CHAPTER 601: CHAPTER 523: CATCHPHRASE

Feeling himself lying flat, Li Cheng opened his eyes. The surroundings were extremely dark, and the touch sensation from his palms and back seemed to indicate he was lying on a dirt slope.

He propped himself up on the ground with his hands and sat up abruptly, using the Insect Lord Gene to alter the density of photoreceptor cells and the structure of his retina.

Manifesting on a macro level, this meant that the pupil shape and iris color of the eyeballs were constantly changing, and a layer of tapetum grew behind the retina—a structure found in nocturnal animals like cats, dogs, and sharks, capable of increasing nighttime light reflection and enhancing night vision with visual effects such as blue-green and golden hues under light.

Commonly known as the titanium dog eye.

However, no matter how the light-gathering ability was enhanced, it couldn’t form a clear image—the surrounding environment simply had no photons.

But this didn’t trouble Li Cheng; he casually took out an active infrared night vision device and surveyed the area.

He saw a particularly desolate pile of rocks, with no visible grass or vegetation on the surface.

Apart from Li Cheng, there were several other Transcendents lying around.

"Where the hell did you take me? Is this still China?"

Wanli Sealed Blade sat up, rubbing his forehead. Next to him were Reyes and Claudia, who was casting the Light Ball Technique.

Further away, there were Mushroom King, Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue, and the Hundred-legged Octopus inside the fish tank.

"Wait, how come we’ve got fewer people?"

Claudia summoned a bright light ball, which rose twenty meters into the air, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daylight,

and noticed that White Horse Tombstone, Gray Rain, Griffin, and the astronaut who caused the colorful mist were not present in this barren area.

"My mission log won’t open either!"

Reyes said nervously, tapping on the player panel with his mind without any response. The mission log and the critical exit option from the killing field had turned gray-white.

"Hold up, don’t panic."

Li Cheng raised his hand to interrupt Reyes, and with a thought, the Liangyi Blade appeared steadily in his hand. He gently sliced his palm, causing his entire right arm to enter Insect Transformation Form.

He mused, "Understood, in the real world at this moment, we should still be asleep within the colorful mist of the killing field’s entity. We’re currently existing as consciousness in the Land of Beautiful Dreams.

The evidence is that we can call upon the Backpack items, and the Eyes Communication Headset is not working. CQ."

Reyes and Claudia were simultaneously stunned: "...Consciousness?"

"You can regard it as your essence—wisdom, perseverance, faith, etc."

Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue held up the fish tank and pondered: "Considering that the higher-level Summoners have more self-awareness, apart from being unable to return, there’s not much different here from the real world. You will feel thirsty, hungry, and get hurt.

The question is, whose dream is this."

According to information directly provided by the killing field, the Land of Beautiful Dreams customizes dreams for users, creating a dreamscape that offers pleasant memories.

Calling this area deserted would be an understatement; there are absolutely no birds, beasts, insects, or any living beings except for the players.

Who would specifically fantasize about such a lifeless, silent "beautiful dream"?

Perhaps the Three Kingdoms Kill Delta planner who grew too tired of family members?

This question remains unanswered for now. Li Cheng turned to Wanli Sealed Blade, "Brother Blade, do you still have your mission item with you? CQ."

"Yes."

Wanli Sealed Blade nodded, tossed the Four-dimensional Square Box, and Mushroom King also retrieved the safe containing the Ice Axe.

The atmosphere at the scene quieted down for a moment, Claudia hesitated: "What’s the plan now?"

According to the original plan, everyone was supposed to enter their individual beautiful dreams and naturally awaken at the appointed time. But now things clearly seemed off.

Not only were people like White Horse Tombstone not around, but the environment also didn’t look like a beautiful dream.

"For now..." Li Cheng rubbed his chin, grabbed the Floating Engine, floated up, and flew to an altitude of a thousand meters, gazing far into the distance.

Most of the area was wasteland, and very far away, a faintly visible town without lights was located at the edge of a plain. At the town center was a Bell Tower high tower, and further in the distance was a stone castle.

