Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 774: Chapter 298: Shell Attack Center

”Mr. Gao, may I know your true purpose?” Miss Ke asked calmly.

”Rest assured, as the department’s AI, I am loyal only to the highest officer of each administration and you needn’t worry that I will divulge your secrets to anyone, including Miss Yagami Suuji.”

”I will assist you in executing what you intend to do more effectively.”

Gao Gong smiled, unconcerned.

Perhaps what the other said was true, but the ’secret’ itself is a form of information.

”For example, there is a piece of information right now that might be useful to you.”

”Oh?”

”The fifth book from the left on the third shelf, you might find a surprise there.”

Gao Gong raised his eyebrows, walked to the bookshelf, and found a yellowed page book—”The Great Burst of Life”

It discusses some evolutions in this planet’s ancient creature era, a type of popular science article.

Gao Gong opened it and quickly found a letter.

”What is this?”

”This was sent through some channels by a former minister. I think he wanted you to see it. Of course, maybe not now, but I believe secrets should not be kept from the present minister.”

”Left to me by Aramaki?”

Gao Gong opened it, raising his eyebrows to find only a string of names.

”Do you need me to verify the identities of these people for you?”

”Yes.”

Soon, profiles of the marked individuals appeared, most of them Cloud Nobility, and outstanding ones at that; a certain elder of the Xie Family, a core member of the Miller Clan, a wealthy Bionic Man, a descendant of Space Colonists, a member of the Skull Society, and an organizer of the Old Friends Club...

”The information about these people is at an encrypted level, without the Authority of the Inspector Department, it’s utterly unsearchable.”

Gao Gong glanced through them one by one, gradually showing an enlightened expression, but after finishing, the enlightened expression disappeared, replaced by a puzzling intrigue.

The Twelve Branches of Cloud Nobility

The ones colluding with Alien Influence, summoning the Memory Mother, attacking the Fortress.

Gao Gong saw many familiar faces, like the founder of the Paradise Society, a member of the Old Friends Club, the 3rd Generation Miller who developed the Brainstorming Girl, the First Sage of the Earth Net Group, the founder of Fairy Tale Toy Land in the Skull Society, the mad Entrepreneur Bandai.

Gao Gong indeed did not expect even the Skull Society to be developed into an internal line, he thought only the Cloud Nobility had the qualification to become alien collaborators.

But thinking of the role Skull Society members play in the Cyber Tide, it made sense.

And this group is different from the ’Polluters’ with the Memory Mother.

The latter were merely corrupted, instinctively craving the Descent of this Tier 5 Information Monster.

But this group is the true collaborators.

Their backers are the forces that genuinely delivered the coordinates of this planet to the Memory Mother.

Those people have genuinely profound backgrounds, after all, those daring to mess around in the Cyber Test Field risking offending a ’Level 7 Civilization’, are by no means ordinary in the universe.

”Aramaki old guy’s speed is really fast.”

Gao Gong muttered, suddenly asking another question.

”Did you inform Captain Suzi about this matter?”

”No,” Miss Ke replied.

”Good, keep it that way.”

”But—” Miss Ke rarely showed a hesitant tone, ”Miss Suzi should be quite willing to join your undertaking.”

”She will join, but not now,” Gao Gong said softly, ”You must know, behind these people is a very terrifying force. Not to mention Aramaki and me, even the Mother City might not be worth considering in the eyes of that force, so caution is necessary.”

”Can’t we control these people first?”

”No, that’s the biggest taboo,” Gao Gong shook his head.

Though using the strength of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, at least on this planet, could get all these people in one net.

But then what?

What if the existence behind them triggers the Cyber Tide ahead of time?

The current situation demands utmost urgency, to delay as long as possible is key.

Do the Dao in a snail’s shell.

He understood Aramaki’s intention.

If he were to fall halfway, the list would be handed over to him, for him to continue promoting this matter.

In a certain sense, this is the real ’legacy’ of Aramaki, not this Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division beneath his feet.

”Take me to see the true secret of this department.”

”Alright, Minister.”

With Miss Ke’s words, the entire building began to change. A large number of bookshelves started moving in patterns, the ground emitted ’creak’ ’creak’ sounds, and with Gao Gong’s hearing, he could tell it wasn’t merely a layer or two shifting, but a conversion of thousands of floors.

Finally, a cavity about three meters appeared in the center of the bookshelf.

”A Gravity Void?”

”Yes.”

”Then this place is quite far away.”

Gravity Voids are categorized into two types, one is ’Regional,’ such as those developed specifically for Advanced NPCs’ battle centers, or some large mechanical bodies like the anti-gravity system on a Sky Carrier, which belongs to the Regional type; another belongs to ’Long-distance Teleportation,’ this Gravity Void falls into the ultra-long-distance teleportation that must rely on certain large stellar bodies to accomplish.

