Cyber ​​God: Abyss Walker

"..."

Wang Yu still held the Greedy Silver Serpent Revolver in his hand. The sudden change in the scene before him made him feel uneasy. The events that had occurred in this abnormal zone made him unable to even confirm whether the person in front of him was real or fake. After using the Willpower Dice, the effect of the Inspiration Dice had long since disappeared.

"Hmm...you seem quite wary, which makes it difficult to explain this place to you according to the rules. Why don't you simply tell me what you're here to do in this anomalous zone? Maybe that will help you let go of your prejudices against the containment facility?"

Seeing Wang Yu get up from the ground, grip his revolver tightly, and observe his surroundings, the other person also straightened up, pondered for a moment, and then made a suggestion.

"Connect with an organization and get the old-world artifacts that the gang needs from them."

The person's suggestion made a lot of sense, so Wang Yu, after omitting most of the details, told them his reason for entering the abnormal zone.

"Oh, I see. So this is the place you're looking for, but you've entered through the wrong door. Normally, you would enter through the main entrance we've used as a disguise. The name 'The Collectors' is something we made up."

"Click..."

After the other party fully explained the name of the organization that the Hai Chao Gang had told him to contact for the mission, Wang Yu put away his gun. There was no problem; the organization that the Hai Chao Gang had asked him to contact was called "The Collector." Continuing to be suspicious like this would probably be pointless.

"Great, now I can follow the rules. Let me tell you what this containment facility is for. You can call me Victor, otherwise it'll be really troublesome to talk without a title. I'm a researcher at the containment facility."

"I am Ultraman."

"Okay, Ultraman, to put it simply, the main function of this containment facility is to contain artifacts from the old era that we cannot yet understand and that may cause great damage, and then conduct research on these artifacts based on that."

Victor clapped his hands with delight and led Wang Yu around the laboratory-like space. The researchers on both sides, dressed the same as Victor, walked briskly and paid no attention to Wang Yu, who had suddenly appeared.

"Don't worry about it. Whoever finds out is responsible. In other words, you have to deal with the trouble yourself. I found out about you first, so I'll have to handle your troubles by myself. They won't waste their time on you."

Noticing that Wang Yu was observing him, Victor spoke up and mentioned it.

"Are there still individuals among the relics from the old era capable of causing large-scale destruction and potentially spiraling out of control?"

Wang Yu nodded slightly and asked a question.

"Of course, the differences between artifacts from the old era are quite significant. We still cannot understand how their special properties came about. The only way to deal with them is to treat their characteristics as axioms and laws, such as natural rules like apples falling and the sun rising."

"Of course, you might say that the apple falls because of gravity, but the word gravity itself was created to define the cause of this phenomenon. Regardless of whether the word gravity exists or not, gravity itself still exists objectively. The same is true for the characteristics of relics from the old era. All we can do is define it."

"You still might not understand, so take a look at this second-level artifact from the Old World."

Victor seemed eager to complete the tasks assigned to him according to the rules and regulations. He talked a lot and was in a hurry, leading Wang Yu through a series of twists and turns, and finally stopped in front of a gate guarded by two fully armed armored soldiers. It seemed that they were the security personnel that Victor had mentioned.

"Regional Supervisor Victor requests access to the old-era relic, numbered 308, Level 2."

Victor casually pulled a card-like object from his pocket and showed it to the two security guards.

"Application approved, proceed with permission."

The two security guards spoke in unison and moved almost symmetrically as they let Wang Yu and Victor through the opened gate.

Upon entering, he found himself in a spacious, empty room. There, Wang Yu saw a small statue encased in a transparent cabinet. It resembled an old-fashioned plastic figurine, and its color had faded.

"This is a Level 2 containment object, number 308. Close your eyes for a moment."

Victor walked over, took out the small statue, placed it about five meters away from the two of them, and said to Wang Yu.

"..."

Focusing his attention on the other person, the parasites in his brain gradually became active, and some simple emotions were fed back to Wang Yu. They were somewhat vague, but he was certain that there was no malice involved, so he complied with the other person's request and closed his eyes.

