Saving Unpermitted

Chapter 56: Negotiation

The ruins of the small town close to the settlement, deep underground.

During the day, the people from the settlement would come here to work, and the payment would be provided by the Old Fourth. At night, Shu Jun would guard this place, inspecting every aspect of the underground base and suppressing the surrounding erosion.

Zhu Yanchen wasn’t around, so he was alone, wandering in the darkness. It was late at night, and Monday would snore on his back.

After completing today’s inspection, Shu Jun couldn’t sleep, so he leaned against the end of the tunnel and stared blankly. The moist scent of soil filled his nostrils, and in the dim lighting, the ruins carried traces of their former pre-apocalyptic glory.

Supplies provided by the Old Fourth were piled up in the corner, and the flickering light bulbs cast a dim light on the wooden crates.

Previously, Zhu Sheng had ordered Xia Yufeng to put pressure on the Old Fourth. But with the real Zhu Yanchen in command, the Old Fourth naturally wouldn’t be affected by Xia Yufeng, the “imposter Marshal”. However, in order to firmly place Xia Yufeng as a chess piece, Zhu Yanchen still gave the order for the Old Fourth to “depress” temporarily.

During the supervisory process, Shu Jun came into contact with many people from the Old Fourth. After a while, he realized that the Old Fourth, as the local power, was much fatter than he had imagined—surrounding Y City were numerous settlements, big and small, all belonging to the Old Fourth’s territory. If things were peaceful, it would be fine, as the three major families focused on internal struggles. But once Y City became unstable, the Old Fourth would be the first to be warned.

He had joked with Zhu Yanchen before, wondering if this person distributed his time among so many things that he wouldn’t sleep at night. It wasn’t until now that Shu Jun realized that the joke might not just be a “joke”.

From devoting all his efforts to researching the Erosion Swamp and creating his own tactical chip, to cultivating an organization the size of the Old Fourth. Over the past decade, Zhu Yanchen had used his actions to weave a web, every stitch in place, with the player system itself lying at the center.

Shu Jun felt a heavy burden in his heart. Zhu Yanchen was as busy as a spinning top, while he himself leisurely passed the days.

Now that he had touched Zhu Yanchen’s web, he had to rely on it to protect the lives of his compatriots. Therefore, he should also give it his all to make it even more intricately woven, sturdy, and leakproof.

He closed his eyes, and a vague idea gradually took shape.

“Still awake?” A hoarse voice suddenly came.

Shu Jun glanced sideways, and Dong Lao emerged from the shadows. He was hunched over, and his eyes darted around. Shu Jun always felt a sense of familiarity with this person, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen him before.

“Just can’t fall asleep.” Shu Jun found a wooden crate and sat down, crossing his legs as he looked up and down at Dong Lao. “Why would an old man like you come here in the middle of the night?”

Just as he thought of something, someone appeared. The moment his thoughts encountered an obstacle, the solution presented itself.

“I need to see the state of this base with my own eyes in order to allocate manpower more effectively,” Dong Lao replied with a cheerful smile. “Since Smoke isn’t here, I have to maintain good communication with your side, just in case.”

“You’re working hard,” Shu Jun replied absentmindedly, his mind racing.

“You hate all humans except Smoke?” Seeing that Shu Jun’s state was off, Dong Lao continued with enthusiasm.

“It’s not like that.”

“In that case, this old man will stay a little longer. After all, Smoke asked me to look after you, and since I made the effort to come here, we need to go through the proper procedures.”

“Look after me?” Shu Jun asked with a smile. He released Monday from his back and placed it on his lap, absentmindedly stroking its spine. Monday let out a comfortable hum, adding a touch of liveliness to the dim underground space.

“What, do you think he sent me to monitor you?”

“No, I know he wouldn’t—I was just thinking that if you really want to go through this ‘looking after’ process, I have a basket full of questions that I would like you to take care of.”

Dong Lao picked up a piece of plastic cloth from the ground and sat down on the floor. “Go ahead, ask away. I’m bored anyway.”

“When did Zhu Yanchen’s plan start?”

