Chapter 558

This place

On the bustling street of Louchai, a young man in a Special Affairs Bureau uniform stared at the sign hanging above the opposite side—“Zhu Xing Zhen Tai”—and nervously swallowed.

Strictly speaking, Zhu Xing Zhen Tai truly was, as its forum ads claimed, excellent value for money and fair to all.

Especially for novices below Lv7, even if they passed the major guild’s assessment and joined successfully, they would still be flagged by the Human Resources Department, tracked for training efficiency, average mission performance, ideological alignment, professional competence, political orientation, and other data, with real-time adjustments to their D-to-S ratings.

Resources were allocated according to rating tiers.

Newcomers rated A or S were seen as having limitless potential, receiving the most professional training, even one-on-one guidance from high-level transcenders; family relocation, personal life support, and power system reinforcement were all handled for them.

D, C, and B-rated novices received only basic-tier training resources.

But Zhu Xing Zhen Tai offered the broad masses of novices a chance to break through their original limits—if they could muster the resolve to abandon humanity, implant seventeen or eighteen enhanced organs, or even replace limbs, they could instantly gain combat power exceeding their current level.

Including, but not limited to: implanting reinforced fibers into the dermis, replacing skeletal joints with servo motors, swapping eyes for the True Eye of the Evil King.

If one could obtain top-tier organs from a script world or a crate—such as the Supreme Bone, Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, or Beast God Crystal—and implant them directly, one could defy fate, rising from a D-level nobody to an S-level supernova.

Luxury cars, mansions, villas—all within reach.

But those who obtained top-tier organs remained a rarity among rarities; most novices still had to settle for mass-market options, leading to frequent “tragedies” that fell far short of customer expectations.

For example, a customer brought a T-800 chip from the Terminator universe, requesting implantation into the brain to gain a visual tactical interface aiding combat.

The result? It worked—the customer could now efficiently parse enemy information in his field of vision, seeing all tactical options calculated by the chip and their success rates.

But the cost? The T-800 chip, following its programming, deemed all emotion-driven irrational behaviors as inferior options that reduced survival probability.

Everything became prioritized by rationality, permanently altering the customer’s personality and character.

He turned off the life-support system of his gravely ill grandfather in the ICU—because when he was a child, his grandfather had scolded him: “People must be independent; you can’t live if you’re dependent on electronics.”

Other cases included implanting Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton, only to be sucked away by a powerful magnet at a scrap yard;

Implanting an ancient warrior’s soul stone to gain great wisdom, endurance, and fortune—only to inherit the warrior’s cursed fate: at critical moments, one was inevitably haunted by inner demons, trembling, weak-legged, and performing far below standard.

And Zhu Xing Zhen Tai’s other main business—acquiring relics to craft gear and skill scrolls—was equally riddled with pitfalls.

Mismatched goods were the norm; a time-stop scroll did indeed freeze time—but it froze the user along with everything else.

A stealth skill scroll did grant invisibility—but only the skin; internal organs floated visibly in midair.

Some dissatisfied customers posted on forums, accusing Zhu Xing Zhen Tai of secretly siphoning off the mysterious energy embedded in relics, hoarding it for themselves and causing products to underperform.

Those customers then received stern legal notices from Zhu Xing Zhen Tai, warning them that without evidence, baseless slander would trigger legal action.

The Louchai Seventh District Court, whose judge was a designated member of the Tribunal of Truth, would initiate litigation.

What, you’re not satisfied? .jpg

All of this left Zhu Xing Zhen Tai and its owner, Pi Fu, in a Schrödinger’s quantum superposition state.

Sometimes a friend to novices, sometimes a heartless conglomerate.

“What are you standing around for? Keep up.”

The voice of Xing Hechou, Director of the Yanshi Special Affairs Bureau, snapped the young man out of his thoughts; he hurried after Xing Hechou and the dozen other Special Affairs Bureau agents, stepping quickly into Zhu Xing Zhen Tai, where they met the enigmatic Pi Fu, shrouded in rumor.

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He lay with closed eyes in his executive chair, feet propped on the desk; beside him, a Sennheiser speaker played the radio drama “Milk Dragon vs. Captain America,” clearly sourced from a parallel universe’s script world where Milk Dragon was a top-tier IP rivaling Disney.

Beside the desk, the robot pet named “Hui Yu” wore headphones, intently watching a gaming match on the screen,

biting his nails nervously, muttering under his breath: “Don’t go into that grass—it’ll cost you millions.” “The Korean team’s using meds! The Chinese team, take some too!”

One couldn’t help suspecting he’d placed bets on some betting site.

Both were utterly bizarre, yet the Special Affairs Bureau’s dozen elite agents struggled to keep straight faces, struggling to imagine these two had single-handedly stormed Britain, slapped Zhong Lou, and nearly nuked London.

