[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-player-reboot":3,"chapter-player-reboot-player-reboot-chapter-562":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Player Reboot",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2272527,4438,"Chapter 562: Phase Shift","player-reboot-chapter-562",562,"\u003Cp>Time returns to the present; Huiyu helps Li Cheng adjust his headphones, and Li Cheng looks up, waving at the sky. “So you can see me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Customer service Yuan says: “At this moment, the Mobile Task Force has cleared the carriage and parked it on the tunnel’s maintenance section, where logistics staff are analyzing the phone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m transferring your call now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even without considering the over-hundred-billion contract signed between the Starforge Anvil and the Special Affairs Bureau, this incident has already impacted the real world—the Bureau cannot ignore it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hey, is that Brother Pi Fu?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Su Jie’s voice came through the headphones: “Short version: this phone’s playback of ‘Shanghai Fortress’ is from a pirated site; all functions—fast-forward, pause, switch audio tracks, adjust subtitles, screen mirroring—are locked. No instruments can obtain root access.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“From our perspective, the movie screen’s footage remains fixed five meters in front of you two, in close-up frame. When you speak, subtitles automatically appear on-screen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There are subtitles too?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and casually swung his bat-hook into the air—it missed any solid object, proving no invisible crew was filming him with invisible cameras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paused, then pulled out a speaker and began singing a gufeng DJ song: “I walk down the long street, listening to the actor sing of the capital~ Pear blossoms drift before your window~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This sudden act stunned Customer Service Yuan, the Mobile Task Force members clad in full memetic hazard suits inside the carriage, and the senior officers at the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau command center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Su Jie exclaimed in shock: “Brother Pi Fu, what are you doing?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Testing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng said calmly: “Domestic films must pass censorship to be released. If something absolutely uncensorable appears on the screen, it proves this isn’t a normal movie.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He reached to pull out a small prop from his 3D storage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whoa, don’t!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Su Jie, sweating profusely, quickly stopped Li Cheng—every Mobile Task Force mission requires audio-video recording and file archiving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Should’ve known better than to get involved in this mess.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Su Jie’s expression was pure agony. He sighed patiently: “Detection shows this phone’s download speed is 10 Gbps, upload is 1 Gbps—exceeding normal 5G limits. It switches network providers and nodes every second, making tracking impossible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder the mission’s called ‘Network Commandos.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng rubbed his chin: “This movie is just one location in the mission. If you can’t win a fight and need to flee—or chase an enemy—you can switch nodes to jump to other network devices.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The problem is: where is the enemy?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look up!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huiyu pointed skyward; the camera followed her finger to the disc-shaped alien mothership hovering above the energy barrier—it suddenly changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thick black smoke gushed from its seams; the alien mechanical unit codenamed ‘Predator’ was engulfed, froze instantly, and plummeted downward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Something’s wrong.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the subway carriage packed with professional gear, a Mobile Task Force operative muttered: “I’ve watched ‘Shanghai Fortress’ five times—there’s no scene like this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Li Cheng bowed his head in respect; Su Jie and others turned to stare at the operative.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A Douban 2.9-point sci-fi romance epic—ordinary viewers watch it once and need to wash their eyes, even request paid sick leave—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who watches it five times straight?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Embarrassed by his colleagues’ stares, the operative said: “I watched it with five ex-girlfriends.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>King of the Sea? You never bring toilet paper to the bathroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone turned back. The thick black smoke, slow yet swift, gradually engulfed the entire mothership. The ship, like a virus-ridden entity, shut off its beams striking the barrier, turned off all lights, and fell motionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something this abnormal must be unnatural. Li Cheng tossed the Ten-Eyes headphones to Huiyu, put on his Bluetooth earpiece, gripped his levitation engine, and floated toward the blue barrier above.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the movie’s logic, humanity discovered Immortal Vines in space—an infinite energy source—that leapfrogged technology to invent the energy barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(Don’t overthink it—the movie also claims war set entertainment back a century, yet civilians have unlimited beer.) Flying out through the barrier’s gap, Li Cheng glanced down at the city: beyond Shanghai’s urban zone, distant landscapes were blurred color blocks—like an unrendered video game map. Understandable; the movie’s plot only occurs within this city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked up, studying the motionless mothership. His Info-Synthesizing Glasses rapidly scanned: behind the label ‘Alien Mothership,’ faint characters appeared: ‘Phase Demon.