Player Reload

Chapter 733 - 627: Human and God

The green vortex-like teleportation gate hovered in mid-air, as Garrosh, Carlos, and Lulina tumbled and fell to the ground. Sunset Melting Gold fared slightly better, with leather boots sliding across the ground for a distance before steadying his stance.

Gray Rain and Li Cheng leaped through right before the teleportation gate closed, and as soon as Li Cheng landed, he ejected pieces of Armor tainted with Brother Q’s toxic blood.

Sealing the remnants in a bag, he swiftly drew out a gas bottle, wildly spraying chlorine dioxide disinfectant gas over the remaining Armor.

This wasn’t just cautious behavior; as Brother Q was chosen by the God of Lust, he managed to contract every imaginable infectious disease that could affect humans.

Countless strains of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and rickettsiae achieved a terrifying balance within his body. With negative multiplying by negative resulting in positive, he could move spryly and infect the next person or animal.

Handing the blood sample to the group might lead to developing some sort of large-scale biochemical Weapon...

After spraying the disinfectant gas, he sealed the Armor fragments in a bag and tossed them into the Three-dimensional Warehouse, Li Cheng glanced around.

The location was a dim, unlit factory; the Information Integration Glasses displayed a vast area, filled with shelves three stories high, with air conditioning maintaining constant temperature and humidity.

If one sniffed carefully, there seemed to be a faint clean scent of grass and trees.

Sunset Melting Gold’s Electronic Eye had night vision capability; he casually lifted a lid, revealing the contents.

The flat box housed all larvae of the Tenebrio beetle species, commonly known as mealworms, with bodies two to three centimeters long, incessantly writhing and feeding on the mixed fodder of wheat bran and cornmeal.

The sound of the lid being opened awoke the factory, as light bulbs illuminated sequentially, extending into the distance.

This place turned out to be a super-massive agricultural facility, with plastic curtains dividing various sections.

Besides the mealworm breeding area, there were divisions for Chlorella, mushrooms, wheatgrass, and potato cultivation.

"This must be a type of simulation management game, similar to ’Workers & Resources’, with scenes shifting to the post-nuclear-war shelter era."

Sunset Melting Gold casually remarked, "Both animal and plant proteins are present, nutrition seems quite balanced."

"Uh... no."

Carlos pointed to the wall, its surface spray-painted with Microsoft YaHei font:

[Stardew Valley 8: New New Delhi]

"What is this?"

Sunset Melting Gold was dumbfounded: "Even with a legitimate sequel to ’Stardew Valley’, surely it should be set somewhere suitable for farming, like plains, river basins, or valleys.

Choosing New Delhi... is the location for its frequent power outages? Or heavy air pollution? Or thick cow dung on the streets?"

"What era old calendar are you talking about?"

Garrosh was surprised: "In the real world, New Delhi did not have many people after being bombed by nuclear missiles. The third New Delhi is built 300 meters underground, managed by an unmanned factory.

Aren’t you hackers, how come you don’t know this?"

Sunset Melting Gold inadvertently exposed his lack of common knowledge, blinking nervously, hesitating whether to erase Garrosh’s memory.

Memory erasure might affect the continuation of opening teleportation gates, Li Cheng slightly raised his hand to stop Sunset Melting Gold, calmly saying: "He’s a hacker from Cao County, hasn’t been abroad."

Garrosh nodded in understanding, "Oh, I see."

?? What do you mean, oh I see? Isn’t it the latter half of the 21st century with an Earth United Government, but Cao County still isolated? Truly playing the general to a single-player modded version.

Lulina held back the urge to sneer, asking in a deep voice: "Will Yu Meiqin and the others pursue us?"

"Probably not."

Li Cheng swatted Gray Rain’s hand trying to feed a mealworm into his mouth, casually saying, "Brother Q’s blood surpasses Aliens, more toxic than hydrofluoric acid.

Those hit by it, Yu Meiqin and others, must first heal their injuries, and then cure residual effects.

Considering the ’Family Guy’ set coincidentally has a Divine Doctor Hartman comparable to Netherworld Chasing Soul, the time won’t be long but enough for us to relocate."

He asked Carlos: "Where’s the next location?"

The eye in Carlos’s palm closed, pondering for a while before reporting three sets of coordinates, adding: "Based on the Prophecy’s outcome, you, Pifu, I, and Lulina are best split into three groups, acting separately.

We may not immediately collect golden coins, but when the time is right, I’ll send messages to the pager, then seek a chance to meet."

"Still splitting up..."

Sunset Melting Gold hesitated; now the game officials and professional teams have noticed them, continuing to act separately may lead to being picked off one by one.

Yet the prophet advised so...might as well trust for now.

"Before that, there’s one more thing."

