Chapter 512: Insurance (4K)

If I weren't afraid I couldn't beat you, I'd definitely send you flying.

Wanli Fengdao rubbed his throbbing temples, watching Li Cheng's fingers darting across screens, rapidly switching between databases to search for relevant information.

"Found it."

Li Cheng perked up, frowning: "But it's strange."

He showed the phone screen to the others: on it was an internal bulletin, stating that two and a half years ago, GOC's strongest enforcer, Michael, then at Lv30, encountered a mechanical giant serpent at a ten-digit coordinate.

Its physical characteristics perfectly matched the Alpha the players had seen, except its length was slightly shorter—reduced from over a thousand meters to eight hundred and fifty meters.

A battle erupted; the mechanical serpent was defeated and fled, vanishing.

Wanli Fengdao and the others exchanged glances and immediately understood what Master Pi Fu meant by "strange."

First, the kill zone coordinates use Louchai as the origin point in a three-dimensional (X, Y, Z) system, corrected by rare teleportation phone booths—the larger the number, the farther from Louchai.

A ten-digit coordinate equals approximately.

"The distance between Earth and Uranus."

Claudia frowned: "27 million kilometers? That far?"

The number was so vast it lost all sense of scale—another analogy made it clearer: Earth's circumference is forty thousand kilometers; Li Cheng's current levitation engine can teleport 1,600 kilometers per jump, requiring only twenty-five jumps to circle the globe.

But 27 million kilometers? He'd need to jump one million six hundred eighty thousand times.

If the Alpha serpent hadn't drifted too far during these two and a half years, then right now, the group was millions of miles from Louchai.

"It's not just the distance,"

Claudia said: "Over two and a half years, the mechanical serpent grew longer, proving it can grow stronger by consuming, like a living creature."

Wanli Fengdao also rubbed his chin: "GOC's official documents are always meticulous. If it mentions a battle, it wasn't just throwing a dart from eight hundred li away and retreating. This is still strange."

For top-tier transcenders, level and power aren't equivalent—Michael's Lv30 and Wanli Fengdao's Lv30 are completely different.

It's like the difference between Oreo and Yue Li Yue, Kangshifu and Kang Shuai Fu, Six Nuts and Six Fighters.

Although the Alpha serpent was strong, escaping from Michael's grasp—

"The reason is simple: that mechanical lifeform is a native of the kill zone. When hunted by the Chosen, it can flee beyond your kill zone's boundaries."

A cold voice came from the front of the carriage; all human players instantly grabbed their weapons.

In stepped the griffin, the Fungus King, and the Rabbit Ranger—the Fungus King cradling a glass aquarium containing the hundred-legged octopus, its surface patched with several transparent waterproof tapes after the earlier battle.

"Don't get excited,"

the Rabbit Ranger smirked, slightly raising his padded palms, turning sideways to show the wooden bow on his back and the empty quiver at his waist: "We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about. Leave."

Lei Yesi's face darkened—he had genuinely been killed once by the griffin's lightning storm; had the green-skinned train not arrived with its eternal field, he would have died then.

The Rabbit Ranger said nothing more, only slowly withdrew an object from thin air and placed it on the table.

It was a pair of plastic, customer-service-style headphones worn on the head—clearly an Affairs Bureau Product, the 【Wanyan Communication Headset】, capable of connecting to the hidden 【Wanyan Room】; the only difference was its orange color.

Bai Ma Mubei and Claudia and the others all turned to Wanli Fengdao—they all knew Xiao Dao Ge held high-level Affairs Bureau permissions and knew many secrets.

Wanli Fengdao's lips tightened slightly, his voice calm: "Different colored headsets correspond to different categories. Silver is given to friendly guilds and civilian bounty hunters, green to mobile task forces, blue to logistics teams, red to administrative departments—I've never seen an orange one."

"Pick it up and answer—you'll see."

The Rabbit Ranger stepped back half a pace in goodwill, hands gesturing "after you."

After a few seconds of silent thought, Wanli Fengdao picked up the headset (Claudia, just in case, cast a protective spell on him), pressed the dial button: "Hello."

"Hello,"

the voice from the other end was unmistakably Yuan Donglian, the 【Wanyan Room】 customer service agent: "Uncle Xiao Dao, is that you?"

"Call me Brother!"

"Yes, Uncle Xiao Dao, no problem, Uncle Xiao Dao."

Yuan Donglian clearly knew Wanli Fengdao well—her tone was playful and lively: "Anyway, let's verify the permission passphrase first."

Xiao Dao Ge sighed: "Sword outside, news arrives—Ji Bei is reclaimed."

"A dragon within arm's reach, clouds and rain." Yuan Donglian snapped her fingers—the primary function of the Wanyan Communication Headset is to reroute calls when regular contact fails, connecting directly to a designated target.

Besides the headset's hidden serial number, the passphrase changes periodically to confirm the caller's identity isn't being replaced or possessed by a monster.

Yuan Donglian's tone turned serious: "What I'm about to say is Level Five classified. Who are the human players beside you?"

