Chapter 169 Routine Inspection of the Eternal Prison.
Besides weekly game targets, the host occasionally has other tasks, such as helping the company catch traitors, acting as a substitute host in abnormal dungeons, and sometimes filling in for others in the company's internal shop.
This is the first group mission: to conduct a routine inspection of the Eternal Prison. If any abnormalities are found, they will be reported to the company.
However, even the most senior employee, Tao Yuanyuan, was participating for the first time, making the term "routine inspection" quite ambiguous.
The official explanation is that the prison is too large, and inspecting it would consume too much manpower and resources, affecting the normal progress of the game. Moreover, the prison has been in a stable state for a long time and does not require frequent inspections.
The mortality rate for hosts is no lower than that for players; in other words, 90% of hosts don't survive to the routine check-up.
Xue Chao knew, however, that the remaining 10% would also die during the examination.
Because the routine checks at the Eternal Prison are the final harvest of this generation of gamers by the Crevice Consciousness.
In his memories of his reincarnations, whenever the world was nearing its end, the host would collectively open a new instance of the game within a couple of days.
Xue Chao walked inside the company building. The narrow, tall corridor was lined with red doors on both sides. The road ahead was maze-like and winding. Turning into the next corridor, the same scenery appeared again.
The staff dormitory serves as the host's room. At the start of the game, it leads directly to the instance. Guild instances require them to use transportation, and the path to the Eternal Prison is located inside the company premises.
The company assigned each employee a different prison cell, with an assistant guiding them.
Bennu stopped in front of the only unlocked red door and said in his usual cheerful tone, "This is it. Best of luck!"
Xue Chao pushed open the door, only to find it pitch black outside: "Aren't you coming with me?"
"Are you going to miss me? I'm going to miss you too! The fastest first place, the legendary first place, thanks to you, I've been named an outstanding assistant! It's an honor to help you, but the company says that mature and excellent hosts like you have their own rhythm, so I won't cause any trouble. Please maintain your standard and reach new heights!"
Xue Chao responded with a laugh, then stepped out the door and plunged into darkness, his smile fading away.
The host is a bridge connecting the world, so it is important to ensure the host's mental stability. Therefore, the contract is looser than that of the players, and the imprint of the mentality of being caught in the cracks is not as deep, the alienation speed is slower, and the usage time is longer.
The assistants are all puppets of the "gap mentality," placed next to the host to strengthen the "gap mentality's" control over the host.
The thought that Bennu, who was acting coquettishly and infatuated with him, was just a subtext of his own inner thoughts, and that his words sounded sarcastic and unpleasant, made Xue Chao sneer.
He had fallen into darkness like that of a broken zone, crashed into the snow, got up and looked around. His vision brightened, the sky was the blue of dawn, and he was in the boundless snowfield and glacier.
Where would you find such a large prison? Is this some kind of Arctic expedition?
The cold of Xibei Mountain has a story to tell; the biting wind pierces to the bone. But the cold here has no purpose. Whoever comes and goes, the wind slowly blows toward the horizon, endlessly repeating itself.
Xue Chao stopped in his tracks. The long footprints behind him were erased by the snow. There was nothing here, no life, no stories, everything looked the same from all sides.
The company only instructed them to inspect the prison cells and report any abnormalities, without providing any specific instructions. In this cold world where it seemed as if he was the only one alive, he inevitably felt at a loss.
But there are always prisoners in prisons, and if he weren't waiting to become that prisoner, there would be another life in this white, desolate world.
Xue Chao put on his third eye and walked towards the place with the darkest colors, where the pollution was the deepest.
He crossed a small ice slope, and in the suddenly open view, a dozen giant ice potholes formed a larger vortex, with turbulent currents flowing between them.
The colors at the center of the vortex solidified and weakened outwards; the prisoner was located below the center of the vortex.
The color intensity is similar to Jiang Ming's. The prison room will eventually become a replica of their funeral procession. The prisoners are likely to be the embryos of a boss waiting to be born, just like Helena in her cocoon, waiting for the opportunity to be born.
