Chapter 498: Drifting

The abyss was utterly empty and boundless; when first descending, one could still hear the howling wind, but as altitude continued to drop, the surroundings sank into absolute silence, like being inside a soundproof room lined with fiberglass acoustic cotton.

Worse still, there was no light in the abyss. Standing on the deck and looking around, one saw only endless darkness, and the mind involuntarily imagined something lurking within it.

Even for someone with the perspective and composure of an extraordinary being, this experience was far from pleasant.

Thus, after brief consultation, the players relocated to the spacious bridge below deck.

The Black Pearl was expensive and heavily equipped, powered by a diesel engine combined with a lithium battery system, offering a range of up to half a month. It was also fitted with a magical multi-function radar (capable of detecting high-speed targets hundreds of kilometers away and scanning nearby terrain with laser radar).

Lei Yesi turned off all external visible lights on the hull, activated the radar and engine noise-reduction modes, then engaged autopilot, letting the ship follow the radar's guidance.

One hour. Two hours.

The voyage was uneventful. Li Cheng, with nothing better to do, pulled out an Iranian Shahed-136 drone (nicknamed "Little Motor") and began tightening screws.

"Let me help you."

Hui Yu snatched the screwdriver and poked the drone twice, nearly puncturing the warhead containing fifty kilograms of high explosive.

"Stop. Stop." Li Cheng's eyelid twitched; he snapped, "The system gave us seventy-two hours for this mission—there's still a long way to go. If you're bored, do your homework or scroll on your phone."

"Homework's done. I don't feel like scrolling my phone right now."

"Huh? What's gotten into you?"

Li Cheng's screw-tightening motion paused. Hui Yu's internet addiction rivaled that of Chinese internet cafe teens in the early 2000s when Legend and World of Warcraft first arrived.

She was utterly oblivious to day or night, fused with her sofa.

"This."

Hui Yu pulled out her phone—the screen displayed a CG of Zhongli from Genshin Impact. She took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Zhongli's fake-death mind game is legendary. After watching it, I couldn't sleep all night—it hit too hard. My mind's still tense, racing, unable to stop thinking. No one can surpass this level of mind game."

??? How the hell did you extract a mind game from a CG cutscene?

You're saying it beats The Liar and His Lover, surpasses Fire Phoenix Burning Origin, and that The Gambler's Revelation isn't unbeatable, right?

Li Cheng's face twisted into a sweat-dropping expression. "If you're truly that bored, you could preview the next module's lessons."

"Nah, forget it."

Hui Yu decisively rejected it and turned her gaze elsewhere in the bridge.

At this moment, Lei Yesi was resting with Bluetooth earphones on, eyes closed; Claudia was still flipping through her magic book.

Bai Ma Mubei wore a simple white shirt and sat on fitness equipment, effortlessly bench-pressing a barbell loaded with ultra-heavy alloy plates.

As a close-combat extraordinary being, her physique radiated raw power—muscles full, taut, and sharply defined as if carved by axe and chisel.

Years of severe injuries had left her body scarred: sword cuts, gunshot wounds, burns, beast bites, acid and alkali burns—no one could fathom how she survived each near-death encounter.

Perhaps sensing others' gazes, Bai Ma Mubei sat up from the bench, still holding the barbell with one hand, lifting a sports drink to her lips with the other, and said kindly to Hui Yu, "Want to try?"

"No thanks. I'm afraid I'll get too muscular."

Leaving aside how nanomachines could possibly build muscle, Hui Yu curiously asked, "Um… are those scars on you intentionally kept?"

In the Slums, cosmetic surgery was highly advanced—technically superior to Korean beauty clinics. From liposuction and breast augmentation to facial reconstruction, prosthetic limbs, even full-body redesigns—all were achievable.

Goblins and Kobolds could be turned into nine-tenths perfect beauties or handsome men—whether ancient immortals or seductive fox spirits, their exteriors could be perfectly replicated.

"Mm." Bai Ma Mubei said casually, "Close-combat extraordinary beings get injured all the time. You get used to it. Besides, when bones and muscles heal after breaking, they become even tougher."

Claudia's finger paused mid-page-turn, her gaze lifting slightly from the book.

Mubei's tone was light, as if mentioning a trivial matter. But anyone who'd read the reports knew the danger involved.

In the Eastern European region where Bai Ma Mubei operated, the government was corrupt and incompetent; extraordinary beings controlled criminal gangs, while external conglomerates infiltrated, deliberately turning Eastern Europe into a cauldron of chaos and war.

Like breeding monsters in a pit, they continuously spawned player-qualifying individuals for multinational conglomerates to harvest.

Growing up in that hostile environment, having heard Romanian folk tales of suffering after the Eastern European upheaval, Bai Ma Mubei refused to yield or surrender. Alone, she dismantled extraordinary-being criminal organizations—killing openly or covertly, eliminating every external agent (usually appearing as politicians, compradors, public intellectuals, or NGOs).

The European Heavy Industry guild was furious and issued several assassination orders—all of which she evaded and survived. When they tried sending a team of high-level extraordinary beings to kill her, she had already gained such renown that even within the Global Supernatural Alliance, she had widespread supporters—so they gave up.

Several Romanian lawmakers aware of the players' existence wanted to push her into politics, but she declined each time with, "Actually, I never went to school."

Personally, Claudia admired Bai Ma Mubei. And within the Monutong Alliance, this admiration had apparently evolved into a fan club—members wrote fanfiction and manga starring Mubei, made dolls and pillow toys, and held tea parties with the dolls every few days.

An outsider unaware of the context might suspect they were conducting some evil witch ritual.

Hmm. Come to think of it, with so many fans, is it possible Bai Ma Mubei isn't a close-combat extraordinary being at all—but a charm-type one?

As Claudia idly pondered this, the bridge suddenly flooded with red alarm lights. On Lei Yesi's phased-array radar panel, a green dot appeared clearly.

All players instantly went on alert. Bai Ma Mubei retracted the barbell into her backpack slot, wiped her sweat with a towel, and said grimly, "Enemy attack?"

"No."

Lei Yesi stared intently at the radar panel, his voice tinged with disbelief: "It's a distress signal from another player. Diagonally below—about 150 kilometers."

The battlefield's spatial scale was immense. Even the portion mapped by human extraordinary beings spanned as large as the Solar System—36 billion kilometers in diameter. Even at light speed, it would take fourteen days to traverse.

In a regular battlefield exploration, encountering another player was somewhat plausible—after all, everyone launched from major guild strongholds.

But this was a Tremor Mission—all players were randomly teleported. For two to meet by chance? The probability was like two drifting bottles colliding in the ocean, or China's national football team making the World Cup final.

Claudia reacted instantly, frowning: "Could it be a trap?"

"Hard to say."

Lei Yesi tapped a few controls on the radar console. "The radar shows the distress signal originated from a standard-issue personal terminal provided by GOC to all guilds."

Based on the specific frequency, the bearer is Bartmos of the Whale Song.