Chapter 445: Compassion (4K)

Compared to the chaos within the mystery realm, the first stop of this operation—the portal entrance to the realm—was unusually peaceful.

The personnel left behind by the various guilds gathered in small groups, some drinking and gambling, others chatting idly, and some even pulled out game duel disks with 3D projection functions to play local-area-network card battle games with other players.

"My turn, draw! Hehehe, looks like the Goddess of Luck is on my side—first, normal summon a HakiMi, activate its sacrifice effect, offer it to summon Wu Song, the Cat Lover. Equip Wu Song with the items—Trident of Poseidon, Golden Chainmail, Vulture Infantry Tank."

"Attack and defense both up to 3000 points in one turn? Interesting. I activate the magic card Xi Bi Xi Bi Ku Dian Ta, ritual summon the Korean Army 9th Division White Horse Regiment, chain summon BTS, then chain summon Times Boys. Combine with the field music magic 'Lemon' to inflict mental damage."

Players constantly walk the edge of life and death; their psychological stress is generally high. If they don't want to use drugs or toxins, they must find other forms of entertainment to relieve pressure—like playing cards.

This 【Battlefield Card Game】 not only stitched in characters from countless worlds, but also incorporated some well-known items and skills from the Battlefield System.

Newbies below Lv5 can quickly learn about life potions, Qi values, sanity values, and other Battlefield mechanics through card play—truly education through entertainment.

Two people played cards while a crowd watched. Just as they were excitedly watching Wu Song battle Times Boys, space tore open and a figure in yellow robes stepped out from the rift.

The air reeked of ionized ozone; the Evil Science Alliance member who had been passionately playing cards shuddered involuntarily and snapped to attention. "Chairman."

"There seems to have been an accident inside the portal."

Truth-Side pointed at the portal and said casually, "Mind if I temporarily borrow your body? Don't worry—I won't harm you."

"By all means."

The Lv25 member named 【Hawking Epstein】 was visibly excited.

The Evil Science Alliance didn't have clear hierarchical relationships among members like other large guilds—it was more like a club for like-minded evil scientists, with at most mentor-apprentice ties.

The only way for outsiders to join the Evil Science Alliance was to publish a master's thesis and pass the committee's defense.

Similarly, peripheral members seeking full membership had to publish a doctoral thesis.

Such as "Biological Dissection of the Great Black Mother: On the Staged Pathological Evolution Within Six Months After the Absence of Mountain Demon Worship,"

Or "Cellular and Molecular Basis of Succubus Seduction: Cross-Species Regulatory Mechanisms from Oral Mucosal Cell Secretions to Target Neurotransmitter Receptors."

If you don't do research, I'm a frog in a well gazing at the moon. If you do research, I'm a single pi fu seeing the blue sky.

Truth-Side's exalted status within the Evil Science Alliance stemmed not only from founding the guild, but also from his hundreds of highly cited papers spanning multiple disciplines.

Necromancy, Demon Summoning, Biological Alchemy, Corrupted Cyborg Science, Ancient Deity Studies—all of the Evil Science Alliance's research systems were established by him alone.

Hawking Epstein, like a fan meeting his idol, allowed Truth-Side to grasp his hand, and then—

Whoosh—

The yellow robes spread from the palm, extending over Epstein's entire body, concealing his face beneath a hood, transforming him into another Truth-Side.

They exchanged a glance and nodded. The new Truth-Side, in his Lv25 form, strode directly into the portal, arriving at the crumbling city complex.

He glanced around, casually tore open a rift, and instantly crossed the entire city to stand beside Da Bi Niao.

"?!"

Fu Ding Hua Long felt thunder roll in his mind, silently screaming, "Wasn't it agreed that only Lv30 and above can enter the realm?"

Red Car Driver was equally stunned, shouting inwardly, "That's Teacher Truth-Side! How did you get out here? Oh my god, someone help, we're gonna run soon!"

Only after a moment did he realize—he'd confused Truth-Side with the infamous leader of the Mad Laugh Troupe, 【Laughing God】. Oh, never mind then.

"Good afternoon."

Truth-Side let out a light laugh. He had never shown the Divine Chessboard to the outside world, yet Li Cheng knew prayer could summon him.

This proved only one thing: Li Cheng had encountered something extraordinary within the realm—he could perceive the real world.

Communicating with smart people had this advantage: no lengthy explanations needed. Truth-Side scanned the surroundings and immediately guessed what had happened. Without a word, he floated forward to examine the cardboard box.

"Interesting. A shattered soul occupies the semi-hidden space. It possesses power equivalent to Lv35—or even greater, comparable to a demi-god—yet doesn't wish to live, splitting into seven personas?"

