Chapter 723: Turns Out I Was the One Who Overturned the Table

Chapter 723: So it was I who flipped the table

"Flipping the table again, are we... not bad..."

Vault 404, B4 browsing room.

Having finished his day's work, Chu Guang leaned back on the sofa, scrolling through the forum posts, but as he scrolled, a wave of wry amusement washed over him—

"Whoa! Pass it on! Fang Chang made money too fast and got sanctioned by the grand designer!"

"Hahaha! Divine justice!"

"Wait, Ah Wei, aren't you a shareholder too?"

"!! Giao!"

"I'd like to call it... efficient resource allocation! (Funny Face)"

"Brothers of the Death Corps! Give our marginal brother a wave of 666!"

"??? What the hell does that have to do with me!"

"Not important! Seeing you lose money is more satisfying than making money myself!"

"Holy crap! Is it really that brutal?"

"..."

The two identities did indeed bring him many benefits, especially that of the game designer, which bestowed upon him infinite power outside the rules of the game.

Yet this was not entirely without its drawbacks; few realized that responsibility, commensurate with infinite power, was also infinite.

Thus, aside from rational analysis on the forum, there was never a shortage of another humorous voice. For instance, that the mansion in Boulder City was actually bombed by him, that the man-made disaster in Brahma Province was masterminded behind the scenes by him, and even that the civil war of the Federation was instigated by him.

If one explained it according to this rhetoric, let alone the "Three Years' War" being started by him, it was feared that even Mount Buzhou must have been collapsed by him.

Xiao Qi, sitting on the pen holder, clutched its stomach and giggled non-stop; Chu Guang could not help but extend his index finger and flick its forehead.

The latter let out a strange cry and fell backward into the pen holder, and before long, gripped the rim of the holder with both hands, gazing at him pitifully.

"Wuuu..."

"Alright, stop playing the victim, go do something for me,"

Knowing this fellow would not feel pain at all, Chu Guang ignored its display of misery, continuing after a moment's thought.

"...Through the official website task system, send a message to the players who obtained temporary authority for Vault 70, telling them they can set out for Vault 70 now."

Though slightly disappointed at failing to win sympathy, Xiao Qi obediently carried out the task Chu Guang assigned.

Previously, the entrance to Vault 70 had been under the blockade of the Federation fleet, and even nuclear-powered submarines would find it difficult to sneak in under the watchful eyes of all.

Those thirteen vessels were legitimate warships, their equipped weapons likely refitted from starships, quite distinct from the "warships" of the Xilan Empire that could peck at civilian cargo ships for a hundred rounds.

If a deflection shield was a starship's "shield," those vessels were highly likely equipped with a starship's "spear."

The opening time of Vault 70 was in the 100th year of the Wasteland Era, at which point the Post-War Reconstruction Committee had already split for nearly fifty years.

Considering that Vault 70 and Vault 117 had maintained an information exchange, they would certainly understand the situation of the Legion.

In other words, the original intention behind the establishment of the Federation fleet was likely not to deal with marauders on the wasteland, but was built with the Legion, which possessed a large number of starship cores, as an imaginary enemy.

Both sides possessed powers that the other had never encountered.

It was precisely because of this that whether it was Chu Guang himself or the players operating locally, they maintained necessary caution when contacting the islands of the southern sea.

A stream of data flashed through Xiao Qi's pupils, and after a moment, it looked up and spoke.

"They are already on their way."

"Already on their way?"

Chu Guang glanced with slight surprise at the few IDs still chatting on the holographic screen.

Not bad.

Conscious little players were becoming more and more numerous.

It saved him from worrying about these trivial details.

...

The setting sun sank into the sea, the shimmering ripples drifting away with the evening glow, as darkness already enveloped that turbulent stretch of ocean.

On the periphery of Haiya Province, upon the beach of the Death Coast, an old man clad in a grey robe stood quietly, letting the sea breeze whip his robe into a frenzy.

