Chapter 541: Fortress

The reason I'm certain it's the movie, not the original novel of the same name

The reason is simple: on the exterior walls of riverside skyscrapers hung large posters of Shu Qi, dressed in military uniform, striking and formidable, with the caption: "Are you ready? It's both an opportunity and a test."

"Wait for you to join! Steel Youth, Set Off Immediately."

"Female Warriors of the Battlefield, Who Says Men Have the Advantage?"

And other meaningless text—key point is, these fonts are cheaply and stiffly rendered; even if you paid 50 yuan online for a college student to use Meitu Xiuxiu, it wouldn't look this bad.

Below the posters, a group of young men in military uniforms, including Lu Han, marched past—each violating regulations with hair longer than their hat brims, their overall look resembling a brand-new boy band debuting on a talent show.

From street loudspeakers, news audio played: "We live in an era transformed by the space super-energy substance 'Xian Teng.' Xian Teng replaced oil and coal, propelling humanity's rapid advancement, yet also drew the envy of alien civilizations. Major cities have been destroyed, life has regressed; Shanghai is one of the few human fortresses capable of resisting alien motherships."

"What a painfully earnest broadcast."

Hui Yu couldn't help complaining: "And if this is wartime with life regressing, why are these passersby dressed so fashionably and looking so relaxed? Why is someone even walking a dog?! Does this look like a post-apocalyptic war?"

"Don't ask. If you ask, it's just the setting."

Li Cheng weakly waved his hand; the movie *Shanghai Fortress* had a budget of 300 million, polished for six years, earned 120 million at the box office, and received a glorious 2.9 on Douban.

It surpassed *749 Bureau* at 3.2, *Turandot* at 3.1, *Fuchun Mountain Residence* at 3.0, and *The Legend of Fushen*,

Only narrowly losing to *Dream Chasers Entertainment Circle* at 2.2.

Logic? What logic? Isn't this just a soft sci-fi romance film?

"In any case, the immediate priority is to find that one-on-one duel opponent."

Li Cheng quickly shed his chemical suit, pulled out a laptop from his backpack, and sprinted to the traffic light—passersby ignored him entirely, and vehicles swerved around him.

He connected his laptop to the traffic light's wiring and used a one-click hacking program bought from the Whale Song Guild to infiltrate the city's surveillance network.

Then, his vision went black.

All surveillance footage, for some reason, had been overlaid with the classic beauty filter—smoothing, brightening, and whitening—turning the already unnaturally clean and tidy passersby into even more radiant, unrecognizable versions of themselves.

What can I say.

Li Cheng took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, and silently typed code commands to search all surveillance footage for individuals who didn't belong in this environment.

The next second, without warning, all lights and power in surrounding buildings abruptly cut out; vehicles lost control and collided in chain reactions; billboards on skyscrapers flickered violently, as if hit by intense electromagnetic interference.

Correspondingly, dark clouds above slowly rotated, forming a massive vortex in just ten seconds, casting a sky-obscuring shadow downward.

At the storm's center, eerie blue electrical sparks flickered, and faintly, a colossal disc-shaped spacecraft emerged.

Uh. According to the movie's setting, this seems to be the alien civilization's mothership invasion scene.

All loudspeakers blared simultaneously: "Emergency notice, emergency notice. All personnel follow pre-war contingency protocols for concealment. Please remain safe."

"Ah!"

"Ya!"

"Eh!"

Passersby screamed with uncanny realism, scattering like headless flies—their escape postures varied: some kept hands in pockets, calm and unhurried; others sprinted head-down, stealing glances at the sky. Classic, each ran their own way.

Ziiiir—

The disc mothership fired a white beam, striking the spherical energy shield enveloping Shanghai, tearing open several gaps; then, from its side, like a mushroom releasing spores, it unleashed thousands of metal spheres, each two to three meters in diameter, flying into the gaps.

After entering the gaps, the metal spheres automatically transformed into mechanical units with four arms and two legs, blasting thermal flames from foot jets as they dove toward the city.

For some reason, these mechanical predators, supposedly highly advanced in the setting, radiated a cheap plastic vibe.

If George Lucas's 1975-founded film effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, was the pioneer and leader of global visual effects,

then these mechanical predators' effects came from Industrial Light & Magic's estranged half-brother, Agricultural Light & Magic, or Industrial Ox Magic.

"My god, these are ultra-cheap 50-cent special effects."

Hui Yu, gripping binoculars, nearly dropped his jaw—because compared to the predators, the human combat drones sent to fight looked even cheaper, their texture entirely plastic.

Their detail level couldn't match Li Cheng's hand-built drone, let alone a well-crafted model from a college competition.

Both sides maneuvered at high speed in the sky: the predators fired beams with their four arms, the drones retaliated with missiles; battle debris struck skyscraper walls, triggering explosions and smoke that looked like they were copied and pasted from a free effects library.

