Chapter 1163: Chapter 162: Prelude
So in this world, Lin Pingzhi and Ling Huchong ended up becoming Batman and Robin, saving the world and dispensing justice?
Li Ang scratched his head and closed the Terminal Vending Machine special effect.
Since the power level of this world was relatively low, Li Ang hadn’t bothered to carefully develop it. He’d just tossed down some random junk and let Lin Yu do whatever he wanted,
and what he received in return was a pile of... Martial Arts Secret Books.
Lonely Nine Swords, Tendon Relaxing Sutra, Beiming Divine Art, Lingbo Weibu, One Yang Finger, Dragon Subduer Eighteen Palm, Six Meridian Divine Sword, Bane Sword Manual...
Casually chuck out any one of them and it’d be enough to make Martial World folks slaughter each other like crazy to fight over it, and they wouldn’t stop until rivers of blood were flowing.
Li Ang looked at the big pile of classics spat out by the Terminal Vending Machine, smacked his lips, and randomly flipped open one of them, the Tendon Relaxing Sutra,
"...Outside the marrow and bone, within the flesh and skin, and even the five viscera and six bowels, nowhere is not tendon, nowhere is not membrane... The tendons are empty and nimble; qi arrives and they stir. The membranes are heavy and turbid; qi cannot fully fill them..."
These Martial Arts Secret Books had all been scavenged within three days by Batman and the others, guaranteed original and unabridged, theoretically learnable.
But after all, they were classics produced in a low-martial world. Even if you cultivated them to an extremely profound level, you might not be able to knead alloy like mud, so their value wasn’t particularly high.
"I’ll just use them to pad out the product shelves."
Li Ang picked up all the Secret Manuals from the floor and recalled the Terminal Vending Machine—the machine’s cooldown time depended on the frequency and intensity of cross-world trades,
and after this use, he’d have to wait three days before he could transmit again.
"This kind of feels like gacha. If I get transmitted to a high-power-level world and run into someone I can communicate with, I can quickly trade for super high-value goods,
but the greater probability is getting sent to a low-power-level world with not much value,
or not encountering anyone I can communicate with at all,
like that Abnormal World."
Li Ang rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Do I have to go to the Game Square and buy a perfect-quality or above[All Language Mastery]Skill Scroll?
That way, no matter if I run into orcs or slimes or whatever weird creatures, I can trade normally..."
The user couldn’t use the Terminal Vending Machine to release power across worlds, but using a general skill like All Language Mastery to understand what the other party was saying should be doable.
"Waaah~"
An exclamation interrupted Li Ang’s thoughts. He turned his head and found Chaichai lying on the sofa in the cabin, holding snacks in his hands, eyes glued to the TV.
The TV was broadcasting a battle scene,
a dozen or so blurry human figures fighting fiercely in midair,
with dense flying arrows, Magic, and psychic powers crisscrossing the sky, making the ground below tremble and crack.
"What movie is this?"
Li Ang asked casually. With the development of electronic information technology, Hollywood’s special effects software had become more and more advanced, and the special effect scenes they generated were so realistic they were indistinguishable from the real thing,
they even already had holographic theaters that could simulate not just visuals and sound,
but also air scent and physical vibrations,
no longer the old kind of so-called 5D, 9D, 12D theaters that just violently shook your seat till you puked up last night’s dinner, or sprayed hot water in your face to simulate sea spray and mist.
"It’s not a movie,"
Chaichai jerked his chin toward the TV, "it’s a live broadcast."
"Hm?"
Li Ang looked at the TV screen and saw a gigantic Christ statue standing atop a mountain peak, and the dense cluster of buildings built along the mountain below it. "Rio de Janeiro?"
What appeared on screen was Brazil’s second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro,
and as the camera gradually zoomed in, Li Ang also recognized some of the Transcendents above Rio de Janeiro.
The Seven Warlords of Brazil.
Or rather, the former Seven Warlords of Brazil.
"After the Doorway Scramble ended, didn’t the Global Occult Coalition acknowledge the hypothesis of doorways = other worlds,
and then the European Heavy Industry Group started frantically swallowing small multinational corporations,
and the original Seven Warlords of Brazil were either recruited by European Heavy Industry or directly disappeared, with no sign of life or death,
just like that Ant King."
