Earth, Trading City.
As night falls, this super city spanning the Pacific Ocean artificial island chain lights up.
Viewed from a high altitude, the entire city is like a Giant Net woven by light.
The lights of different colors in the city outline the outlines of the seven major urban districts.
The white light in the human race city, the blue-green fluorescence in the Haiqi race city, the red light in the refit race city... each kind of light represents a race of the Earth Alliance.
And this city was also founded by seven races.
The Advent War that year caused the earth to continuously experience climate disasters, energy crises and waves of automated unemployment for a period of time.
In particular, the emergence of the wave of automated unemployment has plunged many races into turmoil.
Moon Eclipse Clan's advanced technology replaces labor, which means that ordinary manpower will have difficulty creating value.
95% of the traditional labor force can no longer generate income for themselves.
Factories no longer need workers, logistics no longer need drivers, and even basic medical diagnosis is beginning to turn to eclipse intelligence.
The creed of "labor creates value" collapsed in front of the efficient machinery of the Moon Eclipse Clan.
The unemployment wave swept across the world and society fell into turmoil.
In order to solve this problem, Human Federation and other ethnic groups have tried to directly distribute basic income and use the wealth created by machines to feed the unemployed.
But this seemingly perfect plan soon revealed fatal flaws.
When people lose the meaning of work, society begins to fall apart.
Idle crowds wandered the streets, and the crime rate skyrocketed.
Especially the potential crisis that was suppressing the minds of all races at that time: the emergence of the next coming force.
During this period, depression swept the world and the suicide rate reached a record high.
Human beings who have lost their goals begin to divide into extreme groups, and social order is on the verge of collapse.
It is in this cyber environment that the virtual economy emerged.
After docking with Star Network, the Star Network provided by the Moon Eclipse Clan was initially just for more efficient communication between clans.
But after the Moon Eclipse Clan opened virtual games, the world ushered in a round of economic recovery.
Everyone can connect to Star Network through virtual devices, and then freely access the virtual world through Star Network, allowing the senses to experience alternative feelings in the virtual world.
For this reason, many people choose to get rid of the boredom of the real world and join the virtual world.
At this stage, Moon Eclipse Clan already has game warehouse technology.
But the support and distribution to all ethnic groups are still holographic neural access helmets.
Looking at the virtual devices at that time from a modern perspective is like looking at functional machines when ancient people used smart phones.
The biggest contribution of the virtual economy to this period is that it gives people the feeling of being "needed".
This feeling is far more important than money in maintaining social stability.
Trading City, this artificial miracle built on Pacific Ocean, was the intersection of the virtual economy and the real world at that time.
Here, virtual assets can be exchanged for physical goods, and ideas can be converted into real money.
Virtual currencies in different games and virtual social software have also experienced a revival at this stage.
This was also a future development pilot city jointly established by seven ethnic groups at that time.
But in today's era, Trading City is like the United Nations in the ancient times of the earth.
There was once a brilliant idea, but only an empty shell remained.
As of today, it is just an introduction in a history book.
This super city spanning Pacific Ocean has also experienced the fate of being eliminated by the times, and has now transformed into an ordinary city where multiple races live together.
The first residents of this city were basically engineers, architects, environmental control experts, etc. who participated in the construction of the city at that time. The current residents of the city are also the descendants of the groups who participated in the construction of the city at that time.
At 3 o'clock in the morning, the lights in some areas of Exchange City gradually went out.
At this moment, a spatial distortion suddenly appeared over the city.
Like ripples in the air during a summer heat wave, they are almost unnoticeable at night.
Then the ripples tore apart quickly, and the space was like a curtain being torn apart by invisible hands.
The edge of the crack flashed with unstable silver light, and a slender figure wrapped in black evil wind slowly descended from Spatial Rift. Suddenly, the Spatial Rift behind him closed up, as if it had never existed.
Overlooking the night view of the city, the approaching figure slowly raised the bone staff in his hand, and a mask made of silver mist on his face quickly changed expressions. Finally, it settled on a pensive expression, as if he was weighing something.
After a moment, the expression on the mask turned into a smile.
With a flicker of its body, it turned into a black evil wind and disappeared into the night, swooping towards the trading city below.
Finally sneaked into a renovated old apartment.
On the balcony, an orange cat was lazily licking its paws. The game cabin in the room had its indicator light on, and there were players playing the game inside. The original gaze of this evil wind was the figure in the game cabin.
But when he saw the shape and face of this figure, the evil wind suddenly froze, as if he was hesitating for something.
