"Um... where are we going now?"
White Cloud City, Jiang Xiaoling, who was being quickly moved after being captured by the scholar in white, asked in confusion.
"Get out of the city first, then see which road to take. Don't let Chen Qing catch you, otherwise you're in serious danger. He's not one of us, and your so-called shutdown code is useless against him!"
Jiang Xiaoling's pupils contracted sharply upon hearing the words "shutdown code".
This guy who shut down the code, he really knew!
His mind recalled his Data City, where he had been hastily sent into this world after a year of training. Before leaving, Wu Xiaoli, who was in charge of the project, explained a question that had been puzzling him.
That means the Data City officials spent huge resources to get themselves into the game; how can they guarantee their loyalty?
He wasn't originally a soldier; he was once part of the oppressed class. If it weren't for the genes passed down from his ancestors, he might have been a lowly miner his whole life, going to the red-light district of the Data City once a year, without even having the chance to leave offspring.
The answer is the decomposition code!
Designing a time bomb within data is incredibly easy for today's Data City technology. And it's not just him; having learned from the lessons of those soldiers before him, those sent in later all had specific programs implanted in their bodies.
In fact, if the authorities wanted to, they could kill the group of Corrector who entered twenty years ago at any time.
The reason we didn't take action was because we weren't sure whether those people had failed in their mission and couldn't be contacted, or whether they had betrayed the Federation!
One of my missions here is to find out the situation of that group of people from twenty years ago and report it truthfully to the Federation.
" Jiang Xiaoling, remember this: once you're inside, don't trust anyone. Based on our previous experience, there's a high probability that those who carry out missions will be tempted by what's inside. The betrayal rate so far is almost 100%. The group that went in twenty years ago weren't even professional soldiers; their betrayal rate was actually even higher. Be careful and make sure you can tell if they're lying!"
Jiang Xiaoling cautiously observed the other party in the dark. He had tools to contact the outside world at any time, but this person in front of him revealed his number without hesitation, which was equivalent to completely handing over his back to him. Moreover, the other party clearly knew about the code dismantling!
Knowing this, yet still revealing their codename—that shows considerable sincerity!
" Number One, you need to report from above!" Jiang Xiaoling looked at the other person. "What happened twenty years ago? Why is it that none of the people have been able to contact the higher-ups? Even if everyone died once and went through Samsara, the lost memories would be random, right? Surely not everyone has forgotten how to contact the higher-ups?"
"Because I erased their memories!" the King of Qin said in a low voice.
"What?" Jiang Xiaoling was taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"The literal meaning!" The King of Qin gasped. "A traitor has appeared in Data City!"
Jiang Xiaoling: "!!"
"Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it? But it's the truth." King of Qin gazed into the distance and said calmly, "Twenty years ago, we almost completed our mission. The Illusory Moon Plan made the people of the Central Plains forget the terror of demons. Coupled with my prestige at the time, we were almost one step away from controlling the first version of the human and demon realms. Once we controlled them, the malevolent energy in the human world would decrease, and the Earth Spirit would never revive. No matter how strong those ancient players were, it would be useless. Afterward, I would have enough buffer time to make the demons of the first version stronger and find a way to completely control the ancient world."
"But at that crucial moment, I failed."
"Ask him what the reason is." Wu Xiaoli's voice came from Jiang Xiaoling's mark.
"I'm asking you what the reason is," Jiang Xiaoling asked cautiously.
"Betrayal!" the King of Qin said coldly. "Betrayal from a comrade doesn't mean they weren't comrades to begin with!"
"What do you mean?" Jiang Xiaoling was taken aback.
"The numbers are wrong. I only discovered this later!" King of Qin continued, "Back then, I didn't understand why someone would betray me when our mission was almost complete. Everyone involved in the plan knew that once the mission was completed, we would be the order of this world. Even if we had the code within us, the authorities wouldn't discard us after we'd served our purpose. We would ultimately have a very high status in this world."
"Furthermore, if we betray the authorities, the hidden code within us can quickly disintegrate us."
"But they still betrayed me without hesitation. Over the years, I have been investigating the truth of what happened back then. Through Heavenly Secrets's secret investigation, we later learned that a traitor had infiltrated the first batch of Corrector."
"Traitor?"
"Right!"
"Impossible!" Wu Xiaoli retorted immediately, "Your group has undergone rigorous background and memory verification. You've been questioned daily by top-tier psychological experts and have received five years of military training. Moreover, all of your information is classified as S-level secret, requiring the collaboration of the five top leaders to unlock. No outside elites could possibly interfere. How could there be a traitor?"
Jiang Xiaoling immediately relayed Wu Xiaoli's words.
Upon hearing this, the King of Qin shook his head. "The problem isn't with the people you chose, but with the people you added."
"The people who joined?"
"Yes, I guessed right. You still don't know that someone secretly let another group of people in from Data City back then!"
Wu Xiaoli: "!!!"
"The original plan was for a group of seventy-six Corrector, each carrying the genes of their ancestors, waiting for version development to unlock hidden items using the codes within their genes to enhance themselves!"
Wu Xiaoli nodded. The Number One mission back then was completed quite well. According to his plan, the time of the Ancient Revival was to be delayed first, and then slowly search for the hidden levels of this world, using the genetic code to find those hidden items.
This is why those in power train the descendants of these developers to play games, rather than sending professional soldiers.
Logically speaking, once these descendants of the developers activate their genes and circulate the memories of those developers from back then, and the intelligence is shared, they become useless. Sending professional soldiers to carry the intelligence into the game would actually have a higher success rate.
The problem is that, according to memory, the developers of that time each designed some incredibly powerful hidden items and hidden dungeons, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not obtain this information, as if it were encrypted. Experts speculate that the developers signed confidentiality agreements when designing the game, and they believed that game information should not be leaked. Therefore, their inherited genetic memory is very resistant to external decoding.
It seems that only by personally entering the game can it be unlocked automatically.
This is why the authorities didn't use soldiers, but instead directly employed these descendants as Corrector.
"But in reality, there were more than seventy-six people who came in initially!"
Wu Xiaoli, on the other end, was shocked and wanted to retort, but she stopped herself.
Logically, it makes sense. Back then, the Number One had already accomplished so much of the mission, there's no reason for him to betray the leader at the last step. It just doesn't make sense. This is why the higher-ups ultimately didn't directly initiate the process to eliminate that group of correctives. Logically speaking, it's more likely that something unexpected happened.
So, if things were 99% successful, what unexpected event could have occurred?
In fact, people had been speculating for a long time that there might be a traitor.
Now it seems that it was indeed true, but what no one expected was that the traitor did not come from that group of Corrector, but from Data City!
Is it possible that someone slipped in more people during that original plan?
It is indeed possible.
Wu Xiaoli recalled that back then, in order to prevent the players from that world from discovering the passage for these Corrector, they activated the interference mode multiple times, which consumed a huge amount of energy. However, since this interference mode interfered with them, it also interfered with the supercomputer of the Data City.
At that time, if someone in a high position of power could pull some strings, it would have been very possible to achieve this.
This requires sufficient permissions and sufficient power.
Very few people can do this, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, if Number One said is true.
Wu Xiaoli felt a chill run through her heart.
For so many years, the monsters from that Demon World hadn't invaded Data City, and she always assumed it was due to its strong defenses. But what if... it had actually already invaded?