Chaichai casually explained, "Right now Brazil is basically the private domain of European Heavy Industry,
the management of European Heavy Industry has replaced the weak and powerless Brazilian authorities,
and one company after another has taken over the roles of the former official departments,
coordinating and controlling the entire process of every Brazilian’s life from birth to death—this might actually be a good thing for Brazilian slum-dwellers; at least under European Heavy Industry’s management, their quality of life has skyrocketed, they can eat their fill and stay warm, and their safety conditions are way better than back when gangs ran rampant."
"Oh, right,"
Li Ang remembered: European Heavy Industry Group had nominally kept the Brazilian government around, but at the grassroots level it had completely taken over every aspect of society,
turning the whole of Brazil into a gigantic private corporation.
Most citizens had become company employees.
"The original Seven Martial Seas were leaders of all the factions in Brazil, basically uncrowned kings. When European Heavy Industry came knocking, they hardly resisted before all becoming dogs,
and right now, the ones fighting them in the skies over Rio de Janeiro are Transcendents belonging to the American Military-Industrial Complex."
Chaichai said lazily, "I’d guess the American military-industrial complex is also drooling over European Heavy Industry Group’s feat of treating an entire modern nation as private property."
As Chaichai gave his commentary,
the battle on the TV grew more and more intense,
with more Transcendents swooping in from beyond the skyline and piling into the melee, though both sides tacitly pulled the battlefield farther and farther away, away from the city below.
They continued their fight high in the sky.
With Li Ang’s eye, he could roughly identify the skills, item types, and effects they were using.
As the Killing Ground game had progressed, this second-tier player group had grown even stronger compared to before the Doorway Scramble,
and the ripples their battles created had become even more spectacular.
A blinding light flashed, and the sky above Rio de Janeiro erupted with vast radiance and heat, almost melting that Christ statue below.
"Ah, signal cut out."
Chaichai looked regretfully at the TV that had gone black and griped, "Tch, what the hell is this.
Same套路 as Hollywood franchises—force a hard cutoff to hype up the sequel."
"If you want to know the result of the battle, go ask the Mule. She should know more of the inside story."
Li Ang commented offhandedly. What was happening in Rio de Janeiro was nothing but corporate warfare,
two giant interest groups killing each other for greater power and for control over ordinary people’s bodies and lives.
In a sense, it was pretty cyberpunk—the Rio de Janeiro under European Heavy Industry Group had both neon skyscrapers piercing the clouds and filthy, cramped favelas,
and corporate oversight of the populace penetrated every corner. Every dockworker wore smart wrist shackles and ankle irons, and any slacking off, goldbricking, or sneaking sips of milk tea would be detected by artificial intelligence, with corresponding pay docked.
They’d even recently had company management propose installing an electric shock function in the smart wrist-and-ankle shackles,
so that the moment an employee slacked off, a mild shock would be automatically delivered.
More cyberpunk than cyberpunk itself.
"Mm, I’ll go ask."
Chaichai pulled himself together, took out his phone, and called Mule.
Li Ang stretched lazily; he actually no longer cared about news from other parts of Earth’s real world.
No matter which forces were killing each other on other continents, or who occupied what, it had nothing to do with him.
The Door was about to connect.
Only forces with no retreat would become increasingly desperate.
Just as he was idly thinking, his friends list vibrated—an incoming call from Xing Hechou.
"What’s up, Old Xing?"
"Li, brother, are you free right now?"
Xing Hechou said gravely, "It’s urgent."
"Hm?"
Li Ang raised an eyebrow, did some quick mental math—about time for the next script mission—so he should be making good use of the time to prepare. "What is it? Say it straight."
"The planar war might have started."
Xing Hechou spoke rapidly, "A Star Gate in the Siberian forests has produced spatial energy fluctuations, and the index is continuously rising."
"...I’ll be right there."
Li Ang frowned slightly, closed the comms panel, and used the Colt Revolver and Bullet Teleportation Technique to head straight for the Special Affairs Bureau’s Yin City outpost.
The people of the Special Affairs Bureau at the outpost were in the middle of discussing countermeasures; Cold Waterstone was there as well.
Seeing Li Ang appear, Xing Hechou immediately laid out the basic situation.
"The Siberian Star Gate appeared after the Door Battle ended. That Star Gate has remained in a dormant state the entire time, unable to be entered or explored.
Russia and the Global Occult Coalition had no choice but to set up an outpost camp in the forest there and station Transcendents and modern strategic weapons.
Five minutes ago, the Siberian Star Gate showed spatial energy fluctuations for the first time and threw some water toward our planet.
