Chapter 1 Michael

Mikael seemed oblivious to Li Ang's subtle gaze, remaining seated motionless in his chair.

If not for the faint, steady breathing emanating from beneath the silver-white helmet, one might have mistaken him for an empty suit of armor.

Still can't see through him...

Li Ang's face remained expressionless, his inner turmoil completely masked by his psionic energy.

After the Zerg Swarm rapidly occupied the Star Gate world and converted the planet's inhabitants on a large scale into believers of flesh and the Lord of the Swamps, his swamp divinity had been at its peak, remaining so for quite some time.

This gave Li Ang the distinct feeling that "as long as I devour a few more fragments of divinity, I can advance further."

In this state of full divine power, Li Ang could ignore most conventional attacks and look down upon any non-first-tier player, even without using the more efficient A.T. Field, relying solely on his divine power barrier.

Yet, he still couldn't see through Mikael's true nature, as if what lay beneath the silver-white armor wasn't a real person, but something else entirely.

"The conclusion reached by our various guild organizations is basically consistent with Mr. Li's view."

Alina nodded to the crowd and said, "The purpose of convening everyone today is to clarify this point.

"Gods, or the saints of gods, are absolutely harmful to human civilization and every transcendent.

"Gods who haven't resurrected or regained their self-awareness will mercilessly slaughter heretics.

"And even completely resurrected deities are not what they are portrayed to be in myths.

"As Earth players, we have a responsibility to fight for the collective fate of humanity.

"I hope that everyone can unite as much as possible in the finals of the Sīmìng Battle (Battle of the Arbiter), and jointly resist the transcendents of other worlds, and even gods..."

Alina swept her gaze across the varied expressions in the conference room, silently sighing in her heart.

In the end, players are still a group of people who only believe in themselves.

No matter how flowery the words of the Global Supernatural Alliance and the Different Society are,

These players from different regions and different backgrounds still only believe in their own eyes and ears—each of them has experienced incredibly dangerous situations, and has reached this point by stepping on the corpses of other transcendents from the same period.

They will never unconditionally believe in organizations like the Global Supernatural Alliance,

Nor will they risk their own deaths for a虚无缥缈 (xū wú piāo miǎo, vague and ethereal) future, to actively antagonize the gods—at least not until they have collected enough information.

The human heart is always the most difficult thing to fathom.

Alina shook her head helplessly, her expression unchanged, and finished the rest of her speech in an orderly manner, before handing the microphone to Hanshui Shi from the Special Affairs Bureau.

After the representatives of the several organizations finished speaking, the meeting, small in number but high in level, quickly came to an end.

The content mentioned in the meeting will be passed on to all players who have advanced to the finals through organizations and guilds.

————

"Last 【Silver Scaled Breastplate】, last 【Silver Scaled Breastplate】! Full body protection, excellent quality, 2500 each, first come first served, while supplies last!"

"Perfect quality 【Evil King's True Eye】, can release beams of destruction from the eyes after wearing it! Bottom-of-the-box treasure, only selling!"

"【Steel Stomach】skill book, after use, you can eat anything without feeling nauseous, absorb nutrients, and become immune to poisoning, only selling for 5600 game currency!"

The clamorous cries rang out in the northeast of the game square.

This area is the flea market, with an area comparable to the antique market and the old goods market, and also has stalls.

Many players who have goods that they don't need and want to sell, or logistics transcendents,

Since listing on the game mall auction house requires paying a handling fee, and entrusting to private brokers also requires paying a commission,

And if they open their own store, they are reluctant to spend tens of thousands of game coins to buy game mall land,

In the end, they simply rented a small stall and hawked on the street.

Over time, this area formed a flea market, its area and scale surpassing the Southeast Asian black market before the game square appeared.

Usually, the quality of the goods in the flea market is not particularly good—items of excellent quality have already been purchased at a premium.

But in some cases, the bizarre goods here can form a synergy with certain skills and props, thereby exerting an effect greater than one plus one, and greatly increasing the player's strength.

Therefore, whether it is a lone wolf transcendent or a player with a guild background, they will occasionally come here to stroll around, to see if they can find a bargain.

Sometimes, headhunting brokers trained within guild organizations will also sweep the flea market—they are not buying props for themselves, but searching for potential synergistic props for high-level players in the guild organization.

High-level players can't wait to split every day into two, and there is no time to enhance their strength, so naturally they don't have the leisure to go shopping.