"Click!"

"Ugh! Why wasn't it you? I'm so unlucky."

The moment Wang Yu closed his eyes, he heard a cracking sound of bones breaking, followed by Victor's screams and questions.

Wang Yu looked at Victor as if he were an idiot. The guy's left ankle was twisted 180 degrees, and his entire foot was turned backward. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. The small statue was in front of the twisted left foot.

"As you can see, this is the effect of the second-level relic 308 from the old era. If no one is watching it, it will randomly snap the ankles of people within a certain distance. It seems I'm really unlucky. It won't attack a second person for twenty minutes. It's also very simple to store it; just put it in a sealed container."

"Click!"

Viktor grimaced as he twisted his ankle back into place, then popped something that looked like a pill into his mouth, shook his foot, and was fine again.

Victor got up, put the statue back in the transparent case, and then led Wang Yu outside, still introducing it to him.

"The patterns of the Level 3 relics from the ancient era have been largely understood. The Level 2 relics are still pending. There has been almost no research progress on Level 1 relics. Level 0 relics are separated out. They are either understood but still extremely dangerous, or they are extremely dangerous even though nothing has been researched. And then there are the living beings."

Wang Yu noticed some details in the other person's words and asked about them.

"Are there still living beings among the relics from the old era?"

"Of course, people are also a kind of 'thing,' so as long as they meet the criteria for relics from the old era, they can naturally be included."

"The reason why the second-level number 308 was classified as a second-level number is because we don't understand how it defines the ankle—human? Monster? Mechanical? What would happen if we stuffed something 'impossible' to twist into the ankle? Could we utilize its characteristics?"

Victor spoke eloquently, sharing information that Wang Yu was completely unaware of.

"The experiment in Zone 5 has spiraled out of control, and a large number of derivatives are rioting. All personnel in this area and those nearby are to evacuate immediately and prepare for a cleanup operation!!!"

The sudden alarm sounded throughout the corridor where Wang Yu and Victor were walking, but Victor remained calm and unhurried, as if he had already gotten used to it all.

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion erupted a few seconds later, and Wang Yu felt the air around him, the floor, and the walls vibrate from the powerful blast.

"What did you do?"

After a moment of stunned silence, Wang Yu frowned and asked the other party, "Why did this suddenly explode?"

"We blew up part of District 5. Oh, and by the way, here's why I'm telling you all this, without worrying that you might blow up the containment facility. It's been bombed several times already."

"Snapped!"

"Ouch!"

Victor casually uttered a rather absurd answer, and at the same time kicked the wall next to him. The recoil made him cry out in pain again. Wang Yu realized that what this guy wanted to do was to kick the tiles on the wall and break them.

"You mean it's okay even if it's destroyed?"

"That's right. Do you remember the nature of this anomalous zone?"

"Recreate past scenes from memory."

"Based on memory? That's true, but that's only when things in the memory don't exist in this world."

Having caught something that caught his attention, Wang Yu prompted him with another question.

"Are there things in memory that don't even exist?"

Victor scratched his head and quickly responded.

"You don't really think memories are something real and unchangeable, do you? Your dreams are these 'false' memories; your brain makes you forget them quickly to prevent you from confusing reality with illusion."

"Here's the question: if the brain itself can create false memories, is it really that difficult to change a person's memories or implant false memories? No one can say with 100% certainty that everything in their head is real, that's just how it is."

"The nature of this anomalous zone, belonging to the great being 'Void,' is either to reproduce a real location at a specific point in time in this world based on memories, or to replicate an incredibly similar scene based on false memories."

The other party's words and the mention of another new great existence, "Void," made Wang Yu ponder for a few moments, but he quickly stopped thinking about it further.

"You should know the rules, right? The first person to enter the anomaly zone can fix the scene in a certain area. The containment facility itself is a recreated scene, but I can't say for sure whether it's real or not."

