Chapter 402: Enhancement Development Plan |
"Someone is spreading the Scarlet Fear through a game?"
At the Countermeasures Research Office, Gao Liangwei's expression turned grave after receiving the report.
The report indicated that chaos had erupted in numerous shelters within several of Beixing's core cities, all because of a game called 'Apocalypse Frenzy'.
The reporting officer spoke quickly, "Yes! Someone replaced the game's start screen with an ultra-high-definition photo of Scarlet Terra. The players were caught completely off guard, a massive number of them were affected."
"Why would something like this happen? Isn't this a single-player game that passed review?"
"Preliminary investigation suggests the game underwent a hotfix update after release. It was this hotfix that replaced the photo."
"Who has the authority to perform such an update?"
"Theoretically, only people from the game development department should have that authority, but we can't rule out a hacker intrusion."
Gao Liangwei pondered for a moment, then made a call to summon Li Meng.
"Correct. Normally, I would entrust something like this to Dr. Zhang, but he's currently busy preparing for the rule exploration experiments and probably can't spare the manpower. Section Chief Li, you were previously the director of the Police Department and investigated the Qingmei Society serial kidnapping case, so you have considerable experience in this area. That's why I want to assign this to you."
"Understood." Li Meng agreed immediately. "I'll strive to investigate and produce results as soon as possible."
After speaking, seeing Gao Liangwei's heavy expression, Li Meng inquired, "Are the consequences of this incident very serious?"
"Extremely serious. The number of people globally affected by this game exceeds one million, and our Beixing is the hardest hit... because this game was developed by a Beixing studio. I estimate the other committee members of the Human Consortium will soon be holding me accountable."
"Holding you accountable? But this..."
"No need to shift blame," Gao Liangwei stated. "This is indeed our fault. Moreover, the urgent priority is to find the mastermind behind this. I have reason to believe this is a terrorist attack specifically targeting our Beixing. We must show absolutely no leniency towards terrorists!"
Li Meng's expression turned solemn. "I understand. Please rest assured, Head. I will begin the investigation immediately."
After leaving Gao Liangwei's office, Li Meng sprang into action.
The personnel related to the game's production had already been taken into official custody shortly after the incident broke out.
He took Yang Ran and Silver Fox with him to go conduct interrogations.
Meanwhile, the impact caused by the 'Apocalypse Frenzy' game had already spread across various major platforms.
The most concentrated discussions were on the Ascendant Home forum.
Although this website also fell under the category of "unreviewed and unregistered" sites that the authorities advised against using during this Rule Period, users worldwide had long since established trust in it.
The site had been running for so long, under the intense scrutiny of nations globally, with countless hackers and white-hat hackers taking turns trying to infiltrate it, yet there had never been a user data leak incident. This was sufficient proof of its security.
Especially after the new rule was announced, the Administrator took a drastic measure, directly announcing that during the Rule Period, the site would temporarily disable the video and image posting functions.
This meant the site could only be used for text-based communication. Even if someone wanted to spread the Scarlet Fear through visual materials, they couldn't do it on the website.
"Someone replaced the 'Apocalypse Frenzy' start screen with Scarlet Terra? Which bastard did that?"
"I almost got hit... Luckily, I didn't open the game immediately after downloading it."
"In our shelter, an entire dormitory of four people all got hit. Two died, one went insane, and the last one seems to have become vegetative from shock. Probably won't last more than a few days."
"I heard everyone from the game studio was arrested. They'll definitely conduct a thorough investigation into who did it."
"Wasn't this thing reviewed? Games should be reviewed before release!"
"Some experts have already unpacked the files. It was a hotfix after release that caused the trouble. Somehow bypassed the manual review."
To think something like this could happen...
Guan Tong had already bid farewell to Uenoshi and returned from Sakura Prayer Country to his shelter in the Pinglu mountain valley.
Sitting in front of his computer, reading the discussions on the forum, he also felt bewildered.
Who would do such a thing? What's the motive?
At first thought, he felt only two groups had a motive: the parasitized forms and the Fire Thief Worship Cult.