Their coaching team will take care of these chores behind the scenes.

Sometimes, without the player even knowing it, they buy the most suitable equipment, props, and skill books for the player.

This can be considered a potential benefit of being promoted to a high level in a large guild—hundreds or thousands of minds serve one person.

Li Ang and Wang Congshan strolled through the flea market. The surrounding hawking sounds had a similar atmosphere to the charity sale at Yin City Experimental Middle School a long time ago, or rather, not long ago.

"Ah, I miss my 'Black Overlord No. 1' again."

Infected by the atmosphere, Li Ang couldn't help but raise his head slightly and sigh.

"'Black Overlord No. 1'?"

Wang Congshan deserves to be the person who has known Li Ang the longest, and instantly guessed what he was thinking, "Are you talking about the big black ball that you took out to sell at the last school charity sale, which you saved for three or four years and kneaded from rubber shavings?"

Li Ang's eyes lit up, and he praised, "Oh, you actually remember."

"You have the nerve to say that..."

Wang Congshan squinted and said, "I reached into your desk to get snacks, and ended up touching a soft, sticky big black ball. You also told me that it was a panacea made from old boogers and bath scum.

"It was so disgusting that I didn't eat dinner that day.

"Fortunately, it was just rubber shavings, otherwise, hum..."

"Uh..."

Li Ang thought seriously for a moment, and slowly said, "Actually, I didn't lie to you that day. What you touched was really 'Black Overlord No. 2'."

He slowly took out a ball of green, black, dirty mud from his sodium ring, a circle bigger than his fist, and gently squeezed it, making a "gū jī" sound.

Wang Congshan's face turned from red to white, and then from white to red.

Li Ang saw that the situation was not good, grinned,

Stomped on the ground, and instantly窜 (cuàn, darted) out more than ten meters.

The two chased and frolicked to the edge of the flea market, and Li Ang smiled and explained that it was temporarily kneaded with alchemy. He wouldn't do such a boring thing as making balls with boogers and bath scum,

"After all, my genes are super~~ valuable now. It's too dangerous to knead them into balls and toss them around."

Li Ang said as a matter of course.

In fact, he wasn't lying. Almost all organizations and guilds are secretly collecting the DNA of high-level players, especially those transcendents whose life essence surpasses ordinary people.

Now artificial embryo technology, cloning technology, and gene adjustment technology are very mature.

A strand of hair, a drop of blood, can create a regimented clone.

Although these clones may not all have special powers, they are definitely the best experimental carriers for studying the essence of extraordinary power.

Of course, most high-level transcendents are unwilling to have their clones appear, not only because they feel ethically strange,

They feel uncomfortable psychologically,

At the same time, there are actual risks of suffering from occult curses and being controlled by others.

Therefore, those organizations and guilds only dare to do it secretly.

They try to persuade the players in their own guild with kind words, and they test the players outside the guild more cautiously—after all, if the information leaks and attracts a natural disaster-level powerhouse to slaughter them, they will be finished.

Li Ang estimates that his gene samples are worth tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of game currency?

Fortunately, he is extra cautious in both script missions and regular missions, and has not dropped hair or blood.

In the real world, he also saves money, and haircuts are done at home.

The only gene samples he left outside are the blood drawn during the school physical examination.

And those long-sealed blood samples were also sent by the Mobile Task Force some time ago by Bai Haozheng, to show that they were not hostile to him.

As for whether the Special Affairs Bureau will be two-faced, and whether some department or individual secretly retains a copy of Li Ang's blood as a countermeasure...

Li Ang is not very worried.

His psionic energy is growing stronger every moment. As long as someone dares to create a clone, the telepathy generated by the same thinking frequency will allow him to instantly lock the direction and location.

"However, although my knowledge and skills are all acquired through training,

"My innate intelligence is like a firefly in the dark night, shining brightly.

"It's hard to guarantee that someone won't risk mass cloning, creating 20,000 of me in one breath."

Li Ang rubbed his chin and muttered casually, "If this really happens,

"I'll kill all the hostile organizations.

"How should I deal with my clones?"

"The sister chapter of the Misaka Mikoto project,

"Li Ang junior, right?"

Wang Congshan rolled her eyes, "Do you also need a 【Li Ang・Last Order】, and a 【Li Ang・Extra Individual】?

