Chapter 463: Gratitude

As the saying goes, evil endures for a thousand years; Joker, a boundless transcendent who casually twists and alters his own soul, will, and existence, certainly has greater survivability.

To utterly annihilate him, only a Level 40 must act personally,

or certain reality-distorting facilities within the Killing Field can one-click permanently delete all factors related to Joker from the real world,

or specific punishment missions in the Killing Field—some punishment missions enact literal erasure, destroying body and Dao, leaving no trace.

Of course, from a broader statistical perspective,

players like Joker, or those pretending to be Joker to alleviate their suffering, have an average lifespan no significantly longer than other groups.

What truly determines how long a player survives is solely personal quality and the elusive force of luck.

Worldview, values, personality, temperament, morality—these out-of-field factors account for only a minor portion.

At this point, all modules of the Toy Factory have been upgraded; the crushing room, refining room, and other buildings retain their original footprint, but their external structures and interior decorations are completely renewed,

roughly upgraded from early-21st-century county factories to current semi-automated factories.

"Yeah!"

The cylindrical robots, seeing the factory's roller shutter open, cheerfully donned their hilariously mismatched red-and-black safety helmets.

Their work enthusiasm and initiative were so high, it seemed as if they were paid per piece.

Hmm, come to think of it, these cylindrical robots' personalization and intelligence levels could easily pass the Turing Test—even compared to the androids in Westworld or Detroit: Become Human, they're no less impressive.

Li Cheng rubbed his chin; the Toy Factory generated massive profits daily—should he pay them wages?

But the problem is, there are no basic facilities around this factory—what could they even buy with money?

Surely not Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, or Porsche S2 season commemorative models, or Adolf's powerful grease-removing shampoo?

Li Cheng pondered, then continued scrolling through his phone.

Below the post, Joker had exchanged thousands of replies with other netizens; due to the Whale Song Guild's recent crackdown on automated scripts, every character was typed by real players.

Li Cheng, while marveling at how there could be such boring people in the world, watched for hours the endlessly looping "Dog, don't be a coward!" "Dog, bark again!" flame wars.

Hss—

White smoke billowed from the reforge room's chimney; the conveyor belt turned slowly, delivering out forty-plus precisely structured cubic mechanical constructs.

Each cube was about one and a half meters in diameter, half-lattice, with eight corners embedded in tempered glass casings, a high-definition LCD screen mounted on the front, and a gyroscope at the center.

With two "click-click" sounds, all cubic machines extended four flexible mechanical limbs—acting as arms and legs—to leap off the conveyor belt; each limb ended in a three-finger grasping structure.

These robots were the new batch of servitors Li Cheng had ordered the intelligent core to manufacture, also using the concepts of "loyalty," "mechanical," and "internet."

"En! Qing!"

All cubic servitors simultaneously opened their electronic eyes, raised their flexible mechanical arms, jumped in place, and shouted at Li Cheng in exaggeratedly enthusiastic mechanical voices: "Factory Master, we love you! You are our sun of hope, our guiding sun!"

On the high-definition LCD panels of every robot, cartoonish tearful emoticons appeared,

while the rear-row cubic robots played a BGM they'd somehow acquired: "You came from Dongdang, leaving me pure white, craving Guangdong cuisine~"

WTF?!

Li Cheng's eye twitched, and he inexplicably felt the factory's brightness had increased several degrees,

turned to look at the intelligent core, which promptly explained: "The 'B-Class Mechanical' concept for these units derives from the tractors produced by the Sandaoli Tractor Factory during the Cold War,

the 'B-Class Cartoon' concept comes from the digital tablets used by the April 26 Animation Film Studio,

the 'B-Class Internet' concept originates from the network servers used by the LazarusGroup hacker organization,

the 'B-Class Loyalty' concept stems from the anime merchandise posters owned by American youth Otto Warmbier."

"I give up. How do other players in this Killing Field get hold of everything? Are they Doraemon?"

Li Cheng's expression was particularly pained; the April 26 Animation Film Studio was among Caoxian's top foreign exchange departments, handling global anime outsourcing, participating in the production of renowned animations including but not limited to The Simpsons, The Lion King, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Invincible. Their artwork was meticulous, efficiency exceptional, and their reputation within the industry was universally praised.

The LazarusGroup hacker organization exists in the real world; despite its name originating from the Bible, it is actually subordinate to the Caoxian Bureau of Investigation, having previously stolen eighty million U. S. dollars from the Bangladesh Central Bank and later attacked cryptocurrency exchanges to loot Bitcoin.

Their track record is verifiable, making one seriously suspect whether LazarusGroup members also operate within the Whale Song Guild, frequently silencing certain forum users.

As for the Otto Warmbier incident, it was even more absurd—essentially a case of a merchandise poster triggering a bloodshed.

Oh my, Otto's little hands aren't clean at all.

"Forget it, let's leave it at that."

Having already acquired a batch of abstract servitors, Li Cheng was too drained to complain further; he sighed and told the cubic robots: "Can you draw? Good—send a group to the design room to sketch equipment blueprints.

The rest assist the cylinders—they'll tell you how to proceed."

"Yes!"

The cubic robots raised their hands in salute, then moved toward the cylinders.

"Xinghan!" The cylindrical robots' arms were rigid; the two groups shook hands enthusiastically, yet for some reason, the atmosphere grew subtly tense—their grip tightened progressively, as if trying to snap each other's hands.

In any case, after all factory modules were upgraded to Level Two, operational efficiency further increased.

The two groups of robots busily transported and dismantled cultural relics, first sending them to crushing and refining to extract concepts, then handing them to the intelligent core for analysis, combining them with customer orders to figure out where to exploit loopholes and where to retain high-grade concepts for internal use.

Then, the cylindrical robot artists sketched equipment blueprints—after the factory inputs various concepts, it cannot guarantee 100% certainty of an item's attributes,

but specially designed structures and shapes can indeed partially influence an item's functionality.

"Hold off on the S+ Sin concept seized from the Alternate World Gao Ta mission; input the remaining two S-class concepts and several A-class concepts to produce one piece of equipment and one skill scroll."

Li Cheng gave a few instructions to the intelligent core, then logged out of the Killing Field to attend school.

When he returned, both items had been manufactured.

The data for the sheepskin skill scroll was:

【Skill Scroll Name: Summoning Technique · Farmer】

【Attribute: Learning Type】

【Type: Spirit Energy】

【Usage: Active】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Ultimate Fantasy. Summon a projection of a farmer, who appears riding a horse or driving a non-electric pickup truck, immune to all forms of external attack, obeys the summoner's commands, and may wield firearms, whips, or lassos as weapons. All attacks inflict no physical damage, only immense psychological and soul-level agony. The projection lasts at most 30 seconds.】

【Cost: 400 Qi points】

【Cooldown: 2 hours】

【Learning Requirement: In the ITA° skin tone classification, the angle must not be lower than 27°.】

【Note: Kids, I'm back.】