Chapter 649: The Hermit Order's Grand Plan

"Deep Rock Fortress," the secret base that once belonged to Old Joe, had now been completely taken over by Yu Sheng. Even the remaining clone soldier squads around the fortress had surrendered upon receiving orders from inside.

Meanwhile, within minutes of the battle's end, Luo had taken control of the fortress's entire antenna system. She severed the connection between the local network and the Black Dot Group's main data network, replacing every network port with a full set of fake addresses and database interfaces—ensuring no one would ever learn what had happened here.

In the fortress's core area, inside the hall where Old Joe had once stored his "artworks," a new tank was activated and connected to a simple interactive system. Luo transferred "Old Joe" into this new tank. Amid the cables and processors linked to the tank, she had prepared a temporary prison for her "old friend."

A stream of bubbles rose through the nearly transparent biomass solution in the glass tube. The shriveled, wrinkled brain floated quietly inside. A display screen beside the tank flickered with green characters—that screen was now Old Joe's only means of interacting with the outside world. Stripped of all senses, his consciousness was locked inside a disconnected brain.

Looking at the setup before him, Yu Sheng found it hard to imagine what that must feel like.

"It's an extreme darkness and silence. The feeling of nothingness gnaws at your spirit and will from all directions," Luo explained softly beside the tank, a hint of recollection in her voice. "Without the anchor of real-world stimuli, the brain's internal perception of time quickly descends into chaos. Every second stretches infinitely. In that endless night, fear becomes nearly eternal, and death becomes a luxury."

She let out a soft breath, a smile on her face, and slowly ran her fingers over the tank's cold shell.

"He often used this method to punish assistants who disobeyed or made major mistakes—sometimes just to satisfy his... 'research' needs."

On the simple display connected to the tank, green characters flickered: "Dark... cold... I'll agree to anything... anything!"

"Who is the Hermit Order contact you were dealing with?" One of Luo's mechanical limbs directly connected to the tank. Her thoughts turned into text, rapidly appearing on the screen. "Do you have a meeting point?"

"There's no fixed contact—they call themselves envoys of the 'Holy See,' and the contact changes every time. We communicate through an encrypted channel," lines of text scrolled across the screen. "There's a delivery point inside a gravitational collapse point in the Morona Fault, but they never show up in person... I use an agent to deal with them..."

Luo rapidly recorded what Old Joe was confessing and continued asking, "Did you just trust those cultists? How did you get in touch with them?"

"...I didn't trust them," this time, the text on the screen showed obvious hesitation. "But they offered terms I couldn't refuse."

"Terms you couldn't refuse?" Yu Sheng frowned at this answer. "What terms?"

Luo quickly typed the question. Another stream of bubbles rose from the biomass tank, and Old Joe's reply soon appeared on the screen: "They showed me something... a new world waiting to be conquered."

Even Luo was startled. "A new world?"

"Those Hermit Order believers used an ancient word to call it. They called it 'Eden,'" the brain in the container answered honestly. "They stumbled upon its existence and turned it into the hope of achieving the 'Path of Reverence'... you know, their mystical doctrine. They think Eden is an uncontaminated 'primal paradise' that can undergo 'delicate and perfect transformation'..."

Luo frowned deeply. "And then? What does this have to do with the 'Zolda Blackstone' and 'rift technology'?"

"Because they only observed Eden's existence—to get there safely, they needed to open a stable passage. Those fanatics call it the 'Gate of Eden.' In essence... it's a scaled-up, stabilized version of what you developed. But it looks like their Gate of Eden has already run into problems."

Yu Sheng and Luo exchanged glances. Both saw a hint of shock in each other's eyes.

They had all thought the cultists might be up to something big, but none of them had imagined it would be this big. So, making holes all over this world was no longer enough for those fanatics—they were finally planning to dig a hole to another world and wreak havoc there?!

Luo's expression was one of disbelief. "What are they trying to do? Find a new world and descend there to 'become gods'? Are they trying to become the 'Creator'?"

A line of text soon appeared on the screen beside them: "...That's exactly what they think."

As soon as that answer appeared, Aileen, sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, burst out. The little doll spoke bluntly: "...What a bunch of idiots. Do they even know how to spell 'Creator' before thinking that? There's a damn law of thinking!"

