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Chapter 501 Duel (5K)

In the blink of an eye, Li Sheng traversed 150 kilometers, descending into the lower level of the abyss amidst a dazzling wall of fire formed by compressed air.

He deliberately controlled the distance, avoiding a direct piercing of the giant octopus to prevent killing Bartmos, who was being swallowed by the octopus.

Even so, the gust of wind generated by the lightning-fast elbow strike still blew the octopus away.

The latter waved its tentacles, releasing telekinesis to stabilize its massive body and stop retreating. Its round eyes stared at Li Sheng in astonishment, and the green orb containing Bartmos was still inside the mouth directly below its large head, unable to be swallowed.

The information integration glasses activate scanning mode, allowing you to quickly access a wealth of information.

The octopus is indeed the chosen one of the killing field in another world, with the ID [Centipede] and a level of Lv24. Its genome has a 95% similarity to the giant Pacific octopus on Earth—the genome similarity between humans and chimpanzees is 98%-99%.

Like real-world octopuses, centipedes have a distributed nervous system. The main brain in their head is responsible for integrating information, long-term memory, and decision-making. The secondary brain at the end of each tentacle can independently handle local perception and motor control.

This neural system structure is naturally adapted to the psychodynamic system, which manifests itself at this moment as...
hum!
Hundreds of mental forces swept towards Li Sheng from different directions simultaneously, crushing, tearing, pulling, and strangling him.

As the forum stated, the strength of extraordinary individuals is linked to their level, but it is also deeply connected to their innate race.

A level 1 young dragon/qilin/phoenix is ​​naturally much stronger than a level 5 naked ape-human.

The mythical creature is truly a master; even sleeping increases its strength, and all it does all day is eat and drink.

The same applies to the centipede octopus. It comes from another world and is an extraordinary creature at the top of the food chain. Its true strength is far greater than that of an ordinary Lv24 player on Earth.

With hundreds of Nen abilities applied, Li Sheng's bones creaked and groaned, especially the levitation engine he held in his hand, which was directly pried up by a layer of Nen power, physically separating it from his palm.

The fact that the centipede was able to determine in such a short time that Li Sheng's most threatening light-speed impact ability came from the device in his hand indirectly proves the intelligence of the centipede.

Crunchy——

Li Sheng's eyeballs emitted a squeaking, cracking sound. He immediately activated the [Stubborn Stone Rooting Technique] to resist the telekinetic power.
At the same time, with a thought, the [Heat Death Corridor], disguised as a wristwatch, lit up with a faint light, instantly forming a black hole-shaped gate, summoning the complete Frog God from the void.

In the world of the script, this extraterrestrial beast, which fell from the moon to the Earth's surface, is as large as a small mountain and no less than a centipede octopus.

With his blank and numb eyes, he immediately activated his gravity talent, causing the metal ball-shaped levitation engine to crush the telekinetic barrier and fall back into Li Sheng's hands.

He retrieved the levitation engine into his backpack and replaced it with the steel flag gun, holding it in his hand.

The Frog God's gravity manipulation talent is essentially a vector control ability. Its vocal sac below its mouth slightly expanded, and the steel flag spear in Li Sheng's hand flew out, piercing straight towards the centipede octopus.

This attack was comparable to a siege spear; the centipede octopus swung out its four tentacles, which coiled into a cube shape in front of it.

The steel flag spear crashed into the invisible force field wall, slowing down repeatedly, and finally came to a stop barely fifty meters in front of the centipede.

However, the green light emanating from the orb where Bartmos was located pierced the darkness, illuminating the steel flag spear and revealing something hidden at its tip.

That was summoned by a summoning spell, a shadow falcon.

The displacement skill called [Familiar Swap] was suddenly activated. Li Sheng swapped positions with the Shadow Falcon, breaking free from the telekinetic control. At the same time, he gripped the Steel Flag Spear again with his left hand, clenched his right fist, swung it back, and in the blink of an eye, unleashed dozens of punches towards the end of the spear.

Condensed Qi Implosion!

The explosive force propelled the spear like an arrow, piercing through several layers of telekinetic barriers and embedding it deep into the soft tissue of the centipede octopus.

The dense network of neurons transmits pain signals to the brain, causing the centipede to emit indistinct, painful cries.

