When he saw Zheng Zha and the other three exchanging suspicious glances, Chu Xuan smiled. "I was only testing you just now, but now I'm fairly certain... Still, I'll need you three to explain the situation. Otherwise, I can't imagine why I'd be here."
Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan both started to speak, but Zheng Zha raised a hand to stop them and asked first, "When did you last watch the horror movie Alien?"
Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses. "About seven years ago. Since I watched it fairly recently, I still remember it clearly."
Zheng Zha and the others, along with the people around them, were secretly astonished. He still remembered something from seven years ago? Did that mean they were all people without memories?
Chu Xuan suddenly addressed the newcomers. "You all saw the option 'Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?' on a webpage, right?"
The people around him answered. Their accents varied, but they all confirmed it. Everyone who had come had chosen "YES."
"I was using my computer to write a program when that option appeared beneath the programming interface. More importantly, my computer wasn't connected to the internet at the time. I didn't know of any virus that could penetrate the firewall I'd designed and used myself, so I immediately started tracing the option's source and code. Guess what I found?"
Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses and continued calmly. "The text wasn't made up of the computer's zeros and ones. Its source code wasn't an electronic program, but a set of strange written symbols. If I remember correctly, those symbols combined three of the oldest writing systems in the world: oracle bone script, papyrus script, and cuneiform. There were also large numbers of bizarre symbols I couldn't explain. Without anything to compare them to, though, they couldn't be translated."
"I was fascinated. You have to understand, when a computer breaks through the limits of zeros and ones, that's when artificial intelligence emerges. And it was even more remarkable that the text combined so many different writing systems. So I chose 'YES,' which had far more characters, and rejected 'NO,' which had only a few. The result was astonishing: I ended up here. I don't know where here is, but it must be a very long way from Yanjing City, right?"
Zheng Zha looked at the people around him, all staring in stunned silence. To be honest, he was astonished too. The newcomer who'd arrived this time was no ordinary person. Just who was he?
Zheng Zha asked hesitantly, "Who exactly are you? Why do you think we're so far from Yanjing City?"
Chu Xuan smiled. "If I couldn't figure that out with an IQ of 220, then I'd have wasted my life. Let me introduce myself again. Chu Xuan... Senior Colonel. Before coming here, I should have been at the Dragon Hidden Military Base in Yanjing, China's second-largest secret military base after the Dragon Prosperity Military Base. I find it hard to believe anyone could have abducted me from there. Besides, my locator shows that I haven't left the Dragon Hidden Base. I've thought it over, and I can only come up with one explanation for this. I clearly left the Dragon Hidden Base, but my locator says I haven't moved an inch."
Chu Xuan showed them his watch. He explained that it had been redesigned. For a national treasure of a researcher like him, who might be abducted by spies, the watch could communicate with the Dragon Hidden Base's main computer. It constantly sent signals to the main computer to confirm his location, and also displayed how far he'd traveled from the base.
"That means I instantaneously left the space I was in. In this space, the watch naturally can't receive electronic signals from the Dragon Hidden Base's main computer, so it still thinks I'm at the base. That's the only explanation I can come up with. And now it seems this absurd explanation is actually true?"
Zheng Zha exchanged a glance with Zhang Jie and the others, then suddenly said, "Zhan Lan, explain to them where we are and why we ended up here."
Zhan Lan's eyes lit up. She giggled. "Then thank you all... Heehee. When we get back, I'll cook a few dishes for you myself. A girl's stamina is naturally a little weaker than a man's, after all. When we get back, I'll put all one hundred Reward Points into Cell Vitality and Muscle Strength."
Then Zhan Lan explained the situation to everyone. In particular, she went into detail about how they would keep cycling through countless horror movies, earning one thousand Reward Points for surviving each one. Those points could be used to exchange for weapons or bodily enhancements. They were currently inside the horror movie Alien One, and the watches that had just appeared on their wrists displayed their mission: kill the Alien. Of course, she kept quiet about the Side Story in the horror movie. That was information shared by the four of them; they couldn't tell every newcomer they met.
