Chapter 1 A Glimpse of Doubt

Su Niisheng's gaze lingered on Li Ang for a fleeting moment, a hint of doubt and hesitation surfacing deep within her eyes, an extremely rare occurrence.

Her index finger trembled slightly, the dim light within her eyes swirling gently like a vortex.

Goosebumps instantly erupted on Li Ang's arm, his body involuntarily shuddering, his face a mask of astonishment and confusion.

"Madam Su, the validity of this contract is limited, and you're aware of the immense effort I exerted to procure one effective for beings of our caliber..."

A sharp voice echoed from the void beside Su Niisheng.

A penguin, barely a meter tall, pushed open a pink wooden door that suddenly materialized and waddled out.

The penguin's plumage was white in the front and blue in the back, a red and white checkered tie adorned its neck, a black short-handled cane clutched in its right hand, an ancient, curled scroll pinched in its left.

He seemed annoyed by Su Niisheng's sudden disappearance, complaining incessantly, "Every second that passes, the ink connecting to the source evaporates a bit, the quill we're using to sign with diminishes an inch.

Let's hurry up and sign this contract..."

He shook the curled scroll in his hand, following Su Niisheng's gaze, curiously glancing at Li Ang,

sizing him up before looking back at Su Niisheng. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Su Niisheng's slightly furrowed brow smoothed out, the vortex deep within her eyes slowly dissipating.

She retracted her gaze, expressionlessly accepting the scroll and pristine quill from the penguin, casually scrawling some sort of symbol.

As the symbol was completed, the quill left the paper,

the scroll itself rapidly ignited, burning to ashes in the blink of an eye, vanishing completely.

"Phew, finally got that settled."

The penguin released a long sigh of relief, wiping non-existent sweat from its brow, accepting the quill from Su Niisheng (which, judging by the shape and style of the feather, was not from its own body),

and said with a smile, "Next, let's discuss the more detailed distribution of future benefits. I can't decide this part on my own, I need a secluded place to open a window and consult with others.

What do you think..."

Su Niisheng nodded with a detached expression, transforming into a wisp of clear wind without any warning, vanishing from the spot.

The penguin, too, took a half-step back,

bowing slightly towards the crowd in the hall, pulling open the pink door frame, retreating into the darkness behind the door.

*Clack.*

As the wooden door closed, the entire door frame disappeared,

leaving only the stunned crowd in the hall.

"..."

Li Ang maintained the astonished, perplexed expression on his face, but turmoil churned in his heart.

Even after absorbing most of the divine essence from the mutated starfish of the lost world and ascending to demigod status, he still couldn't discern the true nature of Su Niisheng.

And that penguin wearing a tie was even more bizarre.

Within the demigod's innate aura, the penguin appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary aquatic bird, no matter from what angle it was scanned.

The results of the Knowledge Seeker's observations also revealed that the secret within the penguin's heart was "I really want to eat fish."

"Uh... what happened?"

Li Ang opened his mouth, puzzled. "Wasn't that Su Niisheng just now..."

"This..."

Wei Linglan's gaze hesitated for a second on the spot where Su Niisheng had disappeared,

exchanging a glance with Xing Hechou, who was equally bewildered and astonished.

With Wei Linglan and Xing Hechou's security clearance, they only vaguely knew that Su Niisheng's position was very special.

The current leader of the Ministry of Extraordinary Affairs held Su Niisheng in extraordinary esteem, and the higher-ups of the Special Affairs Bureau also greatly respected and valued the latter.

Like Michael, Su Niisheng had never displayed her full strength in the training grounds of the Special Affairs Bureau, but no one ever doubted that she was the strongest in the Special Affairs Bureau and the Ministry of Extraordinary Affairs.

Wang Congshan poked Li Ang's side with her index finger, cautiously asking, "Are you alright?"

Li Ang felt his organs, seriously saying, "Nothing's missing, I'm fine."

"That's good."

Wei Linglan nodded uncertainly. Su Niisheng's position was lofty and her whereabouts were secretive, so they were not clear on the intentions and purposes of this Supreme Elder.

"Sigh..."

