My Ability Is Role-playing

Chapter 437 - 430: Zhang Heng, Scientist of the Cosmos!

After this mysterious alien revealed its true form, it didn’t say much, despite Ma Ran claiming the other was full of lies, and the members of the academy were unsure what he meant.

In any case, the other’s power and foundation were incredibly strong.

Directly moving the entire Grass Hut Academy off Earth and into a space environment...

Silently altering people’s memories...

Even after being blown to pieces, the alien could resurrect on the spot in full health, becoming even stronger...

Creating a dark blue screen and burning others’ lifespan...

The members of the academy quickly analyzed and compared both sides’ strengths and trump cards, and their expressions gradually darkened.

Any single ability demonstrated by the other side was so formidable it was enough to make one despair.

It was way over the top!

Less than a year into the Extraordinary Era on Earth, they encountered such a level of opponent, leaving no way to survive!

Fortunately, Grass Hut Academy still had the Martial God, Su Qiangwei, and the Prophet, Ma Ran, to hold the line and give it a try.

If even these two couldn’t withstand the pressure together, then...

The power controlled by the other side might well be enough to crush Earth Civilization directly.

Apart from the enemy’s lofty superiority complex, there was quite a bit of important information revealed in the few words the alien, temporarily codenamed "Li Zhen," spoke.

According to his tone, his purpose in coming to Earth didn’t seem to be purely for destruction but had other plots, perhaps wanting to use Ma Ran to complete some kind of experiment?

This gave the academy members a window of opportunity.

Ma Ran’s glance subtly shifted, focusing on the tall alien figure, the cold gleam flashing on Zhou Zhong’s crimson straight-blade Tang Blade: "The scenes I saw and conversations I heard through Limited Foreknowledge..."

"Were all scripts you wrote in advance."

"Good acting, bad script."

This statement carried no hint of doubt.

From the recent contact, the future scenes seen through the Prophet Medal suggested that the ability mentioned by the two Sea Demon Civilization "visitors" to "burn lifespan" wasn’t genuine.

Within the deep blue screen-covered area, it appeared time accelerated, but that was not the case.

The current Ma Ran, having grasped some small tricks in the extraordinary path of time and space, clearly knew that these two powers could, under certain conditions, convert into one another.

The abilities shown by the other side could achieve the effect of "burning an enemy’s lifespan," yet didn’t actually involve the domain of time or life.

Ma Ran initially judged that the deep blue screen was merely a catalyst that accelerated chemical reactions, entirely inconsistent with the intelligence reported.

However...

He remained exceedingly calm.

Throwing out a secondary piece of information to cover up truly important secret information—Ma Ran had seen such tactics too many times.

Unreservedly, such petty tricks were long overused before his rebirth.

In interstellar warfare, the importance of intelligence far exceeds that in planetary civil wars!

As for the play led by Li Zhen and Ji Ke, those two aliens...

It was too stiff!

Even when Su Qiangwei was translating, she felt the two’s interaction was overly deliberate and far from genuine, unlike what normal people would say in everyday life.

However, the young girl was still inexperienced, like a flower that had just left the greenhouse, without having faced major adversity, limited by her perspective. She assumed that the awkwardness and discord were due to differences in civilization and race, not thinking further, and only casually mentioned it while submitting the translation task.

Ma Ran, before releasing his custom system to Su Qiangwei, vaguely noticed this point.

When it comes to script-writing and acting, these aliens weren’t on the same level as him at all!

He let the words hang, and Li Zhen’s octopus-like appendages atop his head ceased their motion.

His facial muscles stiffened, and with a sardonic smile, he clapped his hands as he scanned Ma Ran up and down, "Impressive..."

"Impressive!"

"Targeting your Limited Foreknowledge ability, Ji Ke and I entered a neurological interaction device to plan a total of thirty-five capture schemes through consciousness exchange."

"The one chosen in the end was theoretically the highest success rate."

