I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

"Okay, you make sense, so it's settled then?" The boy decided to leave her alone.

“It’s a deal. I’ll contact my relatives right away!” Miriam grabbed his hand and shook it up and down.

After the discussion, Cheng Fei returned to Shen Xi's side.

"Teacher Shen, the plan has changed," the boy said, covering his mouth.

"What?" The girl stared at him, seemingly displeased.

"My senior said she could arrange a study tour to Antarctica for everyone, and we can take the opportunity to leave the group and conduct our own investigation." The boy said seriously.

"Heh, she really is willing to help you." Shen Xi's eyelids twitched, and she turned her face away with displeasure.

Cheng Fei was shocked. "Teacher Shen, how come you even ate the senior's tiramisu? Of course, she had her own purpose. We just hit it off. Isn't that good enough?"

"Whatever you want, just don't let it affect the original investigation." The girl's tone softened, but she still didn't look at him.

"Don't worry." The boy took the opportunity to pat her head lightly, but the girl noticed and turned around to glare at him fiercely.

As they spoke, the group slowly made their way through the underground world.

Suddenly, Nagasaki Asuna sensed something and her expression became wary. "Um, there seems to be something up ahead?"

Cheng Fei suppressed his relaxed mood, gripped his black longsword tightly, and walked forward.

In a slightly bright open space, a large number of corpses lay scattered about, or to put it more bluntly, severed limbs.

Judging from the scattered equipment, it was clearly a group of players, perhaps from the same guild, who were wiped out here.

"Be careful." Cheng Fei became vigilant, worried that the culprit behind all this was still lingering nearby.

"Everyone, hide behind me!" Miriam immediately deployed the tortoise-shell-shaped individual shield generator on her back.

Zhou Han and Ruan Jingyi also gripped their weapons tightly.

Kato Ai peered over, and after seeing the bloody scene on the ground, her expression changed, and she grabbed Nagasaki Asuna's arm.

After observing for a while and finding no enemies, Cheng Fei stepped forward to carefully examine the unfortunate players.

"Judging from the shape of the wound, it's neither a kinetic weapon nor an energy weapon; it's more like a laceration," Shen Xi said coldly, squatting down with a furrowed brow.

"Teacher Shen, what mystery novels have you been reading lately?" Cheng Fei asked curiously.

"Shut up." The girl glared at him, then continued to observe. Noticing something, she narrowed her eyes, a puzzled look on her face. "What's going on?"

"What's wrong?" Cheng Fei stood beside her, protecting her, and glanced at her sideways.

“Their equipment was destroyed.” Shen Xi picked up a rifle from the ground and handed it to the boy.

It was clearly a futuristic-looking energy weapon, originally.

At this moment, the gun looked as if it had been broken in half and thrown into a shredder, then chewed up by the rollers and taken out, twisted, deformed and broken beyond recognition.

"What a twisted method of committing the crime," Cheng Fei exclaimed in astonishment.

"Stop talking nonsense, what's going on here?" The girl looked at the equipment on the ground, all in similar condition, with suspicion.

"I don't know, I've never seen this before. Usually, out-of-control machines stop attacking after killing someone, and players wouldn't waste that kind of effort," the boy shrugged, speaking the truth.

"Cheng Fei, watch out!" Nagasaki Asuna suddenly raised her voice.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a figure fell from the sky and crashed heavily in front of them.

The person was covered in dark-colored equipment, making it almost impossible to see their eyes. The equipment was strangely styled, not like a complete set, but rather like pieces pieced together from various fragments. Even standing in this bright open space, they were like a dark shadow, making people feel inexplicably uncomfortable.

Cheng Fei gripped the sword hilt tightly, his brows furrowing slightly. "Did you do this?"

no respond.

The dark figure stirred, emitting a low, hoarse panting sound, before suddenly vanishing in a blur.

Cheng Fei immediately activated Time Zero at full power. In the world slowed down by fifty times, he saw the black figure raise his hand, and at the same time, an explosive pistol appeared, its black muzzle spitting fire at him.

Just as the boy dodged the shot, the dark figure lowered its upper body and approached him with terrifying speed, as if ripples could be seen spreading through the air. A tactical short-handled axe appeared in the dark figure's hand.

In the blink of an eye, the dark figure and Cheng Fei collided, completing their initial exchange in an instant, so fast that the others couldn't even see it.

When the shadowy figure flew backward and landed steadily, only half of the tactical short-handled axe remained in his hand. He looked at his weapon, then at the boy, seemingly lost in thought.

Shen Xi narrowed her eyes slightly, raised her old staff with her right hand, and a crimson stream of light as thick as a washbasin burst forth without hesitation. At the same time, the girl waved another Void Netherfire Staff with her left hand, throwing out a ball of ghostly blue flames.

Before the two-pronged attack could arrive, the dark figure ducked and fled from its original spot, then roared forward again, leaving Zhou Han's pursuing fire behind, its target still Cheng Fei.

This time, the shadowy figure held a plain-looking silver short sword.

Cheng Fei met him head-on without fear, and the black longsword clashed with his.

Amidst the deafening impact, the silver short sword showed no sign of being severed by the transdimensional separator and remained intact.

Does it have an immune-destroying effect?

The boy's expression turned serious. The shadowy figure was very fast, not much slower than him when he was at zero speed, and seemed to have a lot of combat experience.

This time, the shadowy figure did not retreat after missing its first attack. Instead, it swung its other hand, and a silver short sword of the same design appeared in its hand.

There might even be a second one!

Cheng Fei took the hit again.

Without pausing, the shadowy figure began wielding its twin swords with a frenzied gait, launching a furious onslaught against the boy.

