Chapter 509

The train had been traveling for hours through the Star Ring Ancient Battlefield zone; passengers grew fewer and fewer. Bai Ma Mubei ended his training and sat in a rear seat, eyes closed, breathing steadily, cultivating his internal organs with breath control.

Claudia and Lei Yesi were somewhat drowsy, each slipping into their personal safety sleep bags to replenish energy—each equipped with a built-in magical shield that would instantly awaken them upon detecting danger.

Wan Li Fengdao yawned, leaning his head against the window, his eyes reflecting the glow of a shopping app on his phone as he browsed diapers.

"I recommend diapers made of superabsorbent polymer material,"

Li Cheng accidentally caught the reflection in Wan Li Fengdao's eyes and gave a thumbs-up. "High water absorption, locks it in, prevents seepage."

"This is for my kid, okay?"

Xiao Dao Ge rolled his eyes. Since humans are most vulnerable during excretion, many players stockpile adult diapers for scenario missions.

He flipped his phone and showed the order to Li Cheng.

Besides diapers, there was a one-piece cotton seamless bodysuit, a PPSU baby bottle, building blocks, a cat tree, teething sticks, and anti-collision stickers for furniture.

Judging by the bodysuit's size, it was meant for a child under one year old.

"Being a parent really is exhausting—I bought plenty of anti-collision stickers myself,"

Li Cheng sighed sympathetically, pointing casually at Hui Yu, who was snoring loudly. "But it was useless. The fridge, solid wood coffee table, marble dining table, stone TV cabinet—all smashed within days."

? Are your anti-collision stickers meant to protect furniture?

Wan Li Fengdao's eyebrow twitched. His marriage to the cat-girl he'd brought back from another world, and their child, were already common knowledge on forums.

Besides admiration and envy, there was skepticism.

The death rate of Battlefield Chosen Ones was higher than that of mercenaries. As a hybrid—three-quarters human, one-quarter supernatural—Wan Li Fengdao's child had a naturally higher probability of being selected as a Chosen One.

The Battlefield doesn't care about child protection laws. Children are selected just the same.

Thinking of this, Xiao Dao Ge sadly put away his phone and suddenly asked, "If I remember correctly, Master Pi Fu, you possess the ability to reassemble bodies at the level of fundamental rules?"

"That's right."

Li Cheng's mind flashed with insight—he immediately guessed Xiao Dao Ge's intent. "You want me to help strengthen your kid? Or something else?"

Wan Li Fengdao paused a moment, then said, "Is it possible to separate the body from the brain, freeze the body for storage, and connect the brain physically to a computer server?"

"Theoretically, it can be done."

Li Cheng nodded. "But are you sure?"

Xiao Dao Ge feared he might die unexpectedly in the Battlefield, and feared even more that his child would be selected as a Chosen One within a few years.

If Li Cheng separated the body from the brain, kept the body frozen at a child's size, and allowed the brain to grow and mature within a virtual world created by the server, perhaps this could "trick" the Battlefield.

"Just a random thought. Don't take it seriously."

Wan Li Fengdao slowly shook his head. Just as he was about to change the subject, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, his gaze sharpening.

The sword at his waist, named 【Slay Dragon】, also sensed something, vibrating softly within its plain scabbard.

Li Cheng followed his gaze out the window behind them and saw, far in the distance, a faint blue dot.

The Star Ring Ancient Battlefield was vast and empty; some areas had spatial disturbances. The train had jumped through multiple leaps, and that blue dot had suddenly appeared against the cosmic background after one such leap.

Li Cheng had assumed the blue dot was a fixed asteroid and paid it no mind—until now, when he studied it closely, he confirmed the blue dot had grown 30% larger.

Since the green train had been moving steadily away from the light band, and the dot continued to enlarge, it could only mean the object was steadily following behind the train, slowly closing the distance.

"Everyone wake up!"

Wan Li Fengdao struck the table with his sword scabbard. Bai Ma Mubei snapped open his eyes. Claudia and Lei Yesi jolted awake from sleep.

Li Cheng also pulled the noise-canceling earplugs from Hui Yu's ears and lifted her up. She mumbled drowsily, "What's going on?"

Far ahead in the vacuum of space floated a large, geometrically regular rock—the station platform the green train was due to stop at.

Whether it had spotted the platform or realized the passengers were now aware, the blue dot suddenly flared brighter and accelerated toward the green train, traveling at 700 kilometers per hour.

Only now did everyone clearly see the true form of the blue dot.

It was a colossal serpent composed entirely of intricate metal machinery—over a kilometer long, thirty-five meters in diameter, its exterior latticed, revealing the complex, precise mechanical structures within.

The so-called blue dot was in fact the plasma exhaust glow from the serpent's internal engines.

