Despite not wasting even half a second, the hour seed to pass in the blink of an eye. When the last second on the television screen finally reached zero, a line of white letters leaped before everyone's eyes.
"Ti is up, obstruction failed. The 129th new ga launch conference is about to begin."
Everyone's foreheads glistened with a thin layer of sweat in the living room. The heavy panting of soone who hadn't yet adjusted was audible in the room. Everyone had been busy turning the entire town upside down in the past hour. However, aside from themselves, they didn't find a single living person, let alone anything about a new ga launch conference. If they were supposed to search outside the town, the map was almost infinite, and one hour was not enough.
Staring at the white letters, Lin Sanjiu asked softly, "Han Suiping, do you sense any signals?"
One of Han Suiping's arms had long turned into a blackish-green claw. Upon hearing the question, he closed his eyes briefly before shaking his head. "No... The text seems directly called out by so kind of force field through color. It doesn't involve signal transmission."
Lin Sanjiu nodded; she hadn't held much hope in the first place.
The words on the screen changed to, "The 129th ga will start in ten minutes. Players within the ssage radiation range, please proceed imdiately to the elevator at the town's billboard at the town entrance to attend the next ga at the venue located on the first underground floor."
Elevator?
She looked around to find everyone frowning. They had all seen the billboard with the town's na on it, situated at the highway entrance, which they had seen several tis during their search but never noticed an elevator.
Even after the announcent appeared, the ground under the highway billboard was still empty, not looking like there was an elevator at all. Just as everyone looked at each other in confusion, a low friction sound of tal and stone ca from the road ahead. After the road surface slowly split apart, another layer of tal plate was revealed underneath, gradually opening up to reveal a square hole. As everyone gathered around and peered in, they discovered a huge elevator cabin with number buttons and a display screen.
Ji Shanqing was the first to jump in; he looked around and then turned to Lin Sanjiu. "This doesn't look like sothing that appeared after doomsday. Look, there are manufacturer nas and quality inspection dates in the corner. It should have been built by the human society here, but I don't know what it's used for."
"The space is indeed large," Lin Sanjiu said, looking around. All eight of them were standing in the elevator, and there was still plenty of space left in the cabin.
"The notice told us to go to the first underground floor, right?" Louisa asked.
The elevator panel had 9 floor numbers and a brightly lit "G" button. Unlike the usual Ground floor, the G floor they were currently on was the highest surface level. Lin Sanjiu pressed the button several tis and found that only the next level down could be highlighted. Shortly after the overhead door panel closed, the elevator began to descend gradually.
Although it was only one level deep, they unexpectedly stayed in the elevator for four to five minutes, not knowing whether it was because the elevator was too slow or because the depth of descent was astounding. When it finally stabilized, the elevator doors opened.
A man wearing a black top hat and a white mask stood motionless outside the elevator door, his arms crossed in front of his chest as if he had been waiting for a long ti. He was completely covered from head to toe, with no piece of skin or hair visible.
"Welco to the first underground floor," said a buzzy and flat voice emanating from the circular white mask. There was no hint of a welcoming tone. "Please don't be nervous. I am a volunteer of this level, here to help you adapt to entering this ga world."
"He's not a duoluozhong... He's a posthuman," Silvan said softly, frowning.
The man in the white mask nodded, looked toward Silvan, and imdiately stumbled back as if startled. His voice finally beca more human when he said, "Oh, are you... from the Munitions Factory?"
Silvan didn't reply. Recognizing Silvan ant that this man was not only from the Twelve Worlds but also clear-headed and had free will. Could it be that posthumans coming to this world could indeed voluntarily beco volunteers?
The masked volunteer, who seed unwilling to talk more, grumbled a few words, wiped his hands on his pants, and regained his composure. "First of all, congratulations on passing the test of the surface level in a state of ignorance and entering this ga world." He said these words as if he had repeated them countless tis, and as he did so, he stepped aside from the elevator door, revealing a large, empty gray room behind him. "This is where the new ga launch conference will be watched. It's my job to explain the rules of this world to you. Co on, follow ."
This underground space was at least 100 square ters in size. The ceiling, floor, and four walls were smoothly plastered with grey cent. A projector hung from the ceiling, projecting the words "please wait" on one of the walls. The masked volunteer led everyone into the center of the room, took out a remote control, and pressed it, imdiately changing the screen on the wall.
