Chapter 1

Boom!

A figure flew through the air, crashing heavily into a suspended metal pipe over ten meters in diameter. With a sickening screech of twisting metal, a human-shaped dent appeared in the middle of the pipe. The basketball-sized rivets connecting the pipe to the walls at either end trembled and deformed violently.

Bang!

Another figure flew in, slamming hard into a reinforced concrete wall, sending up a cloud of dust and showering debris.

This was a vast, open canyon. The walls of the buildings on either side formed a V-shape, and the canyon floor was littered with the wreckage of machinery. Suspended platforms and transport pipes crisscrossed the space above.

Dim emergency lights along the platforms and pipes were the only source of illumination in the canyon.

By the light, one could vaguely make out the enormous number 55 spray-painted on the walls of the canyon on both sides.

"Huff..."

David, the handsome, rugged, blonde-haired agent ranked tenth in the Federal Bureau of Special Affairs,

leaned against the concrete wall, pulling himself out of the human-shaped crater.

His pants were intact, but his suit had been shredded to rags, revealing a neatly defined eight-pack and V-cut that would make countless viewers scream.

And indeed, it was eliciting screams from some viewers in the real world—the detectors above the canyon were faithfully broadcasting the battle to reality.

"..."

David hooked his left hand into a crack in the wall, his right arm hanging limply. A sharp whistling sound pierced the air from the bottom of the canyon as a golden spear hurtled back to David's right hand.

"You okay?"

David asked, not turning his head, his gaze fixed on the dark depths of the canyon.

"I'll live."

The curt reply came from behind David. Abel, the black-haired, gray-eyed man ranked eighth, clambered out of the dented pipe.

His long black hair hung down his back, and a mass of obscure, profound demonic tattoos gradually surfaced on his body. All the tattoos seemed to be slowly changing shape.

The two men stared silently ahead. A breeze, from an unknown source, whistled eerily as it was sliced by the jagged edges of the broken pipe.

A figure floated into view, suspended in mid-air, slowly approaching.

It was a human shape shrouded in dark cloth, holding a long, sword-shaped piece of green jade.

Han Shuishi, ranked third in the Special Affairs Bureau.

Without warning, David moved.

He flung the golden spear in his hand forward, and simultaneously kicked off the concrete wall, charging towards Han Shuishi.

Abel moved in response, the demonic tattoos on his body flowing into his right hand, coalescing into a mass of non-reflective black material. The material rapidly compressed and folded into the shape of a long sword.

Then, with a resounding thud, he slammed his hand against the alloy pipe, using the force of the rebound to propel himself towards Han Shuishi.

Clang clang clang clang—

The clash of weapons echoed through the empty canyon. The three figures fought as one, almost blurring into afterimages as they darted through the complex terrain.

The detectors could barely keep up with their movements, and the viewers watching the battle on their screens could not make out what was happening.

They could only listen to the commentator's rapid-fire narration, gleaning a general sense of the changing situation.

All three players excelled in close combat.

Han Shuishi fought two opponents alone, not yielding an inch. The jade sword in his hand could not only heal the user's injuries, instantly mending even the most grievous wounds,

but also release deadly poison upon contact with an opponent,

slowly accumulating and inflicting multiple toxins on his foes without them even realizing it.

Muscle contraction, pupil dilation, organ spasms, blood clotting, bone marrow dissolution...

Complex toxins, difficult to identify, constantly eroded David and Abel's bodies.

If not for the fact that one was a medical specialist capable of healing all kinds of ailments,

and the other possessed a body beyond the limits of ordinary men and was immune to pain,

they would have succumbed to a multitude of diseases and collapsed long ago.

David took half a step back, using the opportunity created by Abel's distraction of Han Shuishi to slam a palm against his own chest.

A healing spell washed through him, and the toxins left behind by the jade sword were enveloped by his blood, solidifying into a tangible form. They shot out through his pores like tiny, dense, black-red darts, riddling the surrounding metal structure with holes.

"Cough cough!"

David coughed violently, spitting out a chunk of semi-coagulated blood.

The ragged sound of his breathing, like a broken bellows, was drowned out by the pounding of his heart.

This is too much...

He and Abel, two players ranked in the top ten, could barely manage to maintain a stalemate with Han Shuishi.

David couldn't help but smile bitterly, thinking about how he had previously obtained a perfect-grade skill scroll with the organization's help and had felt confident that he could defeat players ranked in the top five, or even the top three, when paired with his [Spear of Judgment].

