Qin Xuezhong wanted to investigate further, but Yu Zhezhong suddenly turned around and raised his gun. Behind him appeared two fully armed individuals, surrounding Yu and aiming their weapons at him.
"Don't move!"
"Put down your gun!"
The two spoke in low, urgent tones.
Yu Zhezhong remained completely still, coldly staring at the two men without saying a word. It was clear they weren't government or corporate operatives; their helmets and armor were of different models. One wielded a shotgun while the other had a submachine gun, which looked like a makeshift weapon from an underground workshop.
Were they from the slums' underground organization? Or some other faction?
"Put down your gun! Didn't you hear me?!"
One of them was clearly getting anxious, watching Yu Zhezhong remain still and shouting again.
Yu Zhezhong held his position, feeling no tension. Their stances were unprofessional; they likely hadn't undergone proper combat training. Such people often displayed numerous signs before shooting, like rapid breathing, squinting, and muscle tension.
Yu Zhezhong could dodge bullets from elite operatives, let alone these amateurish individuals. In his mind, he asked, "Are there any other people around?"
"Can't see anyone!" Qin Xuezhong quickly replied.
Strangely, there were no cameras or sensors in this bizarre power distribution room or the surrounding corridors. Combined with the strong electromagnetic interference and odd neural pulses in the room, the scanners couldn't function.
Yu Zhezhong nodded. "Then let's deal with these two first and ask them what's going on."
"Hey! What are you saying? Put down your gun!" The other man raised his weapon higher, commanding loudly.
Without a word, Yu Zhezhong casually walked toward the two. His strange movements completely unsettled them; the first speaker's finger trembled, and he suddenly pulled the trigger.
Yu Zhezhong didn't even flinch, continuing his leisurely stride. He had already determined that the shot wouldn't hit him. The bullet grazed his arm, but to the two men, it seemed as if the bullet had passed right through him without causing harm.
This bizarre scene frightened the two men, causing them to step back.
"Y-y-you... are you human or a ghost?!"
Hearing this, Qin Xuezhong couldn't help but chuckle in Yu Zhezhong's mind.
Yu Zhezhong's face twitched. Before the two could retreat further, he reached out, grabbing both guns and effortlessly twisting them away. With a swift elbow strike, he knocked both men to the ground.
After securing them, he asked, "Who are you?"
The two exchanged glances, seemingly still grappling with the question of whether Yu Zhezhong was a ghost.
With a slight smile, Yu Zhezhong first knocked one of them unconscious, then seized the other's fingers. Using some technique that appeared effortless, the man instantly felt pain, tears welling up in his eyes. He wanted to scream, but his muscles spasmed, rendering him mute.
Yu Zhezhong said softly, "Now, answer my questions honestly. If you lie, I'll knock you out and ask your friend here. If he gets it wrong, well, that would be amusing..."
He loosened his grip slightly, and the man slumped to the ground, dry heaving, his face still expressing defiance.
"Come on! Just kill me! If I say a word, I'll swallow my tongue!"
Yu Zhezhong frowned.
This was becoming problematic.
Qin Xuezhong interjected, "Connect to his chip; I'll take it from here."
She prepared to read the man's consciousness to see if she could gather useful clues.
Sensing Yu Zhezhong's intention, the man tried to resist, but Yu Zhezhong held him firmly, preventing any exertion. Qin Xuezhong quickly accessed two key pieces of information, both recent and deeply ingrained in his memory.
The first was that someone had recently brought an organ cultivation chamber to this power distribution room, after which the area was heavily secured. The location of the cultivation chamber was inside the generator behind Yu Zhezhong.
The second piece of information was the name of the organization: "Children of the Moon."
Qin Xuezhong felt a flicker of excitement. They were called Children of the Moon? Wasn't their investigation leading them here precisely because of the moon? And now they stumbled upon an organization named after it? This clearly wasn't a coincidence.
That organ cultivation chamber was very likely the brain taken from under the original host's bed!
Qin Xuezhong immediately said, "That brain is in the generator behind us…"
She paused, realizing she had failed to explain a crucial point to Yu Zhezhong. If that brain was indeed under her bed, she should have known what it was. The original host most likely had knowledge of it, but she knew nothing!
