Chapter 506

"Master Pi Fu."

At that moment, Bart Mo Si pulled his lover, Jayna of the Russian Security Bureau Lv27, over and without a word bowed deeply to Li Cheng.

"What's this? Too formal!"

Li Cheng spoke those words, but his hands moved without hesitation—he pulled a large red sandalwood inlaid with cloud-patterned marble armchair from his 3D warehouse and sat down with legs spread wide.

In the brutally Darwinian environment of the Killing Ground, good deeds aren't nonexistent, but they're negligible compared to the total.

From their perspective, Pi Fu—who risked his life to forcibly swap them back from the hands of otherworldly players—deserved to be called their saviors, their benefactors who gave them rebirth.

Yet they seemed not to notice that Gray Rain quietly pulled out his phone and filmed this scene, then applied a light mosaic blur over Bart Mo Si and Jayna's faces.

Then, using the short-video platform's built-in editing software, he added background music and text.

"Charity isn't an option—it's a mandatory corporate question! Zhu Xing Zhen Tai empowers college student couples to start their own businesses, letting every profit shimmer with the light of kindness."

Ew Street is worth its weight in gold; behind every 30–50 square meter convenience store might be a Shangshi Company, so every shop's promotional work is thoroughly done—short videos, official WeChat accounts, forum official posts, live-streamed sales, cross-brand collaborations—all present.

Zhu Xing Zhen Tai's revenue already rivals that of Shangshi Companies; to keep up with corporate image, Li Cheng occasionally uses his alt-account to post ads on forums and argues for thousands of replies against rival black-hat water armies.

"So what's wrong with using prefabricated organs? In this day and age, which body modification clinic doesn't use prefabricated organs? I ask you."

Gray Rain, who self-proclaims himself as the No. 2 manager of Zhu Xing Zhen Tai, also runs the official account, using AI software to post abstract short videos for promotion.

For example, Gojo Satoru used Zhu Xing Zhen Tai's specially formulated glue to successfully reattach his upper and lower body, escaping the fate of being cut in half;

An eight-year-old child was unfortunately selected by the Killing Ground as a Chosen One, about to enter a scripted mission—his parents panicked, when Zhu Xing Zhen Tai stepped in heroically and implanted the child's brain into a goblin's skull;

The Chinese men's soccer team bulk-purchased implantation of orc-quality tendons and glands from Zhu Xing Zhen Tai, successfully qualifying for the World Cup finals; though they failed to advance past the group stage, 33rd place is still better than staying home;

And so on.

Another who expressed gratitude was Roll Stone, Lv26 member of the Monster Alliance Guild, whose appearance resembled the Thing from the Fantastic Four.

Li Cheng asked: "By the way, what's the content of your mission?"

"The mission is called Armed Escort. You must carry the device and move as far away as possible from the designated coordinates within 72 hours."

Wanli Fengdao pulled from the void a blue transparent cube, about half a meter per side, floating above the ground.

It resembled a Euclidean four-dimensional space, endlessly folding in and out, cycling repeatedly.

Though it bore no markings whatsoever, upon seeing it, a line of information spontaneously appeared in one's mind: "3396.57 kilometers."

Considering that Mushroom King and other otherworldly players had interrogated them immediately upon capture, Wanli Fengdao didn't hide anything—he directly showed Li Cheng and the others the briefing from his personal journal.

At mission start, the 4D cube displayed a distance of 2625.49 kilometers; players were required to carry the cube and move as far as possible to increase that distance.

As the distance increased, rewards grew richer: ten thousand kilometers equaled completing two regular missions with a medium rating; twenty thousand kilometers equaled one S+ rated regular mission by a Lv30 Transcendent; thirty thousand kilometers explicitly stated one reward could be a custom-made Epic item.

As a restriction, the only failure condition was not reducing the distance below 2000 kilometers.

"."

Li Cheng exchanged glances with Bai Ma Mubei and others—not because the mission was hard, but because it was too easy.

Earth's equatorial circumference is 40,075 kilometers; the top-tier thirty thousand kilometers seemed far, but they were given a full 72 hours—averaging just four hundred kilometers per hour.

Propeller planes in WWII already reached six to seven hundred kilometers per hour.

Even accounting for the Killing Ground's non-flat terrain, various hazards, detours, and exit searches, reaching twenty thousand kilometers by mission end to claim the second-tier reward would be effortless.

"Just like 'image for reference only, not indicative of product quality'—given the Killing Ground's usual nature, it'll absolutely insert malicious twists into what seems like an easy mission."

Bart Mo Si chuckled bitterly: "Jayna and I agreed—we're withdrawing early from this Tremor mission. No matter how big the reward, you need to be alive to collect it."

Along with Roll Stone, Bart Mo Si and the other two expressed their thanks once more to Li Cheng and Bai Ma Mubei, promising to transfer gratitude payments after returning to the real world, then logged out of the Killing Ground and vanished.