Luo immediately frowned, then suddenly thought of something. "What about you then—those 'terms you couldn't refuse'—it couldn't be that you just prostrated yourself because they showed you a 'new world,' could it? What did they offer you? To make you a 'god' of the new world too? Don't tell me you fell for it because of some stupid reason like that!"

The text on the screen trembled, and many garbled symbols flickered past, as if showing that Old Joe's emotions were unsettled. After several seconds, the text stabilized: "...They did promise me a spot in the new world, but I wasn't really interested in their 'become a god of the new world' spiel. However..."

The text paused, then began refreshing at a rapid pace. "But, Luo, wouldn't you be tempted by this? Think about it—a world! An ownerless, unoccupied, undiscovered new world without so-called Borderlands Council or Terra Council interference! Vast resources, vast territory, vast freedom—with just a few cargo ships and industrial motherships, you can become the first conqueror, set all the rules, and not even have to worry about corporate oversight! Setting aside your hypocritical and conservative thoughts, are you really not tempted?"

Luo's expression was a bit conflicted for a moment, but before she could reply, she saw Yu Sheng beside her suddenly stroke his chin and blurt out, "Well, have to say, that does sound tempting."

Luo almost lost it, staring at Yu Sheng in disbelief. "Uh, boss?"

"Just hearing that part, of course I'm tempted. No shame in admitting it," Yu Sheng said with complete confidence. "Being tempted is different from taking action, and even taking action has different levels..."

Aileen perked up at that, one hand steadying herself on Yu Sheng's head. "Right, with your 'if you don't pick it up, it's a loss' personality, if you really had that chance, wouldn't you go all out laying down creep?"

Beside them, Huli looked up at Yu Sheng, then at Luo, and muttered quietly, "If there's good food over there, I'd be tempted too."

Luna thought for a moment, then nodded. "Mm, right."

Luo held back for a long moment. "Uh, wait, I'm trying to find some righteous words to retort, you guys can't do this..."

Yu Sheng grinned at that, a smirk curling his lips. "Like I said, being tempted is different from taking action, and taking action has different levels. If there really is an 'Eden' like that, I'd want to go check it out too. Those Hermit Order believers are tearing open space rifts everywhere, while I'm opening doors all over the place. Why do they make everyone furious while I get widespread praise? The key is that we have to be on the side of reason, right? Some people's biggest problem is that they're too malicious and too incompetent, so now they're stuffed in a tank..."

Yu Sheng's speech left Luo completely stunned. But Aileen, clinging to his hair, muttered, "How come I recall that when you first started opening doors everywhere, you were pretty universally hated too?"

Yu Sheng kept a straight face and pretended not to hear.

Watching this, Luo suddenly felt a twinge of self-doubt: Had she really turned from darkness to light?

But she had been doubting herself a lot lately, so she quickly set that little issue aside and refocused on the interactive screen in front of her.

Old Joe had been cut off from all perception of the real world, relying solely on this simple interactive system's text interface to communicate. In the few minutes that Luo had stopped typing, the brain's mental stress index and toxic protein index had begun rising sharply.

"Do you know how far those cultists have gotten with their 'project'?" Luo asked another question.

"I don't know their exact progress—those fanatics are very tight-lipped about that, but they must have built some kind of... 'prototype' of the Gate of Eden, because they repeatedly mentioned the charging and stability issues of the Gate. They asked me for the original data on the Zolda Blackstone to use on the Gate of Eden."

Luo's face grew grim. From Old Joe's reply, she vaguely sensed something. After a moment's thought, she suddenly realized: "You and those cultists you 'traded' with—when exactly did you start targeting me?"

The characters on the screen flickered violently again, garbled symbols scrolling continuously. After a moment, a coherent reply appeared—

"From the very beginning."

Luo frowned, but before she could press further, new sentences scrolled after that line: "Luo, did you truly think the news about the Zolda Blackstone appeared before you by 'coincidence'? That stone... from the very beginning, it was a 'gift' from us."

"...Your mother must be doing the seven-ins and seven-outs at the Usobu Bug Nest!!"