Gazing at the waves that escorted the dusk away, a trace of excitement and joy gradually crept onto Arzu's furrowed face.

Even knowing he should restrain human emotions, he could not help but laugh out loud.

"Hahaha..."

Success!

It was not in vain that they had laid their pieces in the southern sea.

After being driven into a corner, that half-hearted ally finally recognized what the true trump card in his hand was.

Once the southern sea fell completely under the sphere of influence of the Torch, they would be able to open a broader strategic space to the south!

And even let the Kingdom of Heaven of the Torch shroud the entire ocean!

Without waiting too long, a faint signal soon arrived from afar.

This time, Arzu did not turn a blind eye, but gladly permitted that signal to connect into his sea of consciousness.

Looking at the figure of Chalas emerging before him, he nodded with a smile.

"Congratulations, Mr. Chalas."

Chalas looked at him expressionlessly.

"It seems you already know."

Arzu spoke in a pleasant tone.

"Of course, since there are your supporters on the North Island, and supporters of your manifesto, naturally there are also our believers. Even your smooth ascent to the presidential throne may not have been without our support and operation behind the scenes."

With an noncommittal grunt from his nose, Chalas made no comment on this ambiguous statement, merely continuing succinctly.

"We have encountered a bit of trouble."

Arzu spoke softly.

"Anle Island, right?"

Chalas nodded, continuing with a solemn expression.

"Yes, shortly after we rose up, the Vice President also delivered an inaugural address and established a new administration. Our movement was swift enough, but their speed was not slow either. Excepting the Governors of Ring Island and Sandbar Island who still remain neutral, that Li Minghui has still rallied four Governors."

"But the battleship 'Haiya' is in your hands." Arzu said softly, "I heard its main guns were dismantled from a starship."

Chalas said patiently: "Yes, but that does not mean it is invulnerable, especially if the threat comes from the seabed. The troublesome part now is that the positions of Coral City and Vault 70 are closer to Anle Island than North Island is. If they manage to control that place—"

"No need to worry about that point; our people can breathe even underwater, they have no chance. You only need to focus on dealing with the fleet of Anle Island, the battlefield beneath the sea can be left to us." Before he could finish, Arzu cut his words short.

Chalas froze for a moment, quickly realizing what this fellow had done while the Southern Archipelago Federation plunged into chaos, his brow gradually furrowing.

"You bastard..."

Alzu continued in a casual tone.

"You promised to lend us the research facilities of Coral City. Now you're just cashing that check early—or are you playing games with us?"

"I did promise, but I never said anything about letting mutants show up there."

Charas squinted at him, his voice carrying a warning edge. "Listen, your people better not do anything stupid near that place. I'm not joking. Forcing entry without power will only destroy it!"

Alzu chuckled softly, his voice light.

"Don't get worked up. I didn't let those scaled beasts inside. I don't want it turned into rubble either. They're just keeping an eye on the door for you—"

But just then, mid-sentence, he suddenly fell silent, and the effortless expression on his face involuntarily stiffened.

Noticing the change in his expression, Charas sensed something was wrong and quickly asked.

"What happened?"

"Nothing..."

Alzu muttered with a flickering gaze, and before Charas could press further, he flicked his index finger and abruptly ended the communication.

Almost at the same moment the call cut off, his wrinkled face twisted in anger. He pressed a withered hand to his forehead and cursed at the rocks on the beach.

"...Useless waste who can't do anything right but mess things up!"

In the deep, dark seabed, a massive nuclear fusion-powered submarine was gliding silently along the edge of a kelp forest, moving over jagged rocks.

Two full hours had passed since the crew of the Dolphin had fished out Dong Wen and the others from the Glory, and their position had shifted from the southwestern part of the southern sea to a region just south of the center.

Inside the submarine's bridge, Chen Jianhong set down his coffee cup, squinting with a smile at the pitch-black sea beyond the porthole.