In the end, it chose the orange cat lying on the balcony.
The evil wind quietly penetrated into the orange cat's ears. The cat's movements suddenly froze, and its pupils suddenly shrank into a thin line.
"Meow! Meow! Meow!"
"Meow~"
The orange cat first made an abnormal and violent cry, and then returned to normal.
It's like adapting to the body, and the early confusion is caused by inappropriate control.
Borrowing the cat's body, the uninvited guest began its investigation.
It jumped off the balcony lightly, entered the room, and looked at the environment in the room curiously.
After walking around the room, the orange cat jumped out of the balcony and started to shuttle through the city's intricate pipeline system.
One day later.
Life Throat used the body of an orange cat to lie on the top of a building, squinting his eyes and overlooking the city scene under the scorching sun.
This world... is completely different from what I imagined.
Before arriving, it imagined that this would be a world filled with powerful people.
Even low-level creatures can tear apart the sky with their bare hands, while powerful beings can easily move mountains and fill seas.
The air should be filled with strong spiritual energy fluctuations.
But in this fragile world in front of us, the spiritual energy in the air is so thin that it is almost negligible, like clear water that has been diluted tens of millions of times. His beard trembled slightly, Life Throat still didn't understand this problem.
"This world... shouldn't be."
Putting aside environmental issues for the moment, the materials used in this world are also very inferior.
For example, the towering tower in the distance is completely made of a bunch of fragile materials.
Place it on Monster World, and any monster can easily tear it into pieces.
Life Throat patted the edge of the rooftop with his cat's paw, lost in thought, but couldn't figure out what the problem was.
This arrival is due to a failed game by Monster World.
The person who was playing against him at that time was probably a member of the Tidal Rebellion Legion training camp.
It originally chose to give up on this failed game. After all, the power behind the opponent held rule-level power that was stronger than the "Rules of Destiny". Since the opponent was a member of the Tidal Rebellion Legion, it chose to withdraw and did not take action against the new generation of Counter-Tide.
But the result is a continuous backlash of fate.
The logic is achieved, the rules take effect, and the result is wrong.
If this continues, its life level will decline as a result.
In order to curb the backlash of the Monster Soul rules, it could only choose to launch an investigation as a debt collector, hoping to recover the losses in Fate Game. However, the scale of the Tidal Rebellion Legion was huge, and it was not easy to find the ethnic group behind the people who participated in the game at that time.
It sought help from the patriarch for this purpose and obtained the coordinates through a Fate Game method.
Finally, he got the detailed Spatial Coordinates.
But what puzzles Life Throat is that this Spatial Coordinates is not in Monster World, and the coordinates are directed to the void outside Monster World. Obviously, the rules of fate cannot go wrong.
In order to find out the situation, it decided to personally launch a cross-space investigation, but it was also mentally prepared for failure.
With a rule-level power that is stronger than "destiny", the opponent's world must be full of spiritual energy and the strong are rampant.
Traveling alone on this trip is extremely risky, and you may even die.
But as one of the twelve life masters of Fate Race, it is its responsibility to implement the established trajectory of destiny.
This is also the source of power given to it by destiny.
With a feeling of apprehension, it set off.
It's just that the situation is completely different from what was expected.
It even made it feel like something went wrong during the space jump.
Passing through Spatial Rift, it found itself in a world that was almost devoid of aura.
It is even more incomparable with Monster World.
Logically speaking, such a world cannot breed strong people, nor can it create rules.
A force that controls the rules would not choose to survive in this world.
So he suspected that he was in the wrong place.
But the judgment of the rules of fate has never been wrong.
The last defeat had nothing to do with the judgment. It was purely because the rules mastered by the opponent were too strong, making it impossible for the rules of fate to extract the benefits of the game. But now that he was here, he decided to investigate.
It originally wanted to possess the intelligent creatures in this world and obtain their memories so that it could quickly understand the situation in this world. But after seeing the creatures lying in the coffin lid, it gave up this idea.
Judging only from its appearance, the weak creature lying inside is not much different from the creature it originally played games with.
This discovery made him realize that this was exactly the world where the powerful clan lived.
Although I still can't understand why the environment in this world is so bad and the creatures are so weak.
Now that it has a clear target, it plans to lurk in this world and conduct in-depth investigations.
This is also the reason why it does not choose to attack weak creatures.
If there really is a god who controls powerful rules behind the creatures in this world, it hopes to solve the problem through negotiation. The act of killing at will will only be interpreted as provocation by the other party.