“I joined late, but based on the layout and information, he probably started considering these things about sixteen years ago. In simple terms, he couldn’t handle it all by himself. I helped him with the tactical work inside, and as for the Old Fourth—well, they helped him lay out the information network outside.”

Dong Lao spoke slowly.

“But that guy is very cunning. He doesn’t completely hand over the tactical work to me, and he doesn’t completely hand over the research work to Ai Xiaoxiao either. He insists on sharing it equally. He guards against us openly… Only he knows the full details of his plans.”

“I see.” Shu Jun continued stroking the sword.

“Why do you want to inquire about all this? Are you moved?” Dong Lao teased.

“I just want to know more about this person.” Shu Jun paused his actions. “After all, I have my own plans.”

The folds on Dong Lao’s face trembled, and the smile on his face suddenly disappeared. He stared at Shu Jun warily as his breath slowed down.

“I can probably guess A’Yan’s thoughts. Before discovering Sigma, he was willing to risk his life to expose the fatal flaw of the player system to the world. As for now… he wants to obtain the position of leader and, considering the current situation, he wants to stop the player system in a legitimate manner.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“The problem is that half of the troubles we face right now are beyond Grand Marshal Zhu’s plan.” Shu Jun smiled. “The lives of 30,000 players, Luo Duan, Sigma… He can’t handle so much at once, nor does he have the standing to arrange them. As for me, before finalizing my plan, I must understand his character to avoid unnecessary conflicts.”

“What do you intend to do?” Dong Lao asked with a hint of stiffness.

Shu Jun casually sat there, exuding a continuous sense of oppression. His aura was no less powerful than that of a real Erosion Swamp. “Why should I tell you?”

Dong Lao was at a loss for words.

Shu Jun glanced at him once again, and after a moment, he extended his hand. A mass of erosion was lifted by the wind and floated in his palm. “If we’re going to have a deeper conversation, it’s better for both sides to be open and honest. At the very least, we should reveal our true identities, right, Miss Xia?”

Underneath Dong Lao’s mask, Xia Liang’s face turned pale instantly. Zhu Yanchen had promised her that if she wanted to reveal her identity, she would need to seek consent first. Although she didn’t like Zhu Yanchen, she knew he was trustworthy.

Shu Jun had discovered her identity on his own.

“Mirror’s erosion.” Shu Jun explained when Xia Liang didn’t speak. “I tested it on you, and it couldn’t imitate your face properly, so you must be using some kind of disguise. Besides, in the Grand Theatre, Zhu Yanchen’s attitude towards you… Since he’s such a controlling person, he wouldn’t expose too much to unrelated individuals. It was just a guess on my part.”

“Can we give each other some face?” Xia Liang didn’t conceal her true voice anymore. “My identity doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

“Of course, it matters.” Shu Jun pointed out seriously. “It’s such a useful leverage.”

Xia Liang: “…” She was wrong, absolutely wrong. She shouldn’t have thought that this person had a pure heart. After all, they were all playing a tactical game, except she was playing mahjong against a thousand-year-old fox. Who would be more naïve?

“Ai Xiaoxiao needs to consider transferring the patients, so she won’t be able to come over for a while. I want you to help me conceal some things.”

“Have you ever thought that if you expose my identity at this critical moment…”

“Who said I would expose it now? I can wait until these matters are resolved before spreading any rumors.” Shu Jun smiled, squinting his eyes.

“…What exactly do you want?”

“There’s still some time before the Reunion Festival, and I may have to leave for a while. Help me fool A’Yan.”

“If he finds out—”

“I don’t plan to hide it from him. There’s no immediate danger to life, and I will tell him myself once it’s done,” Shu Jun said. “He already has enough things to deal with, like a heavily burdened cart. If I give him the plan now, it’s more of a disadvantage than an advantage.”

Xia Liang looked at him skeptically.

“What? Only he’s allowed to silently work hard for sixteen years, and I’m not allowed to find something to do for myself? Even ordinary couples need some personal space, let alone us… ahem.”

Xia Liang’s suspicious gaze became more intense.

