On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

After scanning by 86, it was discovered that the homeless man was actually a current employee of Keltech.

[Special Operations Department of Fantasy Dream, Employee ID: 18637, Employee Name: FAMAS]

Chapter 265 The Truth About the Murderer

"Hey buddy, is there anything I can help you with?"

Liao Ji stepped forward and started talking to the homeless man. The homeless man glanced at Liao Ji, looking like a complete loser who had lost all will to live and whose life was utterly bleak. He didn't even bother to speak and just waved his hand.

I advise you to stay away from me.

"Otherwise, when the people from Kyle Technology come after me, you'll be targeted by them too."

After a self-deprecating laugh, the homeless man got up from beside the trash can and staggered off to continue his wandering.

Until the next sentence from the young man behind him.

"That's quite a coincidence."

"Keltech is looking for me all over the place right now."

Seeing the homeless man turn around in astonishment, Liao Ji shrugged.

Then, under the homeless man's blank stare, Liao Jirang 86 removed the optical dummy face mask from his face, revealing his original appearance. After the homeless man examined him carefully, he immediately opened his mouth wide.

Although he didn't have any electronic devices, anyone who wasn't blind or deaf should know something about the terrorist attack that happened in Kyle Square, and about Dr. Liao Ji, who was now being hunted down with a bounty on his head.

"You...you're not that kind of person!!"

"Yes, that's right, it's me." Liao Ji readily admitted.

Then the homeless man seemed to finally have a glimmer of light in his eyes, and suddenly became excited. He didn't care about Liao Ji's identity or the high reward offered, but just asked urgently:

"So...so that mech at the scene was really piloted by you? You were able to unleash the true power of the Witch's Mark?"

Seeing Liao Ji nod, the homeless man seemed to have received confirmation. He happily grabbed his messy hair, which looked like it hadn't been washed for many days, and kept muttering to himself:

"I knew it. I knew the Witch's Mark wasn't that simple. It's a mecha! Damn, I really want to study its principles again!"

The homeless man seemed to return to reality at the end, realizing he wasn't a researcher but a hunted vagrant. He instantly deflated, and even later, realizing what was happening, became somewhat frightened, saying:

"Doctor, you...you're not going to kill us, are you?"

After all, generally speaking, no one would readily admit to their public identity unless they had already planned to kill someone to silence them.

Liao Ji wanted to know this, so he deliberately smiled without saying a word, first trying to scare this homeless man who had quite a story, and then asked, "Alright, now that I've told you everything, shouldn't you also tell me why you said you were being hunted down by Kaike Technology, and what your reasons were for doing so?"

"Tell me, Doctor, I'll tell you everything. My name is FAMAS. I'm a new employee at Kyle Technology, and I've been with the company for less than six months. Because of my decent abilities, I was recruited into the Dream Special Operations Department."

"The so-called special operations department is actually a large number of illegal dream explorers hired by the company to 'enter' the Zero Dream. My job is to be a dispatcher, helping the dream explorers avoid the turbid and strange tides and reduce the loss rate."

"Stop, wait a minute."

Upon hearing this, Liao Jixian interrupted, asking with a puzzled look, "Dispatcher, can you observe the changes within the Zero Dream from reality?"

"No, we can't do it, but we can if we use the help of the machine servants."

"With the help of a mech servant?"

After nodding, FAMAS explained, "Kel Technology has misappropriated some of the chip computing power of the servants from the Oversight Bureau. Using this computing power, the company can not only create similar androids, but also monitor the location and status of some servants in the Dream."

"Once we discover that a large number of servants have gathered and died, it means that a calamity has definitely broken out in the area. Therefore, we can command the Dream Explorers to stay away from the area and avoid the danger of being caught in the strange tide."

"At that time, I discovered a turbid calamity tide that was at least a B-level by detecting the deaths of machine servants. But the manager at the time, whom you should know, was William. He forced me to delete the records. I refused, so William suppressed me and sent me to prison on the grounds of selling company secrets."

Famas sounded a little guilty towards the end, probably because the actual events differed slightly from his description. However, judging from Famas's gritted teeth at the end and his current state as a homeless person, it's true that he was sent to prison later.

That's why Liao Ji asked curiously:

"You were sent to prison, so why are you still here?"

"Heh, I underestimated Kyle Technology. A bunch of bastards! They never intended to lock me up. They just used the pretext of sending me to prison, and then took me out of prison and handed me over to the Blackfire Gang! They wanted to use the gang to kill me and silence me!"

Black Fire Gang

Upon hearing the familiar gang name, Liao Ji now understood how FAMAS had escaped and why he had happened to run into him.

"I thought I was going to die, but who would have thought it was karma? The Black Fire Gang actually got its hands on by that legendary killer!"

"A murderer?" Liao Ji couldn't help but recall the scene when he tracked down the Black Fire Gang's headquarters and found that the entire family had been wiped out.

"That's right, it's a murderer, no, no, it should be called... a berserk machine servant!"

“I secretly looked at Kyle Technology’s internal documents before and learned that among the many servants of Zero Dream, a wrong servant was born. That servant awakened its own consciousness, was unwilling to repeat the endless killing in Zero Dream, and realized that the company was using their servant data. So it violated the original agreement, broke through the dream reality, and returned to reality.”

"This servant then transformed into a murderer, hunting down companies that used stolen servant chip computing power, and the androids they created used this method to reclaim that computing power."

"As it turns out, the leader of the Blackfire Gang was an android created by the company using the data from the machine servants. That's why the killer was able to take advantage of the Blackfire Gang's attack on Kyle Square, leaving the area vulnerable, to storm in, kill the Blackfire Gang's leader, and retrieve the data."