He said, "It's enough to get rid of the traitor, why throw him in prison?"
Although the Crevice Consciousness enjoys toying with them from a superior position and tormenting traitors to the point of wishing they were dead in order to satisfy its desire for revenge, what is more important is to make the most of them and squeeze out all their value.
The fact that the traitor could provoke the senses of those in the cracks speaks volumes about his abilities; killing him would not only fail to quell the hatred but would also be a pity.
So prisons are incubators? The contamination is slower, but they're guaranteed to produce bosses?
The company made it sound so easy, just a routine check, and said there wouldn't be any major problems. But since this is the last step before its demise, there's bound to be some unexpected events.
There are no shops in the Eternal Prison. To facilitate investigations, the host can purchase a few items below S-rank from the company shop before setting out. These items are provided by the dungeon shops they have hosted.
Xue Chao chose a bamboo raft from the Giant's Harbor instance. To deal with the situation in the water, he stepped on the bamboo raft and slid down the ice slope like skiing, navigating the maze of ice potholes and approaching the center of the whirlpool.
His intrusion disrupted the flowing rhythm of the glacial potholes, and the magnificent natural landscape, like a giant beast awakened by noise, shook its body, the water surged, and whirlpools spun wildly.
Xue Chao used the giant waves to propel himself closer to the center of the glacial potholes, where the whirlpools were the deepest, and the center seemed to droop to the seabed, revealing something.
He twisted his waist, causing the bamboo raft to spin half a circle in the air, and then precisely leaped into the whirlpool. He spiraled down with the flow of the whirlpool and saw the shadow of a huge, whale-like creature underwater.
The shadow swayed slightly, but it didn't move. It remained at the bottom, as if pressed under thick, solid ice, with the ripples on the ice making the movement.
Xue Chao was startled. He was already close to the center of the whirlpool, but he could almost see the entire shadow of the giant object, which meant that he was still far away from the giant object, about half a distance from the air to the sea surface. The ice was so deep.
The boss is still in the incubation period, so Xue Chao is not too worried about the danger of facing the boss directly. However, the fact that the host was sent by the Mind Space is clearly to wake up the boss.
Then this place will become a dungeon space? With a boss and a host, players can be gathered to play games and advance the corruption.
The company equipped each host with a detector to check the prisoner's condition; the All-Seeing Eye automatically records the prisoner's situation.
Xue Chao didn't use it; it was something the company had given him, and he didn't trust it. If it was really meant to wake up the boss, then it would be an alarm clock.
But then a pop-up window appeared on the panel, indicating that the detector was automatically released and was being tested in water. Xue Chao immediately regretted not throwing it away. But then he thought that if he threw it away, the detector would probably grow legs and come running over.
The sleeping behemoth was awakened. After a terrifying moment of silence, it struggled violently, shattering the ice prison. The cracks spread like tree branches reaching the sky, and Xue Chao plunged from the water whirlpool into the ice tunnel.
The giant creature sensed his presence and turned towards him. The ice still pressed down on it, and it had not completely broken free of its cage. But the prey flew towards it obediently. It no longer expended its energy, returned to silence, and waited for its prey to fall into its mouth.
A sense of danger surged through Xue Chao's nerves. He was getting closer and closer to the giant object. He immediately activated the sunflower rope. The sunflower's head swayed and floated upwards with difficulty like a balloon.
Xue Chao slapped the sunflower on the back of the head—unhurriedly, serving as food for the giant beast under the ice?
The sunflower-headed man was so angry he was spiraling upwards.
Just as the prey was about to escape, the giant moved again. Xue Chao slapped the sunflower's head hard. Such a big guy that could withstand the pressure of the deep sea was much faster than a balloon head!
Xue Chao was pulled out of the whirlpool and flew away from the water. The giant object struck like a thunderbolt, stirring up huge waves. Xue Chao drifted behind the ice slope to hide, staring intently at the sea, but could not see the giant object.