“In the end, the Reunion Festival is coming soon. As you know, Luo Duan is likely to take action at that time. It concerns the lives of my compatriots, and there are things I need to clarify in advance.” Shu Jun jumped down from the wooden crate. “That’s how it is. You can handle it, ‘Dong Lao’. If I truly intended to hide it, I wouldn’t even tell you, but that would be too troublesome.”

In the end, Xia Liang didn’t object, and she only let out a cold snort.

During this period, Sigma hadn’t been absent from his dreams. However, Shu Jun either wandered around, reminiscing about his childhood, or sang loudly in his small apartment. Sigma had little room to act, and its presence gradually shifted from the doorway to the corner of the wall—eroding countless negative emotions. Yet, Shu Jun could still howl and sing <Sweet Summer Day>. Sigma truly had no means to use, and its emotions became increasingly dull.

However, today, Shu Jun’s situation seemed a bit weird.

The frustrated Sigma’s fragmented consciousness regained its spirit, and it commanded the blood vessels, approaching with hope.

“Humans truly cannot be trusted.” Shu Jun flopped onto the sofa and murmured. “Zhu Yanchen only cares about obtaining the position of leader and has never considered the fate of my 30,000 compatriots…”

The Sigma’s fragment became excited, and tears almost welled up in its eyes. “Yes, that’s it! You’ve finally realized.”

“I can’t see any hope. Right now, I only have Hu Yan at my disposal. Even if I add Zhu Yanchen, we won’t be able to defend against Luo Duan… With Sigma’s support, he can command an Alpha Erosion Swamp, can’t he? If I fight against Luo Duan, I will undoubtedly be exposed… the situation of the synthetic humans will also be exposed…”

“Yes,” the Sigma’s fragment expressed enthusiastically. “Unless Zhu Yanchen becomes leader, and you command your compatriots to fight side by side, only then can you establish an impregnable long-term defense line. But we all know that’s simply impossible.”

“Yeah, I can’t force my compatriots to protect humanity.” Those words truly came from the depths of Shu Jun’s heart. Then Shu Jun covered his face, concealing his true expression.

Sigma’s fragment was too joyful, to the point of casually giving out information—Luo Duan indeed had the ability to mobilize an Alpha Erosion Swamp.

“And everyone might be able to fuse with an Erosion Swamp, like me, and survive…” Shu Jun continued to tightly cover his face, appearing exhausted. He even clenched his throat, choking as if in genuine distress.

“Yes,” Sigma’s fragment drew closer, and the black-red blood vessels enveloped Shu Jun, almost encasing him in a cocoon of blood. Countless negative emotions surged forth, branding Shu Jun’s nerves. “Yes, that’s it.”

“You’re just a fragment,” he muttered. “I want to meet the real Sigma. I know what it wants, and I demand negotiations.”

Having said that, he let out a sigh.

“My mind hasn’t fully recovered yet. If Sigma absorbs me now, it will definitely be at a disadvantage. It’s better to lend us a few Alpha Erosion Swamps first, so we can settle matters with the humans, and then you can dispose of us… With my information and abilities, Sigma will undoubtedly be able to save my compatriots.”

“Yes,” it said, “when you’re ready, I can tell you the location of the main body.”

“Does it have to be this troublesome? If we’re close enough, can’t we have long-distance conversations or something?”

“I’m just an incomplete piece of information, surviving within your subconscious. Don’t even mention long-distance conversations—I can’t even discern things around me.” The humanoid figure spoke in a low voice, drawing even closer. “Unfortunately, you must see it in person.”

Great, it seems that the limitation of “requiring physical contact communication” applies to the main body as well.

Shu Jun continued to ramble on with his negative talk, while at the same time, Sigma’s fragment circled around him, like a dog circling a food bowl. It occasionally echoed and seduced him, trying to push him into the depths of chaos.

Unfortunately, Shu Jun was very clear-headed. All this talk of meetings and promises was nothing more than seeking personal gain at someone else’s expense. Sigma’s initial pursuit wasn’t perfect evolution but rather the disappearance of humans and synthetic humans.

