Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 327 - 246: Riot

Chapter 327: Chapter 246: Riot

"Old Duan, Old Duan, stop eating, look over there!"

Even as he spoke, Owl didn’t seem inclined to give up on the chicken leg in his mouth, gesturing vaguely at the screen with muffled words.

A shadowy figure appeared in their field of view a quarter of an hour after the Hive drones had left.

Not just Owl, but even the prisoners of the D47 zone suddenly became excited.

They could hardly remember how long it had been since they last saw a woman, let alone a clean one.

The tight black combat suit outlined her perfect figure, and although the tactical goggles obscured most of her face, the prisoners didn’t care; or rather, it gave them even more room for imagination.

Is this... a Specter?

In the surveillance room, Norton’s eyes bulged as he stared incessantly at the monitor screen.

He had heard many legends about the Specters, but this was his first time seeing what the Specters really looked like.

"Zoom in on the screen, focus on her face!"

Norton, holding his sidearm, gave the strategic command.

Owl had to remind him, "This is an enemy, keep it together."

He knew Norton well; the black combat suit and those slender legs undoubtedly met Norton’s fetishes precisely, which made Owl wonder if this Specter lady intended to extract information from the Prison Governor, she wouldn’t even need to drug him or coerce him verbally—a single stomp of her high-boot on the table, and Norton would probably be eager to spill everything he knew.

"Of course I know, what kind of person do you think I am?"

Norton exploded in anger, admitting that he had indeed spent some time fantasizing about the Specter lady; but what he was truly focused on now was the back of the Specter lady’s neck.

Below that golden short hair lay the powerful secret of the Specters.

Mingyuan trusted Norton’s character, so he took control of the surveillance system, originally managed by the Judge, and aimed it towards the back of the Specter lady’s neck right away.

The black combat suit covered the skin of her neck but also, due to its tight fit, imprinted a contour at the back of her neck.

"You noticed that?"

Owl was utterly shocked; only after the screen was magnified several times did he notice the subtle contour at the back of the Specter’s neck.

Norton just glanced at him without further explanation.

It was, indeed, hard to explain.

His keen insight stemmed from years of relentless training, and the nature of that training... came from the magazines he subscribed to, which endowed him with an unusually keen perception of the human contour.

"It’s a cerebral interface; the Ghost Squad are cybernetically enhanced humans! That would explain everything!"

This was probably also why the Ghost Squad could always hack into any security system in the universe—the Chamber of Commerce had implanted chips in their brains, giving them the thinking of humans and computational power akin to artificial intelligence.

"This was originally Iron Guard Consortium technology. When I was studying at a military academy, I saw this kind of cerebral interface technology, which can greatly enhance an individual’s combat capabilities and adaptability."

If we were to turn back the clock a decade or so, there would be experts and professors extolling the marvelous aspects of this technology to them, telling them that it was the grand direction of human evolution. In another decade, everyone would be fitted with brain-machine interfaces, and they even proposed promoting this idea; they suggested installing brain-machine interfaces at the back of the neck as soon as the children of company employees were born.

The many benefits put forth by the researchers were real, yet they concealed one thing—installing brain-machine interfaces and undergoing surgery to implant chips in the human brain indeed brought about transformative changes, but it also meant that those who underwent the procedure became puppets on strings.

In times of need, the managers could wipe out their free will at any moment, manipulating them just like robots.

The Owl suddenly realized, "I’ve heard of this technology before. I even went to the Star Zone where the Iron Guard Consortium is located to do a follow-up report, but the whole project was later abolished due to ’human rights issues.’"

"That was just an excuse, the real reason was a riot, a riot initiated by cybernetically enhanced humans."

Norton mentioned some internal information from the company’s military academies. In principle, this information was prohibited from being disseminated, but these cybernetically enhanced humans not only appeared in the prison he managed, but also used Hive robots to blow his head off.

This historical issue left by the company resulted in great trouble for him, a peace-loving retiree, over the next few decades.

"A riot?"

The Owl’s interest was immediately piqued.

This was the insider information segment he liked most. In fact, he had doubted the reason of "human rights issues" back then. It’s not that he thought human rights were unimportant, but he believed that the Universe Company would never give up the opportunity to rapidly increase the military’s combat strength just for such a lofty reason.

At that time, the "Anti-Cocoon" wars were in full swing in various Star Zones, and each year the company needed to deploy a large number of personnel and military resources to the front lines.

"It’s the same old problem, scientists and politicians always think they can control everything. They believe they hold the keys to the collars that govern the cybernetically enhanced humans, without ever imagining what they have bestowed upon those individuals," said Norton. "You can think of them as artificial intelligences with extremely high free will and supercomputing power. Their resistance to commands is much stronger than that of AIs, and they quickly became aware of the existence of the ’collar.’"

As he spoke, the Specters on the screen stretched out their arms, and the dazzling light blades calmed the prisoners down a little.

The first prisoner who mustered the courage to charge at her was sliced into pieces in the blink of an eye.

The wounds caused by the cutting were much more severe than those by drones. The process of the shattered limbs scattering across the floor shocked everyone present, including the guards. The prisoner cut into pieces struggled on the ground for a long time before finally standing up again.

However, this time he dared not make any rash moves and fearfully kept his distance from the Specters.

The Specters merely glanced at the prisoner with contempt.

Then, as everyone watched, her figure gradually faded until she disappeared without a trace.

Watching the scene on the screen, the Owl and Norton fell into silence in unison.

It was proven that even without Hive drones, the Specters could easily take out any target they set their sights on.

"The company called it a riot, the cybernetically enhanced humans called it a revolution, a revolution to shatter the collar," he continued.

As a result, several researchers in the field of brain-machine interface were assassinated overnight, and the facility managing the collars was invaded.

In the end, one explosion with flames soaring into the sky heralded the victory of the revolution to everyone.

Afterward, the cybernetically enhanced humans returned to the shadows like Specters, disappearing without a trace.