Chapter 397: Ouroboros

Thanks to the map's guidance, the Totoro bus avoided dangerous zones the whole way and reached the Inverted Pyramid without incident.

Standing on flat ground alone, one cannot make out the Inverted Pyramid's specific structure—only a mirror-smooth, gigantic square surface is visible,

formed from some unknown black-brown building material, seamless and without a single joint.

But this was no challenge for a group of players.

At the very center of the Inverted Pyramid, the group set up a difference engine powered by a steam engine, driven by a vast array of gear mechanisms.

【Item Name: Door-Breaking Difference Engine】

【Type: Tool】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Break In. When installed on the surface of an object matching the definitions of "safe," "combination lock," "security door," "safety door," etc., it can automatically operate, consuming spiritual energy to violently crack the lock at the rule level】

【Cost: At least 200 points of spiritual energy, depending on the complexity of the combination and the sturdiness of the lock】

【Cooldown: 1 hour】

【Usage Requirement: Innate Intelligence attribute greater than or equal to 7】

【Note: "Better the thief who steals than the thief who sets his mind to it." So said a dedicated bank manager, throwing all the money from the vault onto the street】

The difference engine ran on its own, emitting a cacophony of noise as it cracked the secret realm's gate.

Outside the difference engine, the players had already set up a temporary camp.

A three-story field hospital, a logistics supply station bristling with rifles and cannons, weapons and ammunition, mobile communication base stations—everything one could need—and a dedicated area was even set aside, with a back-kitchen system built to cook meals for the logistics players.

Cosmic giant dumplings, nine-treasure vegetable French aspic, mammoth meat soup—if a chef's dishes didn't glow with golden light, they'd be too embarrassed to greet anyone.

Besides restoring stamina, these dishes could also apply a series of buffs to the eater, speeding up spiritual energy recovery, raising the sanity cap, and more—too many to list,

among them even one dish called 【Taste of Home】, which used no high-end cooking technique at all, only a large amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms, capable of making one recall the most delicious food eaten in childhood,

thereby clearing the mind, lifting the spirits, and temporarily raising all attributes by one.

"Even the grand gathering of a back-alley guild has never brought together so many heroes and champions!"

"Well said! Come, bottoms up!"

The camp was a cacophony of voices, like a party. No one takes on porcelain work without a diamond drill. Every player who made it here had real skill, confident in their own strength, emotionally stable and relaxed.

The Crimson Charioteer got off the bus and immediately ran toward the field hospital to find a doctor to treat his few Pokémon.

Father Andre also went off to find his other colleagues from the Temple Knights.

"Huh?"

Standing by the roadside waiting, a member of 【World Nuclear Peace House】, You Anjian, saw that only Ozaki Aozora had gotten off, and asked in surprise, "Why isn't Master Pi Fu here? Isn't he with you guys?"

"He had something come up last minute and stayed in the k12 zone."

Ozaki Aozora said briefly. With the Pajama Man being reset, the facial recognition distortion syndrome attached to her also faded, and her perception of people's faces returned to normal.

You Anjian wanted to ask more, but Changsun Yao beside him waved a hand, "Forget it, if he's not coming, he has his reasons.

Aozora, you go rest first. Tombstone, you come too—Binary Tree wants us for a meeting."

This secret realm expedition was jointly organized by over twenty guilds, so those who could attend the meeting were naturally representatives from all sides, as well as top-tier lone-wolf players like Bai Ma Mu Bei.

The moment he stepped into the soundproof conference room, Bai Ma Mu Bei heard fierce arguing.

The vice guild master of the mid-sized guild 【Mech Thunder】, 【Blood Lion Roar】, was loudly arguing with Binary Tree of Whale Song,

and strangely, not a single representative from the other guilds stepped in to stop them; everyone wore taut expressions and stayed silent.

Bai Ma Mu Bei quietly tugged Changsun Yao and asked in confusion, "What's going on?"

