Chapter 351: Original text - 323 Running Away Modified:
Chapter 431 of "Player Reload" starts here: Chapter 351: Original text: Chapter 323 Running Away Modified:Real Earth, South Pacific, ten kilometers above... Discover what happens next!
Chapter 351: Original text: Chapter 323 Running Away Modified:Real Earth, South Pacific, ten kilometers above sea level.
A pristine airship adorned with the laurel emblem sailed through the clouds, measuring nearly 450 meters in length, vastly surpassing the largest airship in human history, the Hindenburg, and the Ford-class aircraft carrier.
Officially, this airship, codenamed , belonged to a Singapore-registered multinational tourism company, but in reality, it served as the emergency response command center for the Global Supernatural Alliance GOC’s Pacific area.
Equipped with two nuclear reactors, active phased array radar, and six hundred universal missile launch units, it had the confidence to hunt down sea monsters like Radon from Godzilla or ocean monsters from Pacific Rim if they did appear.
"Detected supernatural energy fluctuations in Papua Bay, Papua New Guinea, danger level green, the Oracle System estimates it as an oceanic aberrant creature, a bounty has been issued on the forum and to the Ocean Hunting Association."
"Detected supernatural energy fluctuations on Mindoro Island, Philippines, danger level yellow, the Oracle System estimates it as a low-level Resentful Spirit, the local guilds have been notified to handle it."
In the busy bridge, GOC employees in uniforms sat at their computer desks, sipping coffee and munching on sandwiches, handling daily affairs with an atmosphere of leisure akin to customer service work.
Since GOC’s expansion, the handling of all matters had been streamlined.
Ordinary anomalous incidents were reported directly to local governments and civilian guilds. Those slightly more troublesome would see bounty postings on the forum or contact corporations like Prometheus.
Only those anomalous incidents that local governments and guilds were utterly incapable of resolving would prompt GOC to dispatch personnel personally.
In the emergency response command center, the work pressure was light, the atmosphere leisurely,
and with sufficient internal space on the airship, the break room behind the bridge even featured a pool table, gym equipment, jukebox, and a bar counter.
It emphasized the idea of minimal tasks, high pay, and excellent benefits, evoking a similar vibe to official employees of internet giants during economic prosperity — TVCs (temporary workers, vendors, contract employees) could only be considered second-class citizens, working longer hours for lower pay.
"Every Sha-la-la-la, Every Wo-o-wo-o~"
At noon, a classic old tune familiar to the ears played from the broadcast, and the GOC employees at their workstations stood up, ready to swap shifts and head to the cafeteria for lunch.
Suddenly...
"Detected supernatural energy fluctuation! Danger level black!!"
After a brief silence, the entire bridge erupted like a boiling pot, black being the highest danger level, capable of causing damage akin to a high-yield nuclear airburst if occurring in populated areas.
"Everyone calm down!"
The person in charge of the bridge shouted loudly, turning to stare at the operator with a calm demeanor: "Report the exact location."
"Latitude 9°32’46", Longitude 138°07’52", located on Kolonie Island in the Federated States of Micronesia."
Fortunately, the Federated States of Micronesia is an island country in the central Pacific Ocean, situated between the Philippines and Guam, with a total population of 104,800.
And Kolonie Island is isolated offshore, so even if a volcanic eruption-level anomaly occurs, the damage wouldn’t be exorbitantly unbearable.
After overcoming the initial chaos, the GOC employees quickly demonstrated their professionalism and composure.
Some contacted nearby guilds, others hacked into local networks, or controlled near-Earth orbit satellites, obtaining real-time images of the area.
A kilometer-high tower, devoid of any windows, abruptly stood in Kolonie Island’s shallow beach in an extremely conspicuous way.
Unaware local islanders looked at the sudden appearance of the tower and the equally bewildered players beneath it with shock and fear.
"Wait, are they the group undertaking the mission?"
The person in charge stared closely at the screen image, immediately realizing the connection, and shouted: "Prepare to activate the ultra-long-range teleportation array, we’re going over now!"
Behind the mission was GOC facilitating connections, and the person in charge knew there was a complex backdrop involving the first deep interaction between the Otherworld and Earth.
After four minutes of preparation, the teleportation array quietly activated, with the Laurel airship rapidly twisting and deforming, collapsing into a tiny dot along with everything inside.
Reappearing, it had already crossed two thousand kilometers, arriving directly a kilometer above Kolonie Island.
Electronic suppression equipment on the airship operated at full capacity, cutting off all island communications to prevent any videos or photos from leaking online.
Simultaneously, the lower tier of the airship launched rows of drop pods, which landed vertically on the island’s surface with a series of thunderous crashes.
Heavily armed GOC operatives pushed open the drop pod hatch, advancing towards the tower on the shallow beach, using memory erasers disguised as tape recorders on any encountered islanders.
Upon reaching the tower, players led by Talisman Nail had already been waiting on the beach land.
They were equally bewildered; from their perspective, they first heard the task completion prompt from the system, then external scenery dramatically changed. Before they could react, they were teleported from the dark and gloomy Otherworld directly back to Earth.
The entire process was incredibly smooth, like suddenly falling asleep in a math class.
The only good news was that only the tower had teleported over, and the Light Prism Tower outside and the mutated monsters it was combating hadn’t been teleported along.
"...so, this tower is actually a man-made structure from the Otherworld?"
After a brief communication, the expressions of the leading GOC operatives became highly complex. They immediately picked up the intercom to contact the airship, requesting more personnel to descend and seal off the entire island and to quarantine and interrogate every player, ordinary person, and Otherworld native inside the tower.
God knows if there were any Otherworld viruses lingering in the tower. If the virus leaked and globally infected, it would truly be "meeting the Otherworld and enjoying the delicacy."
"Here is a part of the 3D scanned map of the tower interior, you can use this map to explore the tower."
Talisman Nail handed the data to the GOC operatives, paused for a moment, and added with a confused expression: "Originally, this tower was supposed to teleport to an Otherworld extraterrestrial planet, no one knows why it suddenly returned to Earth. For specific details, you can ask Zhao Zijing.
She’s also one of GOC’s people.
Zhao, Zhao?"
Zhao Zijing, who had regained consciousness, sat alone on a nearby reef, reacting only after Talisman Nail called several times.
She looked at the brand-new black USB flash drive in her palm with a complex expression, stood up quietly, and said calmly, "The reason for the tower teleporting to Earth is classified at the highest level, I’m not authorized to disclose it."
No one noticed a small piece of paper stuck to the back of the USB flash drive, printed with two lines in small Songti font —
Since you were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to disturb you. I’ll go ahead, bye.