Chapter 557

"Hey, hey? If you can hear, reply with 【Received】."

In the pure white network space, Hui Yu shouted into his headphones, but heard only static electromagnetic interference.

She knew the Special Affairs Bureau was observing nearby, so she immediately turned 180° and asked: "Where's Master Pi Fu?"

"Low Earth orbit."

Inside a network bubble, a Special Affairs Bureau staff member typed text onto a large screen, explaining rapidly.

Due to orbital angle and velocity differences, Hui Yu's satellite was drifting farther away at seven kilometers per second, signal lost, unable to participate in the coming battle.

"Fine."

Hui Yu scratched his head, thought for a moment, then pulled out over a dozen smartphones from his chest and began clearing his mobile game stamina himself.

This move left the Special Affairs Bureau speechless; according to the think tank's psychological profile, Hui Yu was supposed to be the type who acted carefree normally but would have a mental breakdown if Master Pi Fu's safety was threatened.

"I know what you're thinking."

Perhaps sensing the Special Affairs Bureau's confusion, Hui Yu grinned and raised his phone to explain: "Super data card: 235GB monthly data, fixed price of 29 yuan, unlimited 5G speed, first month free. You deserve it."

??? Who asked you? Are you here to advertise?

The elites at Special Affairs Bureau headquarters wore expressions of utter exasperation, while in the corner, Wanli Fengdao—summoned on short notice—understood perfectly well how unreliable Master Pi Fu and Hui Yu were; he calmly sipped goji berry, ginseng, and deer antler tea from his thermos.

"If it's just one-on-one,"

Hui Yu put away his phone and said cheerfully: "We'll win."

The low Earth orbit was thin on air, sunlight blinding.

Li Cheng hovered high above, having just used the speed-of-light elbow strike; from this vantage, Earth was a round, blue sphere, clouds like drifting white gauze.

Hss—

The armor plating on his back opened automatically, revealing the hidden backup energy source, its spiritual power completely depleted.

At the edge of his vision, he could barely make out the Phase Demon, now reduced to a tiny speck of light.

The projectile, reforged from steel and the Victory Flag Spear, greatly amplified the effect of 【Counter Moment】, blasting the Phase Demon clear to 500 kilometers above ground, its body half-shattered and torn apart.

But the remaining fragments rapidly reassembled, transforming into the appearance of a Federation Bureau agent named Buddy: five meters tall, entirely black, muscular and sinewy, with mechanical prosthetics fused to its frame, wounds healing at lightning speed.

Under the sunlight, it gleamed with a smooth metallic sheen.

And compared to Li Cheng, the Phase Demon now had something more... substance.

Probably because Li Cheng remained within the network space formed by low Earth orbit communication satellites, while the Phase Demon, from Buddy, had seized some player essence.

Half remained in the network realm, half stepped into the physical world.

And possessing physicality meant its interference with the real world had grown stronger.

For the first time, the Phase Demon's face showed a human-like expression of contemplation; it raised its right arm, and the skin on its forearm naturally folded backward, deploying a micro-missile pod.

Poom-poom-poom-poom!

Four micro-missiles trailed long streaks, hurtling rapidly toward the rear-right, striking with needle-to-wheat precision a communications satellite.

No fire—only pure explosion. The entire satellite shattered and disintegrated, and Li Cheng's form trembled in response.

"Tch."

Li Cheng narrowed his eyes; the entire Death Match had occurred within the network space, where mobile phones and internet cafe computers were protected by the arena system, indestructible.

Thus, at first, the Special Affairs Bureau could not restrain the Phase Demon by placing phones in lead boxes or rooting and reflashing devices.

But after absorbing part of Buddy's player essence, the Phase Demon gained a physical form in the real world, allowing it to exploit bugs in the arena system and freely attack and destroy network devices without restriction.

And thus weaken Li Cheng, still confined to the network realm.

"The 【Earth Realm】 project has ten thousand satellites. The Phase Demon doesn't need to destroy all ten thousand—just a few dozen nearby ones can create a network vacuum, exiling me."

Li Cheng's mind raced; he raised his arm, opened his palm, and summoned the Edge Fighter.

In the thin atmosphere of low Earth orbit, aerodynamic shape didn't matter; the Edge Fighter unfolded into its full form, twenty-one meters long—equivalent to a seven-story building on the surface.

Li Cheng stood atop the fighter; its vectoring thrusters spat blue exhaust, launching him into a furious dash.

The distance between them closed rapidly; the Phase Demon swung both arms forward, unleashing Buddy's ability, firing fifty micro-missiles in total.

And those fifty missiles flickered violently, splitting into... five thousand.

A rain of missiles blotted out the sky; Li Cheng's pupils contracted—the Integrated Info-Glasses showed each missile was not an illusion.

