Five combatants escorted Gu Ya into the pedestrian elevator.
The moment the elevator doors closed, Gu Ya launched his attack.
He quickly seized control of one combatant's brain chip and modified it to become his own.
When the elevator doors opened again, the combatants were escorting the combatant whose chip Gu Ya had seized, walking into darkness.
Meanwhile, Gu Ya entered a secret space.
To find Sa Kuan, he first needed to know whether Sa Kuan had gone into hiding or been captured.
This was not a problem for Gu Ya.
A month prior, Xian Wangchuan had sent Sa Kuan to Shan Hai City, then secretly escorted him hundreds of kilometers outside Hui Ye City.
There, Sa Kuan preserved his physical body in a multi-functional underground coffin-gu, along with oxygen and nutrient fluid, keeping the body alive.
His consciousness, utilizing a consciousness transmission instrument, entered a bionic body.
Controlling a bionic person with nearly infinite physical capabilities, Sa Kuan journeyed on foot for several days and successfully infiltrated Hui Ye City.
Upon arrival in Hui Ye City, Sa Kuan, via the consciousness transmission instrument, parasitized the brain of an "employee" and secretly controlled this "employee" to gather and transmit intelligence.
All he needed to do was find this "employee" to know Sa Kuan's current status.
When Gu Ya emerged from the secret space, the sky had already turned dark.
This time, he walked for a long time, mainly because the city was too large and its layout too complex. Even with the guidance of the [Star Structure Blueprint], he couldn't summon his mecha to travel at high speed.
Furthermore, the insects, meat mountains, and combatants hidden in dark alleys were all controlled by the main brain.
These three escapes might alert the main brain.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Gu Ya chose to proceed cautiously on foot.
Hui Ye City at night was resplendent with dazzling lights, yet it was a dead city.
Not a single monster could be seen in the city, let alone a human figure.
Gu Ya cautiously pushed open a door and entered a small, independent resting room.
On the bed in the resting room lay a gaunt, bizarre humanoid creature.
In the darkness, its head was a large telescope, one that could adjust magnification. Its lower limbs resembled two camera tripod legs, thin and straight.
Gu Ya drifted towards the creature, quickly connected the consciousness helmet to it, and three seconds later, Gu Ya immediately removed the helmet and retreated into the secret space.
"As expected, Sa Kuan's consciousness has vanished," Gu Ya murmured.
To prevent the other party from capturing his physical body, Sa Kuan's consciousness instrument was one-way; after control, it could not return to the physical body.
The only two instruments he carried were one for the bionic person and the other for this "employee."
"And there are three places in the city where prisoners are held."
"One is called the 'Furnace,' which should be where monsters are reprocessed."
"The second place is called the 'Catalyst Field,' a testing base where individuals captured as Black Stars from around the world are confined and modified."
"The third place, located in the mist-shrouded central district of the city, is called the 'External Technology Department'."
"Since this employee was not recaptured into the Furnace, it's highly probable that Sa Kuan's consciousness, after being apprehended, was sent to the Catalyst Field."
Without delay, Gu Ya summoned Lei Bao Zhao Xing and followed the [Star Structure Blueprint].
"If Sa Kuan is modified or interrogated, with Black Star technology, he wouldn't be able to keep secrets."
After multiple failed attempts to find him, Gu Ya finally emerged from the secret space the next morning.
Although the process was extremely time-consuming, the result was correct. Gu Ya successfully infiltrated the Catalyst Field.
Cries of grief, wails, and terrified screams, along with the deafening noise of various instruments operating, immediately flooded his ears.
There was no one here,
yet Gu Ya constantly felt an immense pressure bearing down on him.
It was as if every word and action was being monitored.
This feeling made even the steadfast Gu Ya contemplate escape.
Enduring the various noises and the inexplicable pressure, Gu Ya moved cautiously along the wall. At the end of the corridor, he pushed open the metal door of the main control room.