"Aren't you leaving, Xiao Dao Ge?"

Li Cheng stared in surprise at Wanli Fengdao, still standing in place—his wounds had fully healed, but his Qi was completely drained, plunged into the state the forum called "Severe Overexertion."

In this state, natural Qi recovery slows drastically, and even potion effects weaken; recovery can only occur slowly over time.

For a player population generally suffering from PTSD, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, even a short loss of transcendent power is unacceptable—let alone in a perilous Tremor mission.

"Just call me Xiao Dao Ge. 'Dao Ge' makes me think of some useless blade-wielder who doesn't even know where Tiger Brother's disciple is."

Wanli Fengdao's eyebrow twitched; he feigned nonchalance as he smoothed his hair: "I'm from Batch 0.5 of the Chosen Ones, you know Han Shuishi, right? The strongest combatant stationed at the Special Affairs Bureau—I've chatted with him like an old friend."

If I log out right at the start of the Tremor mission, before even beginning, it'll damage my reputation as Wanli Fengdao."

Also, this train, with its built-in Eternal Life Field, travels from the 12 o'clock direction to the 6 o'clock direction—perpendicular to my mission coordinates."

In other words, riding this train will also help me complete the mission."

His reasoning sounded solid, but incomplete.

Wanli Fengdao, a long-term, close ally of the Special Affairs Bureau, isn't a member—but acts like one.

His insistence on staying also, to some degree, stemmed from a desire to monitor the otherworldly players—

As they spoke, Mushroom King and the Griffin had already boarded the eighth carriage.

"Let's get on too."

Bai Ma Mubei's expression remained calm; he boarded the train and sat down in the fifteenth carriage.

Claudia and Lei Yesi, who had died once already, changed color several times; after internal struggle, they silently followed.

Before boarding, Li Cheng still flew up with his levitation engine, retrieved the astronaut still unconscious and dangling from the hot-air balloon far from the battlefield.

————

Compared to his last ride, the interior furnishings—tables, chairs, carpets, desk lamps—hadn't changed much.

Li Cheng glanced once, then looked away, rubbing his palms: "Reindeer Brother, isn't this train themed Eternal Vacation? Why does it feel so empty?"

The train had 22 carriages, but from the windows, each carriage looked deserted. No attendants visible; the conductor's cabin was sealed shut, completely dark.

"You're late—the journey's already in its second half; most previous passengers have already left," the headless reindeer said casually. "By the way, are you here for another mission?"

"Yeah."

Li Cheng nodded and briefly explained the mission's content and his encounter with Mushroom King and others: "Do you know where these otherworldly Chosen Ones come from?"

The headless reindeer scratched his head—accurately, his neck stump—"Hmm, strictly speaking, you're all otherworldly residents. And from appearance, I can't tell much difference."

"Isn't that different?" Wanli Fengdao couldn't help saying. "We're humans who walk upright on two legs; the hundred-legged octopus is a soft-bodied animal; the Fungus King isn't even an animal. Isn't that obvious?"

"First, I primarily identify living beings by their aura. Second, your human eyes aren't that good."

The headless reindeer finished speaking, then pulled a smartphone from the pocket of its ancestral bird tactical jacket, carefully tapped open a social app with its hooves, and showed Wanli Fengdao the profile pictures in its follow list.

CatXiaoMi, SweetOrangeCat, RuanKeQiu, BunnyLost, MilkinessClung, StrawberryCottonCandy

At a glance, all the profile pictures in the follow list were identical internet-celebrity faces.

Standard beauty filter + slim-face effect + surgically pointed chin + artificial double eyelids + injected high nose bridge.

Wanli Fengdao's mouth hung open—he couldn't refute it, because these internet-celebrity faces were truly indistinguishable from one another.

"Bro Reindeer, you follow internet celebrities?"

Li Cheng also struggled to keep his composure. He knew the headless reindeer had good relations with GOC and other major guilds, who often gifted it tactical jackets, fishing rods, plastic buckets, and other tools—but he never imagined the reindeer would use human social apps.

"The WhaleSong Guild's network base stations are widely deployed; some fishing spots happen to have internet access, so I use the app to exchange tips with other anglers."

The headless reindeer said as if it were obvious: "As for internet celebrities, I'm not interested—I just print out photos and use them as fishing bait. For some reason, certain aquatic species in the water just eat that stuff."

??? So you fish for turtles with internet-celebrity photos? What's so special about her?

At this moment, the green train had stayed long enough at the primal forest station. Its locomotive whistled and restarted, moving forward, while the virtual arrow projected by Li Cheng's radar compass remained aligned with the train's front.

The train's speed gradually increased: 200, 300, 400, until it stabilized at 420 km/h. When encountering terrain obstacles, it simply flashed and teleported through them.

As the train's speed stabilized, the headless reindeer clapped its hooves. "Ah, the beverage cart is here."