Xing Hechou rubbed his palms and greeted: “Brother Pi Fu?”

“Oh, Director Xing.”

Li Cheng opened his eyes, rose from his chair, and casually pulled open a drawer. “The Special Affairs Bureau’s first batch—inspect it?” Inside the drawer was a clear plastic bin containing several odd items:

An old Bubugao learning machine;

A health supplement can with no expiration date, looking highly suspicious;

A clump of cotton heavily mixed with dust;

All were battlefield gear.

【Improved Bubugao Learning Machine】, Fine Quality: Each use injects knowledge directly into the brains of children aged 3–7 for three minutes; even if not immediately grasped, the knowledge is instantly acquired once the brain matures.

With no cooldown and energy consumption payable by guardians, it can train 480 children per day, over 3,000 per week.

【Happy Planet Chewable Tablets】, Perfect Quality: After ingestion, enhances children’s immunity, dramatically accelerates physical and mental development, improves learning efficiency, and boosts energy and sleep quality.

As for the cotton: 【Pure Sky Beast】, Perfect Quality: When released into the air, it expands thousands or tens of thousands of times its size, absorbing toxic substances like volcanic ash and nuclear dust according to user command, slowly altering atmospheric composition.

Before the Tremor Mission, Xing Hechou, representing the Special Affairs Bureau, had partnered with Li Cheng: the Bureau provided funding and numerous relics, commissioning Zhu Xing Zhen Tai to craft survival-oriented gear infused with transcendent elements for building apocalypse shelters.

The dozen agents Xing Hechou brought were elite logistics personnel; upon receiving the gear, they immediately activated their skills, combining them with scientific instruments to scan and analyze the gear’s data and hidden properties.

Li Cheng held genuine respect for the Special Affairs Bureau, which cared for the people and defied heaven’s will—he had not exploited the relics for profit, and even instructed his robot servant to add several high-tier concepts.

He said casually: “You don’t need to come personally for inspections next time—send your subordinates.”

“Director Xing is too formal. Call me Lao Xing.”

Xing Hechou forced a smile. “This matter is too critical—I’d rather handle it myself.”

Seeing the few strands of white hair at Xing Hechou’s temples, Li Cheng asked curiously: “Is this project that urgent?”

“The winds are fierce, the waves high.”

Xing Hechou shook his head and said no more.

Each Tremor Mission reveals new special locations within the Battlefield, shifting the interests of major guilds. More importantly, by tradition, every few Tremor Missions bring major updates to the Battlefield game.

Whether one admits it or not, as transcendent power spreads and is abused, and the Battlefield’s influence deepens, ordinary people will inevitably grow ever more “fragile.”

A natural disaster, a virus, a memetic contamination—all could cause casualties in the millions.

The tide of the world rolls on; at this stage, it’s impossible for everyone to become a dragon, for all citizens to master transcendent power. The only viable solution remains trading space for time: building shelters to slowly adapt to the Battlefield’s upheavals.

One agent packed away his instruments, holding up the 【Happy Planet Chewable Tablets】 and nodded to Xing Hechou: “Director, A-2 goods are clear.”

Another agent lightly tapped the 【Pure Sky Beast】: “A-3 is fine too—air purification efficiency exceeds expectations by 13%. As for A-1… uh…”

The atmosphere grew awkward. Xing Hechou waved a hand: “Brother Pi Fu is a friendly ally of our Bureau—speak plainly.”

“The 【Improved Bubugao Learning Machine】 meets expectations: in three minutes, it injects 220 million bits of information directly into the brains of preschool children—roughly equivalent to all primary and secondary school textbooks combined: language, math, English, science, physics, chemistry.”

“It exceeds even our most optimistic projections.”

The agent explained: “The only flaw is that the 【Improved Bubugao Learning Machine】 requires an internet connection. Among those 220 million bits, some internet content—AI contamination, AI hallucinations—is inevitably mixed in.”

The impact on adolescents is incalculable.

“Incalculable” was still a euphemism—soon, the smarter the child, the more internet slang spewed from their mouths:

“I’m the only kid in my small county who’s played Genshin Impact, Mingchao, Honkai, and Arknights.” “Hakimi Oma Kimiramanbo.” “Ice-cold sugar-free cola tastes better than sugary cola.”

The scene would be utterly absurd.

Xing Hechou’s expression was strained; had he not known Pi Fu was fundamentally reliable, he’d suspect this was some hidden payload slipped in by Pi Fu himself. “I understand. Store it away—hand it to Logistics for analysis.”

Before he finished speaking, everyone except Hui Yu suddenly changed expression—they all heard the system notification.

【Notification: System has finalized all Earth Chosen Ones’ Tremor Missions. Requirements for Phase Three activation met. Battlefield game will update in one hour.】