Chapter 1 The Sewers

The group followed Isaac's plan and proceeded, soon entering the sewers.

In this world ruled by Bita, the city's sewers were relatively clean because Ai placed great emphasis on water resource protection. From the moment daily water entered the drainage pipes, the filtration process began.

The filtration system was meticulously divided. For example, water from the kitchen and water from the toilet did not flow into the same set of pipes, nor were they filtered under the same mechanisms. And the water flowing out of the toilet...depending on the outlet (bathtub, sink, toilet), the pipes and filtration systems it entered were also different.

This ensured that the water finally flowing into the sewers had all reached a certain standard of cleanliness. Subsequently, this water was collected and discharged into rivers, lakes, and seas connected to the ecosystem.

It was precisely for this reason that Feng Bujue and his companions avoided being covered in the stench of feces and urine...

"This sewer environment is not bad..." Brother Jue muttered as he waded through the water, "It's almost as good as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' home."

He was actually complaining—Feng Bujue always felt that if the Ninja Turtles lived in a "real" sewer, they should be covered in stench and a bit of feces every time they appeared.

"Hahaha..." Two seconds later, Cyclops understood the meaning of Brother Jue's words and responded with a laugh, "Although my memory doesn't include the Ninja Turtles cartoon, I understand the point you're making."

"Oh?" Feng Bujue continued, "Your engineers can recreate all games and consoles up to the PlayStation, but they can't recreate a 1987 cartoon?"

"Because making cartoons and making games are two different things..." At this time, Isaac took over the conversation and said, "In terms of our technical level, an experienced engineer can recreate a game on the Atari platform in a day, and a team can recreate nearly ten games on the FC platform in a week. For games on platforms like MD, GB, SS, and PS, the recreation time will increase depending on the complexity of the game and the platform, but...overall, the cycle won't be too long."

He paused for two seconds and continued, "But...cartoons are another matter. The production cycle of cartoons won't be shortened too much by our progress in engineering technology. Whether it's an 87 cartoon or a 21st-century cartoon, you have to start from the original drawings and do it step by step, from filming to post-dubbing. There are no shortcuts...Take the 87 version of the Ninja Turtles as an example. In another timeline...that cartoon had a full 193 episodes and ran for nine years. And our 'Game War' has only been going on for nine years in total." He turned his head, revealing a helpless expression, "Even if we wanted to recreate it, we don't have that kind of resource."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue nodded upon hearing this, "That's true..."

"Furthermore..." Isaac continued, "Besides the Ninja Turtles, there are many other excellent cartoons, aren't there? *C.L.Y.D.E.*, *Inspector Gadget*, *Batman* (the 92 animated series), *Gargoyles* (Regarding this work, I think it's necessary to mention that *Gargoyles* can be said to be Disney's direct response to Ahua and Ana. At that time, Disney was forced into a bit of a desperate situation by the *Batman* animated series, so they quickly prepared such a dark-style cartoon that was very different from their previous style but similar to the style of *Batman*. The result proved that...many successes are forced out; it was in this context that Disney made such a classic breakthrough work), and so on. In addition, there are those classic movies and dramas that should have appeared...It will take many years of effort to recreate all of these...But before winning the war, these can only be empty talk."

Hearing this, Feng Bujue also sighed, "Listening to you, it seems that you all have a long way to go..."

"Hehe...you're thinking too much." At this time, Big Beard interjected with a smile, "We are actually quite relaxed. Those 'reconstruction projects' are probably things for our next generation, or even the generation after that, to do. As for us...hehe...we just need to think about how to kill those robots in our lifetime."

...

Although wading through water was much more tiring than walking, the few of them forgot about the fatigue as they chatted.

Before they knew it, they had traveled nearly a kilometer and arrived at the end of this sewer journey—the entrance to a metal pipe.

This kind of "engineering pipe" could be seen everywhere in the city's underground and above-ground buildings, mainly for use by "maintenance robots," so it was also called a "maintenance pipe."