Xing Hechou sighed, picked up the broken metal briefcase from the ground, and said to Wei Linglan and the others, "I'll go report to the higher-ups, I'll be leaving first."

"Okay."

Wei Linglan watched Xing Hechou's figure disappear at the end of the corridor, turning around to lead Li Ang and Wang Congshan to the second floor.

Since Li Ang was just a peripheral figure in the investigation of newbie player relationships, his record-taking process was not so closed off.

Walking into a simply decorated office, sitting on a metal chair, and accepting questioning from two Special Affairs Bureau staff members,

under their guidance, he wrote down his experiences as a tutor, as well as his insights into education and training.

After writing the record, the two smiling staff members filed and saved the record file,

and then took out a confidentiality agreement, which Li Ang signed.

After the confidentiality agreement was signed, the office door opened, and Wei Linglan and Wang Congshan, who had been waiting in the corridor, led Li Ang to the physical examination area (an operating room with various medical equipment) for a physical examination.

The memory elimination technology currently used by the Special Affairs Bureau is much more advanced than before, taking less time and having lighter potential side effects,

but before memory elimination, it is still necessary to go through a full physical examination,

to prevent physical and mental stress reactions during the memory elimination process.

The whole process went surprisingly smoothly, with various instruments detecting no abnormalities in Li Ang,

and the memory clearing device did not report any errors because he was a demigod.

Several hours later, Li Ang walked out of the headquarters building of the Special Affairs Bureau without any waves. Nothing was missing from his body, and no mobile task forces lurking around suddenly jumped out to besiege him.

The biological mother copy worked again, but he always felt that something was wrong...

Li Ang frowned slightly, walking down the steps one by one, and the Zerg swarm fleet lurking in the outer sea of Yin City, disguised as a school of fish, slowly descended and re-hibernated on the seabed.

"The car's here."

Wei Linglan snapped her fingers, and a black car in autonomous driving mode drove out of the parking lot on its own, stopped on the side of the road, and automatically opened the door for her.

"It's... three in the afternoon,"

Wei Linglan glanced at the time on her phone and turned her head to ask, "It's not too late. Do you still want to go shopping? I'll take you wherever you want to go."

"How do you feel?"

Wang Congshan glanced worriedly at the expression on Li Ang's face, and turned to her cousin and said, "Why don't we just forget about it today and send him home first."

"No, no, I just feel like my eyes are a little dazzled by the light."

Li Ang waved his hand with a smile, "You don't have to send me off, your cousin is also very busy with work, I can just take a taxi home and take a nap."

"It's normal to have a slight soreness in the eyes and a slight tinnitus in the ears, it'll be fine after a while."

Wei Linglan kindly reminded, "If you really feel uncomfortable, just be alone for a while and take a nap.

Um...

It takes time to get a taxi here. How about this, I'll let this car take you home on autonomous driving, and you can lie down in the back seat for a while, and send a message to Shanshan when you get home."

"Okay."

Li Ang nodded, smiled at Wang Congshan, and got into the back of the car.

*Bang.*

The car door closed automatically, and the artificial intelligence Ai on the LCD screen asked the destination in a soft voice.

Li Ang reported the location of the community, the car tires turned, and drove him forward.

"..."

Something's not right.

Li Ang sat in the back seat of the car, watching the street scene receding rapidly, frowning slightly.

The Special Affairs Bureau's memory clearing device was much more professional than the last time. Like the brain-computer interface device in the [Human God] script mission, it was in the shape of a semi-closed metal helmet.

After putting it on, it would release high-frequency flashes into the eyes, and play sometimes noisy and chaotic, sometimes soft and weak audio in the ears.

In addition, dozens of electrode patches at the bottom of the metal helmet would also release extremely weak electrical signals to the brain.

Li Ang experienced the entire memory clearing process while staying conscious, and didn't feel that any memories in his brain were cleared, or invaded and read.

Even the equipment in the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters building can't see through the double disguise of Swamp Divinity and biological mother copy?

"Good afternoon."

A light greeting sounded from the passenger seat on Li Ang's right front.

