Immortal I Speedrun Supernatural Game

Chapter 686 The Tamperer

"I've seen people like you before."

Li Shuang's words were somewhat unexpected.

A hint of wistful reminiscence began to rise in her eyes.

"You should be able to tell, right? The employees who enter the factory are basically people who have huge regrets in the outside world and want to rely on the Desire Factory to make up for or even make up for those regrets."

“But when I first joined the company, a little over a year ago, there were quite a few strange guys at the same time. They earned wish points much faster than us normal employees, and each of them seemed to have different goals than the employees.”

"I don't see any pursuit of regrets from the outside world; instead, they all have a strong curiosity about the factory itself."

Wu Wang nodded silently upon hearing this.

Indeed, the reason why the Desire Factory can manipulate its employees so effectively is not only because its operating model is very appealing, but more importantly, it is because of the employees themselves.

Whether it's the doctor who quit his job, the widowed woman, or people like Zhou Ping, Lao Fan, and Tie Jian, everyone had already developed a certain obsession with what they wanted to pursue before entering the factory.

The factory's ability to fulfill their desires is like a flame in the darkness.

Let these moths fly up one by one and burn them to ashes.

That's why, over such a long period of time, Zhang Mingyuan was only able to find ten people who dared to question the factory.

Aside from that, it's probably only players who would be wary of factories from the very beginning.

“After I got in touch with Zhang Mingyuan, some of these strange guys approached me.”

"Later, through repeated contact, I discovered that they all seemed to have some incredible abilities."

"At the time, I really thought I could join them in overthrowing the tyranny of the factory."

Li Shuang couldn't help but smile bitterly as she said this.

I don't know whether I'm laughing at my own naivety and ignorance back then, or at the desolation of my current state.

"How did you fail?" Wu Wang continued to ask.

This remark made Li Shuang slightly angry.

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she said, "Because of betrayal."

"Just when we were about to join forces to break into the core data area, we discovered that someone had exposed our plan in advance, and the factory was already there waiting to arrest us."

"This also led to everyone except me being captured. Even my escape was only possible because one of the Descendants used some kind of special ability to transfer me and her to another floor, which gave us the opportunity to hide in the ventilation duct."

"But during the subsequent days of the search, she was unfortunately caught, leaving me alone here to become the ventilation duct ghost you mentioned."

Actually, Wu Wang had already figured it out by the time she got to this point.

What Li Shuang experienced probably happened not only before the appearance of the Disaster Tower, but also before the public beta.

It's estimated that a group of beta testers were matched with this dungeon.

Because Li Shuang was unaware that the player's main quest was actually a choice between taking over and liberating the enemy.

Among the people who acted with her, there were probably some who, on the surface, seemed to want to liberate the factory, but in reality, they just wanted to take the opportunity to expose more people so they could curry favor with the factory and get promoted quickly.

There are indeed quite a few players who harm others for their own benefit.

Although we don't know what happened to the other side afterward, it seems that all the players were wiped out in the end.

This resulted in absolutely no news about this copy being released.

Because the time flow in the instance was different from that in reality during the closed beta, it is unknown when the events occurred; more than a year has passed since then.

In fact, if Li Shuang has been with the company for more than a year, it means that Zhang Mingyuan's strike had only just ended when she joined.

Therefore, Li Shuang is not only the one among the subsequent ten whose whereabouts are unknown.

He was also the first successor Zhang Mingyuan had found!

“I’m observing every batch of new hires,” Li Shuang said earnestly. “I know I can’t possibly fight the entire factory on my own. Even if the traitors were the Descendants, I need to meet you all again. Only the Descendants’ special power can achieve my goal.”

"After more than a year, I've finally waited for it."

"Among this batch of new employees, there are quite a few who are completely different from the previous employees. Just like the original visitors, you don't seem to have any regrets about the outside world. You only want to understand the situation of the factory itself."

"Therefore, I am certain that you are also Descendants!"

"So, I made contact with Ke Ming first."

Her tone was resolute.

He then looked Wu Wang up and down and said, "But you are the most special one."

"Your confusing behavior was too high-profile, which made me hesitant to approach you at first. However, after discovering your strong aversion to the factory, and considering that Zhang Mingyuan had chosen you himself..."

That's why I've decided to contact you now.

Hearing her words, Wu Wang merely raised an eyebrow and asked with some curiosity:

"Let's not talk about the flattery."

"Tell me how you managed to block the signal from the factory's smart bracelets."

Logically speaking, a normal employee shouldn't be able to do this. You can't say that she's some kind of genius programmer who cracked the bracelet while she was on the run, right?

