Chapter 1 Two Weeks Ago, A Certain Multiverse

Night, Gotham City suburbs, outside an abandoned carnival ground.

Two people were conducting a clandestine transaction...

As a burst of light gradually faded, both the [Kongtong Seal] and the [Tiangang Disha Box] turned to dust in the hands of Doctor Manhattan.

"It is done." Then, Doctor Manhattan said these words to Feng Bujue in his calm tone.

Brother Jue stood two meters away from the Doctor. Hearing this, he silently felt the changes within himself and replied, "But I don't seem to feel anything special."

"That's normal. After all… it is only your 'projection' that is accepting this change, not your true body, which exists in some distant other dimension," Doctor Manhattan replied. "In fact, you should be grateful for that. If your main body were to undergo that 'transformation' just now, you would inevitably experience tremendous physiological pain."

"Hmm…" Jue Ge pondered for a moment, then lowered his head to observe his body again from a data perspective. "If I 'look'… I can indeed see that the data strength has been greatly enhanced."

"Specifically… your body density is now stabilized at a very high value. Even without any protection, you can resist most conventional weapons in the human world," Doctor Manhattan continued. "Another improvement brought about by this physical change is a surge in strength and speed. With your talent, I think you will soon figure out how to control your output… In addition, the energy you stored in the [Tiangang Disha Box] has also become part of you. Your resistance and mastery of non-material attacks such as magic, spells, and pure energy have been significantly enhanced."

While the Doctor was explaining, Feng Bujue had already opened the game menu and begun to inspect his inventory and equipment.

Since Doctor Manhattan was constantly aware of his every subtle movement and psychological change, he continued at the appropriate time after the previous explanation, "As for those 'items' that have appeared on you, they all appeared under a certain space-time reversal effect caused by the [Kongtong Seal]. Even I cannot analyze the principle of this effect. I only know that… the particles of this [Kongtong Seal] indicate that it does not belong to any universe I know, and the substances it has regressed seem to come from multiple different universes. This phenomenon exceeds the scope of all theories I know."

Feng Bujue listened to the other party's words while finishing his inspection.

Unfortunately, the results made him feel a bit pained.

Jue Ge had thought that the [Kongtong Seal] could restore those items and equipment that had been erased by Twenty-Three and that Dream Inc. would not restore—that is, those that were destroyed at the end of the "Return to the Demon Mastication Island" script. But… he was wrong.

The "regression" effect of the [Kongtong Seal] was not the kind of setting that could be precisely pinpointed to a certain point in time. If that were the case, he could have gone back a little further and retrieved all the items he had lost, such as the [Must Break Defense Blade] that was destroyed by Mad Eye, as well as the [One-Hit Kill Pistol], [Contra Medal], and so on that appeared in specific scripts… The strategic significance of these things was much greater than the batch of excellent-grade or lower equipment he had lost.

The actual situation was that the things regressed by the [Kongtong Seal] were randomly selected from the timeline that his character had experienced.

Therefore, Feng Bujue obtained the following items: [Mario's Pipe Wrench], [Children's Baseball Bat], [Dilapidated Batman Cloak], [De-energized Residue], [Marijuana *2], [Immovable as a Mountain], and [Energy Gauntlet].

Whether it was a coincidence or some kind of system limitation, none of these things belonged to the "plot-related" category.

Of course, that was not the point. The point was… these things were mostly garbage.

First of all, the [Mario's Pipe Wrench] had "medium" attack power, the "fire" attribute, and an effect that "attacks to the head have a chance to cause serious damage." In the early stages of the game, this was naturally a very powerful weapon, but now… in the environment of level 50+, players' weapons were basically of the "stronger" or "very strong" attack power level, because when facing a pile of equipment with "stronger" or "very strong" defense, things with "medium" attack power would seem relatively weak. Moreover, the effects of high-level equipment were generally much better than this, even if it did not have attributes, it would be stronger.

Secondly, the [Children's Baseball Bat] was an ordinary-quality weapon with no attributes and no effects, made of rubber, a toy… In the early stages of the game, it was also destined to be sold by Jue Ge as soon as he got it, let alone now.

Next, the [Dilapidated Batman Cloak], [Marijuana *2], and [Energy Gauntlet] were all special items that "could not be taken out of the script" but did not belong to "plot items." They were regressed only because Feng Bujue had once held them in the script.

In terms of attributes… the cloak was also a weapon with no attributes and no effects; marijuana… well… it was just ordinary marijuana, and players could not use this to get "high" because the system would not allow players to experience drugs in the game; and the [Energy Gauntlet] was a bit ambiguous. Its quality was dilapidated, its defense power was weak, it had no defense attributes at all, and its effect was… [???]

In the "sub-dimensional space" in the "world without games," the [Energy Gauntlet] had a causal control ability over the materials there, but whether it could work in other places was still unknown.

Finally, let's look at… the [De-energized Residue]. If everyone still remembers, this thing was produced after the [Type-0 Magic Crusher] failed to manufacture items. Literally, it was complete garbage.

