Chapter 577: Smile

“Hey, hey? If you can hear, respond with [Received].”

In the pure white network space, Hui Yu shouted into his headset, but heard only static electromagnetic interference.

She knew the Special Affairs Bureau was observing nearby, so she immediately turned 180° and asked: “Where’s Pi Fu?”

“Low Earth orbit.”

Inside a network bubble, a Special Affairs Bureau staff member typed text onto a large screen, explaining rapidly.

Due to orbital angle and velocity differences, the satellite Hui Yu was on was rapidly drifting away at seven kilometers per second, cutting off the signal and preventing participation in the coming battle.

“Fine.”

Hui Yu scratched his head, thought for a moment, then pulled out over a dozen smartphones from his chest and began casually clearing his mobile game stamina.

This move left the Special Affairs Bureau speechless; according to the think tank’s psychological profile, Hui Yu was supposed to be the type who acted carefree until Pi Fu’s safety was at stake—then he’d have a mental breakdown.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Perhaps sensing the Special Affairs Bureau’s confusion, Hui Yu grinned and raised his phone to explain: “Super data card: 29 yuan per month for 235GB+ data, fixed long-term, 5G speed, first month free. You deserve it.”

??? Who asked you? Are you here to run a commercial?

The elites at Special Affairs Bureau headquarters wore expressions of utter exasperation, while in the corner, Wan Li Feng Dao—summoned on short notice—knew full well how unreliable Pi Fu and Hui Yu were. He calmly sipped goji berry, ginseng, and deer antler tea from his thermos.

“If it’s just one-on-one,”

Hui Yu put away his phone and said cheerfully: “We’ll win.”

The thin air of low Earth orbit glared with sunlight.

Li Cheng hovered high above, having just used his light-speed elbow strike. From this vantage, Earth was a round, blue sphere, clouds drifting like ethereal white veils.

Hss—

The armor on his back automatically opened, revealing the hidden backup energy source beneath—the Spirit Power had been completely depleted.

At the edge of his vision, he could barely make out the Phase Demon, now reduced to a tiny speck of light.

The cannonball, reforged from steel and the Victory Flag Spear, massively amplified the effect of 【Counter Moment】, blasting the Phase Demon clear to 500 kilometers above ground, shattering and tearing off over half its body.

But the remaining fragments rapidly reassembled, transforming into the appearance of a Federation Investigation Bureau agent named Buddy: five meters tall, entirely black, muscular and sinewy, with mechanical prosthetics fused to his frame, wounds healing at lightning speed.

Under the sunlight, it gleamed with a smooth metallic sheen.

And compared to Li Cheng, the Phase Demon now had... substance.

Probably because Li Cheng remained within the network space formed by low Earth orbit communication satellites, while the Phase Demon had stolen a certain player essence from Buddy.

Half remained in the network realm, half stepped into physical reality.

And possessing physical form meant its interference in the real world had grown stronger.

For the first time, the Phase Demon’s face showed a human-like expression of contemplation. It raised its right arm; the skin on its forearm naturally folded backward, revealing a miniature missile pod.

Poom! Poom! Poom! Poom!

Four miniature missiles streaked with long trails, hurtling rapidly toward the rear right, striking a communication satellite with needle-point precision.

No fire—only pure explosion. The entire satellite shattered and disintegrated, and Li Cheng’s form trembled in response.

“Tsk.”

Li Cheng narrowed his eyes. The entire death match had occurred within the network space, where mobile phones and internet cafe computers were protected by the arena system—indestructible.

So initially, the Special Affairs Bureau couldn’t restrain the Phase Demon by placing phones in lead boxes or rooting and reflashing them.

But after absorbing part of Buddy’s player essence, the Phase Demon now possessed a physical body in the real world, allowing it to exploit bugs in the arena system and freely attack and destroy network devices.

And by doing so, it weakened Li Cheng, who still remained within the network realm.

“The 【Earth Realm】 project has ten thousand satellites. The Phase Demon doesn’t need to destroy all ten thousand—just a few dozen nearby ones to create a network vacuum, exiling me.”

Li Cheng’s mind raced. He raised his arm, opened his palm, and summoned the Edge Fighter.

In the thin atmosphere of low Earth orbit, aerodynamic shape didn’t matter. The Edge Fighter unfolded into its full form—21 meters long, comparable to a seven-story building on the surface.

Li Cheng stood atop the fighter. Its vectoring thrusters blasted blue exhaust, propelling him at breakneck speed.

The distance between them closed rapidly. The Phase Demon swung both arms forward, unleashing Buddy’s ability—fifty miniature missiles launched in unison.

And those fifty missiles flickered violently, splitting into... five thousand.

A rain of missiles blotted out the sky. Li Cheng’s pupils contracted. His Info-Synthesizing Glasses confirmed: each missile was not an illusion.

