WTYTIAAN Chapter 250

Chapter 250

Because of the sudden appearance of the demonic creature projection, the special departments across China began operating at full capacity. Researchers in related fields were working overtime to study what the appearance of the demonic creature projection signified.

During an emergency meeting, this crucial issue was brought to the forefront.

“Our researchers have conducted tests from various perspectives, and the ultimate result is—”

“The Ermann Continent, where *Return* is set, is having its spatial coordinates infinitely approaching our Blue Star.”

A man in a white coat wearing glasses stood up and spoke. He appeared extremely rigid, and from his meticulously combed hair to his tightly buttoned-up clothes, one could tell he was a latent obsessive-compulsive.

“Based on this perspective, we conducted several rounds of speculation and concluded that the game *Return* is a kind of spatial tool. Under the effect of this spatial tool, our players have become a kind of spacetime anchor. When a player dies, a two-way data transmission occurs.”

“The character panel data from the other world is fed back to the player’s body through the game after death. And the spatial coordinates of the player’s location are also transmitted.”

“We speculate that the continuous proximity and even overlapping of the two worlds are due to these spatial coordinates. And those strange phenomenon projections are because the two worlds have partially overlapped, but not yet 100%. Therefore, the spatial barriers are still present, and these monsters… demonic creatures have not truly appeared on Blue Star, but only their projections have appeared.”

This was the speculation made by their investigation team after deploying from multiple directions following the appearance of the strange phenomenon.

“But if the player death count continues to climb at this rate, the two worlds will completely overlap sooner or later. Currently, there are no countermeasures.”

The conference room was immediately filled with murmuring sounds, and everyone was secretly alarmed by the future implied in this sentence.

Most of them had not entered the game. After all, the appearance of this game was sudden, and everything was unknown. The internal testing slots that the country could secure were limited, and were prioritized for soldiers who were strong and had rich combat experience.

Obviously, those of them who got winded after running two steps and breathing three times did not meet the initial qualification screening criteria.

Therefore, most of them still looked at the summarized data. Because the game previously did not allow video recording and screenshots, they could only look at the internal recordings released by the game’s official website, and the scenes described by the soldiers who participated in the internal testing, so their understanding of the other world was not profound.

No matter how flowery the descriptions were, they didn’t have a real feeling. This time, however, the strange phenomenon gave them a heavy blow, making them realize that if demonic creatures really appeared on Blue Star, it would bring extremely serious, even apocalyptic scenarios.

What the researcher said was precisely what they were most afraid of happening now—

Those monsters truly appearing on Blue Star, appearing in their world.

The old man looked grave and looked at Nie Yaping. “Little Nie, can the player death count on that side be controlled?”

Nie Yaping: “It’s very difficult.”

The two words immediately silenced the conference room, followed by louder murmuring.

“Quiet.” The old man tapped the table and called out, temporarily quieting the conference room.

The old man said to Nie Yaping: “Explain the specific situation. If the state intervenes, can the time of the overlap be delayed as much as possible? What we lack most now is time. As long as there is enough time, I believe our scientific researchers can come up with a way to prevent the merger.”

“This is really difficult.” Nie Yaping shook her head. “This update released 40,000 slots in one go. The behind-the-scenes personnel of the game must be trying to accelerate the speed of the overlap. Even with all of our people intervening, we only managed to intercept one-third of the slots, and the remaining slots were obtained by different members of the public.”

“The age range varies. We are already contacting these players who obtained the slots one by one, but even if the authorities prohibit these players from logging in, they cannot stop the speed of the world overlap. And the player-formed forces are an indispensable help for us in the other world.”

“Many of our key intelligence reports are not obtained by our soldiers who entered the game, but rather by ordinary players who are proficient in various games or have excellent luck. If we forcibly prevent them from logging into the game because of the death count, our channels for obtaining intelligence in the other world will be greatly reduced, and the lack of intelligence will also affect the progress of research. This is not feasible.”

“But after this update, a full 50,000 players logged into the game. With the death count difficult to control, the speed of the world overlap will be infinitely accelerated.” The old man said in a deep voice, “This time it’s just a projection, but what about next time? If those demonic creatures really appear on Blue Star, how will unarmed ordinary people resist?”

Nie Yaping paused: “Players.”

Players?

Just as everyone was confused, Nie Yaping continued.

“According to statistics, excluding those strange phenomena abroad, the locations of all strange phenomena in China have a certain number of players nearby.”

“To put it more directly,” Nie Yaping took out a USB flash drive, walked to the computer next to the conference room projector, inserted the USB flash drive, opened a PPT, and flipped to a page of visualization statistics. What appeared on it was the distribution of the strange phenomena this time.

“Out of 50,000 players, one-third are from the military, and the rest are ordinary players. These players are distributed across our vast national territory, which is obviously not many and very scattered.”

Nie Yaping clicked the mouse, and a map of the country popped up, appearing below the visualization statistics table. Several red dots represented the locations where strange phenomena appeared. “But if you do the statistics, you can see that with the red dots as the center, there must be three or more players within a radius of 100 kilometers, appearing in this area and being active here for a long time.”