Most of the newcomers either looked unconvinced or were visibly panicking. Aside from Chu Xuan, who calmly surveyed their surroundings, two others watched the four of them with calm expressions. Only then did Zheng Zha notice that one of the people there was a tall, muscular white man.
Zheng Zha walked over to the two and held out his hand. "May I ask your names? And does this gentleman understand Mandarin?"
One of them was somewhat lean, but it was obvious at a glance that his body was covered in taut, well-trained muscle. He didn't shake Zheng Zha's hand, instead taking a step back. "You can call me Zero Point. I don't want to answer any other questions."
The white man, on the other hand, grasped Zheng Zha's hand with easy confidence. "Kampa.Rofski. You can call me Kampa. Of course I understand Mandarin. I'm just not used to speaking it... You've got a strong grip."
Zheng Zha turned to the others. Apart from the three punks still kneeling weakly on the ground, there were five more: two potbellied middle-aged men, their hair slicked down and shining, clutching briefcases as they stood cautiously together. They were clearly businesspeople who'd known each other in the real world. The other three were two men and a woman. The men looked to be in their twenties. One seemed fairly alert as he surveyed his surroundings; the other was grinning as he flirted with the white-collar woman. Judging by their clothes, they all appeared to be office workers. After their initial panic, they seemed to have calmed down.
Zheng Zha shook his head and called out, "Everyone, tell us your former occupation, your age, and what you're best at. Then we can assign everyone their responsibilities."
The newcomers seemed hesitant. Chu Xuan spoke first. "Even if you tell us all that, it doesn't prove that what you're saying is true. Is there anything you can show us to prove you're not lying? For example, the items you say you exchanged for, or your extraordinary physical abilities?"
Zhang Jie sneered. "You think it's easy to survive a horror movie? 'Nine deaths for every life' doesn't even begin to describe how terrifying they are. Maybe someone who's survived around twenty of them could meet your requirements. With that kind of strength, you could punch straight through a steel plate."
Chu Xuan shook his head. "No, you misunderstand. I wasn't trying to mock you. I just want to put everyone at ease so we can work together smoothly. That's all." He glanced at Zero Point and Kampa.Rofski.
Then he added, "Just show me the hemostatic spray and bandages you used earlier."
Zhang Jie nodded to Li Xiaoyi. The boy immediately tossed Chu Xuan the bandages and hemostatic spray from his arms. But then the man with glasses asked, "Does anyone have a dagger? Preferably a sharp one."
Zheng Zha and the other three exchanged glances. They really didn't have any melee weapons. Just then, Kampa.Rofski pulled a black sharkskin dagger from his clothes and casually tossed it to Chu Xuan. Only then did Zheng Zha and the others notice that both the white man and Zero Point were watching Chu Xuan intently.
Chu Xuan decisively slashed his own wrist, as if the hand weren't part of his body. He cut through a blood vessel, and blood immediately welled out like water. Zhan Lan and the white-collar woman both screamed, while the other ordinary newcomers watched in astonishment. Then Chu Xuan sprayed the wound twice. Miraculously, the blood quickly clotted and the cut closed. A few seconds later, his wrist had stopped bleeding completely. He quickly wrapped it with a few turns of bandage, then tossed the sharkskin dagger, medicine, and bandages to Kampa.Rofski.
Zheng Zha and the others stared at one another. Only then did they realize that Kampa.Rofski and Zero Point had both done the same thing. Once they'd finished, Kampa.Rofski said casually, "I'm an international mercenary, the best heavy-weapons specialist around. You can call me Overlord. Honestly, I'd rather you were lying. This place is a real nightmare."
Zero Point tossed the medicine and bandages back to Li Xiaoyi. He kept turning his bandaged wrist, and only after a moment did he say coldly, "I don't have a name. Just call me Zero Point. I'm a professional assassin, specializing in long-range precision sniping. Unfortunately, this horror movie doesn't seem to need my skills, and there aren't any sniper rifles here."
Before you continue