Saving Unpermitted

Chapter 70: Conflict

Underground Stronghold, Grand Hall.

This was the largest room underground, utilizing the architectural structure buried deep beneath for over two hundred years. Its structure was stable and spacious, easily accommodating two to three thousand people. The core part of the players consisted of only around a thousand individuals, leaving plenty of space in the Grand Hall.

For those who couldn’t enter the Grand Hall, Shu Jun arranged large rooms with broadcasting screens and simple communication devices. According to the list provided by Zhu Yanchen, Shu Jun had already given a heads-up to most of the high-ranking members of the teams. He had always enjoyed discussing tactics with people and never held back, so the team captains generally had a positive impression of Shu Jun. While they still had some doubts about the situation, they hadn’t caused any major disturbances.

Seeing that their emotions were mostly stable, Shu Jun didn’t rush them to believe immediately. He assured them that there would be unified proof.

“It won’t be chaotic.” Shu Jun responded confidently to Hu Yan’s concerns. “Managing people is my expertise. Lao Hu, you were panicked because you were the only one who knew about ‘that side’, so it’s normal to be afraid.”

As long as they had a group of powerful comrades, even if the problem couldn’t be solved, people would feel somewhat reassured. The team captains were all exceptional soldiers, with strong mental resilience, and they had been thoroughly screened by Zhu Yanchen based on their life experiences. If anything happened, this group of people could handle it.

If Luo Duan wanted to launch a surprise attack, then he would infiltrate layer by layer.

Shu Jun stood in the Grand Hall.

To give the players a sense of familiarity, Shu Jun didn’t hastily find random clothes to disguise himself. He dressed quite formally. Yu Jin had found someone to repair his equipment overnight, and he wore a set of close-fitting mechanical armor. Shu Jun also stuffed ten kilograms of mutant beast meat into Monday’s mouth to ensure it wouldn’t make any noise. With the armor strapped on and the black sword on his back, although he looked different from before, the former captain of the Blackbirds still exuded his charismatic presence.

Shu Jun turned on the screen, and the buzzing conversations in the Grand Hall came to a halt. Most of the players were still waiting for information on this “temporary mission”, and their posture appeared quite relaxed.

Shu Jun let out a breath and clenched his claws around the speech written by Zhu Yanchen. Shu Jun had a straightforward and tough nature, more suitable for the battlefield than for swaying hearts and minds. As someone who had spent many years in high positions, Zhu Yanchen had polished Shu Jun’s speech, turning his directness into sincerity.

Despite not sleeping all night, Shu Jun had memorized it.

His voice reverberated in the Grand Hall, neither sharp nor coarse, incredibly pleasant to listen to. However, as his words poured out, people gradually became uneasy. Even though Zhu Yanchen’s refined speech was gentle and clear, the voices of doubt grew louder one after another.

Those who had lost loved ones remained in a daze, while those accustomed to comfortable lives were the first to react.

“What a mess!”

“Is this a joke? It’s not April Fool’s Day yet. Are the officials doing such activities?”

“I need to log out urgently! What’s going on? Why is the terminal not responding?!”

People instinctively looked at their superiors or team captains, but most of the captains were still focused on Shu Jun. The leaders remained motionless, and the team members couldn’t just walk away in confusion, so they had no choice but to stay in place.

Here it comes. Shu Jun closed his eyes. He had already explained the situation, but to prove it, they couldn’t have all thirty thousand people take Hu Yan’s path.

“Now that all the players are here, we can conduct a survey.”

Shu Jun casually waved his hand at the screen behind him.

“For those who grew up closely with their parents, with the presence of elders by their side, press ○; for those whose parents were busy with work, deceased, or rarely present due to long-term absence, press ×. You have options on your terminals, so choose correctly.”

They had all undergone human selection training, and Shu Jun’s character was already considered deviant. Most players were calm and courteous, so they wouldn’t make random choices in important moments.

People looked at each other and pressed the options one by one.

The real-time count on the big screen kept increasing, and finally, the players completed the registration—

The column marked “○” showed a blood-red number 0.

“This is wrong!” someone shouted with a strained voice. “When I was studying, I had classmates who had a good time with their families. There’s a problem with this survey!”

“Were any of those ‘close classmates’ formally admitted to the teams?” Shu Jun calmly responded. “You can mention one if there was.”

The person fell silent.

“There are indeed many people from schools, but many of them are specially designed NPCs, created to ‘run alongside’ everyone. That’s not unusual. Does anyone else have objections? Those who selected ○ and it didn’t display, those who chose incorrectly, or those who have seen counterexamples, can all voice their protests.”

Gradually, no one in the audience spoke up.

