The Land of Sparks

"We won't lose our top ten position, will we?"

After entering Red Rain Street, Baozi nervously looked around, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no other players on the street.

The eldest brother, Hui, held the pacifier like a cigarette dangling from his lips, circled it around, drew a line on the ground with his finger, and then smelled it.

"A strong smell of blood."

The eldest brother, Hui, removed the pacifier, spat out a mouthful of milk, and said with a serious expression:

"A major battle took place here, and the number of participants was probably quite large."

After speaking, he gestured to the last remaining bodyguard, who silently nodded and ran towards the source of the bloody smell.

The eldest brother, Hui, took out a pistol and walked along the wall. When he reached a window, a face suddenly appeared.

It was a woman's face corroded by sulfuric acid, with a hollow eye staring straight at him. Her mouth opened and closed, and the built-in voice generator emitted a sweet voice that was completely opposite to her appearance.

"Do you need any service, Master?"

"Do you need any service, Master?"

Big Brother Hui's eye twitched violently. He used his strength to climb onto the window and looked down. Sure enough, he saw that the processor on the back of the woman's head was missing a corner.

"An android with a broken emotional template?"

He continued walking and heard the roar of a beast coming from a house.

Big Brother Hui carefully pushed open the door. Through the crack, he saw a 'lion' chained to a thick iron chain. The lion had normal human hands and feet, with a bluish-black surface, and was convulsing wildly, as if it had Parkinson's disease. On its head, which was covered in yellow fur, he could vaguely see a human face.

"Human-animal cell hybridization, a defective product of biological experiments."

The eldest brother Hui investigated more than a dozen houses, and in almost every house, he could find a "patient". Some of them were heavy addicts to electronic drugs, some were robots with aging parts, and some were blind AIs with malfunctioning visual sensors. In short, none of them were normal people.

In a sense, it's quite remarkable that they were able to gather so many "patients".

"Is this a mental hospital?"

Big Brother Hui couldn't help but complain.

Just then, Baozi's voice rang out from the front.

"Boss Hui! Boss Hui, where are you?! Hurry up and sign in!!"

Big Brother Hui quickly ran over, his two short legs swinging with great energy.

In front of a building that resembled a "dojo," Big Brother Hui saw six figures. Besides Baozi, the rich woman's little wolfhound, a fellow pay-to-win player, there was Taidao-san and his two companions.

"Holy crap, this game even has minors!"

"Idiot, this is Boss Hui, the heir to the triads, the future gang leader," Tai Dao Sang paused, "Although this body is indeed underage, by the way, Boss Hui, are you still wearing diapers?"

The eldest brother, Hui, paused for a moment and looked at Baozi.

"Why don't you go in?"

Baozi pointed to the time clock at the door.

The eldest brother, Hui, walked to the door, looked up, paused for a moment, then turned around and said, "Can you do me a favor?"

Baozi suppressed a laugh and picked up her older brother Hui. After swiping the card, the number became 7.

"Maybe they'll have to wait until all ten of them are here before they go through the cutscene," Baozi guessed.

"That should be it. Also, you can put me down now."

"Oh oh."

Baozi quickly put his older brother Hui down, but Hui put the pacifier back in his mouth. The way he put the pacifier in his mouth was very much like that of an old smoker. This gangster's adopted son crossed his arms, frowned, and seemed to be thinking about something.

"Since we're already here, why don't we go check if there are any side quests?" Baozi suggested.

"I'm not going, whoever wants to go can go!" Taiji shook his head like a rattle drum.

"And you guys?" Baozi, looking at the other two players.

"We took a quick look around, and how should I put it, it's pretty much like Silent Hill. Let's wait until we get through the main storyline," the two players chuckled dryly and also rejected the idea.

"Okay," Baozi gave up on the idea. He wasn't afraid of the horror movie style, but he was a little tired after playing Welfare Gang all morning.

Let's come again when we have the chance.

For a moment, no one spoke; everyone was waiting for the last three lucky winners.

Because the "mechanical swordsman" randomly kills people, the players who get here are basically all relying on luck, and no one knows who the last three players will be.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, a lazy voice rang out.

"It's so lively here! Are you all waiting for me?"

A young man wearing a hood walked over, with a katana hanging on his back, dressed quite like an assassin.

"What's your name, brother?" Baozi, the social genius, took the initiative to greet him.

"Lingling Shui, her profession is a business assassin."

"Business, assassins?"

Baozi and Honghuayao exchanged a glance, and at the same time thought of Umbrella Brother who had disappeared for many days.

"What is a commercial assassin?" another player asked curiously.

Do you know what corporate espionage is?

"Certainly."

"I'm the kind of person who takes out corporate spies."

"Wow, that's amazing!"

Although Lingling Shui wasn't socially anxious, she wasn't very talkative either. After a brief greeting, she leaned against a pillar and closed her eyes to rest.

A few minutes later, another player came over. Surprisingly, this player was carrying a lantern in broad daylight.

The somewhat gloomy player glanced at the group and nodded.

"ID: I will always like Zhang Aiping, corporate investigator."

"Investigator, what are you investigating?"

"Currently investigating AI."

Even Lingling Shui, who had been resting with her eyes closed, opened one eye and curiously looked at the strange player.

This student, Zhang, looked like the kind of person who was unapproachable, especially since his lantern emitted a strange electronic glow.

Can this thing summon spirits?

Baozi opened its mouth, but then quickly closed it again.

Why are all the players here these weirdos?

He glanced at his eldest brother, Hui. Oh, I forgot, this one doesn't seem quite right either.

