The Trembling World
chapter-411-30041322

TL: Lifeisajourney

Yin He was able to locate NaNa’s precise location. From that information, she was able to approximate Liu Gan’s location. So she had to kill her way through to the underground laboratory. By following the shortest route to the control center, she was able to accidentally find Zhan Nan Shan.

“I’ve locked onto your positions, wait a little before we can meet… Oh, you can take the elevator now. I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to reach me,” Yin He’s voice came through the speakers.

Even at this moment, the contorted players couldn’t move their bodies. The pain was developing all over their bodies, they couldn’t even muster up strength to sit up.

The players did their best to move to look at their wrist watches, they saw that their levels and stats were back to their original values. They didn’t reach level 10 at all! Then they saw something crucial; their health condition was dark black in color, it was category of impending death.

“Lord Liu! Don’t leave us behind…” the players continued to plead. They started crying, in hopes of being pitied.

“If we don’t leave you behind, should we wait for you to rebel against us? You TRASH! Go die!” Zhao Meng responded. When he saw their suffering, it was a joyful moment to him.

The elevator didn’t reach to the surface. It led to another large room. It was just like a maze, but with Yin He’s guidance, Liu Gan and his group were able to pass through the right tunnels and rooms without wasting much time. Then they arrived at another elevator lift that led them to a dome-shaped control room.

This control room housed many different machines and a large isolated area separated by a glass wall. Behind the glass wall was a twenty-meter circular area. In the center of this circular area was something very familiar to Liu Gan… a broken Spatial Transfer Gate. Small spatial cracks were revolving around larger spatial cracks, like moons to planets, while the larger spatial cracks were revolving around the gate as the core.

Liu Gan was able to examine such a thing during the underwater base mission. With the appearance of another Spatial Transfer Gate, it seemed like Mr. Sheng’s map wasn’t lying. Except, this gate was also damaged and unusable.

Near the glass wall were machines with complicated functions, still functioning. This laboratory should be quite knowledgeable in research regarding the Spatial Transfer Gate. As to their progress on such knowledge, it was still too early to tell.

Walking around the dome-shaped room twice, slowly descending on a ramp, Liu Gan and his companions reached the ground level of the room. This was the control center of the entire laboratory. It was also the location where Yin He had suppressed Zhan Nan Shan.

Along the way, there were shattered glass and scientists tied-up. On the walls were metal sheets melted by laser beams, all done by Yin He.

Down in the ground floor of the control center, there were a few more tied-up staff. Among the staff was Zhan Nan Shan, who had been severely beaten up by Yin He. Zhan Nan Shan had a depressed look already, but when he saw Liu Gan, he lowered his head even more. Zhan Nan Shan didn’t even say a word.

“So what were you planning?” Liu Gan walked over to greet Zhan Nan Shan with a kick.

“Winners rule, while losers are ruled. Kill me and let me retain my dignity,” Zhan Nan Shan answered Liu Gan.

“What is that within thing you inject when they are within the reward capsules?” Liu Gan asked again.

“No comment,” Zhan Nan Shan had a fearless look.

“I was able to find some valuable information from hacking into the system. The room with the reward capsules was a type of advanced spirit-seizing device. It was good that you didn’t enter it. If you went in the capsule, then your own soul would have been replaced by a new soul. Your own soul would’ve been weakened by the gaseous drug, to make the transition faster,” Yin He informed him.

“That means it was a myth about being able to get a reward. It was just another tactic to lure players in,” Liu Gan deduced.

“Those players that reached level 10… What happened with them?” Zhao Meng wasn’t quite satisfied yet. Even though he knew that it was a big conspiracy, his heart felt regret. The reward was that enticing!

Perhaps… This laboratory could have another way to help them level up to 10?

“They never reached level 10. According to my calculations, when the reward capsule injected the new souls, the stats that followed along belonged to the new souls. Since the new souls were above level 10, it gave off the false impression of the players leveling up to 10. From beginning to end, it was just one big conspiracy,” Liu Gan glared at Zhan Nan Shan.

“What could he be planning? Why did he need to do this?” Zhao Meng and Jiang Jin-Yuan looked at Liu Gan for answers. It was difficult to find the reasons behind other people’s actions.

“Even if he won’t open his mouth, I could guess about 80 to 90 percent of his plan. So most of it is just my speculation, it might not be the complete truth. If you want to listen, I can tell you it,” Liu Gan responded to Zhao Meng and Jiang Jin-Yuan.

“Lord Liu, from what you have told us, we really want to know what is going on with this current situation,” Zhao Meng and Jiang Jin-Yuan spoke up. They might not understand the technicalities, but it was better than being oblivious.

“From what he said to me and his actions, I came up with my own speculations. It might be wrong, but it might also be the truth,” Liu Gan walked over to Zhan Nan Shan’s side. Even though Liu Gan was explaining the situation, it was mainly for Zhan Nan Shan to hear.

If Liu Gan was able to come up with the right conclusion, then Zhan Nan Shan had no reason to continue hiding the reason.

“This Second Elder Zhan Nan Shan and the former Elder Leader Qiu Zi Tao were beta players on Central Island. They weren’t the only ones, like they had claimed. There must be at least dozens of them. They both passed through the Spatial Transfer Gate to reach this island.

“But when they crossed over, only one or two people successfully crossed over with their body and soul still attached. For some unknown reason, every other companion they had failed in crossing over. Only their souls had crossed over.

“It was like Jiang Jin-Yuan’s memory data stored on the PDA. In a sense, their souls were digitized and stored in this laboratory’s database. They haven’t died yet. They just can’t move freely.”