Truth-Side hefted the cardboard box, turned to Li Cheng, and asked casually, "What do you want me to do?"

With nothing better to do, Truth-Side had even used the Divine Chessboard to resurrect a giant yellow dog from a parallel world. He didn't mind helping Li Cheng eliminate the shattered soul inside the box—or reprogram it.

Li Cheng took a deep breath. "First, revive her completely."

"Alright."

Truth-Side snapped his fingers. His Lv40 experience and knowledge drove this Lv25 body to perform far beyond the player's normal capacity.

The ground shattered further; the flesh mountain L, the horse-headed S, and the suit-wearing infant E were dragged from beneath the tons of rubble, screaming as they flew upward.

And mid-flight, they shrank rapidly and vanished into the cardboard box.

Not just these three anomalies—the dean T blasted away by the electromagnetic cannon, the black-clad woman H reduced to clothing, the fragmented flesh of the hooded F, even the ashen remains of the gray-green giant A—all were retrieved, shrunk, and seeped into the box.

"Merge."

Truth-Side enclosed the box in a Star Cocoon, squeezed and molded it until it finally took the shape of a girl aged eight or nine.

The cardboard girl's limbs were covered in grotesque scars. Slowly, within the Star Cocoon, she opened her eyes and stared at her own hands.

Li Cheng stepped forward half a pace. "Do you remember who you are?"

"I am… Cai Anjie."

The cardboard girl's voice was ethereal. She glanced down at the collapsing city, listened to the wailing of countless spirits, and a flicker of pain passed through her eyes. "All of this… is because of me? I'm sorry."

"We'll talk later. You took away these people's player essences—can you return them first?"

Li Cheng pulled out Red Spider, Binary Tree, and Changsun Yao from his 3D storage. Their player essences had not yet fully restored—if the realm collapsed, none of them would escape.

"Mm."

The cardboard girl closed her eyes, as if reacquiring her power. After a moment, she opened her palms, and warm, luminous streams flowed from them.

The streams branched like banyan roots in midair—not only flowing toward the living: Changsun Yao and others—but also toward the dead: White Horse Tombstone and San Ri Yue.

Further still, they sank into the earth, excavating countless human corpses.

Card King, Flying Witch, Noise Warrior, Fat Monk, Thin Monk.

These players, who had died once or even twice within the inverted pyramid, were reshaped into new bodies by the cardboard girl's luminous stream, their eyes opening in dazed confusion.

Seeing this, Red Car Driver's tongue nearly tied itself in knots. "C-c-collective resurrection?"

"Not resurrection—that's too exaggerated. It's reality distortion."

Truth-Side watched the scene with keen interest and remarked, "Their player essences were stolen prematurely—ironically, that saved their lives."

The secret realm is similar to a personal divine domain, where the holder possesses high-level permissions. By returning the player's essence and reshaping the body with reality-warping power, a near-resurrection effect can be achieved.

A deity holds immense home-field advantage within their own divine domain; even the Side of Truth would find it far from easy to "resurrect" all the players below.

As the rain of light fell, the city's collapse gradually slowed, and the wailing thousands of vengeful spirits slowly calmed.

"I'm… still alive."

The Card King, bathed in soft light, frantically rubbed his newly grown eyeballs, tears of joy streaming down his face.

He remembered how he had been controlled by the hooded figure; the fear of the illusion was etched into his bones. Now he only wanted to kiss the ground, to feel the joy of being reborn.

"Fuck you."

Before the Card King could kiss the ground, the Flying Hawk Witch kicked him square in the face.

She remembered clearly—she had been among the second wave of reconnaissance, and the moment she entered the secret realm, the Card King betrayed and murdered her.

"Everyone, attack together! Beat the bastard to death!"

The Flying Hawk Witch's forehead bulged with veins as she kicked and shouted; all the players the Card King had killed now glared at him, advancing to surround him and pummel him.

"Hooohooooo—!"

The Card King's screams echoed across the heavens.

Li Cheng paid no attention to what was happening on the surface; he asked the cardboard girl seriously, "You should remember your past life by now, right?"

". Yes." The cardboard girl nodded sadly; her emotional shift turned the rain of light into ordinary raindrops.

"What are your plans?"

"I still don't want to live."

Cai Anjie lowered her head slightly; her soul's wounds were too deep, too severe—even extraordinary power could not heal them.

"." Hearing Cai Anjie's answer, Sun Zhenyao, who had just awakened, couldn't help biting her lip.

The immense power she had longed for was discarded by Cai Anjie like trash. At this moment, she truly wanted to rush forward, shake Cai Anjie's shoulders violently, and tell her that possessing power meant possessing everything.

