Chapter 1 David

"..."

David narrowed his eyes slightly, closed his hand slightly, and pulled back.

The Spear of Judgment responded to his call, generating gravity out of thin air and flying towards David.

Chameleon quickly gripped the edge of the armor on Black Bear's back, its tongue firmly holding the golden spear to prevent it from flying away.

In the stalemate,

The Spear of Judgment began to tremble wildly, emitting a bright light and generating high temperatures, scorching the tongue wrapped around it, causing bursts of smoke.

Pa.

Chameleon was forced to retract its long tongue, curling it at the edge of its mouth, removing the charred material from its surface.

"They are Wan Jia Xiong Meng."

Agares stepped forward and said in a low voice, "The black bear is called [Short-Faced], and the chameleon is [Chameleon]."

Knowing that Agares had some kind of detection skill, David nodded silently, catching the rapidly shooting golden spear—the mucus on the spear had evaporated.

"They are definitely not in the top 300."

Cain murmured, "Players from other domains, different kinds... are they friends or foes?"

"Like these who don't say hello and suddenly appear around other transcendents, they are more likely to be enemies than friends."

David said lightly, tilting the water bottle to wash the spear again,

He jumped off the rock platform and walked towards the two different players.

Before he could speak, the armored black bear stood up, took out a thermometer-like instrument from the void, held it against his throat, cleared his throat, and opened his bear mouth.

"If Plato has four pencils, I have seven apples, then how many pizzas can be placed on the roof? The answer is purple, because aliens never wear hats..."

The alien words spoken from the black bear's mouth were affected by the instrument and sounded to David and others like Earth languages, but the meaning of the whole passage...

Was just nonsense?

The black bear noticed the expressions on David's faces and waved his paw awkwardly, first pressing the instrument a few times with clumsy fingers, and then putting the instrument back on his neck. This time, the words finally made sense.

"Ahem, hello, Wan Jia Xiong Meng from Earth."

The armored black bear named [Short-Faced] said gently, "My companion tells me that the four of you are quite strong.

You should be in the top twenty or thirty in your world.

After working so hard to reach this point, wouldn't it be a waste to die in another domain today?

I have a suggestion: you tell me the locations of other players in your world, and I will let you live and guarantee you direct promotion to the Gate Contention round. How about it?"

Hearing this, David was not annoyed or angry. He exchanged glances with his three companions, shook off the remaining water stains on the spear, and said lightly, "I have a better suggestion. You cut off your hands and feet, throw away everything in your backpack, and tell me all the information you know,

I will let you live,

How about it."

"Hehe."

The black bear smiled, "If that's the case, then I can only beat you into submission..."

It retracted the translation instrument, and two chubby bear paws touched each other in front of him.

Whoosh—

Countless gravel and metal wreckage rose from the soil, quietly floating around Short-Faced.

"[Gravity Domain]."

Accompanying Short-Faced's faint words, thousands of debris bombarded David and the others.

————

Lost World, 41st floor, in the basement of a collapsed building.

"Tsk, have these mecha-beasts and security guards gone mad?"

A woman with long light blue hair and wearing a gorgeous kimono lit a pale white candle, illuminating the dark room.

Listening to the dense, rain-like footsteps outside the building,

She bit her teeth and cursed in a low voice through her teeth, "Chasing people like mad dogs..."

Her player ID is [Aoandon], ranked thirty-ninth in the personal combat power list, and belongs to the Japanese Island Extraordinary Affairs Investigation Bureau.

Together with her in the room were a tall figure wearing a heavy black robe and a Yasha mask, and a Japanese Island high school girl wearing a sailor suit and carrying a katana at her waist.

It was [Umibozu] (55th), who also belonged to the Japanese Island Extraordinary Affairs Investigation Bureau, and [Hagoromo Kokoro] (80th).

"This candle can temporarily weaken the sense of existence of things within the candle's light range, preventing the mecha-beasts and security guards from discovering us. There is probably still thirty minutes of rest time."

While taking out a magic potion from her backpack and drinking it, Aoandon raised her chin at Umibozu and casually asked, "How are your conditions?"

Umibozu slowly raised his hand and pressed his chest, looking at the blood stains on his palm, and said in a low voice, "The injury is not serious, eating more flesh and blood will recover."

Aoandon turned her gaze to Hagoromo Kokoro, who closed her eyes and slowly exhaled a turbid breath, and said softly, "[Hannya Transformation] level, 31%, can still fight two or three more times within 12 hours."

Aoandon frowned, "What about the anti-demonization potions?"

Hagoromo Kokoro said calmly, "There are two bottles left."

