Chapter 1 A Different Light

Suddenly, a uniquely colored light shone from a great distance ahead.

Feng Bujue immediately turned off his lighting equipment and stared into the distance... at the end of the long, narrow, black tunnel, a speck of scarlet stood out.

"Is that the exit..." Jue-ge muttered, "Red light... I feel like there's a conspiracy."

He slowed down slightly, approaching the cave entrance at a leisurely pace. Before long, he felt a distinct wave of heat wash over him.

Since the tunnel sloped downward, the safe house was below ground level, and the temperature was low. Now, approaching the cave entrance, the temperature suddenly rose, reaching about thirty-five degrees Celsius.

"Whoa... if this world is generally this temperature, it's going to be a real problem..." Feng Bujue muttered.

Actually... it wasn't that difficult. As he muttered these words, he already had a solution in mind...

The simplest way was to buy another set of spare clothes, and whenever he queued for a Free Exploration mode, he could just change into them before entering. With Jue-ge's personality, he would probably put together a "Fire Cloud Evil God Set" (backless shirt, shorts, and flip-flops) at a very low cost. That kind of look wouldn't be bothered by forty degrees.

Whoosh—

As Feng Bujue reached the cave entrance, a gust of hot wind swept past, the heat like a lid being lifted from a steamer, causing him to step back a few paces.

"Sigh... it really is a desert..." Feng Bujue sighed as he looked at the endless expanse of rolling yellow sand before him.

Although he was mentally prepared, he was still quite disappointed when he saw it with his own eyes.

He would have preferred to be randomly assigned to a doomsday battlefield where Skynet and humans were at war, rather than being allocated to a godforsaken place. But reality had once again proven... life is ten to one against.

"Alright... can't give up hope." As Feng Bujue spoke, he covered his mouth and nose with his gloves and stepped out of the tunnel into the endless desert, "Maybe this is a corner of the DC or Marvel universe..."

This sentence was truly from his heart. The universe that Feng Bujue most wanted to go to was undoubtedly one of these two, filled with superheroes.

First of all, he had a very comprehensive grasp of information about these two universes, such as the personalities, abilities, and weaknesses of the main characters; as well as the major events that were about to happen or had already happened. Secondly, the resources in these two universes were exceptionally rich, super-technology, magic, mutant gene derivatives, aliens, and even cosmic gods were all available for development and utilization...

In addition, there were some personal reasons. Jue-ge always had a few things he wanted to do, such as bankrupting Batman, touring the Yellow Lantern Corps' planet, discussing life with Doctor Manhattan, removing Doctor Doom's mask, listening to Black Bolt sing, turning Tony Stark into a woman, and so on...

It could be said that these were two treasure-filled universes. The stronger a player's abilities, the more benefits they could obtain, and these benefits were almost inexhaustible.

However... as it turned out, Jue-ge was overthinking things.

How could the system send him to such a good place...

…………

"General, the drones in the third experimental zone seem to have captured something."

"Put the footage on the main display."

"Yes, sir."

"Hmm... is that... an Earthling?"

"According to the appearance database, there's an 84% probability that it's an Earthling, 10% probability that it's a Plug-in Star person, and 6% probability that it's another shapeshifting species."

"Hmph... no matter what it is, capture it first."

"Understood."

"First Squad, attention, an unidentified intruder has appeared fifty kilometers west of the base. Engage immediately and capture it."

…………

Meanwhile, Feng Bujue had no idea that he was being watched. At this moment, he was running wildly through the desert...

Jue-ge had just discovered that the [Treading the Void]'s "running on water" effect also worked on sand. So for him, running in the desert was easier than walking, practically like walking on flat ground.

"In any case, the location of my first safe house in this world can't be in a desolate environment where you can walk for days and nights without meeting anyone..." Jue-ge thought as he ran, "Otherwise, I might leave the script due to the game time limit before finding the next safe house." He licked his dry lips, "If I run straight in one direction like this, I'm bound to encounter something... even if I can't get out of the desert, I should at least find a camp or an oasis."

In just ten minutes, his clothes were soaked in sweat, and the high temperature was rapidly draining the moisture from his body. Although players in the script world didn't need to eat, drink, or excrete, feelings like "fatigue" and "discomfort" would still cause physical energy to be consumed. And when the physical energy value reached zero, the survival value would be threatened. Therefore, the "environment" was also the player's enemy.

