Chapter 175: Compared to Carving

To adapt to script missions, this exploration vessel of the Global Supernatural Alliance had been modified to autonomously navigate, avoiding obstacles with only one or two crew members—or even none—at the helm.

The water was salty and fishy, like seawater. The entire city lay dead silent, with not a single security guard in sight.

Zhao Zijing set the coordinates, letting the vessel sail autonomously, then pulled out a tablet and a Dragon Pearl capsule, releasing hundreds of small drones from the capsule.

All drones took to the air, flying in different directions, scanning the entire city with laser rangefinders to build a model on the tablet while searching for exits.

The GOC and major guilds had agreements: each time they left the Slums to explore a Killing Ground, they scanned and downloaded the surveyed terrain and uploaded it to a shared database.

Dangerous species were also captured and handed over to research institutions, with their species profiles uploaded to the database.

If the drones could identify familiar landmark structures, they could determine the players' relative distance from the Slums.

They might even locate the Whale Song Organization's signal station and use a landline to contact other players.

(Communication via friend systems was disabled during missions, and satellite phones had no signal due to distance and rock layers—landlines were the only option.)

Or even directly discover major guild outposts or supply points to obtain provisions.

Katherine, a woman from London, and Miles, a Black youth from Detroit, were still in chaos, visibly tense.

Mendoza, from a Philippine aristocratic family, seemed to know something about the supernatural world and nervously said to Zhao Zijing: "Young Lady Zhao, I swear I'll follow orders, and after we leave here, I'll contribute the reward I receive."

"No need to contribute. If you survive until mission end, the guild you join later will pay us veterans a reward—usually one thousand game coins per person."

Zhao Zijing mentioned it offhand, stepped past the three, and turned to the last person—a burn victim wrapped entirely in bandages.

He was unconscious; beneath his sterile gauze, a strong medicinal ointment smell emanated, as if he'd just been teleported from a hospital bed.

The bumpy ride had ruptured his wounds, leaking more foul-smelling blood.

Zhao Zijing frowned slightly. "There's a medical bay on board."

"No need for that trouble," Midnight Howl shook his head. Considering the thousand-game-coin reward per new recruit, he pulled a syringe from his backpack slot and jabbed it into the burn victim's arm, pushing the plunger all the way in.

His monster alliance guild specialized in non-humans, its members mostly possessing non-human bloodlines—vampires, werewolves, mummies, dragonfolk, and the like.

The syringe contained an emergency serum provided by the guild's lizardman physician (drawn from his own blood), effectively stimulating cell regeneration to heal burns, frostbite, neurodegenerative diseases, and more.

It would significantly increase cancer risk in the future, but as Gen-Sys Corporation's advertisement said: if you can't survive today, tomorrow doesn't matter.

With one injection, the man's decaying skin slightly healed; he opened his eyes slowly, awakening, voice hoarse: "Where am I?"

"You're awake?" Li Cheng adjusted his glasses, calmly saying: "Good. You're the most capable among those who came this time."

So you're not playing Chu Xuan—you're playing Zhang Jie now? And why is the last one to wake up the most capable? Is this some kind of sleep contest?

Chi Hong Che Shou suppressed his urge to rant and walked to the bow deck, gazing into the distance.

Seeing the bandaged man awake, Zhao Zijing, as usual, explained the situation in three sentences and asked for his personal details and the last thing he remembered.

The bandaged man's memories were chaotic—he couldn't recall his name, address, or nationality, only vaguely remembering he was a firefighter, his last memory frozen at four and a half years ago. He was the one among the four unlucky souls who had fallen into the fissure with the longest time gap.

Midnight Howl said: "Just stick with us. If you're lucky enough to complete the mission, you can become a player and return to Earth."

The bandaged man hugged his head, eyes red, muttering dazedly over and over: "Four and a half years, four and a half years."

From the perspective of the real world, those snatched by fissures vanished without a trace. For someone like Mendoza, an aristocratic rich kid, it was manageable—he could return and resume his comforts. But for ordinary people, four and a half years was too long—it could change everything.

"Is there truly no way to return to the exact moment I disappeared?" the bandaged man said painfully. "My family is waiting for me. I must go back."

"Stop thinking about it. What's done is done—you must accept reality," Zhao Zijing said calmly. "Unless you get absurdly lucky and find an undiscovered, powerful Hidden Chamber that can grant wishes or time travel—but the odds are ten thousand times lower than winning hundreds of millions on a random lottery ticket."

"Everyone!"

A solemn voice came from the bow: "We've got trouble."

A dense rustling filled the air as countless insect-like creatures crawled out of surrounding buildings.

These insects had elongated bodies nearly fifty centimeters long, lined with legs on both sides, and were terrified of seawater—they scrambled up building exteriors, clustering tightly on rooftops.

As far as the eye could see, every rooftop still above water was packed with these strange insects—numbering possibly hundreds of millions. It sent chills down the spine.

Li Cheng rubbed his chin, muttering: "They look somewhat like an enlarged version of the order Pselliodidae."

Midnight Howl instinctively said: "You know this?"

"Just a little."

Since acquiring the Multi-Threaded Brain Domain Method, Li Cheng had read vast amounts of entomology material and added casually: "The order Pselliodidae has three families: Pselliodidae, Scutigerinidea, and Scutigeridae—the true centipedes."

"Pselliodidae is the only family with antennae nearly equal in length and width; the other two have antennae wider than long."

He paused, then turned to Bibird beside Chi Hong Che Shou: "To become an excellent Pokémon trainer, you need abundant biological knowledge and good memory. Isn't that right, Bibird?"

"Bibi?" Bibird tilted its head, confused.

"I'm not talking to you."

Chi Hong Che Shou grimaced, patting his Pokémon.

Master Pi Fu was referring to Bibird from the Pokémon anime, which debuted in episode three and departed in episode 82 on January 28, 1999.

At that time, the protagonist Ash left his evolved Beedrill in the forest to protect Pidgey, promising to return after finishing his business—and then forgot about it!

Over twenty real-world years passed, countless episodes aired, before Ash finally returned to Pallet Town and reunited with Beedrill in the Pokémon series finale—arguably the earliest case of workplace PUA.

Zhao Zijing ignored their banter, tapped the GOC tablet several times, comparing the drones' images of the insects against the offline database to identify them.

"Shadow Centipede, a species unique to Killing Ground entities. Its jaws and claws connect to internal venom glands, each secreting corrosive toxins capable of killing large mammals. Resembles the real-world Pselliodidae family. Gregarious. Threat Level 1."

Zhao Zijing spoke rapidly: "This species' threat level is similar to the Special Affairs Bureau's anomaly fluctuation index—ranging from zero to five, higher means more dangerous. We need to retreat."

She rushed into the bridge, shoved the ship's acceleration lever to fourth gear, and sped ahead at full speed.

Too bad—it was already too late.

Water levels kept rising; more and more tall buildings were submerged, the surface littered with black insect corpses.

The remaining hundreds of millions of centipedes used their dead kin as stepping stones, surging toward the vessel, climbing up its hull. The toxins at the tips of their legs immediately corroded dense holes into the ship's surface.

(End of Chapter)