Chapter 28: The Path Forward

At midnight, Building 2, Unit 408, Segta Technology Industrial Park, Yunjin Road, Proletarian District, Yin City.

It was a standalone three-story building in classical style, with white walls and blue tiles, carved beams and painted rafters, its interior furnished with elegant, antique charm.

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

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

Prometheus Corporation's solution offered no complete cure. Other organizations presented conditions nearly identical.

Dr. Derek Acheson, chief research officer 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 civil rights during his final days, allowing gs Corp to subject him to a series of experiments including live dissection and drug testing.

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

A guild named 【Alliance of Demon Scientists】 proposed extracting Li Cheng's soul and preserving it as a soul crystal, at the cost of eternal confinement within a container, unable to interact with the outside world.

Relatively speaking, the most credible was 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 have always been an extremely rare resource. Aside from automatic selection by the Killing Ground, the only way to obtain them is for a non-player to kill a player and seize the qualifications.

During the early days of the Killing Ground game, when no rules existed, low-rank 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 to the death, they would kidnap his family beforehand, forcing compliance and demanding he surrender all resources gained from the Killing Ground—like "raising livestock."

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

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

Civilian chosen ones spontaneously formed guilds to oppose multinational corporations and state machinery, eventually establishing a dynamic equilibrium and a basic set of 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 special 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, or mechanical entity, making human rights irrelevant.

Pulling his thoughts back, Li Cheng surveyed the office.

Every painting on the wall moved: oil paintings showed oceans roaring 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.

Beneath the paintings stood a row of locked glass cabinets containing various items: from golden-glittering ancient daggers to long-barreled flintlock guns; from red-paper Chinese bridal robes 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 believed hidden 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, red copper, gold, or silver dragon. Reward negotiable.】

【Authentic sale: three dementors, bred in our own backyard, with bloodline certificates, gentle temperament, suitable for home guarding.】

【Eugene, male, 30, Lv10, former member of the Bell Tower. Defected after stealing seven golden arrows from the guild; currently believed hiding in Yin City.】

As the business card stated, World Nuclear Peace's operations spanned widely, accepting private commissions and collaborating with other guilds.

Creak—

Sun Zhenyao entered the office, shouldering a gray-and-white chinchilla, placing two rows of brown ampoules filled with transparent liquid on the desk.

"These are potent gene suppressants I acquired 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 Zhenyao sat in the boss's chair and said: "Thirty vials. 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 Zhenyao glanced at the black grease; a series of descriptions appeared in her vision.

【Name: Laughing Grease】

【Type: consumable】

【Quality: premium item】

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

【Consumption: none】

【Cooldown: none】

【Usage Condition: no prior supernatural 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.】

"Premium item Laughing Grease?"

Sun Zhenyao tucked away the black grease, 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, lacking any formal management structure—likely even without a headquarters."

Sun Zhenyao said: "Troupe members pursue theatrical effect as their life's goal. Sometimes they suddenly appear to help official organizations resolve anomalies; sometimes they themselves are the creators of anomalies."

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

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 any profit-based understanding; it's best to avoid them entirely.

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"Understood. Thank you for the warning."

Li Cheng nodded, packed the ampoule, and took it with him.

"Wait." Changsun Yao took out two more items and tossed them to Li Cheng.

One was a black-packaged spray can resembling an air freshener, the other a medicine bottle.

"The spray can holds an odor-removing agent that can clear every unusual scent off your body, preventing detection by other Bug Lord infected hosts.

The pills in the medicine bottle can raise heart rate and pulse, with no side effects."

Changsun Yao said: "In the Special Affairs Bureau's Skynet surveillance system, there's a technique called Eulerian Video Magnification.

The technique filters pixel brightness in video, and through the extremely minute changes in facial color caused by blood circulation, it can observe heartbeat and pulse frequency.

Transcendents' physical condition far surpasses ordinary people's, so their heartbeat and pulse unconsciously slow down. The Special Affairs Bureau has used this metric to discover quite a few anomalies hiding among the populace.

Your current heartbeat level is fine, but during genetic mutation, you could still be detected by cameras at high-security venues like high-speed rail stations or airports.

These two items count as complimentary gifts, no charge. If you have more good things later, you can come to me for barter."

"Okay."

Li Cheng accepted the two gifts, stood up to say goodbye and left World Peace House. Facing the cold wind, he breathed into his palms, then walked into the vast night.

Changsun Yao lay in the boss's chair, leaning back, hands behind her head, her slender legs propped on the desk, her bright eyes gazing at the bright moon outside the window, lost in thought.

"Squeak squeak squeak—"

The grey-white chinchilla on her shoulder squeaked a few times. She turned her head to glance at her pet and said casually: "You're asking why I'm so kind to him? Hmm. Maybe it's because I saw the shadow of my former self in him."

(End of chapter)