It just ca with a pretty hefty price.
You needed to pay at least a hundred million points to make it so that after killing so random passerby it was like nothing had ever happened. Pretty much a clearly marked price tag.
"The first one."
Chen Mang casually picked one. After watching the person leave, he finally asked in a low voice, "Did you find anything?"
"No."
In his ear ca Ai's slightly rueful voice: "The other side... seems like they didn't even notice us..."
Just now, when he'd asked Ai to help him touch the permissions so he could say the safeword even while under arrest, Ai had said this counted as a high‑risk intrusion and would be noticed by that max‑level AI.
But the good news was, once the other side intervened, Ai could imdiately use counter‑intrusion to follow the traces they left and locate where that AI was deployed, then start an invasion from the AI mainbrain and fully take over this ga.
Except...
That max‑level AI hadn't noticed them at all.
"If it didn't, then forget it."
Chen Mang wasn't particularly surprised; he just said calmly, "This ga is definitely not simple. We have to find where this ga's AI is installed as soon as possible and see what those Divine-level Civilizations are really up to."
Right at that mont—
"Two things. First, Qi Kexiu says the Accessory Original Image for 'Powerful Magnet' has been fully developed."
"Nice."
The corners of Chen Mang's mouth lifted slightly. "That kid did good. And the second?"
"The second is... a post that just went insanely viral on the player forum. A player who got a Train Order, after obtaining iron ore resources, didn't collect the train right away. He just held it in his hand and logged off."
"But after logging off, he found the resources had actually followed him back into reality."
"The mont the post went up it blew up. Multiple players ran experints and confird you can indeed bring in‑ga resources into reality. Not just iron ore, but even Accessory Blueprints, and even... trains themselves!"
"..."
That shut Chen Mang up. This ant it was no longer just a virtual online ga; you could even call it a 'Third Cosmos'. He'd known from the start that those Divine-level Civilizations teaming up to make a ga like this wasn't just to rake in profits. There had to be another agenda.
"Hoo..."
After a mont he let out a slow breath, silently recited "Chen Mang" in his heart. The safeword triggered, and he successfully logged off.
...
Back in reality.
The first thing Chen Mang did was pull up the Accessory Original Image for "Powerful Magnet" that Qi Kexiu had developed and rescreen it, then log into the player forum to read those posts. One of the eye‑catching threads even had a photo of him being arrested.
anwhile.
The ga had already caused a huge stir. Only now did players realize this ga didn't even have an official website. No one knew who the dev team was, no one knew who was running and operating this ga. No signatures, no publisher.
Just carpet‑bombing, saturation ads everywhere.
He sat in the train compartnt scrolling through post after post, trying to find sothing in between the lines.
Right then—
"Wait!"
Chen Mang suddenly narrowed his eyes. He felt like he'd overlooked a detail. He imdiately put on the glasses lying to the side and went back into the ga. When he logged in again, he found himself still in the "interrogation room", waiting to be questioned.
Although he'd gotten permission through Ai to use the safeword even while under arrest, he still couldn't leave the interrogation room.
"Can you modify my points balance?"
"I can, but that's an even higher‑risk operation. The other side will definitely notice."
"All the better. You focus on counter‑tracking. Set my points balance to one hundred trillion."
"Modification complete."
Fifteen minutes later.
A lawyer in a suit walked in, smiling at him. "Hello, sir. I'm your appointed attorney. You can leave the Law Enforcent Bureau now. I'll handle all subsequent claims on your behalf."
Behind him were several enforcent officers, here to take off his handcuffs.
"Even the best lawyer's supposed to show their skills in court, right?"
Chen Mang stood up and flexed his slightly sore wrists.
"Federation SSS‑tier lawyers don't need to. We have our own thods. We have to be worthy of the ten billion points our clients pay us, after all."
"How'd you pull it off?"
"That's classified."
The lawyer just smiled at him and didn't elaborate.
"Another ten billion if you tell how you did it."
"You serious, sir?"
"Sent."
"I bribed the director with ten million."
"And the remaining 9.99 billion?"
"That's my profit."
"Not bad."
After stretching a bit, Chen Mang walked up to the lawyer and said softly, "Then why didn't I just bribe him myself?"
"Under Federation law, taking bribes is not a cri. Giving bribes is a major felony. I took on the bribery risk on behalf of you, my client."
"There's a law like that?"
"There is. As lawyers we're supposed to study the code thoroughly, so that when we bribe people, we can properly manage the risks."
...
Very soon—
Under the gaze of a bunch of law enforcers, Chen Mang walked out of the Law Enforcent Bureau in broad daylight. In fact, he'd just seen another solution: he could have spent big to hire a rcenary squad and have them bust him out.
Except...
That felt a bit too ga‑breaking.
He suddenly didn't feel like wrecking this ga anymore.
Since items in this ga could be brought into reality, and he could freely edit his points balance, he could just redeem a mountain of resources and bring them into the real world. That worked fine too.
Right then—
"Hm?"
He saw the balance on his panel suddenly drop to zero, and the lawyer beside him frowned. "Sir, maybe check your statent? It shows the two paynts you just made have both been refunded back to you."
Before he could say anything.
The lawyer's furrowed brows relaxed again and he smiled. "Never mind, sir, they're back."
And on his panel, his balance was topped up again, now at one quadrillion.
Even more than before.
"Ai?"
Chen Mang tried calling out to Ai in his mind, but got no response. He didn't push it. Clearly, at this mont the ga's mainbrain had probably locked onto him, and Ai was counter‑tracking. In the clash between the two, Ai didn't even have spare cycles to answer him.
Looked like this was going to be tricky.
It'd been a long ti since he'd seen Ai's compute power stretched so thin it couldn't even spare the bandwidth for a sentence.
Only then did he look toward the streetlights on both sides of the city.
Sure enough.
Embedded at the top of every streetlamp was a stone, the sa color as the pole, extrely well hidden. Even if other people noticed it, they probably wouldn't know what it was. But he happened to know...
They were Dream Stones.
An old, familiar partner.
If they were Dream Stones, then yes, Dream Stones did have the ability to bring items from "virtual" into reality—but the place they sent you in "virtual" wasn't truly virtual. It was another real location.
A fusion of dream and reality.
This city had Dream Stones embedded everywhere.
Looking closer.
Even on those outer walls, tactile paving, railings, greenbelts and so on, you could see Dream Stones all over the place.
"Fusing a ton of Dream Stones with a max‑level AI to build a massive ga that blends dream and reality, huh?"
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly and muttered.
-
The lawyer's furrowed brows relaxed again and he smiled. "Never mind, sir, they're back."
And on his panel, his balance was topped up again, now at one quadrillion.
Even more than before.
"Ai?"
Chen Mang tried calling out to Ai in his mind, but got no response. He didn't push it. Clearly, at this mont the ga's mainbrain had probably locked onto him, and Ai was counter‑tracking. In the clash between the two, Ai didn't even have spare cycles to answer him.
Looked like this was going to be tricky.
It'd been a long ti since he'd seen Ai's compute power stretched so thin it couldn't even spare the bandwidth for a sentence.
Only then did he look toward the streetlights on both sides of the city.
Sure enough.
Embedded at the top of every streetlamp was a stone, the sa color as the pole, extrely well hidden. Even if other people noticed it, they probably wouldn't know what it was. But he happened to know...
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