Chapter 1074: Chapter 73: Teleportation (4K)

The scanning process went relatively smoothly. A few Transcendents, capable of sensing and even resisting psychic scanning, slightly eased their resistance after a moment of hesitation.

They also knew that they were seeking asylum under someone else’s roof, and this examination step was unavoidable.

After the psychic scanning, there was blood sampling and registration.

All Transcendents and their families left the cabin to receive a systematic health check from the Ark Plan’s medical team. Once confirmed problem-free, they boarded another ship for permanent residence.

Li Ang watched from the deck for a while, then left the matters to Wu Dai,

who would later send him a copy of all the blood samples.

Gathering Transcendents for shelter was just a minor task; Li Ang had more important matters to attend to.

What is the essence of the soul?

This question had been troubling him for some time.

To the general public and low-level Transcendents, the soul was simply the soul, independent of the body, carrying memories and self-identity, an integral part of oneself.

Although official organizations worldwide had not formally acknowledged the existence of the soul, after the Kill Game was launched on a large scale,

a plethora of well-documented abnormal events proved that humans possess souls, and these souls could exist independently of the body.

This phenomenon initially shocked those who prided themselves as materialists, firmly believing that free thought arises from material foundations (i.e., brain wave activities),

even stirring a wave of feudal ignorance in some areas.

Fortunately, with the Special Affairs Bureau leading, official organizations intensified their science popularization efforts, quickly suppressing the wave of ignorance.

As staunch materialists, naturally, one shouldn’t stubbornly deny the occurrence of certain phenomena, similar to how idealists accept the existence of truth. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Since elements like thunder, rain, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even neutrons, quarks, and bosons can be recognized and understood by humans,

then objectively existing souls can also be researched, analyzed, recognized, and understood.

For various reasons,

to this day, the common definition of the soul by officials in various regions generally describes it as a "special energy entity deeply connected with brain electrical signals, growing with individual life bodies, existing within a unified system."

This lengthy definition can be broken down into several parts,

firstly, everyone has a soul, but not everyone can manifest it.

Most people’s souls remain latent under normal conditions, only manifesting in soul form after death or in special circumstances—currently, it’s impossible to derive a pattern for the appearance of soul entities, only conjecture about their connection to the Kill Game.

Secondly, souls and brain electrical signals influence each other. Patients with brain injuries experience dulling and hindrance of their souls.

Thirdly, the soul is bound to the individual. The soul’s appearance is basically similar to the person’s appearance, but some brain-injury patients exhibit anomalies—for instance, souls of patients with childhood brain injuries and cognitive impairments persist in a child-like state.

Through extensive case analysis, the mystery and sanctity surrounding the soul have finally been unveiled, appearing less mysteriously impenetrable,

being perceived by scientists and the general public almost like the question "whether neutrinos have mass,"

crucial to human cognition of the world,

yet having little impact on personal life.

Despite all the research, people still need to work and study, continuing their everyday lives.

The only influence might be more frequent grave sweeping during Ching Ming Festival and a heightened reverence toward the notion of retribution in the unseen world,

to some extent reducing the crime rate, which can be considered a good thing.

Of course, for Li Ang, this issue pertains to his future path.

The Divine Power of a Deity comes from the believers’ Power of Faith,

which is closely related to the individual’s soul.

The more resilient, robust, and strong-willed the soul, the more Power of Faith it produces.

The hundreds of Brain Worms in the Hive, each is a part of a large psychic network, capable of exchanging information, sharing experience and knowledge within that network,

and learning at a speed ten to dozens of times faster than ordinary people.

Moreover, these Brain Worms are fervent believers, their absolute loyalty and obedience to Li Ang deeply imprinted in their genes, constantly producing Power of Faith.

However, the total amount of Power of Faith produced by all the Brain Worms combined remains limited,

even lagging behind the shallow believers among ordinary people, distributed across South Asia, Africa, and the Americas, within the Gene Thief plan driven by Chaichai.

Ultimately, it comes back to the essence of the soul—when Li Ang initially used the Origin of Life to create bioweapons,

he discovered that while he could theoretically create mightily violent biological bodies,

he couldn’t instill self-will in the bodies to make them move on their own—even if he recreated a biological brain 1:1 and copied brain electrical signals, filling the brain with nerve impulses,

the entire body remained immobile, like a dead object.

In other words, he could create bodies but could not manifest souls ex nihilo.

Back then, Li Ang’s solution was to steal souls from elsewhere,

using the brains of large mammals like cows and sheep as a foundation to create new Brain Worm bodies, thereby creating Brain Worms.