Carlos produced paper and pen, turning away from the group, writing swiftly. Then he turned back, placing slips of paper into six pouches labeled 1, 2, 3, and handed them to Sunset Melting Gold and Li Cheng, "Open the pouch if you sense danger, it contains clues."

"Okay."

Sunset Melting Gold nodded, and after Garrosh opened the teleportation gate, they jumped in.

Once Li Cheng and Gray Rain also vanished, Carlos’s expression suddenly changed slightly. He turned his back to Lulina and Garrosh, raised his head at a forty-five-degree angle to gaze at the starry sky, and said sadly, "Sunset Melting Gold and Pifu aren’t coming back."

"??"

Lulina was full of question marks, "Dude, didn’t you just send them to the next set, and now you’re saying they might not come back. Isn’t this kind of a jerk move?"

"This is already the option with the highest survival rate."

Carlos spread his hands, "In the countless possible futures I’ve seen, which haven’t collapsed into a fixed fate,

if Sunset Melting Gold’s death probability is fifty-fifty, then for Pifu and his magic pet, it’s... certain death."

————

The seawater was cold and piercing, with salinity only one-tenth that of Earth’s oceans, but it dissolved more magnesium sulfate and sodium sulfate.

At a depth of about twelve hundred meters, Li Cheng used the Liangyi Blade to enter Insect Transformation Form, adapting to the surrounding pressure, then patted Gray Rain’s palm and wrote words in the center.

Gray Rain instantly understood and shot a Destructive Light upwards. The blinding white light pierced through the timeless dark ocean, illuminating the ice-covered sponge.

The Information Integration Glasses showed that the ice layer was... twenty-five kilometers thick?! Almost the size of three Mount Everest peaks.

It might have been the intense light or the vibration of the seawater, but a gigantic creature was attracted from the darkness, opening its bloodthirsty maw towards them.

It was an over-thirty-meter-long bizarre creature, resembling a fusion of jellyfish and spider, with its mouth on the top of its plate-shaped head, chaotic fangs growing in sausage-like lips,

beneath the mouth was a ring of closely packed eyes, each emitting a faint blue light, providing vision in the dark. Under the head were four long legs covered with fur.

A thirty-meter-sized creature could try hunting blue whales in Earth’s oceans, but against a Transcendent, it needs more practice.

Li Cheng didn’t even need to make a move; Gray Rain released the Mustard Seed Concealment skill, transformed into a Tiger Tank, and gripped the ends of the deep-sea monster’s tantalizing mouthparts, tearing them apart with force.

Crack, crack, crack—

The fangs broke, the mouthparts tore, and viscera mixed with blood floated away as the four furry legs tensed suddenly, then lost all strength, swaying towards the seabed.

’"Abyss Syndrome"? Probably.’

Li Cheng understood this in his heart. At this time, far below, orderly weak lights lit up, appearing to come from a small to mid-sized submarine.

Li Cheng gestured, pulling Gray Rain down quickly, approaching the submarine. First, Gray Rain, minimized once again using Mustard Seed Concealment, in a Subtle Spirit Raid virtualized state, penetrated the steel plate, entering the submarine’s watertight compartment,

then Li Cheng activated Demon Exchange to teleport into the submarine.

"Abyss Syndrome" is a 2D cooperative submarine simulation game set in the oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, where several players take on roles like captain, engineer, and mechanic, operating a submarine to explore the planet,

so this submarine looks quite advanced. If one places a hand on a pipe, one could clearly hear voices from distant cabins through liquid vibrations in the pipes.

"Haha, we completed three more tasks today."

"A little more money, and we can buy a new ship! Anyway, I need to log off now; my girlfriend’s calling me for dinner. I’ll be back this afternoon."

"Ah, so nice to have a girlfriend. Well, I’m logging off too. See you guys this afternoon, bye."

"Bye-bye~"

A few human players logged off to leave the game, but when Li Cheng and Gray Rain entered the not-very-spacious bridge, a few humans in differently colored uniforms were still seated at the control station.

They had vacant expressions but continued to use the control panel’s buttons and levers to steadily submerge the submarine.

If the players logged off, why is the ship still running?

Li Cheng quickly understood. The original "Abyss Syndrome" was a multiplayer online single-player game. When players logged off, the save would pause.

But after being moved to the Home project, it turned into a PvPvE (Player vs. Player vs. Environment) game, with multiple submarines in the same ocean.

To maintain game coherence, it was simply designed that "when players go offline, their bodies continue to be controlled by the Home AI, maintaining slightly below-average control."

This wasn’t particularly unusual, especially since those players said they’d be back this afternoon.

Li Cheng could completely wait for them in the bridge, or control the submarine to find other players to help open the teleportation gate.

It’s just...

Li Cheng glanced around the bridge, his brow furrowing involuntarily.

The crew members who lost player control all had the same ID floating above their heads.

[God of Mankind]