‘How interesting,’ Shu Jun thought. If it weren’t for his trust in Zhu Yanchen, under the pressure of countless negative emotions, he might have almost convinced himself.

However, someone spent sixteen years for an unrealistic goal, staking their life to create a bloody path. Both publicly and privately, he had to become the person who could walk this bloody path.

A good performance required thorough preparation. To ensure everything was in place, Shu Jun waited for three days before taking action. If he made a careless mistake during the operation and even risked his life, it would be a big joke.

He acted with Sigma’s fragment for three days. On the fourth day, the prototype of the underground stronghold was completed. Using rest as an excuse, Shu Jun asked Yu Jin to take over his shift.

“I’m going to take a nap,” he said. “Don’t disturb me.”

Then he quietly flew into the sky.

Sigma’s fragment was also quite cunning. It didn’t immediately give Shu Jun the correct direction. Shu Jun flew for a whole day in the desolate erosion zone to ensure he had flown far enough before Sigma’s fragment informed him of the next location in his dream.

After completing the cycle of flying, sleeping, eating, and flying again, Shu Jun spent another two days wandering in the erosion zone. On the seventh day after departure, he finally arrived at the true location.

Shu Jun hovered in mid-air.

He had imagined what Sigma looked like—Shu Jun only knew that it was a collection of grievances and the compilation of Erosion Swamps with brains taking on a strange form. After pondering for a while, he gave up completely. Now it seemed that he had made the right decision.

Sigma was enormous, and apart from that, he hadn’t guessed anything correctly.

This stretch of coastline was near the mouth of the sea, and the ocean was pure darkness.

Shu Jun couldn’t see anything below the surface of the sea. Looking out, all he saw was a sea of ink-like water. Sigma only revealed a glimpse of its outline on the coastline, and even that glimpse was enough to make one feel uncomfortable—

Countless arms emerged from the sea, gripping the pale gray beach. The left and right arms were randomly arranged, perpendicular to the coastline. From a distance, the coastline looked like a bizarre piano keyboard.

Shu Jun felt a wave of nausea.

How many arms are there in total, several thousand? Tens of thousands? They were incredibly large, yet extremely withered, as if they were chopped off from giant corpses. The arms extended into the seawater, seamlessly merging with the pitch-black ocean.

The rivers flowing into the sea were also black, with thick erosion substance flowing within them. The quantity of the erosion substance was immense, capable of accumulating several Alpha Erosion Swamps in minutes. However, judging from the scattered flow of the erosion substance, there were no Erosion Swamp with brains among them.

‘Sigma’s “welcome ceremony” is well done,’ Shu Jun sneered inwardly, knowing that he still had things to do.

The lone figure circled for a while, descended from the high sky, and prepared to start negotiations.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred.

Among the countless arms clutching the beach, one hand didn’t penetrate the sand with its five fingers; it merely clenched its fist. As soon as the figure landed, that hand quietly extended into the sea, revealing a pale gap between its fingers.

A “brain” sank into the erosion substance.

Before the figure could take a few steps forward, Sigma suddenly attacked. Countless arms swung and directly grasped toward that tiny figure. At the same time, a gigantic Erosion Swamp crawled out of the sea entrance, rapidly extending to enclose the area behind the coastline. The figure was sandwiched between the two sides and instantly disappeared into the erosion substance.

There was no negotiation from the beginning, as Shu Jun expected.

He floated cross-legged in the high sky while he suppressed the erosion substance in his body to the point of losing his breath. The other “him,” however, was different—using Sweet Edge’s “Creation” as the skeleton and the Mirror Erosion Swamp’s “Replication” as the skin, he mixed it with his own genuine flesh and blood. In terms of aura, it had no flaws.

During the three days of preparation, in order to achieve a realistic effect, he shed a lot of blood and carved out a considerable amount of flesh. To replenish the lost energy, he almost wiped out the mutant beasts near the erosion zone.

“This is not something, ah.” Shu Jun mumbled with a piece of jerky in his mouth, feeling a sense of sorrow.

He had just released his puppet with the wind. Has it been three minutes? It seemed that Sigma really wanted his brain, not even willing to make a token gesture.

