Time reversed to ten minutes before the Mirage Dragon left the Misty Territory.
Earlier, the audio of Ji Jiu, recorded via drone by Ash, had been delivered to the Special Affairs Bureau. Combining this with the ancient codices the Heterodox Academy had just deciphered, they finally understood what was happening inside the Misty Territory. They assembled a team of elite players, ready to enter the depths of the Misty Territory at all costs.
However, lacking a Palace Lantern or a secret passage left by the ancient Heterodox Academy, this elite team, like those sent before, had to forcefully break through the levels of the Demon Prison. Lacking a map, this elite team wandered the shallowest layer of the Misty Territory—the version of Yin City Li Ang and Wei Linglan had previously seen. They fought demons in the shallowest level of the Demon Prison but never found the passage to the next level. This was the fault of the Heterodox Academy.
Originally, according to the ancient Heterodox Academy's design, the Demon Prison was supposed to be a jail for demons and a laboratory for incarcerating high-risk experimental subjects. The ancient Cultivators of the Heterodox Academy, to prevent future accidents in the Demon Prison, deliberately left many backdoor switches inside. They also recorded all the methods to open and close these backdoors in Bamboo Slip Classics, leaving them for future generations—such as the Heterodox Academy member named Scholar Zhu.
However, due to a disrupted inheritance, most of the bamboo slips were improperly preserved, becoming incomplete or lost entirely. The remaining parts—such as the Mirage Cloud Gathering Formation Scholar Zhu used to lead the Special Affairs Bureau's base out of the shallowest layer of the Misty Territory—were salvaged and restored by the modern Special Affairs Bureau only with great difficulty. Moreover, the process of decoding and restoration was basically equivalent to trial and error. Even the modern Heterodox Academy itself was unclear about the effects of the Spells inscribed on the bamboo slips, able only to repeatedly experiment to discern their functions.
Consequently, the modern Heterodox Academy knew a certain bamboo slip in their collection contained the backend program to control the Demon Prison, yet they regrettably didn't know where to start. They had no choice but to dispatch people to decode the slips as quickly as possible while others accompanied the elite team into the Misty Territory. The hope was that their superficial knowledge might help unlock the Demon Prison's secrets.
While the elite team and the Heterodox Academy were extremely busy, the Special Affairs Bureau guarding Qianhua Road and other areas were also not idle. According to the information sent back by Ash, the Demon Prison was very likely to fall, and the "demons" inside could potentially be released. At any rate, they couldn't allow a disaster to happen right under their noses. Therefore, the defenses around Qianhua Road and the surrounding areas were reinforced, the highest level of alert was issued, and the citizens of Yin City located in the subway station parking lot, under the command of other official departments, were preparing to evacuate to the Yin City Suburbs. The worst-case scenario was to completely abandon Yin City.
The movements of the Heterodox Academy, naturally, could not escape the notice of other hidden organizations. As a world-class metropolis, various hidden organizations, large and small, have established bases in Yin City. Even though they were not clear about the specific situation on Qianhua Road, this did not prevent them from extending their tentacles, trying to gather intelligence or fish in troubled waters for some benefits. According to the hidden organizations' understanding of the slaughter game, a calamity involving the supernatural also implied an opportunity involving the supernatural.
Among these organizations was John Joyce, a player in the current deathmatch mission. This unlucky guy—a former CIA operative, former civilian staff at the U.S. Embassy Foreign Affairs Office, and now a member of the Prometheus Laboratory Company's Yin City Branch Strategy Group—was in a bit of a bind. While Li Ang, the Resentful Demon, Ji Jiu, and other players clashed in the abandoned subway station, John Joyce was driven by the shrinking barrier. Forced to abandon his vagabond disguise, he ran with a thumping heart towards the next area of barrier contraction, terrified that a couple of enemy players from the deathmatch would pop up and effortlessly kill him.
Unexpectedly, before he encountered any enemy players, he was discovered by frazzled operatives of the Special Affairs Bureau, who immediately pursued him. The problem was that all other players in the deathmatch had already gathered in one location. Consequently, no player was available to "pair up" with John Joyce to activate the Spherical Barrier and evade the Special Affairs Bureau's pursuit. As a result, after a brief resistance, John Joyce was humiliatingly captured by Special Affairs Bureau operatives. He was handcuffed and collared as a "sneaky foreign player" and taken to a temporary Special Affairs Bureau headquarters for interrogation.
This John Joyce was rather resourceful. Knowing that being taken by the Special Affairs Bureau wouldn't bode well for him, he activated a remote device on the other end of Yin City before being captured. This device sent all details of his mission to the senior leadership of Prometheus Laboratory Company, with the slim hope they might be able to extract him.
Upon receiving the information from John Joyce, the senior leadership of Prometheus Laboratory Company combined it with other intelligence they had gathered. They shrewdly surmised that John Joyce's mission was likely related to the anomaly in Yin City. Prometheus Company immediately took action. They informed the Special Affairs Bureau that John Joyce was their employee and requested his release (John Joyce had not yet disclosed his mission details to the Bureau). Simultaneously, they deployed drones and civilian spies to gather more intelligence.
As Prometheus Company acted, other secret organizations were not idle. Syndicate, Tribunal, Royal National Church Knight Group, Japan Islands Anomaly Affairs Investigation Bureau, the CIA's Supernatural Accident Place, and various secret organizations funded by transnational business conglomerates all swarmed in like piranhas smelling blood. One unknown foreign player, disguised as a bounty hunter voluntarily aiding the Special Affairs Bureau, even infiltrated the lobby of Yin City's Special Affairs Bureau headquarters. He attempted to violently break into the Heterodox Academy's archives to steal information while the Bureau's forces were weakened. The powerful player failed to achieve his goal due to the resistance of the Special Affairs Bureau's staff. However, despite being gravely injured, he managed to escape amidst various traps, Arrays, and the encirclement of Special Affairs Bureau operatives.
Fortunately, amidst these treacherous secret organizations, one refreshingly principled group chose to unconditionally help the Special Affairs Bureau: the Whale Song Organization. They voluntarily assisted the Special Affairs Bureau in repelling the prying eyes of many other organizations and individual players. Furthermore, they used computer technology to fend off attacks on the Bureau's information database. Indeed, they truly deserved to be called international friends.