Hundreds of separately deployed secondary brains have now taken over some of the main brain's authority and are adopting the most logical and effective response strategies for the current battle.

[Skill Name: Demon King's Song - Contact Restriction Order]

[Type: Psionic]

[Special Effect: Denies Existence. Summons musical notes from the void; striking them in a specific order completes the release. Selects and designates a target, preventing the user from taking any effective damage from that target. Similarly, allies cannot deal any damage to that target. Lasts up to 90 seconds.]

[Cost: 300 Spirit Points, 150 Sanity Points]

[Cooling time: 1 hours]

[Usage Requirements: 1000 hours of music game playtime]

[Note: "I'm going to play Taiko no Tatsujin!" the magistrate declared, tearing off the vines covering the grievance drum at the entrance of the county government office.]

This [Contact Restriction Order] is one of the skills in the [Demon King's Song] series. Its effect is a literal denial of existence, completely negating any damage a target inflicts on your side for ninety seconds.

In other words, even if a nuclear bomb falls right in front of you, as long as you can complete the mission before it explodes, you can still be immune to the damage from the nuclear explosion (excluding the waste heat and nuclear radiation left at the scene afterward).

Around the centipede octopus, thousands of musical notes of various colors appeared, some round and some square, their movements sometimes rising and sometimes falling, sometimes drifting and sometimes flashing.

For humans with only ten fingers, completing a complex piece of music requires constant practice and at least two or three minutes of time.

But for a centipede with hundreds of tentacles containing brains and extremely well-developed and flexible muscles...
Da da da da——

In the blink of an eye, the centipede had shattered all the thousands of musical notes, and an invisible force spread out, separating it from Li Sheng.

The steel flag spear detached from the body and fell into the abyss, but was immediately picked up by the Frog God's ability and flew back into Li Sheng's palm.

'A skill with very high priority.'

Li Sheng's pupils contracted slightly. The items and skills in the killing field always had a hidden "priority" setting.

When two special effects conflict, such as forced wakefulness and forced sleep, the higher-quality, more mysterious special effects will prevail, largely covering or even completely offsetting the lower-priority special effects.

However, this is not entirely absolute. Some low-quality special effects can coexist with high-quality, contradictory special effects for some reason.

For example, it can make people feel both pain and pleasure at the same time. They might be cursing the game company while simultaneously pre-ordering a new game on Steam.

The Steel Flag Spear has a built-in counterattack effect, which theoretically could knock the Centipede away, but it was overridden by an unknown skill.

Centipede stared intently at Li Sheng, then unleashed its immense telekinetic power, grabbing the Frog God's limbs and pulling them in different directions.

The Frog God's physical strength was limited, and its control over vectors was far less precise than that of the Centipede. Its skin was torn, revealing pale bones; its injuries were too severe, and it was immediately recalled by Li Sheng remotely into the [Heat Death Corridor].

After eliminating the Frog God, Centipede entered a kind of ethereal state. Its more than one hundred tentacles spun rapidly, releasing skills and spraying rainbow-like trails. Taking advantage of its ethereal state, it ignored air resistance and plunged into the abyss at high speed without looking back.

"Want to escape?"

Li Sheng snorted coldly and took out a missile from the automated warehouse.

It is not a heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, but a ballistic missile that is 11 meters long and 0.8 meters in diameter.

Its design closely resembles the Palestine-2 hypersonic missile used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and it employs a two-stage solid-fuel engine.
The stainless steel missile shell is covered with obvious welding marks, and there are even small animal graffiti drawn by Hui Yu. It is obviously not a professional military missile.

And that is indeed the case. This missile was assembled by Li Sheng himself using screws, after purchasing civilian equipment from the slums and employing his ability as a mechanical engineer. It was functional enough.

Li Sheng bowed slightly, lifted a stainless steel plate with his right hand, touched the flight control chip with his fingertips, and activated the Modified Assembled Doll.

The nervous system successfully connected with the flight control chip. Driven by willpower, the engine roared to life, and a stream of orange-red plasma at 3000°C spewed out from the tail nozzle, directly breaking the sound barrier and reaching Mach 3.

The air was violently compressed, creating a sonic boom that formed a milky-white cloud behind the exhaust. The compressed air, like a wall, violently pounded against Li Sheng's body, causing his clothes, made of high-polymer composite fabric, to swing wildly, on the verge of tearing.