But that helplessness quickly turned into determination.

No matter what, he had to keep Han Shuishi here, and not let him join up with the Special Affairs Bureau or the Hetero Society.

Otherwise, with his healing abilities, once he joined forces with his teammates,

he would pose a huge threat to the European Heavy Industries Group and other guild alliances in the later stages of the competition.

Thinking of this, David slammed his chest again, healing his shattered lungs as before, mustered his strength, and charged towards Han Shuishi.

Han Shuishi, floating in the air, seemed to sense something. He pushed his palm forward, and the toxins accumulated in Abel's body exploded instantly, causing his skin and bones to melt like wax.

While forcing Abel back, he also made David give up his attack to prioritize healing his companion.

Then, Han Shuishi abruptly turned around and held the jade sword horizontally in front of him.

Clang—

A burly figure suddenly appeared in the void, wearing a skull mask and a red-and-gold robe. The giant scythe in his hand crashed down, suppressing the jade sword in Han Shuishi's hand.

Agares, ranked twelfth, of Gen-Sys Biotech.

Appearing with him was a lean, olive-skinned man with black hair and blue eyes, and an ancient Sumerian inscription on his forehead, standing above a suspended platform.

Cain, ranked thirteenth, of Prometheus Labs.

"Sorry, we're a little late."

Cain smiled gently, "We just came down from the 56th floor. It seems to be the highest point in the building. Above that are alloy walls of unknown thickness."

Seeing the two men, David's tense expression relaxed. Gen-Sys, Prometheus, European Heavy Industries, and the Special Accidents Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had signed a cooperation agreement at the beginning of the Door Grabbing Competition, agreeing to divide the spoils after the war and prevent other forces from benefiting.

With four players ranked in the top fifteen present, no matter how strong Han Shuishi was, no matter how many trump cards he had, without support he would only end up defeated or surrendering and withdrawing from the competition.

David felt no shame or embarrassment at leading a group to gang up on someone, only the thought that only the living were qualified to think about morality.

He immediately pressed down on Abel's skin, preventing his body from continuing to melt, and shouted loudly, "Be careful, the sword in his hand is poisonous!"

"Got it!"

Agares roared and unleashed demonic flames, transforming into a giant crocodile, opening its bloody maw and biting towards Han Shuishi.

A green light flashed on the jade sword in Han Shuishi's hand, raising a cone-shaped energy shield.

The tip of the cone was aimed at Agares, and a green energy beam burst out, negating the demonic flames and forcing Han Shuishi to retreat rapidly.

Agares waved his hand, dispelling the green light, and was about to pursue when his expression suddenly changed. His left hand released repulsive force from thin air, abruptly pushing himself back a distance, barely avoiding a... blur that shot up from below.

David, Abel, and Cain's expressions all changed as they looked up at the canyon's curved ceiling, where a pale human-shaped silhouette was silently lurking.

The silhouette had a humanoid head and limbs, the limbs were like a lizard's crawling on the ground, and the surface of the limbs was covered with a white material layer like ordinary mecha beasts.

The joints of the limbs were all black metal spheres.

The same material was also used for the extraordinarily long neck.

Behind the neck and spine, there was a long strip of black conical protrusions. The face was similar to that of an ordinary mecha beast, an inorganic pale face. The two eyes of the face were flashing red lights,

and the palms and soles were mechanical claws without material covering them.

This was definitely not a mecha beast.

David and Abel had encountered and slaughtered hordes of deformed beast-like machines when they were wandering on the fifty-fifth floor. The wreckage lying at the bottom of the canyon was the best proof.

Kara Kara—

The mechanical claws scraped against the concrete.

The human-shaped silhouette, lying prone on the ceiling like a lizard, slowly turned around.

The long neck slowly lifted, and the eyes flashing red light coldly stared at Agares.

Only then did Agares suddenly realize that the white belt tied around his waist had somehow appeared in Han Shuishi's hand.

[Detected living target]

[Target identity verification: failed]

[Program determination: intruder]

[Strategy: eliminate]

[Executing]

A soft female voice came from the bulging abdomen of the human-shaped silhouette. This voice not only sounded on the canyon ceiling,

but also from the broken pipes on both sides of the canyon.

Five, ten, fifteen...

A total of nineteen human-shaped silhouettes climbed out of the broken pipes, silently watching Agares, who had lost his belt.

"Security guards..."

