Chapter 385: Forbidden Zone

"You must be the 【White Horse Tombstone】, right? I've long heard of your name; to meet you today is a fortune of three lifetimes."

"Not at all, it's I who feel honored to meet you. Add a friend?"

Nearly a thousand players from different guilds gathered on the barren open ground, their extravagant commercial flattery drowning out the rumbling roar of the heavy machinery beside them.

At the center of the open ground stood a portal five meters wide and ten meters tall.

Inside the portal, purple light flickered, with shimmering ripples rotating slowly around the center like a abyss pulling in gazes, stirring both curiosity and dread.

"This is even livelier than the market."

Grey Rain, holding a camera, bounced excitedly around; since acquiring the levitation engine and gaining freedom to move about, she had grown fond of crowded places, especially markets.

Once, she squatted by the market entrance for hours with a steaming mantou, puzzled, asking the staff, "Aren't there any public beheadings or waist-cuttings to watch today? Even an execution would do."

The staff nearly called the police.

"Don't wander too far."

Li Cheng sighed and reminded her, then looked around until he spotted Sun Zhenyao's 【World Nuclear Peace House】 camp.

"You're here."

Sun Zhenyao and her guild members were busy calibrating powered exosuits and reconnaissance drones; seeing Li Cheng, they tossed him a package.

Inside the package was a silver combat suit, complete with gloves and boot covers, and a hood at the collar that could be zipped up to conceal the face entirely.

Tie Gu, who had previously come to 【Zhu Xing Zhen Tai】 for treatment, said: "This is a G-force suit. The location behind that portal is random—sometimes it teleports people straight into walls. Wearing this suit prevents you from being crushed by cement and dying on the spot."

"Chichu."

Li Cheng took the suit and asked curiously, "Why do I see so many big guild members here?"

Looking around, he spotted several familiar faces: Fu Ding Hualong, Crimson Racer.

They stood with their companions, nodded at Li Cheng from afar, and called it a greeting.

"They're here for cooperative development."

Sun Zhenyao explained: beyond nations, there are no nations. In the real world's international society, lacking any higher authority, nations exist in a de facto state of anarchy, resolving global issues only through international mechanisms, conflicts, and wars.

The Arena is no different. All players are extraordinary individuals who break laws with force; the Arena itself bears no managerial responsibility, so among players, magical contracts are extremely popular—used to bind each other through contractual power.

According to the contract, the individual and guild who first discovered this portal will each receive 10% of total profits; the remaining 80% will be divided according to contribution.

Since the portal will close within 24 hours, and once missed, the location behind it can never be found again,

the Guild Alliance unanimously agreed to spend 20% of future total profits to hire lone wolves, mercenaries, and players below level 30 from major guilds.

All participants signed contracts to prevent murder for loot or deliberate sabotage of teammates.

(The contract was jointly drafted by the world's most professional prosecutors, lawyers, judges, and insurance underwriters; its clauses are as vast as the ocean.)

"Originally, we planned to spend 30% of total profits to hire members from big guilds,"

Sun Zhenyao paused, "but unexpectedly, they lowered their price—finally accepting only 20%."

"Oh."

Li Cheng immediately understood: the big guilds above all knew the truth behind the Lousjie explosion.

Previously, even the fiercest rivalries among guilds were internal Earth conflicts; an alien civilization is an external enemy.

Facing an external foe, all major guilds naturally set aside disputes and united whatever forces they could. They had become far more friendly toward medium and small guilds.

"What secrets does Master Pi Fu know?"

The round-faced youth with a green gourd at his waist, 【Today I Didn't Take My Medicine】, raised an eyebrow; he was exceptionally skilled at reading expressions and sensed something odd from Li Cheng's tone alone: "Mind sharing a bit?"

Li Cheng spread his hands: "Those who know, know. Those who don't, won't understand even if told. Don't ask—it involves too many interests, and telling you won't benefit you. I can only say the water's deep; all online records have been deleted. So I can only say: those who know, know; those who don't, can't help it."

Everyone from 【World Nuclear Peace House】, including Sun Zhenyao, couldn't help rolling their eyes.

One word out, and you knew: the old riddle master again.

"Huh, don't you need to prepare anything?"

The young swordsman wearing sunglasses and cosplaying Abing scratched his head while gripping his sword; among the nearly thousand players present, all were gearing up for battle.

