Only the Acknowledged Are Prisoners

As it turned out, technological sophistication and combat capability were two entirely different matters. Leading Team A toward the crash site, Zheng Hao quickly made contact with the group of Enterprise soldiers, and an intense firefight erupted almost immediately. In that very instant, Zheng Hao felt a distinct sense of strain. These people were strong! Visibly, undeniably strong! Team B's smooth progress had given him a false impression of the situation—an erroneous assumption he never should have made—that their superior gear would allow them to dispatch these enemies with ease and make off with the anomalous mother entity without anyone being the wiser. Yet Team B's advantage had stemmed entirely from having the upper hand in numbers: six against three, with a sniper providing fire support from outside the battle zone. On his side, the situation was completely different. The opposing soldiers fanned out in three-man fireteams, maintaining a steady defensive line with alternating fire, and before he knew it, an enemy squad was already maneuvering around his flank. Their tactical execution was so smooth it flowed like water, devoid of the slightest pause or hesitation. Their coordination was terrifyingly seamless! An evenly matched stalemate took a sharp downturn the moment one of his men was killed. The gunfire cracking from all directions made Zheng Hao feel as if he were fighting not a ragtag band of ten skirmishers, but an impeccably trained military unit. These people were definitely not ordinary Enterprise employees! They were professional soldiers! Just as his team were specialists at ruin exploration, these people were seasoned professionals when it came to warfare! "Captain! Their firepower is way too heavy! We can't hold out much longer on our own—!" A teammate shot in the leg screamed in terror, spraying his rifle toward a distant dirt mound in a desperate bid to suppress the advancing soldiers. His volley had not even lasted three seconds when a high-explosive rocket propelled by an RPG streaked forward with a thin trail of flame, slamming directly into the mound before him. The blast wave and shrapnel slammed into his chest simultaneously, blowing him backward out from behind cover. He hit the ground like a limp rag, utterly unconscious. "Liangping! Fuck!" Seeing another teammate go down, Zheng Hao's eyes turned bloodshot. He slammed his fist hard into the dirt, utterly helpless. The voice of Team B's deputy leader crackled over the comms. "Captain, the mother entity mutated! More than a dozen tendrils sprouted from its body and entangled the team leader! Zhao Xiao's been captured too... We need backup!" Seven against three! They had already eliminated one enemy, yet they were still wiped out! Although he still had Team C standing by with the tracked vehicle, he knew that even committing their last reserve would accomplish nothing. Perhaps the moment the Swarm had failed to achieve its objective, he should have ordered an immediate retreat... These people were clearly not enemies they could handle! Zheng Hao gritted his teeth, finally squeezing the words past his lips. "Retreat!" *** Having suffered four casualties, the Academy squad raiding the crash site finally seemed to realize they had kicked an iron plate. "They're retreating," Kuang Feng's voice came through the comm channel. Spectating from above through his drone's camera, he had a panoramic view of the enemy's movements. Taking aim through the grayish-white smoke ahead, Killing Dagger leaned against the cover and turned toward Lao Bai beside him, brimming with eagerness. "Boss, should we chase them down?" He really wanted to pursue. These guys were even weaker than expected; letting them get away without looting them felt like a massive waste. Lao Bai pondered for a moment before replying, "No need. The mission comes first." The enemy vehicles were only five kilometers away. According to Kuang Feng's assessment, they looked neither like tanks nor rocket launchers, but rather oversized SUVs designed to traverse marshland terrain. Their identity as Academy personnel was self-evident. Judging by the gear they carried, their loadouts were meant for dealing with mutants and xenotypes rather than human combatants, which suggested this squad was most likely a "scientific expedition." Taking them out wouldn't be difficult, but they were too close to the Wandering Marsh. Backing them into a corner might not do anyone any favors. Teaching them a lesson was enough. As a corps commander, he had more factors to weigh. Right now, the Administrator's mission was top priority, and they needed to avoid unnecessary complications. All Good Names Taken by Dogs asked, "What if they come back?" Lao Bai gestured with his chin toward the two people lying half-dead on the ground nearby. "Don't we have prisoners right here? Patch them up... Oh, and log off for a moment to update our mission status on the official website." Killing Dagger lowered his rifle with a resigned sigh and flicked the safety on. "Alright, fine." The battle transitioned into the mop-up phase. Of the four Academy personnel left behind, only two were dead: one bioroid and one cyborg. Some of their parts could be