Chapter 579: Plan 03

Chapter 579: Plan No. 03

“Mission…”

Staring blankly at the person before her, Little Lamb’s eyes were filled with confusion and fear, and she instinctively shuffled backward.

Seeing her reaction, Night Ten sheathed the blood-smeared short blade and scratched his helmet.

“I know I look a bit scary, but I’m actually a good guy… Uh, well, I know that doesn’t sound convincing.”

If it were him, and one day a murderous maniac suddenly burst into his neighborhood, grabbed his arm, and told him to come along, he’d probably piss himself too.

The fact that she hadn’t cried from fright showed that this little girl had decent mental fortitude.

But the problem was, given the current situation, he really didn’t know how to explain it—he was just as baffled himself.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to take the carriage to the servants’ quarters nearby, then sneak into the annex and spirit the girl away without anyone noticing.

But things had deviated from the plan from the very start.

The carriage had stopped halfway, and then the coachman burst in, lunging at him like a madman.

At first, Night Ten had tried to subdue the man, but he soon found it useless—the guy wouldn’t listen, even reaching for his weapon.

Unable to communicate at all, Night Ten had no choice but to snap his neck, then jump out of the carriage and head straight for the annex at the corner of the estate.

But when he got there, he realized things weren’t as simple as he’d imagined. Everyone in the annex was in the same state as the coachman.

The moment he stepped inside, they sensed his presence and swarmed him like zombies.

If Old White hadn’t helped deliver the exoskeleton to the settlement before the operation, and that rebellious officer hadn’t helped them get it here, fighting his way out of that zombie horde might not have been easy.

To be honest, he was still completely in the dark, with no clue what was going on.

The only thing he was sure of was that something terrible must have happened in this estate—and probably the whole settlement.

Maybe they should have conducted a more thorough investigation before entering the settlement.

Clearly, someone had been watching them, used their plan against them, and set them up.

Just as Night Ten was pondering how to explain, the girl lying groggily in Little Lamb’s arms suddenly fluttered her eyelashes. As if awakened by the commotion, she let out a slow, drowsy murmur.

“Hungry…”

The eerie sound that came out of nowhere sent a bone-chilling cold through both of them in the basement, like falling into a fifty-below-zero ice cave.

Yinyin opened her mouth grotesquely, her gums bared, like a beast that hadn’t eaten in a week, and bit down hard on Little Lamb’s neck.

Little Lamb was completely stunned, frozen in place.

Just as the gaping maw was about to sink in, a gun barrel was roughly shoved into her mouth, pushing Yinyin, who was on top of her, back.

“Ah!!”

Yinyin let out a frenzied roar, her hands, veins bulging, reaching forward wildly, her bloodthirsty pupils seeming to want to tear her apart.

“You… are you crazy?! Get away from her!” Seeing the terrified little girl, Night Ten broke out in a cold sweat and couldn’t help shouting.

Good grief.

She didn’t even dodge when it bit her—she even closed her eyes.

If he’d been two minutes later, the one lying here would have been a mangled corpse!

Watching Yinyin’s twisted, struggling face and the gun barrel in her mouth, Little Lamb suddenly snapped out of it, as if coming back to life. She lunged forward, grabbing his leg, and cried out with a sob.

“Don’t… don’t shoot!”

Seeing Little Lamb’s desperate plea, Night Ten gritted his teeth, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He turned off the safety, grabbed the now-zombified girl, and dragged her aside, tying her hands and feet with plastic rope.

Bound hand and foot, Yinyin thrashed on the ground, dust on her lashes, her pretty face twisted into a knot. She was like a wild beast now, baring her teeth and hissing.

“She’s ‘zombified’… just like those outside, like Gnawers. Damn it, what the hell did these bastards plant besides Naguo?”

Standing up, Night Ten glanced at the struggling little girl, then turned to Little Lamb, who was kneeling on the ground.

“No time to explain. I’ll make it short—believe it or not. Your dad paid us to come get you out of here. Now, you need to stick close to me, and I’ll take you away. Of course, if you don’t cooperate, I’ll have to tie you up and take you like her. Got it?”

If he could help it, he really didn’t want to do this. Dealing with those Gnawer-like things outside was trouble enough, and his ammo wasn’t unlimited.

He had reason to suspect that it wasn’t just the people in this estate that had turned into that state—the whole settlement might have been hit. Who knew what they’d run into next.