"I have four bottles left, I'll give you one,"

Umibozu took out a dark blue potion from his backpack and handed it to Hagoromo Kokoro, who nodded and accepted it.

"Phew..."

Aoandon rubbed her eyebrows with a headache. The three of them had not been together for long when they were attacked by a large group of mecha-beasts.

Those low-level mechanical creatures without self-awareness did not know what had happened and all came out of their nests, madly attacking all flesh and blood creatures they saw.

The three of Aoandon fought and fled, retreating from the 43rd floor all the way to the 41st floor, repelling wave after wave of mecha-beast torrents, and consuming all kinds of magic potions.

Worse, the security guards, who usually do not attack players carrying belts, also inexplicably attacked the three of them.

Contrary to what they had imagined before, there were multiple models of security guards. The most basic security guards had no weapons and relied entirely on their physical qualities to fight.

More advanced ones would use various close combat weapons with exaggerated attack power comparable to high-frequency cutting knives, which would cause injury upon contact and death upon touch.

With Aoandon's individual ranking of 39th, it was not difficult to defeat ten or even twenty security guards, but the opponents appeared in groups, cooperating tacitly, and the advanced security guards even used complex tactics such as "driving a large number of mecha-beasts to consume players."

No matter how good the players were at fighting, their physical strength, spiritual power, sanity and other values ​​would eventually have upper limits. Items were not inexhaustible, and skills and equipment effects also had Cd limits.

Faced with the overwhelming, tens of thousands of mecha-beast frenzy,

Aoandon and others had no choice but to flee in embarrassment, hiding in hidden corners and waiting for the mecha-beast swarm above to pass by.

Listening to the rain-like footsteps coming from the ceiling, Aoandon sighed and a figure in a nun's uniform appeared in her mind.

Sesshoin... I wonder how she is...

It was also ridiculous to say that in the past, Aoandon would definitely avoid that terrifying woman,

She would rather fall into a single-player reasoning and puzzle script task that deprived her of all her power than meet her.

But now, trapped in a siege, almost out of ammunition and food, Aoandon missed the other party's voice...

Damn, could it be that I was also hit by her technique?

Just as Aoandon's heart skipped a beat, suspecting that she had been cursed by Sesshoin,

On the ceiling of the basement, a strange but somewhat familiar human voice sounded, "Quick, quick, let's hide here."

Don't come down!

This spot is taken!

Aoandon almost shouted these words. She hurriedly gave Umibozu and Hagoromo Kokoro a look, and the two companions immediately understood.

Umibozu took out a long-handled spiked club, with green and purple seaweed and moss entwined around the club.

Hagoromo Kokoro put her hand on the hilt of her sword, took half a step forward, bowed slightly, and adopted the starting pose for Iaijutsu.

Swish—

The metal hatch on the ceiling of the basement was pulled up from above, and the light from a flashlight shone in.

Woof!

Umibozu suddenly swung the spiked club, lifting it from bottom to top, stirring up a fierce wind and smashing it towards the source of the light.

Before it could even touch the ceiling, it was blocked by a spherical golden light—the opponent clearly carried a defensive item on their body, blocking the blow.

The collision between the spiked club and the golden light shield generated a shock wave.

The white candle that Aoandon lit in the corner of the wall was blown by the wind.

The candlelight flickered and swayed violently, looking like it could go out at any time.

"Don't do it!"

Aoandon's heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly raised her hand to stop her companions.

At the same time, the footsteps of the mecha-beast approached again. Seeing the urgency of the situation, the figures surrounding the hatch jumped into the basement without saying a word and closed the hatch.

The candlelight flickered and both sides could see each other clearly.

"It's you?"

"It's you?!"

Aoandon and Eva pointed at each other with surprise in their eyes.

Umibozu, holding the spiked club, jumped his gaze between the two and said in unison with Qin, "You know each other."

Eva said lightly, "Barely."

Aoandon snorted coldly, "Not familiar."

What came down to the basement were the four dusty girls from the seventh group of the *Wind Chaser* program.

"Oh, isn't this a few from Japan?"

Pei Youzhen raised an eyebrow, vaguely remembering the connection between the seventh group and Aoandon.

At the beginning of the *Wind Chaser* program, before the personnel had been completely determined, Alina, the instructor of the seventh group, took Eva and Ju Tianfu to Japan,

To cooperate with the personnel of the Japan Island Extraordinary Affairs Investigation Bureau to solve an abnormal incident.

The abnormal incident itself was perfectly resolved, but Alina seemed to have had some friction with the local players, which caused a lot of unpleasantness.