"Right ahead."

This stretch of water lay between Anle Island and Coral City—a route he knew better than any other.

Without exaggeration, he could pilot the sub to the entrance of Vault 70 with his eyes closed.

Tail, who had just come back online, eagerly peered outward, making a show of looking into the distance.

"Wow, what a huge—dammit, why can't Tail see anything!"

Rou Rou, crouching nearby, stifled a snicker and couldn't resist a jab.

"Maybe it's a settlement only smart people can see. Idiots are blind to it."

Tail's eyes darted, and she quickly turned to Rou Rou with a mischievous grin.

"Hehe, then tell me, Rou Rou, what does this settlement look like?"

"Uh—" Caught off guard, Rou Rou stumbled but quickly recovered with wit. "How should I know? I'm just a bear."

Tail stared at Rou Rou in surprise.

"...Well, well, Rou Rou's gotten clever."

Rou Rou couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"I wasn't dumb before, you know!"

Watching the lively pair, Zhimahu standing nearby couldn't help but smile, and Si Si's lips also curled into a faint grin.

Though he couldn't understand their chatter, Chen Jianhong noticed the short-haired girl peering outward and immediately guessed what she was looking for. He waved at a crew member sitting nearby, signaling him to turn on the submarine's main bow searchlight.

A dazzling beam shot out, illuminating the dark waters around them and startling the fish and crabs lurking under the rocks.

As the light swept across, a massive underwater settlement soon came into view, making Tail, Rou Rou, and a dozen or so Strength-type players from the Jungle Corps gape in awe.

It was a small city standing on the seabed.

Globular, transparent domes encased the metal structures within, connected by pipelines that spread like a spiderweb from the central giant dome outward.

The entire settlement was like a giant set of building blocks, composed of airtight modules stacked into a three-dimensional living space.

Vibrant, oddly shaped coral adorned its surroundings, making the underwater settlement dazzling to behold from the outside.

It was hard to imagine that this settlement had been built in the years after the Prosperity Era ended...

Not only were the players mesmerized, but even the crew in the bridge wore nostalgic expressions, gazing at their home they hadn't seen in four months.

Chen Jianhong squinted, his voice tinged with longing.

"...You came at the wrong time. Four months ago, the view was even more beautiful. See that central dome? That's Coral City's plaza. The light from the four fluorescent screens inside shines on the dome and can even project onto the sea surface."

Trying to picture that scene, Rou Rou involuntarily swallowed, a soft "giao" escaping her furry lips.

Tail, standing nearby, wore the same expression of awe and anticipation.

"Even more stunning..."

Si Si pondered for a moment, then suddenly spoke up with a whimsical idea.

"If we connected the nuclear sub's reactor to the settlement's power grid... could we get this place running again?"

Chen Jianhong was taken aback, then chuckled wryly.

"It's not that simple..."

The submarine's reactor was designed specifically for the sub.

Even if the method were technically feasible, compatibility issues would likely arise.

Hearing the captain's response, Si Si had to abandon the idea of sneaking into the new map to explore and sighed.

"Alright, I was just asking."

Maybe the devs hadn't finished the map yet.

Just as the two were talking, the sonar system in the cockpit suddenly detected abnormal noise coming from the direction of Coral City.

And it wasn't just one source—the noises were rapidly converging toward the submarine.

Hurrying to the console, Chen Jianhong's face changed as he looked at the sonar screen's feedback.

"There's something happening near Coral City!"

At those words, the bored Fudi Laomo's face lit up with excitement.

"Federation subs?"

Several other Jungle Corps players nearby also looked eager.

"No... the silhouette looks roughly humanoid, with a scaly surface..." Locking onto one noise source, Chen Jianhong tapped the screen, zooming in on the image.

When the blue-skinned creature appeared on the monitor, nearly every crew member gasped.

"Mutants!"

