Chapter 645: Infiltration

Yu Sheng was startled by the sight in this hall — the "collection" taken from living people had almost filled the place, displayed like some kind of art exhibition inside tanks or display cabinets, illuminated by carefully arranged lights. One glance was enough to sense just how twisted the owner of this place truly was.

This scene made him feel awful all over. After letting out a cry of surprise, he turned his head to look at the golden-haired elf standing beside him: "Luo, this 'Old Joe' is even sicker than you described!"

Luo had already snapped out of her daze by then. When she heard Yu Sheng's words, her expression turned a bit subtle. The corners of her mouth twitched as she glanced at Old Joe's steel shell, now twisted by flesh-aberration, then looked at the heart that had leaped out of Old Joe's chest and landed on the floor. She held back for a moment, but couldn't help saying, "Boss, have you taken a look at your own aesthetic lately…"

"What's wrong with my aesthetic?" Yu Sheng looked genuinely confused. "I'm a man of pure righteousness…"

Luo decisively chose to skip this topic. She turned her head, glanced at Old Joe being tied up tightly, and frowned slightly. "This is just an avatar. Tying it up is useless. His main body is somewhere else… but I don't know where."

"One tied up is still one less to worry about. At least we've successfully found his lair," Aline said casually while controlling the spider silk. "But speaking of which, why isn't he reacting much… Did I kick this body to death with that one kick? That shouldn't be the case. This thing looks like a machine. Can breaking its neck even be a fatal injury?"

Upon hearing this, Luo walked over to check the steel shell lying on the sofa. She hesitated for a moment, then extended several mechanical limbs from behind, piercing into the chest and abdomen of Old Joe's body. After examining some circuits that still retained residual signals, she finally spoke hesitantly, "His thinking activity has been severely damaged. Part of his mind is trapped in a dead loop inside this body. But this 'stupor' shouldn't last long. Once the mind trapped in this shell completely 'dies,' his main body will awaken."

Aline blurted out, "What happens when he wakes up?"

"Old Joe won't just surrender. There are plenty of clone soldiers stationed in this base, and he definitely has more than one backup shell."

"Then we fight," Aline said cheerfully (though it was unclear what there was to be happy about). She scrambled up onto the back of the sofa and stood there, hands on her hips. "Let me tell you, with my six regiments of troops, how could I fail to take this dump…"

Before the little doll had even finished speaking, Yu Sheng beside her also jumped in: "We still have some time, right? Let me prepare first."

Luo looked at her current boss in confusion. "What are you preparing…"

Before she could finish, she saw Yu Sheng raise his hand, pull open another door next to him, then slip through to the other side, where a place that looked like a warehouse, and retrieve a piece of equipment.

The thing consisted of a huge tank and a series of pipes, valves, and other structures. On the edge of its upper "lid" could be seen a large number of faintly glowing arcane runes. At first glance, it seemed like something from the style of the Featherwing Star Region, but compared to the "treasures" created by those cultivators, this thing clearly had a bit more of a malevolent vibe.

Luo felt a sense of familiarity the moment she saw it. She quickly searched her memory, and the faces of the Swooping Sinners Three came to mind, along with their solemn declarations from a previous meeting:

"We are righteous sects loyal to Lord Sheng to the death…"

As she pondered, she heard a faint hissing sound. Wispy threads of blood mist materialized in the surrounding air and, like living things, rapidly spread and seeped outward in all directions.

"I'm going to set up a diffusion device here first," Yu Sheng said as he activated this "treasure" brought over from Shuji, following the instructions. "Then I'll take over this place."

Luo blinked. She felt like she had a stomach full of things to say, but they all got stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out.

So she just let out a soft sigh and turned her face to look at this place that was still deeply imprinted in her memory.

Those nauseating "artworks."

The terror that seemed to linger in the depths of memory.

The steel monster slumped on the sofa, tightly bound by black threads.

She didn't want to remember, but she still recalled the days when she served as Old Joe's "lab assistant" here.

Back then, every day she dreamed of escaping this terrible cage. And after escaping, for many years, she dreamed every day of being able to find this place again. Fate is such an unfathomably wonderful thing. Now, she had truly returned.

Not only had she returned, but she had also brought a group of powerful allies… though the style seemed a bit off, and the entire process was not exactly what she had once imagined.

Luo laughed, a brilliant smile on her face like never before.