Testing shows the water thrown through the Star Gate is pure, impurity-free purified water.
Russia’s anomalous incident response agency—the Gru Department—immediately sent drones into the Star Gate, but every single drone,
whether modern-tech or Transcendent constructs from the Killing Field Game,
whether using shortwave communication or tethered by cable,
all lost contact after entering the Star Gate.
Familiars, Demon Pets, and similar creatures met the same fate."
Xing Hechou said quickly, "We’re currently communicating with the Gru side, hoping they’ll open the border and let our people go over to observe and prevent the situation from deteriorating.
Unlike the Mayotte Archipelago or India, Russia’s official apparatus is much stronger.
They’re more inclined to handle things themselves—if they can handle them themselves, that is."
Li Ang asked, "This is the second Star Gate drop event?"
The last time a Star Gate threw something over was the Star Gate at the Mayotte Archipelago—the other side had tossed over a pebble.
According to the rules of engagement in a war between civilizations, any move must be made with extreme caution.
A single stone, a single basin of water, can be the prelude to an all-devouring war of civilizations.
"Yes."
Sitting behind the table, Bai Haozheng said, "From a probabilistic standpoint,
the Star Gate at the Mayotte Archipelago and the one on the Siberian snowfields
should be connected to two different worlds.
Judging from the act of throwing purified water through the Siberian Star Gate, the civilization behind this Star Gate is also quite clever; they know how to test the waters.
What worries us is that
the spatial energy fluctuation level of this Star Gate is gradually rising—the higher the equivalent level, the greater the mass of what can be sent through.
It might start as just a basin of water, but later it could be a person,
or even a Transcendent, or intelligent weapons."
Bai Haozheng’s concern was not unfounded. If the world behind the Star Gate had intelligence on par with human civilization, then they could also imagine all the speculations humanity had about Star Gates.
Probings could escalate into war at any time,
just like the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War.
No—possibly even worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis. A full-scale nuclear war caused by that crisis could still be intercepted by ballistic missile defenses,
and survivors could hold out for a while in nationwide underground nuclear bunkers.
But a planar war...
No one knew what lay beyond the Star Gate.
It could be a civilization where every citizen is a soldier-level Transcendent,
or a planet-level eldritch god that drives ordinary people insane at a glance.
One moment you might still be dancing and singing; the next, human civilization might cease to exist.
Every action involving a Star Gate had to be taken with extreme caution.
Li Ang understood this, so he didn’t pull that "You called me out just for this?" meme face.
Soon, the Special Affairs Bureau’s liaison officer with Gru got results.
The Gru side agreed to let the Special Affairs Bureau dispatch personnel to Siberia for observation.
"Bai Haozheng, you lead the team and take the comrades through the Teleportation Array. I’ll go on ahead."
Cold Waterstone rose from his seat, nodded to Li Ang, pulled a single-use Space Transfer Scroll out of the void, casually tore it open, and his figure vanished from the conference room.
Li Ang left the Special Affairs Bureau building, used the Cloud Ascending Ladder skill to climb into the sky, pointed north, and pulled the trigger. After a few teleports, he quickly reached the coordinates of the Siberian Star Gate provided by the Special Affairs Bureau.
The Star Gate was located in a riverside forest in Siberia.
The Gru side had poured enormous manpower and resources into this place,
cutting down every obstructive tree in the surrounding area, laying reinforced concrete flooring, deploying army-level rocket units,
and stationing a number of high-quality Superhuman Special Forces units.
If war broke out, the rocket forces stationed here would immediately flood the Star Gate with a sufficient number of tactical nukes.
Within the squads were several familiar faces: Baraleika, Torch, Bai Yang, God of North Wind, and others whom he’d seen back in the Door Battle.
Gru’s liaison officer came over to receive Cold Waterstone and the other Special Affairs Bureau personnel, while Li Ang walked to the front of the Star Gate and casually looked it over.
Compared to the Star Gate at the Mayotte Archipelago, this Star Gate was somewhat smaller,
surrounded by a faint blue ring of light,
with a red-and-black vortex swirling in the center of the ring.
"Every Star Gate and Door seems to have a different shape and color. My Star Gate is mainly blue and white, Mayotte’s is pure white, and this Star Gate is red and black.
No idea whether that’s decided at random, or related to the user’s own Strength Attribute."
Li Ang looked at the red-and-black Star Gate, frowning slightly,