Especially since this attack was clearly targeting Beixing, specifically Beixing's relatively stable social order.
Beixing, with its relatively stable order, was undoubtedly a core force in resisting these two malevolent groups. If they could throw Beixing into chaos, the pressure on both the parasitized forms and the Fire Thief Worship Cult would be greatly reduced.
"What a turbulent time..."
Guan Tong sighed.
As the rules grew in number, the antagonistic relationships between different human groups became increasingly sharp, and all sorts of intricate events emerged one after another.
Behind every unsolved case, there seemed to be a mastermind, entangled interests, and the hidden agendas of certain individuals or groups.
As "Shadow," Guan Tong could feel himself constantly being drawn into these whirlpools.
Perhaps he could drop everything, extricate himself, and no longer participate. Find a place to live in seclusion, rely on himself to survive each rule, go as far as he could.
But deep down, he couldn't let go of many people and matters. Moreover, he vaguely felt that doing so would be wrong.
Whenever he felt pressured and had thoughts of withdrawing, the image of Kimos Star he had personally witnessed back then would always resurface in his mind.
The destruction of Kimos Star's civilization, leaving only a few individuals behind—that scene filled him with a profound sense of loneliness and sorrow every time he recalled it.
Was that the meaning of surviving until the end? If the vast majority of a civilization's individuals were destroyed, leaving only a few lonely survivors... could that truly be considered "clearing the game"?
Guan Tong knew he didn't want that kind of clearance. So, even though he could withdraw from the turmoil, he now chose to stay and get involved.
Furthermore, he had believed for a very, very long time that one couldn't completely follow the Fire Thief's plan. Especially since, possessing the [Wordless Book], if even he chose to go with the flow, what hope would others have?
"What I need now is not to let my thoughts wander, but to strike while the iron is hot and strengthen myself."
Guan Tong closed the webpage, his thoughts quickly regaining clarity.
During these few days since entering the second stage of Ascension, he hadn't had any free time.
Investigating Suzuki's suicide case, meeting with Li Meng and others, helping the Countermeasures Research Office screen base personnel... all these had taken up a lot of his time.
Now that he had a temporary respite, and Suzuki's case currently had no leads, overthinking was pointless. It was better to seize the time to strengthen himself.
Guan Tong took out the [Wordless Book] and flipped through its pages.
After experiencing so many battles, he had long understood the principle of valuing quality over quantity.
For him, "quality" meant further development of his existing abilities.
Shadow, reserve Mind Power, Silver Hunt, shelter, kai, domain.
These six abilities came from the [Wordless Book].
Among them, reserve Mind Power had already been upgraded, its conversion ratio improved from 10:1 to 5:1, a doubling in efficiency.
The other five still had room for improvement.
Shadow could be further developed by adding characters according to needs.
Silver Hunt could have more types of bullets added according to needs.
The shelter could perhaps also be renovated and enhanced, though he hadn't tried that yet.
As for the "kai" ability, Guan Tong had primarily used it for two things initially: destroying/weakening the Geomantic Pillar within the [Earth Dragon Rolls Over] rule and breaking through the Mind Lock that appeared after the [World Number One] rule ended.
This ability undoubtedly had greater potential for development.
And the sixth was the domain, which possessed two different forms.
Whether it was the Shadow Domain used for large-scale area control or the Small Space used for extreme lethality, both were his current common offensive methods.
It was very necessary to further develop these abilities after entering the second stage of Ascension.
If he added writing on the seventh page, plus learning the unique abilities developed by Shi Jingyi like "Mind Power Martial Arts," "Condensation and Sublimation," etc., the required time would be even longer.
If he mastered and integrated all of these, his overall strength would definitely rise another level compared to now.
"If it weren't for so many things happening, I'd want to go into seclusion for a while..."
Guan Tong shook his head.
He knew you had to eat one bite at a time; he couldn't be impatient.
After some consideration, he still decided to proceed in order, starting with the enhancement and development of the abilities from the [Wordless Book] pages.