Basically, Bita would add this kind of pipe when planning and building any facility. From the perspective of an Ai, this was a natural thing...because any hardware can fail, even if this only happens once in a few decades, you have to be fully prepared for that one time.

But Bita couldn't have imagined at the time that these pipes would become free fortifications for the rebels after the outbreak of the war. In the second year of the war, the rebels launched a major incident called the "Game Boy Plague" by Bita through the tunnels. You can imagine the specifics of the incident...Anyway, after that, Bita changed its 'arrest policy' and started killing people...

"Speaking of...this pipe is a bit too narrow, isn't it?" Feng Bujue stood at the entrance of the pipe, and before he even crawled in, he already felt that the size wasn't right.

"This pipe wasn't originally intended for us humans." Lightning Head, who was tying his equipment to a strip of cloth, interjected.

"Yeah, it's good enough that we can get in." Cyclops also said, "We should be thankful that Bita's repair robots are spherical, not strip-shaped...Otherwise, we would have to find underage soldiers and soldiers as thin as bamboo poles to carry out the infiltration mission."

"Then..." Feng Bujue seemed to hear some ominous keywords in this sentence, "What if we encounter robots while crawling in the pipe? Wouldn't we be wiped out in this kind of environment?"

This was indeed a worrying problem. Even Feng Bujue would find it difficult to escape if he was trapped in that kind of intestine-like environment and subjected to firearms.

"Don't worry." Isaac replied as he was the first to crawl in, "As long as the facility isn't malfunctioning, no maintenance robots will enter the pipe. Given that the things built by Ai are of extremely high quality...these pipes are almost empty all year round." He had already gotten his upper body in when he said this, "Besides...the distance we have to crawl is very short. If we move quickly, we'll be there in ten minutes."

...

Isaac was right. Ten minutes later, they successfully passed through that section of the pipe and arrived in the subway tunnel.

However...waiting for them in the tunnel was an entire team of Round Table Spiders and Composite Robots.

"You have been surrounded. Do not make any sudden movements and disarm within ten seconds, nine, eight, seven..." This was the dialogue spoken by the Composite Robot leading the team.

Upon hearing this sentence, Isaac turned his head and gave his teammates a look. In less than three seconds, the four of them except Feng Bujue (anyway, Brother Jue didn't bring any equipment in the first place) quickly unloaded their weapons and obediently raised their hands.

Years of experience dealing with machines told them that the biggest difference between robot soldiers and human soldiers was that...when the former said "ten seconds," it really meant "ten seconds." They would immediately open fire when the time was up, with absolutely no second warning. As for "sudden movements," that was even more out of the question. As long as you dared to raise a gun, they would dare to open fire...The result of close-quarters gunfights with machines was self-evident.

Thus, this assault team was easily captured.

...

"In a sense...this is also pretty good." Fifteen minutes later, Feng Bujue, wearing handcuffs and sitting in the prisoner transport vehicle, said to his teammates sitting next to him with an almost leisurely attitude, "Having them directly escort us to the Central District saves us a lot of travel time and energy."

"Ha!" Cyclops looked frustrated and angry at this moment. He let out a dry laugh and continued, "What time and energy are you still thinking about...We're done for, okay!"

"No...not yet." Isaac was still very calm, "If they wanted to kill us, they would have already done it in the subway tunnel. Since they captured us alive, it means we're still useful."

"Tch..." Upon hearing this, Lightning Head retorted angrily, "Are they planning to interrogate us, or...turn us into PMs (player monsters)?"

"Ptooey! I'd rather end my own life than be turned into a PM!" Big Beard spat from the side.

"Hehe..." Feng Bujue smiled upon hearing their conversation and said to Big Beard, "Before you end your own life, shouldn't you consider finding the traitor first?"

