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Chapter 543 The Veteran (4K)

A mobile task force operative in a black suit took out a thick, long fountain pen from his pocket, removed the cap, and revealed a miniature light bulb hidden inside.

Press the button, and the light bulb instantly emits a strong, deep blue light, illuminating the entire internet cafe.

The customers exposed to the light, including the internet cafe manager and netizens who were sleeping on the sofa, all took off their headphones with dazed expressions, stood up, and gathered around the Mobile Task Force operative to listen to him speak.

"Now, you suddenly remember something important, like leaving the gas on, not doing your homework, or forgetting to water your plants, etc."

This flashlight is a standard-issue tool of the Special Task Force, similar to the memory eraser in the movie "Men in Black," possessing both memory erasure and false memory implantation capabilities.

When paired with a timed detonation device, most abnormal events can be masked as natural gas explosions or biogas digester explosions.

The internet cafe was emptied. Fu Dinghua made a gesture, and the remaining operators immediately occupied the computer seats and put on their headphones. He himself sat in Jia Wei's seat—the sharing of the computer screen with the streamer had been cut off, and the live streaming platform had also labeled the streamer's video as AI.
Furthermore, an AI program for monitoring online public opinion has been deployed to patrol various platforms. If relevant images or text are detected, they will be subject to cold deletion—meaning that the user can see the content posted, but others on the online platform cannot.

"Hey, Mr. Ant, this is Fu Ding Hua Long."

"Hey Brother Long, where have you been making your fortune lately?"

"Please just call me Xiao Fu."

Fu Dinghualong's eye twitched. Luckily, this guy didn't join the Mobile Task Force, otherwise working with him would really give him a nervous breakdown.

Meanwhile, in the game, the Imperial Guard tanks continued their bombardment. The old woman-shaped phase-change demon was suspended in the air by the gravitational field, suffering a barrage of shells, dying and being reborn repeatedly.

However, the black smoke continuously spewing from its body accumulated and coalesced into a black sphere, subtly weakening the power of the shell.

"So, what exactly is this thing?"

Li Sheng rubbed his chin and asked, as the billowing black smoke struggled and tumbled without stopping, trying to break through the gravitational field and touch the building scenes in the game.

"Somewhere between a conceptual being and an energy entity. They may even lack self-awareness and simply follow predetermined procedures."

Everyone present was one of their own, and Fu Dinghualong, who had just received detailed intelligence from his superiors, told the truth.

The ability of the phase-change demon is to erode and assimilate any matter, as well as the consciousness, thoughts, personality, and soul that are attached to matter.

According to our strategists' deductions, if a Level 10 Phase Shift Demon were to land on modern Earth, where there are no supernatural powers, it would first control a living person and then assimilate a rural town by polluting the local settlement's water source.

They then take control of all residents in the towns, using transportation to spread to surrounding major cities. Using key figures such as mayors and governors as springboards, they seize secular power, manipulate public opinion to create a false sense of peace, and finally spread globally via ferries and airplanes.

The whole process will take about three to four months.

However, if it is a Lv20 phase change demon, it can assimilate a modern planet without supernatural powers in assimilation in just one month.

Such an existence is almost impossible to randomly evolve in nature, unless…

"Man-made".

Li Sheng himself was also a master at handling weapons of mass destruction, and he instantly understood, "Only a top-tier superhuman at least level 40 could create something so advanced."

"Is the phase-change demon man-made?"

Gray Rain blinked in confusion, "Wait a minute, what's the point of making such a thing? It's only a threat to low- to mid-level players. If you encounter a strong player, you'll get completely crushed."

And how did it even survive to Lv33? The scripted missions alone should have killed it, since it lacked self-awareness.

Li Sheng shook his head. "What's the use of it, and how can one live so long, are essentially the same question."

The powerful individuals or forces that created the Phase Change Demons didn't intend to make them particularly strong. On the contrary, their plan was likely something like this—

First, a level 10 player, carrying a phase-change magic source, enters a deathmatch mission to fight against a player of the same level from another world.

If they're lucky, the Lv10 player will defeat and stun their opponent, but not kill them. Instead, they'll infuse their opponent with source energy. Then, their team will use an emergency escape card or similar item to force them out of the match.

At this point, since the deathmatch has ended and the opponent was not killed by the phase change demon, he will return to his world with the source matter and start the infection process.

If you're unlucky, the Phase Change Demon will be quickly discovered and eliminated by the powerful beings of that world, and the only loss will be an Emergency Escape Card.

Fortunately, the world was in its early stages and was completely unable to suppress the contagion of the phase-change demons, which directly wiped out the superhumans of an entire planet.

Li Sheng's tone was full of praise, and Fu Dinghualong's eyelids twitched violently. You should know that this theory was the result of speculation and research by dozens of experts and scholars in the General Administration's think tank. Yet, in such a short time, the ant guessed it almost perfectly with just a few words of hints.

If this were in an anime, he'd probably say, "This kid is terrifyingly talented; he's destined for greatness."

