Chapter 258: Software

In the abandoned subway tunnel, Li Cheng's face rippled, shedding its disguise, though he still wore the same gray trench coat as Eugene.

Beside him, Grey Rain was dismantling the black curtain, fill lights, and camera, packing away the Batmos Guild tablet that originally belonged to Batmos.

Normally, only Batmos himself could use the tablet to hack into network systems, but due to the erosion setting, Batmos didn't want to expend Spirit Power each time.

So he spent a few minutes coding a simple program that could hack into the Toy City network with a single click.

He never expected to be eliminated so early—ultimately, it was Li Cheng who benefited, allowing him to impersonate Eugene, record the video, and easily send it to the TVs and phones of Toy City's million residents via the tablet.

"Will this really work?"

Grey Rain muttered: "When the morning news comes, Toy City's TV station can just claim the video is AI-generated, a terrorist plot, right?

And the city hall has high-end combatants like Mingren and the Anti-Terror Mobile Unit to maintain order."

"Ordinary Toy City citizens might be skeptical but still follow city hall's instructions and keep living their lives. But those whose relatives or friends were forcibly taken due to Glitch Syndrome won't be so easy to pacify."

Li Cheng said: "City hall has significantly concealed the infection and mortality rates of Glitch Syndrome—the actual number of affected people is far higher than the official figures."

Without seeing the video, citizens could still deceive themselves into thinking city hall was trying hard, and their loved ones still had a chance.

But now that they've seen the video—seen Glitch Syndrome patients dismembered and dumped into the nuclear plant's cooling water—they can no longer fool themselves.

Even just to protect themselves, they'll demand answers from city hall and take to the streets."

Li Cheng didn't believe releasing a single video would seriously shake Toy City's city hall—he was just playing a quiet move.

As long as it slowed down city hall's actions and bought him more time, it wasn't a loss.

"If the Arena had extended the mission time limit, we could've used some Gene Sharp tactics. Too bad."

He stowed the camera in his storage and spoke casually.

Gene Sharp's name might not be famous worldwide, but it was certainly infamous.

In the 1980s, he led a nonviolent resistance research project at Harvard University and published the book *Making Europe Unconquerable—The Potential of Nonviolent Deterrence and Defense*, catching the attention of George Kennan, the "father of Cold War containment strategy."

The book's original intent was to guide American and European rulers on how to prevent Soviet infiltration and subversion in the West. But George Kennan recognized its value, funded Gene Sharp, and had him reverse-engineer it to study how to overthrow the Soviet Union.

With funding from U. S. intelligence agencies, Gene Sharp kept publishing books, summarizing 198 methods of toppling regimes, providing theoretical guidance for the CIA's global chaos operations.

On August 19, 1991, Yeltsin stood atop a tank outside the Russian Federal Parliament Building, speaking to crowds scattered with Gene Sharp's "works."

Since then, every unrest caused by non-government organizations—the Georgian Rose, the Ukrainian Tulip, the Arab Spring—always had Gene Sharp and the CIA lurking behind it.

Just the Arab Spring alone claimed over a million lives; the KDA was off the charts.

He was the number two master of chaos, second only to Britain before its decline.

Every CIA tactic was detailed in Gene Sharp's books: sending intelligence agents under the guise of students, tourists, or journalists; establishing NGOs; recruiting volunteers; bribing opinion leaders; coordinating with Western mainstream media to stir up propaganda; using offline communication apps to evade government surveillance; inciting crowds to take to the streets.

Funny thing is, the U. S. developed these apps with blunt names like "Riot" and "Hive"—proving the old saying: a dog's belly can't hold two ounces of sesame oil.

As for why Li Cheng knew all this—well, partly because he was bored out of his mind and read everything,

and partly because this whole set of tools could also be applied to protesting against his classmates over the cafeteria's awful food, the theft of PE, music, and art classes, or the school shortening holidays. Maybe. Li Cheng packed up everything, climbed onto the bat-wing weight motorcycle with Grey Rain, and followed the map on the tablet toward the depths of the abandoned subway.

On the other hand, this set of things could also be used to protest with classmates about the school cafeteria's bad food, about physical education, music, and art classes being taken over, about the school shortening holidays, and similar matters. Probably. Li Cheng packed up everything, got on the bat-wing weight motorcycle with Hui Yu, and following the map on the tablet, rode toward the depths of the abandoned subway.

"To the lowest level of the Lower Nest."

Li Cheng squinted: "Eugene has already entered this script world before—he possesses far greater 'momentum' than any other player.

Even so, the Arena still issued a death match mission, with a 24-hour time limit and no failure penalty."

Grey Rain frowned: "What's wrong with that?"

"What if, after 24 hours, no final winner is decided?"

Li Cheng said: "It's not like one person can grab three keys and another grabs four, then both exit the mission at the same time and go home, right?"

Li Cheng said, "Surely it can't be that one person takes three keys, another person takes four keys, and they both quit the mission at the same time and go their separate ways, right?"

That dark joke brewed in Grey Rain's mind but remained unspoken—even a Grey Rain with only 128GB of brain capacity understood emotional intelligence!

Li Cheng continued: "Of course, due to the aggregation property of the factory keys, all keys will eventually converge in one place—but then wouldn't this mission become meaningless?"

"I personally suspect the 24-hour time limit is itself a hint.

If all keys aren't gathered before 24 hours, something very, very bad might happen—to the players, and to Toy City itself."

If all the keys aren't gathered within 24 hours, something very, very bad is likely to happen. Whether to the players, or to the toy city itself."

Grey Rain blinked. "Meteor strike? Nuclear plant explosion? Alien invasion? The end of the world?"

Hui Yu blinked, "Meteor strike? Nuclear power plant explosion? Alien invasion? The end of the world?"

Li Cheng shook his head: "Only the very top few in city hall, and the Glitch Syndrome-infected individuals who hid in the Lower Nest, likely hold all the true information."

As he spoke, Li Cheng had already driven the motorcycle to the end of the tunnel.

A massive wall of reinforced concrete blocked the way, surrounded by layers of barbed wire and metal barricades, like the U. S. -Mexico border.

Clearly, this was one of the entrances to the lowest level of the Lower Nest.

Grey Rain leapt off the bike and smashed the concrete wall with a single hammer blow.

Hui Yu jumped off the vehicle and smashed the concrete wall apart with a single hammer blow.

A violent wind gushed from the tunnel's fissure, carrying a metallic, rust-like odor.

Beyond the wall lay deep darkness, where over a dozen toy corpses lay sprawled against the wall.

Their surfaces were crawling with purple-black substances, crystallized into glassy formations, coated in thick dust—clearly dead for a long time, yet their bodies showed no signs of decay.

Li Cheng and Grey Rain exchanged a glance, donned full-coverage protective suits, and stepped together into the dark depths.

Li Cheng exchanged a glance with Hui Yu, pulled on a fully enclosed protective suit, and together they walked into the depths of that gloom.