Shell Center

"Mr. Gao, may I know your true purpose?" Miss Ke asked calmly.

"Rest assured, as the department's AI, I am only loyal to the highest-ranking officers of the department throughout the years. You don't need to worry that I will leak your secrets to anyone, including Ms. Motoko Yagami."

"I will help you to do what you need to do better."

The senior engineer smiled, unimpressed.

What the other person says may be true, but the 'secret' itself is a form of information.

"For example, there's some news right now that might be useful to you."

"Oh?"

"On the third bookshelf, the fifth book from the left, you might find a surprise."

The senior engineer raised his eyebrows, walked to the bookshelf, and found a book with yellowed pages—

It's an article that talks about the evolution of this planet during its ancient biological period; it's a type of popular science article.

The senior engineer opened it and quickly found a letter.

"This is?"

"This was sent up by a former minister through some channels. I think he wanted you to see it. Of course, maybe not now, but I don't think we should keep secrets from the current minister."

"What Aragaki left for me?"

The senior engineer opened it, raised an eyebrow, and saw only a series of names on it.

"Do you need me to verify these people's identities?"

"Um."

Soon, profiles of marked individuals appeared, mostly Cloud Aristocrats, and among them, the best of the best: an elder of the Xie family, a core member of the Miller family, a wealthy android, a descendant of a space colonist, a member of the Skull and Bones Society, an organizer of the Old Friends Club...

"The information on these people is encrypted and cannot be retrieved without the authority of the monitoring department."

The senior engineer scanned the papers one by one, gradually revealing an expression of realization. However, after finishing reading them, the realization disappeared, replaced by an indescribable look of confusion.

Cloud Noble Twelve Branches

In other words, it's the group that colluded with alien forces, summoned the Memory Mother, and stormed the fortress.

The senior engineer saw many familiar faces, such as the founder of the Bliss Club, a member of the Old Friends Club, the third-generation Miller who developed the brain-teasing girl, the first sage of the Earth Network Group, and the founder of the Fairy Tale Toy Park in the Skull and Bones Society, the mad entrepreneur Bandai.

The senior engineer was truly surprised that even the Skull and Bones Society had been recruited as an inside agent. He had thought that only the Cloud Aristocracy were qualified to become alien guides.

However, considering the role of Skull and Bones members in the Cyber Tide, it's not surprising.

This group of people is different from the polluters of the "Memory Matrix".

The latter was simply corrupted, instinctively craving the arrival of this fifth-order information monster.

This group of people are the real collaborators.

Their backers are the forces that actually sent the coordinates of this planet to the memory matrix.

Those people are the ones with truly powerful backgrounds. After all, those who dare to risk offending a "Level 7 civilization" and cause trouble at the Cyber Test Site are definitely not ordinary people in the universe.

"That old man Aramaki is really fast."

The senior engineer murmured, then suddenly asked another question.

"Did you tell Captain Motoko about this?"

"No," Miss Shell replied.

"Very good, keep it up."

"But—" Ms. Shell rarely showed hesitation, "Ms. Motoko should be very happy to join your business."

"She will join, but not now," the senior engineer said softly. "You need to know that behind these people is a very terrifying force. Not to mention Aragaki and me, even the Mother City might not be enough in the eyes of that force. So, caution is necessary."

"Can't we get this group under control first?"

"No, that's the worst thing to do," the senior engineer shook his head.

Although using the power of Ghost in the Shell Mobile Unit, at least on this planet, it is possible to wipe out all these people.

But then what?

What if the entity behind the other party prematurely unleashes a cyber wave?

In this situation, every second counts; every second counts.

Performing a ritual in a snail shell.

He understood what Ara-maru meant.

If he passes away prematurely, this list will be handed over to him so that he can continue to advance this project.

In a sense, this is Aramaki's true "legacy," not the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Unit beneath his feet.

"Take me to see the real secrets of this department."

"Yes, Minister."

As Miss Shell spoke, the entire building began to change. A large number of bookshelves moved in a regular pattern, and creaking sounds came from the ground. With the senior engineer's hearing, he could tell that this was not a change of one or two floors, but a change of thousands of floors.

Finally, a hole about three meters in diameter appeared in the center of the bookshelf.

"Gravity void?"

"Yes."

"That place is very far away."

Gravity voids are divided into two types: one is the "regional type," such as the combat center specifically developed for high-level NPCs, or the anti-gravity system that comes with certain large mechs, such as the Sky Carrier. The other type is the "long-distance teleportation type," which is a type of gravity void that can only be completed by using certain large celestial bodies for ultra-long-distance teleportation.

