Chapter 560

“Non-human players.”

Huiyu leaned her small head over, looking at the heated discussion on the screen, and asked curiously, “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen many non-human players in Loujie.”

“Normal.”

Li Cheng said casually, “Theoretically, player potential can be transferred through hunting and plundering; historically, there was indeed a case where an Australian level-1 newbie, after passing the guild’s assessment, went out drinking with friends, passed out on the way home, stepped on a venomous jellyfish on the beach, and died instantly.”

There have also been cases of players being crushed by elephants, or chewed up by hyenas.”

But animals that become players through such means are swiftly purged by local guilds.”

“Why?” Huiyu asked, confused. “To recover player potential?”

“Player potential is valuable, yes, but also—to eliminate anomalies.”

Li Cheng shrugged and said casually, “Major guilds can hire script-world bosses as consultants, allowing members to transform themselves into werewolves, dragons, elves, and other non-human races.”

even accept ordinary high-ranking guild members converting themselves into transcendent beings to gain extended lifespans.”

But they cannot tolerate the existence of animal players.”

“I see.”

Huiyu nodded half-understandingly. Top-tier transcenders are nearly divine; no faction, regardless of origin, would accept a cat, dog, primate, or bird gaining player potential, awakening sentience, hiding itself, crawling all the way to level 40, then claiming to be a race representative and negotiating with humans.”

Even if there were some saintly, left-wing fools who believed in equality of all beings and that animal players should have equal rights with humans (many in Western guilds truly thought so), they’d be crushed immediately.”

The forum was buzzing; every user was discussing the version update and the large-scale event mentioned at the end of the update notice: 【The Lament of Kings】.”

【Mississippi River Surfing】: I get it—the “Kings” in “The Lament of Kings” is the key. Probably similar to a national destiny novel: summoning historical kings and emperors, King Arthur vs. Qin Shi Huang, Alexander vs. Lincoln, the winner rewrites national destiny, boosting the entire country’s mineral resources tenfold.”

【Xu Ge City District】: Sweat drops. Boss, your priority right now is to write your next tomato novel. National destiny is here—why not say Kennedy vs. Abe-san?”

【GigaChad】: By the way, isn’t Abe-san three years old this year? He should be in preschool now.”

【Can Green Beans Be Stewed?】: If Abe-san goes to preschool, he’ll be bullied by the five-year-old Prison Boss.”

【Mississippi River Surfing】: Bullied? Abe-san will instantly obliterate the Prison Boss.”

【Huiyu’s Rain】: Haha, you guys are chatting so much. I got accidentally sucked into a killing-field time current and just got back to the real world. Heard several major countries are offering high salaries to recruit Lv5 top-tier transcenders to form their own official guilds? Anyone want to submit resumes together?”

【Xu Ge City District】: Holy shit, veteran! Newbie bows down.”

With too few existing clues, no meaningful content could be drawn from the forum alone; the discussion quickly devolved into jokes, nonsense, and idle chatter.”

Li Cheng scratched his head and closed the forum webpage.”

He had no particular opinion on this so-called “Lament of Kings.” His toy factory was running smoothly, and his magic cannon master’s cultivation hadn’t hit a bottleneck—he didn’t need to scramble for ways to grow stronger like ordinary players.”

As for whether the large-scale event would affect the real world—”

Come on, even if the sky fell, Michael, the Side of Truth, and other level-40 top-tier experts could hold it up like nursing home attendants cleaning up shit.”

He just needed to complete his tasks step by step.”

“Forum chatting is still the best.”

Huiyu lifted her head from the laptop screen and suddenly noticed Li Cheng’s subtle expression. “What’s wrong?”

“A task has come.”

Li Cheng rubbed his temples. Just as sailors avoid saying the word “sink,” and ER doctors avoid saying “finally, I can go home early,” players also had superstitions—they avoided mentioning task intervals whenever possible.”

And now, what you don’t think of comes to you—the system notification appeared right before his eyes.”

【Task trigger condition met】

【Task type: Routine Task (One-on-One Duel)】

【Task name: Network Commandos】

【Task objective: In three hours, hold eight types of ten-gigabit network cables and wait for teleportation】

【Reward: To be revealed upon receiving the next task prompt】

【Failure penalty: Mandatory participation in The Lament of Kings】 This—”

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. This task was strange. Routine tasks usually occurred in the real world or somewhere in the killing field.”

With his current strength, if no higher-tier transcender interfered, three light-speed elbow strikes could level a medium-sized city. The real world couldn’t withstand such intense combat.”

