Chapter 27: Tyrant

Changsun Yao stepped out of Starbucks and pressed her car key. A parked electric vehicle at the end of the street lit up its headlights, autonomously gliding out of its spot and arriving at the café's entrance.

Autonomous parking technology was only recently legalized and installed on certain vehicle models.

"Get in."

Changsun Yao opened the door, slid into the driver's seat, while Li Cheng took a seat in the back, fastening his seatbelt and murmuring, "I thought you'd vanish again, like last time."

? c〇

"That's my personal skill. Players expend resources like Qi points to activate skills; when it's not urgent, it's better to use ordinary transportation."

Changsun Yao fastened her seatbelt and added casually, "Also, using supernatural powers in the real Earth accelerates the expansion of rifts. You know what rifts are, right?"

"I know."

Li Cheng nodded. "The experiment subjects in the Killing Field fall into the real world through rifts, causing disasters."

"Exactly. According to the Global Supernatural Alliance, supernatural power is like CFCs in the ozone layer crisis. The more you use it, the blurrier the boundary between reality and the Killing Field becomes, and the more frequent the anomalies grow."

Changsun Yao smirked. "Before, no one knew this rule. People abused supernatural powers, causing rifts to proliferate."

Four years ago, a Category 5 hurricane struck the U. S. East Coast, leaving over a million homeless and killing thousands.

That was the official story. In truth, a rift event occurred—a dragon-shaped divine corruption escaped from the Killing Field.

At the time, the Killing Field had only opened for half a year; players' levels were too low to fight it. Nuclear missiles launched by the military were destroyed by the hurricane and lightning surrounding the divine corruption.

In the end, an American player piloted a fighter jet, flew close enough to drop a nuclear bomb directly onto the divine corruption's face, and combined it with a Scroll of Dragon-Slaying Slash to blast it back into the rift and banish it to the Killing Field.

That dragon-shaped divine corruption, with its white feathered wings and golden dragon horns, was named Tianjin Huotu.

"Taken from Monster Hunter's Lagiacrus?" Li Cheng said. "Kinda... anime."

"The Killing Field occasionally releases scripted missions that overlap with real-world artistic works—games, animations, comics, novels. Players study all kinds of art to improve their survival rates."

Changsun Yao said, "Besides the Tianjin Huotu incident, the 2020 Busan gas leak in South Korea, the 2021 London Fog Killer incident, and the New York Underground Ratman incident—all were Red Alert-level catastrophes. One misstep and an entire city could collapse."

The real world has a carbon footprint; we players have a 'supernatural element footprint.' Abusing power makes you an enemy of all humanity, punishable by death.

Thus, even the top-tier powerhouses who ignore human laws rarely unleash power on Earth—for their own sake.

Protecting the environment is everyone's duty. It makes sense.

The car drove through the bustling streets. Li Cheng thought for a moment and asked again, "Why give me a free ride? I thought guild leaders were always busy."

"Three reasons. One, I'm still pretty bored. Might as well do something."

"Two, I'm a broker. One of a broker's professional codes is to treat everyone as a potential client—especially in the Killing Field, where anything is possible. A kindness you show today might save your life tomorrow."

Changsun Yao drove along the navigation map, calmly adding, "Three, you're interesting."

"Interesting?" Li Cheng raised an eyebrow slightly.

"The Killing Field selects players based on individuals possessing traits far more pronounced than those of most of their kind."

Changsun Yao said, "You're far superior to ordinary people. Logically, you should've been selected long before your transformation. But you weren't."

And after being infected by the Lord of Insects and gaining supernatural power, you met even more stringent selection criteria—you were more qualified to become a player. Yet you still weren't chosen."

Such cases aren't unheard of, but they're rare enough. That's why I find you interesting."

Is this... a compliment?

Li Cheng smiled wryly inside, gazing out the window.

One month. He had only one month left to live.

Before this, Li Cheng rarely thought about life and death—even after learning he was infected by the Lord of Insects, he remained optimistic, actively seeking a cure.

Now, with the cold deadline staring him in the face, he suddenly felt a heavy, unreal weight.

"We're here."

Changsun Yao stopped the car. Ahead loomed the towering Prometheus Laboratories branch in Yin City.

It was deep night. No security guards patrolled outside—instead, two three-meter-tall bipedal robots stood guard.