“Second question.” Shu Jun gritted his teeth. “For everyone present, if you have a parent or child relationship with a previous-generation combat player, press ○; if you don’t have such a relationship but have seen classmates like that without similar comrades, press ×.”

The audience fell silent.

The media of “that side” often publicized famous combat players. They would be portrayed as having children in the media, but there had never been news of “the son or daughter of former player xxx becoming the new generation xxx”.

The children of those elite players either settled abroad with their parents or studied <Erosion>-related majors but ultimately chose not to pursue this profession, gradually fading from people’s sight.

The column marked “○” still showed a blood-red number 0.

“Finally,” Shu Jun continued mercilessly, “For those who have maintained close contact with former teammates who left the team for a long time, press ○; for those whose former teammates have traveled far due to various reasons, are no longer around, and contact has gradually diminished, press ×.”

This time, there was a terrifying silence in the audience.

The red number 0 after the “○” was glaring, like blood.

People were accustomed to seeing the world from a self-centered perspective, and their circles of life were ultimately limited. Even if they felt something was wrong, they would generally consider it an isolated case and not think about it further. Even if they noticed it multiple times, they would attribute it to the retinal effect*.

*A visual phenomenon that affects visual search. As retinal eccentricity increases (i.e. the light of the image enters the eye at a larger angle and approaches peripheral vision), the observer is slower and less accurate to detect an item they are searching for.

But the players here were indeed the entire sample.

The great hall remained silent for a long time, and a sob could be heard from somewhere in the corner. This sob seemed like it would ignite the atmosphere—if Shu Jun hadn’t asked everyone to put away their weapons beforehand, there might have been even more intense reactions. Some had already attempted to activate their abilities to destroy something, but unfortunately, under Shu Jun’s “Suppression”, the surrounding erosion remained silent, without any resonant response.

“I understand everyone’s feelings,” Shu Jun said calmly, “but you must know the truth—due to the Reunion Festival, the command center led by Zhu Sheng has decided to destroy us. I can’t lead you to fight with your eyes closed.”

“Most of you here are under 26 years old. Although the lifespan limitation sounds horrifying, we still have time. As long as we achieve peace as soon as possible, the birth of a treatment plan is inevitable. Look at me. I have also been fortunate enough to survive—I will use all my strength to ensure that you survive.”

People were still shocked and dazed, unable to recover for the most part.

“I can assure you, first of all, that in the time to come, you won’t need to fight against the Erosion Swamps or advanced mutant beasts. As for the next phase of resistance, we already have plans and will discuss them with the team captains.”

“If these are not enough to convince you, you can wait for the ‘official’ response. If this is a virtual world, they won’t be troubled by a loss of communication and will surely handle it promptly.”

Believers and non-believers, though all in a daze, felt a sigh of relief at his words.

Seizing the opportunity, Shu Jun continued, “Lastly, let me introduce you to these two—Yu Jin, the leader of the settlement, has helped many teams as an NPC known as ‘One Eye’. And this is Smoke, who has often discussed tactics with me before. The members of the Blackbirds should remember him… They are both humans, but they have long fought for our safety and rights. We are not alone.”

In moments of despair, the most dangerous thing was indiscriminate hatred that saw things in black and white. If not handled properly, this anger could easily turn into racial conflict. Shu Jun didn’t understand things like managing economics, but he had led the team for years and understood a bit about people’s hearts.

He didn’t expect to eliminate the hatred, but he could narrow its scope in advance.

Yu Jin had never seen such a situation before, and after being pushed onto the stage by Shu Jun, he couldn’t even speak coherently. Smoke, experienced and powerful, managed to calm the restless atmosphere considerably. He wore a mask himself, looking like a high-ranking figure from somewhere.

In this way, Shu Jun busied himself for a long time to the point his head became numb with fatigue. Fortunately, the speech ended, and not many people collapsed—captains who were mentally prepared took up the responsibility and started gathering their teams. Acquaintances huddled together, comforting each other, and the situation didn’t descend into chaos.

“These people—Hu Yan should pay special attention to them.” An hour later, Shu Jun was lying horizontally in a liquid tank, muttering to himself. “Does Dr. Ai know how to provide psychological counseling?”

“She only causes psychological problems in normal people,” Zhu Yanchen calmly replied, putting on medical gloves.

Considering that all the patients had been transferred to the underground base, Ai Xiaoxiao had brought all the examination equipment along. With the synthetic humans completely escaping and Y City suffering from the Erosion Storm and was now under martial law, she boldly stayed in the underground base. It wasn’t until today that all the examination equipment was finally adjusted and officially put into use.