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next second, countless four-armed robots surged forth, each covered in vast black tattoos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tattoos? Then these robots can’t pass the civil service exam.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huiyu shook her head. These Predators, whose combat performance in the movie was worse than Earth’s fourth-gen fighters, couldn’t possibly harm Li Cheng—it was absurd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As expected, Li Cheng merely snapped his fingers and summoned a hundred Imperial Guard tanks, firing a coordinated barrage upward—high-explosive rounds wiped out the four-armed robots. He asked casually: “My screen says the alien mothership’s been parasitized by something called ‘Phase Demon.’ Any idea what that is?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the subway carriage, Su Jie and others exchanged glances; even the senior officers in Yin City’s command hall looked baffled. “Phase what? Demon what? Never heard of it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Checked. No high-level player on Earth bears that name.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Major guilds maintain dossiers on every known high-level transcendent on Earth: life history, family, personality traits, political stance—even using AI or human teams to analyze mission footage frame-by-frame to deduce every item and skill’s effects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earth’s known high-level players’ power systems contain no record of ‘Phase Demon.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine. I’ll handle it myself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng floated another few hundred meters upward, stretched his arms, deliberately delaying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the sonic and visual spectacle of the tank barrage, the movie’s NPCs finally noticed Li Cheng. Dozens of fighter jets approached him; civilians on the ground, previously “fleeing,” pointed skyward, murmuring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whoa, look! There’s a man up there!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Seriously? He’s flying!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The crowd’s tone was so overly dramatic, even abstract Huiyu couldn’t keep a straight face. Worse—their lip movements didn’t match their words. The film’s post-production was a disaster; character lip-sync was consistently off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once he’d drawn enough attention, Li Cheng grounded his Qi, quietly activated the ‘Spotlight Moment’ scroll, and roared toward the mothership: “Have you ever been kicked at light speed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spotlight Moment—the higher the perceived prestige, the greater the boost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the roar, Li Cheng’s hair stirred without wind, his robes flared wildly. He slowly raised his right leg, aimed at the mothership’s central axis, assumed a kicking stance—and vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*Wooom!*\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The colossal vortex overshadowing the city split cleanly in two, like Moses parting the sea, leaving a narrow chasm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the vortex’s center, the alien mothership was pierced straight through; explosions and fire erupted within the gash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mothership’s durability was far below that of the Alpha Hydra. With its structural integrity severely damaged, it visibly began to collapse—yet…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vast black mist, seemingly from nowhere, instantly extinguished all flames, then surged across the entire vessel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mothership’s surface, like the Predators, now bore tattoos. It remained suspended in midair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng retracted his leg. That kick hadn’t just breached the mothership—it had seemingly shattered the movie’s boundaries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hundred-meter rift appeared in the sky, violently sucking in surrounding air, creating an eighth-grade gale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind alone couldn’t affect Li Cheng—he simply reversed gravity slightly and drifted clear of the rift.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mothership grew stranger: it didn’t attack Li Cheng. Instead, it released more mutated Predators and, like a banyan tree, dripped black smoke columns downward through the barrier’s gap, extending toward the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As everyone stared in confusion, a calm voice came through the phone: “Hello, Brother Pi Fu? This is Bai Ze.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. Bai Ze reported directly to the Special Affairs Bureau’s headquarters, representing high-level authority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since he wasn’t in Yin City’s system, Yin City must have escalated the situation to headquarters, drawing their attention—and Customer Service Yuan had rerouted the call.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Emergency. Briefly: this ‘Phase Demon’ is a high-level non-human player from another world, Level 33. Abilities include: morphing, assimilation-corrosion, memetic contamination.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You must eliminate it without retreat. If you exit combat, it may exploit the five minutes of unrestricted freedom after mission completion to hack every internet-connected device on Earth and prepare for invasion.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1364,"2026-06-19T22:31:26.010Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","1427d119fb7ba5a54ab8b8d46192faa225785ed9877f7f45ba43e5017bcfc5ac","player-reboot-chapter-563","player-reboot-chapter-561",612,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fplayer-reboot-cover.jpg"]