Fortunately, though this little girl didn’t seem too bright, she was calm enough. Even scared out of her wits, she hadn’t lost the ability to communicate and could still talk normally.

Looking at the blood-soaked man, Little Lamb nodded, her face pale.

“I understand… I’ll go with you. Please, I beg you, save Yinyin…”

Glancing at the little girl tied up like a bundle against the wall, Night Ten’s face showed a troubled expression.

“Save… how the hell am I supposed to do that?”

To be honest, he didn’t even know what had happened to these people.

Take her back with tape over her mouth?

It wasn’t impossible.

But he was alone, and one dead weight was already a handful. Adding another liability, even he wasn’t confident.

Little Lamb swallowed, trying to stay calm, and spoke in a trembling voice.

“I… I might know why everyone turned out like this.”

“Huh?” Night Ten looked at her.

Seeing that he was willing to listen, Little Lamb continued patiently.

“This annex… is a very important place in the estate. A long, long time ago, it was the main building. Later, when the new big house was built, the master used it to keep important guests under house arrest.”

A flicker of surprise crossed Night Ten’s eyes.

That didn’t sound like something a six-year-old would say.

Could she even understand the concept of a hostage at her age?

“And then?”

Little Lamb went on.

“Because it’s so important… a lot of people guard it. Some of the servants wear servants’ clothes, but they’re not really servants—they’re the master’s trusted men. It’s no exaggeration to say this place is even safer than the main building. That’s why the master feels very secure here. If I went somewhere else, a lot of people would be anxious looking for me, but here, even if I disappear for a while, no one cares…”

“So, if there’s a secret that needs to be hidden, your master would probably keep it here?” Night Ten rubbed his chin, pondering.

Whether for protection or surveillance, this was indeed the safest choice. The hostages living in the annex also served as a smokescreen.

If they had stationed guards in a separate area, it would have been more conspicuous.

Little Lamb nodded nervously.

“Mm… Don’t you think it’s strange? Such an important place, with such a big basement, but it’s only used for storing junk. And actually, no one really puts everyday things in here—the boxes have a thick layer of dust on them.”

Night Ten raised his flashlight and scanned the surroundings, trying to spot something, but no matter how he looked, it was just an ordinary basement.

Still, as she said, keeping such a meaningless space in such an important place was indeed suspicious.

Even if it had been dug long ago and was no longer needed, they should have filled it in or sealed it completely, right?

But the master of this estate hadn’t done that.

"Then... Yin Yin told me there's an iron door in the basement of the annex. If we hide there, no one will ever find us, and she led me to sneak in."

"Actually... I felt it wasn't right. If we accidentally saw something we shouldn't, something terrible might happen, but I couldn't talk her out of it, so I had to follow her down."

"After we got down, she said she heard a sound, and then she led me forward... We really did find that door."

Ye Shi swallowed hard.

"That door... what's behind it?"

Little Lamb shook his head, his face full of regret.

"I don't know... Yin Yin wanted to open the door, but as soon as she grabbed the handle, she passed out. She slept for a long, long time, and when she woke up, she was like this. I guess it has something to do with the sound behind that door... but I can't hear the sound she mentioned at all."

Ye Shi frowned.

"I didn't hear it either."

Logically, that shouldn't be.

His perception was very high; even the slightest noise would be amplified by his keen sixth sense and instinctively analyzed.

If there really was a sound there, it couldn't escape his intuition.

Yet suspiciously, he sensed nothing at all.

"...I believe Yin Yin wasn't joking. She really heard something and followed the sound to that door. If we could get in and turn off whatever's making the noise, she should return to normal."

With that, Little Lamb grabbed Ye Shi's arm and looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Please, I beg you... save her."

Honestly, Ye Shi didn't want to stir up trouble.

Especially since the plan had gone off track from the start, and Fang Chang's situation was still unknown.

So many variables had already occurred; maybe the main objective of "controlling the farm owner" had already failed. In that case, retreating with the secondary objective and cutting losses might be the safest choice.

Staying too long in the basement wasn't a good idea; the only exit could easily be blocked by pursuers.

What if there was nothing behind that door after all?

If it were that important, why wasn't there a guard, or even a lock, letting two kids find it so easily and almost open it?

But seeing the NPC's pleading eyes, he finally gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and tapped his helmet with his right fist.

"...Fang Chang, what's your situation?"

There was no sound in the communication channel, only static.