Looking at the situation below, Shu Jun swallowed the jerky in his mouth and began to count the seconds.

In terms of a single battle, he never left any flaws. Sigma had hooked onto an empty shell without a brain, but before it could react, the shell exploded.

It was filled with Ai Xiaoxiao’s version of purification powder. They kept the erosion substance on the outside, and the inner explosive was undamaged. Now, it exploded with a tremendous impact.

In the scattered powder, Shu Jun’s flesh and blood were purified to the point of complete cleansing. The two Erosion Swamp nearby also suffered the consequences. Sigma’s newly created Erosion Swamp instantly retreated several meters, and one of Sigma’s fingers in the hand holding the puppet exploded, emitting a sizzling, scorching sound.

Not to mention brain information, Shu Jun didn’t want to expose even a sliver of information to Sigma.

The next moment, an angry screech from Sigma came from the ground, as if millions of nails were scratching a blackboard together, and a chilling aura instantly pierced to the bone. It angrily flailed countless arms, trying to locate Shu Jun, but under the disguise of “Suppression”, it couldn’t find a single clue.

High above the sky, Shu Jun trembled all over and quickly fled.

Throughout this journey, he saw many interesting things and obtained a lot of information. Once he handed the information to Zhu Yanchen, the man would surely deduce even more.

“Goodbye, Sigma.” Before speeding away, Shu Jun glanced at the eerie coastline and grimaced. “It was quite a negotiation.”

Y City.

Luo Duan was still in the command center.

For some reason, his injuries were healing unusually slowly. But Ai Xiaoxiao gave a definitive diagnosis, and this man seemed eager to experience “leisure life”. According to reason, the staff couldn’t kick him out, which gave Yi Ning a bit of a headache.

However, with the Reunion Festival approaching and no missions recently, it was hard to find fault with him not returning to the team. Once the celebration officially began, no matter what, Luo Duan had to go back and lead Groundwater.

Once he left, Yi Ning’s pile of meaningless worries would also disappear. In the end, he shouldn’t have gotten too close to a synthetic human.

Fortunately, Luo Duan kept his word. Since that night, when Yi Ning issued the final ultimatum, he hadn’t come to Yi Ning’s office again. He just casually read idle books in the document room and chatted with other staff members with a smiling face.

But Yi Ning felt a bit uncomfortable.

With Zhu Yanchen’s return, the Tang family members started bombarding him one after another, urging him to quickly achieve something—such as making achievements at the Reunion Festival and pulling in some votes. Yi Ning returned to the life of dealing with the powerful and then dealing with work. However, when he encountered difficulties and subconsciously wanted to voice his thoughts, Yi Ning realized that there was no one around him to discuss with anymore.

He tried seeking help from his assistant, but the assistant’s reactions and insights were far from Luo Duan’s, only causing him more headaches.

Habit was truly a terrifying thing.

However, there was also good news. After the return of “Zhu Yanchen”, he became much more open about the player system, completely becoming a mouthpiece conveying Zhu Sheng’s will. This wasn’t bad either. If this substitute “Marshal Zhu” agreed to increase the production of synthetic humans, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he lost like this, saving him from the daily torment of the Tang family.

Yi Ning pressed his temples hard.

Rest time had arrived, and he subconsciously opened the monitoring screen to check on Luo Duan’s movements.

The captain of Groundwater was holding a stack of books and walking towards his own ward. At a glance, those books were all related to the Reunion Festival and lacked sensitivity. At the same time, the counterfeit “Zhu Yanchen” happened to be walking from the other end of the corridor, and the two of them passed each other.

Luo Duan looked straight ahead, not even glancing at “Marshal Zhu” for a moment and went straight into the ward.

After Luo Duan entered the room, “Marshal Zhu” hesitated slightly in his steps. He first glanced at the door of the ward, then looked up and scanned the surveillance cameras that were being adjusted.

Yi Ning had a feeling—the impostor seemed to see him directly through the camera. Those eyes were extremely dark and bottomless.

Just like the real Zhu Yanchen, who should be dead.