Chapter 561

The reason it’s definitely the movie, not the novel it’s based on

The reason is simple: on the exterior walls of riverside skyscrapers hung massive posters of Shu Qi, dressed in military uniform, striking a formidable pose, with text reading, “Are you ready? This is both an opportunity and a test.”

“Waiting for you to join! Steel youth, set out at once.”

“Female warriors of the battlefield—who says men must lead?”

And other nonsensical text—key point is, the fonts looked cheap and rigid; even a college student using Meitu Xiuxiu for fifty yuan online wouldn’t make it 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 caps, their overall look resembling a brand-new boy band debuting on a talent show.

From street loudspeakers, a news audio clip played: “We live in an era transformed by the space super-energy substance ‘Xianteng.’ Xianteng replaced oil and coal, propelling rapid human advancement, yet also attracting the envy of alien civilizations. Major cities have been destroyed, life regressed. Shanghai is one of the few remaining 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, was polished for six years, earned 120 million at the box office, and received a Douban score of a glorious 2.9.

It surpassed *739 Bureau* at 3.2, *Turandot* at 3.1, *Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains* at 3.0, and *The Legend of Fengshen*,

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

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

“In any case, the urgent task is to find the enemy player in the one-on-one duel.”

Li Cheng quickly shed his chemical suit, pulled out a laptop from his backpack, and sprinted to the traffic light. Passersby ignored him completely; 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 inexplicably applied the classic beauty filter—skin smoothing, whitening—turning the already unnaturally clean and tidy passersby into unnaturally radiant figures, obscuring their true faces.

What can I say.

Li Cheng took a deep breath, calmed himself, and silently typed code commands to search all surveillance footage for individuals who didn’t belong in the 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 high above slowly rotated, forming a massive vortex within seconds, casting a sky-blocking 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 must be the alien mothership invasion scene.

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

“Ah!”

“Ya!”

“Eh!”

Passersby screamed with startling realism, scattering like headless flies, each fleeing in a different style—some with hands in pockets, calm and unhurried; others sprinting head-down, stealing glances at the sky. Classic, everyone running 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, it erupted like a mushroom releasing spores, launching thousands of metallic spheres, each two to three meters in diameter, flying into the gaps.

Once inside the gaps, the spheres automatically transformed into mechanical units with four arms and two legs, their foot jets blasting thermal flames as they dove toward the city.

For some reason, these mechanical predators, supposedly highly advanced, 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 five-cent special effects.”

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

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

Both sides maneuvered at high speed in the sky: predators fired beams from their four arms; drones retaliated with missiles. The battle’s shockwaves struck skyscraper walls, triggering explosion fireballs and smoke that looked copied and pasted from a free effects library.

＿＿C〇

“The special effects in *Shanghai Fortress* are about on par with *749 Bureau*. They don’t even match the Yin Jiao manifestation from *The Legend of Fengshen Part II*, the strongest film of 2025.”

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

Yet even after infiltrating UNDC—the highest-security city network, established by 97 nations setting aside past grievances—the UNDC headquarters, cluttered with meaningless lighting equipment designed to feel sci-fi but unnervingly spotless, yielded no trace of any player.

“Hmm,” Hui Yu rubbed his chin. “Since this isn’t the real world, nor a fully fleshed-out parallel universe, could it be that we’re still inside a Killing Ground Entity?”

“Hm?”

Li Cheng looked up. Indeed, when he first became a player, he’d once completed a mission with Red Racer and Su Jie in 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 Thousand Eyes communication earpiece, and dialed Yuan Donglian, Yuan Zhixia’s cousin. “Hello, Miss Yuan?”

“Hello, is this Pi Fu?”

To their surprise, Customer Yuan’s tone was oddly knowing: “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. “WTF, how do you know?”

On the other end of the earpiece, Customer Yuan took a deep breath. “Right now, you two 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 Chang Sunyao’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. Riding 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 the car, a couple wearing headphones and watching the movie on their phone screens caught Tie Gu’s attention.

Before joining the World Nuclear Peace Guild, he’d been a lone wolf player for a while, and he paid close attention to tiny anomalies in daily life. He immediately activated his reconnaissance skill, peering through the phone screen.

“Puh—”

Tie Gu spat out his bubble tea in a spray, coughing violently as fellow passengers stared in shock.

From past walkthrough videos on Feiwang, it was known that Pi Fu subtly altered his appearance during every mission—but his pet companion never changed its face.

The two on the phone screen, in the pirated movie, chatted casually: “Does this look like a post-apocalyptic war?”

“Don’t ask. If you ask, it’s just the setting.”

Seeing this, Tie Gu broke into a cold sweat. After the London incident, Pi Fu had become infamous—ranked among the most dangerous individuals in multiple national intelligence agencies’ lists, just below the leader of the Laughing Troupe, “The Laughing God.”

Could it be that Pi Fu had once again stumbled into some supernatural event?

Without hesitation, Tie Gu opened his player panel and sent a message to his guild leader, Chang Sunyao: “Chief, can you reach Pi Fu? I think something’s happening here.”

“Can’t reach him.”

In the World Nuclear Peace Guild office, Chang Sunyao, watching the live feed from Tie Gu’s action camera, saw the couple’s phone screen. She shot straight up from her chair.

“Holy shit, it’s Pi Fu. Control those two. Don’t let them close the webpage or get off the subway. I’ll contact the Special Affairs Bureau right away.”

“Huh?”

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

He wasn’t a Special Affairs Bureau field agent, and he had no suitable skills. Seeing them reach the door, Tie Gu improvised: in a corner unnoticed, he sucked up two tapioca pearls with a straw 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.

They didn’t even groan—just rolled their eyes back, staggered backward, and collapsed onto their seats without drawing attention from other passengers.

‘That was close.’

Like Detective Conan, Tie Gu wiped his sweat, pretending to bend down to tie his shoelace, while quietly steadying their phones to prevent the screens from turning off. ‘Where are the Special Affairs Bureau people? Hurry up and help!’