That would be incredibly disgraceful for the Desire Factory.

At least the [source code engine] I used to hack into the bracelet was a [legendary] piece of equipment.

Fortunately, Li Shuang showed a complicated expression upon hearing this, and slightly peeled back the gel on the bracelet to reveal a chip attached to the inside, saying, "Although the operation failed, we still managed to steal something from the data core."

"This chip is connected to the sensing area of ​​the main system. It can modify the current state of related devices. If it is placed on a wristband, it can be modified to make the wristband think that it is out of service area, so that the signals sent out will not be received. In this way, the factory's main system will temporarily mark it as offline."

"From the factory's perspective, employees who are offline are considered to have been disposed of and no longer exist."

Wu Wang looked at the chip that was emitting a faint light.

He said thoughtfully, "That's why you were able to hide in the factory for so long without being discovered."

The other party probably knows some programming.

But the focus is definitely on the stolen chips.

That makes sense.

Otherwise, if this guy could break the Desire Bracelet with his bare hands, Wu Wang felt that even if he didn't come, the factory would go bankrupt sooner or later.

“We’re about to be discovered.” Li Shuang said this in a calm tone, but her fingertips unconsciously tapped the ground twice. “In the past year or so, I’ve changed more than a dozen hiding places and have been discovered by the Smiler several times. Fortunately, I’ve managed to escape each time by constantly going offline to disrupt their judgment and by using the complex structure of the ventilation ducts.”

"But recently the factory's monitoring algorithm has been upgraded. As soon as a new offline signal appears, a 'smiling agent' will be dispatched to the location where the signal last appeared to search. The reaction time has been shortened from the initial ten minutes to less than three minutes now."

She looked up at Wu Wang and said seriously, "So, I either stay in the ventilation duct forever and never come out, or I'll be finished if the Smilers find me once or twice after I come out."

"I don't have much time left. Maybe I'll end up like Ke Ming and get caught."

Upon hearing this, Wu Wang shifted to a more comfortable position on the pipe wall.

He crossed his legs, placed his hands on his knees, and wore a "please begin your performance" expression on his face.

"Then tell me, what did Ke Ming discover?"

Li Shuang tapped her fingers on the bracelet a few times.

A log was revealed through the gaps in the gel.

She said with a serious expression, "Kemin has the ability to interact deeply with non-biological targets. It's not programming or intrusion, but more like subtly and silently reading information about the target."

"Therefore, he is more suitable than me to uncover the factory's core secrets."

She pushed the logbook in front of Wu Wang.

“Last night, he sneaked into the forty-ninth floor…”

Suddenly, Wu Wang interrupted and asked, "How did he bypass the advisor access required by the 28th floor?"

Wu Wang hadn't forgotten this. On Zhang Mingyuan's ventilation duct drawings, the place that seemed to lead directly to the data core on the 49th floor was actually the maintenance passage for the "Wish Sphere Experience Cabin" in the Wish Exhibition Hall on the 28th floor.

However, this channel requires access to the Wish Advisor's workbench to open.

Logically speaking, Li Shuang's chip shouldn't be able to bypass this either; otherwise, why wouldn't she have gone to the data core to find out for herself all this time?

Upon hearing this question, Li Shuang helplessly replied, "My chip really can't bypass this permission because the Wish Consultant's workbench is connected to the entire Wish Showroom. Putting it offline or in maintenance mode is much more dangerous than taking a few monitors and microphones offline. The factory will probably send a Smiler over to check it immediately."

"So, I changed my approach."

After saying that, Li Shuang pulled out a work card from her waist.

With a serious expression, he said, "Over the past year, I have collected data from the wristbands of fifteen employees who were sent to the talent incubation center. After they were transformed into 'Smiling People,' their privileges were naturally upgraded. I used their employee data to create a virtual employee card with the same privilege level as the 'Smiling People.'"

"Ke Ming was the first person to use this card to enter the maintenance channel."

Wu Wang whistled and teased, "You've got some nerve."

Employees who are sent to the talent incubation center must have already been on the key observation list.

To collect their wristband information, one must have access to their wristbands, since Li Shuang's chip most likely doesn't contain AI like [Bai].

In other words, she had to risk being discovered right under the factory's nose to get close to employees and steal data.

No wonder he said he had been discovered several times.

That's incredibly bold.

But Li Shuang's voice lowered, and her fingers unconsciously rubbed the edge of the device as she said helplessly:

"Even with all his courage, he couldn't bring Ke Ming back."