It is essentially a precursor technology for large-scale spatial teleportation.

As the senior engineer stepped inside, an inexplicable force supported his body, causing him to float in the void.

Then, in the next instant, his figure vanished.

And the celestial body used for this "gravitational void" is undoubtedly this machine-reinforced star.

This "teleportation" took almost a day.

Senior engineer sinks down, sinks down, and sinks down again.

As he sank, a familiar force enveloped him.

Because when it was halfway down, the heat started to get higher and higher, so high that even the engineer's body was starting to feel the strain.

That's close to 5000, or even 6000 degrees.

The pressure is also immense, approximately two thousand times that of the surface of a rifted star.

The senior engineer's entire body felt as if it were being stuffed into an ever-growing planet, which not only threatened to completely submerge him but also swallow him whole, leaving him utterly unable to recover.

Every cell, every bone, every nerve circuit creaked and groaned under this immense force.

The senior engineer had an idea and put all 20 of his saved free attribute points into endurance.

Endurance: 232→252

Although it's only a little better, it's still a great way to relax.

"Is this how Aragaki always gets in? No wonder this old man is so thin; he probably damaged his kidneys."

Fortunately, once the surrounding environment turned into flames, the gravity of the gravity void underwent a second change, enveloping him like a sphere.

In this situation, the senior engineer could not feel any gravity at all.

He knew where he had arrived: the Earth's core, the heart of the planet Jili.

Within the super-high temperature of the core, the magma has almost completely solidified, but one can vaguely see some large machines digging inside. The high temperature makes the surface of the machines glossy, revealing every detail.

The high-temperature resistance of this metal exceeds that of any alloy known to engineers, including the one used in their own mechanical systems.

The gravitational cavity led itself to the surface of the core, into a 'cubic prism' whose edges are invisible to the naked eye.

There's a saying that the best way to deal with hackers isn't to install some invincible defense software, but to just unplug the network cable.

This approach also applies in the cyber age.

Cyber Hacker's hacking methods rely entirely on the simulated signals emitted by the human body.

However, no signal can travel nearly 7,000 kilometers from the Earth's surface to its core, meaning that there is a complete lack of internet access here.

Any "hidden plugins," "brain-reading software," or "brainwave receivers" that you install on someone else will be completely disabled and rendered unusable.

Furthermore, the near-10,000-degree Celsius heat here also prevents some informational life forms from penetrating.

After all, energy contains information.

The headquarters of the six major overseer departments are located deep within the Earth.

As soon as the senior engineer's foot landed, he couldn't help but sigh.

"We used to say that if the enemy threatened us again, we would use our own 'Earth Element Breakthrough Machine' to dig into the ground and destroy everything. Now it seems we were naive. The mother city must have already installed a strong enough defense system in the weakest part of this planet. Even third-tier civilization weapons cannot break through this defense system."

"Protecting the safety of this planet is also part of the routine maintenance of this cyber test site."

Looking out, the senior engineer saw an endless space, and inside that space, there were also endless server racks.

"Old-fashioned style."

"The entire 'Ghost in the Shell Center' consists of 10 million computing racks, and is mainly responsible for all monitoring of the company's senior management, building models of evolutionary paths, simulating technical directions, and issuing warnings and reminders for illegal experiments."

"The Cyber Test Site actually has 'illegal experiments'?"

"Some."

"Let me give you a few examples."

"In May of Cyber Calendar 41, the Red Water Group attempted to create liquid life, but it was stopped by our side because the life was highly polluting."

"In September of Cyber Calendar 51, members of the Skull Foundation and Death Technology attempted to conduct a large-scale 'death experiment,' but Captain Motoko arrived in time to thwart it and kill the founder of Death Technology."

"In January of Cyber Calendar Year 52, the biotechnology giant, Venus Life Security Group, attempted to conduct large-scale biochemical experiments in four colonies..."

After listening for a while, the senior engineer understood. The so-called "illegal experiments" were technical experiments that could potentially trigger a "planetary crisis." Things like creating virtual humans and establishing global brainwave connections were all suicidal acts, and they would drag the life on the planet down with them.

This behavior must be stopped.

That's basically it.

"Do you know why I came here?" the senior engineer suddenly asked.

"Didn't former Minister Aramaki send you to investigate this list you have?" Ms. Ke asked, sounding puzzled.

The senior engineer pondered for a moment and said, "That's right, that's how it is."

"Based on the frequency of changes in your heart rate, pulse, and skin pores, there is a 2% chance that you are lying."