Chapter 547: Satellite

Crude modeling, like a rusty medal; blurry resolution, like a dusty military flag.

From "CrossFire," a veteran rank named "Amo," wearing a smiling face, took a stiff step forward, instantly materializing a Barrett anti-materiel sniper rifle in hand.

No need to zoom, no need to aim—Amo veteran spun in place, bullets bending across half the map to strike the phase demon directly within the black smoke.

Taptaptaptaptap—

The sniper rifle fired at machine-gun speed, its barrage as dense and noisy as New Year's firecrackers; the copper casings that fell alone piled into a small mountain.

"He's spinning!"

Hui Yu stared in disbelief; as a low-experience robot, she'd never played classic online games like "CrossFire," "Isn't this Red Spider's move?"

"Red Spider learned this too."

Li Cheng said grimly, pulling Hui Yu back two steps to avoid blocking Big Brother's line of fire.

The prolonged bullet stream triggered a qualitative shift; leveraging the Barrett's kinetic advantage, it sheared through the black mist like a chainsaw trimming grass, locking it firmly in place.

Any smoke column that sprouted was instantly erased.

Big Brother didn't just unleash relentless fire—he handed out guns to every teammate watching nearby.

AK Xuanlei Qilin, Panlong, Heilong, Lei Shen, Heiqishi, Sha Ying Xiuluo…

One by one, hero-tier weapons were tossed to teammates like they were free, even Li Cheng and Hui Yu each received one.

"Big Brother only wants to protect humanity—what's wrong with that?"

Li Cheng murmured, eagerly picking up Xuanlei Qilin and spraying blindly.

The dense web of firepower shrank the black mist visibly.

Yet, after enduring constant bombardment, the phase demon shuddered violently—and changed. Its outermost black smoke coalesced into thick metal shields, blocking the hail of bullets.

The phase demon could invade and possess both material and immaterial substances; these shields came from a game character in "Suanjiao Zhou Operation" codenamed "Instructor."

That character was originally designed by game developers to recycle player currency: wielding a shield impervious to bullets and explosives, its only weakness was the transparent viewport atop the shield, efficiently draining enemies' expensive ammunition.

But due to developers' chaotic design logic—never properly balancing the shield's strength modifier—combined with in-game economic collapse and rampant cheating, massive numbers of players adopted this character. They no longer attacked each other upon entering the map; instead, they stood still, ate snacks, and peacefully evacuated together at the extraction point.

The perpetually underproductive Suanjiao Zhou team, seeing players peacefully coexist instead of following their designed "cultivation battle" gameplay, panicked instantly. They rolled out a hotfix with superhuman efficiency: they nerfed the character and altered the extraction point's player limit, forcing players back into slaughter.

They strictly enforced the "search, fight, extract" game philosophy—players must fail to search, fail to fight, fail to extract—otherwise, who would pay for escort services, cheats, and bot farms? Who would provide daily active users so developers could collect year-end bonuses?

In short, the phase demon flexibly called upon game code, copying the shield from a player's inventory box and replicating it millions of times.

Countless large shields overlapped and interlocked, blocking the sole weak point—the glass viewport—forming a wall of bronze and iron, resisting gunfire from all directions.

The once-symbol-of-peace shield, now wielded by humanity's enemy, triggered Big Brother Amo to instantly teleport forward. He jammed his rifle against the shield's surface and fired wildly, while his other hand pulled out grenades and hurled them at a speed rivaling a pufferfish spawning.

Each grenade contained roughly 70g of explosive; at such blinding speed, the accumulated explosives reached power equivalent to several aerial bombs.

But when the smoke cleared, the shield wall had only cracked a few glass panes—it still stood unshaken. Inside the shield wall, a loud "Gulululu" sound emerged.

【Skill Scroll Name: Self-Explode】

【Attribute: Consumable (Limited to Three Uses)】

【Type: Spiritual Energy】

【Usage: Active】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Explode the entire area. Consume spiritual energy to rapidly expand body volume; upon reaching maximum capacity, self-detonate, evenly coating the blast radius with bodily tissue. Explosion power depends on spiritual energy invested. Once initiated, cannot be stopped.】

【Cost: At least 500 spiritual energy points】

【Cooldown: None】

【Requirement: Level 7 or higher】

【Note: "Wearing this on the first day of school? The whole class exploded." Xiao Ming happily put on the white robe, grabbed his Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Romoss power bank.】

The shattered glass from Big Brother's explosions provided a fleeting gap—Li Cheng's Info-Synthesis Glasses powered to full capacity, revealing the skill forming behind the shield wall.

Ignoring the usual nitpicky note, 【Self-Detonate】 was the most extreme skill scroll: its note clearly stated it consumed spiritual energy to detonate oneself, coating the blast radius evenly with bodily tissue.

A normal carbon-based player using it would die instantly—usable only as a final act of taking the enemy down with them.

Yet the system, with dark humor, granted three uses.

"Everyone, stop!"

Li Cheng raised his hand to cut through the chaotic gunfire, then turned his head slightly and spoke rapidly to Fu Ding Hualong: "The phase demon is preparing to self-detonate. Given its special properties, it may exploit the moment its body shatters to invade and possess your code."

Saying this, Li Cheng lifted the Bagua Alchemical Magic Cannon. This shot might not kill the phase demon outright, but it could at least prevent it from escaping along the network line to other computers in the internet cafe.

As he turned the crucible shaft, preparing to input a supernatural item material, Big Brother Amo teleported back, halting Li Cheng's motion: "Don't waste your last resort here—I still have a way."

Saying this, Big Brother Amo dropped all his weapons and summoned a dialogue box into thin air.

【Forced Exit Vote】

【Target: Phase Demon / Master Pi Fu / Hui Yu】

【Reason: Cheat / Illegal Software】

【Applicant: Amo (Friendly)】

【Agree F11】

【Oppose F12】

Correct—this was "CrossFire's" shard banishment method, capable of kicking out cheaters or overly skilled players from the room.

F11 was approval of Big Brother; F12 was reluctance to lose him.

Li Cheng exhaled, lowered the Bagua Magic Cannon, and gave a thumbs-up. The Mobile Task Force operatives in the internet cafe exchanged glances and unhesitatingly pressed F11—especially the team leader seated at the network admin station, controlling Amo's character, his finger hovering above the keyboard, tense with anticipation.

3, 2, 1.

Just as the shield wall exploded, blinding light flooded the screen, and the entire aerospace city turned to dust, his finger slammed down on F11.

Li Cheng, Hui Yu, and the phase demon during its detonation—all vanished.

Every computer in the internet cafe went black simultaneously; seconds later, they lit up again, restored to their normal desktops.

Did it work...?

The special-ops squad leader was drenched in sweat. He rose from his seat, and before he could even open his mouth to ask, the colleague beside Fu Dinghua Long had already stood up and said stiffly, "The local network hasn't been contaminated. The data packets were transmitted."

"Transmitted to where?"

"The satellite... an orbital communications satellite."