Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 687 - 31 Virtual World

Chapter 687: Chapter 31 Virtual World

A red line marked on the electronic map dropped by Phantom Virus showed a route from Dome Garden to a place called Itala, before splitting into three trails and eventually converging onto the Resistance Base.

"Meiqin, you drive!" Tang Zheng jumped into the floating bus, supporting Lin Weiguo. He handed the Golden Seed to Ruan Feifei, "Any objections?"

"No." Ruan Feifei shook her head, took a glance at the seat in the middle where she was supposed to rest, hesitated for a few moments but let go of her caution. She took out a first aid kit and helped to support the old soldier. "Let me do it. I have self-taught first aid before."

"Thank you!" The old soldier’s face was pale from blood loss, but he was still in high spirits. "It’s a pity I lost an arm. In the actions to come, I will be a burden."

"What are you talking about? We never complained about you!" Tang Zheng handed the task over to Ruan Feifei. After all, she was a woman and was good at these delicate tasks.

"That monster was terrifying. After turning into a crystal, it could permeate into my steel armor. The next time we meet it, we can only attack from a distance. I discovered that it seems unable to withstand natural magic." Lin Weiguo drew on his experience and shared every insight, which Tang Zheng reciprocated.

Beep beep, Tang Zheng’s radar suddenly sounded. Once he opened it, the target profile was blinking and moving towards him. Overjoyed, he knew that he’d only get this kind of reaction when the target was within a specific range.

"To the left, full speed ahead. Open the car door." Tang Zheng grabbed his rifle and moved towards the door, keeping an eye on his surroundings like a lion on the hunt, ready to pounce and kill his prey at any time.

Five fully armed men carrying a large amount of thermal weapons and pulling a girl were clumsily fleeing in panic before a dozen mechanical squids on their tail. Despite their relentless fire, they could not stop these killing machines. Their situation was perilous.

The mechanical squids continuously shot bullets from their mouths, spraying at the six of them, and occasionally opened the suckers on their tentacles to fire missiles.

Explosions and gunshots filled the air, but no one dared to watch. Mechanical squids were the queen’s guards. Interfering with their mission meant no place to reason if one was accidentally killed.

One man stopped, aimed his RPG at a mechanical squid and fired a rocket shell, trailing white smoke. It struck the front of one squid’s eye and exploded into a ball of fire.

However, the squid only lost a few tentacles and was still able to fight. The man’s leg was hit by the squid’s machine gun fire.

"Don’t mind me, you guys run!" The man shouted while pressing the small bomb on his chest.

His four companions did not look back, but their twisted expressions and teary eyes proved their friendship. They didn’t want their comrade’s sacrifice to be in vain.

A mechanical squid arrived next to the man, and two sharp tentacles shot out. They pierced through his body and entered his chest. Just as it was about to toss him away like trash, the man pressed the detonator.

Boom. A violent explosion swept the surroundings. At least five squids were swallowed up by the wave of fire and explosives, becoming a pile of scrap iron.

"You guys go ahead!" Another man carrying an RPG rocket launcher voluntarily stopped. His determined face showed no hesitation. He took on the risky task of sniping the mechanical squids.

Just when he thought he was going to die, a man in power armor flew in, hitting a mechanical squid just a few meters in front of him. While rolling, his powerful arms ripped off the squid’s tentacles.

The man was shocked and dumbfounded. Tang Zheng, who was bathed in the moonlight and burning flames appeared even more dazzling with his red and golden body paint. But the most striking scene was him brutally tearing the squid apart. It was violent and shocking.

Boom bust, continuous explosions rose. Tang Zheng discarded a piece of a tentacle, disarmed himself, indicating no hostility before him. He wasn’t afraid of this guy making a move. If Pang Meiqin couldn’t deal with this weakling who couldn’t even handle a mechanical squid, then who could?

"Who are you guys? The Resistance?" Tang Zheng’s presence was intimidating. He didn’t want to waste any more time, and he decided to take advantage of the moment while the other man was still scared of him to take command.

"Correct!" The man didn’t deny it. The other side had killed the mechanical squids, a grave crime, and he thought they might not be pretending. If the resistance could recruit such a powerful person, it would be their luck.

"The queen wants to kill that girl. We are here to protect her. Please hand her over to me!" Tang Zheng wouldn’t easily believe, he needed to probe more. The other man had voluntarily stayed to resist the enemy. He was brave to the point where it seemed like he was the type to punch first, think later.

"No way!" The man refused bluntly. "She must go with us. Our leader said she’s crucial for our victory in this war."

"Where were you guys initially?" Tang Zheng frowned, noticing that the few Resistance soldiers didn’t stop but directly left.

"We were waiting for support elsewhere. We saw your fight with the Phantom Virus. Of course, if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have believed you." The man spat some blood, picked up his rifle, "Let’s leave now. This isn’t a place to talk."