She had come here to uncover the truth of this world and understand the reason for her transmigration. Now, with the brain so close, she felt lost on what to do. Should she just take it? Or have these two go find their superiors? Or perhaps connect to the brain herself?
This was all… Yu Zhezhong's fault!
If he hadn't cooperated so well and never asked unnecessary questions, she wouldn't be in this position, still unsure of what to do.
Hmph!
She thought that the original host was probably a member of this organization; otherwise, that brain wouldn't be stored under her bed. Thus, it would be pointless to waste time with these two foot soldiers.
At that moment, many more people surged into the power distribution room.
Clearly, they were far more elite than the previous two—moving in tactical unison, the battle-armored individuals were backed by regular combat personnel.
The leading captain said nothing, commanding everyone to close in on Yu Zhezhong. He also gestured with his gun, demanding that Yu drop his weapon. Judging by their stance, if Yu Zhezhong made any move, he would be riddled with bullets.
Moreover, the new combat personnel had already formed a large half-circle around him, leaving little room to evade.
Instead, Yu Zhezhong smiled slightly and said in his mind to Qin Xuezhong, "It's your turn."
Qin Xuezhong didn't respond verbally; she used the devices in the power distribution room to instantly project her consciousness, enveloping everyone inside.
At the same time, she softly said, "One, two, three, freeze."
With a quirky tone that contrasted sharply with Yu Zhezhong's earlier coldness, it sounded as if she were possessed by a witch.
Everyone froze in horror, realizing that those six words seemed to be an incantation. Upon hearing them, their bodies became immobile, unable to move at all!
What kind of sorcery was this?!
Qin Xuezhong snapped her fingers, and the people began to slowly crouch down, then sit on the ground before lying flat.
Finally, their eyes rolled back as they fainted under the forcibly controlled electric currents from the chip in the back of Qin Xuezhong's head.
Inwardly, she felt a sense of pride at her growing skills.
—She hadn't directly knocked them out to avoid any injuries from falling; instead, she made them lie down first before passing out. Truly, it was a hassle.
The only one left standing was the leading captain.
"Once you're in here, you can't escape… just wait to die!"
The person had a look of desperation on their face, clearly knowing they couldn't defeat this mysterious hacker.
Yu Zhezhong was helpless.
He had either stumbled into a cult's hideout or a secret laboratory. In Creek Valley City, not many organizations would keep a secret like this so tightly.
Qin Xuezhong remained silent, and he could only continue to stand his ground against this person.
As if responding to the person's summons, the heavy sound of treads and a swarm of buzzing filled the air outside.
Several heavy combat suits and countless drones surged in from outside, creating an atmosphere of imminent danger.
Xiao Qin felt helpless as well.
Why was there not a single person who could talk? Why did they want to resort to violence right away?
It shouldn't be this way.
Even as an ordinary girl, she understood that the world wasn't just about fighting; it was also about human relationships.
An organization that resorted to violence at the slightest disagreement likely had no future.
She silently criticized them in her heart, then waved her hand, sending out a wave of electromagnetic energy that halted all the attacking machines.
Around her lay a circle of unconscious soldiers, and outside was a pile of downed drones.
In that moment, Xiao Qin felt like a demon king, effortlessly taking down the brave adventurers who had entered the underground city.
She felt resolute—since they weren't going to talk, she would fight them until they couldn't move, then see what happened!
As the last drone crashed to the ground, sparks flying, a voice came from outside.
"A bunch of idiots! Why did someone enter this place?! Because they have the chip of our Moon Children on them!"
Xiao Qin's heart skipped a beat.
She had indeed asked Yu Zhezhong to carry the original chip that activated the automatic surgical table, but she hadn't detected any devices interacting with the chip…
Or was it the neural pulse that caused the interaction?
So that was why Yu Zhezhong was able to enter so easily?
Was the original owner a member of this organization?
In other words, on her first visit to this organization's hideout, she had taken down all her companions… no, comrades?
As the voice trailed off, an elderly man in a wheelchair glided in from outside.
He looked extremely old, dressed in a pale blue jacket that revealed the skeleton beneath, appearing emaciated. His face was lined with wrinkles and age spots.
Only his eyes appeared filled with fury, looking ready to explode.
He was accompanied by two young men wearing the same color clothes. None of them carried weapons, and even upon seeing the chaos in the room, they showed no expression.