It was still empty inside,
but the control units and monitoring instruments for various areas were operating normally.
Using a fabricated "monster" disguise, he fooled the surveillance instruments suspended overhead.
Gu Ya approached the control unit, quickly accessed information on all confined individuals, and found the roster of prisoners admitted within the last six days.
Among the numerous names, a prisoner codenamed "Wandering Program No. 003" caught Gu Ya's attention.
Reviewing his information again, the last line read in large characters:
[Transferred to External Technology Department]
"Wandering Program. This term fits the characteristic of Sa Kuan, who exists in a consciousness state," Gu Ya murmured.
After all, the ultimate principle of the consciousness transmission instrument was to convert human consciousness into a program of tens of millions of lines of code, a process Gu Ya had named "Integral Code."
And reconstructing code into human consciousness through the instrument was called "Inverse Transformation."
Currently, another factor caused Gu Ya suspicion and unease. If Black Star could capture Sa Kuan's consciousness, it meant they also possessed the technology for consciousness transmission.
In their eyes, consciousness was equally exposed.
"I can't wait any longer. All targets point to the city's central area. I must go investigate."
Just as Gu Ya was about to retreat, he suddenly felt fearful, icy gazes directed at him from behind.
Without time to think, Gu Ya immediately opened his secret space, but a pair of large hands firmly grasped him.
"Patrol Officer 854756, what are you doing in the control room?" a somewhat clumsy voice came from behind.
With his hands held by the large hands, Gu Ya was flung backward, coming face-to-face with the creature behind him.
Gu Ya broke out in a cold sweat!
This thing had only a head, and at the positions of its ears were two soft, rope-like arms!
The large head held Gu Ya in its hands and said blankly, "Hmm? Your appearance is very strange..."
Gu Ya suppressed the fear in his heart and calmly stated, "I just had my body reshaped in the Furnace."
"No, you're lying. You don't have the authority to access the catalytic boiler." The large head shook gently, denying it.
Seeing that deception wouldn't work, Gu Ya decided he didn't need to waste any more words.
Two crimson beam swords emerged from the back of the monster's large hands.
In an instant, two incredibly traced crimson ribbons sliced through the large hands.
Gu Ya, wielding the dual swords, charged forward, blinding the monster's eyes and cleanly severing its arms.
The large head was about to let out an alarm cry when it found itself split perfectly down the middle, like a cut tomato, falling to either side.
"You look better dead like this," Gu Ya said, disdainfully flicking the charred flesh from his beam swords before retreating into the secret space.
Where Gu Ya had disappeared, a red infrared dot emitted by a surveillance instrument on the ceiling also gradually vanished.
Walking in the secret space,
Gu Ya repeatedly replayed his experiences since entering the city.
Undoubtedly, Hui Ye City's management had discovered the anomaly.
But Gu Ya was certain that the main brain had not yet been alerted.
Otherwise, Gu Ya would have been wanted city-wide.
"If that's the case, I must act even faster. Head directly to the city's central area and find the External Technology Department."
"All secrets are within the External Technology Department."
"Research into alien technology, the Wall of Truth, Xu Jie, Sa Kuan, and that Black Star scientist who noticed me, Hui Ye Ai Li."
Using the same method of searching and exploration, Gu Ya found it repeatedly effective.
He infiltrated the city's central area from the outskirts and used [Code Tampering] and [Star Structure Blueprint] to find the map of the central area.
When Gu Ya emerged from the secret space again, above a giant archway, the neon characters [External Technology Department] flickered.
After a cold glance at the characters, Gu Ya stepped forward, preparing to infiltrate.
Suddenly, a strange yet somewhat familiar female voice came from behind him.
The voice held only surprise, no malice.
"Gu... Gu Ya?!"
Gu Ya turned around quickly, and just as he saw the speaker's face,
the person grabbed Gu Ya and pulled him into a nearby no-surveillance zone.
"How did you suddenly appear here?"