Dr. Ai had taken on the task of helping the synthetic humans and studied it more diligently than anyone else. She didn’t even bother to take care of her appearance, running around the medical area disheveled. She practically ate and slept in her own research room, unable to be pulled away by anything.

But compared to Shu Jun, she was more interested in Monday—

“Mr. Shu, you must have a thorough physical examination, and there’s no way to avoid touching you. I’m afraid someone will get jealous,” Dr. Ai threw Shu Jun to Zhu Yanchen and took Monday away. “Anyway, everything is available here. Surname Zhu, you take care of it yourself.”

In front of Zhu Yanchen, Shu Jun felt completely at ease taking off his clothes. There were no outsiders, and they had seen everything they needed to see, so there was nothing new to see.

He lay flat in the liquid tank, looking at Zhu Yanchen, who was wearing a white coat. When they first met, the man’s skin was so pale that it resembled fabric, but now it had a healthy glow, much more pleasing to the eye.

Soaking in the cool and slimy solution, Shu Jun felt a long-lost sense of relaxation. Zhu Yanchen’s movements to take blood samples and tissue samples were very gentle. They chatted aimlessly as they went along, and Shu Jun almost fell asleep.

“Speaking of psychological counseling, Xia Liang is very good at comforting people.” Seeing Shu Jun gradually sinking deeper into the tank with a gurgling sound, Zhu Yanchen took the initiative to speak. His fingertips traced over Shu Jun’s bare chest and then followed his collarbone upward. Shu Jun suddenly woke up.

Indeed, Xia Liang had an endearing appearance, and her outward personality was gentle and harmless. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as carefree as Ai Xiaoxiao and had to stay in Y City for now.

“She’s not here, so someone has to do this job.” Shu Jun frowned. “It’s difficult to bring someone like Luo Duan back to normal, but many people are just temporarily fixated and can still be persuaded.”

“What will you do if you really can’t persuade them?” Zhu Yanchen asked calmly.

He slightly bent over and looked directly into Shu Jun’s eyes.

“I don’t expect to persuade everyone back. For some people, living like this is more painful than death.” Shu Jun sighed repeatedly. “I just want… everyone to have a chance to consider it carefully.”

“I’ve talked to Ai Xiaoxiao.” Zhu Yanchen lowered his voice. “She still has over a dozen empty hibernation pods. Although they can’t synchronize with the ‘other side’ since it’s far from Y City, it’s still possible to maintain the current state using existing data… If someone really wants to collapse, we can let them enter and take a break.”

“You truly are my Chief Strategist.” Shu Jun extended his arm, covered in numerous wires, and hooked Zhu Yanchen’s nape, kissing him on the corner of his mouth. “I’ll go talk to Hu Yan later.”

Zhu Yanchen stiffened from the kiss, and he furrowed his brows in thought for a few seconds before earnestly returning the kiss to Shu Jun’s lips. Marshal Zhu’s actions were careful and cautious, as if afraid of being seen by the goddess of fate.

Shu Jun found Zhu Yanchen’s actions amusing and simply grabbed hold of Zhu Yanchen’s collar, turning the light kiss into a deep one. The pristine white uniform was easily scratched by his sharp claws, leaving a few visible marks.

Zhu Yanchen’s hand stroked Shu Jun’s waist, and the warmth transmitted through the gloves was scorching.

“Hey, surname Zhu, do you have any of Shu Jun’s…Sss.”

Ai Xiaoxiao pushed the door open and then took a sharp breath of cold air. “You two, tsk, you two sure know how to have fun, ah?”

Forget about the goddess of fate; when they kissed, neither of them wanted to let go, not even keeping it a secret from Dr. Ai.

Seeing Ai Xiaoxiao enter, the two immediately separated. Zhu Yanchen straightened his collar, still wearing a serious expression. Ai Xiaoxiao looked him up and down and then let out a loud whistle. “I’m not in the mood to care about your affairs. Shu Jun’s blood sample should be shared with me. I’ve made some discoveries.”

She didn’t close the door tightly, and from the gap, the mournful cry of Monday could be heard, along with a series of gurgling bubbles.

Zhu Yanchen walked to the experiment table, took a small tube of blood, and handed it to Ai Xiaoxiao. Ever since Shu Jun fused 100% with the Erosion Swamp, his blood remained red even when it was outside of his body for a long time.

Ai Xiaoxiao had obviously noticed this as well, and she raised an eyebrow at the test tube. “What are the examination results? If it’s convenient, give me a copy too.”

“The Erosion Swamp has completely fused with his cells.” The pressure of treating synthetic humans was on Ai Xiaoxiao, and Zhu Yanchen didn’t refuse. “Different from the mimetic cells in my body, the Erosion Swamp has modified his healthy cells, truly participating in the internal circulation.”

