Chapter 1 Unequal Battle

In the dimly lit alloy corridor, an unequal battle had just ended.

The air was still thick with the smell of gunpowder left by the gunfire. Bullet casings and dents from bullets were scattered everywhere on the ground, and more than a dozen soldiers in regular military uniforms lay sprawled all over the place. Most of them had completely lost consciousness, while the remaining few were groaning in pain.

Hao Ren casually grabbed a soldier who looked like a squad leader: "Hey, can you hear me? What are you guys doing?"

The soldier opened his eyes slightly. When he saw Hao Ren's face, he immediately remembered the supernatural scene just now, and he felt like he was about to faint. Seeing this, Hao Ren quickly shook the other person's collar vigorously: "Hey, wait a minute before you faint! Answer my question first!"

"We are the Second Marine Division..." the soldier said tremblingly, as if afraid that Hao Ren would turn into an alien on the spot and swallow him.

"Second Marine Division?" Hao Ren was stunned. He had never heard of this name. "What are you doing here?"

The soldier's teeth chattered: "We... we were ordered to eliminate the radical aerospace elements here..."

"Eliminate aerospace elements?" Hao Ren felt more and more confused. "Wait, isn't this place the control center for the nanite swarm? And it's been abandoned for more than sixty years... Wait, where is this place?!"

The soldier looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. He felt like he had encountered a superhuman with some kind of mental problem, but he still cautiously replied: "It's the launch site in the Kadic Mountains."

The launch site in the Kadic Mountains...

Hao Ren slapped the soldier unconscious, stood up in confusion, and looked around at this place that had completely changed, even mutated into something almost bizarre.

He found a corner, hid himself, and then began to check his mental state, quickly ruling out the possibility of being mind-controlled or hallucinating. There was no doubt that he was in the real world, but this real world had undergone earth-shattering changes.

"Looks like this world has changed," the data terminal also said, watching the situation outside through Hao Ren's eyes. "Not only is the surrounding environment changing, but it seems that even the worldview has changed—originally this world had no aerospace technology, and it was terminated more than sixty years ago."

Hao Ren thought of Ulanov's disappearance, and the abnormal situation before the other party disappeared: "I'm afraid it's more than that... There should also be people who have changed along with it. Ulanov had memory confusion before his death, and he disappeared directly after death, and these soldiers appeared out of nowhere, with a strange identity of some 'Second Marine Division'... Wait! Terminal, your body!"

A lightning-like thought exploded in his mind. He immediately threw the data terminal out of his dimensional pocket. A disheveled blonde girl fell from a spatial crack in mid-air and landed heavily on the ground, glaring at Hao Ren with anger: "What are you doing?! This is why this unit has no sense of balance, okay?!"

"Why are you still in this form?" Hao Ren stared blankly at the blonde girl in front of him. "Didn't this body disappear?"

The data terminal didn't react for a moment: "What do you mean?"

"I suspect that this world is being reset, and everyone and everything is being assigned new identities and positions," Hao Ren stepped forward and pinched the blonde girl's arm, as if to confirm whether the other party showed signs of gradually disappearing. "This body was taken over, so she should have been reset along with it... Why hasn't it changed?"

"Simple, you guessed wrong," the data terminal tossed her head. "Either this unit is too powerful and has completely taken over this body, causing the latter to be unable to be 'reset'."

Hao Ren looked up and down at the blonde girl who was standing there crookedly and constantly swaying: "With your posture, you have the nerve to say that you have completely controlled this body?"

"Oh, then you must have guessed wrong."

Hao Ren sighed: "In short, we must find Nolan and the others, or other guys who can communicate well, at least to find out the situation here."

"Oh, then let's go in that direction," the data terminal raised its finger and pointed to a fork in the corridor. "This unit just heard some movement over there."

To be honest, Hao Ren didn't quite believe this guy's navigation ability now, but he didn't know where to go either, so he might as well trust this guy's sixth sense. He turned his head and looked at the terminal: "Can you walk on your own now?"

"Don't worry, this unit can keep up," the blonde girl patted her chest. "Of course, if you're willing, this unit still wants to squat on your shoulder..."

Hao Ren strode away: "Keep up yourself!"

