Chapter 1 We're a Step Late

Tires screeched, scraping the ground. Liu Wu-dai's car braked sharply outside the isolation spell formation.

She stared emotionlessly at the towering black sphere in front of her, and said coldly, "We're a step late. The system indicates that a team has already taken the locator.

The isolation spell formation ahead must be the result of a conflict between them and another team that came to compete for the locator."

Li Yi, sitting in the passenger seat, raised an eyebrow and said, "Should we force our way in?"

"Yes."

Liu Wu-dai pondered for a moment, then stepped on the accelerator and said calmly but firmly, "No matter which team gets the locator, we'll be put in a passive position. They'll have the advantage of knowing where we are, and they'll be the ones deciding whether to chase or run.

It's better to take advantage of this three-way battle and gamble."

As she spoke, the black car had already entered the sphere spell formation. Li Yi glanced at the scenery around him, which was constantly fading and turning gray. He estimated the shape of the spatial isolation spell formation and said to Liu Wu-dai, "The center of the sphere is about eight hundred meters to the northeast."

"Got it." Liu Wu-dai responded, the car's speed reaching its limit, completely ignoring traffic rules, bulldozing through all obstacles like a mad bull—

Whether it was a car that was smashed aside or a pedestrian that was thrown away, everything would heal within seconds, completely ignoring the rampaging black car and the players inside.

It was as if the players were completely isolated from the real world.

————

Boom boom boom boom!

Ash's Special Affairs Bureau vehicle sped through the gray and white world.

Behind him, the smooth cement road suddenly bulged high, cracking to both sides. Large chunks of cement were being pushed by a massive force from beneath the surface, sending all the vehicles along the way flying.

Rocks splattered and flew, hitting the rear windshield of Ash's vehicle, creating spiderweb-like cracks.

Something lurking beneath the ground was chasing them at an extremely fast speed.

Just now, Ash had just made up his mind to eliminate the insect player and his teammates when he was targeted and chased by the enemy, forcing him to drive away.

"Damn it!"

Chu Yin, sitting in the back row, put her computer back into her inventory, grabbed the vehicle's roof handle with one hand, and gripped a short, green-topped, white-bottomed stick resembling a large scallion with the other. She closed her eyes and shouted to Ash, "I can't hear his heartbeat, so I can't use my skill to lock onto him!"

"No heartbeat…"

Ash silently gritted his teeth, turned the steering wheel sharply, and the vehicle drifted out of an arc at the intersection. "Another non-human player."

The Special Affairs Bureau had released some confidential information to the agents of the Mobile Task Force, and part of it was about the difference between human and non-human players.

According to the Special Affairs Bureau's current speculation, the Slaughter Field System would classify players' moral character based on their specific performance during missions.

For example, Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil, and so on.

Lawful Good players, as the game progresses, would rarely receive tasks that "require sacrificing innocents to complete under the current conditions,"

While Chaotic Evil players would rarely receive tasks where "the mission objective is to protect innocent and kind people."

The mission objectives would generally tend to align with the player's moral alignment.

Of course, there were also evil people among human players who liked to kill innocent people indiscriminately, but their proportion was far lower than that of non-human players.

The difference in species determined the difference in morality.

Those literal beasts had no human concept of good and evil. As far as they were concerned, as long as they could complete the mission and strengthen themselves, any means or measures could be taken.

This led to the fact that most non-human players usually received mission modes that were mainly based on killing, slaughter, and destruction.

While he was thinking, road cracks extended from the ground all the way to the wall of a building in front of them. With a "bang," the reinforced concrete wall exploded, and a dark figure shot out from the breach in the wall, hovering in mid-air in front of the vehicle.

The black shadow was shrouded in tattered gray robes, and it was completely dark under the hood, making it impossible to see clearly.

He casually waved his hand, and a demonic wind suddenly rose around Ash's vehicle. Countless blue-faced, fanged demon heads suddenly appeared in the wind, circling and whirling with the wind, and terrifying ghostly cries resounded through the sky.

The expression on Ash's face, who was sitting in the driver's seat, was as dark as water.

Wherever the blue demonic wind carrying countless demon heads went, the walls of tall buildings, the vehicles on the road, and the pedestrians on the street were all corroded and worn away, turning into countless quicksand after a few breaths and returning to their original state.

In this gray and white world, only players could see each other, interfere with each other, and harm each other.

"You,"

The black-robed figure hovered in the air, tilted his head, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Are you people from the Special Affairs Bureau?"

Ash took a deep breath. The road ahead and behind him was blocked. There was no escape, no way to avoid it.

He made eye contact with Chu Yin in the rearview mirror, gently flicked his finger under the steering wheel, silently pushed open the car door, and looked at the black robe floating in the air.

"I am Ash, an active agent of the Fourth Squadron of the Yin City Mobile Task Force of the Special Affairs Bureau."

He said loudly, "The Special Affairs Bureau believes that this mission is related to another abnormal event that seriously threatens the lives and property of the people. I was specially dispatched to investigate this matter.

I hope you can cooperate with my work."

Ash's intuition told him that even if he and Chu Yin were tied together, they were probably no match for the black-robed figure in front of him. He could only choose to wave the flag of the Special Affairs Bureau, implying that he had received instructions from his superiors.

Attempting to use the Special Affairs Bureau to deter the other party.

"Heh,"

The black-robed figure sneered gloomily, "The abnormal event you are talking about is the Prison Demon Cave over at Qianhua Road, right? The Special Affairs Bureau has already dispatched a team with members of the Different Arts Society to observe it in person, right?"

Hearing the words "Prison Demon Cave," Chu Yin felt lost.

Ash's expression remained unchanged, but a storm was raging in his heart.

With his security clearance as an elite agent of the Fourth Squadron of the Mobile Task Force, he only knew the three words "Prison Demon Cave." He had no idea that his superiors had already sent the Mobile Task Force and members of the Different Arts Society into the Prison Demon Cave.

The black-robed figure looked at Ash's silent appearance and sighed as if disappointed. He silently raised his arm. A mass of ghastly green demon fire floated in his skeletal palm.

"As expected, you know nothing.

Heh, I don't know whether to call you brave or ignorant for willingly getting involved in an event that you know nothing about."

He shook his head, like a cat playing with a mouse, "Since you know nothing, then go to your death in peace."