Chapter 179: Entropy Cloud

"Search completed."

The artificial intelligence whispered: "Species name: Entropy Cloud"

Danger level: 3

Species characteristics: The Entropy Cloud is a conceptual entity, lacking physical form, and is nearly immune to physical or energy-based attacks. When it detects a high-entropy target—typically a sentient being—it approaches silently and absorbs its information entropy.

The initial manifestation is the spontaneous disappearance of surrounding light. Because light, as an electromagnetic wave, carries information in its frequency, intensity, phase, polarization, and angular momentum.

Next, sound weakens. Then, the Entropy effect intensifies: book text fades, hard drives demagnetize, sentient beings' intelligence degrades, leading to varying degrees of memory loss, daze, and ultimately fainting or sudden death.

After consuming the information entropy of approximately twenty sentient beings, the Entropy Cloud gradually acquires form, transforming into the appearance of one of its absorbed targets. Only then can it be effectively attacked."

A level-3 danger entity

Zhao Zijing's heart lurched. Like the Special Affairs Bureau's anomaly fluctuation index, danger level has nothing to do with raw power—it reflects the threat level to players.

For example, the Global Supernatural Alliance Guild has its headquarters for the Arena Entities hidden inside a chamber called the 【Horn Room】.

In the ocean beside the Horn Room dwells a giant turtle-like creature, ten kilometers in length, radiating intense nuclear radiation; its heart is believed to be a large nuclear fission reactor.

Despite being such a nuclear-powered behemoth, it never hunts, spends its days motionless, and poses no threat to players—hence its danger level is only 1.

Meanwhile, a level-3 Entropy Cloud requires an entire squad of level-20 players to handle.

What do we do?

"We scatter."

The Crimson Driver shouted urgently: "There are only eight people on board—nowhere near the twenty-person threshold needed for the Entropy Cloud to solidify."

If it can't solidify, we can't attack."

"While we still can, split up, each take a lifeboat—there might still be a chance."

"Useless. It won't let anyone or anything leave."

Zhao Zijing slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, folded the 【Note of Seeking Death】 paper given to her by Master Pi Fu into a paper airplane, and launched it with her mental force away from the exploration vessel.

The paper airplane flew over a hundred meters—yet the Entropy Cloud enveloping the ship split off a tendril, tightly wrapping the airplane and preventing its escape.

It was an instinctive greed for food.

"Then what do we do?" Midnight Howl growled. "Driver, how many Poké Balls do you have? Can you gather twenty?"

"None."

The driver, unable to hide his frustration, gritted his teeth: "I only brought six—and even if they're Pokémon, their information entropy might not even reach human levels."

On one hand, he truly regarded his Pokémon as companions and refused to sacrifice them casually. On the other, Pokémon likely carried far less information entropy than humans.

"The ship's system—it's failing!"

London Miss Catherine cried in terror. As she said, Xiao Ai, who had been speaking normally, now emitted a bizarre, chaotic noise.

"Hello mi fan, Xiaomi SU7 0-100 km/h in 2.78 seconds, top speed 265 km/h, dual-motor all-wheel drive, only 215,900... ten thousand... ten thousand... ten thousand..."

Like HAL 9000 in the old film *2001: A Space Odyssey* having its logic module hard drive removed, Xiao Ai's voice grew deeper and more muddled until it vanished entirely into silence.

The hard drives aboard the ship had been stripped of all information entropy by the Entropy Cloud and demagnetized.

The ship's systems were completely dead. Engines shut down instantly. Zhao Zijing had to divert more mental energy to prevent the vessel from crashing into the tunnel wall.

The situation was dire as a pile of eggs. Midnight Howl said bitterly: "No wonder—the drawings on those papers showed all of us dying in total darkness."

Shhhraa!

Shhhraa!

A grating, nails-on-a-chalkboard noise came from the center of the ship.

The Crimson Driver froze for a moment, then realized—the sound seemed to come from Master Pi Fu's position. "Master Pi Fu, what are you doing?"

"I'm reading the Braille version of *Jin Ping Mei*."

Li Cheng said, "To break through confusion, one must draw confusion into awakening. Let me critique it."

This statement had too many absurd points. The driver held back for a moment, then couldn't help shouting: "Why did you bring *Jin Ping Mei* on a mission?! Why is it in Braille?! Why are you reading it now?! Are you trying to die a full belly?!"

Zhao Zijing suddenly understood—Master Pi Fu's intention.

The Entropy Cloud causes book text to fade. With no light, players couldn't see how far the text had vanished—but they could touch Braille, using touch to perceive the Entropy Cloud's progress in consuming information.

Shhhraa.

Li Cheng's fingers brushed over the Braille. The raised dots had inexplicably flattened, making the noise much quieter.

The Entropy Cloud's consumption sequence: light, sound waves, books, hard drives, humans.

These steps unfold in order, advancing progressively. Players will soon exhibit the symptoms described in the database: memory loss, daze, fainting, sudden death.

In fact, Catherine, Mendoza, and other ordinary people had already fallen silent. Midnight Howl and the Crimson Driver could feel themselves growing weaker by the second.

Li Cheng said: "The Entropy Cloud consumes hard drives before humans for two possible reasons. One: hard drives store information in more orderly formats, making them easier to absorb. Two: to the Entropy Cloud, human information storage capacity far exceeds that of hard drives."

"What's the point of knowing this?"

Midnight Howl rasped: "We can't magically produce more living people for it to consume."

"Not necessarily."

Li Cheng grinned, pulled a suit from his dimensional storage, and put it on.

In the darkness, everyone was baffled—then a powerful, deep African-American male voice rang out.

"I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

"I have a dream that even the state of Mississippi, a desert sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."

Those barely holding onto consciousness were stunned—this wasn't Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech?

Are you kidding?

Li Cheng wasn't joking. He activated his Multi-Threaded Mind Domain Method and Role-Playing Experience Method simultaneously, and recited Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech with solemn seriousness, then changed into several other outfits.

In the darkness, voices of different accents, tones, and languages kept emerging.

"Do you know how much a loaf of bread costs now? Five hundred thousand marks."

"Our Great Qing has plenty of gold and silver mountains — they'll never run out!"

"Make America Great Again!"

"Those who trespass upon the territory of Great Wu shall surely be struck down and shattered."

"Sukuna, right? I'm fifty-fifty with him — I solo him all the time."

These voices spanned ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, even two-dimensional cultural products, yet each was uncannily lifelike and brimming with spirit.

The crimson rider listened, dumbstruck, and instinctively recalled that passage from the textbook: "In the capital there was a master of the art of vocal mimicry, who needed only a table, a chair, a fan, and a wooden block."

Stranger still, as Li Cheng took on role after role, the stinging pain in everyone's brain gradually receded — and even the lightbulbs on the ship, as if possessed, began to glow.

Light enveloped them, and for the first time the crowd saw the Entropy-Eater Cloud clearly.

The thing had clearly devoured a massive amount of information entropy, gradually gaining substance, becoming a black cloud bearing dozens of human faces.

Every face was twisted in expression, radiating discomfort and weakness.

It had overeaten.