Who are you calling a stable boy?!

"what!!"

With the jet propulsion system overloaded, Kree roared in shock and anger, maneuvering the mechanical giant backward at full speed while activating all of its ranged weapons.

Under the precise guidance of the fire control system, powerful firepower, capable of turning an area with a radius of 10 kilometers into scorched earth within three minutes, was unleashed upon Zheng Jing, who was in pursuit.

The explosion was deafening, and the flames and smoke seemed to obscure the sunlight.

Krina's explosive power, which even the Intestines Band feared, caused the teleportation countdown to move another second.

6 seconds —

Suddenly, a giant shadow emerged from the scorching, distorted haze.

With six arms and a club in hand, Zheng Jing, who was fifty meters tall, glared with eyes that shone like torches of gold. He smashed through the rolling black clouds and with a stomp of his foot, he was right in front of the mechanical giant controlled by Kree!

"Bah!"

With a single blow, the golden cudgel, which had grown larger along with Zheng Jing this time, swept away everything in its path, instantly crushing the mechanical giant and the Kree inside into dust.

At this moment, the countdown reached exactly 5 seconds.

Kerry couldn't wait any longer, even for those five seconds.

He didn't even have time to beg for mercy.

Zheng Jing glanced around and saw that Nalisar had flown back to the imperial city below. He immediately shook his arms, returning to his normal size, and pressed down on the golden cloud formed by his inner force, and flew down.

Standing with her three teammates, Lissar was about to speak when she saw Zheng Jing flying over, but then she heard Zheng Jing shout loudly.

"Fairy! Where do you think you're going?!"

The stick in his hand spun in a circle, and this time it was aimed at her crown!

Chapter 252: Stop fighting, they're allies!

As the blow came down, a Tiaflin wearing full armor beside Lissar raised his heavy shield and stepped forward to block it.

First came a metallic clang, followed by the chilling sound of flesh being torn apart and bones being broken.

With a single blow, Zheng Jing smashed the Tiflin into a puddle of flesh strewn with metal fragments. Without pausing, he flicked his wrist, aiming the stick at Lissar's face again. But Lissar dodged, using her magical illusionary steps to distance herself from Zheng Jing once more.

"Splash!"

The remaining two members of the Internal Organs Band, one on the left and one on the right, seemed to be surrounding Zheng Jing.

This time, perhaps because Lissar didn't seem to be planning to run away immediately, Zheng Jing stopped and sized up the two who dared to block his way.

The one on the left is a gray dwarf, gripping a heavy flail in both hands. It looks like soft armor made of the skin of some kind of humanoid creature clings to his muscular body, and his profession suggests he is a barbarian.

Zheng Jing looked at him, and he dared to glare back.

The one on the right is human, covered in a thin, semi-transparent black veil, with gold studs faintly visible on her body. She looks more like a top dancer in a mansion than a fighter.

Meeting Zheng Jing's gaze, she lowered the pair of small sickles in her hands, and blinked her peach-pink eyes at Zheng Jing affectionately.

"Oh, my poor Fuller, look at you."

Lissar, not far away, looked at the puddle of tiflin on the ground with a look of pity and shook her head.

"He sold himself out of his daughter, but died here just as he was about to complete the contract. Oh, no, my old habit has kicked in again. No offense, esteemed golden beast."

"It's okay."

Zheng Jing, however, didn't seem angry at all.

He pointed his golden cudgel at the gray dwarf and the human: "Come on, who else wants to tell a story?"

Do you love stories? My stories are all yours, if you wish.

"really?"

Lissar smiled and pointed at the gray dwarf.

"How about we start with our hot-tempered old Miles?"

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Jing raised his eyebrows and shook his finger.

"I have a story I'd like to hear more of, and I want you to tell it to me."

He still had a smile on his face.

That smile, however, made the angry gray dwarf instinctively lower his eyes, and made the human who was showing off his beauty shrink back.

"How did you manage to turn a city into a den of cannibals?"

"Oh dear, you'll have to ask the city lord about that."

Lissal smiled and said, "I merely provided him with a path to immortality and power; how he chooses to do it is his own choice. I simply fulfilled my promise, that's all. However, since it's your request, I'll go and bring him here now so he can explain it to you in person—"

"I've heard of it."

Zheng Jing grinned: "He's very noisy when he begs for mercy."

"I wonder who's noisier, you or him."

-

Mira and Bi Dong were hurrying to the squad's base, a large room in the imperial city.

Mira begged for it from her old lover in one night.

Thanks to this, Bi Dong didn't have to worry about those Kree gangsters breaking into his tent and doing something to him while he slept at night.

"Captain Mira... everyone in the team..."

Still reeling from the shock of that laughter, Bi Dong asked weakly in a low voice.

With Bi Dong on her shoulder and one hand always resting on the weapon at her waist, Mira cautiously observed her surroundings as she replied, "Only Toin is still conscious."

Toin is the scout in the squad, a dragonborn monk, and the only member of the squad whose perception attribute is higher than Mira's.

Through the team channel on the panel, Mira had contacted Toin and confirmed that the team was alright. Although Paqui, the warrior, and Toin's sister, the warlock Sava, had both fainted, they were not in mortal danger and could not be woken up for the time being.

After all, Toyin's sect was not well-versed in medical science, so in this situation, he could at most ensure that his teammates wouldn't die.

Since I've fainted, I naturally can't use the courtyard's teleportation service.

Fortunately, they are a team that has officially signed a team contract. In this case, as long as the team members are not too far apart, Mira, as the team leader, can purchase the team teleportation service in the courtyard.