"Get on the bus!" Tang Zheng waved his head. He speculated that his interlocutor must have a communication tool to keep in touch. For some reason, Trojan didn’t sell communication equipment, and the walkie-talkies supported a distance of at most about five hundred meters around.

"Let’s start with explaining the Phantom Virus," Tang Zheng was not in a hurry; he had the whole night ahead to spend with his interlocutor. "By the way, if those people are not with us, they will definitely die."

The man hesitated for a moment, dialed the captain’s number, and reported the situation here.

While waiting for the others to catch up, Tang Zheng also learned that, true to its name, the Phantom Virus was a junk program derived from the Matrix itself, highly aggressive, and whose raison d’être was to devour and destroy. Of course, a small portion of it might have been created by hackers.

"What did you say? Are we inside a Matrix? Are all the experiences we’re having now just illusions caused by brainwave connections after logging in?" Ruan Feifei said in astonishment. Even the target girl who had just boarded the bus was baffled and confused.

"Yes, this is the virtual world. As for real world history, humans have artificial intelligence and robots as their leaders in order to allocate social resources more equitably and fairly. However, with the evolution and improvement of AI, they also began to have various desires. For instance, not letting robots work long hours, allowing them to enjoy paid vacations, etc. Naturally, conflicts intensified, and war broke out between robots and humans." After shaking hands with Tang Zheng, the captain, having introduced himself, divulged facts that no one could believe.

"Where are our bodies then?" Tang asked, thinking of the map dropped by the Phantom Virus. "Where is Itala?"

"They should be in Itala, which is a base of the mechanical people. You all are biological energy sources, providing energy for their normal operations." The Captain frowned as he looked at the girl, " If you would like to leave, I can offer help."

"You mean, cooperation. Help us rescue them as an inside accomplice?" it is not the case that Ruan Feifei was slow to react. Who would believe there would be free lunch under this world?

"Them? Did you find other hacker geniuses?" With just one word, the captain inferred the implied meaning.

Seeing that Tang Zheng and the others remained silent, the captain chuckled and self-mockingly said, "We’ve dispatched twelve elite operational teams in total to search and rescue the hacker geniuses in order to combat the Mother Queen. However, six of the teams have already failed."

"Of course. You, who only know how to self-destruct, are elite? You couldn’t even kill one mechanical squid." Pang Meiqin’s words were piercing. The captain’s face instantly darkened, and the others were fuming and wanted to teach her a lesson.

Tang Zheng didn’t stop them. If he didn’t do so, how could he prove his own worth? He did not want the others to assume that he was begging them to rescue him.

No more than three minutes later, the three men who provoked Pang Meiqin to a freestyle fight could not get up and were writhing in pain in the carriage.

"What’s your plan next?" Tang Zheng noticed that the captain’s attitude towards him had become significantly more respectful. This was the most direct manifestation of power.

"We will continue to protect these geniuses until our headquarters launches an attack on Itala. At that time, we will forcibly leave the virtual world and then escape." The captain, without concealing anything, knew that it was impossible to hide anything from these people. They exuded a murderous aura, especially the man with the broken arm who remained expressionless. The captain guessed that he must have ways of interrogating.

"We’ve lost a lot of people; since this is a virtual world, can they be resurrected?" Tang Zheng had almost taken all doubtful points into account.

"It’s not possible. In the virtual world, death means brain death, real death!" The captain shook his head, pointed at the Old Soldier, and said. "Even though his arm isn’t broken in reality, he still can’t use it because the nerves have already been cut off."

"The robot’s technology is indeed advanced." Pang Meiqin felt disgusted at the thought of being used as a battery.

"How can we forcibly leave the virtual world?" Ruan Feife’s biggest concern was how to regain freedom.

"Injection Code!" The captain took out a syringe filled with blue fluid. "This is a forceful disconnection program that our programmer wrote. Once injected into your body, you’ll regain consciousness."

"Are there any side effects?"

"No!" The captain shook his head, put it away solemnly, and reassured everyone, "Don’t worry. In case of an emergency, each of us carries extra doses. Besides, the person who comes to the rescue will also carry the code to bring more people out, which means more power."

"If this world is virtual, doesn’t that mean it’s completely controlled by the Mother Queen? It would be easy for her to find us, wouldn’t it?" Tang Zheng panicked, worrying that Dantai and the others might be attacked. Now he finally understands where that strange feeling was coming from.

"The Mother Queen will not make a move. In its eyes, we are just junk programs. Black-clothed special agents are enough to deal with us. If it’s activated, it will consume a lot of energy." The captain took a deep breath," However, don’t think you’re out of the woods yet. Black-clothed special agents are difficult to deal with, especially the mutant Black-clothed Smiths, who are powerful antivirus software capable of destroying everything."

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PS, requesting recommendation! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)