Chapter 566: Secret

The intelligent core contacts Li Cheng through the Thousand-Throated Beast Guild's flagship product, 【Phone Worm】.

Externally, it truly resembles a snail about forty centimeters long, with two large eyes and a sturdy shell.

This snail is a manufactured living organism, devoid of self-will, possessing player qualifications. When used, one simply speaks their message to the Phone Worm, which then uses the friend communication panel to connect to another Phone Worm or another player.

Specifically designed for long-distance communication between ordinary people and players, ordinary people and ordinary people, and non-friend players.

To ensure the Phone Worm does not vanish during script missions, customers must return it to the Thousand-Throated Beast Guild every two weeks for a replacement (the new Phone Worm kills the old one and reacquires qualifications).

Thus, the monthly rental fee is very high, affordable only by guilds of medium size or larger.

(Theoretically, the Special Affairs Bureau's 【Ten Thousand Eyes Headset】 is far more usable than the Phone Worm and requires no monthly fee.)

(But some matters are simply unsuitable for the Special Affairs Bureau to know—such as plotting against the Special Affairs Bureau.)

"Alright, I'm on my way."

Li Cheng replied, brushing off Zhao Zijing and the others with a few brief words.

Just after the Global Supernatural Alliance delegation left, several more groups surged forward: "Master Pi Fu, we are the Okato Corporation..."

"We are the French Sanofi Pharmaceutical Company..."

"The Vanderlyn Guild extends its respects to you..."

More than ten hours have passed since the Phase Change Demon was confirmed dead, and all factions now roughly know what occurred in low Earth orbit.

With Master Pi Fu's strength, it should be impossible to destroy over eight thousand artificial satellites tens of thousands of kilometers apart within seconds—only Michael of the GOC could have done it personally.

Wanli Fengdao, nicknamed Xiao Dao Ge, may be ugly, weak, and low-class, but he is a genuine veteran player from the Early Access server.

At the dawn of the Killing Field, it was a chaotic era without rules: multinational conglomerates hunted transcendent beings across the globe, employing every means—coercion, bribery, even hiring gangs to kidnap new players' relatives in the real world to force compliance.

Even when participating in team script missions, one had to treat every teammate as a potential enemy, fearing to lose a single hair or drop of blood, lest one be forced into combat with them.

Returning to the real world was no relief—abnormal events lurked everywhere; a single misstep could plunge one into transformations far beyond one's strength, leading to sudden death, often without even leaving a whole corpse.

Wanli Fengdao survived the chaos of those early days, sifted clean by the tide, and is entitled to boast: "I was there when the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters laid its first brick."

"You know Michael? I chatted with her at the first representative meeting of the Poor Street Neighborhood Committee."

Regardless of how much exaggeration lies within, Wanli Fengdao is undeniably a veteran.

For guilds founded in the middle or late stages, they may have never seen Michael, Hohenheim, or other top-tier transcendent beings, and might not even know the power level of Lv40.

They come to Master Pi Fu not only for business talks but likely also to learn about Michael through him.

Li Cheng did not wish to entangle with these people; he immediately rolled his eyes upward, exposing the whites, flailed his hands aimlessly, and muttered, "Ugh, is my blindness and deafness returning again?"

???

The circle of guild representatives barely kept their expressions in check—bro, your Zhu Xing Zhen Tai's major business is implanting body parts, and you're pretending to be deaf and blind? If you want to play deaf, I'll make you fly.

Hui Yu immediately understood Li Cheng's intent, sprinted over, and supported him, helping him step past the shop threshold while muttering, "Deafness is good—deafness is an imperial omen."

The two passed through the guild representatives, quick-stepping to a transmission phone booth outside the Poor Street district, teleporting twice to reach the Toy Factory.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

The Toy Factory remained as bustling as ever, machinery never ceasing, cooling towers billowing thick white mist, cube robots driving forklifts hauling goods to different workshops, while cylindrical robots on shift rested in the converted charging station turned beer hall, drinking motor oil packaged as German Erdinger beer—

To improve production efficiency, the intelligent core permitted the cylindrical and cube robots to work in shifts and allowed them to redecorate their dormitories and charging stations according to personal preference.

"Do you know how much electricity it takes to charge a single tram in Germany? 50 kWh!"

A cylindrical robot wearing the Xinghan chest badge stood on a table in the beer hall, fists clenched, delivering an impassioned speech: "Merz is incompetent, von der Leyen has humiliated our nation—we must rise!"

Li Cheng, passing before the beer hall, grabbed Hui Yu, who had paused to look curiously, and wiped sweat from his forehead.

Under Li Cheng's strict prohibition, the cylindrical robots had apparently abandoned the unknown artist's Legalist and Mohist philosophies, yet the cylindrical robots, whose construction materials originated from the old Berlin Black Flag, still held affection for the German national concept.

They learned that German politicians, under the guise of environmentalism and safety, had destroyed their own brand-new coal-fired power plants,

nuclear power plants, then turned to buy expensive French nuclear power—even as French nuclear plants were built directly along the German border—and each one was heartbroken, desperate to drive Tiger tanks, board Stuka bombers, and march on Berlin to plead their case before parliament.

Hui Yu kept glancing back at the beer hall; its interior was heavily retro-styled, with packages of 【West Sea Squid Strips】 and 【Squid-Tai Crunchy Seaweed Slices】 on the tables, and even bottles of 【Adolf Shampoo】 placed beside the restroom door.

"Respected factory owner, you've arrived."

The intelligent core swiftly floated over; knowing Li Cheng disliked formalities, it explained concisely: "Five minutes and forty-five seconds ago, a motion-sensing camera at the southwest corner of the Toy Factory, at coordinates (—90, —147, +180), detected signs of living activity, automatically captured photos, and transmitted them back."

The targets are six humans: three men, three women, traveling in two SUVs.

Below are their personal details obtained from public sources: REX, Lv13, real name Scottie Thompson, 23-year-old male, residence in Saskatchewan, Canada, both parents high school teachers...

Holy shit, damn!

The intelligent core's computational power rivals that of a real-world supercomputer; even though the players in the images had performed basic disguises—wearing wigs, sunglasses, etc. —the exposed portions of their faces, combined with forum public data, were still sufficient to identify their personal information.

"The six individuals come from six different countries, belong to different guilds, all are Lv10+ transcendent beings... likely a randomly matched standard mission."

Li Cheng pondered briefly: 250 kilometers might still be distant on Earth, but in the Killing Field, the proximity is comparable to the distance between two bubble tea shops on a busy street—one step away from face-to-face.

"The known range of the Killing Field's entities is comparable to the entire solar system; the probability of this player squad appearing randomly near the Toy Factory is nearly zero—unless the Killing Field system is secretly manipulating it..."

Li Cheng thought for a moment and summoned the Edge Fighter.