salvaged. The guy who had taken the RPG blast had miraculously survived, merely knocked unconscious, which left the players marveling in disbelief. Apart from him, there was a female surveyor who had taken rounds to the abdomen and right leg, leaving her basically immobilized. The Orca transport carried medical kits manufactured by the Kangmao Group of Ideal City, complete with hemostatic spray, accelerated-healing bandages, and oral hematopoiesis stimulants. Lao Bai asked Sun Ze for several medkits, distributed a few to his teammates, and walked over to the female surveyor propped against a crooked tree. Watching the man approach, Chen Yutong's weak breathing turned rapid. She shrank back in terror, only to gasp sharply as the movement tore at her wounds. Staring at the towering, burly figure before her, she asked in a trembling voice, "What... what do you want with me...?" Almost everyone across the entire planet—regardless of whether they were human—viewed Academy personnel as valuable prizes. Even those with no interest in their knowledge could fetch a handsome sum selling their bionic prosthetics. She had heard horrific tales about the fates of researchers captured by other factions, but she had never imagined that one day she would find herself in the same predicament. She dared not even imagine what would happen next... Yet the man before her did nothing to harm her. "I'm here to bandage your wounds, or you can do it yourself." "Bandage them?" Chen Yutong eyed him with undisguised suspicion. "Why... why are you saving me?" Lao Bai answered casually, "No special reason. Our army doesn't kill prisoners." Except for mutants and marauders who boiled people in oil pots, that is. He could only blame the game for being too realistic; sometimes he couldn't help a slip of the trigger. In reality, ever since the mines in Qingshi County had opened, they rarely executed marauders anymore, though mutants remained shoot-on-sight. Leaders who refused to surrender were hanged for public display, while low-level grunts were mostly sentenced to several centuries of hard labor based on victim testimonies. As for the raw materials feeding the downstream production of active substances and nutrient paste, they had largely transitioned to using fruiting bodies of mutant slime mold. Although the conversion rate was lower, they were abundant and dirt cheap. Chen Yutong stared blankly at the man in power armor. Since when did the Enterprise have such a policy? Seeing that she still had the breath to talk, Lao Bai tossed the medkit beside her. "Since you can still move, I won't bother helping." Wearing power armor made fine motor control rather difficult. Chen Yutong hesitated repeatedly before reaching for the medkit. Lowering her head, she murmured a faint "Thank you." Lao Bai paid it no mind. After checking the condition of the other captive nearby, he walked straight out of the makeshift perimeter. The squad members who had gone to support Group 5 had returned. Besides the pilot and "his SSSR-grade combat pet," they had brought back a sniper with a mouthful of dirt and a bioroid bound tightly like a bundle. "These guys... really are from the Academy." Gazing at the expressionless bioroid, Sun Ze muttered under his breath with a look of surprise. Overhearing this, Lao Bai looked curiously at the pilot. "How can you tell?" Sun Ze chuckled. "That's easy. Kangmao Group's bioroids are far more advanced than theirs." Lao Bai was taken aback. He had never seen the Enterprise's bioroids in action on the battlefield; this was their first direct clash with one. More advanced than the Academy's... Was that really true? Xuan Feng lay on the ground without an expression, completely indifferent to such petty taunts. By contrast, Zhao Xiao, standing off to the side, reacted fiercely. The moment he heard someone mocking Academy technology—and using the Enterprise as a standard of comparison, no less—he bristled like a rabbit whose tail had been stepped on. Spitting out a mouthful of dirt, he glared at the arrogant pilot. "Bullshit! How the hell are you more advanced than us?!" "How aren't we?" Sun Ze glanced at him twice and couldn't hold back a laugh. In a mocking tone, he continued, "You can't even code an emotion-simulation protocol or facial-adjustment plugin, and you dare talk about advancement?" "Keep spouting bullshit! Who told you we couldn't make them? Your AI core technology was stolen from us in the first place!" Zhao Xiao argued, his face flushed red with indignation. "We just can't be bothered wasting time on useless gimmicks." What was the point of programming fancy facial expressions onto a machine?! Wasn't it enough that a bioroid could get the job done?! Sun Ze picked at his ear, unimpressed. "Stolen, huh... That's ancient history from God knows how many decades ago. The Endpoint Cloud has been updated through over a dozen major versions, and you're still obsessing over it. Besides, if you want to get technical, that AI core was People's Federation technology. You were merely safekeeping it temporarily at best—how did it suddenly become yours?" Though rarely mentioned, events from a century and a half ago were hardly a secret in Ideal City; anyone who cared to spend a little time