Outwitting the Air

Tidal Prison, the work area outside the warden's office.

Shi Ding stood in front of the long table, and the walkie-talkie in his hand crackled twice.

The Tidal Prison is about to reopen, and Shi Ding is making arrangements for today's events in full swing.

He slammed the list he had previously prepared onto the table, then looked up and glanced at the prison guards around him.

"Prepare the training and deployment locations as I previously instructed."

A row of prison guards immediately responded and got up to leave.

"Don't let the new ones go off alone. Have the veteran prison guards accompany them!" Shi Ding specifically instructed.

Then he remembered something, turned around and shouted towards the corner, "Dayong, where's that flamethrower soldier?! Take him with you!"

Da Yong, who was in the corner, stood up and pointed to the door: "They're already waiting in the passageway."

Shi Ding nodded, put down the walkie-talkie, and glanced at the time. There were still seven minutes before the prison opened.

He checked his own Bison assault rifle on the table, along with his brand-new Level 4 helmet and Level 4 body armor, and confirmed that there were no problems.

Inside the warden's office, Han Che sat in his office chair as usual, his legs propped up on the corner of the desk, watching the live stream, hoping to obtain information about the players involved in this operation.

He's been scrolling for twenty minutes.

Of the three media outlets that usually broadcast live from outside the prison, two did not broadcast today, and the one that did broadcast only showed an empty square with its camera swaying back and forth.

There weren't many comments either.

For the past three days, Han Che has been closely following the official news from the player club.

According to past practice, it should have been announced long ago which clubs were imprisoned.

However, no matter how hard Han Che investigated over the past three days, he could not find out which clubs would be involved.

Some say, "Anyone who goes is a fool," while others say, "Let's wait until the brain-computer interface issue is clarified before making any decisions."

The brain-computer interface project and the Bald Eagle Association issue are making quite a stir right now, with people criticizing it everywhere online.

If that's the reason, then it makes sense, but after three days without any news, he still felt something was off.

In the past, every time we would start promoting it a week in advance, we would clearly state which club was going to jail, who the main players were, what their equipment was like, and even write it all down in the live stream title.

Sometimes you can even see pre-match interviews where the captain says to the camera, "We are confident this time."

There was nothing this time.

Therefore, he could only pin his hopes on the live broadcasts by reporters and media outside the portals before the prisons opened.

Even obtaining the relevant information and intelligence just a few minutes in advance gives them the advantage of being able to make deployments ahead of time.

But this time it didn't seem to go as he wished; the media outlet he usually watches didn't broadcast live today.

There were only one or two other media outlets still broadcasting outside the Tidal Prison portal, and the number of viewers in their live streams was not large.

Even at both of these locations, the plaza outside the teleportation portal that Han Che saw was still completely empty.

"What's going on? A new tactic?" Han Che couldn't imagine what other reason they had for doing this.

There is only one explanation: they deliberately hid it, and kept it highly secret.

Thinking of this, Han Che couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache, but then he remembered that the Bald Eagle Association's brain-computer interface project was now being investigated by multiple parties.

He's confident that there won't be any cheaters, at most some well-equipped players.

[Please prepare, host, the Tidal Prison is about to open.]

As the system notification sounded in Han Che's ears, he saw that no one had appeared in front of the portal in the live stream.

"In that case, we can only deal with whatever comes our way." The screen then turned off, and Han Che walked out of the office.

Stepping out of the office, Shi Ding, Shi Lei, and their guards immediately stood at attention.

Han Che walked past him and said, "Let's go, prepare for battle."

"yes!"

Tidal Prison reopened, and the prison guards, following Han Che's previous instructions, each performed their duties.

With their current armor and weapons, they no longer need everyone to be completely concealed for a sneak attack.

Nearly half of the prison guards were positioned in advance in advantageous locations with good visibility, serving as sentry posts and frontline blocking positions.

All NPCs across the entire map share information in real time via voice.

Even so, the number of personnel was still insufficient, so deployments were only made at key locations and major transportation routes.

There are still blind spots in the field of vision for the outer perimeter and wild areas.

The prison remained quiet for several minutes after it opened.

Clearly, these player operators were frightened by the last operation and did not choose to enter the core area; they are most likely all on the periphery.

Han Che immediately led the warden's personal guard to patrol and search along the perimeter of the prison.

Every time they passed an area or a corner, Shi Ding and Shi Lei would take two steps forward with their riot shields raised, make sure no one was in front of them, and then turn around and wave.

Han Che followed behind, and the riflemen would spread out to conduct careful scouting and reconnaissance.

We can't let the players ambush them.

The search was slow; after circling around the entire perimeter, they finally found no trace of anyone.

When they contacted the prison guards inside via intercom, they received the same response: nothing unusual.

It was as if the player operator had never been there at all.

"What?" Han Che asked in disbelief, "Zero players? They really didn't come in?"

After patrolling several times, Han Che really couldn't find any trace of the players.

Until the prison closes, the system pops up a reminder announcing that the number of player operators who entered the prison today is zero.

Only now did Han Che finally come to his senses, having spent the entire game of wits and courage against thin air.

Han Che had considered that the last operation could have deterred the player clubs from acting recklessly again.

But I never expected them to be so cowardly; this time they didn't send a single person.

After dismissing the prison guards, Han Che returned to his office alone, activated the system, opened the live stream webpage, and carefully reviewed the information.

A search for the keyword "Tidal Prison" revealed that the most recent video was a replay of a live stream released a day ago.

The title is "A Look Back at the Horrific Scene of the Last Operation," and it has garnered a lot of views.

Apart from that, there was no new live stream content.

Indeed, not many people were broadcasting live footage of the area surrounding Tide Prison; this wasn't because Han Che wanted to keep it a secret.

Simply because there were no operators available and the operation had commenced, these reporters simply stopped broadcasting live.

Thinking of this, Han Che sighed heavily, whether out of helplessness or relief. Oh well, if they didn't come, they didn't come. Their absence saves me some peace and quiet.

It would be even better if he never came again, then he could get rid of the defense he often had to deal with.

With more freedom in terms of time, Han Che's previous wish to live in the player world became easier to realize.