manynovel Chapter 484 There is no perfect machine in the world
Chapter 484 There is no perfect machine in the world
Chapter 486 There is no perfect machine in the world
Basically, there are three ways to evade surveillance. Although the process was a bit complicated, Yueju still heard the detective's experience as a security consultant from him during the aftermath of that tea party.
The simplest and most basic method is, of course, to physically destroy the surveillance camera.
To facilitate mass production and assembly, these surveillance devices are typically highly integrated in structure. Therefore, individual devices rarely have redundant mechanisms to maintain operation even after lens damage. In other words, any deliberate act of vandalism or interference, such as a well-timed flash of light or a smokescreen obscuring the view, can often temporarily disable it—a similar incident occurred recently in the Hoenn region.
However, this approach can only work if there is no second "eye" nearby. Otherwise, no matter how fast the vandal is, by the time they destroy the first camera, the footage recorded by the other cameras will have already been uploaded to the cloud server, and any subsequent remedial action will be too late.
The second method is hacking.
A classic approach is to extract a segment of footage from a surveillance camera and repeatedly play it on a screen in the monitoring room to deceive the attacker. However, this method is so well-known due to its portrayal in various films and television shows that any moderately advanced surveillance system will have countermeasures against it.
But real hacking techniques go far beyond that. To achieve the effect of blocking vision, they can also attack servers to change timestamps, spread viruses that can lie dormant for a long time in advance, design artificial blind spots by targeting the deflection mechanism of the camera, or even forcibly shut down the entire monitoring system. In short, compared to maintaining the seamless operation of a huge monitoring network, it is often easier to find its vulnerable points and strike them precisely.
However, this requires strong technical means. Nowadays, some large cybersecurity companies also train specialized multi-sided beasts or Rotoms as electronic sentinels to prevent similar risks, which makes such hacking attacks more difficult.
The third approach is to exploit blind spots in the surveillance system to bypass its limitations from the front. This is precisely the method that Lanju actually used inside the castle maze.
Bisharp doesn't use the "Light Screen" move that can distort light, otherwise Calamari would be much easier to move—but this Dark-type Pokémon's limbs are equipped with weapons far more reliable than Optical Trick: blades capable of cutting through steel.
The moment the teleportation device on the city wall was triggered, and before the blue light at the other end of the castle had dissipated, Commander Chopping, who had entered the unfamiliar space with Yueju, had already made his move before landing.
It was neither a test nor a parry, but rather a compression of all explosive power into a single line—"Guillotine".
Aim at the nearest wall!
The energy, enough to kill any Pokémon in one blow, extended into a thin blade at the tip, so that the sound of it cutting into the wall was as slight as tearing silk. In an instant, a hole with edges as smooth as an industrial cut was formed. This kind of slash, completed in a breath, combining explosive power and precision, is something that even a master craftsman in the martial arts world would find difficult to replicate.
At the same time that Commander Chopping Slash launched his attack, Cranberry disappeared into the rift he created.
In other words, from the very first second he entered the maze, this gambling king was never in any of the "passages".
His hiding place was in a gap between layers that existed within the maze walls themselves.
No matter how meticulous the "City Defense Master's" surveillance network is, its pre-set observation targets are limited to "passable spaces." The walls themselves, as part of the maze, are not within the system's surveillance logic. Because the castle itself has a transformation mechanism, even the monitor, Gerald, cannot remember the length and details of every wall in the maze. Therefore, when Lanju disguised herself as part of a wall using a cut-off wall panel, Gerald completely lost the means to track her—after all, when he saw the image of an empty corridor, he would only subconsciously conclude that "the target has already escaped to another area."
As a result, the blueberry gained valuable time to act, as well as an observation window that no one could discover.
Although he couldn't directly see those "eyes" hidden deep within the decorative lines and embedded in the shadows of the wall crevices, those eyes that monitored the maze in place of the "city defense masters," he didn't need to see them.
As a frequent visitor to casinos, a rule deconstructor, and even an "insider" who designed a super casino from scratch, Yueju also possesses an almost instinctive intuition about the underlying logic of surveillance layout. He knows that no matter how concealed a camera is, its field of view will inevitably have a fixed range; no matter how real-time a system is, its signal processing will inevitably have a sequence delay; and no matter how dense the coverage, its nodes will always have a deliberate setting of scanning timing differences to avoid mutual interference.
He doesn't need to be faster than the speed of light; he only needs to be faster than the system's recognition interval and the operator's reaction time of a fraction of a second.
By using the Splitter Commander to create a feinting "shadow," throwing stones and brick fragments in blind spots to trigger sensor misjudgments, and combining this with the Splitter Commander's mobility to slip into wall gaps at any time—the 'Orange' is like a precisely calculated error, always navigating the crack between the system's "perception" and "judgment."
Now, the accumulation of errors has reached a critical point.
Just like winning or losing in a casino—
A true fatal blow can be delivered in an instant.
"As expected, there are legendary elf-level guardians here."
Standing before Ironhead, its horns and hooves now devoid of light, lying limp on the ground, Yueju gently touched the cold metal shell with the tip of its shoe. Confirming that the creature was completely incapacitated, it slowly let out a sigh of relief.
"Judging from this guy's reaction speed just now—the person behind the surveillance camera really didn't notice my whereabouts before."
He muttered to himself, still shaken—
"It's alright. I was worried that my hiding movements might have been recorded by the surveillance cameras—if I had struck those embarrassing poses on camera and they had been saved, it wouldn't just be as ridiculous as it sounds."
