Chapter 355 Retrospective Record (New)

"We have to practice again and again before we know which option is the safest."

"Yes, I firmly believe that there is no certain dead end for humanity's future."

"It's just... it just requires paying a higher price."

[Confirmed, you have entered a command with supreme privileges]

[The following document was personally typed by Dr. NNA. Welcome! We have been waiting for you, dear ██████]

A record book for 'the dying'.

Expand.

"I've lost count of how many times this has happened. You look down at the navigator in your hand. The coordinates of Eoubs' base on Wave Layer 2 are flashing 2.7 kilometers away from you. The faint light from the screen is almost blending into the dim sky."

"A commotion arose from the nearby buildings, startling you. You immediately raised your gun and nervously looked around. Although there shouldn't be any surviving forbidden creatures or operatives from other branches here, the site, located in a nuclear winter environment, was destined to be dangerous—ordinarily dangerous, if not more dangerous. For vulnerable humans, a mutated creature could easily kill you if you were caught off guard."

"Fortunately, the sound disappeared soon after; it was probably just a curious rabbit. You breathed a sigh of relief, found a relatively flat rock nearby, and sat down to rest for a while."

"Above you, the black moon casts an even darker shadow over the surrounding sky, with only a pale blue halo peacefully enveloping its surface. This is a rare sight in the mortal world, a strange scene that only appears in hallucinations or dreams. The distant eastern sky is a somber, leaden gray, while the black moon tilts westward. You know that darkness is about to fall, so you must reach the base left by your predecessors before nightfall."

Your time is running out.

"However, when you finally arrive at the base, you are startled by the dilapidated and desolate scene before you: the alloy door is wide open without any verification or identity tag, and the wall is scrawled with 'How many cycles have I been through? I can't remember anymore, it's so painful'. To the right of this line of text is written 'Let me be free, I can't take it anymore, they are just using me'. Below the word 'using', the words 'no escape' are deeply carved with a knife."

He can't escape it, just like you.

"You took two steps forward, then felt as if you had stepped on something. Looking closely, you saw it was a left hand severed at the wrist. A faded wedding ring was on the ring finger, carelessly discarded on one side of the passage. Here, flesh and blood do not rot. You don't understand why the operatives at this station didn't collect it or cremate it, but instead let it be trampled on by passersby, perhaps out of contempt or for some other reason."

You decide to ignore it.

"You enter the building and go up the stairs. This is a tactical planning and combat strategy site, so there is no control room. Strangely... you have walked so far, but you have not seen a single person."

"Have they all gone into hiding? You received a distress signal just a few hours ago."

"The main corridor on the floor leads to the site manager's office, and you quickly arrive there and knock on the door. This action can be described as futile, as the door opens with a gentle push. This used to be Dr. NNA's office, and what immediately comes into view is a three-meter-wide work area and a huge pet cage."

[My dear NNA, she once owned a Bernese Mountain Dog and named it "Earlier," until it died blindly, just like its owner. Of course, this cage is empty now, because NNA hasn't liked these kinds of pets since returning from Wave Layer 2; you should have read about this in the staff handbook. Right to your left, there's a computer that's always powered, its screen flickering a faint black and white glow, prompting visitors to enter their access codes.]

You had no choice but to sit down in front of the computer without much hesitation.

warn!

Access to this document requires Level 05 permissions. Any unauthorized access request or request not logged into the Eoubs device will be considered an intrusion, and a DOJ-level lethal meme will be deployed immediately.

You have received a warning, and this is the final warning.

[Enter Key]

[Verification in progress...]

[Verification in progress...]

[Verification in progress...]

Verification successful

Accessing the [data corruption] database to restart and recover requires verification by a senior administrator.

Access has been classified as top secret.

Searching...

[Command confirmed]

[You are granted Level 05 access privileges]

"You took out the hard drive that Dr. NNA gave you before she left. She said your task was to deliver this hard drive to a base in the second wave layer, then find a computer to read all the data on it. It was that simple. After that, you could enjoy a very, very long vacation. Could that crazy woman really be that kind? After hearing that she had killed everyone at the original site, you simply couldn't believe it."

"But you have to accept this task."

Soon, you plugged the external hard drive into the computer and watched the indicator light flash white rhythmically, but your thoughts had already drifted off to who-knows-where.

"You didn't come to your senses until the transfer was complete. You opened the hard drive and saw several folders labeled with numbers. You guessed that they should be in order."

That's the first folder.

This is the 1221st operation, and we have failed again. Humanity... humanity cannot defeat all the forbidden beings in this space. There are too many of them, each one is at least an ACE, and DOJ is like an ant crawling on the ground.

They can't hold on any longer. Soon it will be our turn, the support staff. There is no future... nothing. Everything humankind will eventually vanish.

Date: ██████

To: All staff of the Access Department.

Self: Observer with code name 27.

[Appendix 01-0127]

[Report received. I'm so sorry you suffered such a blow. It's been three hours since the outbreak of the second wave, and I'm currently in my last stronghold, level B2.]

It seems highly likely that humanity's position is completely destroyed. This is understandable; we've done so many wrong things, perhaps this is karma?

[I'll press the nuclear button later, though it's nothing to those forbidden things, but... consider it the last vestige of dignity for a human being. I don't want to be assimilated by those monsters, then projected into the second wave layer to change my gender, and be fucked to death by any of those freaks—that's worse than death.]

Looking forward to your reply, if there's still time.