Level Five classified was one tier higher than Wanli Fengdao's current clearance—he sensed the weight and replied solemnly: "Myself, Master Pi Fu, Bai Ma Mubei, Claudia of the Monutong Alliance, and Lei Yesi of the Jalisco Group from Mexico."

"Understood. Wait a moment—I'll check with headquarters."

Yuan Donglian hung up; one minute later, the connection resumed: "Headquarters has temporarily approved clearance, on condition that after the Tremor Mission ends, you all sign a paper confidentiality agreement. Any objections?"

Some major guilds require members to sign kill zone contracts—violators get struck by five thunderbolts. Compared to that, a paper document is about as binding as a gentleman's agreement.

Li Cheng and the others exchanged glances and nodded into the headset: "No objections."

"OK,"

Yuan Donglian snapped her fingers and said gravely: "During the last Tremor Mission, top executives of major guilds observed, through some means, a parallel world with many similarities to Earth."

That world, like Earth, has hundreds of thousands of players—or rather, the Chosen.

Over two hundred thousand players are divided into two factions: one is a coalition of humans, elves, and demonic beasts;

the other, demons corrupted by the Abyss.

The Fungus King, the hundred-legged octopus, Mian Yue (Rabbit Ranger), and Griffen (Griffin) standing before you are Chosen from the coalition side.

Compared to the incommunicative Abyss demons, the coalition is clearly the force of order.

Thus, the guild leaders established preliminary contact and decided to cooperate.

The carriage fell silent; Bai Ma Mubei and the others had their mouths open wide enough to swallow an egg.

The information overload was staggering—like watching the 7 p. m. News Broadcast and hearing the anchor solemnly report that during construction of Xi'an Metro's new line, workers accidentally unearthed alien spacecraft wreckage.

Or like when you're eighteen and your parents suddenly look dead serious and tell you all these years of financial hardship were just an act—your family actually owns a Fortune 500 company with a hundred billion in assets; you don't need to go to school anymore, or even work; arranged marriages to noble ladies, maid robots, ninja bodyguards pretending to be childhood friends—all arranged, waiting for you to raise grandchildren.

Are you serious?

Li Cheng was so stunned and shocked that he did a somersault, "Oh my god, this is really unbelievable, a hundred times more bizarre than a prime-time soap opera!"

"Your Taiwanese accent is really annoying."

Wanli Fengdao instinctively quipped, his gaze toward Li Cheng suspicious and uncertain—even he, a senior friendly contact of the Special Affairs Bureau, had no knowledge whatsoever about interdimensional players, so why did Master Pi Fu act as if he were pretending not to know?

Uh. But it's also possible that Master Pi Fu was pretending to pretend he didn't know. Or pretending to pretend to pretend not to know.

Bai Ma Mu Bei came back to his senses and asked the customer service agent Xiao Yuan in his earpiece, "Wait, if the human leadership has reached cooperation with these interdimensional players, why are they attacking us?"

"First of all, it was you humans—those two called Rolling Stone and Jayna—who attacked us first. We were forced to fight back."

The griffin named Griffin took out a clumsy and heavy old-fashioned movie projector and cast the image onto the carriage wall.

From the footage, it was indeed Rolling Stone and Jayna who had reacted first, instinctively launching an attack.

The griffin calmly explained: "Secondly, the Spirit Realm—what you call the Kill Field—is expanding its borders, gathering players from different prime-universe worlds. We can't tell which prime universe you come from either. We thought we'd restrain you first and conduct an interrogation."

Wanli Fengdao's eyelid twitched violently. "Then I really should thank you for not killing everyone on sight."

"No need for thanks. We didn't expect the humans who arrived later to be this strong either."

Griffin's way of thinking was overly rational, or rather coldly indifferent—you couldn't pick up any human tone from it.

Seeing Xiao Dao Ge's face gradually flush red, the Hundred-Legged Octopus in the glass fish tank timely used telekinesis to vibrate the air and, in a far more fluent human language than before, spoke aloud: "In short, when it comes to resisting the tyranny of the Kill Field, we belong to the same camp.

And the immediate priority is to resist that Alpha Mechanical Python."

The Hundred-Legged Octopus and the others clearly also had some kind of detection ability, able to directly read out the mechanical python's name.

As if to confirm Griffin's words, the river beneath the train suddenly churned up earth-shattering waves, the entire riverbed trembling violently, shattered mud and sand mixing into the water, turning the river water unbearably murky.

A few seconds later, accompanied by the rumbling sound of collapsing rock strata, the Alpha Mechanical Python, its entire body caked in mud, actually burrowed out from beneath the riverbed.

The damaged areas that had been cut open by the Skull Knight had all been welded and repaired; the triangular head that originally had two pupil-like searchlights had been transformed into a pinecone-shaped drill head like a tunnel-boring machine, its surface studded with rough, sturdy alloy cutter discs.

Its massive, elongated body was divided into dozens of segments, with adjacent segments rotating in opposite directions to provide drilling power.

"Curva, again?!"