Although no one was recording video with an action camera at the moment, Li Sheng had no intention of running around naked—he was not some pervert who liked to wear sexy uniforms on the street.

He immediately activated his semi-insectivorous form, covering his entire body with biomass armor, while kneeling on one knee on the missile's outer shell and pressing down on the missile with both hands, one in front and one behind.

The biomass shell grows and is fixed in a specific shape, just like the tail of an aircraft. It is a natural formation that does not significantly increase air resistance and cause the shell to be blown away. Instead, it plays a role in stabilizing the flight trajectory.

Mach 3, Mach 3.5, Mach 4.

The missile accelerated step by step, gradually closing the distance to the centipede octopus.

Mach 1 is 340 m/s, and Mach 4 is 1,300 meters per second. In just over 80 seconds, Li Sheng and the centipede had already swooped down and sped more than 100 kilometers, and the light below could be faintly seen.

At the bottom of the abyss lay a lush and thriving primeval jungle, teeming with luminous ferns and trees and shrubs, much like Pandora from the movie Avatar. A four-legged, horned animal, engrossed in munching on ferns, belatedly raised its head upon hearing the rumbling sound overhead, its flat, yellow pupils gazing towards the sky.

Two streaks of light, trailing long, narrow flames, swooped down, illuminating the jungle that had never seen sunlight in countless years.

The frightened flock of birds flapped their wings and flew away, while herbivores and rodents scattered in panic. Only phototactic insects instinctively spread their wings and flew towards the dazzling light source.

Li Sheng calmly assessed the distance between himself and the centipede, the opponent's ethereal state, and the fact that the special effect of being immune to attacks was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

Once the ethereal state ends, its massive size will inevitably create air resistance, making it impossible to maneuver and avoid.

The time has come!

As the centipede regained its physical form, Li Sheng had a thought, and the tungsten alloy biconical warhead instantly separated from the fuel tank. The warhead's outline violently rubbed against the ultra-high-speed airflow, emitting a bluish-purple ionized glow.

Like skipping stones, it maneuvers lightly in the high sky, creating cone-shaped shock waves with each change of course.

Such terrifying speed of penetration left no time to build layers upon layers of psychic barriers; there simply wasn't enough time. That's why Centipede only managed to weave two layers.

Shaped like a cone, the first layer compresses air into a high-pressure gas of 35MPa, while the second layer is thinner, causing the pressure to spike to 200MPa instantaneously.

The tungsten alloy biconical warhead struck the side of the conical compressed air barrier, causing its flight trajectory to veer sharply off course, much like a skateboarder suddenly falling onto ice.

The second layer of compressed air further amplified the warhead's deflection angle, causing it to deflect on its own, glide past the massive body of the centipede, and, carrying an ionized glow, bombard the ground of the primeval jungle.

Boom!

A super-high temperature plasma sphere with a diameter of 30 meters rose into the air, burning nearby trees and shrubs into charcoal, and scorching the soil and rocks with high temperature, causing them to tend towards vitrification.

'Such a quick reaction.'

Li Sheng inwardly praised him; to be able to construct a high-pressure gas barrier using telekinesis in the blink of an eye, taking into account data such as air composition and density, warhead material, aerodynamic shape, and flight speed.
Like a slice shot in ping-pong, it utilizes the characteristics of the double-cone projectile to deflect the ball with minimal cost.

This computing speed is comparable to that of a real-world supercomputer. No wonder he's a superhuman player from another world who survived a battle royale.

But physical warheads can be deflected; what about lightning and thunder?

Still standing on the fuel tank, Li Sheng took a deep breath. A blue dragon phantom appeared above his head, its giant mouth churning spherical, lightning-like plasma.

Thunderbolts strike!

Hundreds of bolts of lightning struck the octopus's hundred tentacles, causing it to involuntarily retract its tentacles, open its mouth, and spit out the bartomeus it had been holding.

Barthes himself remained unconscious, but his alter ego was sweating profusely and shouting, "Ants, save me!"

The hacker's brain is still 80% carbon-based, although the remaining 20% ​​is still in the real world, stored in the Whale Song Guild's safe. After death, it can be connected to an electronic brain, download old memories, and be resurrected.

But the new "Bartlemos" is definitely not the same as the original.

Li Sheng activated the [Corridor of Heat Death] again, summoning the six-armed serpent demon.