"But if it is destroyed on a large scale, all we need to do is reset the brain memories of that respectable person, and the containment facility will be able to reappear undamaged."

Victor pointed out part of the truth about this containment facility, which explains why the other party wasn't too concerned about the destruction of Sector 5. No matter how much damage there was, there was probably a way to repair it in an instant. And the respectable person the other party mentioned...

"The brain in a vat, huh? Voluntarily undergoing modification to create this containment facility within the anomalous zone that can be repaired and may even support customization."

Wang Yu already had some guesses, but of course he didn't comment on them.

"Sit down. I'll get you the old-world relic you need to complete the mission, and then I'll tell you the rest of the information about the containment facility. Then you can leave."

Victor led Wang Yu into what was presumably his office, gestured for Wang Yu to sit down, and then began rummaging through something.

"It's that simple?"

Wang Yu was somewhat surprised.

"It's that simple. I'm telling you this because of the rules and regulations. According to the rules, you might be more suited to a certain profession than those of us at this level. That's it. It's a special case, but as you can see, there are quite a few special things in the shelter."

Victor placed something that looked rusty on the table. Wang Yu looked up and saw it was an old-fashioned depth gauge, which was his target for this mission—a relic from the old era.

"You may not have heard of the word 'depth' because it is a definition we derived from the effects of this relic from an old era."

As Victor spoke, he slipped the depth gauge onto his right hand, and the pointer fluctuated before settling on the value of 63.

"The people and things in this world, including great beings and anomalous derivatives, all have their own corresponding depth. The deeper the depth, the more things one can touch and glimpse."

"Beings at different depths cannot touch each other. Normal humans and objects exist at a very shallow depth, while great beings exist at a very deep depth. There is almost no interaction between the two."

"But because of the ambiguity between similar depths, great beings can indirectly project their influence from the deepest depths to the shallower layers, and these projected forces are abnormal pollution."

"According to our research, everyone has their own depth baseline value after birth. This baseline value may change permanently or temporarily. Exposure to abnormal pollution may permanently or temporarily increase the depth, while some relics from ancient times can both increase and decrease the depth."

"The effect of this ancient relic in your hand is to display your depth, from 0 to 200. You can roughly estimate your current depth based on the value."

Victor handed the depth gauge to Wang Yu as he spoke.

"Click!"

Wang Yu put on the depth gauge, and the pointer spun and quickly stopped at the value of 63.

"Our depths should be the same. You and I are on the same level, but your baseline is definitely deeper than mine. Although I don't know how you managed to come up from below, the fact that you are below means that your depth before entering was already around 63, which is much deeper than my 37."

Victor confirmed Wang Yu's stats before he could speak, which allowed Wang Yu to look at him with a relaxed attitude. It was good to know more.

"This is the nature of this anomalous area, or rather, the nature of almost all anomalous areas. As soon as you enter an anomalous area, your depth will begin to increase. The scenes at different depths within this anomalous area are different, and with each scene you pass through, your depth will increase further."

"If someone is in a certain area at a certain depth, the scene within a certain range will be identified, just like this containment facility. It will no longer change with the memories of new people entering. But you shouldn't have encountered any scenes that don't belong to your memories as you've come in, right?"

Wang Yu nodded in response to Victor's question, confirming that what Victor said was true.

"This means that you came in at a very deep depth, and you haven't encountered any of the scenes that have been identified above."

Victor clapped his hands and announced the final conclusion.

Some doubts gradually became clear, and Wang Yu also began to understand the concept of depth. The baseline depth is the inspiration value, which can be temporarily increased by using the inspiration dice.

Using the Willpower Dice pulls you back to the baseline depth while preventing permanent changes to the Inspiration, which is also the baseline depth. While it's uncertain whether this is entirely accurate, there should be a connection between the two.

As he continued speaking, Victor looked into the eyes of Wang Yu, who was sitting opposite him.

"The regulations are very clear. They tell you these things because your level of understanding makes you more likely to see certain aspects of the world than we do, and you are also more suited to this profession."

"Investigator."

"An investigator?"