Chapter 1 The Scan

The scanning process went relatively smoothly. The few transcendents who were capable of sensing or even resisting the mind scan hesitated briefly before slightly lowering their defenses.

They knew they were seeking shelter and protection, and this inspection step was unavoidable.

After the mind scan came blood sampling and registration.

All transcendents and their families exited the cabins and orderly underwent physical examinations by the Ark Project medical team. After confirming there were no issues, they boarded another ship to officially move in.

Li Ang watched from the deck for a while before entrusting the matter to Liu Wudai.

Liu Wudai would also send him a copy of everyone's blood samples.

Gathering sheltered transcendents was just a minor matter; Li Ang had more important things to deal with.

What is the essence of the soul?

This question had been bothering him for some time.

For the masses and low-level transcendents, the soul is simply the soul, independent of the body, carrying memories and self-awareness, and an important part of themselves.

Although official organizations in various regions had not officially recognized the existence of the soul, after the widespread launch of the Hunting Game,

a large number of verifiable anomalies proved that humans possess souls, and that souls can exist independently of the human body.

This phenomenon initially greatly shocked those who prided themselves on being materialists and firmly believed that free thought came from a material basis (i.e., brainwave activity),

and even triggered a wave of feudal ignorance in some areas.

Fortunately, official organizations, led by the Special Affairs Bureau, stepped up their efforts in popular science education, quickly suppressing the wave of ignorance.

As a staunch materialist, one should naturally not stubbornly deny the occurrence of certain phenomena, just as idealists default to the existence of truth.

Since lightning, wind, rain, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even neutrons, quarks, bosons, etc., can be recognized and understood by humans,

then the objectively existing soul can also be studied, analyzed, recognized, and understood.

Due to various reasons,

to this day, the official statement on the soul generally refers to it as a "special energy body that has a profound connection with brain electrical signals, grows with the individual's life body, and is in a unified system."

This lengthy definition can be divided into several parts.

First, everyone has a soul, but not everyone can manifest it.

Most people's souls remain in a latent state under normal conditions, and only a few people will present a soul form after death or under special circumstances—currently, there is no way to derive the law of the appearance of the soul entity, and can only guess that there is some connection with the Hunting Game.

Second, the soul and brain electrical signals influence each other. Patients with organic brain damage will also have sluggish souls.

Third, the soul is tied to the individual. The appearance of the soul is basically the same as the individual's appearance, but there are also some abnormalities in patients with brain damage—for example, if a patient's brain is injured and intelligence is damaged when they are young, the soul will remain in a child state.

Through a large number of case studies, the soul problem has finally taken off its mysterious and sacred veil, and is no longer so mysterious and unpredictable.

Scientists and the general public basically regard it as "whether neutrinos have mass",

which is crucial to human understanding of the world,

but does not have a great impact on personal life.

After studying it, everyone still has to go to work and school, and continue to live their lives.

The only impact may be that people sweep tombs more diligently during Qingming Festival, and have more awe of the idea of karmic retribution,

which, to some extent, reduces the crime rate, which is a good thing.

Of course, for Li Ang, this question is related to his future path.

The power of a deity comes from the faith of believers,

and the power of faith is closely related to the souls of individuals.

The stronger and more resilient the soul, the more faith it produces.

Each of the hundreds and thousands of cerebrates in the Zerg hive is part of a large mental network. They can exchange information and experience in the mental network.

Their learning speed is ten or even dozens of times that of ordinary people.

Moreover, these cerebrates are all fanatical believers, and their absolute loyalty and obedience to Li Ang are deeply imprinted in their genes, constantly producing the power of faith.

However, the total amount of faith produced by all the cerebrates combined is still limited.

The current faith production

has even been surpassed by the ordinary shallow believers distributed in South Asia, Africa, the Americas, etc., in the gene-stealing plan promoted by Chai Chai.

