Abyssal Wanderer.

Jim and the emcee both looked up.

"I also received a message from the mortician; it seems there's a multi-purpose printer on the tenth floor..."

To save time, Jim went straight to the point.

The emcee nodded, thinking that the information from the mortician was being updated quite quickly.

"That's right, it's being controlled by a memetic entity... To be precise, it's being controlled by someone controlled by a memetic entity. The multi-function printer can only be activated by a human who possesses a mandala."

He quickly sorted out the situation and then spoke rapidly and fluently.

No wonder Hecate needed to become flesh to control the universal printer...

After learning this, Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

At the same time, Jim immediately asked:

"Shall we go to the tenth floor right away and seize control of that multi-function printer?"

With himself, Hanel, the master of ceremonies from Depth 5, and Number One—Jiang Zhou now intends to completely unleash Number One's powers, allowing him to unleash the full potential of human intelligence in combat—this should result in a significant increase in combat strength…

But after a moment's hesitation, the emcee said:

"There might not be enough time. If the other party discovers our intentions, the memetic entity might encrypt and store the universal printer at the last minute... We can't determine how long it will take to decrypt the memetic entity's encryption. If we don't have enough time, it will be terrible."

Hearing him say that, Jim deliberately asked in a questioning tone:
"So, when you came to Nord, you didn't immediately seal and store that universal printer?"

"It was already locked down when we arrived!"

Perhaps annoyed by the interruption, the emcee immediately raised his voice in rebuttal.

Realizing he had lost his composure, he didn't try to make amends. Instead, he pondered why the sealed password had been cracked so quickly. Less than an hour had passed since the ten-layer firewall was breached, and the encryption system he brought from the company would take at least four hours to crack, even for some path depth 7 modifiers who were experts in password cracking.

In other words, someone started deciphering the code shortly after the entire professional team arrived.

And someone who is close to a multi-functional printer, skilled in hacking, and likely has sufficient computing power...

The emcee glanced again at the list of draftsmen who were still unreachable, and gritted his teeth.

After calming himself down, he said to Jim Reiter:
"Although it's most likely still achieved indirectly through humans, allowing malicious programs to control the universal printer has probably pushed the threat level to the human intelligence level of the entire tenth floor of the resettlement area to the red zone... To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if lightning struck down from Mount Olympus right now. You still have a chance; you can choose to leave the Nord resettlement area as a witness on the last flight..."

Am I the only one who can leave?

Jim interrupted.

The emcee glanced at Hanel behind the other person, and then said:
"And Commissioner Eloiz Hanel, you two can, as survivors of the Nord Resettlement Area, ascend Mount Olympus in the future to attend a trial against a certain deity—at which time your testimony will make the deity pay a corresponding price."

Finally, he added one more sentence.

"Let's think about it. This is also a way of upholding justice."

Jim shook his head at this, and said firmly:

"My justice lies here."

If he and Hanel can survive, then what?

Not to mention the millions of people in the Nord resettlement area, he couldn't save even one of the people around him—on this point, he had no right to negotiate with the Olympian Order.

Meanwhile, seeing the determination in Jim's eyes, the emcee solemnly handed him the memory containing the complete printing permissions for adjusting and modifying the Orpheus path from depth 4 to depth 7.

"Then let's go to the seventh basement level and use Icarus's universal printer to upgrade."

The emcee presented his proposal.

The current tenth floor is far too dangerous, and even if we manage to seize that universal printer, if the meme entity has encrypted it beforehand, the time required to decrypt it may not be enough.

The multi-purpose printer on the seventh basement level, thanks to the protection of Number One and Booker, is still under Icarus's control.

This is the only way to save the entire Nord settlement before the Great Thunder arrives.

Jim solemnly accepted the memory chip and then asked:

"So, will you come with us to the seventh basement level?"

The emcee shook his head.

“I need to break through ten floors to the top floor of the resettlement area to receive the printing materials for your advancement to Depth 7… I just asked Booker Irwin, and comparing the list, their warehouse has enough materials for you to advance to Depth 6. But the key materials for advancing to Depth 7 have always been controlled items, and only we can provide them.”

