185: Chapter 185 Whitelist

Li Ming climbed out of the tank and waved his hand. The Viper drove forward on its own for a short distance and came to a stop in the center of the military camp.

"Commander, no other items of value were found in the rest of the camp, only these."

Dark Realm climbed out and handed him a rifle.

"Uh... this is..."

"A Lee-Enfield. But for some reason, its handguard has extremely intricate decorations, almost like some kind of ritual."

"Every single one of them?"

"Every single one," Dark Realm replied. "Additionally, there is a warehouse in the core area that is locked. Out of caution, I did not attempt to open it directly."

"Hmm. How exactly is it locked?"

"An encrypted metal door on a semi-buried structure. It looks like it's opened with something like an ID card, but based on my observations, the power is out."

"Then there's no other way. Break it down."

"Understood, Commander."

Dark Realm deployed her rigging. "Please wait here; the blast radius will be quite large."

"Understood."

A moment later.

BOOM!!

"Commander? What's the situation on your end?" Béarn's voice came through.

"It's nothing, *cough cough*... I just had Dark Realm help me break down a door."

"...Are you sure you had to use the main battery directly?!"

"It's fine. If the things inside get broken, they get broken. It's no big deal."

"Commander, this is a profanation of knowledge!"

"Abba abba."

"Commander!!"

Cutting off the communication with Béarn, Li Ming winked at Dark Realm.

Dark Realm stood in front of him... and then Li Ming simply picked her up.

"Commander, do you wish to experience the unique service of an out-of-body soul experience again?"

"Abba abba."

"..." Dark Realm felt a hint of helplessness.

He set Dark Realm down and followed her to the blasted-open warehouse door.

Dark Realm took out a match and was about to throw it in when she saw that Li Ming had already walked in on his own.

"Commander!..."

"What are you afraid of? It won't kill me," Li Ming replied, drawing his saber and squeezing inside with a flashlight in his other hand.

"Ugh..."

She quickly followed, walking down the passage with him.

The passage was already dilapidated, and after a violent explosion, it felt like it could collapse at any moment.

Li Ming observed the surrounding walls with his flashlight and found various types of engravings there.

He stepped forward to examine them closely; they looked like various magic circles... or something similar?

"What is this? Are they planning some religious ritual?" Li Ming wondered, watching as these magic circles were connected by engraved lines, extending all the way into the depths.

Exchanging a glance with Dark Realm, she raised her scythe and took the lead, while Li Ming followed behind.

"By the way, why is Dark Realm here too?"

"Um... Her Excellency Elizabeth arranged for me to come."

"Elizabeth Meta... how has she been lately?"

"She is currently recovering from injuries."

"Recovering?"

"She attempted to find your location through clairvoyance and suffered a backlash."

"Uh... why would she be backlashed by me...?"

"It was an indiscriminate force majeure; it doesn't seem to have come from you personally."

"Logic, can you explain?"

"It is possible that the The Governing Body's filtering unit shielded your existential projection, applying maximum filtering and countermeasures against all high-dimensional interference."

"...Is there no whitelist?"

"Usually there is, but in your case, there are none at all to avoid accidents. Furthermore, there is no doubt that her clearance level is insufficient; she is not on our whitelist authorization list."

"Uh..."

"I know it's hard to understand, but you must realize you aren't the only one receiving this treatment," Logic replied. "In fact, we are very explicit about using harmful warnings. Therefore, theoretically, anyone who attempts multiple times after our countermeasure is defaulted as a high-threat target, and we will directly execute a cross-dimensional physical strike."

"Impressive."

Li Ming looked at Dark Realm, who continued moving forward with her back to him. "Then Logic, why did Memphis and Helena before..."

"They found your consciousness through a brute-force search. Contacting you here—and if it's not hostile contact—will not trigger the alarm."

"I see... then it looks like Elizabeth was actually quite... lucky."

If it were Logic, if it really wanted to hit someone, whether it was Elizabeth's airborne Queen's Light train or the Astral Express, it would probably shoot them all down...

Shaking his head, Li Ming quickened his pace, following closely behind Dark Realm.

The magic circles around them seemed to become denser. At some point, they had spread to the ceiling and the floor.

"Commander, there seems to be a space ahead. We might be almost there."

"I understand." Li Ming suppressed his other thoughts and focused on what lay ahead.

There was the sound of wind. It seemed there was normal airflow or a ventilation cycle here, which meant this place was designed for personnel to be present. So...

Reaching the end of the passage, Li Ming raised his flashlight and looked into the distance.

"Uh... what is that?"

"Erm..."

Dark Realm looked at the massive object in the distance and fell into thought.

A giant mask... no, that was only a part of it. From the silhouettes where the light didn't reach, it was a massive thing, and likely humanoid.

"A... suspected mecha?" Dark Realm frowned.

"Why is it mecha again..." Li Ming remembered that flying giant from the Industrial Society and couldn't help but feel a headache. "Am I cursed to keep running into mecha?"

Shifting the direction of the flashlight, Li Ming realized there wasn't just one mecha, but...

A total of twelve.

"Holy..." Li Ming felt a literal toothache. "Logic, can you check them out?"

"Received. Nanocloud deployed."

The Nanocloud emerged from Li Ming's clothes and flew toward one of the mecha.

"The outer shell is standard armored steel, no issues there. Internal components... not in the local database?" Logic was somewhat surprised. "Commander, it might be an unknown material or an unrecorded alloy. I can find common metallic elements in its components, but there's also an element I've never seen before, to the point that the Nanocloud cannot directly decompose it. However, I have recorded the general internal structure. Next, we can dispatch... Behind you!"

"Huh?"

Li Ming ducked and looked back, only to find that the magic circles outside had lit up at some unknown time, extending continuously toward the mecha.

"Dark Realm!"

"Commander, withdraw first." Dark Realm hoisted Li Ming onto her shoulder and dashed outward at a speed he could hardly imagine.

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