Chapter 516

Li Cheng opened his eyes, feeling himself lying flat; the surroundings were pitch-dark, and the sensations against his palms and spine suggested he was lying on a dirt slope.

He pushed himself up with both hands, suddenly sitting upright, using the Primordial Insect Gene to alter the light-sensitive cell density and retinal structure of his eyes.

Macroscopically, this manifested as the pupil shape and iris color of his eyes constantly shifting, while a reflective tapetum layer grew behind the retina — a structure found in nocturnal animals like cats, dogs, and sharks, enhancing nighttime light reflection, improving night vision, and producing visual effects like greenish or golden hues under illumination.

Commonly known as titanium alloy dog eyes.

Yet no matter how much he increased light-gathering ability, he could not form a clear image — there were no photons in the surrounding environment whatsoever.

But this posed no real problem for Li Cheng; he casually pulled out an active infrared night-vision device, clipped it to his forehead like a unicorn horn, and scanned his surroundings.

He saw only a particularly desolate pile of jagged rocks, with no grass or vegetation visible on the ground.

Besides Li Cheng, several other transcenders lay sprawled nearby.

"What the hell did they bring us here for? Is this even still within the country?"

Wanli Fengdao sat up, rubbing his forehead; beside him were Lei Yesi and Claudia, who was summoning a glowing orb.

A little farther away were the Fungus King, Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue, and the hundred-legged octopus inside the fish tank.

"Wait, why are some people missing?"

Claudia summoned a bright light orb, lifting it twenty meters into the air, illuminating the surroundings as brightly as daytime.

She discovered that Bai Ma Mubei, Hui Yu, the Griffin, and the astronaut who had triggered the colored mist were not present in this desolate area.

"I can't even open my mission log!"

Lei Yesi said anxiously; his mental click on the player panel yielded no response — the mission log and the most critical "Exit Arena" option had turned gray and unresponsive.

"Don't panic yet."

Li Cheng raised his hand to cut off Lei Yesi's words, thought flickering — and two Yi Dao blades materialized steadily in his palm; he lightly sliced his right palm with the blade, and his entire right arm transformed into insect form.

He mused: "I understand now. Our true selves are still asleep within the colored mist of the Arena's physical form. Right now, our consciousnesses exist within the Land of Beautiful Dreams."

"Evidence? We can still access items in our inventory, yet the 【Ten Thousand Eyes Communication Earpiece】 is nonfunctional. CQ."

Lei Yesi and Claudia exclaimed in unison: "Consciousness form?"

"Think of it as your essence — your wisdom, perseverance, beliefs, and so on."

Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue cradled the fish tank, pondering: "Considering that higher-level Chosen Ones possess greater self-awareness, aside from being unable to return, this place differs little from the real world — we can still feel thirst, hunger, and injury."

"The question is — whose dream is this?"

According to the Arena's direct information, the Land of Beautiful Dreams customizes a dream tailored to the user, conjuring memories of joy.

Calling this place "a barren wasteland" is an understatement — not a single bird, beast, or insect, nor any living thing besides the players, could be seen.

Who would deliberately imagine such a silent, lifeless "beautiful dream"?

The Three Kingdoms Kill Delta producer who hated his family too much?

This question had no immediate answer; Li Cheng turned to Wanli Fengdao. "Do you still have your mission item on you? CQ."

"I do."

Wanli Fengdao nodded, hefting the four-dimensional cube; the Fungus King also retrieved a safe containing an ice pick.

A moment of silence fell; Claudia hesitated. "So… what now?"

According to the original plan, everyone was supposed to enter their own beautiful dreams and awaken naturally when the time came. But clearly, something was wrong.

Not only were Bai Ma Mubei and the others absent, but the environment didn't resemble a beautiful dream at all.

"Now," Li Cheng rubbed his chin, gripped the levitation engine, and rose into the air, soaring a kilometer high to survey the horizon.

Most of the land was barren; far in the distance, a town without any lights lay at the edge of a plain. At its center stood a clock tower — Gao Ta — and farther still, a stone castle.