A rectangular, shiny silver beverage cart, not pushed by any attendant, slowly rolled over, stopped beside the reindeer, automatically opened its side panel, and delivered a sloped-cut martini glass filled with fish paste, moss, mushrooms, and berries.

"By tradition, during vacation trips, each passenger receives one free drink per stop—the one they most desire subconsciously."

The headless reindeer said casually, extended its hooves to receive the martini glass, and drained its contents in one gulp.

The automatic beverage cart's panel opened repeatedly: it delivered a Tequila Sunrise (tequila mixed with orange juice and grenadine) to Lei Yesi,

a bottle of Romanian beer to WhiteHorseGravestone, a glass of ice-cold cola to Li Cheng, a bottle of electrical equipment cooling coolant to GreyRain, and a cup of 37°C O-type blood to Claudia.

Wanli Fengdao received a milky-white liquid (he took a sip and recognized it as milk mixed with Spirit Milk, which restores Qi).

For some reason, the automatic beverage cart also treated the astronaut, who served as the annihilation device, as a passenger, and delivered to it a glass beaker filled with sulfuric acid.

Claudia sipped the free fresh O-type blood, her gaze flickering.

Major guilds primarily explore killing fields in three ways: first, deploying automated drones; every few dozen kilometers, drone motherships deploy signal base stations and release countless swarm drones to map terrain.

Second, dispatching specialized teams or hiring civilian transcenders who, guided by existing maps, slowly explore—advantages include reaching places ordinary drones cannot, and being able to actively eliminate aggressive native species of the killing field.

Third, hiring transcenders above Level 37, who can explore hundreds of kilometers in a single effort.

But high-level players are racing against time to climb to the top tier—they don't have the time or energy for this.

If we could claim this nearly invisible train for ourselves, wouldn't it be equivalent to possessing a tool for cost-free exploration of killing fields? Wouldn't all major guilds then have to treat us like gods?

The more she thought about it, the more Claudia's heart itched. Spellcasters, especially those with complete cultivation systems, generally have enormous expenses.

From basic spellcasting materials like amethyst, crow feathers, dried lizards, and mandrake, to the construction materials for a mage tower—everything costs money.

And Claudia was also a Blood Noble Marquise, requiring daily consumption of expensive imported pure virgin blood—she dared not cut corners here, or suppliers would truly substitute it with HIV-infected blood drawn from American prison inmates.

Thus, despite her expensive, luxurious gothic dress, Claudia had long been on the brink of sustainable bankruptcy, lacking even her own mage tower, and had to co-rent with several other Monutong Alliance colleagues.

Since this train possesses an eternal field, perhaps—if one dared a little more—it could be…?

Even if one couldn't glimpse the exact structure of the locomotive cabin, one could still gather intelligence on the Fungus King and other otherworldly players in the eighth car.

"For the team's sake, I'll go check the locomotive. Can you guard me?"

Claudia rubbed her palms, pulled a straw-woven bat model from her backpack slot, dripped fingertip blood onto it, then controlled the bat model to flap its wings, clumsily heavy, toward the locomotive cabin.

Simultaneously, she pressed her right hand against the crystal ball, projecting the images and sounds collected by the bat model onto its surface.

The carriage doors were sensor-activated; from the fifteenth car onward, each car averaged only one or two passengers, most of whom, like the headless reindeer, were native intelligent species of the killing field.

Compared to Earth humans, they were the true natives—or rather, the "local elders."

In the fourteenth car, an extremely aged, completely hairless rodent-like creature was surrounded by a circle of smaller rodents. It was apparently using the eternal field to forcibly extend its life, giving final instructions to its young.

In the twelfth car, a flickering, snoring fire elemental;

In the eleventh car, two large, flatworm-shaped creatures, their bodies striped blue and yellow, symmetrical and flat, dressed in some silken attire, stabbing each other with daggers.

Hmm. The physiological mechanisms of killing field creatures are hard to say—but in the real world, flatworms are hermaphrodites; during reproduction, two flatworms stab each other with dagger-shaped male genitalia, and the loser is inseminated.

These two were probably using the eternal field to literally decide who's male and who's female.

The tenth car was the dining car, where a colossal creature, comparable to Liangzi or the Meat Mountain L from the Inverted Pyramid Ruin, sat in a dining chair, desperately gorging itself.

Thanks to the eternal field, its stomach kept rupturing and healing itself continuously.

Claudia manipulated the straw puppet, carefully avoiding the massive creature occupying half the car, and reached the ninth car—just as the Fungus King and other otherworldly players were in the next car.

A white bone hand suddenly shot from outside the frame, seized the straw bat, and forcibly altered its flight path.

It was a skeleton clad in extremely thick metal plate armor, over two and a half meters tall, with two red glowing points in its hollow eye sockets.

"The scent of a divine abomination."

The towering skeleton, radiating the aura of a powerful being, muttered softly, turned its head toward the rear carriages, and crushed the straw bat into dust.