Equivalent to a preliminary technology for large-scale space teleportation.

Gao Gong stepped inside, a mysterious force supporting his body, suspending him in the void.

Then in the next moment, his figure vanished.

And the star body that this ’Gravity Void’ borrowed from, without a doubt, was this Mechanical Split Star.

...

This ’teleportation’ took almost an entire day.

Gao Gong descended, descended, and descended again.

During the descent, a familiar force enveloped him.

Because when he was halfway down, the heat began to rise sharply, to the point where even Gao Gong’s shell body could hardly withstand it.

The temperature was approaching 5000, even 6000 degrees.

The pressure was immense, roughly two thousand times that of the surface of the Mechanical Split Star.

Gao Gong’s entire body felt like it was being stuffed into an ever-growing planet, not only to be completely submerged but also entirely consumed, leaving him no room to escape.

Every cell, every bone, every neural circuit creaked and groaned under this immense force.

With a thought, Gao Gong allocated all 20 free attribute points into Endurance.

Endurance: 232→252

[Your blood volume +1000 (Mechanical)]

[Your blood volume +1000 (Biological)]

[Your physical strength value +100 points]

Though it was just a bit better, it provided some relief.

’Is this how Aramaki used to come in? No wonder the old man is so skinny, probably ruined his kidneys.’

Fortunately, when the surroundings turned into pure flame, the gravity of the Gravity Void underwent a secondary transformation, enveloping him like a sphere.

In this situation, Gao Gong no longer felt any gravity.

He knew where he had arrived, the Earth’s core of the Mechanical Split Star, where the Earth Core was located.

Amidst the super high temperatures of the inner core, the magma had almost completely solidified, but vaguely one could see some large machines excavating within, the high temperature wrapping the surface of the machines in a layer of bright light, revealing every detail.

The high-temperature resistance of this metal exceeded any alloy within Gao Gong’s knowledge, including his own Mechanical Body.

And the Gravity Void had led him to the surface of the inner core, into an ’rectangular prism’ not visible to the naked eye.

...

There is a saying that the best way to deal with hackers is not to install any invincible defense software, but to unplug the network cable directly.

This approach is also valid in the Cyber Era.

The means of intrusion used by Cyber Hackers entirely rely on the sensory signals emitted from the human body.

But no signal can span nearly 7000 kilometers from the surface to the Earth’s core, meaning that here, it is completely in a state of network disconnection.

Any ’secret plug-in,’ ’brain-read information software,’ or ’brainwave receiver’ you install on others will completely blackout, entering a state of downtime.

Moreover, the temperature near ten thousand degrees here also blocks some Information Life infiltration.

After all, energy overpowers information.

And the headquarters of the Six Major Inspector Departments is installed within the Earth’s core.

As soon as Gao Gong stepped down, he couldn’t help but marvel.

”I used to say that if the enemy threatens us again, we will use our ’Earth Element Breakthrough Machine’ to dig into the ground, perishing together. Now it seems we were naive. Mother City must have already installed a sufficiently strong defense system in the weakest point of this planet, and this defense system cannot be breached, even by Tier 3 Civilization Weapons.”

”Protecting the safety of this planet is also normal maintenance work for this Cyber Test Field.”

As far as Gao Gong could see, there was an endless expanse of space, and inside, there were equally endless ’cabinets.’

”Old-fashioned style.”

”The whole ’Shell Attack Center’ is composed of ten million computing cabinets, primarily responsible for monitoring all the enterprise executives, constructing evolution route models, conducting technical direction simulations, and warning against prohibited experiments.”

”Does the Cyber Test Field still have ’prohibited experiments’?”

”Yes.”

”Give a few examples.”

”In Cyber Calendar 41, May, the ’Red Water Group’ attempted to create liquid life, which was stopped because it was highly polluting.”

”In Cyber Calendar 51, September, members of the Skeleton Foundation, Death Technology tried to create a large-scale ’Death Experiment,’ but were interrupted and destroyed by Captain Suzi, killing the founder of Death Technology.”

”In Cyber Calendar 52, January, the biological giant, Vinos Life Safety Group, attempted to conduct large-scale biochemical experiments in four colonies...”

After listening for a while, Gao Gong understood that the so-called ’prohibited experiments’ were technical trials that could potentially trigger a ’planetary crisis,’ such as creating virtual humans or conducting global brainwave connections, all considered suicidal acts, and bringing the planet’s life along for the ride.

This behavior must be stopped.

Other than that, there was basically nothing else.

”Do you know why I came here?” Gao Gong suddenly asked.

”Didn’t Former Minister Aramaki send you to investigate the list in your hand?” Miss Ke replied in a puzzled tone.

Gao Gong pondered for a brief moment and said, ”That’s correct, that’s it.”

”Based on changes in your heart rate, pulse, and skin pore frequency, there is an 85.2% chance you are lying.”