Fortunately, the last group that arrived were normal people, a standard five-person team, dressed in a flashy, very street style, and their weapons were the same: plain pistols, baseball bats with steel nails, mechanical knuckle dusters, and mechanical crossbows—the crossbows were even sold to them by Baozi.

These five people belong to a street gang in the outer city. They all know Baozi and often visit his shop, although most of the time they just browse without buying anything, the kind who drool over the high-end prosthetic bodies.

After the five learned of the situation, they discussed it amongst themselves and finally decided that the team leader would "gugu dudu" to clock in.

"Brother Baozi, your crossbow is no good. It broke after only a few uses," he grumbled.

"Nonsense, if it were of decent quality, would I sell it to you? Cough, would I give you this price for truly high-quality stuff?"

"Shady businessman!"

"Don't ask me for discounts anymore."

"Brother, I was wrong!"

After the number of people who checked in reached 10, the door creaked open.

In fact, this kind of broken wooden door can be easily broken open by a player with a light bump.

But isn't this just going through the motions? Besides, players are already ingrained with the idea that "quest items cannot be damaged," so they never even thought of this aspect.

Inside the "dojo," a mechanical girl sat cross-legged, with a knife stuck in front of her.

One look at their appearance, the next at their pictures, and the players immediately went wild!

"Holy crap, a robot girl!"

"Her chubby cheeks are so cute and adorable!"

"It's a pity she has small breasts."

"So what if he's flat-chested? The important thing is he's handsome!"

"I want to draw cards, I want to raise a waifu, how come this game doesn't even have a card-drawing function!"

"I bow to this whale (a player who spends a lot of money on in-game purchases)!"

"Complete mechanical modification, holy crap, how much would that cost?!"

Prosthetic body enthusiasts were drooling over it.

"This knife looks familiar," Baozi muttered. "Is it using the same weapon model?"

Like Kobayashi Hidemoto, Xiao Yu's attributes are all question marks in the eyes of players, even the "severe danger" attribute is exactly the same.

Xiao Yu's eyelids twitched incessantly. The players were watching her, and she was also secretly spying on them.

There were too many people, and she was a little scared.

Fortunately, she didn't forget the senior engineer's instructions. The three-phase energy nozzles on her body slowly lit up, and blue particles overflowed from the gaps in her body. A gentle breeze blew, making her short hair bounce up and down.

Stimulated by the energy, the demonic sword in the distance began to hum and tremble, and the intelligent chip began to automatically evolve the sword's path.

In the eyes of the players, the sword seemed to have transformed into a giant python as thick as a water vat, with bloodshot eyes like searchlights, scales as thick as washbasins, and its enormous body began to roam around the 'dojo'.

All players now have the negative status effect of "Advanced Creature Suppression", which reduces all attributes by 30%.

The python swam faster and faster, its eyes turning from time to time, staring longingly at the players. As its body swept across, it stirred up a strong, fishy smell. When it flicked out its tongue, which was several meters long, most of the players broke out in a cold sweat.

This game is always exceptionally realistic in its details.

The giant python slowly rose, blotting out the sky. After reaching the height of a ten-story building, it paused for a moment, then suddenly pounced down, its blood-red maw snapping at the group of players.

Holy crap!

"The monster has been summoned?"

"Isn't this supposed to be an interlude?"

"It doesn't display a health bar!!"

Just as the players were terrified, the giant python suddenly stopped moving. Everyone looked over and saw that the mechanical girl's mechanical fingers were gripping the scales tightly at the python's tail.

The next moment, the giant python disappeared, replaced by Xiao Yu wielding a demonic sword, practicing an ancient sword technique originating from the empire. The aura was so fierce and the swordsmanship so exquisite that for a moment, everyone felt as if they had been transported to the era of mechanical warfare, where a mechanical girl was fighting against countless octopus monsters. Every strike of hers was like a master butcher dissecting an ox, piercing through the gaps in the monsters' armor and directly striking the energy core of the octopus monsters.

Xiao Yu's swordsmanship bears a striking resemblance to the nameless general in the mechanical scroll, with about 70% similarity.

The girl wielding the sword no longer had any confusion in her eyes, only an unwavering will. Her expression was filled with holiness, and she had completely and utterly mastered the almost out-of-control mechanical abilities.

With his final strike, Xiao Yu gripped the sword with both hands, roared, and triggered a small-scale energy tidal resonance. Countless residual energy gathered around him, and with a second burst from the energy nozzle, it spewed out violent flames and light, almost engulfing most of the arena.

Amidst the flames, only the girl held a knife, her eyes burning like fire.

Battle Angel:

Effect 1: In combat form, normal attacks are increased by 200%, and weak point attacks by 300%, greatly increasing the chance of a one-hit kill.

Effect Two: Angel Form. Purifies everything through the expansion of its life force, utilizing fire, lightning, and wind energy. Coverage area: 10*10m.

Effect 3: Battle Angel. Entering Battle Angel mode will grant you a higher level of combat instincts.

Specialty templates completely differentiate the combat power of players from that of NPCs.

Xiao Yu has two more templates of this type.

Xiao Yu spoke slowly and deliberately, as if he was thinking of his words, but his powerful aura was still quite impressive.

"Welcome, strangers."

"My name is Xiao Yu, a volunteer security officer on Red Rain Street. This is a lone boat in the Cyber Experimentation Site, the only spark of hope in the City That Never Sleeps. We provide voluntary protection for all those with serious illnesses, failed experiments, and those who have failed at modification."

"The mechanical age is advancing by leaps and bounds, human modification is touching taboos, and cyberspace is devouring intelligent life, but we will not give up. Although the chances are slim, life is short, and we are not alone. There will always be others who will join us."

---Aside---

There's one more picture coming up later, you can look at it tomorrow.