Chen Jianhong's expression grew even more serious. After a moment's thought, he said,

"...Those bastards must have slipped in while the Federation fleet was in chaos."

The crew member at the console swallowed nervously.

"Should we turn off the searchlight?"

Chen Jianhong was about to give the order when Fudi Laomo, standing nearby, cut in.

"No need. Just keep the searchlights fixed right on them. Those bastards fear the light, especially beneath the waves! Keep moving forward, and leave the rest to us!"

With that, he clapped Captain Chen on the shoulder, strode purposefully to the doorway, and bellowed back into the bridge at his comrades, "Listen up, brothers! It's mutants! Time to haul in the harvest!"

"Awoooo!" The soldiers of the Jungle Corps let out an ecstatic roar, surging toward the exit under the astonished gazes of a crowd of non-player characters.

Tail, swept up in the frantic excitement, tried to mingle into the crowd and slip out, but was caught in mid-air by a well-prepared Meatmeat.

"Calm down, Tail. We didn't bring any diving gear. If you step out there now, you're a goner in a heartbeat."

Having pacified the restless Tail, Sisi turned her gaze back to Captain Chen Jianhong and continued.

"Our friends from the Jungle Corps will buy us time. We must seize this chance to break through."

Chen Jianhong nodded, yet a lingering shadow of anxiety clouded his face; after all, the sonar display estimated at least four to five hundred incoming hostile units.

"Will they be alright?"

A faint smile graced Sisi’s lips.

"Rest assured. They just fought a battle with those creatures this morning. A number like this won't pose a problem."

Hearing her absolute confidence, Chen Jianhong cast aside his reservations and barked an order to the crewmen seated before the control consoles.

"Target: Vault 70! Full speed ahead!"

...

As the engines of the Dolphin nuclear submarine surged to maximum power, charting a straight course toward Vault 70, the aquatic mutants stationed around Coral City also noticed this massive behemoth suddenly intruding into their domain.

"Kaaah—!"

A mutant priest let out a menacing, gutteral screech, signaling a swarm of scaled lackeys behind him to brandish their weapons and swarm toward the submarine.

Though their flesh and bone had proven fragile and futile against a Federation destroyer built to seek and destroy, against an unarmed cargo sub like the Dolphin, the thermite charges and crude, homemade explosives they carried still posed a genuine threat.

Just as the horde of "fishermen" lunged blindly into the blinding, crystalline glare of the searchlights, slender streams of water suddenly whistled through the dark sea like a plague of locusts, riddling the frontmost dozen into bloody sieves in an instant.

The remaining mutants braked in panic, halting their forward momentum to look past the searing glare of the searchlights toward the nearby reef matrix.

There stood nineteen colossal iron crabs, their thick, elongated gun barrels leveled directly at them.

Peering through the viewing window of his cockpit at those faces contorted with terror, Fudi Laomo gripped his control levers, a sinister grin spreading across his face.

"Your opponent is your granddaddy right here! You absolute bastards!"

The previous skirmish hadn’t satisfied his thirst for combat; he had barely chopped up a dozen fish before those pesky little aircraft from the Goblin Corps had stolen his kills.

This was the mid-section of the Southern Seas, far beyond the operational radius of any friendly units, meaning there was no need to worry about any unwanted interference.

Yet, before the echoes of his grandstanding could fade, a teammate’s mocking voice crackled over his headset.

"Old Mo, you didn't say 'our granddaddy.' Sounds like you're calling yourself the bastard there."

"Hahaha!"

As laughter erupted throughout the comms channel, the old veteran's face flushed crimson with embarrassment, and he cursed under his breath as he muted the offender.

"Damn it! You just love to run your mouth!"

Even as they bickered, the "King Crabs" that had leapt from the submarine's forward hatch were already locked in a brutal melee with the scaled mutants.

During the fray, a few cunning creatures attempted to break away from the skirmish to intercept the submarine, only to be overtaken by 19mm harpoons to their rears, leaving behind nothing but blasted halves of bodies.

