When they opened their eyes again, everyone found themselves standing in a pitch-black space with about two centimeters of water pooling at their feet. Despite the lack of light, everyone could still see each other clearly.

Clang—

With a cold gaze, Wanli Sealed Blade drew his sword, countless sword shadows spinning and flying through the air, standing vigilant on all sides.

The White Horse Tombstone suddenly drew a stone coffin from the void and planted it in the ground. Two chains automatically wound from his legs, wrapping all the way up to his arms.

The Card Emperor flipped both hands over, revealing a set of hard red and blue playing cards in his palms. His ten fingers, seemingly with independent consciousness, performed an elaborate shuffling before holding the deck steady.

There were no weaklings present, even the Card Emperor, supposedly just here to make up numbers, was a high-end talent cultivated with a huge investment by an international gambling conglomerate—perhaps lacking in other areas, but undeniably wealthy,

Each card was crafted by top-notch magic craftsmen from the slum, emitting a faint glow of spiritual power.

The combinations of points on the cards could be assembled into spells such as Space Lock, Advanced Anti-Magic Barrier, and Magic Guardian.

To forcibly drag several people into this area without any resistance, not even a Chairman Level combat power of Level 38 could necessarily accomplish that.

"It seems our bodies have not been digitized."

Sunset Melting Gold wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. With his Qilu Company retinal prosthesis, he could clearly see that everyone was still emitting heat radiation, with specific heights and weights, rather than being purely data.

Hmm? Why does the robot magic pet next to Pifu weigh several tons? Is there a bug?

The feeling of doubt quickly faded as Sunset Melting Gold took a deep breath. Non-digitalization was even more terrifying than digitalization,

because it meant that whoever had dragged them into this space far exceeded their imagination in power.

"Once the regular task is issued, players have five minutes to decide whether to accept it."

Even the well-traveled Wanli Sealed Blade managed to remain calm at this moment, speaking steadily: "The system broadcast had been up for less than half a second, and before we’d made our choice, we were collectively teleported to this area.

Moreover, the option to exit the Killing Field UI is still lit on the player panel, allowing us to return to the real world anytime—if this was some kind of mighty one’s divine domain or pocket space, you wouldn’t be able to return to Earth directly using the player panel."

"So the entity that abducted us doesn’t seem to have any major ill intentions?"

Zak stammered, "Mr. Carlos, you can foresee the future, so say something!"

In contrast to the tense emotions of others, Carlos was exceptionally calm, raising his index finger to his lips, "Shh..."

[In 2054, Zenith Skytop Company, based on brain-computer interface and quantum computing technology, launched the world’s first fully sensory immersive gaming pod. Code-named, the Home Project]

The surrounding air vibrated, a low voice echoed as the surface water on the floor rapidly absorbed away and vanished.

[First-person shooting FPS, real-time strategy RTS, role-playing RPG, action ACT, even roguelike, tower defense, dating simulation... every game type in human history can be found in Home]

Just like a video game loading animation, the previously pitch-black sky suddenly lit up with a Tyndall effect of dawn light, and the black floor beneath everyone’s feet transformed into a suspended marble-tiled bridge.

[Over hundreds of millions of players swarmed into Home, galloping across the stars with their minds, sensing everything through touch]

The marble tiles of the suspended bridge extended forward, clouds roiling below as white pillars rose up.

Familiar scenes caused subtle changes in expression among the players present, with Gray Rain’s expression particularly vivid, "Could it be..."

[This is the worst of times, as virtual replaces reality, and electromagnetic waves replace communication. Yet, it is also the best of times, as epic stories are within reach, and wondrous and magnificent journeys are right at your feet]

[Welcome to, Home]

At the end of the bridge, blocks of stone floated lightly up, forming an archway that could be pushed open.

"Damn, ○!"

Wanli Sealed Blade slapped his face, frustrated, "Now we know who the backer of Skytop Company is."

"...Stop saying meaningless things, I can’t understand the principle of this door."

Circling the solitary stone gate twice, Sunset Melting Gold gasped in astonishment.

The Qilu Company prosthetic eye he wore had a scan function and was connected to NAS storage devices he carried,

whether it be magic, secret techniques, Taoist skills, superpowers, or divine arts, with a glance, he could at least scan their basic characteristics, and at minimum infer the general type based on spiritual power fluctuations.

But at this moment, on the interface of the prosthetic eye, the stones appeared solid and unwavering, without any spiritual power fluctuations.

There are three possibilities: either the Qilu Company prosthetic eye is second-hand goods bought from second-hand stores with its lifetime nearing expiration;

or, the stones themselves really have no extraordinary power, purely driven by physical laws—such as magnets within the stones, using a magnet hidden beneath the clouds to drive things remotely;

or, Sunset Melting Gold’s level simply isn’t high enough to see through it.

The atmosphere at the scene became oddly oppressive, with the return button brightly lit, meaning players could quit at any time. But the format of this task... left them uncertain.

"It’s the holidays, and since we’re here, we might as well see what’s behind the door first."

After contemplating for a long time, Wanli Sealed Blade narrowed his eyes and exchanged glances with the others, gripping the sword handle, using the sword edge to push open the door.

Click click click—

The door opened, revealing a plaza bustling with people.

"Where the hell are we, is this sure it’s not the slum?!"

The Card Emperor almost dropped his playing cards in shock.

No wonder he reacted so fiercely. Above the plaza, three Kirov airships, straight out of Red Alert and painted with shark motifs, circled, dropping paper leaflets.

The passersby on the road were an eclectic mix: over three-meter-tall stone golem dads carrying little stone men on their shoulders, blue-skinned, two-headed ogres in suits with ties, and cultivators of celestial bearing livestreaming on their phones,

the familiar scene instantly reminding one of the slum.

The only difference was the presence of many classic game characters in the crowd.

Plumber Mario with a big nose, a monkey carrying a Jingu Bang on its shoulder, a bald assassin with a barcode on the back of his head, and a "T" shaped Russian Tetris block moving forward.

Uh... Although Killing Field players all loved cosplaying and enjoyed implanting various extraordinary bloodlines into their bodies, claiming the uglier, the stronger,

turning into a Russian Tetris block... was clearly beyond the realm of normal humans. It indirectly proves this wasn’t the slum.

"From the road layout and building distribution, this plaza is the abandoned building complex we saw on the mountain earlier."

Li Cheng was reconstructing the scene in his mind as he looked up at the colossal stadium building.

A massive "018" number was displayed on the top of the building, and through the windows, the interior space was visibly larger than it appeared from outside.

Thousands of people in strange costumes, like ordinary passengers in a high-speed rail station, queued up with laughter and chatter, jumping lightly into the blue and yellow Teleportation Gates from Portal when it was their turn, disappearing from sight.

"During the grand tournament period, all players are asked to voluntarily comply with the Home conduct code. No private fighting in non-combat areas; violators will be transferred to Azkaban Prison and disqualified from the competition..."

The loudspeakers inside and outside the venue played broadcasts. Seeing the stone archway slowly close at a speed visible to the naked eye, everyone had no choice but to pass through the gates into the plaza.

Pa!

Li Cheng reached out and caught a leaflet, lifting an eyebrow unconsciously as he read the text on the paper.