Chapter 277 The first confrontation

Chapter 277 The first confrontation

In front of the basement entrance of the abrupt building.

Han Zu was carefully dealing with the parasitic plants that blocked the entrance to the stairs. He thought of many ways and finally chose a slow but very safe way to deal with them, which was to cut them with a sharp tool.

Fortunately, Han Zu was lucky. He found a broken kitchen knife in this abrupt building. It fell into a jar that should be used to store grease, so it was not rusted. The broken kitchen knife was in good condition. The action of cutting those parasitic plants was a little faster than expected. After drawing for a few minutes, Han Zu cut a hole that was big enough for Gloria's head, and then stuck her head on it. Using the hole above, he passed through in the form of blood mist.

"Hey! Don't leave me here!"

Gloria, with only her head left, did not have a voice-generating device, so she could only use the hacked system again to send messages to Han Zu. Han Zu noticed that this time the message was sent via chat text, and was no longer a system notification. This showed that Gloria had lost all authority to change the system. It seemed that the main part of the device that interfered with the system was not in the head, but in other parts of the body.

"Hey! I said! Don't leave me here!!"

After making sure that Gloria would not cause any more trouble, Han Zu ignored her message and walked down the stairs by himself. However, because he was distracted by looking at the message, Han Zu did not notice that the stairs leading to the basement had been completely rotten, so with a dull thud, Han Zu fell straight down.

"Ha! You deserve it!"

Han Zu, facing the ground, saw Gloria's sarcasm in the text box before he got up. However, Han Zu did not feel angry, but felt a little strange.

Among the modified humans that Han Zu had seen before, whose bodies had undergone large-scale mechanical transformation, their emotions were very cold, as if the mechanized transformation had affected the part of their brain that controls emotions. They were more like intelligent AI, with very few human-like parts. Gloria, however, was completely different. Apart from her body that had also undergone large-scale transformation, there was actually not much difference between Gloria and a normal person.

After standing up, Han Zu couldn't help but look at the place where he fell. Although Gloria's body model was earlier than those cyborgs he had seen before, it was not an ancient product. Although the assembly sequence number on the body was unclear, judging from the material and shape, Gloria's body was a product of no more than a year ago. At that time, the technology of cyborgs should have reached a final conclusion. Later, it was just a hardware upgrade and was not affected at all. Gloria's emotions, in Han Zu's opinion, were not normal.

"Maybe I should take that guy out and find a chance to study him." Han Zu thought to himself.

Putting this matter aside for the moment, Han Zu turned around, walked into the basement and began searching.

Inside the manor, Magnus' study.

Alba and Wei Mingchen originally planned to come here to "inquire" for some relevant clues, but after entering the study and starting to talk with Magnus, they both discovered something unusual.

Ha Jin and Magnus, who were normal just now, immediately locked onto the two after they entered the study this time. Wei Mingchen and Alba also discovered that the two who were originally friendly units suddenly became neutral units. Although Magnus and Ha Jin released the combat lock after locking onto the two for a minute, and continued to talk to the two as if nothing had happened, their neutral unit status did not change back. This made Alba and Wei Mingchen feel depressed.

Soon, something happened that made them unable to sit still. The conversation stopped abruptly. Magnus and Ha Jin suddenly moved as if they had never seen them. Alba and Wei Mingchen observed that Magnus and Ha Jin were marked on their system. In the target selection frame, the two saw the status of "automatic patrol, resetting". Magnus and Ha Jin quickly left the study. Ha Jin walked along the corridor outside the door to the stairs leading to the first floor hall, and Magnus disappeared directly after leaving the study.

"Sorry, our cooperation may have to end."

"I understand. Just quit the instance and don't forget to report the cheater to the authorities."

"I will try, but it seems that the authorities don't want to expose this matter to the forum and let more people know about it. There has never been any information about this on the forum. Don't you think it's strange?"

"indeed."

Important NPCs began to patrol and reset, which was very rare. This meant that the officials of Infinite City were resetting the copy. As for why it was so rare, Alba and Wei Mingchen immediately realized the seriousness of the matter because such an accident had happened a long time ago.

In short, there was a player who tried to leave the boundary of the map to continue exploring. The system at that time was not as perfect as it is now, so after the player left the designated area, the system was temporarily offline for a period of time. It was during this time that the copy was restarted, resulting in the player's mysterious disappearance and has not been found until now.

Although the specific details were blocked by Infinite Company, the incident did cause a big stir at the time, and they did everything possible to distance themselves from the incident. However, because the technology for large-scale memory modification was not mature at the time, some people still remembered the accident and posted it on various forums, not just the Infinite City forum. As veteran players, the two knew the relevant news, so they understood how important the current incident was.

Knowing the danger of the matter, Wei Mingchen made the most correct decision, which was to exit the dungeon immediately. As for whether to tell the official about the cheater after he got out, Wei Mingchen had other plans. He believed that even if he reported the matter to the official, he would not get any useful response. What's more, Wei Mingchen was considered to be the player in Infinite City who believed in the conspiracy theory more.

"I'll leave these things to you. If you act quickly, you should be able to earn enough points to exit before the instance is completely reset. Goodbye."

After throwing all the props needed to complete the side quest to Alba, Wei Mingchen decisively chose the option to leave the copy. In a flash, Wei Mingchen was covered by the teleporting light and left the copy.

"Fake!"

However, after Wei Mingchen left, Alba finally didn't have to pretend her emotions anymore. She suddenly threw the things Wei Mingchen had just handed her to the ground and cursed a few words.

As mentioned before, if Alba had enough points, she could indeed quit directly, but Alba's entry into the dungeon was an accident, and she had no option to accumulate points at all, so even if she had a lot of items, it would be of no use to her.

