Chapter 1 Aah, I’m So Bored

“Aah, I’m so bored~”

Chai Chai listlessly tossed aside her game console controller, leaning her upper body backward and plopping into the beanbag chair.

“What’s wrong now?”

Li Ang, sitting at his desk studying semiconductor chips, looked up at her.

“Current video games aren’t challenging at all. I feel a loneliness like snow.”

Chai Chai shook her head, placed her hands behind her, hugged her head, and adjusted her position in the beanbag chair.

Li Ang glanced at the “You Are Dead” message on the black-and-white television screen, then continued to study the chip, casually saying, “If you’re so lonely like snow, how’d you die?”

“Because the opponents are all dumb computer bots. There’s no thrill of the kill.”

Chai Chai pouted. “The American financial market has completely collapsed, and I don’t know how many game companies have gone under.

“Although some electronic technology-type equipment and props in the Killing Field game can allow ordinary people to quickly develop large-scale games,

“No one plays them.

“Many people have moved to colonizable Door worlds, and all the games have become ghost towns. There are only bots left.”

That was the truth. After the explosive awakening of the stargates, all political entities worldwide were forced to change.

Organizations like the Special Affairs Bureau ( *Teshiju* ) had taken the path of advanced collectivism. Tens or even hundreds of millions of residents lived concentrated in city-sized buildings, accepting "paternalistic" management, obeying allocation, each doing their best, and highly intelligent mechanical intelligences ensured the fairness and progress of the management process.

European heavy industry groups and several other large multinational corporations had become giant corporate governments like those in works of fiction.

Although they also uniformly managed the residents under their jurisdiction, just like advanced collectivism,

The purpose, process, and form were completely different.

The corporate government's sole purpose was to perpetuate its own existence, ensure class division, and ensure its permanent ruling position.

A few financial families combined with players who had mastered powerful extraordinary abilities were at the very top of the ruling system.

Below them were the corporate managers and mid-level transcendents—the white gloves who seized profits for the bigwigs above.

Further down were hundreds of millions of laborers—every resident managed by a corporate government was a corporate employee. Without a lucky encounter, they would never be able to become part of the ruling class in their lifetime, and could only try every possible means to climb up and strive to one day advance to the middle levels of the system.

Since the Special Affairs Bureau and the Different Learning Society ( *Yi Xue Hui* ) gradually moved their main battlefields to the Door worlds,

The European and American regions on Earth in the real world were presenting a state of mutual confrontation between several corporate governments.

Even worse than corporate governments were criminal enterprises—they usually existed in areas where corporate governments were confronting each other, where they couldn't be controlled, or temporarily didn't want to be controlled, and were ruled by several transcendent criminals or families of transcendent criminals.

The living environment of their residents was roughly equivalent to Colombia during the time of Pablo Escobar. They had to pay protection fees to the "godfathers" and "godmothers" of each district, and they had nowhere to appeal or reason if they were casually killed.

To escape this terrible and harsh life, a large number of anarchists even appeared all over the world—they did not trust any political entity and would rather enter the wilderness than accept any form of rule.

These people would form tribes, calling themselves wanderer tribes. Each tribe was usually led by a player or transcendent, ranging from a few dozen to hundreds or thousands of people. Every tribe member had to learn to use and repair weapons, learn to drive vehicles, and learn how to survive in the wild, and under the leadership of the tribe leader, they embarked on dangerous wanderings in the wilderness full of abnormal phenomena.

The number of these wanderers exceeded many people's imagination. Not only in Europe and South America, but even in the once prosperous North America, many American families, because they were not qualified to move into city-sized buildings, and because they saw through the evil nature of the American government, eventually chose to take their families and embark on the road of wandering.

The anarchist wanderers were like roadside weeds, living and dying, silently, with a kind of Mad Max post-apocalyptic style.

Of course, the worst living environment was not the above three—the wanderers were led by transcendent tribal chiefs, and as long as they were careful, they could barely survive.

And various corporate governments, due to their mutual confrontation, the existence of the Special Affairs Bureau, and Russia, which vaguely had the embryonic form of a red empire again, did not dare to go too far on the surface—going too far would attract criticism from other corporate governments,

And the relatively superior living conditions of the residents under the red empire were also a comparison.

At least for now.

The worst living environment was slave society and primitive society.

In some deserted corners of Africa,

Some players who had mastered extraordinary powers were massively enslaving tribal residents and directly carrying out inhumane extraordinary experiments and rituals.

Human lives were cheap, especially after the emergence of relatively mature cloning technology.