The castle's design matched exactly the one drawn in the Suicide Notebook.

Moreover, there was no true "sky" — when he reached out, his hand touched a sturdy alloy resembling Arena construction material — the entire space, equivalent to a real-world mid-sized city, was clearly sealed beneath a colossal metal dome.

Li Cheng landed back on the ground and exchanged intelligence with the other players. "My suggestion: head toward the town at eleven o'clock. If Griffin, Mubei, and Hui Yu are there, perfect. If not, we still gather intel to figure out whose dream this is. CQ."

"We're fine."

Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue nodded, hesitating slightly. "But why do you always end your sentences with 'CQ'? Any special reason?"

"I'm using a radio to contact Hui Yu."

Li Cheng tapped his earpiece, leading the way as he casually explained: "'CQ' is the universal radio call signal among Earth humans — meaning 'calling any station.' Lei Yesi and the others know this."

"Uh… I didn't know that," Lei Yesi awkwardly rubbed his palms. "I'm a self-made entrepreneur — never went through the big guild's agent training."

Claudia scratched her head; Wanli Fengdao stroked his goatee. "I thought 'CQ' was your new tic — you tack it onto every sentence."

"Like 'meow~', 'poi', 'no desu', 'this part', 'desuwa'."

"????"

This time, Li Cheng was stunned. "Who the hell does this in a dangerous environment?"

"Do you really think I'm one of those people who can't be comfortable unless they're doing something ridiculous? CQ."

You think so?!

Amid the group's collective eye-rolls, Li Cheng strode forward; faint sounds began to emerge from his earpiece.

"Hello? I'm here."

Hui Yu's relieved voice came through: "Mubei, Griffin, and I are on a sunny beach — relatively safe. Where are you?"

Beach? Sunny?

Li Cheng paused, then spoke rapidly: "I'm with all other players on a rocky wasteland. Did you see the astronaut or the Entropy Cloud?"

"We didn't see the astronaut. The Entropy Cloud just flew off."

Flew off? So the Land of Beautiful Dreams only accepts original Arena creatures as official visitors.

The Entropy Cloud offered three slots, so it took Hui Yu, Bai Ma Mubei, and Griffin to the sunny beach it desired.

Meanwhile, Li Cheng and the others were brought into the astronaut's dream.

With insufficient data to draw conclusions, Li Cheng spoke rapidly: "Turn on your 【Silver Wing Pathway】 and locate my signal source."

"Understood."

The effect of 【Silver Wing Light Path】 is to optimize mechanical lifeforms. Once Grey Rain is activated, it will be far more powerful than Skynet from the Terminator movies—Skynet's floating-point operations are 60 trillion per second, which feels inferior to an RTX 4090 graphics card.

"Found it,"

Grey Rain said, puzzled, "you are 50–90 kilometers from me. The signal comes from a 35° cone-shaped direction, and I cannot lock onto a specific location."

"Hmm?"

Radio direction-finding technology is quite mature in the real world. Whether it's the Doppler direction-finding method, the Time Difference of Arrival method, or the Wullenweber direction-finding method, all can improve positioning accuracy to plus or minus 5°, with errors at the hundred-meter or kilometer level.

Before Li Cheng could inquire further, from behind a distant hill came a long, drawn-out clack-clack-clack-clack of mechanical operation.

Like thunder, like a beast's roar.

The players were all too familiar with the sound of the mechanical python Alpha. Every metallic object on their bodies tilted slightly and began to float. Radio communication was also completely cut off, leaving only noise and static.

The group exchanged glances. Claudia silently extinguished her Light Sphere spell, while Li Cheng took out seven graphene-coated garments that could absorb electromagnetic waves and shield electromagnetic signals from his dimensional warehouse, and distributed them to the other players.

Donning the silver clothes, the group resembled patients suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or like those miraculous homeowners who oppose 5G base stations in their neighborhoods—hand in hand in the darkness, they hurried toward the town.