The shelter’s gates had been reopened, and the players who had been waiting outside began filing into the inspection hall under the guidance of the Alliance players.
Fog drifted outside to take a look. Several heavy trucks and buses were already parked by the entrance, while a huge number of players crowded outside the shelter, forming a long line.
There were people everywhere, but hardly anyone spoke.
The crowd waited impatiently. Every so often, someone would rise onto their toes or crane their neck to peer toward the bustling line ahead.
Fog leisurely floated back to the inspection area.
Meanwhile, Director Jin was in his office, carefully monitoring the entire inspection area through the live surveillance feeds.
“The [Hunter] is very likely mixed in with this group.”
The number of players in the inspection area gradually increased, and Director Jin watched the screens without blinking.
“From this moment on, pay close attention to every single person who comes in!”
An invisible wisp of Fog coiled behind Director Jin, watching him.
The lesson involving the Jin family’s 700,000 bone coins had evidently been far too painful. Director Jin was now seeing threats everywhere.
Whenever someone put a hand into their pocket or bent down to pick something up, he would react as though startled, frantically zooming in on the surveillance footage.
Zhu Yan silently calculated the timing.
Since things had come to this, he might as well grab some random player and make use of him.
…
Inside the inspection hall.
Fog drifted overhead and quickly locked onto a man.
The male player wore a baseball cap pulled low over his head. He was relatively young, and the surveillance cameras on Director Jin’s end would have trouble getting a clear look at his face.
It was precisely because of that suspicious baseball cap that Director Jin kept checking on him from time to time.
Remaining invisible, Fog condensed into a human shape beside the man and activated the ability Telekinesis.
The player’s phone was in his pocket. All it needed was a gentle tug—
Clatter!
The phone fell out.
The young player jumped.
“Whoa!”
He hurriedly bent down to pick it up, then apologized to the Human Alliance player who had come over after hearing the noise.
“Sorry, sorry. I dropped my phone.”
“You dropped your phone?” The player in the black uniform frowned.
He lowered his gaze and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“You say you dropped your phone, but then what’s this on the floor?”
“What?” The young man looked bewildered.
Following the Alliance player’s gaze, he saw that a strange-looking metal ring had appeared exactly where his phone had fallen.
It lay crookedly on the floor, as if some mischievous child—or someone who had been running around and fooling about—had accidentally dropped it.
“Oh, I have no idea what that is,” the young man said honestly.
He raised the tip of his shoe and tentatively nudged the metal ring.
Zzzt.
Accompanied by the crackle of a faulty electrical contact, all the light strips in the hall flickered at once.
High in the air, Zhu Yan twirled his fingers, thoroughly enjoying himself.
On the floor, the young man raised his head, failing to notice the wary, grave expressions that had appeared on the faces of the two nearby Alliance players.
…
In the underground office.
Director Jin suddenly shot to his feet. He leaned forward, gripping his desk with trembling hands.
“What’s wrong?” The middle-ranking official noticed something was off.
He hurried over in three quick strides and stood behind Director Jin, looking at the surveillance feed with him.
“That thing on the floor.”
Director Jin enlarged the screen.
“I wonder if it could be…”
Fog twisted and swayed as it watched them.
On the monitor, the two Alliance players exchanged a glance.
The young man seemed completely unaware that the electrical crackle and the ring on the floor might be connected.
As if to confirm his theory, he quickly crouched down and yanked hard on the ring!
Zzzt—
The electrical noise rang out again.
The crowd erupted into an uproar. The two Alliance players immediately realized what was happening and lunged at the young man.
“Don’t move—”
“Get down!”
Smack!
An entire strip of lights went out.
“Did the power go out?”
“Holy crap, did the lights break?”
Two seconds later, astonished whispers suddenly exploded through the crowd. At the same time, an even louder electrical arc crackled, and another strip of lights went dark.
“Whoa!”
“What’s going on?”
“No way. The shelter’s lights broke on the very first day?”
People instinctively looked up. Then a scream tore through the air.
“Wait, what? Where’s the other half of the room?!”
“How did the other half disappear?! Where did everyone there go?”
“My boyfriend!”
The scream came from a young woman.
She stared in horror at the empty space beside her—
Her boyfriend had suddenly vanished. Or rather, the entire other half of the inspection room had suddenly disappeared.
The examination beds that had been lit by yellow lamps were gone. The Human Alliance players in white inspection uniforms, who had been maintaining order, had vanished as well.
The young man in the baseball cap, who had been tackled to the ground a few meters away, had also disappeared along with the two Alliance players!
The crowd was horrified.
“Stay calm! Everyone, stay calm!”
A Human Alliance player shouted as several fully armed soldiers quickly moved in, trying to maintain order.
“Stay calm! Don’t panic!”
Unfortunately, after enduring prolonged pressure and frequent deaths, everyone’s nerves were already stretched taut.
The shelter was said to be absolutely safe, yet something this bizarre had happened. The crowd’s emotions exploded like fireworks.
“An instance!” someone realized, screaming in terror. “Run! The instance has descended!”
The hall descended into chaos in an instant!
…
Director Jin’s hand jerked, knocking over the teacup beside him.
Tea dripped onto the carpet, but he had no time to care. He strode toward the door.
“Quick!” he shouted at the middle-ranking official, completely losing his composure. “Seal off the shelter—immediately!”
Fog watched Director Jin’s disheveled appearance from the air and silently laughed.
The middle-ranking official understood that there was no time to waste.
He stared at his left hand, then hurriedly pulled out his phone. Meanwhile, Director Jin had already reached the door and was frantically twisting the handle before rushing out.
Elsewhere.
Fog leisurely floated above Captain Zheng, pulling an entire section of the corridor into a virtual instance!
Just moments ago, Zhu Yan had condensed an invisible hand and taken out a fake Connector.
Still invisible, he had bent down and stuck the fake Connector to the floor outside the security door.
Then he twirled his fingers and created the instance space, deliberately leaving the fake Connector outside it.
He had to admit, this felt absolutely incredible.
Unfortunately, he could create only three instances within twenty-four hours.
Otherwise, he would have dragged Director Jin in for a look, no matter what!
…
Director Jin’s footsteps suddenly stopped.
A line of vivid red text flashed before his eyes. It was a private message from Captain Zheng.
“Something’s happened, Director.”
“As you predicted, the [Hunter] took the bait.”
Captain Zheng and several team members warily surveyed the unfamiliar space.
“This entire section of the corridor has been pulled into an instance!”
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