"Based on the intelligence gathered so far, across the entire secret realm's 28,000 square kilometers, there are five or six thousand monsters equivalent to the Special Affairs Bureau's Yellow Alert level,

one thousand nine hundred equivalent to Orange Alert,

and nearly a hundred equivalent to Red Alert—that's the Pajama Man you guys ran into.

All of these anomalous individuals are people who died in agony in the real world, spanning several decades."

Changsun Yao said calmly, "If Whale Song's detection results are correct, beneath the Inverted Pyramid there must be hidden a complete, constantly operating Hidden Chamber.

Its effect is very likely to collect the souls of the dead and mass-convert them into fierce ghosts and undead."

"."

Bai Ma Mu Bei took a deep breath. No wonder those guild representatives all wore expressions mixed with greed and fear.

You know, the reason the Global Paranormal Coalition has been able to suppress all other factions and sit firmly on the throne is largely because they occupy a Hidden Chamber called 【Horn Room】, which can mass-produce security guard constructs equivalent in strength to mid-tier players.

If Whale Song's intelligence holds true, the value of the Hidden Chamber inside the Inverted Pyramid would be incalculable.

————

"By the way, isn't there a rumor about a Hidden Chamber over at the Inverted Pyramid? Aren't we going to join the fun?"

On a city street, Hui Yu and Li Cheng followed far behind the Pajama Man, chatting as casually as if out for a stroll.

"Not for now."

Li Cheng said casually, "This secret realm expedition has a magical contract restriction. Even if an individual discovers a Hidden Chamber, the profits still have to be divided by contribution, and you can't get full control of the Hidden Chamber.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. First find that Insect Lord Divine Offspring infected body—the gains are more stable."

He paused, then said, "Based on the intelligence gathered so far, if there really is a Hidden Chamber in the Inverted Pyramid, its effect is very likely collecting the souls of the dead to build an undead army."

Hui Yu was taken aback upon hearing this. "Like a Ten Thousand Souls Banner?"

"Even worse than a Ten Thousand Souls Banner."

Li Cheng shook his head. "From the examples of the Vietnamese woman and the Pajama Man, the more suffering the dead endured in life, the stronger the evil spirit they become after death.

If ownership of that Hidden Chamber ultimately falls into the hands of a private guild, I wouldn't doubt for a second that they'd spread plagues, engineer famines, and stir up wars.

Deliberately manufacturing misery and human tragedy, to harvest souls."

"With a 100% profit, it dares to trample all human laws; with a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime."

Hui Yu sighed, "Oh my, why is capital so wicked? It's all capital's fault—too clever by half."

???

Li Cheng's eye twitched. At that moment, the pajama man happened to pass by a dilapidated building, its doorway bearing that green ouroboros emblem.

Li Cheng did not rashly enter the building. Instead, following the principle of "see a task through to the end, see a Buddha all the way to the Western Pure Land," he used the patchwork-doll special effect to stick a syringe and a charging cable into the pajama man, connected to a tablet computer,

so that every time the pajama man reset, a portion of his blood would flow out and charge the tablet computer to keep it running.

After casually handling the follow-up, Li Cheng stood before the ruined biochemical laboratory, his brow slightly furrowed.

Hui Yu asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Li Cheng said, "The binary tree has dug through the pajama man's life trajectory extremely cleanly and thoroughly. Throughout the pajama man's entire life, he never came into contact with this biochemical laboratory.

To be precise, for the past several decades, nowhere in the world has there ever been a biochemical laboratory bearing this green ouroboros emblem."

"You mean—"

"Unlike the Toronto tower and the Vietnamese stilt house, this building was generated entirely out of thin air."

Li Cheng held a meat cleaver in his left hand and a steel banner spear in his right, with a hovering engine embedded in his chest. He strode into the building. "Let's go. I can't wait to meet my Sin Brother."

(End of this chapter)