Chapter 97

The faces of the two people were now ashen white.

"Since it's not working, let's just use force to clear the way." Emperor Yun took out several talismans.

In the game, Emperor Yun's profession was also a Taoist priest, and this was the posture he took to prepare to use soul talismans.

"Hmm, that security guard doesn't seem to have reacted yet. Let's not alert the snake before we know more. We should first investigate the situation here. If we can find any clues about the mastermind, that would be good."

To be honest, Zhou Xian also wanted to take out the Celestial Phenomenon Dagger and go on a killing spree.

But this is the real world, not a game, and everything must be considered carefully.

If the mastermind realizes it and then surrounds us from behind, that would be no laughing matter.

In the game, no one would enter the dungeon to chase you, but in reality, it's completely different.

"… Do you think we haven't been exposed yet?"

"Um, I used to be a dungeon guide in the game. There are also ghostly events in the game, and sometimes ghosts and zombies are not on the same side."

However, the ghosts in the game are not as terrifying as those in the real world, even though the ghosts in the game are more terrifying.

"You have a point." Emperor Yun, where is his imperial demeanor now? His current performance is not much different from Zhou Xian's.

Ghosts and zombies are different. Zombies are living corpses that can move freely, but ghosts are entities that exist based on some kind of spiritual power or similar. Zombies can leave this place, but ghosts cannot.

Moreover, as far as Zhou Xian knows, there is no skill in the current skill tree that can control ghosts.

The reason why there are these terrifying things here, Zhou Xian speculates, is probably related to the eerie atmosphere here. But it has little to do with the mastermind. This is the experience Zhou Xian gained from the game dungeons.

"This is the second floor." They returned to the second floor again.

"Quick, let's go to the third floor!" Emperor Yun's face turned grim.

"Hmm…" Zhou Xian noticed the trash can.

The trash can was very clean, with only one empty bottle inside.

"This seems to be the one you drank earlier." Zhou Xian walked over and picked up the empty bottle.

He subconsciously saw the date written on the bottle: "Produced on June 12, 2028."

"…" Before Emperor Yun could react, Zhou Xian quickly threw the bottle back.

"No wonder we can see the cola that has already been discontinued here…" This mystery was solved. However, Emperor Yun's face looked even worse.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm afraid I'll vomit if this continues…"

He walked quickly to leave the second floor.

At this moment, Zhou Xian's gaze fell on the cafeteria. Some plates were still on the table, all covered with rotten black mud. A damp and cold smell kept coming from inside.

Zhou Xian thought for a moment and wisely followed Emperor Yun upstairs.

The third floor was the management area. Zhou Xian walked to the computer here.

"The computers I saw earlier were the latest models, but now they have become old models from seven or eight years ago…"

Looking at the dusty computer, Zhou Xian thought for a moment and turned it on.

However, there seemed to be no power in the room, and Zhou Xian failed to turn on the computer.

Then, he unplugged the network cable and connected it to the TX-800.

But in this situation, there was no network response at all.

"No power, no network."

Zhou Xian originally wanted to try to enter the official website's backend, but it seemed impossible in this situation.

"The management department is redundant. The game's AI controls everything automatically, and the game company has never organized any activities. Even if it's like the mirror world, there's nothing here that would make us excited. To gather information, this place would have the least."

Hearing Emperor Yun's words, Zhou Xian nodded. In this aspect, the other person should be more authoritative.

After passing the third floor, the two people went directly to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor was all individual offices, but it seemed that no one was here.

"Do we need to open the doors and check each room?"

Zhou Xian noticed the chief engineer's room.

Could this be where his father used to work?

"There's no need for that. You guard me while I use the Heavenly Eye to check."

Emperor Yun said, bit his finger, and drew a vertical blood line on his forehead.

"Heavenly Eye, open—"

Under Emperor Yun's control, the blood line on his forehead gradually transformed into an eye. Emperor Yun was now using this third eye to investigate the room. At this moment, several eyes were projected into the rooms. "…" Zhou Xian looked at Emperor Yun, seemingly deep in thought.

"This place…" Emperor Yun's vision had entered each room.