A series of collisions erupted between the two, while the others, too entangled to find an opportunity to intervene.

"Who are you?" the boy asked during a break in the conversation.

Still no response.

While fighting him, Cheng Fei observed his actions. The dark figure in front of him reminded him of the Black Umbrella. Although their fighting styles were different, this strange behavior always made him feel uneasy.

After a series of unsuccessful attacks, the shadowy figure jumped back to create distance. Then, the twin swords in his hands disappeared, replaced by a futuristic-looking energy weapon. He raised it with both hands and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A series of dazzling beams of light shot out, which Cheng Fei skillfully dodged. Then, the boy gripped his black longsword and launched a counterattack, forcibly tearing apart the solidified air in front of him with a shriek.

Cheng Fei appeared in front of the shadowy figure and delivered a lightning-fast upward slash.

The shadowy figure twisted its body in a strange way to dodge, but still couldn't escape the trajectory of the blade, and half of its arm spun and fell off.

903. Just the two of them making a video call.

The moment its arm was severed, the shadowy figure immediately fled, its energy weapon vanishing as it staggered and shrank into the darkness.

Cheng Fei decisively pursued, his sword flashing out.

The shadowy figure scrambled to avoid the attack, then a triangular device appeared in its hand. The figure patted the device against its chest, and a metallic liquid flowed out, spreading along the figure's body as if it were alive, instantly forming a damaged exoskeleton that wrapped around its body.

Seeing this, Cheng Fei hesitated for a moment and slowed down his attack.

The exoskeleton glowed with a faint indicator light and hummed as it helped the shadowy figure lift off the ground. Then, its legs emitted a dim stream of particles, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the dark sky.

Zhou Han seized the last opportunity to fire her pink assault rifle, but still couldn't stop the dark figure from escaping. Her round eyes widened slightly, "Ah, it flew away? That's possible?"

The sudden battle came to an end, and the atmosphere in the open space became quiet.

Cheng Fei stood there, staring at the direction where the dark figure disappeared, frowning and lost in thought.

Shen Xi quickly ran forward, picked up the severed half of the boy's arm, examined it, and immediately froze.

"Any discoveries?" Nagasaki Asuna asked, craning her neck with her hands behind her back.

“Empty…” Shen Xi stared at the object in her hand, her brows furrowed.

The shadowy figure was covered in equipment pieced together from fragments, and its severed arm was wrapped in strange gloves and sleeves. However, when the girl looked through the cut, she found that it was empty inside. There was no blood, and there was no limb at all. It was just a piece of stiff fabric, as if the shadowy figure itself was an empty shell made of equipment fragments.

"What's going on?" Shen Xi held the things up to Cheng Fei and looked at the boy.

"I don't know." The boy shook his head, giving him a helpless look, and then looked around. "It's best to leave here first."

Even he didn't know what the shadowy figure was, but it was clearly not a player, so it was best to be cautious.

The aloof girl exchanged a glance with him and nodded.

The group quickly inspected the scene and, after confirming there were no further clues, retreated the way they came.

……

Cheng Fei took off his helmet and looked at the ceiling of the rented room, letting out a slight sigh of relief.

The boy glanced at the night outside the window, shook his head, and put the matter of the corridor out of his mind.

Rest is still the most important thing.

Just then, his phone on the table beeped with a WeChat notification. He opened it and saw it was a private message from a friend named Xiao A.

"That thing definitely isn't a player. Do you have any clues?"

"No, it's too late now. How about we go to sleep first and discuss it tomorrow?"

The boy replied immediately.

"You've never seen an enemy like this before?"

"No, if Professor Shen really wants to discuss this, perhaps I could go over now?"

"Don't dream about it, this week's meeting has already taken place, this kind of chat is enough."

"It's also cute to chat with you late at night by text."

"Stop talking nonsense. That thing's weapons appear out of thin air during combat."

"It seems like that's true."

"Just like you"

"Teacher Shen, don't make baseless accusations! When did I suddenly produce a weapon out of thin air?"

"Aren't those your props?!"

"Rationally speaking, I think that thing just used the corridor for help. It might have some kind of system privileges and called the function of the magic lock in the smuggling area."

"Ha, Cheng Feiyu, you immediately change the subject when asked about your secrets. Your conversational skills are terrible."

"Teacher Shen, I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight, love you."

"What you said might certainly be true, and it does at least have some merit, though it's nowhere near as good as mine."

"If you want to appear genuinely praising me, you can omit the last sentence."

"Because I wasn't sincere, you foolish aquatic mammal."

"Not enough for internet access, logging off."

"What do you think of that thing's combat capabilities?"

"It's alright, I still have a slight edge, even though I seem to have a lot of tricks up my sleeve."

"Ha, he can brag about himself and then suddenly have internet access money. How laughable, Cheng Feiyu."

"You love to laugh so much, but you won't laugh when I tell you to."

"Shut up. Anyway, let's treat this as a new topic and investigate while we explore the underground."

"Yes, Minister."

"Garbage, can we video chat now? Of course, if you don't want to, then forget it."

"OK"

The moment the boy sent his reply, a video call invitation came in.

He sat on the edge of the bed and pressed accept.

A cool, aloof girl with long, dark hair appears in the picture, dressed in casual clothes and expressionless, seemingly sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Teacher Shen, you actually took the initiative to video call me." The boy looked genuinely surprised.

"Shut up, I just wanted to make sure you weren't fooling around with other girls." The girl glared at him.

"I've been playing games with you, this internet-addicted girl, until just now. This excuse is too contrived." The boy was speechless.

"I told you to shut up." The girl glared at him again.

"Yes." The boy zipped up his mouth.