As he said this, seemingly influenced by some stance, the light around the emcee began to dim.

"So, you go to level -7 and ascend to depth 6 first. Suppress the infected in the underground resettlement area from there. I'll come down immediately after receiving the supplies. Icarus's people will meet you along the way. Oh, and..."

He paused for a moment, as if receiving some message, and then continued:
"The mortician will be here to assist you soon; you can wait for him here for a while."

Jim nodded.

"There's one more thing..."

Just as Jim turned to leave, the emcee called him back.

Jim received a complete document about the cartographer and the Npssa route.

In addition, there was a pardon for the “tainted witness” personally signed by Briarous.

"What if you were attacked by a cartographer on the street..."

It was clear that the emcee didn't really want to say those things.

"Then show him this and tell him that if he continues to obstruct this rescue operation, he will be left in the Nord settlement and turn to ashes with everyone here. But if he is willing to cooperate with our operation, as long as he appears as a tainted witness at trial afterward, all his previous actions will be wiped clean... He can also switch jobs to the Jupiter Group and continue working for Olympus Enterprises."

This left Jim feeling somewhat uneasy.

The emcee, of course, noticed his mood. He pointed dramatically to his head, then sighed and said:

"In order to save more people, sometimes we have to make some compromises... so I won't say any more about that."

However, at the same time, the emcee's symbolic topology clearly says, "Although I can't do it, I'll support you 100% in taking him down."

Then he continued:

"Although I know you did this with the determination to die, so it might be a bit inappropriate to say this, I really envy you for being able to reach the limit of human intelligence in one step... It's as easy for a Depth 7 to crush a Depth 3 Coordinator as it is for an ordinary person to crush a mouse."

Jim understood what the other person meant, and nodded with a smile:
"I know what to do."

The emcee smiled knowingly.
"Don't miss this opportunity, go quickly!"

…………

It wasn't until two highly accurate electromagnetic cannon shots pierced through the defensive fortifications that Number One realized something was wrong.

Using ballistic calculations from the ECO combat support system, Number One immediately determined that the two electromagnetic guns were deployed in the central control tower on the tenth floor.

The control tower is not far from the data center. The fact that it could accurately penetrate its own reinforced defenses over that distance without damaging the data center's servers indicates that the two electromagnetic cannons are definitely military-grade weapons—the kind that shouldn't be found inside the resettlement area.

Considering that the central control tower was where the Nord resettlement area government stored its multi-purpose printers, No. 1 suddenly felt a bad premonition, as well as... a kind of anger mixed with guilt.

The two electromagnetic cannons pierced through the buildings blocking their path, and after breaching the fortifications, they turned the dozen or so security personnel who were holding the position into a cloud of blood mist.

The leader himself relied on sensors deployed along the route to detect the approaching high-speed threat and evade the attack in advance. However, the security forces members he had promised "not to die again" suffered heavy casualties.

They died under their own protection.

Seeing the survivors, their bodies splattered with the blood and flesh of the dead, finally begin to scream, Number One thought to himself.

These two electromagnetic cannons were just the appetizer; soon after, a new wave of constructs began to swarm forward.

No longer are they modified civilian household robots, nor are they a stripped-down version of military autonomous machinery... This time, what has rushed up is the genuine native inhabitants of the dark web.

Number One had served as an Abyss Wanderer within the Firebringers for a long time, and was intimately familiar with the data forms of the constructs that frequently appeared on the Abyss Dark Web. Therefore, with just a glance from his sensors, he knew that all the constructs attacking this time were old friends.

Those are nightmares originating from the Great Shock era, specifically designed for killing humans in urban terrain, a manifestation of the malice of the dark web.

In the world of human civilization, there are no assembly lines that manufacture them.

In other words, these things could only have been produced using a multi-purpose printer.

[The mortician has discovered that the multi-purpose printer on the tenth floor has been taken over by a memetic entity. The defense of the data center is about to become extremely fierce.]

After conveying this message to the mortician, Number One began to fully deploy its weaponry.

The furnace core began to heat up, and the radio field for remote charging unfolded around him. The Aegis modules assembled around him into independently operating floating cannons.

This is the maximum number of mods that can be unlocked in Depth 4...

