The excavation of the Little Beidou Facility progressed much faster than Mercer had anticipated, taking less than fifteen days. Mercer had already used unmanned equipment to dig a tunnel and also managed a preliminary unlocking of the internal defense systems.
However, before Mercer could remotely locate the server inside and insert the chip loaded with the program given by Ultraman, a series of strange incidents occurred.
First, there was an issue with the Robot's AI. It spent two days repeatedly circling around the basic entrance level seven meters underground, unable to find the way down.
The true core server room and laboratory of the Little Beidou Facility are located dozens of meters underground. Mercer had seen this place in a game; it was a very conspicuous area accessed via a large rail elevator, making it impossible to miss.
After recalling the Robot, Mercer carefully studied the data report, leading to a conclusion that furrowed his brow.
Since the Robot breached the entry restrictions and entered the facility, it had been subjected to a very noticeable signal jamming. Mercer seriously suspected this wasn't mere interference but a form of hacking.
He paused his exploration of the Little Beidou Facility to conduct a detailed inspection of the Robot's program, eventually uncovering traces of hacking as he had suspected.
To silently breach the ICE he had programmed for the Robot and make the embedded intelligent AI unaware...
Still undeterred, Mercer switched to a more advanced Minotaur Robot, removed its weapon systems, added a large ICE device, and rewrote an advanced ICE program before sending it into the facility again.
This time, it seamlessly found the rail elevator leading underground, connected the power, and sent the Minotaur Robot deep into the facility.
But then, a more terrifying event occurred—the Minotaur Robot, upon entering underground, quickly experienced signal jamming.
When the signal was restored, the Minotaur Robot not only suddenly returned to the surface on its own but also exhibited extreme aggression, even indiscriminately attacking the Netherworld Dog soldiers and Robots that came to escort it.
Fortunately, Mercer had preemptively disarmed its weapon systems, preventing any casualties.
Upon thoroughly examining the subdued Minotaur Robot, it was indeed found that its internal AI had been artificially corrupted, with its entire core logic hacked and modified. Out of caution, Mercer deleted everything and performed a complete rewrite.
However, it was clear that continually deploying drones underground with such significant signal interference had nearly become an impossible plan.
The adversary had initiated signal blocking, severing the Robot's external network connection before acting, meaning that if Mercer sent people down, they would also lose contact.
Out of caution, Mercer chose not to rush into personally probing the Little Beidou Facility. Instead, he had Mann recommend a trusted, elite squad of Netherworld Dogs, along with a technical expert, to conduct an investigation into the Little Beidou Facility.
The result, however, was surprisingly smooth.
This team not only found the rail elevator and ventured underground but also located the server host. Yet, due to their inability to break through the Little Beidou Facility's permissions, they had to retrace their steps.
Mercer wrote the program left by Ultraman into a storage chip and sent the Netherworld Dog team to insert it into a computer again—but the host rejected the program entry and triggered an automatic security lock, forcing the host into protection mode.
The technical expert spent hours inside only to leave disappointed and report back to Mercer.
"The host controls the safety passage to the server room, and the accessible server host has its program write disabled, refusing to read the chip. As for the host's defense program, we couldn't crack it."
The technical expert looked somewhat embarrassed: "Even with your fast-cracking program, it didn't work."
Beside Mercer, V slapped his forehead and said, "Why not just blow the doors open? Use some explosives for breaching, blast all the way to the server room, then insert the chip into the server; wouldn't that solve it?"
"Theoretically feasible, but I fear the server might have an anti-tampering security lock, which would automatically delete data in case of an emergency... perhaps there are even self-destruct programs within the base; those possibilities exist."
The technical expert stated directly, "I think you probably need to see for yourself. The place is plastered with Military Science logos everywhere; I doubt an average hacker or technical expert could crack it."
These Netherworld Dogs were unaware they were digging into a secret Military Science facility, merely that it was a 'mysterious underground facility' Mercer had 'accidentally discovered' and were instructed to keep it highly confidential.
It wasn't until they entered, deducing ownership from the Military Science logos on the walls, that they realized whose territory it was.
"Understood, I'll go myself," Mercer nodded, not making things difficult for the Netherworld Dogs.
After rewarding them with a generous bonus, Mercer then began to personally develop a plan to enter the Little Beidou Facility.
What he needed to do was actually not complicated: as long as he entered the server room and inserted the program given by Ultraman, or he could hack the host's security lock to transfer the program from the host to the server.