Bisharp, the main force of the Dark-type Elite Four, had actually met the evolution requirements a long time ago. The reason why it didn't take the final step in the past was twofold: firstly, to use the pressure of suppressed evolution to hone Bisharp's strength through a kind of weighted training; secondly, to give some real enemies a surprise.
Upon seeing Ironhead, Yueju judged that it was no longer time to hide its strength, so it told Bisharp Commander not to suppress its evolution any longer.
At the same time, he also gave the evolved Pokémon a Capsule, temporarily changing its original "Unyielding" ability to the "Admiral" ability, which increases the power of its moves based on the number of fallen allies. This Dark-type Elite Four member was particularly adept at using such items, which some trainers considered "shortcuts" or "forbidden," and even Kalos, the Fire-type Elite Four member, had stumbled on this before.
There were still no obvious surveillance cameras in the corridor, but Yueju's gaze remained fixed on the seemingly endless darkness ahead.
"Gero, the 'City Defense Master'—you're the one who controls this castle, aren't you?"
The gambler's voice echoed with unusual clarity in the confined space—
"When I infiltrated the cult last time, I already noticed Team Plasma's strange money flow. I never expected you would donate money to the underground renovation project of the Unova Alliance headquarters. As the current Unova Elite Leader, shouldn't I—say thank you?"
The long, narrow corridor was silent, offering no response to the mockery.
Only the deep hum of machinery starting up again came from deep within the walls, along with the subtle creaking sounds of structural stress being released.
"Trying to use the same old tricks to turn the maze back into a trap for me?" Yueju scoffed. "Too bad, it's too late."
He turned and ran towards the area behind where Ironhead Shell had been guarding.
Yueju clearly remembered how long it took for the maze to collapse from a complex network into this narrow passage. Therefore, he understood that it would certainly take at least a similar amount of time to disassemble and reassemble this simplified structure.
And so, before the wall, which had just begun to reshape, had fully risen and before the ground slabs had flipped, the Servant of the Blades, running behind the trainer, had already swung its blade once more. The Dark-type energy that had once severely damaged Ironhead was now highly concentrated, transforming into a deep black arc of light, slashing towards the alloy wall that hadn't had time to add more protective layers!
boom-!
The wall shattered with a crack, sending fragments flying inward. A far more concentrated energy aura than that in the corridor rushed out from behind the breach, even carrying a faint, palpable temperature fluctuation.
"Looks like we're really close to the core area." Blueberry perked up. The direction Hugo's little grass turtle had pointed out was indeed correct.
Almost simultaneously, two neat square holes suddenly and silently slid open on the previously seamless alloy walls on both sides of the corridor. Two steel figures, identical to those in Ironhead Shell, shot out from the darkness—it was none other than Iron Spotted Leaf and Iron Rock, who had fought against Wanlong and Lianwu.
One green and one yellow, one to the left and one to the right, precisely blocked the path in front of the blueberries.
"Heh, looks like you guys aren't at your best."
Cranberry's gaze swept over the minor, not-yet-fully-healed dents on both of them, and she whistled. "You've been fighting my colleagues, haven't you? What kind of twisted sense of humor led Team Plasma to create the Guardians in the likeness of the Three Holy Swords?"
The two artificial Pokémon simply answered with their actions.
With their forelegs stomping the ground, energy rapidly condensed above their heads—one or two blazing white blades of different colors but sharing the same powerful aura slashed out fiercely! It was a martial arts technique called "Holy Sword," modeled after the legendary Holy Swordsman's fighting style.
Because the "electric field" left by the iron shell is still in effect, their movements are so swift that they leave afterimages, and their slashing trajectories are so sharp that they can almost cut through the air.
Seeing this, the Servant General bravely blocked the Trainer's path with his sword, and the "Protect" barrier instantly opened.
However, the combined power of the two holy swords far exceeded that of ordinary swords. Upon impact, the barrier surface rippled violently, emitting a groan of unbearable strain. While the Dark Steel-type Servant could resist both of their STAB attacks, it was still helpless against Fighting-type moves that were four times super effective against it.
The enemy behind the monitor was obviously aware of this as well. Iron Leaf and Iron Rock showed no intention of changing their moves. They gathered their energy and unleashed two more "Holy Sword" attacks!
Just as Yueju's pupils constricted, calculating whether to retreat and temporarily avoid the brunt of the attack—
"Thunder God—'Divine Speed'!"
"Old Craftsman, 'Sonic Fist'!"
Two sharp shouts and the sound of air being torn apart suddenly erupted from behind Yueju—the very path he had taken to sneak into the maze!
Golden lightning and a fist wind that tore through the air, like two violent torrents, swept past the sides of the blueberry tree, crashing fiercely into the iron-spotted leaf and the iron rock! The explosive sound of the energy collision shook the corridor.
The sudden pincer attack caused the two mechanical guards to pause, and the trajectory of the "Holy Sword" was momentarily disrupted.
The voice of the Ghost-type Elite Four member followed closely behind, clear and decisive—
"There are no energy harvesting devices in this area! Take care of them now! Crystal Chandelier Spirit—use 'Purgatory' to counter 'Misfortunes Never Come Alone'!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a dark purple flame swept in from behind like a tide, carrying a temperature so low it could burn away souls, merging with the attacks of the Thunder God and the old craftsman into a destructive torrent.