"Counting the surface as the highest level, this world has a total of 10 levels," the volunteer explained, and a diagram was displayed on the wall. "Each area has several underground elevators that can reach the underground floors. Please note that only the surface, the fifth level, and the tenth level are interconnected, and you can freely change areas; the underground spaces on other levels are all independent."
The diagram on the wall displayed sothing like a cross-section of an ant's underground nest. From the diagram, it seed that the area where Lin Sanjiu and others were located covered hundreds of square kiloters, obviously more than just that small town; the individual underground floors of each division were much smaller in area.
"Why would such a construction exist?" Horst asked.
"It involves the cause of this world's doomsday," replied the masked volunteer, changing the content on the wall. "A long ti ago, in a prosperous, peaceful, and balanced human society, a small portion of people began to engage in real-life gas as boredom spread."
Images of green cartoon people appeared on the projection, so turning yellow.
"This small group would set their own rules, establish venues, provide conditions, and carry out large-scale gas in real life. It is said that to make the gas possible, they would even go bankrupt. The participants, initially those in the know and invited, gradually included the unsuspecting general public. For so reason, many who participated in these real-life gas would, after the gas ended, start to actively create their own gas. And the more dangerous the ga, the more appealing it beca."
As the explanation continued, the green cartoon figures turned yellow one by one, and the yellow cartoon people gradually expanded.
What initially seed like a harmless form of entertainnt soon developed into a problem that society could no longer ignore due to the snowballing number of participants. They discovered that the desire to play real-life gas was a symptom of a permanent functional disorder in certain parts of the brain, and normal brains could also exhibit similar symptoms after specific experiences. Although not a virus, it was still referred to as the 'ga virus' for the ease of public understanding of its contagious nature. It caused societal operations to beco inefficient, not to ntion the security and economic issues arising from the diverse content of the gas.
"Couldn't the military and governnt agencies stop it?" Han Suiping asked.
The masked volunteer pressed a button on the remote control. Two groups of yellow cartoon people appeared on the wall, each holding guns, seemingly battling each other. "I was just getting to that. The military units sent to suppress certain large-scale gas ended up infected and initiated their own massive war gas, resulting in tens of thousands of civilian casualties nearby."
"So, these underground facilities are a ans of self-preservation?" Lin Sanjiu said, began to understand.
"Exactly. Since they didn't know why these symptoms appeared or how to prevent or treat them, they couldn't afford the consequences of the ga virus spreading. For instance, small-scale gas requiring just a few people, enough for a family, resulted in cases where only one person in a family survived. The governnt quickly built these large underground facilities to relocate the normal population. With the exception of necessary connections, each area was isolated from the others, preventing the spread of the ga virus in case of an underground incident."
Clearly, the plan did not succeed, leading the world to its current state.
Pointing to a new projection on the wall, the masked volunteer said, "Perhaps due to the Matthew effect, the world seemingly ended before these facilities were fully operational and put to use."
"So, every posthuman that cos to this world has to keep playing gas just as the residents used to?" Ji Shanqing said. "We're not looking to create gas."
The masked volunteer nodded then sighed. "That ans you won't turn into a duoluozhong. However, not being infected doesn't an you won't create gas. Here, after every ga, so posthumans are randomly assigned to launch new gas. In other words, every ga you participate in is designed by other posthumans."
In other words, stopping the ga launch ant preventing other posthumans from launching new gas.
"What about punishnt?" Ji Shanqing said, asking the most critical question. "What happens if we don't cooperate?"
"When it's your turn, nothing will happen if you don't set up a ga. You'll just be pulled into other people's gas next ti," the masked volunteer said indifferently. "You might say, wouldn't it be better if everyone didn't set up gas? But that's almost impossible. Because whoever sets up a ga can be exempt from the obligation to participate in the next ga and receive so of the supplies they requested as rewards. Everyone has to survive without any accidents for 14 months, and the fewer gas you participate in during these 14 months, the higher your chances of survival. If you don't set up a ga, others will, so in the end, everyone hopes they can set it up themselves. If possible, they would even scramble for this opportunity."
'This is... what's known as the prisoner's dilemma, isn't it?' Lin Sanjiu thought.
Silvan suddenly turned to look at the volunteer. "This round of the ga is about to start, and you're just a volunteer here, not looking like you're going to participate in the ga. So, you've set up gas before, haven't you? Being a volunteer seems to be what happens after you're exempt from the ga, right?"
The masked volunteer reached up to touch his neck, hidden by his collar.
"You're indeed very quick-witted. I apologize. I indeed designed the Blue Wall Watcher."
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