Chapter 313: Taisui

The elevator doors slowly opened, revealing a long, narrow corridor before the two of them, leading at its end to a spherical space roughly forty meters in diameter.

The interior walls were lined with precision equipment and a tangled mess of cables, with indicator lights of various colors blinking ceaselessly.

At the very center, suspended in midair, was a large metallic instrument resembling a gyroscope, spinning randomly without pause. It appeared to be the spatial jump engine core Noah had mentioned.

Zhao Zijing's heartbeat quickened unconsciously. Kepler-22b was six hundred light-years from Earth. If the spatial jump engine could be brought back to the real world, it would mean Earth's civilization would push open the door to interstellar colonization, formally leaving the cradle of the solar system and setting forth on the journey toward the sea of stars.

Its value was beyond measure in money.

"The last aberrant monster is just ahead."

The spider-type robot strode forward on its legs, and there, at the bottom of the spherical space, a layer of slowly writhing fleshy matter clung to the surface.

It was about half a meter thick, with hair and blood vessels distributed irregularly across its surface, and large numbers of exposed nerves tangled together with cables, rippling in waves as the gyroscope turned.

The spider robot extended its mechanical arm and fired a laser, cutting an opening into the surface of the "Taisui." Not only did no fresh blood seep out, but the wound itself healed rapidly.

"This thing's self-healing speed is very fast. My von Neumann automata can't eliminate it without endangering the spatial jump engine, so I need your help."

Dr. Noah said, "Kill it and everything will be over. As payment, I can provide you with the technical blueprints of the spatial engine in the form of a USB drive."

Zhao Zijing's fingers twitched unconsciously. She took a deep breath and said, "As payment, isn't that a bit too generous?"

"On our Earth, Apple's market cap is 3.8 trillion US dollars, Microsoft's is 3.36 trillion US dollars, Evergrande's is -2.4 trillion yuan.

If we bring back the complete set of spatial engine technology and start an interstellar colonization company, it would be worth at least ten Apples, or -115 Evergrandes."

Li Cheng said casually, "I've already thought of a name. Let's call it Enron. Interstellar colonization, safe travel, arriving in an instant."

Zhao Zijing's eye twitched. "Uh, wasn't Enron the unlucky energy company whose accounting fraud almost triggered an American economic crisis? That name doesn't sound auspicious."

"Then Kodak. The woodcutter's axe rots away, but the mission will be delivered."

"Bankrupt and restructured."

"Lehman Brothers. Thunder moves, wind follows, roaming the universe."

"Went bankrupt in a blaze."

"Jianlibao. If you want good health, please drink Jianlibao."

"So we're not even pretending anymore and just reading ad slogans directly, are we?" Zhao Zijing's eyelid twitched wildly. "Can you come up with an auspicious name, one that isn't so jinxed?"

"Sorry, can't do it."

Li Cheng spread his hands. "I've never had any luck in business. Last time a friend brought me to invest in a film and TV drama, everything was negotiated from start to finish. The cast included Wu Yifan, Li Yifeng, Wu Yibo, Fan Bingbing, Zheng Shuang."

??? What kind of pure-prison all-star lineup? Is the Chaoyang District Prison Spring Festival Gala short on performers again?

A pained expression appeared on Zhao Zijing's face. She felt that if she stayed with Master Pi Fu any longer, she'd eventually develop phantom limb pain.

But she also knew that at such an important moment, Master Pi Fu must have his reasons for still fooling around, so she stopped the motion of lifting that lump of flesh with psychokinesis, remained silent, and quietly observed.

Father Noah, unaware of those trivial matters on the other Earth, paused for a moment and said calmly, "Our time is limited." "Time is limited? I don't think so."

Li Cheng grinned. "Remember the mission limit? It requires surviving for 48 hours. It's been less than 24 hours so far. We still have plenty of time."

Having said that, he actually sat down on the spot, took out mahjong, poker, UNO cards, and Monopoly, looking completely unhurried.

"When a system sets a mission time, there are usually two situations. One is a very tight limit, forcing players to make the right move at every step, completing the objective right on the line."

Li Cheng shuffled the poker cards and said lightly, "The other is giving a relatively loose time limit. If you can crack the worldview and complete the hidden mission, you can greatly reduce the risk, shorten the mission duration, and complete the objective ahead of time."

The spider robot said calmly, "Sounds like the second situation."

"Exactly. If we help you start up the spatial jump engine and directly jump to the planetary orbit of Kepler-22b, completely escaping the risk of collapse, then all the remaining time becomes garbage time."

Li Cheng smiled slightly. "The premise of this possibility is that we've cracked the worldview and completed the hidden mission."

"Wait," Zhao Zijing also caught on. "Does killing the membrane-winged demon not count?"

"Of course. It doesn't."

!. Read

Li Cheng spread his hands. "Our process of entering the tower was basically linear, with no room for choices. The only thing that could be called a choice was whether to listen to the demon's advice at the time.

And just as we were hesitating, the demon took the initiative to attack using a blink, and in the subsequent battle, until it died, it never used the blink skill again.

Aberrant monsters don't have cooldown limits like players do. If it wanted someone to kill it, it should have first attacked the biggest threat—the sigil-nail dragon or me.

Unless the blink wasn't released voluntarily by it, but came from an outside source, like a designated teleport from the spatial jump engine."

"Mm?"

Zhao Zijing's pupils contracted. "Wait, who's controlling the spatial jump engine? Noah or this meat patty? If the goal was to kill the membrane-winged demon, there's no need to go through all this trouble. Just teleport it to a distant place outside the tower and exile it, wouldn't that work?

Or just embed it directly into the wall.

At the very least, if the demon was attacked passively, why didn't it stop and tell us this?"

"From the demon's perspective, after seriously wounding Andrey, both sides could foresee that a fight was inevitable and only one would survive. There was no need to waste words explaining.

As for why the demon wasn't exiled, I guess first, it couldn't be done—the spatial engine's power supply was insufficient, and it was difficult to locate and control such a tiny yet extremely high-energy target.

Second, the mastermind needed to ensure the demon stopped communicating with the players. So during the teleport, priority was given to destroying the severed head in the demon's hand, so it couldn't speak."

Li Cheng's tone was light and breezy. Zhao Zijing suddenly recalled that indeed, the severed head in the demon's hand had been destroyed right away.

"And judging from the situation on this level, the only thing that can mobilize the spatial engine is this layer of flesh entrenched beneath the core, fused with the engine,"

Li Cheng chuckled, stood up, walked through the descending corridor, and looked down at the "Taisui" covered in hair and blood vessels,

"Am I right, the real Dr. Noah?"

(End of chapter)