Even-tempered as he was, Bai Ma Mu Bei couldn't help but blurt out a Romanian curse; the mechanical python was extremely patient and didn't attack the train immediately, instead fully activating its fusion engine, causing attitude-control thrusters across its body to spew flames in unison,

unhurriedly tailing behind the green-skinned train, using the wake to reduce air resistance, always keeping the distance unchanged.

The last time the train had reached a stone platform was half an hour ago; by the calculation, it was about to stop again soon. Yet the players hadn't rested enough, their spiritual energy wasn't full, and many skills were still on cooldown.

Without time to think it through carefully, Wanli Fengdao urgently asked the griffin, "How do I know that monster wasn't summoned by you, or by your mission?"

"Simple."

The griffin said nothing more, opened the mission log interface on its personal panel, and showed the mission to Wanli Fengdao: "We've been required by the Kill Field to protect an item for more than 48 hours."

Xiao Dao Ge's brow furrowed. "An item?"

The griffin gave the Mushroom King a look; the latter silently sheathed his blade, pressed his four-fingered hands against his belly, and squeezed hard—"Urgh"—retching up a cylindrical lead container.

【Item Name: Universal Cross-Time Safe】

【Type: Storage Container】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Time Capsule. Provides suitable storage conditions for designated items or information. Sealing standard equivalent to a Summoner's backpack slot. Can, and can only, be opened in the manner designated by the user.】

【Cost: Spiritual energy equivalent to the mystery rating of the item/information】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Requirement: Intelligence attribute greater than or equal to 3】

【Note: The safe's storage space cap is a standard 50 cubic meters; it can store living beings that are not Summoners; the time flow rate of items inside the safe will be frozen.】

【Note: The safe is extremely sturdy and will only be damaged by treatment such as close-range hydrogen bomb bombardment, being thrown into a star, or falling into a black hole. When damaged, it will take the items inside down with it.】

【Note: After Ke Zhun became the chief executive officer of the Salvation Army, he brought his mother from the countryside to the Holy City, proudly showing off his luxurious villa, his fancy car, and his safe full of famous paintings and jewelry. The old lady said: "Son, all this is nice and good, but what if the Salvation Army comes?"】

The griffin said: "The container holds an ordinary mundane item similar to an ice axe, with no supernatural energy fluctuation whatsoever. To protect it, we placed it inside this container from the very beginning—no smell, sound, or radiation will leak out. Including electromagnetic waves, microwaves, rays.

Not to mention the even more elusive causality, aura, or memes.

Therefore, it can be confirmed that the Alpha Mechanical Python was not brought here by us."

"."

Wanli Fengdao said nothing; compared to what the griffin had said, he was more interested in the safe's note description.

The real world had never heard of any Ke Zhun or Salvation Army executive officer, so that last system note was most likely a cold joke tailored by the Kill Field for the griffin's world.

Only players from that world could get the punchline.

It indirectly confirmed that they came from an alternate world with highly developed supernatural powers, which matched what Yuan Donglian had said.

At this moment, everyone felt a faint, forward-tilting acceleration; the green-skinned train had already begun to decelerate, and in the extreme distance, a stone platform floating in the air could already be faintly seen.

"Alpha probably wasn't brought here by us either."

Since the other side had shown sincerity, Wanli Fengdao also displayed his own mission log, speaking rapidly: "I can't fully trust you yet. When the train stops at the station later, you guard the front of the train, we guard the rear. Stall for time until the train departs again."

Shhh shhh shhh—

The sound of a pencil scratching across paper was exceptionally clear; everyone silently shifted their gaze and saw Li Cheng holding a sticky note, scribbling furiously, then sticking the sticky note—on which he had written something—onto that 【Universal Safe】.

【Note: In 2009, the famous British physicist Stephen Hawking hosted a themed time-travel dinner party. He first held the party in secret, then broadcast the dinner's time, location, and coordinates to the entire world, thereby proving that time travelers did not exist—what he failed to anticipate was that time travelers not coming might also be because his own reputation was ruined after the Lolita Island incident, earning him the "Lao" generation title.】

Facing a crowd of pained gazes, Li Cheng stuck up his thumb. "How can we Earthlings let those alternate-world cold jokes have all the glory?

Alternate-world cold jokes, bad.

Earth cold jokes, good!

Our Earth is just so amazing!"

Wanli Fengdao nearly spat out a mouthful of water. "Isn't that Volaf reference way too old? What year is it, hey?"

"Old? It's fine, I guess. The older a meme is, the fewer people use it. The fewer people use it, the newer the meme. So the older a meme is, the newer it is."

Li Cheng shrugged and rattled off like a rapid-fire patter: "Bro's here. Let's go, mantis shrimp. The city's full of tricks, I want to go back to the countryside. So hype, feels like life has already reached the peak. Mouth嘟嘟, I嘟嘟嘟."

Wanli Fengdao was speechless and pressed a hand to his forehead. By now the train's deceleration was becoming more and more obvious, so he decisively drew the Dragon-Slaying Sword from his waist. "If I have to hear those ancient, moldy jokes one more time, I'm going to grow corpse spots all over my face.

Prepare for battle!"