Some were injecting their familiars with needles or slow-acting stimulants;

others were setting up altars on their tank armored vehicles, devoutly worshipping and praying for the machine spirits' protection;

others sat cross-legged, gently stroking the swords resting on their knees, sinking into the state of sword-person unity;

Li Cheng wore casual clothes and flip-flops; Grey Rain wore colorful sunglasses and carried a DSLR camera, snapping photos everywhere, utterly relaxed.

"Prepare?"

Li Cheng's main combat power lay in his Demonic Cannon Master profession, his assembled puppet, and the two-in-one form of his Twin Yin-Yang Blade—he himself had nothing to prepare.

But since You Anjian had asked, Li Cheng pulled out a stack of 【Death Prediction Notes】 from his inventory, stepped into the crowd, and called out: "Anyone want death-predicting paper? Fifty game coins each—accurately foretells your future manner of death. Buy it, no regret; don't buy, you'll regret it. Move your legs, please."

'Are you selling beer, soda, mineral water, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and eight-treasure porridge here?'

You Anjian's eye twitched, but in the midst of exploring a forbidden zone, any item that increased survival chances was precious—many actually bought the 【Death Prediction Notes】.

'This works?'

Watching Li Cheng count money on the spot, You Anjian stared in disbelief, wiping his sunglasses: 'Seizing every opportunity to make money. He went from a lone wolf player to now owning a shop in Lousjie. I'm still working for others—is this the gap?!'

Leaving You Anjian's existential crisis aside, as players gradually assembled,

Whale Song Guild's tech team set up a wireless base station outside the portal, providing remote communication support;

GYS Biotech's medical team, all in white coats, stood beside tents where sterile operating rooms and medical equipment waited—so long as you didn't die instantly, they could save you;

the Knights of the Holy Temple, along with priests, Gao Seng, and Daoists from other religions, held water-and-land rituals on the spot, chanting scriptures or tapping wooden fish, granting all players buffs that slightly increased natural Qi recovery and bodily self-healing;

preliminary preparations concluded; the forbidden zone exploration officially began. Nearly a thousand players, clad in G-force suits, filed into the portal one after another.

The preliminary preparations were declared complete, and the forbidden-zone exploration officially began. Close to a thousand players, fully equipped and suited up in anti-G gear, filed in single file through the teleportation gate.

【Pseudo-God Breaker · Master Pi Fu】

【Lv21, Experience: 672/2400】

【Level 21, Experience Bar: 672/2400】

【Strength: 13】 (Imperial Grace Ground-Splitting Fist: +2)

【Agility: 12】

【Intelligence: 12】

【Constitution: 12】 (New Human: +1) (A Common Man's Wrath: +1)

【Perception: 12】

【Charisma: 5】 (Barbecue Enthusiast: -1)

【Equipment Slot: Liangyi Blade, Vast Sea Soul-Locking Bell, Assembled Cloth Puppet, Gearsmith's Certificate, Holographic White Bone Corridor, Bat Hook-Claw Gun, Skill Transfer USB Drive, Information Integration Glasses, Steel and Victory Banner Spear, Ape-Devolution Gun, Technological Singularity Device】

【Backpack Slot: Suicide Notebook, Automated Three-Dimensional Warehouse, Achille Toy Factory Key, All-Tonic Replenishing Pills *3, Ten-Thousand-Eye Communication Headset, Emergency Escape Card, Electronic Pet Egg, Sea Shark-Type Single-Soldier Exoskeleton, bat-wing weight armored motorcycle, Xuanlei Qilin blood plasma, Hover Engine, Avenger Autocannon, Kinky Daoist Robe】

【Skill Slot: Mist Concealment Art, Multi-Thread Brain Domain Method, Experiential Role-Playing Method, Instant Thunder, Familiar Swap, Qi-Condensing Internal Detonation Fist, Tide-Riding Wind Urgent Wave Cloud-Turning, Stubborn Rock Rooting Art, A Knight Does Not Die Unarmed, Dragon's Breath, Death Curse Torrent (Temporary), Brain Entropy Extraction (Temporary), Bloodthirsty Frenzy (Temporary), Leopard Leap Double Jump (Temporary), Medium Auto-Aim Gravity Energy Sphere (Temporary), Summoning Art · Thousand Paper Cranes (Temporary), Summoning Art · Manor Guard *2】

【Game Currency: 8203】

【Spirit Power: 710】

【Sanity: 410】 (Barbecue Enthusiast: +120) (Helicopter Destroyer: +30)

【Grey Rain: Skill Spirit-Dive Surprise Attack, equipment Skull-Crushing Power Hammer, Hover Engine】

(End of Chapter)