Chapter 458 - 430: Brain Demon (Part 3)

Crack...

Hiss!

The Octopus Arm tore a cable from the wall and then removed a metal plate from the wall along the embedded pipeline, revealing a miniature transmitter inside.

A third Octopus Arm extended several tiny screwdrivers, opening the transmitter.

Although this device appeared to be a hand-assembled hobbyist’s creation on the outside, even if placed openly in front of the NCPD, they would only see it as junk.

But inside...

All identifiable model labels had been scratched off, but an experienced technician could immediately tell, these neatly bundled wires, the high-density integrated circuits...

This was no longer regular military hardware; it was high-end espionage components.

Military components focus on durability and cost-effectiveness, espionage components completely disregard cost, and this difference is even more evident in information components.

If hacked, one might find complex multilayer encryption and security measures in the system, but that would be somewhat risky.

"High-tech... the Brain Demon Gang indeed has some tricks up their sleeve."

Crack...

The basement was dimly lighted, some uneven earthen walls even exposed outside, tools, and debris scattered in the corridors.

Clang.

The sound of tools hitting rock echoed lightly through these corridors.

The darkness made it hard to see the full picture, but Lille could tell—this was the sound of primitive underground construction.

"What is that..."

Jack led the way, his power armor’s night-vision enabling him to see clearly what those things in the darkness were:

Human beings.

Human bodies, extensively replaced by prosthetics, working incessantly underground, some even connected to a third mechanical arm, and semi-automatic robots walking through the tunnels...

The Brain Demon Gang was digging underground spaces.

Lille and Qilusi, who lacked night vision, had to rely on Jack’s vision to enhance their own, walking slightly behind.

At times like this, the Eyes of Golden Flame from the Vortex Gang proved to be extremely useful.

Ordinary prosthetic eyes hardly reached the level of native human eyes, except for Qilusi optics.

As the highest monopolist in the vision field, Qilusi possessed the most advanced optics manufacturing industry. The top special materials in a tiny space organized three-dimensionally were even more complex than cutting-edge chip manufacturing processes and were one of the main enterprises in Orbital City.

The clarity of black-market junk prosthetic eyes might be less than half of a native human eye, and they were completely messed up in terms of dynamic range, color processing, and focus adaptability.

Of course, the Vortex Gang didn’t have high-end prosthetic eye production lines, but they managed to overtake at the curve:

The Eyes of Golden Flame could integrate signals from various optical sensors for imaging, which might not reach the level of Qilusi optical prosthetic eyes under normal conditions, and the wearer often dealt with blurry and indistinguishable visual noise and weird colors, but they were durable.

And operationally stable across diverse environments.

For instance, now, the situation in the dark mine was fully visible, supplementing Lille’s vision once again—

Prosthetic eye technology was uniquely difficult to master among other prosthetics; maybe he could start exploring some new directions himself.

"Damn..." Jostar exclaimed, "So many people mining."

Lille, using Jostar’s vision, found some tools and robots with labels not entirely marked out and pieced together the erased names:

Jilafa Industries.

An engineering bionics giant from Siberia.

Just from the echoes, these tunnels were quite... extremely long.

Miniature RF transmitters and endless pits—was the Brain Demon Gang not thinking about recruitment, constantly engaged in underground tunnel projects every day?

Mysterious tunnel projects, unknown-use miniature transmitters, the Brain Demon Gang’s actions became increasingly bizarre.

"This isn’t mining..."

Hiss—

Lille was just about to explain when the robots and miners in the tunnel suddenly stopped, dozens of blue eyes turning toward the four of them...

Like ghosts lurking in the darkness.

The clanging noises abruptly stopped, even the sound of the motor came to a complete halt, unconsciously making everyone hold their breath...

Blue eyes, indicating heavy data processing, occupied the visual imaging. Dense characters streamed through the Prosthetic Eye, and due to their concentration, the crystal slightly turned blue.

Click-click-click-click-click-click—

The Power Armor’s ammo feed slowly operated, directing 14mm Shellless Bullets from Jack’s back to his arm...

He could tell these were just ordinary people, but the scene was somewhat hair-raising.

For a moment, the dim basement felt eerie.

[Lille: Keep walking. If they make a move, we make a move.]

Jack understood the plan and began to activate the Power Armor.

The armor’s motor started up, and the sound of it operating seemed exceptionally distinct in this pitch-dark chaotic basement...

Lille took out a small signal transmitter from his briefcase and placed it on the third Octopus Arm.

Night City was an extremely three-dimensional city; just considering the foundation level alone, the lowest point of Santo Domingo and the lowest point of Company Square might have a height difference of several meters.

Underground, there were not only a vast number of infrastructure projects but also several subway lines and maglev routes, various companies, organizations, and gangs’ secret spaces, and even legendary unfinished underground voids once intended to withstand nuclear strikes and warfare...

The situation in the basement had proven that the Brain Demon Gang was using the underground space for some bizarre activities.

It was necessary to figure out what they intended to do.

The recently reformed Brain Demon Gang should also be broke; by logic, they should not have money to buy equipment, including Full Body Prosthetics Transformation.

A bigger possibility was that they, like Mako selling human bodies, promised to do certain things to write off their debts.

That made the whole situation even more bizarre:

Why would the Brain Demon Gang, who could have carried out these activities secretly, let the stand owner lead me here?

Snap...

Jack had only taken a few steps when the workers uniformly put down their tools, and the work robots also began moving toward the deeper parts of the tunnel—

The entire scene suddenly turned into a mass retreat; wherever Jack’s footsteps were heard, he could see people rapidly withdrawing deeper...

"It’s getting weirder..." V held the pistol in her hand, keeping ready in a mid-line stance.

The thrill of bullets and gunfire no longer made her nervous, but the eeriness here made her instinctively tense.

Four people: at this moment, whether it was the novice Jostar or Jack with the Power Armor, and even the cold-hearted V, all felt the situation growing stranger.

Even Lille, reading through the chaotic signals in the communication, found the density of invalid information unbelievable. If connected to the network, the damage these micro-devices could cause was unimaginable—

Not just on a personal level.

Bang!

The door behind them shut violently!

But Lille had already had Jack sabotage the door valve, so the door only got stuck halfway.

The half-stuck automatic door made a clicking sound, seeming to foreshadow something coming...

Jack widened his Eyes of Golden Flame and stared down the corridor. The rustling sounds of ordinary people and robots retreating in the space, and the pounding of blood rushing through his body seemed louder—

Despite having the best equipment, he was also the one at the front, the unknown magnifying his fear...

But the attack did not come from the front.

In the meter-and-eighty-wide national road, everyone was staring ahead when Jostar’s Eyes of Golden Flame suddenly caught an anomaly:

The otherwise normal walls suddenly seemed to undergo digital image distortion; a whole block of the wall fell off in their field of view...

This minor change only puzzled those with the Eyes of Golden Flame, but for Lille, it meant something different:

What is this?

This is Mimicry!

Almost at the same time, micro-transmitters embedded in the wall surfaces simultaneously maxed out their power, cutting off all communication!

Full-spectrum jamming!