Such terrifying destructive power struck dread even into the hearts of mutants.

However, these foes were vastly different from the mindless mobs the players had encountered before; they did not scatter in chaos despite the sudden, gruesome casualties.

Seemingly realizing that they could never approach the submarine without first neutralizing these iron crabs, they howled in unison and turned back, flanking the players to evade the blinding searchlights shining directly into their eyes.

The battle erupted instantly, as revving chainsaws and wildly flying harpoons whipped up a tempest of blood and gore in the deep ocean trenches.

Mutants fell one after another, their striking crimson blood hemorrhaging into the currents until the entire sea sector was dyed a macabre red.

Yet even so, the nineteen surrounded players of the Jungle Corps began to feel an uncharacteristic, crushing weight.

These bastards—

They were entirely different from the ones before!

They weren't merely rushing forward in a mindless swarm with their spears; they were utilizing deliberate tactics, attempting to cut them off and isolate them!

"Careful, everyone! These guys aren't like the ones that raided the underwater pipeline!"

"What's the diff—"

Before the player could finish his sentence, sparks from a sympathetic detonation erupted violently from his armored hull, and amid a massive plume of churning bubbles, the crab was reduced to a heap of scrap metal.

A mutant stood hoisting a thick, long launch tube, letting out a raspy, muffled chuckle as it watched the iron crab dissolve into a cloud of rising gas.

It was a miniature torpedo fired from that very tube that had breached the crab’s armored carapace.

Judging by the sheer violence of the blast, it had detonated the ammunition rack.

"Goudan!!"

A player roared in grief and fury, swinging his chainsaw as he lunged forward, hacking the mutant clean in half right through its panicked, frantic squawking.

Staring at the casualty indicator flashing on his squad roster, Fudi Laomo’s heart sank slightly.

Less than five minutes into the engagement, they had already suffered a casualty!

The mutants before them numbered in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, and they had no reinforcements to call upon...

This battle was going to be far more grueling than they had anticipated!

Even so, not a shred of fear showed on his face; instead, a boiling, ferocious fighting spirit ignited within his eyes.

Compared to a bunch of mindless lackeys standing still to be slaughtered, an evenly matched opponent was infinitely more exhilarating.

"Bring it on!"

Stomping hard on the rudder to dodge a torpedo streaking in from the flank, a twisting Fudi Laomo violently hurled his chainsaw outward, cleaving a mutant in two just as it attempted to plant a thermite charge onto his back armor.

Driven by pure survival instinct, his mastery over the machine grew sharper by the second.

In this fleeting moment, he felt as though he had truly transformed into a crab.

Even though he wasn’t actually operating the apparatus via a neural-link interface.

His eyes bloodshot with adrenaline, Fudi Laomo let out an ecstatic, primordial roar.

"Show me whatever tricks you've got! Let me see what else you bastards can do!"

Separated by thick armor plate and the vast, roaring ocean, that impassioned cry was destined to be heard by him alone.

Yet, even without hearing those desperate battle cries, the crew members standing upon the bridge could still feel the sheer, unmitigated tragedy of the slaughter through the feeds captured by the external cameras.

Watching the armor units explode one by one beneath the cold glare of the searchlights, the crew fell into a heavy silence.

Chen Jianhong's throat tightened, and he could not help but turn to Sisi, his voice trembling slightly.

"Will they... truly be alright?"

At the Dolphin's current velocity, they had likely shaken off the pursuit.

Yet, this also meant that those brave warriors who had leapt from the hatches clad in iron crabs were entirely on their own...

Sisi remained silent for a long moment, carefully weaving a fitting response that would not violate the Player Code of Conduct.

"From the moment we stepped out of the shelter, we were already resolved to our mission. Death is merely a return for us."

Chen Jianhong's Adam's apple moved, but he said nothing, merely continuing to gaze out the lower porthole.