The projector listed what Nie Yaping said one by one. Indeed, according to their statistics, except for a few special uninhabited areas, such as the top of Changbai Mountain and the center of the desert, the vicinity of all other places where strange phenomena appeared had three or more players, and some even appeared right in their G311 base.

“Because we received reports before that the game helmets would collect players’ spatial coordinates, we quickly made an assumption after the statistics: the appearance of these demonic creatures is likely due to the leakage of spatial coordinates after players’ repeated deaths, resulting in the approximate collection of data for these locations. And today, it all broke out at once.”

“The fact that this time, 40,000 slots were released in one go shows that the person behind the game does want to accelerate the speed of the overlap. However, he only added 40,000 slots, instead of opening a public beta in one go, allowing everyone on Blue Star to enter *Return*. Wouldn’t that be able to accelerate the overlap more quickly?”

Nie Yaping said: “I think the reason why the public beta was not opened should be that there are still certain conditions for the overlap of the two worlds. This is also our opportunity.”

“If my above conjecture holds true, then players are the best deterrent to these demonic creatures. Players with optimized game panel data have far more combat power against demonic creatures than the police do.”

“And if demonic creatures appear, they will first appear in places where players gather more. Since we can’t stop players from playing the game and dying, why not recruit these players and make them our non-staff personnel.”

“At the same time, the research staff also needs to speed up. At least before the next update comes or demonic creatures appear in large numbers, they need to come up with a concrete prevention plan.”

Nie Yaping said this large paragraph without even panting, obviously her lung capacity was exceptional.

The old man listened and pondered for a long time before finally saying: “Sounds like a feasible method. Then go back and discuss it carefully. Afterwards, submit an action report. I need to see a more detailed plan.”

Nie Yaping nodded directly in agreement.

Throughout the meeting, Zhai Yingyi did not get a chance to report. This was his first time participating in this level of meeting, so he didn’t have too many objections. He just waited quietly for Nie Yaping’s call.

It wasn’t until the meeting ended that Nie Yaping took Zhai Yingyi to the old leader’s side alone. “This is Zhai Yingyi, a squad leader from the Special Operations Force. He’s also the one who has had contact with that [Ri An].”

Nie Yaping looked at Zhai Yingyi, only to see him salute, his spine straight, every move revealing the soldier’s stability of standing like a pine and sitting like a bell.

Upon seeing this, the solemn expression on the old leader’s face faded a bit. No one would feel unhappy seeing such an excellent junior, so he nodded.

“I called him here to report to you separately about that [Ri An]…” Nie Yaping lowered her voice a little, and Zhai Yingyi naturally recounted the several encounters with the [Ri An] who was said to be the game GM to the old leader.

The old leader’s eyes flashed with surprise as he listened.

“Sounds like this [Ri An] is indeed very special.” The old leader said, “Can you determine his position?”

Zhai Yingyi hesitated for a moment, and looked at Nie Yaping, only to see this leader nod very positively.

“From several encounters, we can see this person’s character. He’s a person with a sense of justice. Even when facing players who won’t truly die, he will come to the rescue.” Nie Yaping said, “Moreover, he has shown a strong sense of familiarity with Blue Star, even with our country. This is not something someone from another world would do. His various behaviors do seem like a player.”

“But in the player screening lists we conducted several times, there is indeed no [Ri An]. He’s a ghost player.”

“We believe that he should be someone from another world who obtained the relevant abilities of the player system, disguising himself as a player and mixing in with the real player ranks.”

The old man nodded: “Then what do you think is the purpose of this [Ri An] doing this? Is it the same as the person behind the game, actually wanting to overlap the two worlds, or even possibly wanting to attack our Blue Star?”

Nie Yaping shook her head: “I think the reason why he’s pretending to be a player is likely to protect the ordinary people in the other world.”

“The intelligence team has collected information that the so-called Newbie Villages after the game login are actually backed by a group of people. They claim to be guiding the descended, or players, to adapt to the rules of this world, but in reality, they are subtly reducing the players’ ‘desire for destruction’ after the players first log into the game and enter the other world.”

“When we first logged into the game, our soldiers weren’t too vigilant, and may have revealed some differences in their behavior, exposing the fact that we were an organized and purposeful team. I have read through all of the content reported by the soldiers afterwards, and confirmed that those who accidentally exposed their identities were subjected to varying degrees of testing for a period of time, all stemming from the Newbie Village NPCs.”

“Then not long after, that [Ri An] took the initiative to find Zhai Yingyi, expressed his friendship, and even provided us with a hidden mission.”

“This is too coincidental.” Nie Yaping said, “So we unanimously believe that [Ri An] is very likely the person behind this so-called Newbie Village force. He obtained our existence through the NPCs of the Newbie Village and took the initiative to come to our door to show goodwill.”

The old man pondered for a moment, “So, you mean—”

Nie Yaping said forcefully: “Chief, I think this [Ri An] also wants to prevent the overlap of the two worlds. Perhaps we can invite him to join our plan…”