"Director Shen! Dr. Huang!"
Xie Biqi hurriedly walked a few steps, greeting Shen Mo and another scientist clad in a white lab coat.
She saw the two standing in front of a glass wall, looking at a young man who was sound asleep behind it.
This Dr. Huang was a big shot in the Special Review Bureau's technology department, an expert in many fields, and his several predictions about this game had been incredibly accurate, making him a pillar of the Special Review Bureau's technology department.
Even the brainwave formula used to determine whether to enter the game was calculated and programmed by him.
However, Xie Biqi didn't have much fondness for him, fearing that he might be some kind of mad scientist who would directly use this volunteer for some bloody human experiments.
"Captain Xie, you're here too."
Shen Mo nodded, sighing, "Doctor... your experiment has succeeded."
"We can try to wake him now, but I wish it hadn't succeeded."
Dr. Huang, an elderly man with graying hair, removed his reading glasses and wiped the lenses.
"What... what's going on?"
"I was conducting research on the connection between the game, or rather the alternate world, and the player... The former analysis of the game equipment has proven it to be merely a facade, or a placebo for the players' psychological comfort..."
Dr. Huang sighed, "So, I devised several plans and had the test subject try them; he succeeded in entering the game..."
Xie Biqi asked curiously.
"We had him recite a series of names sourced from the player-collected data, the sole professional NPC—Er Ha!" Dr. Huang said.
"The Lord of Order, the god of the game?"
Xie Biqi murmured to herself.
She too had heard from Er Ha that this great entity had summoned players and such, but had dismissed it as just part of the game's background.
At this moment, she couldn't help but tremble all over. Could this be real?
Shen Mo suddenly spoke.
Xie Biqi quickly covered her mouth, feeling a surge of fear.
"I've also studied a bit of religious studies. The true name of a god is a peculiar thing, akin to a phone number; you recite it, and it's like you've dialed it, whether the deity on the other end answers depends entirely on their mood... Haha, just a joke, after all, there were no real deities in our world before... But this experiment, it can be understood in this way."
"Each of us is a radio transmitter, and this series of names is the address... After a player logs in once, they get specially marked; no matter where they are, whether they have game equipment or an internet connection, just by reciting this name, they might be pulled into the game... even ordinary people, if they repeat it several times, might also be drawn in..." Dr. Huang said.
"This isn't something good..." Shen Mo said, "It means we can't trace it physically... It also means that behind this game, there might truly exist a..."
His tone was heavy, like a man about to die of thirst, but he finally spoke the words: "Deity!"
"This game's official website had previously announced a public beta... and we can't stop it."
Xie Biqi suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
The game's official website couldn't be shut down, and there was no need for game devices.
By the time the public test was to launch, only the revered name of that deity needed to be announced on the official website, so anyone who recited it could become a player?
Would sleeping at night equate to playing the game?
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"Based on the discussions of various think tanks, we indeed couldn't stop the public test from happening, nor could we stop the changes in this world...even if we could, we might not be able to act, otherwise we would surely enrage that one—the God of Games!"
Shen Mo sighed, "So... the efforts of the Special Review Bureau will be more focused on dealing with the upcoming complex situation."
"Are we... just giving up?"
Xie Biqi bit her lip, still somewhat reluctant.
"We have no choice but to give up. Have you heard of 'Ghost'?" Dr. Huang inserted his hands into the pockets of his white coat, "He is the first and possibly the top hacker of the Star Ring Alliance, hired by the Federation Government to trace the clues of that game's official website..."
"He is truly a genius, possessing skills that could outmatch all hackers, but he still couldn't handle the game's official website... We even suspect that the website exists beyond the physical network, perhaps continuing to appear even if local networks are shut down or power is cut off!"
"After being defeated by the God of Games, 'Ghost' hoped to interpret the game's otherworldly official website from another angle, reportedly undergoing a burst of inspiration and beginning to write a mysterious source code..."
"Did he fail?" guessed Xie Biqi.
After all, if he had succeeded, there wouldn't be an issue now.
"No, he nearly succeeded, but right when the code was about to be completed, he went mad and then committed suicide—it was a horrifying scene..."
Shen Mo said, "And that unfinished source code, any programmer who saw it suffered mental issues... all of them went mad!"
He didn't reveal his source of information, but Xie Biqi knew that Da Xia must have used very covert channels to learn these highly confidential details of the Star Ring Alliance.
"This is your latest mission."
Shen Mo paused briefly, then handed a file to Xie Biqi.
When Xie Biqi opened it, the first thing she saw was a photo of a downcast man in prison attire.
That face, she felt somewhat familiar: "Is this... 'Please call me Boss He'?"
They were all old players; she had even personally set up the files!
"Yes, we've conducted focused monitoring on the players listed in your files... and recently, this Mr. He Zudao has been acting out, engaging in feudal superstitious activities, even holding something like a 'Hundred Ghost Night Parade', the Eighteen Layers of Hell..."
Shen Mo spoke gravely, "He explained that he was influenced by novels, planning to stage a resurrection of spiritual energy from ancient myths in real life, attempting to gain experience points in the real world... Later, it was proven ineffective, and he was arrested for crimes such as disrupting public order and threatening others!"
"Very... interesting," Xie Biqi struggled to maintain her expression. "He really thought he could make everyone believe in the existence of Hell with just a trick of illusion?"
"Actually, before Buddhism was introduced, Da Xia had never had the concept of Hell, only the underworld..."
Shen Mo's face twitched, "Just the multiple levels of Hell, detailed descriptions, and other aspects vary across religions, regions, and even within the same religion in different historical periods... He just blindly patched together something based on his own whims, adding some novel settings, and expected people to believe? The logic itself is quite confused and conflicted... unless everyone collectively took a couple of pounds of stupidity pills to believe it!"
Xie Biqi nodded; she also believed that there had never been real supernatural forces in her world's history; this was confirmed by science and archaeology!
"So, the only mystical source is that game, and... if we still can't explain the mystery now, it's merely because our technology isn't advanced enough, that's all. To treat it as some alien's advanced technology isn't too far-fetched!"
Shen Mo declared assertively.
"And we will never grovel or consent to be slaves just because their technology is far superior to ours… Learning from it, surpassing it, that's the confidence a citizen of an empire should have! Perhaps arrogant, perhaps ignorant… but this is our greatest treasure as humans!"