It wasn't just a lack of signal; it felt like something was interfering.

Ye Shi cursed under his breath, tapped his helmet to turn off the channel, and looked at the girl whose eyes were full of entreaty.

"Think carefully—you only have one life. This isn't a joke. I don't want to hear any 'How could this be?' or 'I might have misheard' later."

He didn't mind dying.

After all, he'd respawn in three days.

He might feel sorry for Brother Luo Yu if he couldn't bring them back safely, but given what happened, he wouldn't blame him too much.

Little Lamb nodded seriously.

"Yeah... I've thought it through."

Ye Shi nodded and took a deep breath.

"Then I'll trust what you said."

"Thank you..."

Looking at the little girl who thanked him sincerely, Ye Shi urged.

"It's too early to say that. Take me there."

"Okay!"

Little Lamb nodded nervously and ran ahead.

Ye Shi followed behind. They walked through the dark basement for a while and soon found the iron door hidden behind wooden crates in a remote compartment.

Rust stains crept from the handle into the cracks, making one wonder how long it had been since anyone visited.

"It's here..." Seeing the rusty iron door, Little Lamb timidly stepped back behind him.

Ye Shi stepped forward, grabbed the rusty handle, pulled, found it heavy, and used the power of his exoskeleton to yank it open.

The heavy door was too much for a six- or seven-year-old girl, but for him in the exoskeleton, it felt as light as paper.

With a grating creak, the rusty iron door swung open easily, revealing a passage behind it.

"Wow... it really wasn't locked?"

The passage behind the door was clean and tidy, with metal flooring and cement-gray painted walls. Compared to the basement outside and the rusty door, this corridor was a completely different world.

Seeing the corridor leading to who knows where, Ye Shi's face showed surprise, his eyes gradually brightening. He turned back to Little Lamb.

"Wait here for me... If anyone comes in, run straight into the door."

Little Lamb nodded vigorously and replied seriously.

"Okay!"

With the affirmative answer, Ye Shi didn't delay. He raised his gun, carefully stepped through the door, and continued exploring along the clean corridor.

It looked like a clinic or a lab. Through the glass windows, he could see a dazzling array of equipment and sci-fi display screens.

All signs indicated it had been abandoned, and recently at that.

Whether they left in a hurry without cleaning up or simply didn't need to, the screens were still on, and some experimental devices were still running, emitting meaningless hums.

Ye Shi grew more astonished.

It was hard to imagine such a research facility in an unremarkable plantation.

Could a mere farm owner really afford the expenses of this place?

It was far more expensive than building a nice house.

He entered one of the labs.

Ye Shi looked at the nearest screen, which showed a blank interface with nothing on it—probably all data had been erased.

He left the lab and continued down the corridor until he reached the deepest room.

When he stepped inside, he was shocked by what he saw.

A huge metal cylinder sat in the center of the room, connecting floor and ceiling. Thick cables, as thick as an arm, extended from its base, linking it to the walls and another device in the room.

This thing looked familiar.

After a closer look, Ye Shi's eyes widened in surprise.

"...A mental interference device?!"

It was exactly like the one he'd seen on the eastern outskirts of Clear Springs City! Even the main structure was unchanged, only the connected peripherals had been modified!

"Could this be what's driving everyone outside mad? ...Wait, that's not right. This thing shouldn't affect humans with higher mental capacity, should it?"

It wasn't completely useless, but its influence was extremely limited—so limited that it could only sway people's subjective judgment on trivial matters. For instance, when hesitating over whether to buy something, it might tip the scales toward purchase or refusal.

Yet when it came to major decisions concerning life, society, or even the future of civilization, this device had almost no effect at all.

Otherwise, when the technology was first developed, it wouldn't have been used merely for advertising; the entire Human Federation might have been overturned by such a groundbreaking innovation.

Suddenly, Ye Shi remembered a crucial detail.

"Naguo...?"

Under normal circumstances, the mental interference device was ineffective on humans, at most capable of driving away low-intelligence aberrations over a wide area.

But if someone ate Naguo and entered a trance state...

"Damn... so the so-called 'Gospel' is actually this thing?!"

Other settlements might be hiding something similar too!

At that thought, Ye Shi's scalp tingled.

But this wasn't the time to dwell on it.

Walking over to the terminal connected to the metal tube, Ye Shi pulled a data cable from his VM, fumbled around, and finally found a suitable port to plug into.