The reset copy will work like shrinking the poison. First, the NPC is reset, then the key props are reset, and then the scene in the copy is repaired. The last step is to restart the system. Although there are many steps, the reset speed is not slow. If Alba wants to leave safely, she needs to find a way now. Now, the cheater's matter seems not so important.

Looking at Jerome's back as he was resetting to his original position, Alba chased after him immediately. If they wanted to leave the dungeon, either other players had to pass the level or leave, or they had to find someone from the official side. The locations of Pei Zuocheng and Su Wen were unclear for the time being. From now on, finding the man who had been with Jerome before, who was 80% likely to be an official, should be the best choice.

"I hope I'm right!"

Thinking of this, Alba quickened her pace and soon overtook Jerome who was resetting his position and rushed towards Jerome's room.

At the same time, the abrupt building, the basement.

After searching around, Han Zu did not find anything here. On the contrary, it cannot be said that there is nothing here, but it is not worth any further investigation. The space in the basement is not small, about 50 to 60 square meters, and there are even two or three secret doors, as well as a space of more than ten square meters at the back. However, in the basement, there is nothing except a few empty wooden boxes. Han Zu did not give up, and checked those boxes to see if there was any mezzanine or something, but there was nothing worth investigating except wooden boards.

Han Zu jumped onto the broken stairs, turned into blood mist and returned the same way, then took back Gloria's head. When he was about to go back to the second floor to investigate, he found the message sent by the system's information bar.

"Resetting the current copy, estimated completion time: 53:39"

"Damn it! Hey! Faceless man, I don't know if you understand the current situation, but you need to listen to me now. We have to leave immediately!"

Although Gloria has lost her ability to hack into the system and disguise herself, and can no longer disguise herself as a fake system, she can still learn about the official information sent through Han Zu's system. It can be seen that she is very anxious and no longer has the mind to pretend or mock. She just wants to leave quickly.

But Han Zu was completely unmoved. As one of the top executives in the chairman's faction within Infinite Company, Han Zu knew more about the reset of the Infinite City system than anyone else.

In fact, Han Zu had learned the real situation of the incident when he had been staying in various facilities of Infinite Company. The situation at that time was basically the same as what the officials of Infinite Company and Infinite City said, but it only explained half of it. In fact, the missing player at that time was not really missing. He did leave the set location of the copy and found a "loophole" in the design of the copy map. He was indeed isolated from the reset copy, but the staff of Infinite City found him in less than three minutes. They originally wanted to send him out after modifying his memory, but it happened that the guy was a very good programmer, but Infinite City had just been launched and was in urgent need of manpower. After asking, they learned that the guy actually found a loophole in the copy, and then used this to leave the predetermined location and reach outside the border. Therefore, Infinite Company, which was in urgent need of manpower, absorbed the guy into the company after conducting its own background investigation. Han Zu also met him once in an important data base.

As for the fact that something bad will happen if you don't leave the copy before it is reset, of course it is fake news deliberately spread by Infinite Company. In fact, even if the copy is reset and the player does not leave, or is stuck in the copy for some reason, there will be no problem. However, they may encounter staff who enter the copy to collect data or perform repairs, so there is a high probability that their memory will be deleted and sent back. There is a small probability that they will become an employee of Infinite Company like that guy. According to Han Zu's understanding, to be honest, this kind of thing has actually happened many times, and it was not until he understood the Infinite City that it was completely resolved.

Therefore, Han Zu, as a senior executive of Infinite Company, didn't care about this matter at all. Moreover, there was another advantage of resetting the copy, that is, if you have not left the map range after starting the reset, you will not be able to get out before the reset is completed. After all, the so-called copy is constructed by Infinite Company from other places. Other separate areas are not virtualized by code, but real.

However, the copy has begun to reset, which means that the authorities have intervened. If I want to find out the origin of the toxin related to the power in my body, I will probably have to find another opportunity later.

So now that Han Zu no longer had any goals to worry about, he could just do whatever he wanted. He decided to satisfy his curiosity first. After all, he was already here.

The vine of the parasitic plant that passed through one of Gloria's eye sockets was a convenient thing. Han Zu tore off a vine from the parasitic plant next to it, connected them together, and then used it as a necklace. He hung Gloria's head around his neck, maintaining this strange shape. Han Zu returned to the second floor. At this moment, Han Zu heard a sound coming from afar. He pushed aside the parasitic plant that was blocking the window, stretched his head out to take a look, and found that in front of the main building of the manor, almost in the middle of the cobblestone road and the garden fountain, there were several figures entangled, and there were energy collisions from time to time. It seemed that they were fighting.

Without Gloria's interference, Han Zu was able to convey the message accurately this time. Taking advantage of the high degree of compatibility of the system, Han Zu used his powerful strength as a zoom lens to take several close-up and clear photos of both sides of the battle, which were quickly passed by Han Zu to the staff outside.

"Received. We are confirming the identities and background information of these targets. Do you need to send reinforcements?"

"No, let them play first. They can't run away anyway. By the way, send me a pack of cigarettes. Any brand will do."

The staff outside quickly sent back the news, and now the matter is actually resolved.

"Finally... oh?"

As the system reset took effect, Han Zu found that his body had returned to normal, his facial features had returned to normal, and he was finally able to speak again. After trying it out, the other abilities in his body also returned to normal.

"Om."

With a flash of light, a pack of cigarettes was sent to Han Zu's position by the staff outside. He couldn't wait to tear open the package, took out two cigarettes and put them in his mouth, then lit them with flames.

“Hiss…Hmm…”

The smell of cigarettes quickly faded, and the disgusting smell from the second floor faded away. Holding a cigarette in his mouth, Han Zu entered the corridor, ready to take a closer look to see what secrets were hidden in there.