Chapter 28: The Path of Survival

Late at night, Building 2, Unit 408, Sai Ge Tower Science and Industry Park, Yunjin Road, Puluo District, Yin City.

It was a standalone three-story building in classical style, with white walls, blue tiles, carved beams, and painted rafters; its interior was elegantly furnished in an ancient, aromatic aesthetic.

Li Cheng sat in the third-floor office, gazing out the window.

For hours, he had accompanied Sun Zhaoyao visiting various branches of organizations in Yin City.

Prometheus Corporation’s solution offered no complete cure; other organizations provided conditions nearly identical.

Dr. Derek Acheson, head of research at gen-sys Biotech, stated their latest gene suppressant could extend Li Cheng’s lifespan to six months.

The cost was that Li Cheng must sign a contract surrendering his bodily rights to GS Corporation during his final days, allowing them to conduct experiments including live dissection and drug trials.

A guild named 【Beast of a Thousand Throats】, specializing in selling monster familiars, offered to turn Li Cheng into a corpse demon—leaving his family with a keepsake and a bodyguard.

A guild named 【Alliance of Demon Scientists】 proposed extracting his soul and crystallizing it into a long-term preserved soul crystal, at the cost of eternal confinement within the container, unable to interact with the outside world.

Relatively speaking, the most credible option came from a guild called 【Whale Song】, specializing in computer and electronic information technology.

Their latest technology could scan and upload a portion of a person’s consciousness, achieving a form of “digital immortality.”

However, the technology still faced numerous unsolved problems; the uploaded “person” lived only a few minutes on the server, unable to retain memories, forced to endlessly loop.

Li Cheng did not consider this a "cure." When he asked if he could purchase player qualifications and enter the Killing Ground himself to seek treatment, every organization gave a negative answer.

Player qualifications were an extremely rare resource in any era. Aside from automatic selection by the Killing Ground, the only way to obtain them was for a non-player to kill a player and seize the qualifications.

When the Killing Ground first opened, with no rules in place, low-tier players were no different from livestock.

Multinational corporations, gangs, terrorist organizations, regional warlords, and even agencies like the CIA regularly hunted players, killing them to transfer their qualifications to "their own people."

If a player tried to fight back, they would kidnap the player’s family beforehand, forcing compliance and demanding all resources gained from the Killing Ground be handed over—like “breeding.”

Only after early players grew strong enough to resist modern weapons did balance finally emerge.

Multinational corporations stopped using violence to collect qualifications, instead cooperating with civilian players by offering high salaries to buy, hire, or even arrange marriages.

Civilian chosen ones spontaneously formed guilds to counter multinational corporations and state machinery, eventually establishing a dynamic equilibrium with basic rules, escaping the barbaric growth phase.

To this day, any guild seeking to maintain a good reputation would never openly sell player qualifications.

Even if available, it occurred only under extremely rare circumstances—such as when a non-human entity killed a human player and acquired the qualifications, and the guild happened to capture that monster, ghost, demon, or mechanical body, rendering human rights irrelevant.

Pulling his thoughts back, Li Cheng surveyed the office.

Every painting on the wall moved: oil paintings showed oceans raging with towering waves, sailors on ships screaming desperately as they hauled in sails to battle the storm.

Ink-wash paintings depicted waterfalls cascading down, stirring white mist, while ancient figures beside the pool played chess.

Below the paintings stood a row of locked glass cabinets containing various items: from gleaming ancient daggers to long-barreled flintlock guns; from red-paper Chinese bridal gowns to inactive lightsaber hilts.

Beside the glass cabinets were two movable blackboards covered with bounty posters.

【Meng Xiucheng, male, 40, Lv17, unaffiliated with any guild. To enhance his strength, triggered a Red-Rank anomaly event in Meng City; currently hiding in Killing Ground zone (-52, 17, 290). Bounty: 7500】

【Lynn, female, age unknown, Lv27, former member of the Alliance of Demon Scientists. Extremely dangerous. If encountered in the Killing Ground, immediately notify the Global Supernatural Alliance. Any valuable information will earn over 2000】

【Bounty: Unhatched dragon egg. Requires a fantasy-system metallic dragon, such as brass, bronze, copper, gold, or silver dragon. Reward negotiable】

【Honest sale: three Dementors, bred in my own backyard, with pedigree certificates, gentle temperament, suitable for guarding homes】

【Eugene, male, 30, Lv10, former Zhong Lou member. Defected after stealing seven golden arrows from the guild; currently hiding somewhere in Yin City】

As the business card stated, World Nuclear Peace House operated an extremely broad range of services, accepting private commissions and collaborating with other guilds.

