The base gate slowly opened ahead.
The heavy grinding of metal echoed from deep within the mountain, layer after layer retracting to reveal a narrow, elongated metal passage.
Four heavily armed security escorts flanked her front and back.
Yvette walked in the center, expressionless.
Beside her walked a young researcher, pale-faced and dazed, looking like he was about to write his last will and testament at any moment.
His name was Zhou Zhou. A freshly minted unlucky guy.
As he passed through the final gate, Zhou Zhou stole a glance to the side.
Reflected in the bulletproof glass was a girl who looked quiet and young—really like a child.
But he didn’t dare think that way at all.
The letters on the access badge were real, and so were the four security guards behind her.
Besides, the moment she walked in, everyone along the way automatically made way for her.
The interior of Deep Well Base was like a vertical steel well.
At the end of the Ring Hall was the main elevator shaft leading to the underground levels.
The elevator wasn’t a standard cabin but a semi-open metal platform, surrounded by bulletproof glass.
As it descended, you could directly see the base’s structure spreading out layer by layer.
Layer one was the control center and logistics.
Layer two was the ordinary experimental zone.
From layer three downward, armored doors, isolation chambers, and large containment zones gradually appeared.
Further down were the long-term containment layers for humanoid anomalies, dangerous artifacts, and catastrophic phenomena.
It was like a hospital, also like a prison, and also like an underground city welded together with company rules and gun barrels.
Zhou Zhou stood straight, cold sweat covering his back, terrified that the next second he’d be asked a death-sentence question.
The elevator started descending.
But Yvette actually spoke up.
“What area do you normally handle?”
“Psychological evaluation,” Zhou Zhou answered immediately. “Zone B-Three, anomalous sample recording and basic…”
“Have you come into contact with humanoid containment objects?”
Yvette nodded.
“Only, only remote recording. Didn’t have permission for close contact.”
Zhou Zhou: “…”
“Alright.”
“Then from now on, you’ll be my guide first.”
He no longer dared to ask where they were going.
The elevator descended.
Outside the glass, the base structure slid past in rings.
Yvette watched, and finally received the delayed system import.
[World Background Load Complete.]
[Current World: Deep Well Base.]
[Nature Description: This world is an enterprise monopoly anomaly containment world, also possessing high-dimensional projection attributes.]
[Simplified Understanding: On the surface, this place is an underground containment base; internally, it is actually a projected Search, Fight, Retreat game world.]
Yvette: “…”
She was silent for two seconds.
“Search, Fight, Retreat?”
[Correct. Players will enter the base as Field Recovery Agents, Hired Investigators, Wasteland Hunters, etc.]
[Here, they search for resources, fight against security and anomalous individuals, and complete evacuation settlements.]
[But you are not a player now.]
[In the original timeline, this body would completely go mad in the later part of the plot.]
[You are the high-risk supervisor NPC in this instance.]
[In the original timeline, this body would kill all players, Bosses, containment objects, and also erase the entire game, causing the world to get stuck.]
Yvette was silent for another two seconds.
“Kill all the players?”
“So this time I not only have to survive, but also control myself so I don’t kill everyone?”
[…That’s one way to put it.]
“Alright.”
She accepted it quickly.
After all, in all the worlds she’d traveled through so far, few had made much sense.
Compared to the world’s setting, she was more concerned about something else.
“What about the World Child?”
The system paused.
[High-priority target individual detected.]
[Codename: Blind Wing.]
[Status: Key humanoid containment object.]
[Location: Deep Well Base lower levels.]
Yvette lowered her eyes and tapped her fingertips lightly against her sleeve.
The elevator continued descending.
The metal tracks emitted a low, rhythmic grinding sound.
Zhou Zhou stood to the side, too nervous to breathe, when he suddenly heard the new supervisor speak.
“Zhou Zhou.”
“Here!”
“Which layer is Blind Wing on?”
Zhou Zhou’s mind went buzz.
He whipped his head toward her, his face even paler than before.
That was one of the names you absolutely weren’t supposed to mention casually in all of Deep Well Base.
Her first move wasn’t to go to the office and check the handover files, nor to learn about the base’s situation—it was to go see Blind Wing?
Zhou Zhou swallowed hard.
Yvette stared at the base sinking layer by layer ahead, her voice flat.
“Supervisor… that’s the high-risk zone.”
“I know.”
She paused, then added, “Now, take me there.”
Zhou Zhou complied, tears in his eyes.
When the elevator reached the seventh layer, the scene outside had completely changed.
The walls had shifted from white alloy to dark gray.
The lights were dimmer.
On either side of the corridor, heavy armored doors began appearing, with auto turrets at intervals and glowing red warning lines on the floor.
The air was colder and quieter.
Zhou Zhou’s voice tightened.
“Supervisor, ahead is the outer ring of the high-risk humanoid zone.”
Yvette nodded.
“Continue.”
The elevator doors opened.
The four security guards stepped out first, muzzles lowered, forming a standard escort formation.
Zhou Zhou steeled himself and led the way.
The corridor was long.
The sound of leather soles on the floor was amplified clearly.
Halfway down, another set of footsteps suddenly came from the corner ahead.
Zhou Zhou instinctively stopped.
Yvette looked up.
A man emerged from around the corner.
He was tall, with slightly hollow cheeks and pale skin, wearing a well-tailored dark long coat with a supervisor-level access badge on his chest.
Seeing him, Zhou Zhou’s breath noticeably eased.
Supervisor Nielai’esi.
He had some mental issues too, but at least he seemed more communicative than the new supervisor who’d just arrived and immediately demanded to go to the high-risk zone.
“Yvette.”
Nielai’esi spoke, his tone as warm as if welcoming an old friend not seen for years.
“I never thought the company would transfer you here.”
Yvette glanced at him.
Her look was faint, as if identifying whether an old instrument had yet to be scrapped.
“I never thought so either.”
Nielai’esi smiled and naturally fell into step beside her.
“I thought you’d head to the control center first. I didn’t expect you to come straight here to me.”
“What,” he raised an eyebrow, “did you finally get bored of the last base?”
Zhou Zhou perked up his ears silently.
He didn’t want to hear this.
But he couldn’t help himself.
Yvette didn’t stop walking, her voice flat.
“Too many researchers died over there.”
“I ran out of material.”
The air went still for a moment.
Zhou Zhou stumbled, nearly colliding with the guard next to him.
Zhou Zhou: +1.
The four guards: “…”
The air froze for one second.
Nielai’esi paused too.
In the next instant, his smile remained unchanged, and he smoothly continued.
“I see. It seems the personnel replenishment speed over there couldn’t keep up with your research progress.”
He genuinely seemed to interpret the comment “researchers are about dead” as ordinary talent loss.
Zhou Zhou’s scalp tingled.
‘This is supervisor-level communication ability?’
He really was just an ordinary researcher, after all.
“Since you just arrived, why not head to the office first and look over the handover materials.”
Nielai’esi tilted his head, his tone gentle.
“Deep Well Base isn’t the same as where you were before. The procedures are much more complicated.”