Such acts of exterminating humanity would naturally be suppressed by the Global Supernatural Alliance,

Unfortunately, the Global Supernatural Alliance has not been having a good time recently.

The global village was gradually disintegrating, and a large number of members from various countries who were originally stationed in the Global Supernatural Alliance responded to their respective countries' calls and returned to their home countries.

Although the remaining people were all people of high ideals who truly believed in "world harmony" and "human unity," and organizations such as the Special Affairs Bureau and the GRU still provided human, material, and financial support out of humanitarian factors,

It was an undeniable fact that the manpower available to the Global Supernatural Alliance had been drastically reduced.

In this situation, even the Global Supernatural Alliance, guarded by Michael, was somewhat powerless against the large-scale human tragedies that were taking place around the world.

Chai Chai couldn't find living people to fill a game, which was just a small microcosm of the world today.

Li Ang said without looking up, "Why don't I talk to Old Xing and see if he can get a super-high-speed network cable dedicated to playing games for you from the Special Affairs Bureau's Door world?"

Chai Chai tilted her head. "Eh? Is that possible?"

"Possible my foot. Are you going to squat at the Door world exit with your game console?"

Li Ang rolled his eyes, took something out of the void, and threw it toward the beanbag chair.

"This is..."

Chai Chai raised her hand to catch it, and her eyes froze as she looked at the ordinary black umbrella in her hand.

Soul-Guiding Banner ( *Yin Hun Fan* ).

This special item that had accompanied Li Ang and Chai Cuicao through an entire Killing Field game had not been taken out for a very long time.

The original function of the Soul-Guiding Banner was to absorb and store yin energy, and to contain spiritual bodies.

At first, Li Ang specifically carried this umbrella to the cemeteries and hospital morgues in Yin City to absorb yin energy and feed Chai Chai. However, later, he got the Azure Beauty Armor ( *Qing E Jia* ),

Chai Chai could wear the Azure Beauty Armor as her body, and her daily spiritual energy consumption was close to zero. Li Ang's strength growth rate no longer required Chai Chai as a cheat equipment.

The Soul-Guiding Banner, disguised as a black umbrella, had been lying in the corner of the warehouse and had never been taken out.

Chai Chai asked in confusion, "What are you giving me this for?"

Li Ang said without looking up, "I found a shop on the game plaza that can enhance equipment and upgraded the quality of the [Soul-Guiding Banner] from [Rare] to [Excellent].

"In a few days, when the equipment enhancement coupons that shop buys from the game store arrive, it can even be upgraded from [Excellent] to [Perfect] again.

"At that time, the Soul-Guiding Banner will not only be able to store massive amounts of yin energy, but also accommodate more spiritual bodies, and ensure the spiritual bodies' independent thinking, so that the spiritual bodies will not lose their self-awareness because they live too long."

"Eh?"

Chai Chai blinked, not reacting for a moment.

Li Ang said casually, "What I mean is that as long as you have a [Soul-Guiding Banner] of perfect quality, medium-level spiritual bodies can live for a very, very long time without dying, becoming a kind of long-lived species in a sense.

"From now on, you must keep the [Soul-Guiding Banner] with you at all times.

"Although the Azure Beauty Armor was re-enhanced in Yin City before, it does not have the function of anchoring the self-will of the spiritual body."

"Oh, oh."

Chai Chai subconsciously gave up thinking and nodded to show that she completely understood.

But soon, she belatedly realized something was wrong, looked at Li Ang, and her expression changed slightly. "You, why did you suddenly think of enhancing the [Soul-Guiding Banner]?

"I remember those shops in the Killing Field game that can enhance items are very, very expensive, right?

"I don't feel like there's a need for that..."

"Just in case."

Li Ang said simply, took out a stack of documents from the void, and handed them to Chai Chai with a hand of psychic energy. "Also, these are two plans I prepared. Please take a look."

Chai Chai fell silent and quickly flipped through the documents. The first part of the documents described in detail the Hive Mind's transformation plan for the Door world.

The Hive would quickly spread out on the Door planet, first controlling and encircling 99.8% of the population on the Door planet to provide Li Ang with the power of faith.

Then, tens of thousands of Hive bases would be built on the surface and underground.

Because Li Ang had been tirelessly collecting gene samples of novel creatures and technology creation blueprints,

The current Hive could already produce Hive rockets that could enter space.

Hive rockets were faster than the second cosmic velocity and could escape the Earth's gravitational field, carrying the Hive Mothership to other planets and satellites in the Door world for inter-planetary colonization.