"Adding you, you can just make up five thousand tables of mahjong, and one table of斗地主 (dòu dì zhǔ, a Chinese card game)."

"Don't you think that's very strong?"

Li Ang said seriously, "20,000 of me, even if they are all pulled to do scientific research, it would be amazing.

"Maybe in ten or twenty years, human civilization will be able to use controllable nuclear fusion to boil water."

After saying that, he took out a bright red apple from his sodium ring, took a bite, pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose with his index finger, and said coldly, "Annoying wisdom."

"Long Yin Base, first-generation gene-modified human Chu Xuan, Colonel Chu, right?"

Wang Congshan squinted and complained, "No, based on my understanding of you,

"If 20,000 of you are created in the same laboratory, the first step will definitely be to secretly collude and contact each other, spend a few days figuring out the situation of the laboratory,

"Then start a riot and flatten the laboratory,

"Then, on the ruins, a fierce debate will be held on the two questions of [Who is the most Li Ang Li Ang] and [Which Li Ang will lead the Li Angs to revolution],

"As a result, no one can convince anyone, so they have to find the mastermind who dares to clone you, and eliminate him,

"Finally, 20,000 people go their separate ways, never to meet again,

"Each develops their own head, to prove that they have the most outstanding talent."

"Hmm..."

Li Ang thought for a while and found that it was quite possible. Anyway, he couldn't imagine multiple selves working at the same time.

Splitting multiple personalities in the brain to assist oneself in work is one thing,

Facing other selves who are equally conceited, arrogant and arrogant is another matter.

"Ah, the flea market is over."

Wang Congshan looked at the exit of the market and hesitated, "Didn't you say you were going to come to the market to buy equipment and props to enhance your strength? Why didn't you buy anything?

"The final is about to start the day after tomorrow, is it really okay?"

"There's really nothing to buy in the market."

Li Ang smiled and said, "Oh, don't worry.

"When you reach my level, what's more important is your own power system. If one or two perfect props can't be incorporated into the power system, they won't have much effect."

"...Okay."

Wang Congshan nodded slowly, looked at the smile on the corner of Li Ang's mouth, hesitated for a moment, and still pursed her lips tightly, saying nothing.

The two have been together for too long. Even if Li Ang just looks at the lines of the muscles at the corners of her mouth, he can guess what she is thinking. He smiled and said, "It's just a game. Didn't I survive the last Gate Scramble?

"And I'm still alive now.

"With my current strength, even if two or three Mikaels rushed up to kill me together, I can still talk and laugh..."

Wang Congshan was shocked and said, "Defeat them in battle?"

"...Run away."

Li Ang said without changing his face, "You know, I'm not the kind of person who fights to the end. I pay attention to the strategy of a roundabout approach and a circuitous operation.

"If it really doesn't work, I can teleport away. The final rules mention that you can give up at any time.

"Even if it's the final of the Sīmìng Battle (Battle of the Arbiter), there's no way there will be an opponent who can keep me when I turn on my divine power and A.T. Field—if that's the case, there's no need to hold this final in the first place."

He patted Wang Congshan on the shoulder gently and said seriously, "I didn't go back to the Hongxing Orphanage in Yin City to take a look, I didn't go back to the Experimental Middle School to take a look, and I didn't go back to the Wanhe Community to take a look.

"Because I will defeat my opponent and come back alive.

"So, don't worry."

"...Yeah."

Wang Congshan nodded silently, thought for a long time, and still took out something from her backpack.

"What is this?"

Li Ang blinked. What Wang Congshan took out was a square牌子 (páizi, plaque) made of obsidian, with the words "逢考必过" (féng kǎo bì guò, may you pass every exam) vaguely engraved on it.

"This was given to me by my闺蜜 (guīmì, a woman's best friend) in the Mobile Task Force. It is said that wearing it can increase luck. Many people in the Mobile Task Force wear it—you know,

"It's a high-risk profession. After doing everything within your ability, you can only rely on fate and luck.

"By the way, there is also this 【Lucky Koi】 jade牌 (pái, plaque), this 【Longevity as High as the Southern Mountain】 amulet, look, and this 【Five Blessings Descending upon the Home】,

"Believe it, and it will work. If you don't believe it... if you don't believe it, just wear it, anyway, it won't hurt."

"No, it's so ugly."

"No, wear it."

The two pulled and tugged, disappearing at the street corner of the flea market.