【Skill Name: Illusion-Reality: Barrage Splendor】

【Type: Spirit Energy】

【Effect: Barrage Hell. Turn your own attack into an illusion and replicate its quantity 10 to 1000 times. The replicated attacks fall as a barrage, possessing no power during descent—only dealing damage at the moment of impact. Damage power and frequency match the original attack. Once the maximum number of hits is reached, all barrages vanish automatically.】

【Cost: 90 Spirit Power. One additional point per ten replications.】

【Cooldown: None】

【Requirement: Clear any bullet-hell shooter game at triple speed, including but not limited to 【Bianqiu】, 【Thunder 5】, 【Angel of Dusk】, 【Touhou Project】 series, etc.】

【Note: The barrage initially spreads in a 120° cone, then stops expanding.】

【Note: “True masters, no matter how dense the barrage, glide through like flowers in a storm, never touched by a single petal.” Old Wang said this, then smeared himself with hydrophobic coating and walked naked into a downpour.】

So that’s how it works.

Li Cheng’s gaze sharpened. The Phase Demon’s current skill, 【Illusion-Reality: Barrage Splendor】, was undoubtedly its hidden trump card.

Barrage Splendor itself doesn’t amplify attack power—it merely expands the attack’s coverage, increasing the mathematical probability of a hit through statistics.

For example, using a 2W laser pointer to target flies inside a mosquito net.

A single laser beam, without scanning assistance, struggles to hit a flying target. But if you use Barrage Splendor, spend 190 Spirit Power, and replicate the laser 1000 times, raining it down like a barrage.

All 1001 laser beams exist in Schrödinger’s quantum superposition. The first one to strike collapses into real damage; the remaining 1000 vanish automatically.

Kills the fly—spares the net.

At first glance, the skill seems purely for show.

Throw a punch—only one of a hundred afterimages is real. Fire seven shots—only seven of seven thousand bullets carry real power.

Maximum damage output remains unchanged.

But upon closer thought, this skill is absolutely insane—it turns easily avoidable attacks into a chaotic storm of real and fake projectiles, forcing the opponent to dodge, draining their time, stamina, and offensive opportunities.

If the opponent tries to tank it, the first impact becomes real.

The missile rain descended. Li Cheng crouched, gripped the Edge Fighter’s nose, and surfed through the vacuum of space like a surfer on a board, skimming past the dense barrage by millimeters.

Shhh—

Thousands of missiles abruptly decelerated, swirling like a flock of birds, looping around in the blackness of space, then chasing Li Cheng again.

All miniature missiles bore the Phase Demon’s corruption essence. Any hit would coat the target in its black smoke.

No escape. Only brute force could work.

Li Cheng released the Edge Fighter, focused his mind, and unleashed the Mist Concealment Technique—long unused. Thick fog spread.

But this low-tier skill was useless against the Phase Demon, which saw clearly through the mist: Li Cheng had summoned a black pharaoh named Guan Hai, whose identity he refused to disclose.

The black pharaoh was recorded from the Corridor of Heat Death. In essence, he was Guan Hai from a parallel world who encountered the supernatural. His power couldn’t even match the Six-Armed Snake Demon, let alone the Frog God or Alpha Serpent Head.

The Phase Demon’s human face showed no expression. It had been calculating Pi Fu’s Spirit Power consumption—his reserves were nearly exhausted. He couldn’t summon stronger images, only this black pharaoh...

The next instant, Li Cheng pulled a can of liquid nitrogen from his 3D storage warehouse and, using 【Assemble Puppet】, jammed it into the black pharaoh’s chest, then opened the valve.

Liquid nitrogen gushed. The black pharaoh had no time to react—he froze solid into an ice statue.

“Your 【Barrage Splendor】 is indeed useful. But it has one fatal, unavoidable flaw—extreme sensitivity.”

As he spoke, Li Cheng unleashed hundreds of rapid punches against the ice statue, then condensed his breath into an internal explosion.

Countless shards from the exploding black pharaoh rained out like a shower of ice blossoms, striking the incoming missile swarm and detonating the first fifty missiles simultaneously.

The ice fragments were corroded and assimilated by the black smoke. Li Cheng, riding the blast wave, surged forward to the Phase Demon’s front.

At the same moment, in GOC Headquarters, The Hague.

“What’s happening?”

“Damn it, how long until the nearest reconnaissance satellite with optical sensors arrives?”

The GOC command hall was chaotic. Though the battle between Pi Fu and the Phase Demon sounded intense, it had lasted only minutes. With communication satellites failing one after another, they had no real-time intel.

“Quiet!”

A senior official barked, silencing the room. All eyes turned to an old gypsy witch standing behind him.

The witch remained silent, withdrew a crystal ball from her sleeve, murmured incantations, and peered across thousands of kilometers toward the battlefield.

Everyone held their breath, hearts pounding—only to see...

“WTF? Why is it Barack Hussein?”

Amidst the stunned, twisted expressions of the crowd, the crystal ball’s image clearly showed the frozen head of the black pharaoh—his face still bearing that signature, wide, toothy grin, dazzlingly bright against the black void of space.