Chapter 1 The End of the Countdown

As the countdown officially ended, Li Ang opened his eyes to find himself back in his cabin on the Longqing cruise ship.

"..."

He squinted, slowly lowered the hand holding the pistol (this script mission required him to carry one), and released his psionic energy, enveloping the surrounding sea area.

On another unicycle nearby,

Some of the Transcendants in the Ark Project were completely oblivious, continuing to do their own things.

Others sensed something and looked up at the sky in horror.

Fortunately, Li Ang wasn't targeting them.

His psionic domain expanded to a certain extent and then stopped,

Instead, it sifted through everything within its range like a plow.

He detected no trace of King Shipi.

Li Ang thoughtfully placed the pistol on the table, waved his hand to signal to Chai Chai, who was standing outside the cabin door, that everything was fine and she could come in.

"Gods resurrecting...eternal life...soul fragments..."

Li Ang muttered these words to himself, and amidst Chai Chai's confused gaze, he briefly recounted what had happened in the script mission.

"I understand,"

Chai Chai nodded. "So King Shipi essentially created a plan, scheming for thousands of years, and stabbed all the pantheons and gods in the back?

And in the end, he made you, the modern players who participated in the Ajanta Caves, witnesses."

Li Ang nodded. "More or less."

"Hmm..."

Chai Chai tilted her head. "How much of what he said do you think is believable?"

"Hard to say."

Li Ang shook his head. "Without more evidence and clues, it's impossible to verify or falsify. Right now, it's all just his side of the story.

It could be true, or it could be false."

King Shipi's story was too shocking. If what he said was true, then his real age would be terrifying, and his knowledge and background would far exceed the players' imagination.

But the question is, how did he escape the Killing Game's pursuit?

How did he escape the hunting of other gods?

According to King Shipi, he divided his soul into countless fragments, parasitizing ordinary people, passing them on through the ages.

Even with the many drawbacks of this method of eternal life—"must abandon power," "intermittent confusion," "sleeping for the vast majority of the time"—

It was still more stable and controllable than some gods sleeping and then awakening.

The key was that he could preserve his own will and not be eroded by the power of faith.

Such a method of eternal life would definitely be coveted and envied by other gods.

How did King Shipi monopolize the information?

Moreover, after the script mission ended, he told Li Ang all of this without any concealment.

Wasn't he afraid that Li Ang would spread the word and attract Transcendants who coveted eternal life to target him?

For all intents and purposes, there were problems with his words.

"But it has nothing to do with us."

Li Ang shrugged, not paying too much attention.

King Shipi's method of eternal life had huge flaws. At least Li Ang himself wasn't interested in self-splitting and losing consciousness for long periods of time.

As for what others thought, it was none of his business.

Buzz—

His friend communication channel vibrated with a message from Xing Hechou.

Li Ang opened his friend panel, and sure enough,

Those Special Affairs Bureau Transcendants who had participated in the Ajanta incident, such as Xing Hechou and Wang Buliuxing, had triggered script missions one after another.

After they each escaped from the script, they talked to each other and quickly discovered that the missions they had participated in were all full-immersion type script missions.

And they had all encountered King Shipi during the waiting time for teleportation after the mission ended (provided they completed the mission).

The content the other party told them was similar, which was how he created the changes in the Ajanta Caves through scheming.

Xing Hechou sent a message, firstly to confirm that Li Ang had also encountered King Shipi, and secondly to confirm the information, reach a tacit understanding, and ask Li Ang not to spread the information.

The two sides exchanged information in the friend communication channel,

And then Li Ang hung up the communication.

The last Ajanta Caves incident was a global catastrophe, and almost all the important Transcendant organizations participated.

After receiving the information, they would naturally start contacting each other in private and take measures while hiding it from the general public.

"Using the Killing Game to find players with various backgrounds to confirm that organizations around the world can receive the information.

At the same time, using full-immersion type script missions as a platform to confirm that the players participating in the mission can hardly find their real-world selves."

Li Ang muttered, "King Shipi is essentially passing the buck to the various official organizations.

It depends on whether they are willing to increase their efforts to weaken the foundation of the gods' existence before they awaken."

He thought for a moment, then put the matter out of his mind.

As the energy level of the Killing Game gradually increased, a single mutation was enough to have a direct impact on the survival and lives of thousands, or even billions, of people.

This was just the beginning.

Li Ang sat in his chair and examined the gains from this mission.

The [Farewell, My Love] script mission, after including the completion evaluation bonus, provided him with 1600 experience points, allowing him to reach Lv26.

At the same time, it activated a title called [Family Man].

The picture corresponding to the title was of Li Ang using his pistol to push aside Maeve's bangs and look into her eyes.

The effect of the title was...

"Charm attribute plus one?"

Li Ang raised his eyebrows in surprise, looking at the player panel and his charm value, which had finally become 5, not knowing what to say.

After being a player for so long, possessing alchemy, psionic energy, advancing to a demigod, and being only one step away from a true god,

He finally possessed a charm value comparable to a normal person.

Walking on the street, he would finally not seem out of place due to his low charm.

It was truly a cause for celebration, a cause for celebration...not really.

Li Ang equipped the title, turned his head, and looked strangely at Chai Chai in the sofa next to him. "Look at me, is there any change?"

"Huh?"

Chai Chai, who was playing on her phone, raised her head blankly and looked at Li Ang. "What change?"

"Appearance, temperament."

"You even have that stuff?"

Chai Chai resisted the urge to complain and put down her phone to carefully examine Li Ang. "There's no change.

If I had to say something,

Your BlingBling eyes seem to be full of galaxies, so pure,

Like an aggressive little wolf cub, with a wild beauty,

And like a sly little cat,

Making people can't help but feel happy and marvel at how there could be such a perfect creation in the world."

"???"

Could a mere point of charm have such a big impact?

Li Ang was dumbfounded and subconsciously asked, "Really?"

"Of course...it's true."

Chai Chai quietly withdrew her hand from the cabin wall. She was afraid of being struck by lightning if she lied, so she used the cabin wall as a lightning rod.