"The log shows that the [Wish Ball Experience Pod Maintenance Channel] can indeed directly connect to the data core on the 49th floor. Ke Ming found a place called [Forgotten Partition] there and obtained three memory crystals from it."

Wu Wang narrowed his eyes and said, "Three portions? You took them all out? Where are they?"

He wanted to see what this so-called crystal actually was.

Unfortunately, Li Shuang shook her head and said, "It hasn't been fully revealed yet; we've only managed to pinpoint its location."

"The forgotten partition has access records monitored. Once someone physically touches the crystal, the system will immediately lock the contact person's wristband number, even if they are offline. The alarm went off as soon as he picked up the first crystal."

"He ran from the 49th floor to the ventilation duct entrance on the 30th floor in just three minutes. Unfortunately, the Smilers reacted even faster and blocked all the elevators and emergency exits in two minutes."

"He was caught after he tried to escape through the maintenance passage of the Wish Exhibition Hall but was unable to return."

Li Shuang stopped rubbing her hands and clenched her fists.

"His last message to me was—don't trust the files."

“But the employee files are all automatically recorded by the factory’s system. Even those employees who are sent to the talent incubation center will at most have their files written as if they applied voluntarily or were transferred or promoted normally. I don’t know what part of them can’t be trusted.”

After pondering for a moment, Wu Wang speculated:

"Perhaps he meant that the files showed signs of being tampered with."

"After all, if even devices can be affected by your chip, then files are naturally also susceptible to some form of tampering."

Li Shuang slowly loosened her clenched fist, revealing crescent-shaped marks made by four fingernails on her palm.

She asked, somewhat puzzled, "But who has access to employee files? Does anyone in the factory really know where these things are stored?"

Wu Wang almost instinctively said, "Who said that? The Smiler must know..."

He froze the moment he finished speaking.

Yes, the smiley ones must know where the employee files are; after all, they are the factory's most powerful protection mechanism.

Is it possible that the person who smiled tampered with employee files?

A normal person who smiles wouldn't do that, but there's clearly a loophole in this protection mechanism.

Zhang Mingyuan...

He is an outlier among those who smile.

Is it possible that he tampered with employee files?

If he were to tamper with employee files, which part would he tamper with first?

Logically speaking, it must be about his own file.

If the file about Zhang Mingyuan that Bai stole was altered, was he really sent to the talent incubation center as the initiator of the strike movement, as recorded in the file?

Or is there something else going on?

Zhang Mingyuan may not be as selfless as he seems.

hum-

Just then, the fan in the ventilation duct suddenly changed its frequency.

The low hum changed into a slightly higher whistling sound.

It felt like someone had readjusted the wind speed somewhere.

Li Shuang looked up into the depths of the pipe and frowned.

"Someone's coming."

Her tone sounded slightly nervous.

However, Wu Wang did not move.

He even changed the direction in which he crossed his legs, and the expression on his face changed from the focused look when listening to stories and thinking back to that smug, relaxed look.

"Aren't you going to run?"

Li Shuang had already pulled out the cold light stick and moved it towards the other entrance of the passage.

Over time, she has developed a habit of acting on rumors.

No matter what seems unusual, if you sense something is wrong, run away immediately and hide first.

"Run for what? Didn't you just say the Smiler has a three-minute reaction time?" Wu Wang took out a candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth, mumbling, "Then you still have at least two minutes to run away."

Li Shuang was so angry she laughed.

He was about to scold someone as soon as he opened his mouth.

"you!"

But Wu Wang immediately interrupted her anger, saying, "They are probably not here to arrest anyone. Listen carefully."

Li Shuang froze.

She tried to listen carefully, just as Wu Wang had suggested.

They heard faint footsteps coming from deep within the passage.

But it wasn't the same kind of even, precise stride that the smiling person had. Instead, it was the kind of undulating stride that a normal person would have, with even a little hesitation, and would stop for a while after taking a couple of steps.

After thinking for a moment about the signs that she was trying to escape, I stopped.

If it weren't the smiling person being searched but some other employee, she would have liked to see who it was.

A moment later, a figure emerged from around the corner of the pipe.

He was a middle-aged man in a white work uniform, with sunken eyes and chapped lips. His face was quite ordinary and unremarkable; he was the kind of person you would easily lose in a crowd.

Only those eyes were unusual.

He has a determined gaze that makes him instantly noticeable.

Li Shuang's lips trembled, and even her voice rose a few decibels.

"Zhang...Zhang Mingyuan!?"

Wu Wang, who had been relaxed and at ease, slowly sat up straight, a hint of surprise and confusion flashing in his eyes.

How could it be him? (End of Chapter)