Chapter 487: Transcendence

Lin En was a name Li Cheng had heard before, once on a bounty poster in Changsun Yao's world-nuked house, claiming this person was a Lv27 defector from the Evil Science Alliance, extremely dangerous.

Another time, during a post-apocalyptic dating reality show mission, the suit-wearing cat-girl claimed a human scientist named Lynn had fused feline and canine genes with Homo sapiens, creating a new sub-human race that took up the torch of human civilization.

This isn't some "Zhang Wei," "John," "Ivan," or "Mohammad"—names shared by tens of thousands; the odds of two people sharing the same name in the Killing Field are genuinely slim.

Thus, although Li Cheng appeared relaxed, his vigilance was at maximum—he gripped the levitation engine tightly, ready to activate light-speed elbow strike or exit the script world.

Li Cheng spoke into the radio: "Among all major guilds in the Killing Field, the Evil Science Alliance has both the highest and lowest entry threshold.

High, because anyone wishing to join must bring at least three professional papers and pass a high-difficulty exam in a specific field.

For physics, you must pass the Landau barrier; for mathematics, the Olympiad; for computer science, programming defense and offense; for medicine, live surgery—an open-book exam allowing you to bring one critically injured patient for emergency treatment.

For humanities, the exam takes place in the real world—field research to discern system operating patterns—or frontline combat to spread ideology.

Additionally, sparking a color revolution to overthrow a small nation, becoming a high-level international spy across multiple countries without supernatural means, or publishing a paper with over 300,000 downloads can also qualify you.

As for the low threshold, the Evil Science Alliance, like the Laughing Troupe, accepts members regardless of nationality, ideology, or criminal record.

Its internal atmosphere is relaxed and free, with no strict hierarchy or unnecessary restrictions.

If there are any rules, they're merely academic integrity, respect for facts, respect for research ownership, and absolute prohibition of plagiarism or fabrication.

But none of these are sufficient reasons to defect."

Li Cheng paused, then spoke softly: "For academic misconduct, the Evil Science Alliance merely fines, expels, or locks offenders in a consciousness prison for a few years—hardly warranting a bounty hunt."

You might have stolen a guild relic or murdered a fellow member, but that still doesn't explain how a lone wolf survived over a year under the watch of the Evil Science Alliance's Punishment Division, experts in soul retrieval and remote curses, unless—"

"Unless I've been absent from the real world for a long time—or I'm not even a native player of your Earth."

The Oracle, or rather Lin En, picked up the sentence, smiling lightly: "Good. Very good. You're smarter than I expected."

"Save the praise."

Li Cheng said calmly: "Ever since I earned triple degrees in Kindergarten—Smart Kid, Sports Prodigy, and Science Whiz—I lost interest in others' compliments."

The Oracle blinked. "What kind of kindergarten gives out 'Science Whiz' awards?"

Li Cheng replied without shame: "Of course they do. At age four, I discovered a major flaw in the school: they gave kids warm water. Three cups of 33°C water combined equal 100°C boiling water—enough to cause third-degree burns."

"So if you pour 200 cups at once, you'd exceed the sun's surface temperature?"

The Oracle rolled her eyes, pressed a button on the wheelchair armrest, adjusted the backrest to recline more comfortably, and said: "I'm not human in your Earth's sense. But before explaining my origins, I need to ask you a question."

Li Cheng nodded. "What do you want to ask? For overly private questions, I need to pay 0.3 yuan/day to unlock full content."

"."

Fortunately, high-level players think and react far faster than ordinary people; otherwise, these five minutes of post-mission script-world lingering wouldn't have sufficed for their chat.

The Oracle said: "My question is: this script world has figures like the Black Pharaoh, Dershowitz, Epstein, right? Have you ever wondered if there's another… you?"

Li Cheng's eyebrow twitched involuntarily. "Hm?"

"According to my knowledge, four and a half years ago, when the Killing Field first descended upon Earth, every nation's official agencies secretly sent teams to explore script worlds and collect data. The final conclusion was quite fascinating."