＿＿C〇

"The special effects in *Shanghai Fortress* are about on par with *749 Bureau*—they're even worse than the Yin Jiao manifestation in 2025's strongest blockbuster, *The Legend of Fushen Part 2*."

Li Cheng didn't look up, ignoring the explosions overhead, continuing to hack into the city's network.

Yet even after infiltrating the highest-security network of this city—the so-called United Nations Defense Committee (UNDC), formed by 97 nations setting aside past grievances—after searching its headquarters, cluttered with meaningless lighting equipment designed to evoke sci-fi but rendered eerily pristine, he found no trace of any player.

"Hmm," Hui Yu rubbed his chin, "If this isn't the real world, nor a fully realized parallel universe, could it be that we're still inside a Killing Ground Entity?"

"Huh?"

Li Cheng lifted his head. Indeed, when he first became a player, he'd once completed a mission with Red Racer and Su Jie inside a monster-themed amusement park.

Later, he learned that park had fallen into the Killing Ground Entity through a rift from another world.

"That makes sense."

Li Cheng nodded, immediately pulled out the Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece, and dialed Yuan Zhixia's cousin, Yuan Donglian: "Hello, is this Young Lady?"

"Hello, is this Master Pi Fu?"

Unexpectedly, Customer Yuan—as if anticipating Li Cheng's call—responded with an odd tone: "You're currently on the set of the movie *Shanghai Fortress*. The alien mothership is invading Shanghai, and you're trying to locate your duel opponent, correct?"

Li Cheng and Hui Yu both jumped in shock: "WTF, how do you know?"

On the other end of the earpiece, Customer Yuan took a deep breath: "Right now, the two of you are live-streaming."

————

Ten minutes earlier, Tie Gu of the World Nuclear Peace Guild, still in his buzzcut, sunglasses, and work jacket, sat in the corner of a subway car, left hand holding a bubble tea, right hand carrying a birthday cake for his twin children.

Tie Gu had been a player for a long time; the salary from Changsun Yao's World Nuclear Peace Guild was generous—he could easily afford luxury cars and supercars.

But as a former air conditioner installer, Tie Gu still preferred ordinary life: taking the subway across the city gave him a sense that life remained peaceful and unbroken.

"Are these two people in the movie *Shanghai Fortress*?"

"I don't know. I thought the leads were Lu Han and Shu Qi. Who are these two?"

Across from the carriage, a couple wearing headphones and watching a movie on their phone screens caught Tie Gu's attention.

Before joining the World Nuclear Peace House, he had been a lone wolf player for a while, and he paid special attention to tiny anomalies in daily life; he immediately activated his reconnaissance skill to peer through the phone screen.

"Puh—"

Tie Gu spat out his milk tea in one burst, coughing violently amid the startled glances of fellow passengers.

From past strategy videos on Feiwang, it was known that Master Pi Fu subtly altered his appearance during every mission, but his demonic pet never changed its name or face—it always appeared in its original form.

The two chatted casually on the pirated movie screen, "Does this look like a post-apocalyptic war?"

"Don't ask. If you ask, it's just the setting."

Seeing this, Tie Gu's forehead broke into cold sweat. After the London incident, Master Pi Fu had become infamous, ranking high on many nations' intelligence agencies' Lists of Extreme Danger, just below the leader of the Laughing Troupe, 【Laughing God】.

Could it be that Master Pi Fu had once again been drawn into some supernatural event?

Without hesitation, Tie Gu opened his player panel and sent a message to the guild leader, Changsun Yao: "Chief, can you reach Master Pi Fu? I think something's happening here."

"Can't reach him."

In the World Nuclear Peace House office, Changsun Yao, viewing the live feed from Tie Gu's action camera, also saw the couple's phone screen. She shot straight up from her chair with a bang.

"Fuck, it really is Master Pi Fu. Hold those two in place—don't let them close the webpage or get off the subway. I'm contacting the Special Affairs Bureau right away to send people."

"Huh?"

Tie Gu's eyes widened. The subway train was slowing gradually, about to stop at the next station. The couple, puzzled by the two strange figures appearing in the pirated movie, were preparing to stand and disembark.

Not a member of the Special Affairs Bureau's Mobile Task Force and lacking any suitable skills, Tie Gu saw the couple already approaching the door. In a flash of inspiration, he quietly sucked up two tapioca pearls with a straw in an unobserved corner and spat them out with force.

The physical prowess of a close-combat transcendent turned the cassava starch pearls into subsonic bullets, striking the couple's necks with pinpoint accuracy.

Without so much as a groan, both collapsed backward, eyes rolling up, and slumped back onto their seats without drawing attention from other passengers.

"That was close."

Tie Gu, having performed the anesthesia like a detective from Detective Conan, wiped the sweat from his brow, feigned bending down to tie his shoelace, and quietly steadied their phones to prevent the screens from turning off, "Where the hell are the Special Affairs Bureau people? Get here fast!"