Li Zhen sighed, saying softly, "Because... your Limited Foreknowledge isn’t omniscient and omnipotent; each prophecy of the future needs to delimit a range, such as keywords like ’crisis,’ ’adventure,’ ’enemy,’ ’partner,’ right?"

Without waiting for Ma Ran’s response, Li Zhen nodded to himself, saying, "Nightmare event in A3 District, Sword Master’s descent, Lotus City Demon Mountain battle, Grass Hut battle, Eternal Expedition, Sea Demon calamity, Chuanke’s invasion..."

"From your past performances, it must be so; there’s no mistake."

"In our plan, after capturing you, as long as you’re willing to cooperate, at most five years will return you to Earth, and you can even gain some benefits."

"Thus, keywords like ’crisis’ can be screened out."

"Seeing your preparation now, so... was it our acting that slipped?"

Li Zhen frowned, the octopus-like appendages atop his head flashed with purple spots, and he muttered, "No... it’s likely a matter of thought."

"Just now, in my feeling of assured victory, I formed a thought of consuming you in the experiment, completely extracting your remaining value."

"Thus, among numerous possibilities, there exists a probability of you dying in the laboratory."

"Limited Foreknowledge is truly tricky..."

"This kind of ability to foresee the future at will is practically like cheating."

Swish!

The sword mark emitting a conflagration of crimson aura and bright blue light abruptly imprinted onto Li Zhen.

Bang!

The straight-blade Tang Blade whirling through the air, gripped tightly in Ma Ran’s palm: "Still thinking of stalling with lies."

The earlier extensive statements, sounding sincere, had almost duped the majority of Grass Hut Academy members.

The few who didn’t immediately believe were merely neutral.

Yet the experienced Ma Ran swiftly discerned—almost all of Li Zhen’s previous statements were lies!

Not a word could be trusted!

Under the sword mark, in an instant, Li Zhen’s body and octopus-like appendages shattered into over three hundred pieces.

These corpse fragments couldn’t persist for long, swallowed by the gradually proliferating black space tears, entirely annihilated!

Standing beside Ma Ran, Su Qiangwei furrowed her brow, puzzled.

Though she hadn’t mastered the ability to thoroughly annihilate an expert’s soul, she could still observe, touch, and harm souls.

She could sense that in the face of Ma Ran’s unreasonable strike, the once overly confident Li Zhen not only perished physically but seemingly had his soul severed as well.

But the issue remained...

The sense of crisis hadn’t dissipated, instead intensifying further!

Ma Ran tightened his grip on the sword hilt, clearly having no intention to sheathe it.

He raised his head, gazing towards the infinite dark cosmos: "The two disparate soul auras on Li Zhen and Ji Ke are so vastly different, it feels fake."

"Originally, I presumed your scheme merely lingered at the second or third layer."

"Now it appears I underestimated you."

"From the onset, there were never any Li Zhen or Ji Ke."

"They were you, or rather, negligible parts of you, dispensable at any time."

As the words fell, a silhouette slowly emerged in the distant darkness.

This person had black hair and eyes, wearing a pitch-black casual suit and black leather shoes, with gold-rimmed glasses, presenting as a handsome young man.

Just from appearance alone, he was almost completely identical to Asian humans on Earth, without even a trace of the racial features of Li Zhen and Ji Ke.

Across the void, the young man’s stare met Ma Ran’s, and he burst into hearty laughter.

This cheerful laughter penetrated the void barrier, landing in the ears of the Grass Hut Academy members.

The soundwave he emitted seemed to carry its transmitted medium, astonishingly penetrating the vacuum environment’s soundproof effects!

"It truly stirs excitement!"

"Ma Ran! A fascinating individual like you, I haven’t encountered in twenty centuries!"

Three breaths later, the bespectacled youth traversed the vacuum with his physical body, landing within Grass Hut Academy.

His gaze fixated on Ma Ran, a look of joy on his face: "My name is Zhang Heng, and I am a wandering cosmic scientist."