However, he did not find any useful information, as each room was only covered with a thick layer of dust, and nothing else.

"It's no good, the offices here are all empty, there's nothing inside… Hey? A person?"

Suddenly, Emperor Yun noticed a figure sitting in one of the rooms.

He moved his gaze closer, and the figure seemed to have no reaction.

Could it be a corpse that died here?

He moved closer.

Suddenly, the "corpse" turned around, revealing a face with blood streaming from all seven orifices, and that face was actually his own!

"Ahhhhhh!"

A blood-curdling scream echoed through the building.

"Uuuuuu—"

Hearing Emperor Yun's scream, Zhou Xian immediately covered his mouth and dragged him to the side.

"What are you doing!"

That soul-stirring scream also frightened Zhou Xian.

"I saw something I shouldn't have seen…"

Emperor Yun had a bitter smile. Although he was mentally prepared, the fear that arose from seeing that terrifying head was uncontrollable.

"I never thought there would be so many terrifying ghosts here to scare us."

Before he could finish speaking, footsteps approached.

"Let's try to get past those zombie security guards first. Investigating floor by floor probably won't be effective. We might as well go to the game's server location; there might be some clues there."

This sealed office had no clues and such "surprises." Emperor Yun felt that even if they continued to investigate step by step, they probably wouldn't find anything useful. It would be better to strike directly at the heart of the matter.

"Okay."

Since the group invisibility spell was still on cooldown, the two people used their respective hiding spells to quietly avoid the security guards. The security guards lingered on the fourth floor for a few seconds, then resumed their patrol as if they hadn't heard the scream.

Zhou Xian and Emperor Yun were now on the eighth floor.

This was the server room.

Inside the server room was a huge circular machine, said to be the latest quantum computer. Next to it, several zombie maintenance personnel were "working." In the mirror world, these maintenance personnel were all sunny young men, but now, the eerie atmosphere made them look truly terrifying.

"Hey? It's still running here?" Zhou Xian immediately noticed that this place was different from others and was still operational.

"Let's go to the back and avoid these two guys."

They quietly slipped past the zombie maintenance personnel and came to the control panel at the back of the server room.

Seeing this, Zhou Xian quickly pulled out the data interface from the TX-800 and connected it to the computer.

"Local network connected… IP… login."

Success!

"What are you doing?" Emperor Yun was looking around and suddenly noticed Zhou Xian's actions.

"I'm checking if there are any documents or something."

"Um, that's a good idea, I'll check too."

Emperor Yun also quietly climbed onto the control panel computer to search for useful information.

"Emperor Task Planning Outline!"

The document that could not be accessed from the external network was easily entered by Zhou Xian here.

The first thing that caught Zhou Xian's eye was a development log.

"… Inserting our modern technology and scripts into this world is a very difficult task. For this reason, the Emperor Task Planning was initiated, with the aim of creating individuals with formidable power through the Emperor Task, thereby increasing our control over the game. The plan is to be implemented by the chief engineer…"

"… Contact with the target has been successful. Using the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper created by the Dragon Clan and the rune technology we have mastered, a total of seven people can obtain the power of the Emperor. At the same time, we will release other Emperor Tasks in the game that are bound to fail to confuse the issue…"

"… Regarding the possibility of invasion mentioned by Chief Engineer Fang, after a series of assessments, it has been decided not to consider it…"

"… The Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper have triggered a resonance with heaven and earth. The plan is officially implemented. We will track the recipients of the Emperor Task and monitor and evaluate them…"

"… The first target has begun to question our existence. Monitoring of them is temporarily suspended. Additionally, Chief Engineer Fang proposed the Eighth Emperor Plan, but it was rejected due to feasibility issues…"

"… The first exploration test has begun, searching for the essence of the existence of another world…"

"… The second exploration test has begun. The previous test preliminarily determined that the other world is a special existence, as it lies between the game and reality. Its characteristics are still being evaluated…"

The document ended abruptly.

"This mystery is getting bigger and bigger…"

Zhou Xian didn't have much time to read in detail and had already saved the entire document.

"Hey! The eighth one, there's something significant here!"