Second, the failure penalty was bizarre—it wasn’t deletion or level reduction, but mandatory participation in The Lament of Kings.”

Could it be… this event was voluntary? Only for Lv30+, with extremely high mortality?”

No time to ponder further. Li Cheng called Huiyu and quickly prepared.”

His current panel (excluding text length) was:”

【Godslayer·Bee】

【Lv26, Experience: 1572/2600】

【Strength: 13】

【Agility: 12】

【Intelligence: 20】 (Abandoned Divine Authority: +3)

【Constitution: 12】 (New Human: +1) (Commoner’s Fury: +1)

【Perception: 14】

【Charisma: 4】 (Barbecue Enthusiast: -1) (Abandoned Divine Authority: -1)

【Equipment: Mercy’s Soul-Blessing Melody, Bagua Alchemical Magic Cannon, Taiyi Blade, Haihai Soul-Binding Bell, Levitation Engine, Assembled Doll, Proof of the Odd Mechanic, Thermal Death Corridor, Bat Hook Gun, Skill Transfer USB, Information Synthesis Glasses, Flag of Steel and Victory, Ape Regression Gun】

【Inventory: Book of Impure Plague, Notebook of Seeking Death, Automated 3D Warehouse, Akiili Toy Factory Key, Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece, Emergency Escape Card, Electronic Pet Egg, Qilin Blood Plasma 700ml, Backup Hidden Energy, Technological Singularity Device, Edge War Vehicle】

【Skills: Mist Concealment, Multi-Threaded Brain Domain Method, Experience Roleplay Method, Instant Thunder, Familiar Swap, Condensed Qi Internal Explosion Fist, Riding the Wind and Churning the Waves, Stone Rooting Technique, Knight Never Dies Empty-Handed, Dragon Breath, Summoning Shu ·Farmer, Visualized Memory, Summoning Shu ·Shadow Peregrine, Highlight Moment*20】

【Game Currency: 116574】

【Qi Value: 1050】

【Sanity: 450】 (Barbecue Enthusiast: +120) (Helicopter Destroyer: +30)

【Huiyu: Skills—Spiritual Ambush, Destruction Beam; Equipment—Skull-Shattering Power Hammer, Silver Wing Light Path】

【Thermal Death Corridor Special Collection: Curse of Resentment, White Fox Spirit, Entropy-Eating Cloud, Frog God, Six-Armed Snake Demon, Black Pharaoh, Alpha Serpent Head】

After preparing, Li Cheng did not return to the real world. Instead, he found a high-end internet cafe in Loujie, entered, and pulled out the computer’s network cable, holding it in his hand.”

(Routine tasks have a chance to affect the real world. If my own house got blown up, that’d be bad—but if a Loujie internet cafe explodes, the insurance company pays.)”

The three-hour countdown ended. No disturbance. When he opened his eyes again, he stood squarely on a bustling city street.”

Wait—isn’t this Yinxing?”

Li Cheng’s pupils contracted. Around him, crowds surged, skyscrapers towered—it was clearly Yinxing’s Bund.”

But upon closer inspection, the architecture differed slightly from the real world; pedestrians wore overly clean clothing, and a few military armored vehicles sat parked on the street.”

The reason he called them “armored vehicles” was because they radiated an overwhelming sense of cheapness—as if someone had sprayed gray paint over SUV shells and pretended they were military vehicles.”

Worse still, Li Cheng was now fully armed: left hand gripping the Ape Regression Gun, right arm cradling the Bagua Alchemical Magic Cannon. Considering he might use the Book of Impure Plague, he wore a yellow airtight chemical suit.”

Yet despite this bizarre outfit, not a single passerby gave him a second glance—they walked past him as if he were invisible.”

“.”

Li Cheng silently launched a reconnaissance drone, then released Huiyu from the electronic pet egg. Huiyu, seeing the surroundings, gasped. “Oh my, isn’t this Yinxing?”

“It’s not Yinxing.”

Li Cheng’s expression looked like he was wearing a mask of agony. He pointed to the drone’s live aerial feed on the remote. Clearly visible beneath the Huangpu River was a massive shadow shaped like a cannon.”

“We are now inside the 2019 August release, Douban 2.9/10, budget 360 million, box office 120 million, the classic sci-fi film that bridged The Wandering Earth and opened the door for Chinese sci-fi—”

“The Wandering Earth 2: Shanghai Fortress.”