The crew of the Glory, seated in the lounge, watched the slaughter through the television in the corner of the ceiling, their hearts heavy with gloom.

Those guys...

They had seen them just that day, in the waters northwest of Ring Island.

Some silently saluted, while others involuntarily clenched their fists resting on their knees.

Guarding this sea was their duty.

Yet now others were fulfilling the obligation that should have been theirs.

This guilt made many lower their heads...

...

The blood-soaked battlefield faded into the distance, the searchlight's beam no longer reaching the seaweed forest where the fight raged.

The Dolphin slowly sailed above a submarine canyon, diving into the bottomless abyss.

As the submarine rounded a T-shaped rock pillar and entered a vast cave structure, concrete walls soon appeared on both sides of the cabin.

Looking at the structure on both sides, a faint pride crossed Chen Jianhong's face, and he spoke in a nostalgic tone.

"...This is the backup entrance to the shelter, also the engineering entrance used during its construction. I heard that back then, people sealed off this cave, hundreds of meters wide and several kilometers long, drained the seawater, built a buffer lock, then laid rebar and poured concrete inside... Generally, only shelter residents know about it."

He hadn't witnessed the start of that grand project himself, but he had heard the stories from his father.

Sisi nodded, then suddenly had a whimsical thought.

"How do you distinguish shelter residents? I'm suddenly curious."

Chen Jianhong: "Generally speaking... if one parent is a shelter resident, those born in the shelter are shelter residents, or if both parents are shelter residents, it counts no matter where they're born. Isn't it the same for you?"

"Oh, we haven't had any births yet, so we don't know!" Tail suddenly interjected.

Sisi's face flushed involuntarily, but after spending so much time together, she was used to Tail's bluntness, so she just coughed lightly.

"We don't have that situation where we are."

"True, I think I heard someone mention that your kind of shelter is the frozen hibernation type, right? That makes you 'first generation,'" Chen Jianhong rubbed his nose and said with sudden emotion, "It's good that you can at least have a hundred years of peace. We've already cleared the mines ahead for you... Of course, whether to defuse them is up to you."

Sisi glanced at him.

"Mines?"

Chen Jianhong nodded.

"Unlimited power and unlimited responsibility... But ironically, before a truly irreparable problem arises, there's no real accountability. Before leaving the shelter, we never realized that the position of administrator itself had a huge bug. After all, when the shelter was designed, the administrator was just an administrator—nothing so complicated. I doubt people in the Age of Prosperity thought that far ahead."

Sisi pondered for a moment.

"I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. If the administrator can handle things well, what does it matter?"

"Then who defines what 'well' means?"

Chen Jianhong gave her a meaningful look and said with a smile, "If Charas wins, the pipeline you built becomes a noose around the necks of Federation citizens. If the guys on Paradise Island win, it becomes an olive branch of friendship."

"A pipeline is a pipeline, a trade is a trade. Objective facts are hard to distort—once changed, they're full of holes—but there are many ways to interpret them... Do you believe that if Charas wins, even mutants could become friends of the Federation? Those things that eat people and perform live sacrifices are pretty evil, aren't they?"

Tail clenched her fists, staring intently into his eyes.

"Oh! Even if you say that, we won't let them win!"

Chen Jianhong laughed.

"I'm just giving an example. Our development paths are similar, but there are still big differences. When I reported to Dawn City, I met your administrator. That gentleman is a smart man. He's absorbed almost all the lessons from your shelters' failures and successes, and he keeps every administrator's log well preserved. Maybe your future will be different."

He paused, then continued.

"Also, never underestimate your opponents. Those guys aren't completely without a chance, especially that battleship—it's a big problem for you. We calculated that its main cannon only needs two or three shots to overload the shield core of an aerospace frigate. We built it to guard against the Legion, but we never expected the Legion wouldn't reach here for a century, and we'd end up using it on our own people first."

The group in the bridge exchanged glances—this was quite a piece of intelligence.