The most terrifying thing is when a ghost suddenly disappears, rather than being chased by one. Xue Chao's senses are on high alert, ready to see where the monster might emerge from.
But as the waves receded, the whirlpool returned to its steady rotation, reverting to its state before he disturbed it.
Given the disparity in strength, was it necessary to set up a trap that would last for so long?
Is the massive object restricted and unable to leave the water?
Xue Chao sank the monitoring device containing part of his consciousness into the vortex. The ice prison was empty, and a long group of bubbles swam rapidly to a deeper depth. The broken ice was slammed behind him, forming a new obstacle.
The giant creature didn't chase after them; instead, it swam at full speed in the opposite direction from Xue Chao, as if it were the one who was frightened and desperately fled the moment it saw Xue Chao.
Xue Chao was stunned. Was this right?
He feigned escape in order to lure the giant creature into chasing him, thereby breaking the cage, and then to deduce the game's intentions and find a way to contact Li Changying.
He also has an undercover agent lurking in the prison.
But he never expected that the boss's reserve officer was faster than him and seemed to be very afraid of him. The company hadn't issued any special weapons to target the boss.
What kind of conspiracy is this? The boss is still missing a core, are they trying to lure him to fill it? Or does the Ice Prison need to imprison a life, and they're trying to make him a scapegoat so the boss can break free?
Xue Chao dipped his head into the water, hesitating whether to chase or not. Suddenly, a jolt ran through his mind, and he lost his balance, falling into the tunnel formed by the crack in the ice prison.
He did not try to save himself, but obediently slid down the slope into the depths. This was because Boss Tang was urgently trying to jog his nerves and give him a hint.
Boss Tang became an electronic life form, and this change in life form imposed many restrictions on her, effectively taking her beyond the realm of humanity.
Her existence is equivalent to equipping Xue Chao's mind with a program that possesses her thoughts and desires, with only specific keywords triggering commands.
For example, if she is the one who holds the key, after giving the key to Xue Chao, both times it will trigger him to walk towards the door, briefly activating the key.
Xue Chao, however, felt that this activation was related to their grand plan of rebellion, and it also triggered another personal keyword: Li Changying.
Perhaps she can find his mole.
The giant creature deliberately slammed the ice shards behind it to block Xue Chao's path. It was really afraid that Xue Chao would catch up. After Xue Chao fell back towards it, waves rose again in the depths of the sea, and it accelerated again, breaking through the ice prison all the way down.
The latter half of the tunnel was created by the boss's crash. They were in the same tunnel, and its rapid movements actually pulled Xue Chao down even faster.
With underwater medicine, Xue Chao could breathe. The surroundings were pitch black. He turned on his flashlight and remained vigilant. The deeper he went, the more unsettling the pure darkness became.
The boss accelerated again, and Xue Chao could only judge that it was far ahead by the ice blocks flying backwards in the water and the increasingly distant sound of its speed.
It seemed to have had enough of his relentless pursuit, and once again used all its strength to ram through a new tunnel to escape. When Xue Chao passed by, Boss Tang did not shock his brain again, reminding him to change routes and continue the chase, so he continued to fall in the original tunnel.
Is this a bottomless pit?
The water gradually became brighter and clearer, as if he were actually swimming from the bottom to the surface.
Xue Chao opened his eyes wide. It wasn't just a feeling; it was real. He approached the shimmering water and suddenly popped his head out.
In the silent, dark universe, stars await here. They are oddly shaped spheres, incomplete like a crescent moon, or wrinkled and deformed, or partially broken.
These are the cells of the Eternal Prison, an unfinished copy space!
The light he saw was a nebula-like, pale blue substance, shaped like a boat, that had drifted here.
The nebula shifted, and blue light scanned his entire body like a machine. The cabin opened, his gravity reversed again, and he fell into the cabin, which then closed.
Outside the porthole was a planet shaped like a swimming ring, with an icy tunnel running through its center.
He did not sink to the bottom of the sea; he crossed the sea, fell from one end of the world to the other, and came before the stars.
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