CHAPTER 445: CHAPTER 413: VANGUARD

In the chaotic darkness, nine faintly glowing figures are descending slowly.

Black, feathery snowflakes float around, able to weaken and block light, drastically reducing visibility and also serving to shield electromagnetic wave communications.

As soon as they landed, among the figures, an Lv28 player with the ID [Binary Tree] belonging to the Whale Song Organization, blurred his hands and inserted them into the ground, releasing a stream of green data that swept across the space, probing the surrounding environment.

But, strangely, the scanning skill that theoretically could detect dozens of kilometers like a submarine radar, only diffused a few hundred meters before shriveling away.

The black snow around them is rapidly solidifying, from nothing to form, constructing a complex and massive cluster of buildings.

The buildings quickly take color, and a few seconds later, the nine people find themselves standing inside a boiler room. The walls and ceiling are covered with a complex network of metal pipes.

"...As expected. The core area of this Secret Realm is a shapeless space that automatically changes with the appearance of observers."

Binary Tree speaks in a heavy tone, wearing a checkered shirt, jeans, and carrying a backpack, the standard programmer attire. The only peculiarities are the large VR goggles on his head and the oversized electronic wristwatch on his wrist.

"Similar to the[House of Wishes]in ’Harry Potter’, except without the attribute of granting wishes."

The speaker is a refined gentleman with a beard, wearing a trench coat and holding a cane.

He is a high-level Mage from the Bell Tower, ID[Nikola], Lv27.

Beside Nikola is the vice president of the Mechanical War Thunder Guild, [Blood Lion Roar], Lv29—a robust man with red hair and a thick beard, who turns to ask: "Miss Crescent Moon, what about the result of the prophecy? Any changes?"

The one he is asking is a frail girl with white hair and purple eyes.

She belongs to the Navigator Guild, ID[Crescent Moon], Lv25, possessing powerful prophecy, word spirit, and divination abilities.

A slit slowly opens vertically at her brow, from which an eye emerges, rotating to survey the surroundings.

After a moment, she shakes her head and softly says, "The risk coefficient in the prophecy result hasn’t changed."

"No change in risk coefficient, that’s good enough. Where to go next?"

Red Spider from the Suited Thugs Guild, Lv27, speaks coldly. He looks eerily like Keanu Reeves while wearing a straight suit, sunglasses, with long hair, and replaced his left hand with a metal prosthesis, holding a handgun in both hands.

It’s completely unclear whether he is cosplaying Neo from ’The Matrix’, John Wick from ’John Wick’, or Johnny Silverhand from ’Cyberpunk’.

"Give me some time."

Crescent Moon takes out a stack of old tarot cards from the Backpack, squats on the ground, and starts divination slowly and deliberately.

The core area of the Secret Realm is likely an active Hidden Room, so extreme caution is warranted. Naturally, divination is first conducted to predict fortunes.

The prophecy process is time-consuming and tedious, an elegant young man with an ostentatious hairstyle thinks of something and asks: "By the way, have you watched the new ’Harry Potter’ movie?"

The speaker is a Transcendent from the Crown Casino Guild, ID[Card Emperor], Lv27. Strong in capabilities but unpopular on player forums.

Nikola, an actual Brit, looks utterly baffled, "What? When was there a new ’Harry Potter’ movie?"

Card Emperor replies matter-of-factly, "The one produced by The Asylum Company, ’Harry Potter Big’."

Is that even a proper movie?! Could it be some nonchalant film about Harry Potter gender-swapped into Harley Potter, having a melodramatic romance with Snape and Ron?

Nikola’s eye twitches. The Asylum Madhouse Film Company is known for its imitation blockbusters, having produced a series of knock-off films like ’Atlantic Ocean’, ’Transformed Steel Gold’, ’Malerbi Pirates’, with the only reputable original work being the ’Shark Tornado’ series.

As for ’Harry Potter Big’, blame the Whale Song Guild—they launched an AI video creation platform that’s too efficient, making low-budget imitation films sprout like mushrooms after rain.

Sifting through dirt for gold, surprisingly, some movies and TV shows turned out quite well.

Speaking of this, Card Emperor, full of enthusiasm, says: "I really like ’Let the Bullets Fly’, ’Nakamura’s Revenge List’, ’Medieval Evangelist’, ’Spring Dream Space’, ’Hello, Li Lianying’..."

