17 hours and 31 minutes, this pilot was about to break the record.
Wang Ran curiously walked over.
A young-looking man was lying in the transparent capsule.
His expression was extremely pained, the muscles on his face contorted as if he was experiencing something terrible.
Wang Ran was a bit confused.
He thought piloting a flying machine was supposed to be a relatively easy task, even if encountering difficulties it shouldn't look this painful, right?
Others also noticed this.
"Strange, why does this expert look so awful?"
"Something seems off."
Suddenly, someone in the crowd changed expression dramatically: "This is bad! Quickly open the cockpit!" "He's been captured by the Eldritch God's devotees!"
As soon as those words were spoken, it immediately caused a commotion.
Several people rushed over, fumbled with the side of the capsule for a moment, opened the hatch, and dragged the pilot out.
"Puh!"
The pilot spat out a mouthful of blood and fell unconscious.
Someone shouted: "Call for medical assistance!"
As soon as those words were spoken, a semi-transparent beam of light descended from above.
The unconscious pilot slowly rose within the light beam, eventually entering a white cube floating in mid-air.
"Does anyone know how long he's been in that condition?"
"Not sure, this place is a bit remote, people don't usually come here to pilot." "Maybe two or three days?"
"What happened?"
"Wasn't piloting robots supposed to be safe?"
"Three days? Then it's over!"
"Last time someone became an idiot after just one day!"
The person who first noticed the pilot's abnormality sighed and said gravely: "You newcomers don't know, piloting robots is safe, but not 100% safe. If you discover Eldritch God devotees sticking things to your robot, you should self-destruct immediately!"
Someone asked: "Why?"
With a fearful expression, he answered: "Because those things carry the Eldritch God's aura, they can prevent us from disconnecting from the robots. Once we fall into the hands of the Eldritch God's devotees, what awaits us is endless mental torture!"
The crowd immediately became agitated.
The Eldritch God's aura...
Getting tainted by that stuff means certain doom!
Another person added: "They say one day in reality is a year in the consciousness space. If that person was tortured for three days, that's a full three years. Even with an iron will, he would have been reduced to a puddle of pus!"
Someone curiously asked: "What if it's longer?"
"Longer?" The speaker's face darkened, "You don't want to know."
"Alright! Everyone disperse!"
"From now on, if you see a pilot's expression is off, tap the cockpit glass twice. If the pilot doesn't respond, press the red button on the right side of the cockpit to pull the pilot out!"
"Spread the word, everyone!"
"You might end up saving yourselves one day!"
"..."
The crowd gradually dispersed.
They had originally gathered to watch an expert break the record, but instead discovered the expert had been tortured into idiocy by Eldritch God devotees. Morale dropped significantly.
Only Wang Ran remained, silently checking information about the reconnaissance mission.
A huge sand table map emerged from the depths of his mind. Four-fifths of the sand table was covered in purple mist of varying shades, with only the northwestern fifth radiating a cyan glow.
The cyan glow represented the areas actually controlled by the Watcher's Association.
From the map, the Watcher's Association appeared to be at a disadvantage.
However, the Eldritch God was known for its ability to spread and contaminate, so the Watcher's Association's disadvantage wasn't actually that severe.
But the situation was worsening.
At the border between the purple mist and cyan glow was a ring of small arrows indicating the direction of the border's movement. These small arrows were pointing towards the Watcher's Association.
This meant the purple mist was advancing towards the Watcher's Association every minute, compressing the Association's controlled area.
Wang Ran focused his attention on the purple mist.
He saw eight flashing dotted lines dividing the purple mist into nine ring-shaped bands, with the outermost being the ninth ring and the innermost being the first ring.
The first ring, also called the purple mist core, had a towering pillar of dark purple light - the location of the Eldritch God.
The Watcher's Association was very interested in the Eldritch God.
They had specifically issued a sub-task regarding the Eldritch God of World 9077, hoping someone could observe the Eldritch God up close. The reward was as high as 150,000 Mo coins!
But no one had been able to complete this task.
After all, observing the Eldritch God up close...
It didn't sound like a job one could survive!
So almost no one wanted to do this task.
Only the logistics Watchers responsible for reconnaissance missions had any interest in this task, but currently, the pilot who had penetrated deepest into the purple mist had barely reached the fourth ring, still far from the purple mist core. Moreover, the closer to the purple mist core, the more numerous and stronger the Eldritch God devotees became, making further progress almost impossible.
The fourth ring was currently considered the limit.
Wang Ran glanced at the reconnaissance robot's data.
At the bird-type reconnaissance robot's flight speed, it would take only twenty-eight minutes at most to enter the purple mist core. Twenty-eight minutes,
Just within the range of his instant simulation...
[Initiating Instant Simulation]
[You lie down in the cockpit]
[You activate a bird-type reconnaissance robot]
[You fly straight towards the purple mist core]
[You enter the ninth ring]
[The loud noise from the reconnaissance robot attracts the attention of Eldritch God devotees]
The advantage of the bird-type reconnaissance robot was its speed. Without interference, it could enter the purple mist core in just over twenty minutes.
But its disadvantage was also obvious - it made too much noise!
Not just sound, but also light and energy fluctuations.
[You activate the acceleration device]
[You shake off the Eldritch God devotees]
[You enter the eighth ring]
[You attract the attention of Eldritch God devotees]
[You activate the acceleration device]
[You shake off the Eldritch God devotees]
[You enter the seventh ring]
[You attract the attention of Eldritch God devotees]
[You activate the acceleration device]
[You shake off the Eldritch God devotees]
[You enter the sixth ring]
[You discover the acceleration device is used up]
The bird-type reconnaissance robot came with three bursts of acceleration that could shake off Eldritch God devotees, but once used up, they were gone.
To enter the purple mist core,
They needed to be saved for use in the fourth ring at least.
[You attract the attention of Eldritch God devotees]
[You are shot down]
[...]
[Simulation ends]
Failure. Wang Ran wasn't surprised.
After all, more than a year had passed here, yet the farthest reconnaissance record was still stuck at the fourth ring. The difficulty of reconnaissance must be very high.
How could one fly further?
Wang Ran lay down in the capsule, activated a bird-type reconnaissance robot, then stared at the sand table in his mind, imagining different routes one after another.
[Initiating Instant Simulation]
[...]
[Initiating Instant Simulation]
[...]
[Initiating Instant Simulation]
[...]
[...]
[Simulation ends]
The Eldritch God devotees were scattered irregularly throughout the purple mist. Any location in the purple mist could potentially contain Eldritch God devotees of any scale, making the situation inside the purple mist a nearly chaotic disorder.
But disorder didn't mean unsolvable.
As long as there were enough simulations, a safe route deeper into the purple mist could always be found - even if it was just a momentary gap.
Several hours later, Wang Ran opened his eyes.
"Is there a possibility that you could provide some protective measures for the pilots first, so they don't go insane when they see the Eldritch God?"
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