Player Reload

Snake-man Tribe, Snake-man City, Snake-man Kingdom. These three terms are not contradictory.

On one hand, Snake-men are rather mysterious and exclusive, reluctant to communicate with the outside world except for occasional barter and mutual exchange.

Their clothing is also quite simple and modest, some Snake-men even only wear animal skins.

On the other hand, they possess extremely advanced Transcendent technology. Zhu Youdong personally witnessed a Snake-man villager dressed in animal skins and adorned with animal teeth jewelry,

right in front of him, use a few pieces of obsidian and flint to manually build a Teleportation Gate.

The villager shared controllable nuclear fusion technology with you.jpg

The rift leading to the Snake-man Kingdom is right at the end of the cinema,

Li Cheng snapped his fingers, summoned two Forbidden Army Tanks to guard the rift,

while muttering "time is tight, tasks are heavy," grabbed Gouchen and Dylan, and jumped into the next screen.

————

The golden and resplendent Los Angeles Staples Center Arena was filled with guests, as music elites from across the United States gathered.

"...The Grammy Album of the Year is..."

As the MV screen behind him changed, the host intentionally elongated his voice, opened the red envelope, "Don Juan! ’No Time to Die’!"

The male and female guests in suits and gowns cheered and stood up, even the singers and musicians who lost out forced a professional smile and applauded in congratulations.

Don Juan sat in his chair for a few seconds, expression shocked, dazed, ecstatic, and only stood up to walk to the podium when prompted by relatives and friends beside him,

with tears in his eyes, he accepted the gramophone-shaped Grammy trophy from the host, "This is a childhood dream of mine, and the beacon that inspired me to embark on the musical path,

I want to thank my family, teachers, colleagues, friends... you gave me the power to move forward and climb to new heights..."

Before he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred,

The host glanced back at the envelope, expression stiff as he stepped forward to take the microphone, "Apologies, I read it wrong just now, the award is not given to Mr. Don Juan, but to... UZI!"

In the next second, the arena sound system played stirring music, and the esports player disguised as Gouchen flashed onto the stage, grabbed the trophy, and raised it overhead,

as shining streamers fell across the arena, like a shower of gold rain.

"Through adversity, the royal never gives up."

Li Cheng, disguised as the host, excitedly commented: "You may not know who UZI is, but if you know Harden, chovy, AME, Lee Chong Wei, Cole Jercher, Leclerc, NIKO, you’ll understand...

Oh sorry, no NIKO."

Don Juan, with his trophy snatched away, was petrified on the spot, tears still lingering at the corners of his eyes, before letting out a bitter laugh and disappearing.

————

"I want to become a world-class manga artist! Let everyone see my work!"

On the path home from school in rural Osaka, Kamiyo Rain Prayer, wearing a high school uniform, jumped over puddles, describing her dream to her best friend.

The corner of her backpack left unzipped exposed manga textbooks and sketches.

Ding dong.

Her phone’s news app pushed a story, Kamiyo Rain Prayer casually opened it and saw a headline,

"Breakthrough in AI Content Generation Technology, One-Click Generates Long-Form Manga, Reshaping Industry Ecosystem"

Kamiyo Rain Prayer froze in place, her gaze gradually cleared, let out a long sigh, jumped into a shallow puddle, and vanished on the spot.

————

"...In a sense, when you plant crops on a piece of land, you’ve colonized it. So you could say, I’ve colonized Mars..."

In a constant-temperature, humidity-controlled, oxygen-circulating greenhouse, the now adult Maxwell spoke eloquently to the camera,

The live broadcast signal crossed 225 million kilometers with a 12 minute and 30 second delay, sent to Earth.

Alone on the desolate planet, Maxwell felt no despair, but rather a sense of carefree tranquility.

Away from the crowd, away from worldly entanglements and petty squabbles...

Knock knock knock!

Knocking sounds came from outside the cabin, Maxwell suddenly stopped, turned his head slowly, as if the sound of his cervical vertebrae creaking could be heard.

Outside the cabin window stood several figures clad not in spacesuits, but wearing absurdly simple fish tanks as helmets.

In the span of a few seconds, Maxwell’s expression changed a dozen times, finally he reached out to turn off the camera,

his physique shrank dramatically from an adult to a child, stepped forth without passing through the airlock, directly opened the cabin door.

The sudden pressure differential caused violent turbulence, debris scattered all around, yet none of this could harm Maxwell who had regained his memories and strength.

"The Illusion Realm created by Crimson Cinema is based on the victim’s self-awareness and worldly experience. The more meticulous the victim’s thoughts, the more they actively fill in the gaps, leading them deeper into the trap."

Maxwell calmly said: "Your strategy of leaving me for last was wise... wait, what about Mei Wenyi?"

The group had arrived, except for Mei Wenyi who was absent.

"We’ve searched for her, but her situation... is very special."

The group, including Li Cheng, wore peculiar expressions, "We need to focus all our strength to handle it."

Soon, Maxwell witnessed what is meant by special circumstances.

[The setting sun lowered against Seoul’s city skyline, its afterglow staining the Han River crimson.]

