Chapter 495: Cosmonaut

"Where did you get this sign? It's pretty high-end." Bai Ma Mubei asked curiously. The sign was filled with oily liquid, completely submerging the LED beads to soften the light as much as possible, and coated with a diffusing film on the outside, making it indistinguishable from a player's ID.

"I made it myself." Li Cheng removed the levitation engine fragment from the back of the sign, returned the sign to his 3D storage compartment, and said naturally: "Before I became a player, I often ran small businesses to make ends meet—like making fan light signs to sell to idol group fans."

"What, BTS, Times Youth Group, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song?"

Never mind the first two, but which fan would customize a light sign for the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove or the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song?

Sima Zhao?

Claudia, the vampire little girl, twitched her eyelid and retorted: "Aren't you worried? A Level 40 Transcendent is nearly divine, and gods all have divine awareness. If someone whispers their name—even from a thousand li away—they'll sense it."

Li Cheng replied confidently: "So I didn't whisper it. I hung up the sign. If someone else says the name and gets hit by a remote divine punishment, that's their problem."

You're fucking brilliant.

Claudia pursed her lips, saying nothing, but thought to herself: "Just as the guild database said, this Master Pi Fu likes to mask his true intentions by acting foolish—like a poker face."

In the early days of the Killing Field's arrival, offline, real-world betrayals and black-market killings between players and between guilds and players were extremely common.

To prevent their information from being leaked during missions, some Transcendents would shave off all body hair, burn off their fingerprints, wear colored contact lenses and dental braces, and emulate professional Texas poker players by injecting botulinum toxin into their faces to artificially paralyze their muscles.

No matter what their teammates said or asked, they would show no expression whatsoever.

At first glance, it looked professional—but this precaution was quickly replaced by a cheaper method: just wear a head套. Choose from Hello Kitty or Ultraman.

Lei Yesi of the Jalisco Crime Syndicate did not join the discussion; instead, he scanned the surroundings.

The entire wasteland stretched endlessly, with distant towering stone pillars standing like giants.

These stone pillars stood nearly a thousand meters tall, connecting the ground to a dome made of massive metal pipes. Some of the pipes were old and damaged, with blue glowing crystals seeping from cracks, providing light to the wasteland.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Suddenly, a dull clang echoed from a high-altitude pipe, growing louder and closer, rapidly shortening the distance until it halted directly above the four of them.

The pipe's outlet—fifty meters in diameter and pointing straight down—shook violently, and a massive metal sphere tumbled out.

In an instant, all four players retreated violently: Lei Yesi flashed over eight hundred meters away, Claudia transformed into a tiny bat and soared seven hundred meters into the air, Bai Ma Mubei teleported over a kilometer.

In emergencies, the instinctive distance one retreats roughly reflects a Transcendent's strength—the Shaking Missions are far more random than Scripted Missions; placing a one-hit kill right at the spawn point isn't unheard of.

Li Cheng adjusted his Information Synthesis Glasses. He had seen possible ways to die using his Death Notes; out of politeness, he symbolically retreated a hundred meters and released Gray Rain.

The metal sphere fell under gravity. Fourteen seconds later, just before impact, a series of heat-dissipating fins suddenly sprang from its base, releasing repulsive force to slow its descent, then landed smoothly on the ground.

Hiss!

The metal sphere split open along its center, revealing complex internal machinery—and at its core lay a cosmonaut clad in a spacesuit.

Even stranger: a floating Killing Field description hovered above his head.

【Item Name: Annihilation Device】

【Type: Tool】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Annihilation. Must be installed on designated Killing Field facilities. Cannot be stored in spatial items or removed from the Killing Field.】

In the cosmonaut's arms, he clutched five small devices resembling radar panels—the exact portable radars seen earlier in the Battery Escort mission.

【Item Name: Guide Radar】

【Type: Tool】

【Quality: Common】

【Effect: Guides the Path. Press the button to generate a virtual line pointing to the destination. Cannot be stored in spatial items or removed from the Killing Field.】

The players furrowed their brows in thought when the metal sphere shifted again, its mechanical structure morphing into a slide that gently "delivered" the astronaut and the radar device to the ground.