The castle’s architecture was exactly like the depiction in the Suicide Notebook.

Moreover, there was no actual "high sky"; reaching out, you could touch a sturdy alloy similar to the killing field’s construction materials—the entire space, equivalent to a medium-sized real-world city, was covered by a massive metal dome.

Li Cheng returned to the ground, exchanged information with other players, "My suggestion is to first explore in the direction of the town at eleven o’clock, best if Griffin, Tombstone, Gray Rain are there, and even if they’re not, we can collect intelligence to ascertain whose dream we’re in. CQ."

"We’re fine with that."

Rabbit Ranger Mian Yue nodded, hesitantly asking, "But why do you say ’CQ’ after everything? Is there a special meaning?"

"I’m using radio equipment to contact Gray Rain."

Li Cheng pointed to the miniature earpiece in his ear, leading the way as he casually explained, "’CQ’ is the universal call sign for radio communication used by Earth humans. It means calling any station. Reyes knows about this."

"Uh, I actually didn’t know..." Reyes awkwardly rubbed his palm, "I started my own business; I haven’t undergone the agent system training of the guilds."

Claudia scratched her head, and Wanli Sealed Blade stroked his goatee, "I thought ’CQ’ was your new verbal tic, like ending every sentence with it.

Similar to ’meow~’, ’poi’, ’desu’, ’this area’, ’desuwa’."

"??? "

This time, it was Li Cheng’s turn to be confused, incredulously saying: "Who in their right mind would talk like that in a perilous environment?

Do I seem like such a disruptive person to you all that I can’t be comfortable without being dramatic? CQ."

What do you think?!

Under everyone’s rolling eyes, Li Cheng strode forward, as sounds gradually arose in his earpiece,

"Hello? I’m here."

The voice of Gray Rain, breathing a sigh of relief, sounded from the earpiece, "I’m with Tombstone Sister and Griffin, on a sunny beach; relatively safe. Where are you?"

Beach? Sunny?

Li Cheng paused, quickly saying: "I’m with all other players at a rocky outcrop. Have you seen the Astronaut and Entropy Devouring Cloud?"

"Haven’t seen the Astronaut, the Entropy Devouring Cloud just flew away."

Flew away... Could it be that the Land of Beautiful Dreams only accepts killing field native species as official visitors.

The Entropy Devouring Cloud provided three spots, thus taking Gray Rain, White Horse Tombstone, Griffin to the sunny beach it desired.

While Li Cheng and others were brought to the astronaut’s dream.

Currently, there is too little information to make a judgment; Li Cheng quickly said: "Open the Silver Wing Light Path and locate my signal source."

"Understood."

The effect of Silver Wing Light Path is to optimize mechanical life forms; after Gray Rain activates it, it’s much more powerful than the Sky Net in the Terminator movies—the floating point operations of Sky Net are 60 trillion times per second, which feel less... than an RTX 4090 graphics card.

"Found it,"

Gray Rain puzzledly said, "You are 50-90 kilometers away from me, the signal originates from a 35° cone angle direction, unable to pinpoint the exact location."

"Hm?"

Radio direction-finding technology is quite mature in the real world, whether using the Doppler direction-finding method, time-difference direction-finding method, or Uhlenberg direction-finding, it can raise the positioning accuracy to within ±5°, with errors in the hundred meters, kilometers range.

Before Li Cheng could inquire carefully, a series of long mechanical sounds echoed from behind the distant hills, clattering.

Like thunder, like beast roars.

The sound of Mechanical Python Alpha was all too recognizable to the players, and all the metallic items on everyone subtly tilted and levitated. Radio communications were completely cut off, leaving only noise and static.

Everyone exchanged glances; Claudia silently extinguished the Light Ball Technique, while Li Cheng took out seven graphene-coated clothes that absorb electromagnetic waves and blocked electromagnetic signals from the Three-dimensional Warehouse, distributing them to the other players.

The group donned the silver garments, resembling patients afflicted with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or the curious inhabitants opposing the 5G base stations in neighborhoods, holding hands as they briskly ran in the dark.

(Happy Mid-Autumn Festival~)