These words caused Big Beard, Lightning Head, and Cyclops to suddenly change their expressions. Only Isaac remained calm.

And all of this...naturally didn't escape Brother Jue's eyes.

"You mean..." The next second, Big Beard looked at Feng Bujue and tentatively said half a sentence.

"Isn't this obvious?" Feng Bujue replied with a matter-of-fact tone, "When we came out of the pipe, the large force was already lying in ambush over there. You have to know...that's the subway tunnel. To carry out an effective ambush there, you definitely have to stop the normal operation of the subway first. And judging from the actual situation, the other side must have obtained accurate information at least half an hour in advance to be able to arrange it so properly."

"In other words..." At this moment, Cyclops muttered half a sentence and cast a suspicious look at Isaac.

Lightning Head and Big Beard's reactions were similar to his. After all, the route of this operation was decided by Isaac, and the connection was self-evident.

"Do you have anything to explain..." Feng Bujue looked at Isaac with a smile and said, "Captain?"

Isaac still kept a straight face and said in a deep voice, "I...also think there's a traitor in the team." His gaze swept across his teammates, "I'm also very clear that my suspicion is very high in this matter." He shook his head, "But right now, I don't have any evidence to prove my innocence, nor do I have any evidence to prove who the traitor is. So...I don't want to defend myself, because baseless defenses are futile. At the same time, I don't want to point fingers at anyone, because that would only make me look like I'm shifting the blame...which would only make the real traitor hide even deeper."

"Hmph..." Upon hearing these words, Big Beard immediately snorted coldly, "Well said, as expected of Isaac." His expression changed, and he looked at the captain with a firm gaze, "I believe you! You're not the traitor."

"Do...do you have any basis for that?" Cyclops listened and asked Big Beard.

"No basis." Big Beard curled his lips, "It's just my personal intuition. Anyway, I don't think this man is the kind of two-faced person."

"What do you mean by that?" Cyclops said, "Do we look like two-faced people?"

"Ha! Who knows." Big Beard laughed, "Maybe I'm the traitor...trying to use these words to win over Isaac and influence his judgment. That would also be a reasonable thing to think, right?"

"Forget it, everyone knows you're the least likely." Cyclops said, "Although you're not a Zhiyue Zhe (wise jumper), just because of your grudge against the Bita army for killing your daughter, you wouldn't defect."

"Don't you and those robots also have a grudge for taking your eye?" Big Beard continued, "As for the captain and vice-captain, one is a legendary hero in the army, and the other has more seniority than the commander. Looking at it this way...no one..."

"I say..." Feng Bujue interrupted Big Beard's words, "Are you forgetting about me, the savior?"

As soon as he said this, everyone reacted.

"That's right...your suspicion is the greatest, isn't it!" Cyclops stared at Brother Jue and exclaimed as if he had suddenly realized something.

"Indeed...no one knows your background." Lightning Head also looked at Brother Jue, frowning, "Also...this operation itself was proposed by you."

"Yeah." Feng Bujue nodded, "If I were an outsider, I would also think that my suspicion is the greatest; because among the five people in this team, I have the most points of suspicion." He smiled and tilted his head, "So the question is...is it really me..."

Brother Jue wasn't joking, but rather seriously thinking while putting on a joking attitude.

Although Feng Bujue hadn't subjectively engaged in any undercover behavior, theoretically, he really could be the traitor...

For example—before the "player's" consciousness descended, the character possessed by Feng Bujue was himself an undercover spy, and he was also carrying some kind of tracking device that couldn't be detected by any instruments.

If this hypothesis were true, Brother Jue could have been sending information to the other side without knowing it.

"Eh?" A few seconds later, something suddenly flashed through Feng Bujue's mind, and he immediately thought to himself, "Something's not right...Since this team has already been captured, why hasn't that traitor come out yet? Logically speaking, he or she shouldn't need to continue pretending anymore. Could it be...he, she...or rather 'Bita', has some other purpose?"