But this day's investigation made it even more confused.
With its tail gently sweeping, it constantly analyzes the absurdities of the world.
The first is the combat power system: technology.
In its eyes, these things called technology are like toys.
The iron box that relies on magnetic force to float is so slow that even a reptile cub of Monster World cannot catch up.
The so-called "energy weapons", if hit on Monster World's ordinary beasts, might not even be able to damage their fur.
As for the materials used, they are even more unsightly.
The entire city's buildings are made of fragile non-aura mineral alloys and concrete, which can be smashed through by any monster. The shells of the vehicles on the street are as thin as paper, and the bodies of the creatures are even more pitiful.
Without the tempering of spiritual energy, the muscles will be soft and the bones will be fragile.
If such a creature is placed in Monster World, it is afraid that it will be knocked to death by the "fireflies" at the bottom of the food chain that make a living by collecting nectar. As for the growth system, it is in the information it has investigated.
There is no cultivation system in this world yet.
In such an environment, even if there is a cultivation and growth system, the thin spiritual energy in the air cannot be utilized.
While traveling through the city, it actually heard the four words "virtual world" appearing very frequently.
It seems to be a spiritual fictional scene similar to Mirage.
In Life Throat's opinion, this is nothing more than a group of ants who cannot practice spiritual practice, using clumsy electronic signals to simulate the spiritual world and deceiving themselves and others. The ears trembled slightly, and it continued to capture the conversation on the street.
The two creatures passing by below were talking about the contents of the virtual world again.
Life Throat's cat eyes flashed with a hint of sarcasm.
These creatures obviously live in the real world, but they are addicted to false Mirage.
In Monster World, weak races will at least struggle to survive and strive to become stronger.
But the creatures in this world are willing to live in the cage woven by Mirage, without even the desire to struggle. How sad. But thinking about it carefully, it feels that it cannot entirely blame these Small World creatures.
After all, the general environment is like this. No matter how hard an individual struggles, he cannot break free from the shackles of the world.
Thinking of this, the problem is back to its original point.
How could such a world produce strong men who could resist the rules of fate?
Life Throat is puzzled.
It decided to investigate further and learn more about the social structure of this world.
In the next two days, Life Throat completely integrated into the identity of the orange cat.
In the early morning, it would squat on the trash can next to the breakfast stall, watching the humans in a hurry to go to work mechanically swallowing the inferior food synthesized by the robot. The stall owner was a mechanical creature, and the billboard on his chest also played various messy promotional contents in a loop.
The most discussed topics among people waiting in line are topics in virtual games.
"Are things in the virtual world more attractive than real things?" Life Throat tilted the cat's head, watching a young man stuff the last bite of food into his mouth, and then said impatiently that he wanted to go back and play "Dark Land".
At noon, the orange cat sneaked into the rest area of the science and technology office building.
Through the transparent glass wall, it can see that two-thirds of the workstations in the open office area are empty.
Most jobs are completely filled by robots.
People in those positions are lying in sleep cabins, and their consciousness is active in the digital world.
The remaining people were gesticulating in the air, dealing with the interface business between the virtual world and the real economy.
"What an interesting way of slavery." Life Throat looked at a man who looked like a supervisor scolding his subordinates.
They don't even need whips, these enslaved people themselves will work hard to maintain this slavery system.
In the evening, the orange cat squatted on the school wall.
Children on the playground are taking physical education classes, and there will be supervision during the course to require the children to follow their own ideas.
"Have even the cubs been tamed?"
Life Throat's tail slapped the ground, feeling very curious about the ordinaryness of this Small World.
What confused Life Throat the most was the residential area at night.
Through the window, it saw countless families living in the same room, each immersed in an independent virtual space.
There is no communication between husband and wife, no interaction between parents and children, and even many pets are equipped with virtual companionship systems.
After observing these days, Life Throat feels that the civilization of this world is slowly committing suicide.
All living beings are escaping from reality.
They put their consciousness in a cage and were completely addicted to false fantasies.
It is impossible to imagine what future this kind of civilization can have.
But if you think about it carefully, this is a Small World after all.
In such a world, indulging in illusion may not be a comfort in a short life.
Life Throat squatted under the eaves, looking at the dim city lights in the rain, and suddenly felt a little dazed.
In Monster World, hundreds of millions of races are fighting for survival, and the law of the jungle is Eternal.
Every living thing has been fighting for its life since birth. The strong devour the weak, and the weak struggle to survive without daring to stop for a moment.