could pull up declassified mission archives on the Endpoint Cloud. Even having browsed them out of curiosity, he had no interest in delving into the past. The East Coast research institute had originally been funded by the Department of Production. The water, electricity, food, research consumables, and everyday goods had all been provided by them; their forebears had simply reclaimed what was rightfully theirs. Looking at the bigger picture, the collapse of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee wasn't the fault of any single party. Like an ancient tree, it had simply reached the natural end of its life cycle. He believed that even without the Wilantes and the long winter, other irreconcilable differences would have eventually driven apart factions that were never truly aligned. Perhaps one day, Ideal City too would fade into the river of history, just like the once-flourishing People's Federation. Frankly, he didn't care. Even the sun wasn't eternal, so how could mere mortals speak of forever? He had no desire to crane his neck staring too far ahead, nor did he want to twist his neck looking backward. The path beneath his feet right now suited him just fine. Once he returned to Ideal City, he would be able to brag on the Endpoint Cloud—or rather, share a slice of his new life. On this mission, he had not only shared a flight with the legendary Burning Corps, but he had also fallen out of the sky with them. Wasn't that way more impressive than scoring 2,000 points in *Battle Royale*? Still, the captive's attitude rubbed him the wrong way. He turned toward Lao Bai, who was enjoying the show. "Can I kick him a couple of times?" Since he hadn't made the capture himself, he asked out of courtesy. Lao Bai shrugged and grinned. "We aren't allowed to mistreat prisoners. But I can untie him for a moment and let you two have a fair fight." Sun Ze shrank back his neck. "Never mind, then." Zhao Xiao had looked eager for a scrap, but seeing his opponent back down so easily, he clicked his tongue in disappointment. Whether intentionally or not, the disparaging click reached Sun Ze's ears, and the two immediately resumed their war of words. Naturally, when it came to slinging insults and passive-aggressive sarcasm, an Enterprise employee who spent years surfing the Endpoint Cloud was far more practiced. Zhao Xiao was left utterly outmatched, his face burning in silent fury. *** Since the aircraft seemed beyond field repairs anyway, the surrounding players watched the drama unfold and chimed in with great interest. Corner Camper: "I think the Enterprise is more advanced! Their bioroids don't just appreciate art, they can even shop and pay for things." "Not necessarily. I think those mantis blades are way cooler. I almost got sliced in half..." Ye Shi mentioned the near-death experience in an offhand tone, then craned his neck to look around before realizing someone was missing. "Wait, I've been meaning to ask—where's Jieyan?" Corner Camper: "Ah, he got wiped again. You only just noticed? Wait, why did I say 'again'?" "Wiped?" Ye Shi blinked, having genuinely missed it earlier. He quickly followed up, "What about Brother Daoju?" Corner Camper gave an embarrassed smile. "He took two bullets to the leg. Back in the reeds, he asked me to put him out of his misery... and told me not to tell anyone." Ye Shi couldn't help exclaiming, "Damn it! What a waste!" Corner Camper smiled sheepishly. "Intelligence-type, you know. Poor physical endurance is normal—give him some grace." Lost Noob: "Hahahahaha!" Kuang Feng: "..." Chen Yutong watched these people with mounting tension. Seeing the two salvaged exoskeletons, she had deduced that they had suffered casualties, but she couldn't comprehend why they were still laughing. What made her even more anxious was Zhao Xiao. The kid had gotten so worked up arguing with the Enterprise employee that his insults were turning nastier by the second. She genuinely worried these people might retaliate against them. The only thing that caught her by surprise was what the man in power armor had said earlier. *Are they not with the Enterprise?* Chen Yutong pondered silently. Then again, regardless of who they were, their mission had clearly failed. Pondering such questions now seemed utterly pointless... In a nearby corner, Luo Yu gently patted Little Yu's head to comfort it. "Alright, don't be sad... That thing isn't organic, so it's completely normal that you can't eat it. You helped me a ton just by pinning it down. And hey, stop stuffing everything you find into your mouth—what if you upset your stomach?!" The Burning Corps brothers had replaced its hold with ropes to secure the metal lump, sparing Little Yu the need to keep its tendrils wrapped around it. Little Yu still wore a dejected expression, muttering softly, "Eewoo..." It still couldn't comprehend why that thing wasn't edible. Just then, Killing Dagger, who had just logged off to report their progress, walked back over toward the group. "New mission!" Lao Bai immediately looked at him. "What did the Administrator say?" Killing Dagger replied helplessly, "The Administrator said... we're to stand by near the crash site." Lao Bai frowned. "We probably shouldn't linger here too long... Did you tell him about our skirmish with the Academy exploration squad?" "I did. He even praised us in the mission prompt for a job well done..." Killing Dagger chuckled sheepishly before continuing, "Anyway, he's busy negotiating with the Enterprise to see if he can convince them to send another aircraft... but the Enterprise side seems pretty shocked. They didn't expect to lose a plane." *A job well done, huh.