Chapter 291: Identity

With the reinforcements joining, the teetering defensive line was immediately shored up.

Li Cheng snapped his fingers, and the long-range artillery, guided by drones, struck with precision—one gun firing with the force of six, blasting the monsters that couldn't flee into utter disarray.

Baiji Bear shifted from its orange-cat form into a lion-bodied, eagle-headed griffin, helping deal with aerial enemies.

As for Grey Rain, she broke out of the encirclement and, like a pet Shiba Inu, spun around on the spot, shaking off the organ fragments and blood filth clinging to her body.

After repelling and killing this new wave of monsters, the group finally had room to catch their breath. Zhao Zijing watched Li Cheng jump down from the armored vehicle, her expression somewhat complicated as she greeted him, "We meet again."

Last time they carried out the battery escort mission, both of them were Lv12; now they were both still Lv16.

But Zhao Zijing had dual backgrounds in both the Special Affairs Bureau and GOC, allowing her to obtain large quantities of conventional real-world mission resources, so her leveling speed was far faster than ordinary players.

Under these circumstances, the fact that Master Pi Fu, a lone wolf, could still keep pace with her leveling speed made Zhao Zijing quite want to say, "This one will surely achieve great things in the future."

"Welcome, the three of you."

Fu Ding Hua Long also breathed a sigh of relief, gathered everyone, and gave a rough rundown of the current situation.

This building held sixteen players from different guilds, all of mid-tier strength, along with over forty ordinary people who had "soul-transmigrated" from the real world, and more than ten survivors from the other world.

Just like Tina, these natives were also wasteland scavengers, with rich survival experience.

"There are currently two problems. First, why would ordinary people, who should be in soul form, possess physical bodies identical to those in the real world?

Second, how do we bring them back to the real world."

Fu Ding Hua Long said in a low voice, "These two questions can essentially be boiled down to one—figure out what happened in the other world, and find the so-called Dr. Noah who triggered the disaster.

And according to the survivors, about fifty kilometers north of here, there is a thousand-meter-tall man-made tower that was absolutely built after the apocalypse, surrounded by large numbers of monsters.

The tower's location is exactly where Dr. Noah's Portland Laboratory stood before the apocalypse."

"Fifty kilometers, that's a bit far."

Grey Rain frowned and said seriously, "If only it were fifty kilometers, we could drive there in an hour."

The atmosphere in the room froze for a moment. After a pause, Zhao Zijing reminded her, "Kilometers equal kilometers."

"Huh?"

Grey Rain wore an expression of "I may be uneducated but don't try to fool me," and said oddly, "How is that possible? Surely humans don't describe height as 0.00182 kilometers?"

??

Forget it.

Zhao Zijing had witnessed Grey Rain's earth-shattering wisdom during the battery escort mission, so she didn't dwell on it. Taking a deep breath, she said, "In any case, we now have two options.

One, hold our position here, broadcast a signal, find other players who've been transported into the other world, and simultaneously send out squads to search for and rescue survivors from both worlds, lasting forty-eight hours.

The advantage of this approach is relative safety—relying on sturdy terrain for defense reduces attrition and lowers risk.

The disadvantage is that it's too passive.

Two, everyone boards the armored vehicles, forms a convoy, and heads to the man-made tower fifty kilometers away, going directly to find Dr. Noah and the truth behind the other world's apocalypse.

The disadvantage is extremely high risk; the advantage is a permanent solution."

None of the players present were rookies; they all understood exactly what Zhao Zijing was saying.

【Anchor Link】 is a survival mission. According to past conventions, the final few hours of a survival mission are the most dangerous. If one doesn't attempt to crack the worldview and uncover the hidden truth before then, the risk of death multiplies several times over.

"Or perhaps, there's a third option."

Just as everyone was thinking seriously, a blond man with a delicate, strikingly handsome face spoke up: "We hold position here, broadcast a signal, and wait for other players to deal with that tower."

At these words, the expressions of those present shifted slightly.

Indeed, this large-scale mission had as many as two hundred participants, among them no shortage of Lv20, Lv25 experts. Players in other directions could also, through their own means, gather intel and learn the location of that man-made tower.

Dr. Noah alone possessed technologies like brain-computer interfaces and spatial teleportation engines—value that couldn't be measured in money. There would inevitably be experts who'd try to directly find, rescue, or capture Dr. Noah to seize the maximum benefit.

And while the experts cracked the worldview and uncovered the truth, other players could stay put, kill monsters, grind points, and freeload until the mission ended.

The risk belongs to others, the rewards all belong to oneself—in just the short while since, low-level players had already killed monsters above their tier, earning nearly two thousand experience points and leveling up twice.

In the next room, Xue Luomeng, who was resting with the other ordinary people, was leaning against the wall, secretly eavesdropping on the superhumans' meeting.

Hearing the proposal, Xue Luomeng grew anxious at heart—the building didn't contain her brother Xue Lingyu, who was very likely still somewhere in this world.

But Xue Luomeng was also well aware that, as someone who'd been rescued, she had no standing to make further demands—such as asking the superhumans to search the perilous wasteland for Xue Lingyu.

"Foolish,"

Through the wall, she heard Master Pi Fu's indifferent voice, "Naive."

Since becoming a player, the blond man hadn't heard anyone speak to him in that tone for a long time. His gaze instantly turned sinister and fierce. "What did you say?"

"Chinese."

Li Cheng said matter-of-factly, "You only mentioned on the broadcast that Dr. Noah might be in the man-made tower, but you can't produce evidence, nor explain what dangers exist inside and outside the tower.

High-level players aren't fools—no one would just charge straight in to serve as your vanguard.

Coming up with an idea like this, you must have read too many female-oriented novels and South Korean movies, actually thinking you're some superior being who can make others risk their lives with a single word."

"Do you know who I am?"

The blond man's expression was dark and cold, his tone calm. He pressed his hand on the dust-covered conference table, and an ID floated above his head.

【Perfect Vessel · Dorian Gray】 【Lv18】

The players' expressions varied. Baiji Bear turned into an orange cat and scratched the sofa; Fu Ding Hua Long remained silent; Zhao Zijing, meanwhile, under the table, used telekinesis to drive an arrow and gently patted Li Cheng's thigh.

This Dorian's real-world identity was the kept pretty-boy lover of one of the thirteen female board members at the very top of the 【European Heavy Industries】 guild. Not just any kept man, either—the most favored one.

Considering the wealth of the European Heavy Industries guild, Dorian, as a board member's lover, likely commanded resources no less than Gouchen's brother.

Li Cheng casually took out his phone, his hands moving faster than afterimages, rapidly typing on the screen, which immediately threw Dorian off. "What are you doing?"

"Posting on Tieba."

Li Cheng said matter-of-factly, casually showing the screen. There, a level-one alt account named "Dorian Gray" had posted on Tieba: 【Feels like Zenless Zone Zero's graphics aren't as good as Wuthering Waves'】

"Didn't you say you don't know who you are? This method works great. Once I took an exam without my ID, so I went online to trash-talk a game company. In less than a minute, kind netizens sent me front-and-back photocopies of my ID card, plus my home address."