Dual Worlds: I Have a Doomsday World

The target they had been staking out for days had instantly lost all value; worse, their own presence had been detected by a Tier Four Powerhouse from the Eastern Alliance.

Before Guang Ling could speak, Capitalist had already ventured a guess:

"The most crucial point in the recent intel file regarding the Mercenary Corps’s mission is that the mother sample is clandestine to the point of being almost completely indistinguishable."

"This means that until we actually engage a Bearer, we can never be certain which one is the sole Bearer."

"My guess is that Guang Ling’s plan is to have you all pull back first, wait and see, and let the sole Bearer be revealed—either voluntarily or by force."

Capitalist held a high position; her analysis and use of intelligence were often on par with Guang Ling’s.

Hearing Capitalist’s words, Lin Qi instantly understood what Guang Ling was planning.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!

It was an old proverb from the Eastern Alliance.

Guang Ling already knew the Eastern Alliance’s layout. Although Lin Qi hadn’t told Guang Ling every detail of Baili Xueyuan’s arrangements, with Guang Ling’s abilities, they must have figured out most of it.

The Eastern Alliance had made arrangements for all the Bearers and was just waiting for the right moment to close the net.

With over a dozen battlefronts and a large number of Tier Four Powerhouses striking simultaneously, it wouldn’t matter where the mother sample was or who the sole Bearer turned out to be—they would all face the Eastern Alliance’s lightning-fast strike.

It was a saturation-style plan, ensuring no one would slip through the cracks.

With this information in mind, Lin Qi’s understanding of Guang Ling’s plan deepened.

The Highest-Level Mercenary Corps wasn’t aiming to pinpoint the target beforehand. Instead, they would dispatch their main force to the battlefield the moment the target appeared!

Guang Ling was making a bet—a bet that the methods deployed by the Eastern Alliance wouldn’t be able to take down the sole Bearer in a short amount of time.

"King Arthur, Master Ma, you two need to head to Alliance City immediately. I’ve arranged for a special vehicle there—a Rail-991 model drop pod. You will take it to low-earth orbit and await orders."

"The moment the target appears, I will have the Rail-991 drop pod launch. You will arrive at the Cyber City where the target has surfaced within 17 minutes."

"Furthermore, you will be temporarily granted Eastern Alliance support authorization and participate in the operation under the identity of the Eastern Alliance’s S-Yellow Bear Expedition Team."

Hearing Guang Ling’s words, the faces of everyone hidden in the shadows showed expressions of surprise.

’Impersonate an Eastern Alliance support team?’

’No wonder Guang Ling just said not to be hostile to the Eastern Alliance, not to snatch the target, but to help their powerhouses with the encirclement...’

Master Ma’s tone seemed a bit odd as he asked, "Then what about the real Yellow Bear Expedition Team? As far as I know, they are also the Eastern Alliance’s permanent aerospace support force, capable of descending on any corner of the Asian Administrative Region within 20 minutes."

Hearing Master Ma’s question, Lin Qi felt he had just added to his store of useful knowledge.

’The Yellow Bear Expedition Team?’

’To think the Eastern Alliance had this kind of aerospace support force!’

’As expected of the true ruling power in the Asian Administrative Region. This strategic deployment capability seems even more reliable than the Big Business Alliance’s.’

Guang Ling’s reply was calm, as if discussing a trivial matter. "I have already finished building a new server cluster. It can intercept and block the Eastern Alliance’s commands for one hour."

"But there’s only one chance. After I complete this interception and forgery, this entire batch of servers will be fried."

"Given the current market, even if I paid a premium of over three times the price, it would take me at least two weeks to rebuild a computing cluster of this scale."

’As expected...’

’Guang Ling was still Guang Ling. Their mastery of the cyber network was beyond imagination.’

’They could even intercept the Eastern Alliance’s strategic commands and forge the identity of the Yellow Bear Expedition Team. It made Lin Qi seriously doubt whether Guang Ling’s earlier "weakness" was genuine.’

Unfortunately, Lin Qi had no way of verifying this. After all, his knowledge as a cyber hacker was only skin-deep.

It was enough for simple Prosthetic Body programming, but anything more? That was a job for the professionals, not a Prosthetic Engineering researcher!

