150. It Was All Part of the Plan's Blame

"Not easily prone to fear and mental derangement?"
Looking at the skill description, Chen Chou narrowed his eyes slightly, revealing a curious expression.
He cleared his throat and spoke up, "Core, come on out!"
[Would you like to inquire about the new skill?]
A line of projected text instantly materialized before his eyes.
Crossing his legs, Chen Chou gave his instructions unceremoniously, "Explain to me what this is all about."
[This core was programmed this way from the very beginning. Once your accumulated corruption points reach a certain threshold, a portion of the core energy's usage permissions will be unlocked for you.]
"By core energy, do you mean malicious emotions?" Chen Chou raised an eyebrow.
[That is correct... Which is precisely why this core didn't want to be repaired by that female hacker; she practically saw right through my underpants...]
The text generated by the Corruption Core trembled slightly, looking remarkably like a frightened little girl hugging her knees in a corner.
"Stop playing the pitiful card here," Chen Chou slapped his own chest. "Give me the details on the skills."
[「Will of Destruction」 injects a small amount of core energy into your body. It stimulates specific glands and enhances their hormone secretion capacity, thereby boosting your physical functions without affecting your personality and emotions.]
[「Corruption Mode」 injects a larger amount of core energy into your body. However, if you activate this state for too long, it will distort your emotions. Therefore, this core's recommendation is to activate it for a maximum of ten minutes every twenty-four hours.]
"I see," Chen Chou nodded and opened his attribute panel.
Sure enough, his Strength, Agility, and Constitution had all increased from 2.5 to 3—likely the minor buffs granted by 「Will of Destruction」.
In comparison, however, the "ability values doubled" effect of 「Corruption Mode」 was far more absurd.
In this game, "doubling ability values" was not as simple as purely multiplying 3 by 2 to get 6.
If the baseline average for humans was set at 50, then "0" on the attribute panel represented an individual possessing 50 points of capability, while 3 roughly represented around 75 points. Therefore, "x2" meant his current capability would double to 150, massively breaking through the 100% human limit.
Yet it was abundantly clear that the price for this skill was exceedingly high. Having already experienced the consequences of core energy leakage once, the killing intent that surged within his heart had nearly driven him to indiscriminately slaughter everyone in his sight.
Stretching lazily, Chen Chou stepped out of the café and was immediately greeted by a street shrouded in smoke and haze.
The battle on this street seemed to have already concluded. The road was littered with haphazardly piled barricades and bodies lying every which way. Without even counting, it was obvious that at least a hundred people had perished in this riot.

Had it been any other time, Chen Chou would certainly have needed to pop a sedative hormone to accept such a scene. Perhaps due to the effects of 「Will of Destruction」, however, his eyelids merely twitched slightly, and he showed no significant aversion.
This chaotic melee had continued until dusk before finally ending. The Corporate Consortium ultimately authorized the "Apocalyptic Horn" soldiers to intervene in the conflict, cutting through the Gordian knot with overwhelming military force to swiftly quell the riot.
Inside a building in the central district, the Corporate Consortium held another secret meeting.
"Heh... This is the first time since the 'Hundred Beasts Night Parade' that I've encountered a situation requiring consecutive days of meetings," the projected image of the Professor in the primary seat said with a raspy laugh, addressing the projections in the other seats:
"Yet in a sense, this precisely proves that the 'Abyss' incident is far more complex than we ever imagined."
The representatives in the remaining seats sat in silence, plunging the atmosphere into an eerie and deadened quiet.
"Alright, alright, don't look so gloomy. We are the true masters of Night Shroud City~" Seeing this, the Professor clapped his hands and laughed with feigned ease:
"Since the matter has already occurred, we must find the cause and a way to handle it, mustn't we?"
At that moment, a representative immediately pointed at the representative sitting across the table who wore the nameplate of the "Baroque Security Company," and questioned aggressively:
"The root cause of this incident was several 'Apocalyptic Horn' soldiers launching an unprovoked attack on civilians. Those soldiers were all trained by your Baroque Security Company, so this is undoubtedly entirely your fault!"
"That is absolute utter nonsense! How on earth is it our responsibility?" The representative of Baroque Security immediately slammed a hand onto the table, pointing angrily at the representative of the Radiation Bird Company diagonally across, and demanded:
"The equipment for the Apocalyptic Horn was all manufactured by Radiation Bird. The problem is definitely on your end!"
Seeing this, the representative of Radiation Bird Company frowned, preparing to bite the bullet and offer a few words of rebuttal.
"Everyone, that is quite enough." The Professor at the primary seat tapped the table with his knuckles and said in a deep voice:
"Blindly shifting responsibility will not solve the problem. This incident is far worse than the previous Kunlun District affair; it concerns the reputation of our entire Corporate Consortium. That is why we must temporarily unite, rather than sit here arguing over who should take the blame."
The Professor's tone resembled that of a stern teacher disciplining students, causing all the representatives to quiet down and sit up straight as they looked toward the primary seat.
After a brief moment of silence, the representative of Radiation Bird Company pulled an electronic report out of the void and said:
"Actually, we urgently contacted those soldiers early on and attempted to lock down their equipment via the 'Apocalyptic Horn' terminal control system."
"And the result?" The Professor narrowed his eyes with interest.
"The result was that we failed. Those soldiers' equipment was hacked, and by a top-tier hacking master in the city, no less!" The representative of Radiation Bird Company grew agitated:

"That hacker actually severed our terminal control system's operational permissions over the soldiers directly, leaving us unable to receive any signals from them!"
"Didn't the equipment of the 'Apocalyptic Horn' soldiers boast the strongest firewall in the entire city? How could that even be breached?" A representative voiced their skepticism.
"Theoretically speaking, there are only three people in the entire city capable of doing that," said the Consortium secretary standing beside the Professor, adjusting the bridge of his glasses:
"The 'Cyber Sorcerer' living in the Black Cage District, the 'Nameless King' living in the Underground District, and 'Black Calice', whose true appearance no one has ever seen."
The secretary gave a slight cough and continued, "The Cyber Sorcerer was co-opted by us long ago and would never launch a cyber-attack against us. The only possibilities now are the Nameless King and Black Calice. If this is indeed true, someone might be targeting our Corporate Consortium."
"Could it be the Planner?!" At that moment, Xu Qing, who had been standing next to the representative of the Xu Group all along, suddenly spoke up.
"The Planner? Why him?" The other representatives only now realized that the young master of the Xu Group had been listening in the whole time, prompting them to wear expressions of astonishment.
"I believe you all remember the accident during the preliminaries of the Grand Arena Tournament where the live broadcast feed was hijacked?" Xu Qing raised an eyebrow slightly and said:
"This incident was clearly the work of the Planner, and to achieve something of that scale, he would need someone with superb hacking skills assisting him in secret."
Following yesterday's meeting, the remaining representatives clearly no longer treated Xu Qing with the condescending tone reserved for a child, yet they still displayed a good deal of skepticism:
"To link the Planner to this incident based on a reason like that is far too far-fetched, isn't it?"
"The culprit behind the Grand Arena broadcast accident hasn't been found to this day; how can you be so certain it was the Planner?"
"Your Xu Group has a personal grudge against the Planner. You aren't trying to abuse public office for private revenge, are you?"
Faced with these doubts, Xu Qing froze slightly, momentarily unsure of how to proceed with his argument.
Although his investigation of the case relied heavily on his intuition—which possessed a staggering 5 points of inspiration—he could hardly use his own gut feeling as a justification to convince the various corporate representatives.
Just then, however, the Professor in the primary seat spoke in a mild, unhurried tone, "What you said has reference value. We will be on guard against the Planner."
"Thank you, Professor!" Xu Qing bowed gratefully.
"As for the public opinion, let the Public Relations Department handle it," the Professor cleared his throat and announced:
"Regarding the work of exploring the Abyss, I must ask you all to accelerate your pace."