[The rooftop pool of the skyscraper shimmered with sparkling light. The heiress named Mei Wenyi slipped off her Jimmy Choo high heels, walked barefoot on the warm wooden floor, and stepped slowly into the pool. Her platinum hair spread across the water’s surface, with droplets on her collarbones more precious than the seven-figure diamonds in the Cheongdam-dong boutique.]

"Who, who’s talking?!"

Maxwell above the clouds was deeply shocked and quickly looked around.

"The background sound of this world."

Gouchen swung his sword downward, slightly parting the clouds, allowing Maxwell to see Mei Wenyi swimming in the skyscraper’s pool.

Mei Wenyi’s actual strength was weak, theoretically, a single tear gas hand grenade would be enough to subdue her,

but the building was filled with guards, and they were skilled guards.

Wu Jiaowu, Wei Wuxian, Cheng Zhenyu...

"WTF, there’s a whole range of characters from China, Japan, and South Korea?"

Even Maxwell, who had seen much of the world, couldn’t help but be astonished.

Dozens of elite guards were spread across the skyscraper’s floors, surrounding and safeguarding Mei Wenyi as if enclosing her with an inescapable net.

"Miss Mei is a Charming Superhuman. Due to her weak physical power, she relies on external means for survival in the killing field. Over time, it has left her with an extreme lack of confidence and a sense of safety deep within.

She has mentally collapsed several times, and her psychological state is worrisome.

She can act like a normal person thanks to the guild’s professional psychotherapists, who rebuild her personality through hypnosis, inducement, and suggestion."

Don Juan laid out the previous analysis for everyone, "But her inner fragmentation is so intense that it can inversely affect the higher narrative of the Crimson Cinema, generating numerous bodyguards to protect her.

Any attempt to approach or disturb her would be detected and repelled by the Flower Guardians at the first instance.

It’s hard to wake her without causing harm to Mei Wenyi."

A single Light Speed Elbow Strike is easy, but Mei Wenyi might end up stuck to the elbow and unable to be removed.

Li Cheng took over the conversation and said to Maxwell, "So we need you and Gouchen to infiltrate and awaken Mei Wenyi."

"Why does it have to be me?"

Maxwell was puzzled for a moment and retorted, "If you and Don Juan have regained your strength, you could also infiltrate, right?"

"I can’t do it. My Charm Attribute is too low. Only 4 points."

Li Cheng shrugged, "As a High-Level Charm System Player and a face connoisseur, Mei Wenyi can sense and discover me immediately.

As for Don Juan..."

"I’m too old,"

Don Juan ran a hand over his beard, awkwardly said, "Miss Mei can smell the mature man’s scent on me.

The last time I tried to get close, I was detected."

"Alright."

With duty shouldered, no shirking the responsibility, Maxwell donned a white wig and blue contact lenses, put on sneakers, adjusted his appearance in the mirror, and disguised himself as Killua from Full-time Hunter.

Gouchen also donned a loose green robe and green wig, added a scar to his left eye, disguising himself as Zoro from One Piece.

The two inserted miniature communication earpieces into their ears, then landed on the ground, and walked toward the skyscraper.

Before they entered the building, they were stopped by the protagonist Cheng Zhenyu from the South Korean comic, I Level Up Alone, who asked suspiciously, "Stop, who are you two?"

"We’re the new bodyguards."

Both Killua and Zoro had looks above the standard line, which met Mei Wenyi’s requirements. Maxwell calmly said, "We’re here to protect the young lady."

"Bodyguards?... What’s the code word?"

"Based on the last exploration experience, offer your heart to Miss Mei Wenyi!"

Maxwell and Gouchen stood upright, their fists pounding on the chest. Their determined gaze was like that of five-star bodyguards from Country Garden.

"Alright, go in."

Cheng Zhenyu waved his hand, letting the two enter the building.

Maxwell discreetly made a gesture to Li Cheng and the others thousands of meters away, signaling a successful infiltration.

The two weaved through elevators and stairwells, following the instructions from their earpieces to deliberately avoid the building’s bodyguards. Just as they were about to reach the top floor, they were discovered by an NPC.

Sitting in a blind spot of the surveillance, in a plastic-handled chair flipping through a newspaper, was one of the protagonists of the Biochemical Crisis series, Leon Kennedy, who spotted them from afar.

He called out, "This floor is off-limits for wandering, which unit are you two from?"

The other party’s finger was already on the walkie-talkie button, and it was clear they were about to be exposed. Maxwell quickly came up with a plan, pointing to Gouchen cosplaying as Zoro beside him, "I’m a new security guard, looking for the bathroom, and he was leading the way, but he got lost."

Such a simple lie wouldn’t convince anyone,

however, Zoro’s reputation as being directionally challenged was known far and wide. Leon sized them up and "oh"ed, then lowered his head again to continue reading the newspaper, saying without raising his head, "The bathroom is right at the end of the corridor."

"Alright, thank you."

The two quickly moved off, reached the corridor corner, and Maxwell feigned tying his shoelace, used his hand to touch the wall, releasing a tiny electric current to black out the surveillance camera.

Taking advantage of the camera’s brief malfunction, the two swiftly darted into the stairwell, heading straight for the top floor.

Meanwhile, Leon remained in his chair flipping through the newspaper, with the headline prominently featuring...

news photos of the Matrix and Balalaika locked in a fierce battle.