The penguin with the tie he had just seen in the Special Affairs Bureau hall was sitting in the passenger seat at some point,

its short cane resting above its knees, its beady eyes meeting Li Ang's through the rearview mirror, the end of its beak raised in a smiling arc.

*Crack.*

An imperceptible noise came from the car's control panel,

the light blue silhouette on the LCD panel flashed briefly a few times, then disappeared completely.

Li Ang's eyes widened instantly, and the vast divine power surged out of the divine mark, flowing throughout his body.

The mortal body that had been degenerated and transformed by the biological mother copy was reactivated,

a large number of tiny plant vines gushed out of the divine mark, and in less than a breath, penetrated the whole body along the rapidly flowing blood,

rapidly increasing the body's strength.

"Wait, don't be nervous, young deity."

Penguin Akili hurriedly raised its cane with both flipper-like forelimbs, "I am not your enemy, I come with good intentions."

The artificial intelligence Ai responsible for driving the vehicle seemed to be offline, but the black luxury car itself was still driving smoothly on the busy highway.

Li Ang's divine power fluctuations slowly and imperceptibly swept through the entire car, and finally determined that the artificial intelligence Ai was not dead, but was covered and replaced by a faint but more sophisticated force—the source of that force was the penguin in the passenger seat.

"Don't worry, although I don't know why you deliberately hide your identity, but in order to respect your wishes as an agent, I have temporarily confused the Ai of this car."

The penguin straightened the tie on its neck, and said politely like a gentleman, "The Special Affairs Bureau's Skynet system can't see or hear our existence, it can only record the scene of you sleeping alone in the car."

"..."

Li Ang gradually restrained the panic and astonishment he had pretended on his face, leaning back calmly, leaning on the back of the seat, "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Hmm, that's a good question."

The penguin tilted its head, and said in a relaxed tone, "From different angles and positions, you can get different results.

In the eyes of humans, I am a penguin that walks upright, can speak human language, and has wisdom.

In my parents' eyes, I am a filial and considerate good son, and the pride of the group.

In the eyes of my rivals in love, I am a glib, dirty, hopeless emotional swindler.

In addition, I am also a planet destroyer, incinerator, ancient recorder, impure Fanta, supreme admiral of the death fleet, late shaper, prince of dust, tyrant of golden bones, titan shepherd, eternal watcher, destroyer of the vortex of fear..."

The penguin's tone gradually became deep,

An indescribable grand and wild aura emanated from its small body.

Suddenly, the chaotic aura that filled the narrow space in the car, causing Li Ang to involuntarily release all his Swamp Divinity to resist, dissipated on its own, as if it had never existed.

"Of course,

according to human saying, a hero doesn't mention his past bravery."

The penguin leaned back, observed the expression on Li Ang's face through the rearview mirror, and said in a relaxed tone, "You can also call me Akili, whether you add 'Mr.' or not is up to you."

"..."

Li Ang rubbed his palms, slowly exhaled a turbid breath,

The energy level of this ordinary-looking penguin is at most no more than the average level of Lv23,

If it were another player, Li Ang could blow it into pieces within a few moves,

But the sense of oppression the other party brought him at this moment was stronger than that of the wasteland lion, Michael, and even the mutated starfish who had completely lost his mind in endless torture.

Even, comparable to the mirage dragon and drought demon that Li Ang saw in the deepest part of the Demon Imprisonment Cave a long time ago...

"Mr. Akili,"

Li Ang pondered the wording, frowned and asked, "Are you a player?"

"Yes, and no."

The penguin wearing a tie said with a smile, "Don't be so narrow-minded, young deity,

Our world is vast and boundless, close to eternal, like a land without borders.

Although the Killing Game is a towering, towering tree on this land,

But outside the trees, there are many weeds and vines.

The road is not the only one, and the source of power is not only the Killing Game.

Compared to those players who obtain power from the Killing Game and connect to the source, I chose a more "free"—but not really free—path.

That is, what you may have heard of, a Transverser."

"Transverser?"

Li Ang frowned, the divine mark on the back of his hand flickering, accumulating Swamp Divinity, "What is that?"