Number One thought.

He then shouted loudly to the panicked security forces around him:

“From now on, there won’t be any more 'survivors'! But I’ll do my best to keep them all out, you…”

He habitually took a deep breath, and then said:

"Let's all try our best to survive!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, his expression changed drastically again.

Confusion, doubt, disbelief... Finally, his expression settled on confidence.

The remaining security forces gripped their weapons and stood up. They had originally planned to watch the number one strike, but unexpectedly, the other side suddenly stopped.

Then, he turned around, making sure everyone could see the confident expression on his face.

"I apologize, I retract my previous statement."

He began:

"From now on, none of you will die."

As soon as he finished speaking, the floating cannons that had been flying around him exploded instantly, turning into a sky full of silver-gray nano-mist.

…………

When Jiang Zhou received Message Number One, he was just about to connect himself to the combat pod in the data center.

Upon seeing the intelligence report that "the ten-layer multi-function printer has been taken into control," he felt a buzzing in his head.

What does it mean when a multi-function printer is controlled by a meme entity?

When they first arrived at the Nord resettlement area, wasn't the first thing the emcee did to seal up the multi-printer?

This is encryption technology brought by the Jupiter Group... It's been less than an hour since the ten-layer firewall was breached, and the meme entity can crack it?

Or... did someone already have a multi-purpose printer in the works?

who can that be?

Baptiste? Or a draftsman?

But whoever it is, the more important thing now is how to deal with this.

Forcibly suppressing his doubts, Jiang Zhou began to make arrangements.

He first sent this information to both the emcee and Booker, and then decisively removed all the shackles from Number One's body—there was no time to worry about that now. Even if Number One completely lost control after this battle, he still needed the power of Depth 7 to back him up.

If you let a meme entity control a universal printer, given enough time, it wouldn't be surprising if it produced some outrageous things.

Defending in the data center is a form of slow suicide; we must allow Number One to directly reclaim that multi-function printer.

About five seconds later, Booker made the same decision as Jiang Zhou.

As Number One was untied, Mingyue's mark appeared in Jiang Zhou's hacker vision.

It was the shape of a black full moon, representing how much cybernetic access he had obtained from the other party through Hecate's power—now, if he wanted, he could bypass Number One's consciousness and control the various cybernetic bodies on his body.

Even detonating the core of that fusion reactor was a matter of a single thought.

Of course, as long as Number One doesn't suddenly rush into the data center yelling that he wants to kill him, Jiang Zhou won't use any permissions right now—the other guy is fighting outside right now, and if he accidentally uses some permissions that cause him to fail to dodge a fatal attack and die, that would be a huge mess.

The moment all permissions were unlocked, Jiang Zhou also sensed that the other party was trying to break Mingyue's mark.

It wasn't a grand affair, but rather a cautious, tentative one—like touching the edge of a scab on your hand with your fingernail.

But the mark left by the goddess of the underworld remained unshaken.

If I had to describe it, it would be like trying to use a flashlight to dispel a lunar eclipse and illuminate the moon again.

Although Number One is only tentatively trying to break free of the restraints, given the enormous gap that Jiang Zhou can sense, even if Number One does nothing now and tries its best to break free of the restraints, it is unlikely that it will make progress in a short time.

After several attempts, Number One finally gave up on continuing to crack the code.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhou finally felt a little relieved.

It seems that even reaching the limits of human intelligence, the mark left by the Goddess of the Underworld could not completely prevent it...

Just as Jiang Zhou was thinking this, a slight change appeared in the black moon in his hacker vision.

It was neither a change in the Black Moon Mark itself, nor a continued probing by Number One.

That seemed to come from an external force.

Although it is an external force, it is released through Number One itself.

In Jiang Zhou's hacker perspective, that foreign force looked like an insignificant spark.

It landed on the edge of the black moon and then began to erode the lunar eclipse at an extremely slow pace.

Meanwhile, Hecate, who was above the Nord resettlement area and gazing eastward awaiting the sunrise, also noticed this.

She first raised her hand slightly in the moonlight, but after hesitating for a moment, she lowered it again.

"That's fine then..."

Hecate said softly. (End of Chapter)