Creak—

The office door opened from outside; Sun Zhaoyao entered, shouldering a gray-and-white dragon cat, placing two rows of brown ampoules filled with transparent liquid on the desk.

“These are potent gene suppressants I obtained through the European Heavy Industry channel. Though European Heavy Industry isn’t as specialized in bioengineering as GS Corp, it’s still among the top industry pioneers.”

Sun Zhaoyao sat in the boss’s chair and said, “Thirty bottles. Take one every two days. It will suppress the insect transformation reaction and extend your human lifespan to two months.”

“Thank you.”

Li Cheng nodded and, as agreed, placed on the desk the semi-solid black grease he had seized from Cai Zixuan as payment.

Sun Zhaoyao glanced at the black grease, and a series of descriptions appeared in her vision.

【Name: Laughing Grease】

【Type: Consumable】

【Quality: Fine】

【Effect: Final Performance. After application, greatly enhances physical attributes while inducing uncontrollable bloodlust and rage. If the rage phase is survived, the enhancement becomes permanent】

【Consumption: None】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Condition: No prior transcendental enhancement】

【Note: Western theater originated in ancient Greece and Rome. This product is made from Pompeii volcanic ash. Thanks to these ashes, modern people know ancient Romans had gray skin, no hair, and liked lying on their floorboards, using stones as blankets】

【Note: When unhappy, take a convertible for a drive. When sad, take a helicopter for a spin.】

“Fine-quality Laughing Grease?”

Sun Zhaoyao tucked the black grease away, surprised. “Did you encounter someone from the 【Laughing Troupe】?”

“Sort of.” Li Cheng thought of the giant in the hospital. “Was this made by them?”

“Yes. The 【Laughing Troupe】 is a notoriously infamous atypical guild—no formal management structure, possibly no headquarters at all.”

Sun Zhaoyao said, “Its members pursue theatrical effect as their life’s goal. Sometimes they appear suddenly to help official organizations resolve anomalies; other times, they themselves are the source of the anomalies.”

This item is one of their props, greatly enhancing physical attributes at the cost of inducing bloodlust and rage.

Once, they dumped a barrel of this stuff into the meals of an international summer camp, causing over a hundred elementary schoolchildren from various countries to slaughter each other—only one survived.

The reason? One of them wanted to write an article titled “Competition in Summer Camp.”

These people are a collection of pleasure-seeking psychopaths, lunatics, thrill-seekers, mental deviants, fanatics, and madmen. Their logic defies conventional profit motives—best to avoid them entirely.

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“Understood. Thank you for the warning.”

Li Cheng nodded, packed the ampoules, and left.

“Wait.” Sun Zhaoyao pulled out two more items and tossed them to Li Cheng.

One was a black aerosol can resembling an air freshener; the other, a pill bottle.

“The aerosol contains deodorant—it removes all odors from your body, preventing detection by other insect-lord-infected beings.”

“The pills in the bottle increase heart rate and pulse, with no side effects.”

Sun Zhaoyao said, “The Special Affairs Bureau’s SkyNet surveillance system uses a technology called Eulerian Video Magnification.”

This technique filters pixel brightness in video, detecting minute color changes on the face caused by blood circulation to observe heartbeats and pulse frequency.

Transcendental beings possess physical attributes far beyond normal humans; their heartbeats and pulses naturally slow. The Special Affairs Bureau once used this metric to uncover many hidden anomalies among the population.

Your current heart rate is fine, but during gene mutation, you might still be detected by cameras at high-security locations like high-speed rail stations or airports.

These two items are complimentary gifts—no charge. If you have anything good in the future, you can come here for barter.”

“Alright.”

Li Cheng accepted the two gifts, stood, bid farewell, and stepped out of World Nuclear Peace House, exhaling into the cold wind, then vanished into the vast night.

Sun Zhaoyao lay back in the boss’s chair, head tilted, hands clasped behind her head, long legs propped on the desk, her bright eyes fixed on the moon outside, lost in thought.

“Squeak-squeak-squeak—”

The gray-and-white dragon cat on her shoulder squeaked a few times. She turned her head to glance at her pet, then said casually, “You ask why I’m so kind to him? Hmm… maybe I see a reflection of my former self in him.”

(End of Chapter)