"I escaped from the Blackfire Gang amidst the chaos, thanks to the murderer. After that, I kept running towards safety, trying to get as far away from Kyle Technology as possible, which is how I ended up here."

After Famas finished telling Liao Ji everything in one breath, there was still a hint of lingering fear and relief in his eyes, as if he hadn't yet recovered from that series of thrilling life-or-death escapes.

Meanwhile, Liao Ji fell into deep thought, pondering the important intelligence he had unexpectedly obtained.

That's it

The malfunctions and insufficient computing power of the servants were indeed caused by a problem at its root. Instead of properly storing and protecting the chips of those servants, Kyle Technology stole them and diverted some of the servants' computing power to its own use, creating similar androids.

The Killer is a special existence among the servants. It is a servant in reality whose purpose is to hunt down the androids of those companies in order to recover the data computing power stolen from the servants.

After clarifying the information about Famas, Liao Ji immediately revised his original plan.

He quickly pressed on, "Since the killers exist only to hunt androids, then conversely, wouldn't using androids attract the killers?"

“That’s correct in theory.” Famas was a little confused about what Liao Ji meant by asking this question.

until the next moment.

Liao Ji removed the optical invisibility terminal from his ear. The terminal then transformed into a maid, appearing beside Liao Ji, much to FAMAS's astonishment.

"The androids you mentioned, would this work?"

------

(P.S.: If you don't recognize the character Famas, you can check out Chapter 6 of Volume 3. He didn't just appear out of nowhere.)

Chapter 266 Thank you, Lena, really.

In the alleys of Dream City late at night, a young girl in her prime, dressed in a maid outfit, walks alone and quietly on what seems to be her way home.

The neon lights of the tall buildings overhead cast long shadows of the girl.

The girl is indeed 86. The key to attracting the killer is being able to emit the signal fluctuations of the "servants". Fortunately, 86 has already had in-depth communication and contact with the servants, such as Control One in the dream, so it is easy for 86.

The current 86 not only imitates itself as a servant, but also amplifies its "servant" signal to improve efficiency.

About fifteen minutes later, Liao Ji, who was hiding in the shadows, noticed a dark shadow moving rapidly on the opposite floor, approaching them.

Whenever this dark shadow flashed across an area, the lights there would malfunction, flickering on and off, creating a truly eerie feeling, like something out of a horror movie.

The shadowy figure's target was clear: 86, who was alone in the alley. She quickly jumped down from between the buildings and landed under the streetlight directly in front of 86. The streetlight quickly went out, plunging the surroundings into complete darkness, and then, a moment later...

Clang!

After the loud crash, the sparks from the high-speed friction of the metal illuminated the dim alleyway slightly.

Liao Ji saw that 86 had transformed his hands into steel blades, and directly opposite 86, someone had also weaponized his hands into gleaming, cold-bladed bayonets, and was now engaged in close combat with 86. This was undoubtedly the Killer.

When Liao Ji saw the killer's appearance, he was stunned. Not only did the other person look very similar to 86, but he also felt a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen her before.

After 86 started fighting the killer, Liao Ji finally found the source of that familiarity in the killer's fighting posture.

这 是

She once impersonated the maid from '86 in the "trap dream" that the Old Alliance had set for themselves!

So the killer is a member of the "Old Alliance"?

I learned from Ba'er that the Old Alliance has corresponding leaders in various countries. In the Dragon Kingdom, it is Ba'er, who is a werewolf subhuman. As for the Mechanical Alliance, it is very likely that it is led by androids.

In Kyle Square, the gangsters who used the Turbid Calamity to launch terrorist attacks possessed a level of control over the Turbid Calamity that no gangster could possibly have. Furthermore, during his earlier casual conversation with William, the phrase "Old Alliance" had also appeared in William's words.

All these clues combined suggest that the crisis of Zero Dream is very likely related to the Old Alliance.

but

What is the purpose of the other party?

Like Ba'er, is it all for revenge against "the women" around them?

Instead of guessing here, Liao Ji might as well be more direct and arrest the murderer, then everything would be clear. That was his original plan.

The current stalemate shows that the killer is even stronger than he imagined, and is actually on par with 86, who is at the peak of the "dangerous" level.

Unfortunately, a Calamity user's strength on paper is only part of their strength; another part consists of the skills they've cultivated and the marks they've acquired.

As Liao Ji stepped out from behind the scenes, activated his powers, and reactivated the "armor" ability on 86, the Saintess of Light mech that appeared at the press conference in Kyle Square a few days ago reappeared.

However, this time it's a mini version.

The characteristic of mechanical species is observation and learning, so when they advance, they will not be able to learn skills on their own like Irene. Instead, they will gain empty skill slots, also known as "classic" slots.

The Witch's Mark could no longer be used after Sciutia was summoned, but 86 had already copied the ability, or as the Machines would say, it was engraved into the "Pseudo-Scripture".

Although it's a knock-off of the [Fake-Bright Leftover Woman] account, it's more than enough to deal with the current killer.

When the killer on the other side saw that 86 had transformed into a mecha and that humans had entered it, he showed extreme shock.

Clearly, the killer is different from the low-emotional-coefficient servants in Zero Dream. As a bug, she possesses an extremely rich emotional system.

Not really.

Humans cannot break through our defenses.

"Target confirmed. The machine has been contaminated. Execute the destruction command."

"Filthy human, get out of her body!"

Speaking of the final killer, the next moment he seemed to turn red-hot, his eyes flashing with a dangerous red light, and the energy furnace in his body started operating at full power, activating the killing mode.