The serpent was clearly heading straight for the green train. As the distance between them rapidly shrank, the right-side window was completely obscured by the serpent's massive body—ten times the width of the carriage.

Thud!

Before anyone could react, Hui Yu flew upward and stuck to the right wall of the carriage like a gecko.

All unmoved metal objects inside the carriage—including but not limited to drink bottles, phones, and spoons—simultaneously lost control and clung to the walls.

"Magnetic confinement field."

Li Cheng took a deep breath. Magnetic field strength is measured in teslas (T); 1 T = 10,000 G, where G is gauss.

Earth's magnetic field strength is about 3 G at the equator and roughly 7 G at the poles. MRI superconducting magnets operate at 1.5 T or 3 T.

But the serpent's magnetic field, even at a distance, measured 25 T. Given its flight posture—maintaining a serpentine undulation like a sea snake—the most likely explanation was that the mechanical serpent possessed a magnetic confinement nuclear fusion engine.

It could fuse light atomic nuclei—hydrogen, deuterium, tritium, helium—into heavier ones, heating plasma propellant and expelling it rearward at high velocity.

Li Cheng had encountered two individuals who controlled nuclear fusion engines: one was the mad scientist in a wheelchair, Oracle—or rather, Lin En.

The other was Dr. Noah, who had been infused with knowledge by an ancient god and committed the atrocity of killing eight billion human comrades.

But neither of them had ever wielded nuclear fusion technology so effortlessly. Neither had achieved miniaturization of fusion reactors, let alone abandoned the toroidal structure entirely to directly confine high-energy particles with magnetic fields, as the mechanical serpent had done.

(The mainstream devices in magnetic confinement fusion are the tokamak and the stellarator—the former a perfectly symmetrical ring, the latter a twisted helical donut, also a distorted ring. Both are toroidal, fundamentally using closed magnetic fields to prevent particle escape.)

In other words, the technology embodied by the mechanical serpent far surpassed that of Dr. Noah.

Thoughts flashed through Li Cheng's mind. The green train itself originated from the Battlefield and was unaffected by magnetic fields—but the metal spoons and forks inside violently scraped against the glass windows, causing faint cracks to appear.

"Get into the Poké Ball."

Li Cheng pulled out an electronic pet egg and tossed it toward Hui Yu. She shouted urgently, "Whoa, no!"

The Death Note had shown that Li Cheng might die inside the carriage, with Hui Yu absent—so she believed her presence would lower his probability of death.

But the Death Note wasn't always accurate, and with the window glass about to crack, Hui Yu was still pulled into the electronic pet egg.

Wu!

At that moment, the train let out a shrill whistle and slowly came to a stop beside a stone platform. The instant the doors opened, the mechanical python suddenly extended countless flexible mechanical arms of various functional shapes, reaching into the carriages and slaughtering every passenger along the way.

In the twentieth carriage, a jellyfish-like atmospheric creature passenger was torn in half by a chainsaw,

In the tenth carriage, a big-stomach passenger had a mechanical arm thrust into its navel, detonated from within, and was blasted into fragments.

In the fifteenth carriage where the players were, over a hundred mechanical arms surged in from both the front and rear ends. Bai Ma Mu Bei faced the front of the train, throwing punches with the force of a raging storm,

Wanli Fengdao faced the rear of the train. Because of magnetic field interference, he did not draw the Dragon-Slaying Sword, but instead released sword Qi through the scabbard, slicing through the mechanical arms surging in like a tide.

Lei Yesi's hands were busy peeling off the tattoos on his body surface, and he shouted in disbelief: "Wait, this mechanical python isn't a passenger."

Before the word 'isn't' could leave his mouth, a mechanical arm hidden in the shadows suddenly transformed into the shape of an electromagnetic cannon and fired a steel-needle-shaped metal projectile.

The steel needle reached a speed of 7 times the speed of sound, instantly piercing through Lei Yesi's skull and blowing his head apart.

The Immortality Force Field took effect, and the skull fragments scattered across the ground flew back on their own, reassembling along with the brain matter into Lei Yesi's head.

The reverse-entropy effect of this force field was so powerful that he could clearly recall the sensation of the moment his head exploded.

"Why is it always me who dies?!"

Lei Yesi's wails drew no one's attention. The mechanical python quickly became aware of the Immortality Force Field's existence and immediately changed strategy, using countless mechanical arms to bind Bai Ma Mu Bei and Wanli Fengdao's hands, feet, and waists, dragging them out of the carriage and hurling them into the vacuum of space.

This scene was exactly like the one Li Cheng had used to threaten the Mushroom King and others earlier—once a passenger left the Immortality Force Field's range of the Green-Skin Train, they would die just the same.