In summary, among the things Feng Bujue regressed, there was only one truly useful thing, and that was [Immovable as a Mountain].

Back in the semi-finals of S2, Jue Ge used [Yi Da] to blast this orb out, knocking down Lin Yan in the "King of Hell" period with one blow. Now that he had regained it, it was equivalent to getting back an extra skill that could use "hard defense" means. When necessary, it could also be used as ammunition, which could be considered a harvest.

"You seem a little disappointed," Doctor Manhattan asked, watching Jue Ge's reaction.

"Ah… it's okay…" Feng Bujue replied, focusing his attention on his skill bar.

Then, his expression changed significantly…

After being "cleaned" by Twenty-Three, Dream Inc. only restored two skills for Feng Bujue, namely [Moon Step] and [Tempest Kick], while Feng Bujue himself had four skills left in the storage room, namely [Tenacity of the Ice Artificer], [Not So Hasty Repair], [Spirit Gun], and [South Dipper Flying Dragon Fist].

Considering that his skill bar was now very loose, Jue Ge naturally brought all these skills with him, even if two of them (because the levels of various specializations were already very high, [Tenacity of the Ice Artificer] was almost meaningless, and Jue Ge was unlikely to use the [Spirit Gun], a move with its own instant-death probability) were basically no longer used.

However, after Doctor Manhattan "restored" him, Feng Bujue found that… his skill bar had simply become empty.

"I say…" Jue Ge certainly had a lot of opinions about this. He immediately looked at the Doctor and said, "...is there something wrong? Why have I not only failed to regain my lost abilities, but even the existing ones are gone?"

"They are not 'gone,' you are simply 'turning a blind eye' to them," Doctor Manhattan replied.

"Your metaphysics answer is so helpful to me," Feng Bujue replied sarcastically, staring with his dead fish eyes.

"You should understand what I mean." In response, Doctor Manhattan did not have any emotional fluctuations. He simply continued to speak in a flat tone, "Now that you have absorbed the dual powers of the [Kongtong Seal] and the [Tiangang Disha Box], does the so-called 'skill bar' given to you by 'fate'… still have any meaning?"

As soon as these words came out, a flash of inspiration flashed in Feng Bujue's mind.

He instantly understood the meaning, and then, he raised one hand, and with two fingers together, launched a sudden attack towards the distance.

In the next second, an psionic shock shot out from his fingertips, broke through the air, and pierced into the water.

The move he used was not even a skill that he had ever mastered, but only a skill that he had once "seen"...

That was the [Spirit Lance Vulture Strike] that the [Mystic Spirit King] in the enemy formation had used during the S2 match against the [Golden Warhammer Team]; at that time, the other party used this move to attack the robot "Infected Fighter" (manufactured by Musashi Koganei) that Feng Bujue had sent out, and Jue Ge was watching the battle in the dark from a data perspective.

"I understand… 'invisibility' doesn't matter, because I 'no longer need to see it'," Feng Bujue said after completing this "experiment."

"Correct." Doctor Manhattan nodded. "As long as you can 'understand' the 'sequence of truth' you have seen, you can naturally replicate its operation mode. This is similar to my control of elementary particles, but it is relatively much simpler." He paused. "For example… if we have a painting in front of us, your ability is to reproduce a very similar painting in your own way after seeing this painting; while I have to start with the painting's pigments, the composition of the canvas, and even every brain cell of the original author and his various emotional experiences on the timeline…"

"Okay, okay, you don't need to tell me about the knowledge at the quantum observer level," Feng Bujue did not intend to listen to the Doctor finish. "Unless I become an existence with the same dimensions and abilities as you, otherwise this is a waste of time."

"Hmm…" Doctor Manhattan pondered for a moment, "So… are you satisfied now?"

"The deal is done." Feng Bujue gave an affirmative answer. "But… there is also a small matter outside the deal that I would like to ask for your help." As he spoke, he took out the [Dilapidated Batman Cloak] from his inventory. "This… I would like to ask you to keep it for me temporarily."

"Keep it for you?" Doctor Manhattan asked. "So, who am I going to give it to later?"

"Heh…" Jue Ge smiled at him and said in English, "you_tell_me."

Doctor Manhattan was silent for a few seconds, then looked at Feng Bujue and said, "I understand. I will give it to 'him'."

…………

Now, the main universe, Monster Kingdom.

The [Purgatory Musou Exploding Heat Wave Cannon] that Feng Bujue used ruthlessly shattered the explosion tunnel. When you don't know how to close a "portal," using this kind of power that is enough to crush space-time to "brute-force crack" it is undoubtedly a good method.

When the tunnel exploded, half of the ten or so redundant soldiers who had just crawled out were immediately crushed by the collapsed space-time singularity, and the remaining ones unhesitatingly killed Jue Ge, who was a few meters away.

Although Feng Bujue had just finished his move, he was not without any means to deal with it. Even without relying on others, he had at least three or five ways to cope with this round of attacks.

However, since arrangements had already been made before the action, he did not do anything else.