The Steel Heart seemed to use a 'frigate core,' so did that mean the battleship's main cannon was dismantled from an aerospace frigate?

But how did they solve the problem of kinetic weapons' friction resistance in the atmosphere?

As they were talking, a steep concrete wall suddenly appeared directly ahead of the bridge, blocking their path.

Roro was startled and said softly,

"No way?"

Looking at the talking white bear, Chen Jianhong pointed upward and said with a smile,

"It's above."

The moment his words fell, the submarine, which had stopped, slowly rose upward.

After a brief wait, the bridge broke the surface, and the view ahead opened up.

This was a cave deep in the ocean. Above the concrete wall was an open space. At the end of that space stood a giant gear-shaped metal door.

It was like a button, firmly locked into the solid rock.

Seeing the scene outside the porthole, Tail and her group in the bridge widened their eyes, their pupils reflecting an incredulous gleam.

The crew in the bridge were the same, their faces showing excitement.

Most were shelter residents or Coral City residents; that giant metal door was like the road sign at their doorstep.

"Finally back..."

Chen Jianhong's face showed a relieved smile, and he shouted to everyone in the cabin, "What are you waiting for! Turn left 90 degrees! Dock the hatch, we're going home!"

With everyone's concerted effort, the submarine soon docked at the concrete 'port.'

At the same time, people in the shelter noticed them, and a surprised voice soon came over the broadcast above the square.

"Dolphin? Great, you're alive!"

Stepping onto the shore, Chen Jianhong twisted his ear with his finger to adjust to the outside pressure, and laughed.

"Haha! We're perfectly fine!"

He paused, then turned to Tail and her group, who had just disembarked, and introduced them.

"You won't believe it, but two months after that incident, friends from Shelter 404 found us. Remember the Baiyue Province? They came on an airship and built a settlement there."

A gasp came from the broadcast.

"Baiyue Province?! How did they manage that!"

Landing there wasn't difficult, but staying meant enduring constant attrition and casualties. In the early years, Shelter 70 had tried several times, but after several serious casualties, the colonization effort was forced to stop.

Though land resources were necessary, the cost was too high.

"They... I'm not entirely sure how they persisted, but now they're our neighbors. By the way, their hometown is in the River Valley Province, where they established a survivors' alliance! I went there to see it—the locals were very welcoming, especially to us shelter residents. I even saw... well, it's too long to explain. Just open the door quickly; I've brought some local specialties for you."

Chen Jianhong had wanted to mention Sun Yuechi's matter, but that would take forever.

Anyway, he had brought that issue of *Goblin Observer*, so once inside the shelter, they'd have plenty of time to talk about it.

A cheerful voice came from the broadcast.

"No problem, we're powering up the vault door! This door hasn't been used in ages, and the airlock pressure needs balancing—it might take a while. By the way, ahem! Ladies of Vault 404... could I get your contact info? Wait, do your VMs have a chat function?"

"We modified ours long ago, but our operating systems are probably incompatible—I doubt we can exchange those methods."

Disliking the frivolous tone, Sisi politely declined his offer, but soon remembered this was a game and regretted the side quest she might have missed.

"Well... what a pity. I'm Lin Nuo—at least let me show you around." The broadcast didn't press further, but it didn't seem to give up entirely either.

Chen Jianhong cleared his throat and called out.

"Alright, Ah Lin, stop using the intercom for personal chatter. How much longer do you need?"

"Ten minutes... this door hasn't been used in too long. By the way, who are those people behind you? I don't recall the Dolphin having that many crew—are they from Vault 404 too?"

The voice was tinged with suspicion.

Knowing the truth couldn't be hidden—the guy was probably already cross-referencing facial data—Chen Jianhong coughed softly and confessed.

"They're the crew of the Glory—"

Before he could finish, static crackled from the other end of the intercom, as if a hand had snatched the microphone.

Then a cold voice came through.

"Tell them to get lost."