"What are you grinning about?" Aline's voice suddenly came from beside her, startling Luo. "Hurry up and tell us about this place—terrain structure, defense maps, stuff like that. I see in movies these things are a must for infiltrating alone. We're not familiar with this place, but you lived here for a while."

"My information might be outdated—I've been away from here for too many years," Luo immediately snapped to attention, pulling out a data terminal as she spoke. "But the general layout shouldn't have changed. The entire base was constructed around the original cave structure inside this asteroid…"

The hissing sound of airflow echoed through the room. The blood mist kept expanding, rapidly seeping into the walls and floor. Yu Sheng listened to Luo's explanation while devoting a considerable amount of his attention to that "diffusion device."

He could feel the connection between the blood mist and himself, and he could feel his perception expanding as the mist permeated this secret base. In another field of vision, he could already see the pipes and support structures around the hall. His view gradually expanded, the "fog" before him fading like mist dissipating.

The "diffusion device" made by the Swooping Sinners Three was indeed a good thing. Its efficiency in spreading and permeating was far higher than his old crude method of finding a place to hang out and bleed all over the floor. But even with such high efficiency, even with this secret base's limited size, he still needed some time to fully take control of this place.

— The "contamination" carried back by Old Joe's avatar was limited after all. While enough to trap him in hallucinations and frenzy, it was far from sufficient for Yu Sheng to exert enough influence over this facility.

Just then, Luna, who was guarding the door, suddenly raised her head. "Unknown units, nearby, assembling."

"Old Joe's main body has 'woken up,'" Luo felt her breathing quicken slightly. She couldn't tell whether she was feeling excitement or tension at this moment. "He should first send the clone soldiers in, and also dispatch some avatars to lead them. The most likely route is from Passage Two…"

"I need a little more time," Yu Sheng said quickly. "Don't let anyone in to mess things up."

"Easy!"

Aline was full of confidence. She stood on the back of the sofa and raised her hand with a wave—

Twisted spatial rifts appeared out of nowhere all over the hall, and a large number of mass-produced dolls with dead fish eyes teleported into the hall.

"Hey, I have a suggestion." Seeing this, Luo suddenly seemed to think of something, her eyes lighting up as she looked at Aline. "There's a ventilation duct. Your doll army can crawl inside…"

Aline's eyes bulged immediately. "Me, the noble Alice doll, crawl into a ventilation duct?!"

Yu Sheng didn't even look up. "In the movies, elite special forces all crawl through vents."

"W-well, yeah?"

…

In the corridor leading to the base's core area, ominous red lights flashed. Dense footsteps broke the surrounding silence. Fully armed clone soldiers marched silently through the connecting passages, tension thick in the air.

A steel body, over two meters tall, strode at the front of the formation. The two "eyes" in its head glowed with angry red light.

But in that anger, there still seemed to linger a trace of fear from the "nightmare."

Intruders had entered his base—through some trick of Black Psyker or Subspace—they had toyed with the great "Joe"!

The red light in the steel giant's eyes flickered. Old Joe's mind once again conjured those horrible and absurd "illusions."

He felt like he had been trapped in a long nightmare. The nightmare seemed to start from leaving the Gray Dwarf star, but it might have shown signs even earlier. In the nightmare, he was groggy and hazy, his mind seemingly trapped in a swamp that kept cycling and sinking. Some fatal malfunction in his body had trapped his consciousness in an endless loop inside the broken shell, preventing him from taking action in the real world for so long.

He couldn't remember many details from the nightmare. He wasn't sure how he had broken free of the dead loop, but clearly the broken shell was completely destroyed. Before its destruction, he only had a vague memory of seeing intruders… and Luo's figure.

"Time to end this mistake…"

Old Joe muttered through gritted teeth.

Several of his enhanced bodies left in the base had already been activated. The clone soldiers stationed outside the core area had assembled and entered. A unit of psychics was entering the fortress through the upper passage. The base's own defense systems had also been activated—no matter who had infiltrated, they wouldn't leave alive today.

But… why was there still such a strong unease churning in his heart?

In front of his subordinates, Old Joe appeared as dignified and powerful as ever. But deep down, he felt unsettled, as if large stretches of blank space had appeared in his memory. Some key and dangerous information had been overlooked, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what had been missed.

A strange noise suddenly came from the ceiling, interrupting Old Joe's thoughts.

There was a "thump" in the darkness, like something hitting the ground.

The clone soldiers reacted instantly. The corridor echoed with the sound of rounds being chambered. Old Joe cautiously walked forward and suddenly saw a dark lump on the ground not far away.

It was a dirty doll.