In the final analysis, it is still a matter of the essence of the soul—when Li Ang used the biological template to create biological weapons,

he found that although he could create theoretically powerful and violent biological bodies,

he could not give the bodies themselves self-will and make them move on their own—even if he restored the biological brain 1:1, replicated the brain electrical signals, and filled the brain with nerve impulses,

the entire body would still be motionless, like a dead thing.

In other words, he can create a body, but he cannot create a soul out of nothing.

At that time, Li Ang's solution was to steal souls from other places,

that is, to create cerebrates by using the brains of large mammals such as cattle and sheep as the basis, and making a new cerebrate body for the brain.

The experimental results were undoubtedly successful. The cerebrates came to life one by one, and in each version update,

the brain itself underwent earth-shaking changes,

and was no longer the same thing as the original cattle brain or sheep brain.

The cerebrates themselves would not think that they used to be cattle and sheep.

Putting aside the philosophical question of the Ship of Theseus, Li Ang understood that he was actually stealing the soul energy of cattle and sheep to try to create life,

and the reason why the cerebrates' efficiency in producing the power of faith was low, in the final analysis,

was because their own soul foundation was relatively weak.

Recently, Li Ang has been reading mystical books provided by the Different Society, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and the Clock Tower organization, wanting to figure out the essence of the soul and upgrade and complete the cerebrates.

The Ladder to God requires a large number of fanatical believers to produce a massive amount of faith.

Only by completing this condition can he explore the next step of becoming a god.

On the other hand... studying the essence of the soul is also related to psionic power.

"The power of psionics comes from the complex mental activities of living beings. It seems to be closely related to the soul and the brain, but it is also elusive.

A weak soul foundation does not affect the cerebrates' proficiency in psionics.

And some primitive creatures with simple brains, or even no complex logical thinking ability, can also wield powerful psionics..."

Li Ang stood on the deck, frowning slightly.

The cool sea breeze blew on his face, and waves crashed against the conical bow, stirring up white spray.

As a powerful psionicist who had begun to master sixth-level psychic abilities, even if he did not actively release psychic power, he could vaguely sense the emotional fluctuations and general thoughts of all life within the surrounding area.

The vast majority of the transcendents on the ship had an attitude of awe, curiosity, envy, and even worship towards him.

In the past, large companies and organizations that chased and hunted them, regarding them as prey, were now silent and afraid at the mere mention of Li Ang's name from thousands of miles away, abandoning the pursuit.

Worshiping the strong is the instinct of intelligent life. Although there are infinite possibilities in the Hunting Game,

factors such as personal intelligence, ability, luck, background, and timing determine that most people will never be able to touch the edge of the first tier of players in their lives.

The greater probability is that they will die in increasingly difficult script missions,

or sudden mutations in the real world, before that.

Li Ang felt the complex psychological activities of the people on the ship, not caring about their thoughts, and turned to ask Liu Wudai: "Is the current latitude and longitude approximately 127 degrees east longitude and 30 degrees north latitude?"

"Huh?"

Liu Wudai was stunned when she heard this, and asked the captain through the intercom. Then she nodded to Li Ang, "That's right. What's wrong?"

"I'm going out for a while, and I'll be back later."

Li Ang lightly stepped on the deck, stepping on invisible stairs, rising into the air, standing in the high sky.

With a flip of his hand, he took out the Colt revolver.

Liu Wudai's heart trembled. As Li Ang's friend and a participant in the last Lost World Gate battle, she naturally knew how terrifying the seemingly ordinary revolver in Li Ang's hand was.

Enchanted bullets, instant hit, no flight trajectory, double damage upon headshot.

Even a demon general-level powerhouse would suffer fatal injuries.

Fortunately, Li Ang did not aim the Colt revolver at the Longqing Shipping's ship.

Instead, he pointed the gun at the vast sea.

His pupils slowly contracted, and the surrounding sea breeze blew on him, as if blowing on a reef independent of the ocean.

Bang.

Li Ang pulled the trigger, and the bullet shot from the Colt revolver instantly disappeared. Only the muffled gunshot echoing over the sea, and the ethereal smoke rising from the muzzle, proved that the bullet had indeed flown out.