To be honest, under normal circumstances, he would be happy to carry a girl around—even if the other party's essence was a brick, at least the shell was still pleasing to the eye. But the current situation didn't allow him to relax so much. He didn't know how many inexplicable enemies had suddenly appeared in this building. In this situation, it wouldn't be appropriate to carry a living person…to carry a dead person on his shoulders and run around.

And don't look at the data terminal now controlling this body as if it had sequelae of cerebral thrombosis, "she" was really fast when she ran. Although she was swaying, she kept up with Hao Ren's pace very well.

After running along the corridor for a while, Hao Ren suddenly vaguely heard a burst of powerful footsteps coming from the corner ahead. He immediately told the data terminal to hide in the shadow of a metal cabinet next to him, and then cautiously went over to see what was going on.

A familiar figure appeared in front of him. The extremely burly body, the stern square face, and the well-defined features were none other than Karl, the big guy from the Gray Fox mercenary group. But after seeing an acquaintance, Hao Ren did not rush up rashly, because he saw that Karl was not wearing the black Gray Fox mercenary uniform, but a special warfare uniform that looked like desert camouflage.

He remembered that Karl had run out with Ulanov before, but Karl had disappeared when Ulanov died. Now that he saw the other party again, the big guy had changed into an unfamiliar outfit... If his guess was correct, Karl was probably undergoing some kind of "change."

Hao Ren thought for a while, and after raising his vigilance, he drilled out of the corner and greeted the other party with a normal expression: "Yo, Karl."

Karl immediately showed a surprised expression after seeing Hao Ren, and then raised the rifle in his hand without hesitation: "Stop! Don't move! Raise your hands and turn around—who are you?! Are you a regular soldier or someone from the base?!"

"Sure enough, that's the situation," Hao Ren sighed in his heart, thinking that the only thing that made this guy stronger than the previous marines was that he didn't shoot directly. "Don't be nervous, I'm not an enemy—let me confirm first, are you Karl?"

Karl frowned, his expression changed slightly in an instant, but he quickly covered it up: "Don't try to stall for time, raise your hands and turn around immediately, or I'll shoot!"

After a while, the data terminal heard that the fight seemed to be over and ran out limping: "Oh, partner, is it done? This... huh? An acquaintance."

"It's Karl, but as I guessed, humans and the world have been reset, and he doesn't remember me," Hao Ren looked at the big guy who had fallen to the ground and passed out. "This guy is stubborn and uncooperative, so I had to knock him out first. Also, it can now be confirmed that his name is still Karl, but his identity has changed, and he seems to be a guard at this base now."

"Then what do we do next?" The data terminal was a little puzzled: she didn't learn anything else, but she installed the emoji pack quite quickly.

"Still have to find Nolan."

"Do you think Nolan is the key?"

"There are too many suspicious things about her, if she's not the key, she's a clue," Hao Ren nodded. "Since this world is being reset... then I'm afraid I know what's going on with Nolan's skills."

As he said that, he lowered his head and glanced at Karl: "But before leaving, let's put the big guy in a safer place, after all, we're partners."

Finally, he found a place that looked like a utility room nearby, which seemed to have been searched by the marines, and threw Karl under a pile of waste paper boxes in the utility room.

After tidying up all of this, Hao Ren and the data terminal continued to explore the building.

Since Karl was still here, he suspected that Nolan would also "refresh" in this place. At least in the absence of more clues, looking around here was the only thing he could do.

The two "people" explored this unfamiliar facility everywhere. In the middle, they almost encountered more soldiers or guards: an hour ago, this place was still the silent Northern Ring Tower, which had been abandoned for sixty-five years, but now it has become lively. It seems that at least three groups of people are fighting in this place, including regular soldiers and base combatants, as well as some guys in miscellaneous equipment, who seem to be mercenaries or free armed elements, are causing trouble in the lower level of the building. From time to time, gunshots and explosions could be heard from who knows which corner, which sounded like the firefight here had been going on for quite a long time, but only Hao Ren and the data terminal knew that in fact this whole drama had just begun a few tens of minutes ago.

At this moment, a silhouette left by a strand of gray hair suddenly flashed before his eyes.

(Oh oh oh, please vote for me! It seems that we can try to break into the top ten this month! Everyone, see if you have mysteriously appeared with usable monthly tickets in your hands, after all, the starting point metaphysics voting system is unpredictable, what if there are still tickets?)