She could simply go to the Slums and have someone delete the painful memories.

But Sun Zhenyao also understood that everyone had their own path; even by the standard of players from war-torn regions who began in hell, Cai Anjie's brief dozen-or-so years of life had been far too tragic.

Sun Zhenyao understood that Cai Anjie did not wish to have her memories erased, but to sleep eternally as herself.

"This—"

Li Cheng looked toward the Side of Truth, who shrugged casually, "Severe depression falls under psychology. If she had a brain, I could treat her with medication. But without a brain… I'm powerless."

"Sorry, I still want to die."

Cai Anjie looked up at Li Cheng and whispered, "After I die, the cardboard box can be yours. Please take the butterfly hairpin back to Yin City and send it to someone who once stayed at the Red Star Orphanage, named Li—"

"Wait a moment."

Li Cheng raised his hand to interrupt Cai Anjie, who was determined to die.

On one hand, the magical contract signed by all players beforehand was still in effect; even if Cai Anjie transferred the box to Li Cheng, he could receive at most 25% of the proceeds.

If he asked the Side of Truth to erase the box's ownership, he could obtain the full box—but he would still suffer some backlash damage from violating the contract.

On the other hand, he genuinely did not want to see Cai Anjie's fate be to live again and then die.

"How about this."

Li Cheng rubbed his hands together seriously, "How about you consider being reborn?"

"Huh?" Cai Anjie blinked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I will seal your current memories, strip away most of your extraordinary powers, reset your soul to the size of an eight- or nine-year-old child, and implant it into a corresponding body."

His thoughts became clearer as he continued, "You can return to childhood as an ordinary person, grow up happily until seventeen or eighteen, and then decide for yourself whether to unlock your sealed memories and merge with your current self."

"Use the happy memories of childhood to heal your past trauma."

Cai Anjie looked hesitant, "Is this possible?"

"In this entire killing field, no one understands soul-level matters better than I do."

The Side of Truth spoke enthusiastically; as a scientific fanatic, the chance to transform a willing semi-god into an ordinary human was rare, "It's entirely feasible."

"The only problem is: how do you create a happy childhood?"

Not only are all players psychologically damaged and unsuitable for raising children,

even if they were, the average player lifespan is only two and a half years—barely enough to survive until Cai Anjie reaches adulthood.

"Contact the Special Affairs Bureau."

Li Cheng pointed to Fu Ding Hualong beside him, "They will manage the entire project and ensure you're undisturbed while reborn. It's a debt they owe you."

Fu Ding Hualong was caught off guard, blinking in bewilderment.

Li Cheng spoke with absolute certainty; considering his tendency to be unreliable in small matters but never confused in big ones, it was possible, perhaps even likely, that the Special Affairs Bureau was indeed partly to blame.

"Uh… could I make a quick call to my superior for approval?"

Fu Ding Hualong put on his 【Ten-Eyes Communication Earpiece】, turned away, and lowered his voice, "Hello, this is Agent 610-351 Fu Ding Hualong. Please connect me to Director Xing Hechou in Yin City—I have a major matter to report."

While Fu Ding Hualong was on the phone, the Side of Truth had already assembled a pile of bizarre instruments into a massive facility and retrieved an egg-shaped capsule.

"All guilds like GS Biotech and the Beast of a Thousand Throats use standard cloning pods, requiring two reproductive cells each time—so outdated."

My egg-shaped capsule uses the genetic material of the first female Homo sapiens from East Africa 250,000 years ago.

Adam and Eve are mere recruits compared to her.

By regulating and mutating the oldest genetic material, you can obtain any gene you desire."

"Hair color, skin tone, eye color, IQ, height—even elusive talents like spiritual energy, primordial force, or chakra."

The Side of Truth rambled on, boasting about the superiority of his technology, while Cai Anjie lowered her head slightly, reached into her chest, pulled out a glowing orb, and handed it to Li Cheng.

Li Cheng took the orb, puzzled—it felt light and warm. "Uh… what is this?"

"The Hidden Realm has already fused with me. This is part of my power? It's the majority of my extraordinary essence that will be stripped away when I'm reset to eight or nine years old. I have no use for it—please continue forward."

Cai Anjie herself wasn't certain; using the reality-warping ability of the woman in black, she reshaped the orb into a metal glove.

【Item Name: Compassion Soul-Bestowing Melody】

【Type: Divine Art Item】

【Quality: Legendary】

There was no time to read the item's detailed description. Beside the Truth, the spirit-body conversion device was already prepared, electric sparks crackling.

Cai Anjie finally nodded gratefully toward Li Cheng and Hui Yu, took a deep breath, turned, and walked into the apparatus.

To greet the long-delayed, new life.