Chapter 573: Escape

The strength of Alpha Mamba is undeniable; without the self-contained Immortality Field of the Green Skin Train, without the sanctuary of Dreamland, and without the countless preparations made millennia ago by the top-tier powerhouse Yutian Di, players from the two main universes would have spent their entire lives trying to survive Alpha’s match-three game.

In fact, as a participant in the mission, Reyes, from the new-generation criminal syndicate of Jalisco, Mexico, was quite proud to have escaped Alpha’s grasp; although, per the instructions of the Loujie Neighborhood Committee, he did not upload the first-person guide video that might reveal the existence of otherworldly players to FeiNet, he privately kept a backup of the video and added his own director’s commentary, repeatedly savoring: “The otherworldly players led by the Fungus King? Even steven—I often solo-kill him.”

“Alpha has been over-mythologized—he’s not that strong. Surviving our hundreds of deaths while wearing the Immortality Field was just luck. If we die a few thousand more times, we’ll surely exhaust him.”

Even the Alpha serpent’s head, successfully recorded by the Heat Death Corridor, is far beyond the reach of a transcendent of this level to challenge.

After a single breath, Li Cheng’s spiritual power was depleted, and the Phase-Shifting Demon vanished.

But the system notification signaling the end of the death duel did not sound.

Li Cheng scanned his surroundings; his pupils, hidden beneath the faceplate, flickered between red and green, contracting and expanding at high frequency, repeatedly adjusting his cone and rod cells to alter the spectrum detection range.

Found it.

Far in the distance, tiny black particles invisible to the naked eye coalesced into thin wisps of smoke, attempting to drift into the bubbles symbolizing network devices.

Taking the human race alone as an example, Level 5 is a minor threshold, Level 10 a major one.

Level 5 means preliminary mastery of transcendent power, allowing one to engage in skirmishes with basic modern armed forces, such as police units.

militia, and possibly escape from elite units that haven’t fully maxed out their star ratings, if luck is on your side.

Level 10 means you’re no longer a novice; you’ve gained a deeper understanding of transcendent power. You can employ various methods to confront quasi-military forces, including but not limited to SWAT, mercenaries, PMKC private military security companies, and more. But against modern informationized armies’ land-sea-air encirclement, defeat remains your only outcome.

Lv15—small-scale conventional military forces, including special forces, can no longer contain you. Unless you face specially trained armed units like Mobile Task Forces, specifically trained to handle transcendent beings.

Or, disregarding collateral damage, unleash overwhelming long-range firepower—bombs, missiles, rocket salvos.

Lv20 and Lv25—in a world without transcendent power, they can take whatever they want. Even in today’s Earth, among major guilds, these individuals are regarded as reliable pillars.

Only transcendent beings of equal or higher level, and reverence for nuclear and sub-nuclear weapons, can control or suppress them.

There is no physical barrier between Lv25 and Lv30, but the player community universally regards Lv30 and above as another realm—simply because of survivability.

At this level, strength, agility, defense, endurance, HP, combat intelligence, special abilities—all have no weaknesses; they’re merely baseline.

Most importantly, Lv30 is extremely hard to kill.

Wolverine-Deadpool lineage, Lich’s phylactery, Horcruxes, soul possession, Corpse Liberation Immortal, relic chips, Corpse Reanimation,

Resurrection Amulet, Shore of the Dead, Cycle of Death, clone duplicates, consciousness upload, necromancy spells...

With tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of game coins spent, every conceivable survival technique, whether grand and majestic or bizarre and insidious, becomes possible.

Long ago, a very blurry screenshot—like a Weibo post copied hundreds of times until it turned green—circulated on forums, depicting a legendary item named 【The Pluto Arena Entry Ticket】: upon death, it automatically triggers, teleporting the holder into an arena to duel an opponent of equal strength; victory restores full HP.

Commonly called: “Win the Revival Match.”

The Phase-Shifting Demon, a biological weapon of an otherworldly advanced civilization, possesses far greater vitality than a cockroach—and yet it survived Alpha’s serpent-head breath.

“It’s escaping!” cried Huiyu, still hovering in midair, desperately piecing itself back together.

“It won’t escape.”

Li Cheng’s expression remained unchanged. He seized the Alchemical Magic Cannon, rotated its track, exposed the loading port, and hurled his longtime companion, 【Bat Hook Gun】, into it.

Times have changed; floating engines, familiar repositioning, and other gear and skills are now fully available—he no longer needs it for mobility.

Huiyu saw the alchemical cannon glow with charging light, and cried out in anguish, stretching his arm forward: “No! Bat—Hook—Gun!”

As the cry echoed, the alchemical cannon fired. A massive metal anchor, far larger than the cannon itself, shot out, crossing half the network space in an instant, plunging into the ethereal black mist.

The Bat Hook Gun’s effect is to launch a grappling hook that embeds into a surface, providing a directional kinetic vector.

But after being loaded into the alchemical cannon, its effect changed to: 【Fire projectile to forcibly drag target toward self】.

Click!

The anchor, like a hook, firmly latched onto the black mist. The thick iron chain tightened to its limit, emitting a grating, teeth-chilling creak.

Seeing this, the thin black mist no longer concealed itself—it revealed a shrunken, potato-shaped body, dragging the anchor embedded in its back, charging recklessly into one of the bubbles.

Alpha’s serpent-head breath inflicted devastating damage, causing the Phase-Shifting Demon—highly intelligent but lacking individual will—to fully recognize the threat of death and attempt escape.

“You hold it!”

Li Cheng unhesitatingly tossed the alchemical cannon into Huiyu’s arms, then activated the hexagonal vector nozzles on his insect-form carapace, generating thrust to dash forward, following the iron chain, tracking the Phase-Shifting Demon, and diving into the same bubble.

In the real world: “As a finance KOL, I can assert that now is the best moment to surrender to the U.S....”

Before an old computer screen, a slumped figure in a sweatshirt, as always, typed on a keyboard caked with cigarette ash, posting press releases.

Suddenly, the screen blazed with blinding light, illuminating the cluttered, filthy room and startling cockroaches into frantic scurrying.

A black potato, dragging an iron chain, crashed through the computer desktop. Behind it, a figure clad in biological armor sprinted in furious pursuit.

Both vanished in an instant, disappearing from the right edge of the screen. The entire display went dark, emitting the smell of burning. The slumped figure sat frozen in shock, his first thought: “Shit! My screen! How many press releases do I have to write to earn this back?!”

At the same moment, the LCD GG screens in Times Square, New York; hotel TVs in Hawaii; every smartphone across Seoul’s central districts—flickered with the image of the Phase-Shifting Demon.