They featured reverse-jointed legs, with retractable roller-skate wheels beneath their wide feet. On both sides, their arms mounted police-grade stun guns and high-pressure water cannons. Their bodies were coated in black bulletproof fiber.

Their overall design resembled the ED-209 robot from old movies.

And their name was indeed ED-209—Prometheus Laboratories had outright purchased the design copyright from the film studio and deployed them as security robots.

Called security robots, but swap their stun guns and water cannons for machine guns and flamethrowers, and they instantly become battlefield units.

Li Cheng followed Changsun Yao into the lobby. Someone who recognized her immediately approached warmly, learned their purpose, and escorted them upstairs via elevator.

They were led to a tastefully decorated, luxurious reception room.

Several suited waiters arranged tea sets and brewed a pot of tea. Changsun Yao reclined casually on the sofa, sipping the tea as if it were bubble tea. After a moment, a blond, blue-eyed man and a middle-aged professor entered the room.

"Good evening. I am August Perez, Security Director of the Prometheus branch."

The blond man from that night by the canal introduced himself in fluent Mandarin: "It's late, or else our boss would've hosted a banquet for you, Miss Changsun."

"Oh, by the way, this is my friend Derek Acheson, Research Director of Gen-Sys Biotech's Yin City branch."

"I just happened to be here discussing a business project with Prometheus. What a coincidence."

The middle-aged professor smiled politely. "Miss Changsun, it's been a long time. May I ask your companion's name?"

He turned his gaze to Li Cheng. After a pause, Li Cheng replied calmly, "Call me Master Pi Fu."

"Taken from 'Pi Fu Han Shu'? A good name. Players facing the Killing Field's relentless pressure are indeed like ants fighting for survival."

Derek, familiar with Chinese culture, nodded approvingly.

In truth, Li Cheng hadn't thought that far—he'd absorbed ant DNA first, then mantis DNA.

"Pi Fu Han Shu" and "Tang Bi Dang Che" mean nearly the same thing—both carry a sense of absurd, Don Quixote-like fate.

Security Director August sat across from them. After learning the situation, he interlaced his fingers on the table and said seriously, "Then, Master Pi Fu, let's speak plainly."

"First, all divine corruption infections are problematic—especially the Lord of Insects."

The Lord of Insects' infection isn't localized; it permeates every cell's DNA in the entire body—including brain cells."

Over time, it continuously rewrites the entire genome until the host is fully transformed into a monster.

This kind of situation is hard to resolve at any guild, including the Special Affairs Bureau and the Global Paranormal Alliance.

Our Prometheus Company has three solutions for this.

One, we extract your brain and place it into the latest model of humanoid robot.

Your appearance will be no different from an ordinary person's, and because the brain is constantly soaked in a gene suppressant, your human lifespan will be extended from one month to six months. The price for this plan is thirty thousand Killing Grounds currency, which converts to roughly three hundred million RMB."

The exchange rate between Killing Grounds currency and RMB is about one to ten thousand, and if the market is tight, the rate will rise further.

"The second plan is a bit cheaper, only forty million. We extract your brain and place it into a nutrient tank, where it can be connected to the network via cables. Lifespan is still six months; the drawback is you won't be able to live normally in human society."

"The third plan is, we give you money."

August rubbed his palms together and said seriously, "Prometheus Company is very interested in high-stage Worm Master infected bodies. If you're willing, you can join our research project, or you can sell us your mutated corpse after death—Prometheus is willing to pay sixty million to acquire it."

Negotiating how much a corpse can sell for while still alive—looking at it from any angle, this whole thing is surreal.

Li Cheng thought for a moment, then asked calmly, "What would you do with the mutated corpse?"

August answered honestly, "Turn it into a defensive war machine. Similar to the Tyrant in Resident Evil."

"Is that legal?"

"As long as you sign the consent-for-donation form."

August said, "Prometheus is a scientific research company; using corpses for scientific research does not violate the law."

The other party's earnest attitude made Li Cheng suddenly think of a recruitment ad he'd seen online recently—work location in northern Europe, Sweden, five busy hours a day, monthly salary sixty thousand, plus five social insurances and one housing fund, free employee housing, and the company even helps you find a partner.

The only thing you need to pay attention to is that before flying to Sweden, you have to transit through northern Myanmar first.

Are you harvesting kidneys here?

(End of chapter)