The Alliance's scientific expedition team provided hacking programs to players above LV3, including basic functions like breaching firewalls, accessing door controls, and extracting data.

This hacking program was primarily designed for pre-war civilian security systems.

Though such generic little programs were often unreliable—especially since the VM's hardware couldn't handle massive computations—given the lax security here, where they couldn't even be bothered to lock doors, it was worth a try.

The entire settlement lay under the coverage of this mental interference device.

If his deduction was correct, every "believer" here was theoretically an eye for the bishop hidden in the sanctuary. Even the farm owner himself had unknowingly become a puppet of the Torch Church.

All the concealment was aimed at outsiders; for the people living here, there was no need for disguise or protection.

The mental interference device itself was the best defense.

If someone accidentally wandered in, all they had to do was, like today, "turn off" the poor soul's consciousness and let them pass out.

Ye Shi stared tensely at the VM screen, silently counting the time in his mind.

He needed to take as much data from here as possible, but he also had to consider the pressure his teammates were under.

If there was no result in two minutes, he would slap C4 onto the metal tube, set a timer, and physically destroy this research facility.

Perhaps hearing the call from the depths of his heart, in the last ten seconds of the countdown, a pale blue pop-up appeared in the center of the VM screen.

[Read-only permission acquired.]

[Acquiring operation permission...]

Seeing these words, Ye Shi, who had almost given up, nearly shouted in surprise.

"Holy shit!? It actually works!"

Yin Fang, you're a legend!

Of course, maybe Xiao Qi was the real MVP!

A simple interface appeared on the terminal screen ahead. Though the dense characters were all gibberish to him, the plugin installed on the VM automatically translated them into language convenient for players.

The copy program was running automatically.

Although most of the data had been deleted, some residual data was still unearthed and organized.

While waiting for the VM's little program to gain operation permission to shut down the device, Ye Shi opened one of the organized files. A title line quickly caught his eye.

"...Plan 03?"

What the hell?

The title alone revealed nothing.

Driven by curiosity, Ye Shi dragged his index finger across the screen, looked at the file's summary, and read it aloud in a low voice.

"...In the event that the plan is deemed at risk of leakage, the relevant research unit must immediately terminate ongoing research, destroy experimental data, and initiate Plan 03."

"Experiment content: Test and record the clinical reactions and combat value of subjects under stimulation from the 03-band signal... Damn, are these guys even human?"

Ye Shi's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

What combat value could this possibly have...

They're just a bunch of Gnawers!

And probably not even as impressive as Gnawers—at least the latter don't need supplies and can survive for ages without eating anything.

Of course, that wasn't the point.

The point was, to verify such a pointless thing, they had unhesitatingly sacrificed this settlement of fifty thousand people... even though the settlement had already surrendered to them.

These bastards...

What the hell do they think people are?!

Wait—

Suddenly, Ye Shi noticed a detail.

Though the personnel in this research facility had withdrawn, since Plan 03 was also part of the experiment, someone had to stay behind to record and collect the results, right?

Otherwise, wouldn't the experiment be wasted?

And at that very moment, a bone-deep chill crawled up his spine.

Without time to pinpoint the source of that dread, Ye Shi instinctively raised his gun barrel toward the door and pulled the trigger without a second thought.

Even though there was nothing there!

"Rat-tat-tat—!"

An orange tongue of flame spat from the muzzle, lashing at the empty doorway.

But a bizarre scene unfolded: the hail of bullets seemed to hit an invisible wall, sparks flying as they struck rings of transparent ripples.

The outline of an exoskeleton appeared in the air.

The man, who had taken a full burst, staggered backward, nearly losing his footing.

He clearly hadn't expected that, despite his nearly flawless optical camouflage and muffled footsteps, his position would be exposed.

Steadying himself, he raised his gun to return fire, but as he squeezed off two shots, a gust of wind swept toward his face.

It was a short blade stained with blood.

He instinctively raised his arm to protect his head. That move saved his life, but it also meant his arm took a solid hit.

"Ahhh—!!"

The blade sliced straight through the exoskeleton's armor, cut through flesh, and hacked into his radius bone. He let out a pained scream as blood and sweat gushed out.

Pinning the man to the ground, Ye Shi yanked the short blade out with a click, aimed his rifle at the man's head, and grinned with a sneer.

"Well, well... I was just looking to take someone alive, and you come right to me."