Chapter 502

'Hurry up, faster, faster.'

Hui Yu gripped the control stick, recalling the scenes he had seen through the 【Death Note】.

Within the next 72 hours, Li Cheng's potential death locations are the primordial jungle, a train car, and an ancient castle.

None of the three images showed Hui Yu.

This could be because Hui Yu is simply too resilient to die alongside Li Cheng, or because Hui Yu was not nearby when Li Cheng died.

Thinking of this, Hui Yu tightened his expression and pushed the control stick forward further.

The Edge Fighter's silhouette is diamond-shaped, its aerodynamic form resembling a scaled-down version of the Chengdu J-36 from the real world. Since its underside requires no missile pylons or electronic warfare pods, the extra space appears to house high-density batteries and an onboard central computer.

Excluding the U. S. sixth-generation NGAD project, which has been repeatedly debated, canceled, and reinstated by various Smith agents, the U. S. military's current fifth-generation fighter, the F-22, still uses IBM's PowerPC G3 chip from the mid-1990s—233 MHz, 250 nm process. Its computational power is inferior to that of a PlayStation 2 console, let alone a smartphone.

This is because fifth-generation fighters themselves have low computational demands and can offload most processing tasks to dedicated acceleration units.

The Edge Fighter, however, is equipped with such an advanced central computer that its flight control system has been pushed to its absolute limit.

Its flexible, shape-memory alloy segmented surfaces can achieve over 30° deflection in 0.1 seconds, and the onboard AI even anticipates Hui Yu's intentions, adjusting flight parameters in advance. Flying it is as easy and effortless as driving a car.

Although Hui Yu never obtained a driver's license, she had played racing games and flight simulators. This experience gave her the illusion that she was a fighter pilot genius.

'Come to think of it, the 【Merciful Soul-Chant】 can imbue objects with souls—applying it to the Edge Fighter might bring it to life. If we also install the 【Silver Wing Path】, which optimizes mechanical life, we might even create a Megatron.'

Hui Yu's mind, cluttered with random thoughts, suddenly wondered: if this Edge Fighter's computational power is so high, and we give it a soul and optimize it further, wouldn't its intelligence far surpass mine and earn it a Ph. D. outright?

No, that won't do—if there's a mechanical lifeform genius as a benchmark, I'll become an Android robot, Android thinking, Android logic. How can I ever relax and play with my phone or games in peace?

As she drifted in these musings, Bai Ma Mubei in the back seat stiffened, reached out, and tapped the pilot's seat. 'Can you slow down?'

'What's wrong?'

Hui Yu immediately eased off the control stick. The fighter had already descended over 200 kilometers without spotting Li Cheng, Batmos, or the hundred-legged octopus.

'I can sense multiple transcendent beings' auras below in the abyss.'

Bai Ma Mubei said seriously. Close-combat players generally have sharper sixth senses; some can even vaguely predict whether a delivery food is pre-prepared based on the deliveryman's footsteps in the hallway.

Hearing this, Hui Yu immediately shut off all interior and exterior lights and activated slow cruise mode.

Meanwhile, Claudia in bat form pulled out a glass vial filled with purple powder and removed the cap.

It was called 【Trick Fog】, a perfect-grade consumable that renders all units within range invisible and grants a movement speed bonus.

As a self-developed product of the Monutong Alliance, its cost was relatively controllable.

The fighter enveloped by 【Trick Fog】 became invisible, including its rear exhaust plume, descending silently and at a steady pace.

Soon, those aboard saw far below the glowing jungle resembling Pandora's landscape, and within it, three non-human players from another world, not bothering to conceal themselves.

'The hundred-legged creature's trail ends here.'

A lion-griffin, clad in heavy armor, perched on a treetop, lowering its head slightly to sniff.

Its body length approached five meters, wingspan nearly twelve meters, adorned with gleaming golden eagle feathers and tawny beast fur. From within its beak, its tongue emitted a strange clicking sound, translated by the system into comprehensible human speech:

'There is another transcendent being here. No trace of sweat, sebum, or breath, nor any sex pheromones or cortisol—its pores have been sealed to contain all bodily emissions. This demonstrates exceptional control over its own body. Likely a close-combat transcendent or a cultivator specializing in bodily modification.'

The lion-griffin's voice sounded like a magnetic female voice around thirty years old. She sniffed again, confirmed, 'And recently came into contact with dried, fried, thin-sliced potato chips flavored with sea urchin and squid.'

'Dried, fried, thin-sliced potato chips? That's just potato chips.'

In response, a rabbit-like humanoid with gray fur, standing 1.4 meters tall on two legs, leaned against a tree, wearing a green ranger's cloak and carrying a rustic wooden recurve bow without a string.

The rabbit ranger grumbled: 'Sea urchin and squid? What kind of flavor is that?'

High above, Bai Ma Mubei and the others glanced at Hui Yu. Back on the Toxic Gas Plains, Hui Yu had grown bored and, relying on her steel stomach, removed her helmet's faceplate to eat.

White snake grass water, snail powder-flavored yogurt, Zhou Heiya spicy candy.

The odor molecules must have stuck to her then.

In the primordial jungle, besides the lion-griffin and the rabbit ranger, there was also a mushroom person.

Standing over three meters tall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, it wore a conical, flat, brown cap like a straw hat, its stout white fungal body bearing two tiny, nearly invisible eyes.

Each of its muscular arms gripped a heavy cleaver.

The mushroom person remained silent. The rabbit ranger was used to this companion's quietness and continued analyzing: 'The hundred-legged creature was chasing the escaped hacker Batmos. Now that Batmos has been recovered, the hundred-legged creature himself has vanished alongside another human transcendent. The only explanation is he used 【Zok Nalof's Game】.'

He exchanged places with his opponent, entering a dark duel to buy time until we arrive.'

And only a powerful player at least Lv29 could have overwhelmed him.'

As the rabbit ranger said, Batmos was now, like the other three players, sealed inside cylindrical glass containers, wearing collars, handcuffs, and leg irons, motionless.

These non-human players from another world were unaware of Batmos's personality backup, which likely remained hidden.

Thus, the rabbit ranger walked straight to the second-to-last glass container and pressed a button, partially lifting the seal.

Inside the second container was imprisoned a swordsman with a goatee, an unattractive face bordering on sleazy—the very Lv33, 【Wanli Fengdao】, whom Batmos had mentioned earlier.

'Hss—'

As soon as 【Wanli Fengdao】 was freed from the seal, he tried to draw the longsword strapped to his side. But the collar, handcuffs, and leg irons held him tightly—he lacked even the strength of an ordinary person.

Worse still, the glass container exerted a kind of mental imprint effect, preventing him from even considering returning to the real world.

'Hey, human monkey,'

The rabbit ranger extended its paw and tapped the outer wall of the glass container, coldly demanding: 'Besides you four, were there others involved in this mission?'

'Who? Who's talking?'

【Wanli Fengdao】, a veteran of the second wave of human transcendants, held no affection for non-human players from other worlds, especially after being ambushed and captured.

He immediately widened his eyes, deliberately ignoring the rabbit ranger, who stood under 1.5 meters tall, glancing left and right, muttering to himself: 'What the hell?'