The Serpent Demon, possessing innate teleportation abilities, flashed to Centipede's side, grabbed the green orb containing Bartmos, and then flashed back to Li Sheng's side. With the hostages gone, large-scale destruction could now be employed.

"Are you...his companion?" Finally, a muffled voice, without specific timbre or direction, rang out in the air—it was the sound of telekinesis directly vibrating the air.

Li Sheng, holding the levitation engine in one hand, said in a deep voice: "I am the Director of the Office of the Leading Group for the Application of the Ancient Qiemo Kingdom Historical and Cultural Site in Qiemo County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage Status."

"Hand over the human Chosen ones you captured, and there's still room for negotiation."

In the scenario missions, the translation system in the killing field is incredibly versatile, even perfectly translating dead languages ​​like Akabo from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal (the last person in the world who could speak Akabo passed away in 2010).

And it should, possibly, or perhaps also work for the chosen ones from another world?

"."

The centipede remained silent, its tentacles swaying unconsciously. One of its tentacles drew out a Yu-Gi-Oh! card with a black hole image printed on its back from the void.

【Item Name: Zorc Nellofa's Game】

[Type: Toy]

[Quality: Epic]

[Special Effect: Dark Duel. Select a target and pull them into a dark duel game outside of physical space. The rules are transparent and fair to both sides as much as possible. Game duration ranges from 2 to 30 minutes. The winner permanently obtains a certain loot from the loser.]

[Cost: 50% of total Spirit Power and maximum Sanity]

[Cooling time: 15 day]

[Usage Requirements: User's level must be greater than or equal to the target's level]

[Note: The types of loot depend on the specific game rules, and usually appear in the form of lifespan, spiritual power, attributes, items, skills, etc.]

[Note: During a Dark Duel, neither player will be subject to any external interference. Those who maliciously delay the game or violate the rules will be severely punished. The target may choose to pay a price to end the Dark Duel early.]

[Note: "I use the sealed individual's right arm, left arm, right foot, and left foot to summon the sealed Dark Archmage, Shang Yang!"]

An invisible force spread and diffused, dimming the surrounding light. Between Li Sheng and the centipede, a giant wooden card table covered with velvet appeared out of thin air, with a stack of cards in front of each of them, printed with ornate patterns and intricate characters.

"Ok?"

Li Sheng raised an eyebrow. Without him needing to use the information integration glasses, the system description of the card items automatically popped up above the card table.

This is a card battle game similar to Yu-Gi-Oh!, where both players' decks are revealed, and the rules are transparent and fair.

In other words, the centipede octopus did not intend to directly and severely injure Li Sheng through a dark duel. Its goal was to delay as much as possible.

"You want to buy time for your teammates to get here?"

Li Sheng remained noncommittal, calmly picking up the card. "Interesting, but I have teammates too."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

At the same time, in the upper part of the abyss.

The Black Pearl's flight control system was severely damaged and needs to be returned to the glass bottle to await automatic repair.

Therefore, all three players were crammed into the two-seater fighter jet that the edge of the vehicle had transformed into.

The engine spewed flames, propelling the fighter jet downwards at a high speed of Mach 1.8.

Claudia transformed into a tiny bat, hanging from the canopy of the rear cockpit. Swaying back and forth and side to side due to the fighter jet's turbulence, the bat's face even showed signs of a grimace.

"Don't throw up, don't throw up!"

"The White Horse Tombstone, sitting in the back row, shouted nervously. She knew about the Witch Alliance's shapeshifting ability; only the appearance changed, the essence of life remained the same. If Claudia vomited, the amount would still be human-sized."

"I'll try, ugh!"

Claudia cried out in a high-pitched voice, covering her mouth with her membranous wing, "Tell her to slow down!"

"Miss Gray Rain, please drive slowly!"

Because of the limited space, Reyes, who was lying in a cramped position in the narrow space behind the driver's seat, shouted, "If all else fails, can we just leave it to the autonomous driving system?"

"Don't worry, I just downloaded a flight tutorial from the internet. The uploader is supposedly the best pilot in the Middle East, but unfortunately he died in a Boeing-767 heavy loitering munition attack. Anyway, it's fine."

Gray Rain smiled confidently, pushed the control lever forward, and accelerated again.

(End of this chapter)