David took a deep breath, gently stroking the surface of the golden spear. The perfect-grade equipment called [Spear of Judgment] suddenly lit up with a dazzling light,

bursting forth without any delay or warning, passing through Han Shuishi's... afterimage.

The third member from the Special Affairs Bureau, holding a jade sword in his right hand and a white belt stolen from Agares in his left, finally let out a soft laugh,

His figure gradually merged with the breeze, ignoring Cain's incantations and the black dagger thrown by Abel,

disappearing directly.

Along with Han Shuishi's disappearance,

twenty security guards also sprang up from various places and pounced on Agares in mid-air.

At the same time,

a loud roar came from the fifty-sixth floor above the canyon. The entire canyon shook violently, and countless concrete and metal fragments fell down, as if to bury the canyon completely.

————

"What... happened up there..."

On the fifty-third floor, a tall, model-like woman wearing a Global Supernatural Alliance uniform looked up at the shaking ceiling of the building.

Her eye sockets had no eyeballs, but were replaced by two magnificent and psychedelic nebulae. Combined with her smooth and light colorful hair draped behind her,

she looked like a goddess walking out of the sea of stars, sacred and noble.

The woman standing beside her was much more plain, wearing a dark-colored windbreaker, with a ponytail, and a vertical scar on her right eye, revealing a determined and heroic spirit.

The two were Nebula and Alina, ranked thirty-third and twenty-fifth in combat power, respectively, and both belonged to the Global Supernatural Alliance.

"I don't know."

Alina shook her head, her face expressionless, and casually picked up four belts from the ground.

The two had just defeated four European Heavy Industries Group players who had joined forces, causing them to surrender and withdraw from the competition when they were about to be defeated, and were teleported out of the Lost World. One of them was the so-called Shichibukai.

The traces of the battle between the two sides had plowed through the ground and walls, and the original shape of the area was completely unrecognizable.

Alina picked up the belt, patted the dust off it, glanced at the diamond-shaped crystal in the belt device, and muttered to herself, "Now it's been three hours, four belts, a total of 84 hours of crystal powder...

It's enough for a while."

She turned to look at Nebula and said lightly, "Let's go, let's find the others."

Nebula looked down at her companion, a smile on her lips, and teased, "The others you're talking about, are you referring to your students?

Hmm?

Especially him."

"No."

Alina said indifferently, but the fair skin at the base of her ears turned a little red for some reason, "I care about all my students."

"I haven't said who it is yet."

Nebula laughed out loud, patted Alina's shoulder hard, and said casually, "Don't worry, there are no detectors taking pictures of you now.

Seriously, you're not getting any younger, you should think about your own life's affairs.

Ju Tianfu is a pretty good young man, reliable, stable, and handsome.

The future is promising.

Everyone is licking blood on the edge of a knife, so don't worry about age differences or cultural differences in reality, just get together if you like each other,

Don't always be inferior or make concessions, if those little girls in your team get there first, you can just grow old alone, and no one will even sweep your grave when you die."

"Are you done yet."

Alina pushed Nebula away a little irritably, and was about to leave quickly, but noticed a colorful pattern in a pit caused by the battle.

"Hmm?"

Nebula, who was walking over, also noticed the colorful color, frowned slightly, and raised her hands towards the pit.

Telekinesis easily moved away the mechanical wreckage, dug away the soil, revealing the source of the colorful pattern.

"That's..."

Nebula took a deep breath, delicate and slender telekinesis like human hands, dragged out a black travel bag from the soil, and the only thing inside the travel bag.

A corner of a... colorful comic book.

The two had seen this travel bag before, it was on the back of a European Heavy Industries Group player.

Some objects in the Lost World can be placed in the backpack column, but there are also some things, such as normally operating identity verification particle radiation devices, that cannot be placed in any space storage props.

After the player surrenders and withdraws from the competition, the items they carry that cannot be placed in any space storage props will remain in place.

That is to say, the backpack and comic book were obtained by the European Heavy Industries Group player in this world.

"..."

Nebula and Alina looked at each other, not rushing forward to check the backpack and comic book, but using telekinesis to slowly pull open the travel bag zipper and take out the comic book.

The cover of the comic book was brightly colored, and the newness of it was out of tune with the surrounding broken and dilapidated space. The entire comic book was not thick, and each page inside was a hard-textured color paper.

The title of the comic book, written in a foreign script that the two could understand, was *When the Stars Are Right*,

Next to the title, there was a number 2.