The same is true for the Tidal Rebellion Legion, who once sealed them because of the failure of the game. The first thing in the growth of every living being is to become a warrior. The process is like a big wave washing away the sand, and the best ones will be sent to Tidal Rebellion Training Camp for more cruel training.
Not just Tidal Rebellion Legion.
Even those who stand at the pinnacle of Monster World must always be wary of being replaced by latecomers.
That kind of world is cruel yet magnificent, and every moment is filled with the tempering of blood and fire.
And the world in front of us...
The orange cat's tail swayed slightly, and his eyes scanned the holographic advertisement on the street corner.
In the picture, a family of three are laughing on a virtual beach in a social game.
Sunshine, Sea Wave, breeze, everything is so perfect.
Although it is an advertisement, it also reflects the daily life of Small World creatures.
There is no pressure to survive, no fear of the weak and the strong. They only need to connect the equipment and enjoy a short but stable life in the dreamland woven by data.
"Maybe... this is not bad?"
Life Throat's cat eyes flashed with a trace of complex emotions.
He was born at Monster World.
There, the weak do not even have the right to choose to live.
Even after death, their flesh, blood, soul, and everything else will be drained by the strong and become nutrients.
And the creatures in this world can at least choose their own way of living.
Even if you just live in Mirage.
Their lives last only a hundred years, as short as a floating python.
Perhaps because of this, they are more eager to experience unlimited possibilities in limited time.
Mirage gave them another kind of life, even if it was just an illusion, at least it could make them forget the mediocrity of the real world before death came. "Woo."
The orange cat possessed by Life Throat let out a low growl from its throat.
It started to think deeply about this issue.
Monster World The creatures try their best to survive, but the creatures in this world are willing to indulge in short-term happiness. Who is more miserable? The strong ones who struggle in blood and fire and want to climb to the top, or the weak ones who live and die in illusions?
These are two completely different ways of living.
One pursues Eternal, the other enjoys the moment.
After pondering for a long time, it still felt that Monster World was the future.
Because Eternal is the highest expression of value for a race.
In the long years of existence in the void, only those who stand at the pinnacle can witness the rise and fall of civilizations in different worlds, and can touch the truth of the world. And those races that indulge in short-term happiness have long been turned into dust in the long river of time, and their names will not even be remembered.
The creatures in this world have chosen comfort, but they have also given up on evolution.
Paralyzing yourself with virtual happiness will never touch the real power.
Their civilization may last for thousands of years, but when the real crisis comes.
For example, if there is a sudden space storm or a passing predatory race, they will not even have a chance to resist and will be wiped out in an instant.
And the strong ones who choose Monster World will fight until the last moment even if they face the collapse of the void.
So the moment of joy is just in vain.
Only by climbing to the top can we experience a magnificent future.
Life Throat shook his head.
It feels that there is no need to think about these unnecessary questions.
I came here this time to investigate the source of fate's backlash, not to judge the survival philosophy of a weak civilization.
Just when Life Throat was preparing to move to the next area and continue observing.
A subtle buzzing sound came from the distance.
Its ears trembled keenly, and then it saw a small drone approaching quickly in its direction.
The bottom of the drone flashes a soft blue light, and there is a pet collar mark printed on the robotic arm.
"Target confirmed, Orange, 3 years old, neutered male cat, chip ID: T-2274." The drone made a mechanized sound, and the scanner below scanned the orange cat it possessed:
"Slight malnutrition has been detected. It is recommended to take vitamin supplements after bringing them back."
Life Throat's cat eyes narrowed slightly, and there was a hint of impatience in his heart.
This low-level mechanical creation can turn into a child fan with just one thought.
But resistance will obviously draw unwanted attention.
That's all.
"Meow."
It meowed obediently and pretended to be an ordinary house cat.
The drone made a beeping sound, and the robotic arm flexibly unfolded and gently picked it up like a doll.
Life Throat felt helpless and allowed the cold metal to clamp onto his body.
As the propeller accelerated, the drone took it into the air and flew towards the urban residential area.
The night wind howled, Life Throat was suspended a hundred meters in the air, and the city lights below shone like stars.
It looked at the navigation route map projected by the drone, and the end point was marked by an ordinary apartment. This was the house it had sneaked into a few days ago. Apparently, this mechanical creation had received the task of finding pets from the owner of that house.
The creature he possesses is that family's pet.
It plans to go back first and then find an opportunity to sneak out and continue its in-depth investigation of the world.