【Skill Name: Illusion-Reality: Barrage Splendor】

【Type: Spiritual Energy】

【Effect: Barrage Hell. Renders one's own attack illusory, replicating its quantity ten to a thousandfold. The replicated attacks fall as a barrage, possessing no power during descent, only inflicting damage at the instant of impact. Damage potency and frequency match the original attack. Once the maximum count is reached, all barrages vanish automatically.】

【Cost: 90 Spiritual Power Points. One additional point per ten replications.】

【Cooldown: None】

【Requirement: Clear any bullet-hell shooter game at triple speed, including but not limited to 【Pigeon】，【Thunder 5】，【Angel of Dusk】，【Touhou Project】 series, etc.】

【Note: The barrage's spread initially forms a 120° cone, then ceases expanding.】

【Note: "True masters, no matter how dense the barrage, pass through like flowers in a meadow, never touched by a single petal." Old Wang said this, then smeared himself with hydrophobic coating and walked naked into a downpour.】

So that's how it is.

Li Cheng's gaze sharpened; the Phase Demon's current skill, 【Illusion-Reality: Barrage Splendor】, was undoubtedly its hidden trump card.

Barrage Splendor itself does not amplify attack power; it fundamentally expands attack coverage, increasing the mathematical expectation of hits through probability and statistics.

For example, using a 2W laser pointer to target flies inside a mosquito net.

A single laser pointer, without scanning assistance, struggles to hit a flying target. But if Barrage Splendor is used, consuming 190 Spiritual Power Points to replicate the laser a thousandfold and rain it down as a barrage upon the flies.

One thousand and one laser beams exist in Schrödinger's quantum superposition; the first to strike collapses into real damage, while the remaining one thousand vanish automatically.

Kills the fly, spares the net.

At first glance, this skill seems merely for show.

Throw a punch—only one of a hundred afterimages is real. Fire seven shots—only seven of seven thousand bullets carry actual power.

The upper limit of destructive power remains unchanged.

But on closer thought, this skill is absolutely badass — it can turn attacks that were originally very easy to dodge into a barrage of mixed real-and-illusory rain, forcing the opponent to evade and dodge, burning through their time, stamina, and offensive turns.

If the opponent tries to tank it head-on, then the first attacks to land can also become solid.

The missile rain came pouring down. Li Cheng dropped his body low, grabbed the nose of an Edge Fighter, and like a surfer riding a surfboard, glided through the cosmic vacuum, brushing past the dense missiles by a hair's breadth.

Whoosh—

Over a thousand missiles decelerated urgently, circling a wide loop against the backdrop of space like a flock of birds wheeling in the air, then chasing after Li Cheng once more.

All the micro-missiles had been imbued with the Phase-Change Demon's corrosive essence — once hit, the entire body would be stained with the Phase-Change Demon's black smoke.

Nowhere to dodge — could only take it head-on.

Li Cheng released the Edge Fighter, willed a thought, and unleashed the Fog Concealment Art he hadn't used in a long time, conjuring a pervasive fog.

But this kind of low-level skill was useless against the Phase-Change Demon — the latter could see clearly through the fog that Li Cheng had summoned a certain Black Pharaoh Obama who did not wish to reveal his name.

The Black Pharaoh was recorded from the Heat-Death Corridor — in essence, an Obama from a parallel world who had come into contact with supernatural power. His own strength couldn't even compare to the Six-Armed Serpent Demon, who was also a recorded image, let alone the Frog God or Alpha Serpent Head.

The Phase-Change Demon's human face showed no expression. It had been calculating Master Pi Fu's spiritual energy expenditure the whole time — the opponent's spiritual energy was already on the verge of running dry, unable to summon any stronger image, and could only summon the Black Pharaoh...

The next second, Li Cheng actually pulled a canister of liquid nitrogen out of his Dimensional Warehouse, and with 【Assembled Rag Doll】 violently jammed it into the Black Pharaoh's chest, then cranked the valve open.

Liquid nitrogen gushed out. The Black Pharaoh had no time to react before being frozen stiff into an ice pop.

"Your 【Barrage Fantasia】 really is useful — pity, it has one biggest, hardest-to-ignore flaw — it's super sensitive."

As the words fell, Li Cheng threw over a hundred rapid punches at the Black Pharaoh ice pop, then — Condensed Qi Internal Detonation!

The countless ice shards from the Black Pharaoh's explosion scattered like pear blossoms in a rainstorm, splashing toward the incoming missile rain and detonating the first fifty missiles all at once.

The ice-shard fragments were corroded and assimilated by the black smoke. And Li Cheng, riding the explosive force, shot at top speed to right in front of the Phase-Change Demon.

At the same moment, the GOC headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands.

"What happened?"

"Dammit — how long until the nearest reconnaissance satellite with a light-spot remote sensor arrives?"

The GOC command hall was noisy and chaotic. The battle between Master Pi Fu and the Phase-Change Demon sounded intense, but in truth had only taken place over a few short minutes. And because their communication satellites had lost contact one after another, they currently had no way of knowing the specific situation of the fight.

"Everyone quiet!"

A certain high-ranking official barked in a deep voice, putting a stop to the chaos. Everyone's gaze focused on the old witch behind him — a woman dressed as a Gypsy witch.

The old witch said nothing, took a crystal ball out of her sleeve, muttered an incantation under her breath, and across several thousand kilometers, peered toward the battle site.

Everyone held their breath, hearts pounding, only to see...

"WTF? Why is it Barack Hussein?"

Amid the crowd's stunned, twisted expressions, the frozen head of the Black Pharaoh drifted across the crystal ball's image — his face even still wore that signature beaming smile, his big white teeth looking especially dazzling against the pitch-black cosmic backdrop.