Li Ang still maintained the posture of holding the gun flat, concentrating and calming his breath.

"..."

Liu Wudai stood on the deck, watching the motionless Li Ang.

As a longtime friend, she knew that Li Ang never did anything meaningless—even the boring and painful actions he did when his mischievousness flared up would be proven to have far-reaching effects after a period of time.

One second,

two seconds.

Li Ang stood in the sea breeze, silently waiting for something.

Then, he disappeared from the spot.

"!"

Liu Wudai's pupils suddenly shrank. In her observation, Li Ang's figure instantly disappeared without any energy fluctuations or sound and light effects.

Only the special equipment she wore proved that there was indeed a subtle distortion in the surrounding space just now.

He... teleported away?

Liu Wudai took a deep breath.

Belatedly, she sensed the information fluctuations fed back by the special equipment, and her pupils instantly dilated.

The information fluctuations showed that the other end of the space distortion just now was thousands of miles away...

————

Without paying attention to the shocked and错愕Liu Wudai, Li Ang flashed and had already appeared on the extremely distant sea.

The corners of the dragon-headed white coat he was wearing showed a dim light, as if burned by flames.

The sea water under his feet suddenly exploded violently with a "bang",

stirring up towering water columns that fell drippingly, but were all blocked by Li Ang's surrounding psychic shield.

"..."

The water column subsided, and Li Ang gently stepped on the tide-ebb-lost sea water.

He felt the rapid decrease of spiritual power in his body, roughly estimated it, and slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air.

He had indeed teleported beyond 500km with the help of two new skills.

【Skill Name: Eagle Eye Range】

【Type: Universal】

【Effect: Limit view. Greatly improves vision, strengthens central vision, peripheral vision, and stereoscopic vision】

【Consumption: At least 10 points of psionic value per second】

【Cooling Time: 3 minutes】

【Learning Conditions: Physique attribute greater than or equal to 10 points, perception attribute greater than or equal to 15 points】

【Remarks: The higher the visual acuity during enhancement, the more psionic power is consumed】

【Remarks: The moment I close my eyes, the world disappears】

This skill was purchased by Li Ang from the mall.

Paired with the [Monocle of the Great Detective] (the effect is to enhance perception),

Li Ang can see things at extremely long distances like a high-powered telescope.

For ordinary players, this skill is actually just so-so. What if you can see things more clearly?

It's not as good as real telescopes and camera equipment.

However, [Eagle Eye Range] combined with another skill can exert a synergistic effect.

【Skill Scroll Name: Bullet Teleportation】

【Attribute: Learning type, disappears after one use】

【Type: Universal】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Gunfire Companion. After using a firearm to shoot a physical bullet, you can instantly appear at the hit location of the bullet】

【Consumption: At least 100 points of psionic value】

【Cooling Time: 5 seconds】

【Learning Conditions: Perception attribute greater than or equal to 15 points】

【Remarks: The farther the teleportation distance, the more psionic power is consumed】

【Remarks: The invincible Gun King II has always been at large, without being caught, in the face of the Intergalactic Empire's century-long pursuit. It is said that he left a supreme gun at the deepest part of the dungeon that can destroy all rules】

This [Bullet Teleportation] skill scroll is the most expensive item Li Ang has recently purchased.

The single price is as high as more than 30,000 game currency points.

Even in the game mall auction house, which often creates sales miracles, it is considered an extremely rare sky-high price.

It is impossible to say that he doesn't feel sorry for the money spent.

Li Ang's stock of game currency was directly reduced by nearly half.

However, the effect of [Bullet Teleportation] does live up to its expensive price.

Shoot out a physical bullet, and after waiting for the bullet to hit,

you can instantly appear at the hit location of the bullet.

The Eagle Eye Range skill, which can see thousands of miles away with one glance, plus Bullet Teleportation, and the Colt revolver with the domineering sure-hit effect,

these three superimposed together form a synergistic effect.

The current Li Ang can instantly appear thousands of miles away, realizing ultra-long-distance teleportation.