Not long after, it was placed firmly on the balcony by drone.
The sliding door opened with a "swish" sound.
A white-haired girl stood at the door with her hands on her hips. There was a cartoon cat paw pattern printed on her pajamas, but there was anger on her face:
"Orange, where have you been? How dare you stay up all night."
Life Throat was too lazy to pay attention to her and walked into the house on his own.
Weak creatures, noisy!
"Do you know how long I've been looking for you?" The girl squatted down and grabbed the orange cat's neck:
"I turned down the dungeon event for my friends and family group, and I made a lot of money less. You still don't understand your mistake and apologize to me."
Life Throat's cat face twitched.
The dignified Fate Race, one of the twelve life masters, was actually reprimanded for delaying the docking of a carbon-based creature with the virtual Mirage.
But in the end, it held back and just squeezed out a perfunctory sound from its throat:
"Meow!."
"You dare to talk back?" The girl's eyes widened, and she walked into the house carrying it:
"Confinement first."
Then, with Life Throat's expressionless face, it was stuffed into a pink pet cage, with a "For Bad Cats Only" sign hanging on the cage door. The girl angrily patted the cage, turned around and went to the next room.
Life Throat squatted sluggishly in the cage, looking at the flashing lights on the game compartment outside the cage, his expression gradually distorted.
Not long after, the white-haired girl changed into a set of clothes from the house, sat down at the computer desk next to the game room, and woke up the screen.
During this period, he turned around and glared at it fiercely:
"If you don't obey, stay inside."
In response, Life Throat still responded with an indifferent expression.
It lay in the cage, its heart full of disdain.
It's just a cage, it can break free at any time, but it just doesn't want to cause a commotion for the time being.
This is its homage to a potential god.
As for the weak white-haired creature in front of me... it can be easily destroyed.
Even this world can be easily destroyed.
I saw the girl sitting at the computer desk, using something connected to a virtual device to control the mouse to move on the desktop.
First, I opened a website, but I couldn't understand the text on it.
The girl excitedly flipped through the interface with a large amount of text, clicking on the text from time to time, jumping to the interface and typing on the keyboard.
Life Throat glanced at it casually, planning to close his eyes and rest, and wait for the girl to leave before looking for an opportunity to escape.
But the next second, its pupils suddenly shrank into a thin line.
On the screen, there was a familiar scene.
Dark Red colored sky, twisted black undulating mountains, tall towers rising from the ground, Black Tide energy particles floating in the air... and a wheel of Evil Moon hanging high in the sky.
This is clearly a scene dominated by Evil Moon and dominated by Black Tide Evil Spirit Warrior.
With doubts, Life Throat chose to continue reading.
I saw the white-haired girl tapping the keyboard again, entering a line of text, and then said to herself with a silly smile:
"Brothers, don't worry, fatten up before killing. The bully is too weak now and needs to be replenished."
With that said, the white-haired girl closed the current page and returned to the interface when she first entered.
Then tap a few times on the keyboard with your slender fingers, open the watch list of the live broadcast platform, and click on the first live broadcast screen. The person in the live broadcast screen at this time is none other than Grind Emperor Group member of Tidal Rebellion Training Camp.
Graduation is approaching and they are taking preparation courses before the final special training.
When this training project ends, Grind Emperor Group's "Training Camp Arc" will officially come to an end.
Next, will be the opening of "War Chapter".
By then, many familiar figures may have left the war.
The girl picked up a bag of ordinary potato chips from the table and tore open the package with her fingertips.
The rich barbecue smell immediately spread out, but the girl couldn't help but wrinkle her nose, then picked up a piece and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Wow, it tastes so bad, bah! Bah! Bah!"
After chewing twice, she spit out all the potato chips crushed in her mouth into the trash can, and then threw the remaining potato chips back into the bag in disgust:
"What... it was my favorite food in the past... and sure enough, I've also become addicted to spiritual food."
At this time, on the screen, Tidal Rebellion Training Camp's live broadcast is entering the intermission.
The player and other students came to the cafeteria and started eating.
The shiny fruits and barbecued meats in the picture... just looking at them will make you want to eat them.
The girl licked her lips unconsciously and typed the barrage on the keyboard with her fingers:
Eat what you want and continue training quickly. If you don't work hard to become stronger, how will your brothers survive on the battlefield?
This is daily life in the eyes of a girl.
But at this time, Life Throat, who was observing the screen content from behind, felt his hair explode:
"Monster World?!"
A terrible suspicion emerged in his mind.