"There's no need to worry about survival."

Li Sheng paused for a moment. A dignified Lv33 Phase Change Demon seemed utterly powerless against the anti-gravity field, passively taking hits. "If I'm not mistaken, a Phase Change Demon is like the 'Chinese Room' thought experiment in philosophy. It doesn't possess self-awareness, but it can simulate the level of intelligence needed to solve a problem based on changes in the external environment."

Solve puzzles when needed. Engage in combat when required.

Just like now, I haven't resorted to a higher-level method, so it chooses to continue resisting the pressure, continuously releasing black smoke, approaching the upper limit of the Frog God's abilities.

As he spoke, the black smoke surrounding the Phase Change Demon had expanded to a diameter of over a hundred meters, with spikes extending in every direction, attempting to touch the building materials in the game.

Meanwhile, the gravitational field maintained by the Frog God became increasingly turbulent and unstable.

"All of the above makes the Phase Change Demon a near-perfect weapon of aggression, capable of infecting an entire planet with a single demon, assimilating all its inhabitants and low-level superhumans."

This even drives these extraordinary individuals to continue leveling up and spreading the 'plague' in deathmatch missions against players from other worlds.

Li Sheng pondered for a moment and said, "The whole process seems somewhat like..."

"He's a bit like Dr. Noah back then."

Over the communication channel, Bai Ze from the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters said in a deep voice, "Dr. Noah was able to 'smuggle' himself to Earth because he used that player from the Whale Song Guild, and subsequently a large number of ordinary people and superhumans, as anchors to continuously strengthen his connection with Earth."
They eventually landed on Earth via a space jump device.

Since Noah, a mere mortal, could travel through worlds and create the forces behind the Phase Change Demons, it's not impossible for him to do the same.

They are likely to be demons who transform into powerful beings, acting as pioneers and lockpicks to open doors to other worlds with abundant player slots.

Bai Ze's tone was calm and composed, contrasting sharply with the tense expressions of the Mobile Task Force operators in the internet cafe.

The Lv34 supernatural being was merely a man-made, insignificant lock pick.

Furthermore, they had no idea where the Phase Change Demons came from—there was no concept of time in the Killing Arena universe, and the Phase Change Demons might have been creations of players from other realms thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, in the previous, the time before that, and the time before that.

If the version of the killing field game they are in is far more advanced than Earth's, then their side may even face a massive army of Lv30, Lv40, and Lv50 phase-change demons.
If we don't want to one day completely abandon Earth and have all of humanity hide in the killing field as recluses, then we must intercept and kill them here and now.

Li Sheng nodded and said, "I will try my best to hold off the Phase Change Demon, but I cannot guarantee that it will not self-destruct and break free."

Just now on the set of "Shanghai Fortress," he used a lightning-fast elbow strike to destroy the scene and trigger a teleportation. It's hard to say whether the other party will try to do the same.

"That's enough,"

Fu Dinghualong said in a deep voice, "The special nature of the Killing Field mission isolates this computer from the possibility of being controlled by the outside world, which is equivalent to adding a read-only attribute."

However, the interconnected network of computers throughout the internet cafe means that data from other computers can also be transferred and shared. Everyone, reverse-insert your AMD processors!

At a command, the mobile task force members sitting in front of the internet cafe computers picked up the DMA plug-ins issued by the bureau and inserted them into the computer slots.

The DMA device can forcefully access memory, and with the addition of cables that rely on superhuman strength, all the computers in the internet cafe now form a local area network.

"Host number 001 is in good condition and is transmitting data. 3, 2, 1."

In the corner, an operator raised his hand and shouted, "I've joined the battle!"

The moment the words fell, a faint light appeared above the space city, and a angular figure made of different colored blocks descended from the sky—it was Steve, the protagonist of the video game "Minecraft".

To ensure a successful data hack, the Special Affairs Bureau did not alter the settings of the computers; they simply used the resources from whichever game was running.
Fortunately, a large proportion of the people playing games in the Sichuan Provincial Special Affairs Bureau can find the corresponding machines.

Steve, the blocky man, plummeted down. Before Frog God could even lift him up, Steve pulled a bucket of water from his rear end in 0.1 seconds and poured it downwards.

The shallow layer of water provided a huge amount of buoyancy, steadily supporting Steve and preventing him from suffering any harm.

"Water on the ground, kid."

The young operator sitting in front of the 001 mainframe had his eyes shining. He controlled his character to nod at Li Sheng from a distance, and then swung his rectangular arm to start chopping down trees and collecting blocks.

"Host No. 002 has joined the battle."

The second computer was running War Thunder. As the sound of something cutting through the air rang out on the horizon, a Su-39 fighter jet sped over and, from a great distance, fired a Cyclone anti-tank missile codenamed "Giant Vortex" at the black smoke cloud of the Phase Change Demon.

boom!
Flames shot into the sky, and the pilot in the Su-39 fighter jet gave Li Sheng a thumbs up.

