"Right now, a lethal gas is spreading in this room. It's absorbed through the skin, and you will die if exposed for more than three hours."
"The antidote that can keep you alive is somewhere in this house."
Sakura calmly glanced at Lin. He still hadn't done anything, but was instead surveying the entire room.
The room looked small and cramped. On a nearby table were two revolvers, and in the center were two bullets.
Additionally, next to the table were two tools clearly designed for restraining hands and feet.
"Those two revolvers and two bullets are the key for you to leave this room. Simply load the bullets, place the guns on the restraints, tie up your hands and feet, and then pull the trigger twice aimed at your temple. The door will open."
"Note that both bullets must be loaded into the handguns, and both handguns must be triggered twice for the mechanism to work. Otherwise... you will never leave here."
...
Clearly, this was a trap designed to incite mutual slaughter.
The person said both bullets needed to be loaded into the handguns, but didn't specify that they had to be loaded into separate handguns. This meant that one party, after restraining the other, could load both bullets into a single handgun and pull the trigger twice.
Admittedly, loading them into separate handguns would reduce the possibility of the same person being hit, but there was still a probability. Who would gamble on that one-sixth chance?
It was always better to have someone else face a one-third chance than face a one-sixth chance yourself.
She was smug, thinking this was a genius experiment. Although she hadn't actually released any poison gas, and the two guns were defective replicas that couldn't fire bullets, it was precisely this kind of non-lethal game that would make the two survivors see each other's true colors...
Come on, start fighting, slaughter each other...
"Sakura, open the door."
The smile once again froze on her face.
With Lin command, Sakura drew her new sword. She approached the exit and casually swung it three times. The door and wall, which a missile couldn't breach, were carved with a new "door" as if cut by a laser.
Wait a minute, this script is wrong.
Isn't that a cold weapon? It looks like nothing more than a Japanese katana, right?
What she didn't know was that after Mei took office, to prevent the previous incident of weapon data leaks and private development of new weapons from recurring, the R&D Department's weapon data was stored separately. Furthermore, adhering to Mei's consistent excellent style of "using paper files if possible instead of electronic files," the hacker had no idea how advanced Fire Moth's weapons truly were.
She only knew that Fire Moth was a mysterious organization that gathered the world's top talents and whose technology led the world, but she didn't think this lead would be overly sci-fi.
She could clearly see the level of weapon technology in various countries after hacking their intranets, so she believed that Fire Moth's technology wouldn't exceed her understanding too much.
The facts proved her wrong.
Sakura in the footage effortlessly sliced through the various rooms and mechanisms she had painstakingly built, leaving her clutching her heart in pain.
This is too much! She spent over a year setting up this mechanism house!
"Wait, wait, why are they heading straight toward my location?"
Suddenly realizing that Lin and Sakura path was leading directly to the basement entrance where she was, she grasped the severity of the problem.
...
While the hacker was announcing the rules of their game, Lin was observing the internal layout of the house to locate the most likely basement entrance.
He had already guessed Mei's reason for going to the trouble of having them arrest the hacker: "Pacification and Recruitment."
When the hacker posted the bets, Mei did not immediately have Prometheus II isolate the hacker's intrusion or cancel the bets, likely fearing that raising the alarm would cause the hacker to retreat from the Fire Moth intranet and vanish without a trace.
Their personal arrival was likely to demonstrate Fire Moth's attitude and give the hacker a bit of a lesson, but most importantly... to prevent escape.
Although Prometheus II now managed the headquarters system, and its existence could isolate most hacker intrusions and manage almost everything, it was still an immature artificial intelligence. Mei and Vil-V had their own additional projects to oversee, and no one was available to fully optimize the system for Prometheus II and the subsequent Prometheus series of AI.
This hacker might have exploited some vulnerability in the defense of the Fire Moth intranet after the Sixth Honkai War, but it also demonstrated their capability, making them an unparalleled choice for the rapidly expanding Fire Moth.
Chrysalis Squad had always been responsible for missions leaning more toward internal human affairs, and this time was no exception.
They quickly arrived at the location Lin had estimated. Sure enough, the basement entrance was here.
As for the games in between, he hadn't paid close attention, but a quick glance confirmed they were just elaborate, non-lethal games disguised as deadly ones. The supposed poison gas was also rendered ineffective in front of his helmet, which constantly gathered information about the surrounding gas.
From this, he had a rough idea of what kind of person the hacker was.
"Lin, will they escape through another exit?" Sakura asked Lin, who was standing at the entrance.
"No, the terrain here is low-lying. Only this area of the ground is suitable for constructing underground facilities. The area is not very large, and the quality of the surrounding ground is not be enough for building tunnels. There won't be any other exits."
Lin gently squeezed the lock on the entrance with his hand, crushing it into a metal disc, pulled it off, and descended into the basement.
...
"Hahaha... Congratulations on passing the game, you two. Did you have fun?"
A woman in a black robe and mask stood in front of a dense array of surveillance screens, forcing a smile at the two people walking in.
"..."
Lin stared at her without a word.
This is exactly the same as the data! What a terrifying gaze...
Only after truly experiencing Lin direct stare did she realize that the rumors about Lin on the Fire Moth intranet were actually true.
"If you had fun, then hurry back. I also have to leave. I'll catch you next..."
"Ching."
As she chuckled and prepared to turn and leave, she heard the sound of a blade being drawn. Her hair stood on end, and a flash appeared at the back of her neck. She was instantly thrown onto the ground, her world spinning.
Sakura, who had been over ten meters away, was now firmly holding her hands down, her sword pressed against the back of her neck.
"I ask, you speak."
Lin stood before her, looking down coldly.