Lin Qi didn’t speak again. He didn’t participate further in the in-depth discussion of the mission, just listened silently to Guang Ling’s arrangements and the opinions of Master Ma and King Arthur.

The meeting lasted for nearly an hour, longer than any previous one.

"Everyone, this concludes the Highest Level security meeting. After we adjourn, I will set up a temporary chat window to facilitate communication for the upcoming operation."

Guang Ling gave the concluding remarks and, just as with previous operations, opened a temporary chat window.

Although it was highly unlikely that Lin Qi, Capitalist, and Jingang would participate directly in the subsequent action, the three of them still joined the temporary chat window.

As the meeting ended, the Intelligent Brain ceased its projection, and the conference room scene before them faded away.

The temporary chat window appeared in their vision, but for the moment, no one sent any messages.

Capitalist was busy trying to figure out how to access the offline archives, Master Ma and King Arthur were busy evacuating and heading to Alliance City, and Jingang was a natural lurker who rarely posted anything.

Lin Qi was in no mood to send messages either, as he had no intelligence worth sharing at the moment.

The only thing that stirred any emotion in Lin Qi was the message that popped up next from his Intelligent Brain.

[Read activity from inserted unregistered Credit Point storage chip. 33,333,333 Credit Points deposited. Current balance: 40,334,213 Credit Points]

A deposit of over thirty-three million Credit Points. This was his share of the 250 million Credit Point bounty bonus that Guang Ling had mentioned.

According to the rules of the Highest-Level Mercenary Corps, seventy percent was split among all active participants, twenty percent went into the corps’ public funds, and the remaining ten percent was divided equally among non-participating members.

Since everyone had participated in the operation, eighty percent of the 250 million Credit Points was divided equally among them all.

Staring at the forty-million-plus Credit Points sitting in his unregistered account, Lin Qi felt surprisingly little emotion.

It wasn’t even enough to purchase a full S-Class Prosthetic Body. It was just about enough to buy the Liu’s S-A Type Suit-style Prosthetic Body with 25% S-Class capacity that Liu Xuan was planning to give him.

Factoring in scarcity and supply, he might even be short by a few million Credit Points.

Looking at it from a long-term perspective, this "huge sum" was merely "small change."

He closed the Intelligent Brain interface, placed an arm on the desk, and tapped his fingers lightly.

After sitting quietly for a while longer, Lin Qi stood up, left the basement workshop, and returned to his room on the second floor.

It was now nighttime. Liu Xuan and Lin Xin had long since returned to their rooms to rest. Lin Qi only saw Sister Li in the reception area.

Just like yesterday, Sister Li was startled by Lin Qi’s late-night wandering, but she lay back down on the sofa after seeing it was him.

After returning to his room, Lin Qi splashed his face with cold water, rinsed his mouth, and then lay down on his bed.

He waited quietly for time to pass.

At 4:40 AM, the instant the cooldown for the [Door] was complete, Lin Qi didn’t hesitate. With a single thought, he traveled to the Doomsday World.

「Doomsday World, Mo University Camp, Sixth Floor of the Club Activity Building.」

The first thing Lin Qi did upon arriving in the Doomsday World was change his clothes. Then, he began his Meditation.

He set aside the matters of the Cyber World for now. All he needed to do there was wait and see, anyway.

But his Meditation in the Doomsday World could not be delayed. His Spiritual Power was already nearing the peak of the first stage of Tier Three. In just a few more hours, it would be full, and he could begin analyzing the next Extraordinary Item.

Time passed, minute by minute, and Lin Qi’s Spiritual Power rose steadily.

Along with a slight sense of fullness, Lin Qi felt a solid bottleneck.

It was a unique restriction for a Wizard Professional.

He had to analyze an Extraordinary Item to allow his Spiritual Power to break through to the next stage.

This was a shackle, but also a benefit.

As long as one had enough Extraordinary Items, a Wizard Professional had no bottlenecks to speak of!

Lin Qi’s tangible Spiritual Tentacles extended, coiling around two metal boxes from the side of the room.

These were precisely the two remaining Tier Three Extraordinary Items that Lin Qi possessed.