"The sun here is also unsettling..." Feng Bujue looked up at the sky, "The color is obviously different from the sun I'm familiar with, and I don't know what the ultraviolet intensity is... if this isn't Earth, then the rules of celestial motion will be hard to say... maybe the sun here won't set for over fifty hours; or... maybe the temperature is higher at night than during the day; it's also possible... that it's actually nighttime and that red thing in the sky is essentially the moon..."

Unconsciously, he had once again let his thoughts run wild, unleashing boundless speculation...

In general scripts, due to the limitations of tasks, time, and the script map, Feng Bujue didn't have the opportunity to further understand the various detailed settings of those worlds. But in Free Exploration mode, "exploration" was the focus, and players could completely abandon the mindset of general scripts and explore infinite possibilities.

Because in this mode, there was no so-called "objective," and players didn't necessarily have to follow the routine of fighting monsters, leveling up, and getting equipment. If they wanted, they could even run for president... of course, they had to leave this world every so often.

Clank clank... clank clank...

Suddenly, a sound came from behind a sand dune to Jue-ge's left, sounding like the footsteps of a large animal.

Feng Bujue looked in the direction of the sound and happened to see several huge, metallic heads poking out from behind the sand dune.

"Robots?" Feng Bujue's first reaction was... Transformers. But after watching for a few seconds, he realized something was wrong. The cockpits of those large mechs were transparent and located in the abdomen of the machine; there were pilots inside the cockpits.

In broad daylight, Jue-ge's eyesight could reach a great distance. He focused his gaze and realized that the pilots were clearly not human. Although their body shapes were quite similar to humans, their shoulders were very unusual... the shoulders of these creatures were highly raised, the highest point being close to the temples, and their armpits were roughly level with their necks.

Since these "people" were all wearing uniform green uniforms and helmets, Feng Bujue could only see this one difference, that their "skeletons were surprising." Presumably, upon closer observation, there would be more differences between them and humans.

"Hmm... looking closely, their machines also have an M-shaped shoulder design..." Feng Bujue had stopped in his tracks, waiting for the other party's reaction.

"Earthling, cross your hands over your chest! Stand still!" The pilot of one of the mechs warned Feng Bujue.

The voice was clearly amplified and emitted from some part of the mech, so Feng Bujue, standing a dozen meters away, could hear it very clearly.

"Ah, so they really are aliens..." Jue-ge said softly as he crossed his hands over his chest as instructed, "Uh... wait, from their point of view, I'm the 'alien,' right..." He had already begun to observe the other party's actions with great interest, and was developing various speculations in his mind, such as: the technological level, cultural level, social structure, and reproduction methods of this race...

"Reporting to base, this is First Squad, Captain Jie Jie Jie Jie speaking. The target seems to understand our language and has not made any obvious resisting actions." Jie Jie Jie Jie in the lead mech said into the communicator, "Request permission to implement Capture Strategy Three, over."

After a brief silence, the base responded, "Permission granted. Please be careful, Jie Jie Jie Jie, over."

After receiving approval from his superiors, Jie Jie Jie Jie turned on the amplifier again and said to Jue-ge, "Earthling, you are under arrest. Please cooperate with our work and do not resist unnecessarily."

Feng Bujue stood in place, not moving at all. He really wanted to cooperate with the other party's actions, but he didn't know what counted as cooperation.

"What should I do..." Jue-ge wondered, "On Earth... regular troops usually make the subdued raise their hands behind their heads and kneel on the ground. But here, they're telling me to stand with my arms crossed... of course, that's understandable, given their skeletons, it must be difficult for them to put their hands behind their heads." He let his gaze wander, and he had already counted the number of mechs in front of him, a total of eleven, "If I extrapolate from this line of thought, then in the eyes of this race, bowing might be equal to contempt, nodding might be equal to ridicule, smiling is anger, touching the leg is sexual harassment... oh, wait, touching the leg is also... on Earth..."

Clank clank, clank clank.

The mech piloted by Jie Jie Jie Jie approached Jue-ge. The mech was about ten meters tall, and its shape was the same as its operators, with extremely high shoulders.

"Stand on the robot's palm." Jie Jie Jie Jie said, controlling the mech to extend its hand.

Feng Bujue did as he was told without a word. The moment he stood on it, the robot's palm began to deform, turning into a spherical, hollow iron cage in two seconds.

Jie Jie Jie Jie also breathed a sigh of relief at this moment. He adjusted his tone and said solemnly, "I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Jie Jie Jie Jie of the Shrugging Star Army. I now formally announce that you are under arrest for the crime of stealing military secrets."

"Well... as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do..." Feng Bujue gave a self-deprecating smile.