That episode was eventually not broadcast and was sealed in the program team's archives.

"Hmph."

Aoandon snorted coldly and glanced at the detector that appeared out of thin air in the basement—presumably the act of Umibozu's active attack just now was recognized by the detector as a battle.

Should I kick them out of the competition here...

Thoughts flashed through her mind, and Aoandon narrowed her eyes slightly. She was not worried that eliminating these four "little stars" in front of the broadcast lens would cause any serious consequences.

Qin, Eva and others certainly had a large number of fans in the real world, and defeating them would cause countless people to hate, resist and be dissatisfied.

But when did transcendents, especially top transcendents, need to care about the eyes of ordinary people.

Elimination is elimination...

"Want to fight?"

Qin seemed to have noticed the gloomy expression on Aoandon's face and quickly said, "Okay, but looking at your condition, can you kill us instantly?

If you can't kill us instantly, then this basement will be destroyed,

There are now an unknown number of mecha-beasts on the surface.

Can you still find another shelter to rest and recover?"

"..."

Aoandon clenched her fists, and the ethereal candlelight behind her lit up and went out again.

In the end, she let go of her fists, snorted coldly, and signaled Umibozu and Hagoromo Kokoro to retreat a little.

To fight, you have to wait until the mecha-beasts leave.

"Phew..."

Nina, who was holding an object that looked like a TV remote control in her hand, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the situation had calmed down and stepped back with her companion.

The basement, which housed seven players, once again fell into a strange silence, with only the candlelight still flickering slightly.

The four girls, covered in dust, simply tidied up their messy appearances, drank magic potions to replenish their spiritual power, and discussed each other's conditions in a low voice.

"Hey."

Aoandon, leaning against the wall, raised her chin at them and said softly, "You are... Qin and Nina, right?

I've seen your program on TV.

Why are you two wearing two belts?"

"None of your business."

Qin snorted coldly, wrapping her arms around her chest, blocking Aoandon's prying eyes.

"Heh."

Aoandon shook her head and sneered, "Let me guess, you have also been attacked by security guards, thinking that there is something wrong with your identity verification particle emitter,

So you put on an extra one, a trophy belt you seized from other players, thinking it would avoid being attacked.

As a result, it didn't work."

"How do you..."

Qin's face changed slightly, and she blurted out a question, but she realized something was wrong halfway through her words,

Her face changed again, and she asked in a low voice, "Why would you think that?"

"Hehe."

Aoandon exchanged glances with her companions, and naturally could not tell the other party that she had already tried it, whether it was wearing an extra belt,

Or taking out the powder from the belt device and holding it in your hand.

You will still be attacked.

The survival rules provided by the system have begun to lose their effect.

"Your strength should be far from the top fifty, right?"

Aoandon flipped her hand and took out an exquisitely crafted, antique wooden pipe, put it to her mouth and took a puff, and smiled, "It's a little beyond my expectations that you can last so long."

Qin sneered, "Aren't you living well too?"

Aoandon didn't care about the hostility in the other party's words and said to herself, "However, many times, persistence is meaningless.

True courage is not about charging alone in the face of a mountain of knives and a sea of ​​blood,

But being able to make a decision to retreat bravely under the heavy temptation of interests.

If you don't have a clear understanding of yourself, you are likely to die here without knowing it."

"Are you advising us to surrender and quit the competition at this time and leave the belt to you?"

Eva sarcastically said with a blank expression, "By the way, pack up all the remaining magic potions and life potions in the backpack and sell them to you. If you can't afford it, you can write an IOU and let the Japan Island Extraordinary Affairs Investigation Bureau outside pay for it.

Anyway, we can't win."

Sell stock magic potions?

That's great, our logistics are running out.

Hearing the other party's words, Aoandon almost subconsciously agreed, paused for a moment before recalling her original intention,

In the swirling smoke, the corners of her mouth raised, and she said softly, "I'm not talking about you, but someone."

"Who?"

Qin seemed to feel something and asked subconsciously.

"This..."

Aoandon tapped the pipe on the wall in a leisurely manner, shaking off the ashes, and put on a somewhat affected indifferent expression, and said casually, "I've seen the interview program on TV. Anyway, that person is just a colleague of yours.

Since they are just colleagues, you won't be particularly sad even if they die in the Lost World, right."

Eva blinked her light blue eyes, and a faint crimson light seemed to be brewing deep in her eyes, and her voice was frighteningly calm, "Who."

"I've hinted at it this much, haven't you guessed it yet?"

In the swirling smoke, Aoandon's mouth outlined a malicious smile, "Of course, it's your little lover, that classmate Ju Tianfu."