Seeing this scene, Qin Xuezhong realized a person who could communicate had arrived.
She released her control over the captain and turned her attention to the old man.
The old man calmly scanned her, first glancing at the unconscious subordinates before speaking slowly, "The chip you have is Qin Xuezhong's, and causing chaos in a place is also Qin Xuezhong's style… Hmph, Qin, Xue, Zhong… it really is you. I thought you were already dead."
His tone carried a hint of anger and confusion.
After finishing this sentence, his gaze fixed on Yu Zhezhong, dark and gloomy as he asked, "Or are you already dead, merely hiding in this puppet's body?"
Hearing this, Xiao Qin felt a surge of excitement.
Clearly, the old man was sharp; in just a few words, he had deduced her identity as the original owner and guessed that Yu Zhezhong was a puppet.
This seemed like a good opportunity to probe for information.
She replied, "Do you really wish I were dead?"
"Ha!" The old man laughed mockingly.
Then, he pressed a button on his wheelchair, activating a generator behind Yu Zhezhong.
Both of them saw that in the generator, which originally housed a high-energy compression core, there was a blue-glowing organ cultivation chamber.
It was the brain that Qin Xuezhong had seen under her bedroom floor!
The old man's voice was filled with rage, "You took this thing away, thinking you could crack the illusions in our heads, and now, not a word from you! You just disappeared! You left the Moon Brain in your filthy hovel in the slums! What if it gets stolen? Do you know how serious this is?"
"Now, I don't know how you got it back, but on your first day back, you turned our people into this?! You turned your comrades into this?! What do you want?!"
The old man's anger grew.
Xiao Qin, however, showed no reaction. Instead, she began analyzing the situation before her.
It seemed the original owner's identity was not simple; on the surface, she was the director of a dream company, yet behind the scenes, she had joined such a secret organization.
Moreover, her status must have been significant.
Otherwise, how could she have taken such an important-looking brain away by herself?
Perhaps within this so-called "Moon Children," there were also factions vying for power.
The original owner and this old man were likely adversaries.
Understanding this made many things clearer.
Evidently, for some unknown reason, there was an underground organization in Creek Valley City that had discovered the secrets of the Twin Moons without causing death or madness. Those who had understood the truth formed this group, perhaps aiming to expose this colossal deception.
This organization, capable of resisting the suggestions of suicide, likely possessed the so-called "Moon Brain."
To put it simply, the original owner had taken the brain away to uncover its secrets, while the old man's attitude towards this matter was extremely negative…
It could be that the old man's goal was to keep it a secret.
Or perhaps he merely wanted to guard this secret and not make it public?
Thinking this, Qin Xuezhong decided to test the waters.
She asked, "Do you think keeping this thing here will ensure safety?"
This statement was vague—there were only two key pieces of information: "keeping it here" and "safety."
Qin Xuezhong didn't know where "here" was or why it was kept there; she didn't understand what "safety" meant either…
She just thought, since the original owner was radical, the old man might represent a conservative faction.
Thus, this rhetorical question would come off as a mockery to the old man.
She guessed correctly.
The old man's eyebrows shot up in anger as he shouted, "Safety?! No matter how big the issue with the Twin Moons is, it's still just a broken moon! If this thing gets exposed, we'll be enemies of the mainframe! All of humanity will be enemies of the mainframe! What will you do then?! Let it use chips to burn us all to death?!"
Qin Xuezhong: !!!!
Mainframe?
Previously, she had speculated that the illusions of the Twin Moons were some kind of conspiracy executed by a person or organization through the mainframe network.
But according to the old man, this whole situation was orchestrated by the mainframe itself?
The same mainframe that had promised her world peace and ecological health?
At this moment, a shiver ran down her spine.
She realized she had been overlooking something all along.
Her journey, the brain under the bed, and the Tang Kede virus were all interconnected, and this was becoming clear.
Initially, when she had sought refuge from the Tang Kede virus attack in the underground room of the precinct, she had connected with the mainframe…
According to the mainframe, contacting her was merely a coincidence and was necessary to clarify the virus spread by Tang Kede within the system.
But now it seemed that if the mainframe was manipulating the underlying conspiracy, perhaps from the very first case onward…
She had been played like a puppet by the mainframe all along?