Before the players could react, the metal sphere changed again: its machinery reshaped into a slide, gently "delivering" the cosmonaut and the radar devices to the ground.

Then, as if completing its task, the metal sphere released repulsive force once more, floated upward, and vanished back into the thousand-meter-high pipe—before shutting the pipe's gate shut with a final burst of repulsion.

Bai Ma Mubei and the others returned to the starting point, exchanging glances; Claudia was the first to ask, "Is the astronaut alive or dead? Which country is he from?"

Bai Ma Mubei and the others returned to the starting point, exchanging glances. Claudia spoke first: "Is this cosmonaut alive or dead? Which country is he from?"

Li Cheng stepped forward; the spacesuit was entirely white, with no national identifiers, its outer protective layer made of high-strength metalized synthetic fiber fabric, possibly coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, carrying a modular multifunctional backpack, its golden filtered visor locked shut and unopenable, with lightweight powered exoskeletons fitted over the arms and legs.

Li Cheng stepped forward. The spacesuit was entirely white, bearing no national markings. Its outer layer was made of high-strength metalized synthetic fiber, possibly coated with PTFE. He carried a modular multifunction backpack. The helmet's golden-filtered visor was locked shut and unopenable. His limbs were encased in lightweight powered exoskeletons.

A slight shake revealed the suit was filled with liquid—inside, a human adult was submerged. Total weight: nearly 350 kg.

That's odd. In the real world, American and Russian spacesuits weigh over 100 kg, but never this much.

350 kg? Unless the occupant is a Transcendent, this suit could only be worn in outer space or on low-gravity asteroids.

Li Cheng said casually: "The only two things we can be certain of are: this cosmonaut, labeled by the system as the 'Annihilation Device,' is protected by the system—you can't pry open any part, including the golden visor. And the 'thing' inside the suit is not dead."

Claudia raised an eyebrow: "How do you know?"

His 【Merciful Soul-Chant】 could bestow souls upon objects. It had failed just now, indirectly proving the cosmonaut's suit contained a soul of its own.

There was no need to share this information with random teammates. Li Cheng kept his expression unchanged and smoothly diverted the topic: "Fun fact: during their six-month hibernation, brown bears form a massive, compacted fecal plug in their rectum, sealing the anal canal to prevent incontinence—only expelling it when they wake in spring."

Considering humans lack the brown bear's incredible fecal-solidifying ability,

future human civilizations exploring the vast universe will likely need to equip each crew member's cryo-pod with a big iron rod.

If interstellar civilization requires a big iron rod to block the door, then the dream of the stars and seas might as well die now.

Claudia and Lei Yesi wore strange expressions. Bai Ma Mubei, having witnessed Master Pi Fu's nonsense before, didn't dwell on it—he picked up the Guide Radar from the cosmonaut's hands and pressed the button.

Hum!

The radar glowed blue, projecting a translucent arrow pointing into the distant wasteland.

Bai Ma Mubei paused, then looked up at the dome and said: "I'll check the metal pipes—just in case the system hid clues inside."

"Alright."

Li Cheng nodded. Concealing clues at the player's spawn point was one of the Killing Field's classic tricks.

The classic example: writing powerful magical incantations in invisible ink on the envelope of the mission briefing.

Or having the script boss disguise itself as a corpse or weak enemy, lying in wait in the grass—players overlook it without noticing.

The Bai Ma Mu Bei kicked off the ground and leapt high into the air, treading on the air as it ascended all the way to a thousand meters in height, then with its left hand gripping the edge of the pipe and its right hand shoving the gate hard, it pushed the gate open just a crack, rolled through the gap, and vanished from sight.

Half a minute later, she nimbly and efficiently crawled back out of the pipe, threw a punch to unleash the Meteor Fall skill, and accelerated her descent toward the ground.

Boom!

Landing on its knees and cratering a massive pit into the ground, the Bai Ma Mu Bei rose to its feet without changing expression and said at a rapid clip: "I misjudged it. Anyone here have a large vehicle? Time to get the hell out of here."

Before the words had even faded, the metal pipes above the players' heads—and the countless pipe outlets across the entire wasteland—all erupted with blue smoke at once.