* Lao Bai stared blankly at him and whispered, "Uh... is that going to be a problem?" "The Administrator said as long as the pilot is fine, it won't be an issue," Killing Dagger glanced at the brainless pilot still bickering with the captive. "The Enterprise's stance is that if the plane can't be fixed, blowing it up is fine, but the pilot must survive. Otherwise, they won't take any more risks for us... That's their bottom line." The surrounding players wore bewildered expressions. After a long pause, Ye Shi scratched his head, casting a reluctant glance at the transport, and then at the copilot scratching his ears while wrestling with the manual. He couldn't help grumbling, "Holy crap... Scrapping it just because one engine broke down?" That was way too damn wasteful! *** On the edge of the Golden Lizard Kingdom. A man in opulent attire stood atop a sand dune, backed by a row of resplendently dressed dismounted cavalrymen. His name was Blair Golden Lizard, Prince of the Golden Lizard Kingdom. Watching the tracked vehicle approaching in the distance, a delighted smile surfaced on his face. He spread his arms wide from far away. "Welcome! Friends from afar! On behalf of the Golden Lizard royal family, I welcome your arrival!" Contrasted against the hundred-plus cavalrymen behind Blair, the angular tracked vehicle appeared out of place, yet felt entirely natural against the backdrop of the wasteland. The vehicle came to a halt on the dune. Stepping out of the vehicle, Li Ke walked up to the aristocratic man, offering a polite smile and extending his right hand, replacing an embrace with a handshake. "Grade-B Researcher Li Ke. I extend greetings on behalf of the Special Projects Section of the Academy's Department of Foreign Affairs." Blair took no offense at the researcher declining his embrace; on the contrary, he was pleasantly surprised by the rank of the visitor. Generally speaking, Grade-A and Grade-B researchers rarely ventured outside the Academy, let alone left the Wandering Marsh. In the entire history of the Golden Lizard dynasty, receiving a Grade-B researcher had happened perhaps only twice. "We have prepared a temporary palace for your stay... Please follow me," Blair said, his gaze suddenly landing on the tracked vehicle as if remembering something. He quickly added an apologetic smile, "Of course, you may remain in your vehicle... We will lead the way ahead." Li Ke smiled and nodded. "Then I shall gladly accept your hospitality." Over the years, the Academy had not remained entirely static. At the very least, when it came to adapting to local customs, they had made considerable "sacrifices." Long ago, it was precisely their inflexibility and disdain for politics that had cost them dearly, allowing two rebellious offspring factions to usurp the family inheritance. Retreating into the Wandering Marsh, the Academy had undergone a series of soul-searching reforms under the leadership of Dr. Conclusion. While maintaining an emphasis on academia, they had strengthened cooperation with the outside world, establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Internal Affairs as administrative branches parallel to the Department of Investigation and the Department of Research. Guided by Dr. Conclusion's philosophy, over the past one hundred and fifty years, they had leveraged "simple technologies" to win over several weaker survivor settlements, establishing an Academy-centered "Scientific Committee" across the Wandering Marsh. Under the framework of the Scientific Committee, they drew fresh blood from affiliated settlements into the Academy as baseline operatives, traded limited technology for their vassals' primary and secondary goods, and capitalized on the settlements' reliance on the Academy to forge them into a defensive moat. The Golden Lizard Kingdom was one such moat, representing one of the Department of Foreign Affairs' crowning political achievements since its inception. The grain it produced not only sustained the Academy, but also supplied the Academy's other "technical alliances" within the Wandering Marsh. Now, the war in Sunset Province had severely disrupted agricultural output. The detonation of a nuclear warhead the previous month had stirred widespread panic within the Scientific Committee. Many feared that the desert storms would carry radioactive fallout into the farmlands of Oasis No. 8. While such anxieties seemed almost comical on the wasteland—where hardly anyone was free of contamination—the Academy's Chief Technology Officer, after hearing the Scientific Committee's report, had taken necessary measures to pacify their anxious children, assigning the task of mediating the conflict to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Frankly, Li Ke considered this a daunting task. Given the way the Enterprise was currently thrashing