However, Bi Dong was not a formal member of the team.

Perhaps knowing that there was no danger on Toin's side, Mira, feeling at ease, did not abandon Bi Dong, who was barely conscious but whose body was not obeying her commands.

Actually, to be honest, Bi Dong is still a newbie and is using a projected body, which usually makes him safer than the veteran players who come here in their real bodies.

But not dying doesn't mean you won't suffer a fate worse than death.

If someone like Bi Dong loses even the slightest bit of consciousness, then he really won't be able to resist anything they do.

There are ways to influence novice players through projection.

Especially since there are four minions of the great demon Zariel in the imperial city...

As a complete novice, Bi Dong was naturally unaware of all these intricacies.

But Miraken helped her out at that time, and she was very grateful.

Just then, several loud noises suddenly came from outside.

[Players detected evacuating the current material plane. Countdown: 10 - Teleportation stopped.]

Such a notification suddenly popped up in Mira and Bi Dong's field of vision.

Immediately afterwards, two more identical messages popped up in succession.

This made Mira instinctively stop in her tracks.

Before she could even catch her breath, several more notifications popped up indicating that players were using the teleportation service.

Immediately following, another loud bang was heard, accompanied by a violent earthquake. Mira's pointed ears twitched, as if she could hear the sudden commotion erupting in the imperial city.

Immediately, a series of notifications indicating that the transmission had been canceled caught up with her and Bi Dong's eyes.

Before Mira and Bi Dong could react to this sudden turn of events, the ceiling above them was smashed open, and a figure wielding a stick leaped down, striking Mira and Bi Dong squarely on the head—

"One of us!!"

Mira screamed.

Thanks to some high-speed chanting techniques she had learned in her youth, the stick suddenly stopped just inches away from the tip of her pen, and a howling wind distorted her beautiful features.

Even though her eyes were red from the wind, Mira didn't dare to blink.

Who are you?

Upon hearing the man in front of her ask the question, Mira quickly replied, "Mira! Mira from the Black Sword Squad!"

"Have not heard."

"We work for Mr. Aizen!"

Mira cried out, "Mr. Aizen mentioned you! The great golden beast! I would never lie to you!"

"Oh?"

As if teleporting, Zheng Jing appeared next to his clone, patted the clone on the shoulder, and told the clone to find the other guys who wanted to escape. He then stood there and looked Mira and Bi Dong up and down.

"Old Lan, do you need your people to do things?"

Chapter 253: You?

Initially, Mira had only learned through certain channels that this material plane offered opportunities to make money and gain experience, which is why she led the Black Sword Squad there.

However, during a reconnaissance mission against the Land of Whirlpools, ordered by Iwagakure, they were captured by Orochimaru and Kakuzu.

Fortunately, neither Orochimaru nor Kakuzu killed them on the spot. Instead, they brought them to Aizen as he had instructed.

Aizen gave the Black Sword Squad two paths.

One way is to sign a contract with him in the courtyard as a witness, do something for him, and you can save your life.

Secondly, if he's a bit tough and sticks his neck out, he'll give them a quick death since we have no grudges against each other.

Mira, of course, led the Black Sword Squad to choose one.

She was actually prepared to accept a bunch of terrible terms.

Although the contract service provided by the courtyard does not support the direct establishment of slave clauses, players have long since researched various clause templates that can maximize the use of the courtyard's contract service rules and squeeze the remaining value from their opponents.

At least, Mira was prepared to be treated like a slave in this material plane.

However, the contents of the contract that Aizen gave left Mira completely dumbfounded.

The content is simple: Aizen requires Mira and the others not to reveal their player identities to any other player while they are active in this material plane. If they violate this rule, Mira and the others will have to pay a hefty fine to Aizen.

It doesn't matter if they can't pay right now. With the Courtyard's backing, if Mira and the others violate the contract, every Courtyard Coin they earn in the future will be directly transferred to Aizen's account by the Courtyard until they repay the debt.

Such a contract is truly—

Too kind and gentle.

It was arguably the most benevolent, kindest, and gentlest contract Mira had ever encountered since becoming a player.

So much so that when Mira was completely released at the border of the Land of Whirlpools, theoretically only sacrificing one of her friend slots to save her own life, she genuinely believed that Aizen was likely a kind-hearted person with a good-law or neutral-good alignment.

Then she realized she had been too naive.

The three kingdoms of Wind, Earth, and Thunder would often assign bounty hunters to scout missions in allied countries. On the one hand, it was better to pay outsiders to scout ahead than to send their own elites to their deaths without knowing what was going on. On the other hand, they used this method to create a smokescreen and confuse the intelligence agencies of allied countries.

Therefore, the Black Sword Squad was not the only player who signed that contract with Aizen.

Many of them, whether out of revenge or simply to make money, quickly revealed Aizen's existence and even his player identity by exploiting obvious loopholes in the restrictions.

Knowing that the cause of this change in the material plane was also a player, many players at the time considered taking down Aizen.

Some self-proclaimed exceptional players have even put this idea into practice.

As a result, most players in this material plane quickly abandoned even that idea.

Some players were worried that Aizen might take action against those who broke the contract, but to the surprise of many players, Aizen acted as if he had never been attacked and peacefully did business with the players who had made contracts with him and added him as a friend on the interface.

Intelligence business.

He was willing to pay Courtyard Coins to hire players to help him gather various intelligence, most commonly, information about the Axis Three Kingdoms.

For players, it doesn't matter whose business they do, right?