Everyone present except Crescent Moon is speechless and holding their foreheads.

No wonder nearly every player who partnered temporarily with the Card Emperor on forums has a bad impression of him. The guy is way too chatty.

’Scattered they’re like stars, gathered not necessarily a fireball. When there’s too many, it’s hard to lead the team.’

Whale Song’s Binary Tree rubs his aching temples, noting that the average strength of the nine here is around Lv27, all core forces of various guilds.

If unified in purpose, they could destroy a small European country’s entire military in minutes.

But alas, there’s a lack of trust among them. Their personalities don’t align.

Thinking this, Binary Tree looks towards the corner at three individuals,

Andre of the Holy Temple Knights, Zhangsun Yao of World Nuclear House, and White Horse Tombstone as the Lone Wolf.

These three, along with Binary Tree himself, Blood Lion Roar, Nikola, Crescent Moon, Red Spider, and Card Emperor.

According to Crescent Moon’s earlier prediction, these ten are theoretically the best combination for the first exploration team,

to first enter the core of the Secret Realm, find the location of the Hidden Room, effectively increasing the survival probability for themselves and all players...

Wait!

Accompanied by Card Emperor’s prattling, Binary Tree suddenly raises his head, looking at the nine figures besides himself.

A total of nine players descended—when did an extra person appear?!

His VR goggles swiftly scan, yet to his cold sweat, neither the scan results, video records, nor his mind can identify the extra person.

Card Emperor, Crescent Moon, Red Spider...

Red Spider, Nikola, White Horse Tombstone...

Binary Tree’s thoughts race, calculating in his mind tens of thousands of times, despite being ten people, the mind cannot identify the extra one.

Undoubtedly, he’s suffering from cognitive hazard and mimicry pollution, the most intense form of mimicry pollution.

The others, despite being the highest-level Blood Lion Roar and White Horse Tombstone, haven’t even noticed anything amiss.

Binary Tree no longer hesitates, his arms morph into green data, spreading instantly, forming barriers that trap the other nine apart from himself.

"What are you doing?!"

Zhangsun Yao shouts in shock and anger. This action could be considered an attack on teammates.

"Don’t resist, there’s someone extra among us. I need to force it out."

Binary Tree shouts, the barriers formed by the green data stream gradually compress, conforming to the players’ body contours.

In Zhangsun Yao and the others’ perspective, they hear a dense repetition of system notification sounds,

[You have received a friend request]

[You have received a friend request]

The system notification sounds dense and noisy, like the whirring sound from a computer crash.

This skill is a secret technique of Whale Song, named [Cyber Secret Scroll·Denial of Service], essentially forcibly increasing the user’s own (Binary Tree’s) brain thinking speed, sending massive amounts of friend requests to other players in a short time.

Before being blocked by opponents, causing temporary distraction—a half-second lapse is fatal in a duel of experts.

All players’ faces show discomfort, except for one slender, tall woman in black, whose expression remains indifferent.

Found it!

Binary Tree’s pupils contract, locking onto that figure, pressing his hands together, controlling the compression of the green data barrier to crush the figure.

"Alas..."

The slender tall woman sighs softly and single-handedly shatters the green barrier, flashing to Binary Tree’s front.

Looking down, she places her pale palm on Binary Tree’s head, softly murmuring, "You shouldn’t have come..."

Binary Tree’s eyes turn white, unable to press his fingers to start the wrist equipment.

Not even to self-destruct or exit the killing field.

The other players instantly realize what’s happening, breaking through the green data barriers, each using their means to attack the slender tall woman.

Red Spider fires continuously with his two handguns, Card Emperor throws a stack of cards, Blood Lion Roar pulls out a long rocket launcher from behind, Crescent Moon’s brow eye opens wide to the limit, bleeding...

Eight average Lv27 players act simultaneously, however, the slender tall woman in black merely waves her hand.

The handgun bullets turn into smoke, playing cards become butterflies, the missile transforms into thousands of roses.

All attacks vanish into thin air, one by one the players fall, their consciousness gradually fading and breaking.

The strongest, Blood Lion Roar and White Horse Tombstone, persevered the longest, hearing Binary Tree, under the control of that slender tall woman, pick up the walkie-talkie,

and in a calm voice completely unfitting of his dazed expression, saying to comrades outside the Secret Realm, "We have reached the Secret Realm, it’s fairly safe here, send in the second batch of pioneers."