"In addition to the planet where the Door is located, there are at least three other planets in the Door world that can be colonized.

"The Hive's specially cultivated native organism algae can absorb toxic gases or liquids and spray out oxygen and carbon dioxide.

"If there is a lack of water, other models of Hive ships can also drag meteorites with solid ice from outer space and smash them into the colonized planet to create lakes and oceans.

"The process of transforming the planet will be relatively slow at first, but now the scale of the Hive Mind is also expanding, and I am gradually relaxing the Hive Minds' thinking restrictions to make them more creative and able to learn mechanical technology and genetic technology faster, thereby increasing the speed of expansion."

Li Ang said, "One of the colonized planets will be transformed to resemble the Earth's environment.

"I will have the Hive sow the genetic seeds of Earth humans on the planet, cultivate purebred Earth humans, and create a natural Earth atmosphere.

"If something happens to me and I can't get away for a long time,

"You can live on that planet in the future, or you can go to the Special Affairs Bureau's Door world and live in a real human society—I will tell Su Nisheng to take care of you."

"..."

Chai Chai finally realized that Li Ang was paving the way for her.

She lowered her head and looked at the documents filled with words, and took a deep breath.

The fingers of the Azure Beauty Armor pinched the corner of the document, gradually exerting force, wrinkling the document.

"I don't want to."

"Hmm?"

"I don't want to."

Chai Chai suddenly raised her head, her hair flying, her lips slightly pursed, her eyes staring straight at Li Ang, showing him the emotion called anger for the first time. "What's the meaning of this? It's as if you're going to die! Isn't it just the Siming battle? I'll go with you."

"This time is different."

Li Ang also interrupted Chai Chai expressionlessly for the first time. "The Door competition has opened the prelude to the plane war,

"And Siming, no matter what that thing is, gives me a very...fatal feeling.

"Humans have limits.

"Any form of life, including seemingly powerful transcendents, long-lived species, and immortal species, has its limits.

"The Killing Field game is still too dangerous. You're not a player, so there's no need to take risks with me..."

"Lulu lulu lulu lulu."

Chai Chai covered her ears, closed her eyes tightly, and made gibberish noises in her mouth. "I won't listen, I won't listen."

"If you go with me, it will only increase the risk I need to take to take care of you."

Li Ang looked at Chai Chai, who was in self-isolation mode, unable to maintain his expressionless, cold face, and said helplessly, "I'm serious.

"So many people died in the last Door competition. This time, the scale of the Siming battle has expanded, and it is even possible that more alien players will emerge.

"Even me, Michael, and Su Nisheng may not be able to come out alive,

"Or maintain our original personality and will, and break away..."

"Bring all the Hive!"

Chai Chai said decisively, "If you feel it's very dangerous, then you don't have to consider the thoughts of other people or organizations on Earth.

"I'll have all the Hive Minds and lower-level soldiers drain a lot of water from their bodies and compress their bodies.

"Then go to the market and scavenge all the space items that can load living things.

"Finally, cooperate with the Door,

"We will definitely be able to burst out a large number of Hive soldiers in the shortest possible time.

"Even if we can't win the final victory, we can come out alive!

"If that doesn't work, we can still admit defeat..."

"...If we can't get the top few places and further touch the truth of the Killing Field game, even if we admit defeat and leave, we will sooner or later die in the Killing Field game,

"Or run out of our set lifespan in a few decades, like those gods in the past, and die early, turning into corrupt corpses that have lost their self and eke out a living in the world."

Li Ang shook his head. "Okay, it's decided.

"Let's go. The seventh day of the rematch is coming."

He stood up from his chair and reached out to pull Chai Chai out of the beanbag chair, but he couldn't move her—Chai Chai's eyes were a little red, and crystal tears were accumulating in them.

"What's wrong now?"

Chai Chai sniffled like a wronged Shiba Inu, took out the Yin God's book from under the sofa, and began to practice seriously—although the best practice time for the book was only four hours a day.

Li Ang looked at the self-isolated Chai Chai, hesitated to speak. The current Hive was improving rapidly. Even if Chai Chai really became a player and was a genius in cultivation, one in a billion, her cultivation progress could not keep up with the degree of the Hive's life essence evolution.

The reason why he arranged for Chai Chai to live in the human society that she was more adapted to in the future if an accident occurred, instead of letting her continue to lead the Hive, was also based on this reason—the Hive still had a slight risk of losing control.

"..."

Li Ang looked at the stubborn Chai Chai, silently rubbed her hair, and teleported away, heading to the Sky Arena.