Chapter 1 The Fresh Scent of Soil and Flowers

Li Ang opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings.

He seemed to be in a wasteland. The brownish-yellow soil beneath his feet was sparsely covered with various weeds and wildflowers.

A dense, lush forest lay about a hundred meters ahead, while a series of stone tablets stood on the plains two hundred meters behind him.

The stone tablets were uniformly black, varying in height and shape. Even the smallest one was at least three meters tall and one meter wide above ground.

The side of each stone tablet facing Li Ang was engraved with different golden lines. The lines were unrestrained and chaotic, resembling cursive script or some unknown pattern.

Of course, the most striking feature of the stone tablets was their distinct bases—not the common Bixi divine beast (one of the nine sons of the dragon, also known as Baxia, resembling a tortoise, carrying stone tablets).

Instead, they were lifelike stone statues of creatures with twisted limbs and bizarre shapes.

All the statues depicted creatures that seemed to have crawled out of the darkest, most terrifying nightmares, their faces twisted in silent screams, as if trying to break free from the eternal suppression of the stone tablets.

The stone tablets were spaced exactly thirty meters apart, forming a discontinuous straight line that divided the wasteland in two.

The warm sunlight, streaming through the drifting clouds, shone on the cold, smooth, black surfaces of the stone tablets, yet evoked an inexplicable, bone-chilling chill.

Of course, none of this mattered for the moment...

Li Ang turned his head to look at the other figures standing with him on the same wasteland.

A tall, middle-aged man in a brown trench coat, holding an open book;

A strong, muscular, sharp-featured, blonde young man in a suit;

A red-haired female pirate with a long saber at her waist;

A young man piloting a humanoid mecha;

A woman with a longbow in her hand, a quiver at her waist, and a half-skull mask on her face;

This was bad.

As the individuals standing in different parts of the wasteland exchanged glances, they clearly read this emotion in each other's eyes.

Hohenheim of the Clock Tower, David, Amberlee, Ding Zhensi, Liu Wudai, and Li Ang in his dragon-head lab coat.

The six players who appeared in this script mission were all powerhouses who had survived to the end and emerged victorious in the Doorway Contention.

If the difficulty of the script mission was indeed influenced by factors such as the number, level, and strength of the players, then the difficulty of this mission was likely to be very unfavorable.

Most importantly, the system prompt had not yet sounded. There was no indication of the mission's objective, form, or whether the players present were allies or enemies...

The six players, faintly forming a hexagon, sized each other up in silence. Finally, David broke the silence.

"Uh..."

This blonde young man from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Special Incidents Division, previously ranked tenth on the individual combat power list, swept his gaze around, a warm smile on his face, and said with a smile, "Long time no see, everyone."

"Mm." Hohenheim, who looked like an ordinary university professor, nodded lightly, his face wearing an approachable, friendly smile.

Ding Zhensi licked his lips nervously—

Among the six present, Hohenheim was a powerhouse second only to Han Shuishi on the previous individual combat power list. David, Amberlee, and the others had also displayed exaggerated destructive power at the end of the Doorway Contention.

Although the Kui Niu mecha that Ding Zhensi piloted had been fully upgraded after the Doorway Contention, taking on a new look and adding many extra components,

He still had the feeling of being a lamb in a tiger's den among this group of people.

Of course, there were also these two...

Ding Zhensi's gaze turned to Liu Wudai and Li Ang.

The former, needless to say, was the Qianjin (young miss) of the Liu family, an external member of the Special Affairs Bureau.

The latter was also an old friend of the Special Affairs Bureau to some extent. He had personally terminated the arrogant demon general Qingqiu Fox in the last Doorway Contention. He possessed both strength and intelligence, and was highly regarded within the Special Affairs Bureau's intelligence analysis department...

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Li Ang had a bewildered expression on his face. "Is my handsomeness burning your eyes like light?"

You're wearing a layer of black stockings over your head inside the dragon-head mask. We can't even see your face. How can you talk about being handsome?

Ding Zhensi resisted the urge to retort and controlled the Kui Niu mecha to raise its arm and point at Li Ang. "Li-ge (older brother), your deck chair..."

"I'm getting old and my back isn't good. I'll never stand when I can sit, and I'll never sit when I can lie down. Is there a problem?"

Li Ang took out a chestnut-colored, rocking, old-man-style rattan deck chair from his Najie (sodium ring) at some point. He lay on it and said righteously, "Young people like you who don't have life experience don't know how to take care of your backs. When you get old, your back, shoulders, and neck will hurt so much that even wearing a Beibeijia (back posture corrector) won't help."

Hasn't that Beibeijia thing long been proven to be an IQ tax? And why did you even take out a parasol and sunscreen? Don't think about sunbathing here just because the sun is good!

Ding Zhensi frantically complained in his heart, but he let out an awkward yet polite laugh on his lips.

The cockpit of the Kui Niu mecha was light-proof, but after the teleportation ended and he saw other familiar players nearby, Ding Zhensi chose to activate the Kui Niu mecha's surface optical camouflage function,

To let Li Ang and Liu Wudai see his appearance, to show his identity—Li Risheng and Liu Wudai had a very good relationship with the Special Affairs Bureau, and they were considered potential teammates with closer interests in this script mission.

"Hehe,"

Hohenheim, holding the Sand Book, glanced at Li Ang, who was rocking back and forth on the rattan deck chair, and said with a smile, "Because the system prompt hasn't sounded yet, and you don't know if the others are enemies or friends, so you're simply waiting for the opportunity to strike."

He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over David and the others, and said slowly, "Have you felt it? The malice of this world."

Malice? What malice?

A confused expression surfaced in Ding Zhensi's mind.

He saw Amberlee lazily nod her head, David softly hummed in agreement, his brows furrowed, his expression solemn.

Seeming to sense Ding Zhensi's confusion, Liu Wudai placed her hand on her longbow and said in a calm tone, "The speed of spiritual energy recovery has slowed down."

"Huh?"

Ding Zhensi's heart skipped a beat. As a qualified candidate specializing in the piloting of combat machinery vehicles, his upper limit of spiritual energy was not high, just enough to use some practical low-level skills,

But the upgraded cockpit of the Kui Niu mecha could monitor his various physiological indicators through the electrode patches inside the combat anti-G suit.

This included the natural rate of spiritual energy recovery.

"How can the spiritual energy recovery rate be one-tenth of what it was?"