“…Hmm.” Ai Xiaoxiao glanced at Shu Jun’s examination data and scratched her disheveled long hair. “But based on the data alone, he’s a complete Erosion Swamp, just with a unique form. Zhu Yanchen, you have some interesting taste, don’t you?”

A human and an Erosion Swamp kissing—she had never seen that before. Perhaps that’s the courage of an immune person.

“Thank you,” Zhu Yanchen answered calmly.

“I wasn’t complimenting you.”

“I know.”

“…” Ai Xiaoxiao glanced at Zhu Yanchen’s hand resting on Shu Jun’s back and rolled her eyes. “Forget it, it’s none of my business.”

“Let’s continue.” When Ai Xiaoxiao left, Zhu Yanchen gently pressed Shu Jun’s chest with one hand, guiding him back into the liquid tank.

“Continue the examination or continue kissing?” Shu Jun raised an eyebrow.

“The examination.” Zhu Yanchen wore a serious expression. “Our schedule is full, and we can’t delay any further.”

Then, he took out a small notebook, scribbled and drew for a while, and looked up earnestly. “There’s been too much going on lately, and you must maintain regular and sufficient rest. Excluding sleep time, I can allocate thirty minutes for a serious kiss with you… after the examination. Is that okay?”

Marshal Zhu asked very seriously, yet cautiously.

Shu Jun supported himself on the liquid tank and laughed loudly. “Do we need a special arrangement for that? A’Yan, why do you become so stubborn when it comes to your own matters? Half an hour? Aren’t you afraid of getting tired of kissing?”

“Never tired,” Zhu Yanchen whispered softly.

Shu Jun paused and his eyes gradually softened. “Alright.”

In the following days, Y City continued to recover its internal construction and only sent out a few scouts to the various settlements. The people from the Old Fourth were keeping a close eye on them, blending in with the residents and spreading some true and false information, causing the scouts to wander aimlessly like headless flies.

It was unclear whether they were still digesting the truth, but the players’ emotions remained relatively stable. Shu Jun would go out to hunt some mutant beasts and use “Suppression” to disperse the erosion, making jerky out of them to serve as rations. However, even so, the mouths of thirty thousand people couldn’t be filled, and resources were gradually nearing depletion.

Shu Jun decisively moved on to the next step, having Yu Jin bring down some trusted human confidants to interact with the players. Afterward, these thirty thousand people would have to be relocated in batches. If they attacked and shouted for violence upon seeing humans, it would be like sending themselves as food to Zhu Sheng.

But as they had anticipated, conflicts still erupted.

Yu Jin’s confidants were all naturally deformed young people who couldn’t survive in the city. Most of them were saved by Yu Jin from the brink of death and generally harbored resentment towards the command center, so the likelihood of them betraying them was low.

The Old Fourth engaged in mobile business, but staying for too long would raise suspicions. When the people from the Old Fourth left, these individuals took on the tasks of transporting supplies and repairing the underground base.

However, on the first day the young people entered, the conflict suddenly exploded.

When Shu Jun arrived, both sides were crowded in the wide corridor; one group on each side, with a space in the middle where three people stood.

On the human side stood Yu Jin, who was comforting his subordinates. One of his subordinates was missing a leg, had no neck, and half of his face was buried in his shoulder, making for a rather eerie sight.

Yu Jin was sitting in the middle of the corridor, his crutch thrown far away. It was clearly knocked over by someone on purpose.

Shu Jun recognized the people on the players’ side. On the day he announced the truth, that young man had been sitting alone in the corner with a clear expression of hatred on his face. There were many people gathered behind him; most of them with a satisfied look. Further away, the players watched the commotion with indifference, showing no intention of intervening.

Zhu Yanchen sighed and was about to step forward, but his arm was stopped by Shu Jun.

He furrowed his brows and looked at Shu Jun with confusion.

Shu Jun, without blinking, looked at the three people at the center of the commotion, his lips pursed. “Let them continue arguing.”

With that, he turned his head.

“A’Yan, you can’t intervene in this matter. Let me take a good look at how they argue first.”

“What if the situation worsens…” Yu Jin’s people weren’t military personnel. They only voluntarily followed Yu Jin in their daily lives and didn’t have much sentiment towards the players. Even though Zhu Yanchen knew they disliked the United Government, he still couldn’t rest assured.

“If the situation worsens, we can intervene in time. By then, I, as their leader, will go and apologize, even kneel and make amends if necessary.” Shu Jun stared ahead, his gray-white eyes emitting a faint light in the dimness. “Until then, we need to keep a close eye on it.”

He wanted to see how the first “small-scale war” would erupt.