the Legion, even his bioroid assistant estimated the probability of total war breaking out at nearly sixty percent. Come next spring, a tidal wave of clone armies might well charge into Sunset Province bearing the Legion's strategic nuclear arsenal. Even so, Li Ke felt that if he did nothing, the meager legacy their forebears had left behind in Sunset Province would not survive another few years. A sensible option would be to urge the Enterprise to quit while they were ahead. Yet according to the pilot named Yucal, the Legion was not being battered by the Enterprise, but rather pummeled black and blue by a coalition of wastelanders. This had caught him completely off guard. No matter how depleted the Legion's deployment in Sunset Province was, they were still the undisputed masters of everything west of Mid-Continent. These were men who fought day in and day out against what they termed barbarians, mutants, and xenotypes; there was no reason they should lose to a coalition of wastelanders. At one point, he had suspected Yucal was lying. Yet he could discern no possible motive for the man to fabricate such a tale, which was why he had decided to consult their vassal state to ascertain the true situation before deciding on their next move. If, as Yucal claimed, this "Alliance" was the true driving force behind the war, while the Enterprise merely fanned the flames from behind the scenes... Persuading a regional survivor faction to accept peace while they were ahead would be vastly easier than convincing their old nemesis to agree to a ceasefire. Li Ke returned to his vehicle and signaled the driver to follow the cavalrymen forward. Just then... His communicator buzzed with an incoming call from the Department of Foreign Affairs. "Failed?!" Jerking upright from his seat, Li Ke's face filled with astonishment. That was impossible. The Beacon squad enjoyed a solid reputation within the Department of Investigation's Containment Projects Section; those people were seasoned experts at ruin exploration. How could they fail to handle a half-dead gnawer and its cursed mother entity? Realizing the situation was likely far more complicated than he had envisioned, Li Ke furrowed his brows and pressed without missing a beat, "What on earth happened?" The voice on the other end continued, "According to the Beacon squad leader, they ran into an Enterprise transport... A team disembarked and intercepted the mother entity. Furthermore, numerous signs indicate the mother entity is connected to the Enterprise; it not only refrained from attacking their personnel, but even helped them capture one of our bioroid operatives." "An Enterprise aircraft?!" Li Ke froze, his expression turning grave. Though he preferred not to read too much into it, the appearance of an Enterprise aircraft near the Wandering Marsh was hardly a friendly gesture. Especially considering they were secretly researching mutant slime mold... Pressing his index finger against his brow, he thought for a moment before asking, "Can we establish contact with the captured bioroid?" "Negative... They appear to have encased it in metal or removed its communication chip." That made sense. The opposition wasn't stupid. Li Ke closed his eyes in deep thought for a long while. His primary directive was war mediation. As for the mother entity... while he found it intriguing, if the Enterprise had engineered it, the matter fell outside his jurisdictional authority and could only be escalated to the Director of Foreign Affairs, or even the Academy's Chief Technology Officer. "Take no rash action for now. Instruct the Beacon squad to halt operations, stand by, and avoid compromising our identity." The voice on the line hesitated. "But... we already shot down their plane." The corner of Li Ke's mouth twitched. "That doesn't matter. Industrial garbage like that breaks down even when left alone... Perhaps it fell out of the sky on its own." A bitter chuckle came from the other end. "They have captives from our side." "Bioroids?" "No... a Grade-E operative. Possibly two or three; we aren't certain. They retreated in such haste that they couldn't confirm their teammates' statuses." *A pack of useless deadweights good for nothing!* Li Ke cursed inwardly. He drew a deep breath, trying to rein in his spiking blood pressure. At that moment, he had completely forgotten that he was the one who had ordered the capture of the mother entity at all costs. Captives... That was indeed a headache. The Academy's AI could guarantee absolute loyalty, but humans were another matter—especially Grade-E operatives. Fortunately, a Grade-E operative wouldn't have access to complete mission intelligence. Even under interrogation, they unlikely knew anything sensitive. The primary priority remained "war mediation." As for the mother entity... Without authorization from the Chief Technology Officer, his clearance gave him no power to mount a rescue even if he wished to; he certainly couldn't dispatch another exploration squad. The Department of Investigation would never sign off on it. Tapping his index finger against the armrest, Li Ke spoke slowly. "Only those we acknowledge are prisoners." Silence lingered on the other end of the line for a beat. "Understood..."