Whoosh whoosh—

In that second, Little Tan and Xu Huai Shang both rose into the air… The former flashed behind Feng Bujue with lightning speed, put his arm around Jue Ge's waist, and then with a step, the two figures disappeared from mid-air at the same time.

At the same instant, Xu Huai Shang unsheathed her twin blades.

Because she was equipped with the passive skill [Ambidexterity], Xu Huai Shang could use her two hands to cast two different skills at the same time (provided that the skills could theoretically be used with one hand). At this moment, the [Fallen Flower] and [Flying Floss] in her hands each made a move. The left hand was [Blood Mist Flowing Wind], and the right hand was [Day and Night Chopping Dance]. Two types of slashes with different effects and killing ranges each hit those irregularly positioned redundant soldiers to the greatest extent with the most appropriate angle, speed, and strength…

When Xu Huai Shang finished her move and slowly landed from the air, the corpses of those redundant soldiers had already fallen to the ground one step ahead of her. And Wang Tanzhi and Feng Bujue appeared behind Bill and Dian He Wang as if they had teleported.

This was why Feng Bujue did nothing after shattering the tunnel…

Because Jue Ge had told his two teammates before breaking through the tunnel: "If there are any redundant soldiers who slip through the net and attack me after I release my skill, in case something happens… Little Tan will be responsible for pulling me to a safe area, and Little Shang will kill the pursuers."

After all, Feng Bujue was going to release the [Purgatory Musou Exploding Heat Wave Cannon]. Even though his current stamina and spiritual power limit were already very high, he still considered the possibility of himself "entering a state of exhaustion after releasing the skill," so he made this comprehensive arrangement.

At the moment, although he did not enter that state, out of trust in his teammates, and… laziness… he did not do anything extra after launching his move.

"Awesome, awesome." After seeing Xu Huai Shang's performance, Feng Bujue could not help but cheer. "Every time I see you again after a period of time, your strength will obviously improve… To be honest, I really admire you."

"Isn't this a matter of course." Xu Huai Shang, who had returned to the ground, did not show any joy at Feng Bujue's praise. She just replied calmly, "For professional players, 'improving strength' is their job, right? There is nothing to praise or brag about."

"Hehe… what you said makes the position of those actors who have to come out and shout about how 'dedicated' they are when they encounter bumps and bruises, go into the water in winter, or wear fur coats in summer very awkward," Jue Ge complained.

"I think you should use 'athletes who are paid high salaries, are out of shape, and can't even pass the physical fitness test' as an analogy here," Xu Huai Shang said, "because the 'actors' in your example…" Speaking of this, she raised her hands and made a gesture of putting quotation marks, "...whether they can be called 'actors' is debatable."

"Hmm… that's right." Feng Bujue nodded. "Thinking carefully, if the investors who pay for these people to appear are not buying 'acting skills' but to guarantee box office… from this point of view, they have also completed their job."

"Have you two chatted enough?" Seeing that they were getting more and more excited, Dian He Wang interrupted with his "unhappy" expression again, "Do you know that 90% of what you are saying is either inaudible or incomprehensible to us (there is a system shielding reason)?" He turned his head, looked at the black sky in the distance, and said, "If I am not mistaken, this should be Monster Kingdom… hmm… this explains why they sent so many troops… In short, we have now reached our destination and temporarily escaped from the pursuers, so what's the next step?"

The question was naturally asking Feng Bujue.

"Before I say what to do…" Jue Ge also looked at Old Wang and replied, "You…" He glanced at the Billy brothers, "Have you all felt it too?"

"Ah…" Billy replied, "The Fighting Demon is also here, but… he is still very far away from us at the moment."

"If there are no surprises…" Feng Bujue continued, "I think we have just caught up with the moment when the Fighting Demon and the Redundant Soldier Legion are attacking Monster Kingdom." He paused and asked, "Speaking of which… the war has been going on for two years, why are they attacking here now?"

"On the one hand, Monster Kingdom is located in a remote area and is extremely difficult to reach," Zhuan Jie Zun said at this time. "On the other hand… in the early stages of the war, the number of Redundant Soldier Legion was not as large as it is now. I am afraid that with their combat power at the time, they may not have been able to capture this place."

"Oh?" Feng Bujue said, "Is Monster Kingdom so powerful?"

"As a single force, Monster Kingdom is far stronger than any of the Four Pillar Gods at the beginning," Zhuan Jie Zun said, "It's just that the residents of the kingdom are content with life here and have no intention of interfering in the hegemony of the main universe. And from the perspective of the Four Pillar Gods, this 'borderland' separated from other areas of the main universe has neither the value of occupation nor is it an easy bone to gnaw on… So…"

At this time, Billy appropriately continued: "To use an example from the history of your world, it would be equivalent to… Iceland suddenly mastering twice the combat power of the German army during World War II. In this case, I am afraid that no one would attack it before other battlefields have been completely settled, right?"

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds, "Your example is very good, but doesn't that mean…" As he spoke, his eyes changed slightly, "At the moment, Monster Kingdom is already the last stronghold in the main universe…"