressed the switch, an elderly professor’s face appeared on the screen.

"Dr. Xie?"

"Young man, have you found the virus source yet?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Brother Umbrella said nothing, carefully withdrawing a test tube from the isolation pocket, the transparent liquid inside gently swaying.

"Very good. Now, follow my instructions quickly. I don’t have much time left. Only by concocting the antidote quickly can we save everyone."

"Wait," Brother Umbrella interrupted the old man, paused for a moment, then spoke: "The antidote you mentioned, what’s its relation to the Atomic Heart?"

"The ’Atomic Heart’ is a very peculiar virus. The more people die, the faster it spreads. If not stopped, soon the entire city and even the entire world will be under its threat."

"This antidote cannot cure the virus but can generate antibodies within you, giving you enough time to find the true source of the virus."

Indeed, as Dr. Xie’s words came out, the players’ task panel entered the second phase: concocting the antidote and searching for further clues about the ’Atomic Heart’ before the ’Second Generation Ghost’ virus ran rampant.

"I understand!"

Half an hour later, Brother Umbrella left with the concocted antidote. Meanwhile, the ’Dr. Xie’ in the image smacked his lips, his features quickly changing, the age spots disappearing, wrinkles smoothing out, transforming back into Gao Gong’s appearance.

"Let me think, how should I construct the next phase of the mission, have a team of Mas Sharpness Faction’s advanced combat personnel search for the ’Atomic Heart’, increase the enemy NPC number, and enhance the map. After all, this is a Hell-level Task!"

...

"How did you do it?"

Watching the number of players on the island drop from five figures to single digits, only to rise back to five figures within a day, Miao Miaomiao was baffled.

To know, these people’s combat power isn’t weak, having a place even in most corporate security departments.

How could these people’s brains be so malfunctioning?!

Gao Gong silently smiled, if only the task didn’t have a time limit, otherwise I’d bring all players from this planet to show you what the ’4th Celestial Calamity’s bounty really is.

"As of now, the virus evolution is going smoothly, so should we talk about something else?"

"Talk about what?"

"Let me think, are you still using cat litter nowadays?"

...

While Gao Gong turned into a villain, conducting Cyber Experiments in the Cyber Test Field, a large biological radar station pinged, bringing up a bright spot that aligned perfectly with Atomic City’s location.

Crimson eyes emerged from the darkness, with the faint light revealing a massive mechanical body.

"The pest has finally been found. It’s time to awaken those old pals!"

According to cosmic standards, on a rock planet, whether the mantle and Earth Core can be developed is an important measure of a planet civilization’s technology.

On Mechanical Split Star, this technology also exists, and is controlled by the Mother City.

In most people’s eyes, the three major Mother Cities are like urban legends. Their touch seems to extend to every corner, yet in reality, few have seen the Mother City in action.

The reason is simple: the Mother City’s technology has long developed the space beneath the crust. The planet’s surface is for test specimens to live, while the planet core is where this world’s leaders reside.

Now, with the ’Searcher’s’ summoning, the door to the crust opened, and wave upon wave of at least level 50 mechanical men rose from the Earth Core passage. A mechanical vengeance was about to unfold.