"Host No. 003 has joined the battle. Those who invade the territory of our Great Wu will be defeated by Sheng."

A tall, imposing warrior emerged from the shadows, clad in a green cloak and sporting a radiant smile. He wielded a long sword and unleashed a long-range slash at the Demon of Transformation.

"Main Unit 004 has joined the battle. Double Energy, Echo Pattern, Deviation Perception, Electrodynamics."

Behind the general, a robot that didn't look very advanced slowly stepped forward, with lightning balls on its head, unleashing lightning towards the phase change demon.

Gray Rain couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement: "They even have malfunctioning robots? This internet cafe is full of talented people. They've come here to play single-player games."

"Where is this?"

Li Sheng rubbed his temples, patted Hui Yu's head, and looked towards the corner, where a chibi-style character with sharp features and a punk hairstyle was breakdancing to the accompaniment of a Korean song and symbols like ↑↓←→.

The 2005 version of Audition Online was older than Li Sheng.

No, this game doesn't have any lethal effects, you're just here to create atmosphere.

Under Li Sheng's pained gaze, one game character after another descended from the sky.

Gold Miner, Troll Warrior, Katana Hero, Girl Band, Uma Musume Girls, Harlan Superman, V-Shock
"I'm a little confused whether this is a gathering of heroes or a meeting of scoundrels."

Gray Rain hesitated and said, "These characters aren't very good; there aren't many that can actually fight. Don't you guys have any computers running strategy games like Red Alert or StarCraft?"

"Yes, we do have them, but we can't bring them in."

Fu Dinghualong was also helpless. In StarCraft, a single Yamato battleship is larger than the entire space city map. If the data is transmitted in, it will probably cause the map to burst instantly.

Good news! A bunch of game characters used their various skills to defeat the Phase Change Demon, leaving him helpless.

Bad news: the black smoke is still accumulating, and its diameter has already reached two hundred meters, about to break through the boundaries of the game map.

Bombs, blades, laser-guided flares, thunderstorms—all methods could only slow the expansion of the black smoke cloud, but could not interrupt it.

Fu Dinghua and his colleagues wanted to fight again, but Bai Ze, who was connected remotely via video, gritted his teeth and said, "Everyone, prepare to withdraw."

Since their side lacks higher-end combat power, they are destined to fail in trapping the Phase-Changing Demon. Their only option is to use a backup plan: destroy the map and trigger the teleportation again.
The plan is to take advantage of the Phase Change Demon's characteristic of "becoming stronger when facing stronger opponents and weaker when facing weaker opponents" to randomly place it in a scenario where it cannot exert its power, and then find an opportunity to strike it dead.

".receive."

Despite his deep reluctance, Fu Dinghualong obeyed orders and prepared to withdraw.

but.
"I can't log out of my game character?!"

"Me too!"

Inside the internet cafe, the Mobile Task Force members were startled to see that the top of the black smoke cloud had already extended beyond the map, and the thin black smoke emanating from it covered the space city like a lid.

The fact that game characters cannot leave means that phase change demons can erode and assimilate them.

The malfunctioning robot from Kill the Spire was the first to suffer, with billowing smoke billowing from the gaps in its mechanical joints. Correspondingly, the computer in the internet cafe in the real world also crashed with a blue screen.

The screen, which should have been frozen, instead displayed black lines, as if Sadako had crawled out of the screen.

The Mobile Task Force operator sitting in front of the computer made a decisive move. Instead of teleporting to the battlefield to save his life, he simply reached out and put the computer into his inventory.

He then pulled out the snake's strange pistol and pulled the trigger toward his neck.

【Medusa's Spear】 has the effect of temporarily petrifying the unit that has been shot, and freezing all buffs and debuffs on it.

The operator dared not gamble on whether he had come into contact with a phase-change demon during that brief encounter. He chose to petrify himself directly, freezing the potential corruption.

Steve was just the beginning. One by one, the computers in the entire internet cafe crashed. In the electronic world, the phase-change demon, which is neither alive nor dead, has a natural advantage.

Li Sheng took a deep breath and exhaled the dragon's breath, which directly incinerated a group of stiff and motionless game characters. Even so, it was still difficult to stop the phase change demon's subtle erosion.

The only sound in the entire space city was the hissing of black smoke spreading.

until
Tap, tap tap tap, tap, tap tap tap—

A burst of rousing music began, and a mysterious man wearing a simple helmet, mask, and camouflage clothing descended from the sky.

His graphics are terrible, far inferior to those of modern game characters.

The smiley face badge worn on the chest adds to the childish and humorous feel.

However, its aura caused the Phase Transformation Demon to pause abruptly.

Gray Rain hesitated before saying, "That is..."

"The highest mountain and the longest river in the global game cheat industry."

Li Sheng said in a deep voice: "Three hundred million mouse clicks, the dream of shooting games, the smiling veteran in CrossFire."

Before he finished speaking, hundreds and thousands of guns, magnified countless times, rose up behind the veteran, returning him to the realm of terrestrial immortals.

(End of this chapter)