The Oracle spoke cheerfully: "Many modern-era script worlds share overlapping histories, global situations, and famous figures with real Earth."

Overall worldline fidelity averages between 30% and 92%.

During this process, many agents tried to find their parallel-world counterparts—

Which is understandable; humans always fantasize about what their lives would be like had they made different choices at major life junctures.

But comprehensive statistics revealed a startling discovery: Lv5 players had a 7% chance of finding their counterpart in a parallel world; Lv10 players had only a 1% chance."

The Oracle pressed another button on the wheelchair armrest; the swarm of aerial drones instantly reformed, projecting beams to create massive data charts visible even kilometers away. "Once you reach Lv15, in every script world—note, every script world explored by every player—you vanish entirely.

And the probability of your parents, grandparents, or maternal grandparents appearing drops so drastically it becomes statistically negligible." "." Li Cheng's brow furrowed deeply as his mind raced, processing the Oracle's words.

"This effect has many names—annihilation, erasure, unique identity across spacetime—but regardless of terminology, it reveals two key rules of the Killing Field system:

First, the Chosen are exceptionally unique."

The Oracle said calmly: "I know what you're thinking—control variables, right? Take an ordinary person, raise them to Lv15, confirm they no longer appear in any script world.

Kill them, and their respawn probability in script worlds reverts to that of an ordinary person.

Then, use the most advanced real-world technology to resurrect them and reassign player aptitude, and their respawn probability plummets again.

In other words, the higher the level of a transcendent being, the more unique they become."

And from the first point, we can deduce the second.

That is, the Earth you inhabit is one of the Killing Field's designated primary universes."

"What do you mean?" Li Cheng asked plainly. "Explain."

The Oracle said casually: "You've encountered parallel-world players before, haven't you?"

Li Cheng's mind flashed with Jiang Zhihui's image; he nodded. "Yes."

The Oracle snapped her fingers. "A simple probability problem: Earth players' average lifespan is under two years; many die in script worlds, and their player aptitude is acquired by native NPCs.

Given that Lv15+ beings possess uniqueness, shouldn't other parallel worlds also have massive numbers of 'vanished' people?"

Li Cheng instantly understood the Oracle's implication: player aptitude was rare everywhere. The Black Pharaoh in this script world was too cautious to claim it himself, but in other dimensions, perhaps not.

If even a native NPC could gain uniqueness, then countless script worlds would be critically short of people.

Li Cheng suddenly realized something, eyes narrowing. "No wonder you're conducting experiments in this dimension. You're essentially a secondary-dimensional entity spawned from the primary-universe Earth."

"Hehehe."

The Oracle didn't directly answer, but murmured: "All nations and major guilds have jointly suppressed this information, and internal speculation has multiplied.

Some believe that once someone in the primary universe becomes a high-level transcendent, their counterparts in other timelines are erased by cosmic rules.

Others believe the counterparts aren't erased—just that the timelines containing them have been severed from the primary universe.

My view is this: if the multiverse is a cosmic tree, the Killing Field's designated primary universe is the branch fork, and the parallel timelines extending from it are the branches.

The causal threads of the fork influence the branches; the branches' causal threads cannot influence the fork."

The Oracle's speech slowed, her voice carrying an inexplicable, strange emotion.

Hui Yu scratched her head; she'd stopped paying attention since the Landau barrier and was now downloading pirated music, muttering to herself: "In this dimension's Kanye best singles chart, No. 1 is Runaway,"

No. 2WeMajor,

"No. 3 and No. 4, how come they're LookWhatYouMadeMeDo and 'Ultraman the Great Hero'?"

Li Cheng wasn't listening to Hui Yu's muttering. His pupils contracted sharply as he realized the vocabulary the Oracle had used. "The main universe where the real Earth is located is just a branch?"

"The trunk of the tree can fork infinitely, so how can you assume that the main universe you're in is the only trunk?"

The Oracle said calmly: "The reason those top-tier players in the real world spare no effort climbing upward, besides wanting to stay alive, more importantly, is to seek transcendence."