The experimental results were undoubtedly successful, as one by one, the Brain Worms came alive, and through successive updates,

the brains themselves underwent tremendous changes,

no longer resembling the original cow or sheep brains.

The Brain Worms themselves wouldn’t even consider themselves having been cows or sheep.

Setting aside the philosophical issue of Theseus’ ship, Li Ang realized he had actually stolen the soul energy of cows and sheep to attempt life creation,

and the inefficient production of Power of Faith by the Brain Worms, fundamentally,

was due to their relatively weak soul foundation.

Recently, Li Ang had been reading the Mysterious Studies Texts provided by the Heterodox Academy, the Global Occult Coalition, and even the Clock Tower Organization, seeking to understand the essence of the soul and upgrade the Brain Worms.

Ascending the divine steps requires a massive number of fervent and devout believers to produce an immense amount of Power of Faith.

Only upon meeting this condition can the next steps to ascend godhood be explored.

On the other hand... researching the essence of the soul also ties into Spiritual Energy.

"The power of Spiritual Energy originates from the complex psychic activities of lifeforms, seemingly closely connected to both the soul and the brain yet also slightly detached.

A weak soul foundation doesn’t significantly hinder the Brain Worms’ proficiency in Spiritual Energy.

And some primitive creatures with simple brains and lacking complex logical thinking abilities can also harness powerful Spiritual Energy..."

Li Ang stood on the deck, a slight frown on his face.

The chilly sea breeze blew against him as waves beat onto the conical bow, creating white splashes.

As a potent Psychic mastering sixth-level Psychic Abilities, even without actively releasing his spiritual power, he could vaguely sense the emotional fluctuations and general thoughts of all life around him.

Most of the Transcendents on the ship held emotions of reverence, curiosity, envy, and even worship towards him.

In the past, large corporate organizations that hunted and viewed them as prey would shiver at the mere mention of Li Ang’s name from miles away, abandoning their pursuits.

Worshiping the strong is an instinctual trait of sentient beings, despite the infinite possibilities in the Kill Game,

yet factors like intellect, abilities, luck, origin, and timing determine that the majority will never touch the edge of the first-tier players,

more likely perishing before then in increasingly challenging scripted tasks,

or in sudden anomalies in the real world.

Li Ang felt the complex psychological activities of the people on the ship, not caring about their thoughts. He turned his head to ask Liu Wu Dai, "The current longitude and latitude is approximately 127 degrees east, and 30 degrees north, right?"

"Hmm?"

Liu Wu Dai was taken aback by the question and asked the captain through the intercom before nodding to Li Ang, "That’s right, why?"

"I’ll head out for a bit, and be back soon."

Li Ang gently tapped the deck with his foot, stepping on an invisible staircase, rising into the air, standing high above,

with a flip of his hand, he took out the Colt Revolver.

Liu Wu Dai’s heart skipped a beat. As a friend of Li Ang and a participant in the last Lost World portal battle, she was naturally aware of how terrifying this seemingly ordinary revolver in Li Ang’s hand was.

Enchanted bullets, instant hits, no ballistic trajectory, with doubled damage if it’s a headshot,

even a Demon General Level expert would suffer a potentially fatal injury.

Fortunately, Li Ang was not aiming the Colt Revolver’s barrel at the Lung Qing ocean shipping vessel,

but instead directed the barrel at the vast, endless sea.

His pupils slowly contracted, the sea breeze blowing against him like it was blowing across an isolated rock in the ocean.

Bang.

Li Ang pulled the trigger, the bullet from the Colt Revolver vanished instantly, with only the dull gunshot echoing above the sea and the elusive smoke rising from the barrel proving that the bullet had indeed been fired.

Li Ang maintained the posture of holding the revolver at arm’s length, concentrating silently.

"..."

Liu Wu Dai stood on the deck, watching the motionless Li Ang,

as a long-time friend, she knew Li Ang would never do anything meaningless—even if his mischievous urges led to seemingly frivolous acts, they would later prove to be significant.

One second,

two seconds.

Li Ang stood amidst the sea breeze, silently waiting for something.

Then, he disappeared from where he stood.

"!"

Liu Wu Dai’s pupils suddenly shrank. In her observation, Li Ang’s figure vanished instantly, without any energy fluctuations or special effects,

it was only the special equipment she wore that registered the slight, imperceptible spatial distortion that had just occurred.

He... teleported away?

Liu Wu Dai took a deep breath,

only realizing after the fact the informational wave feedback from that special equipment, her pupils dilated instantly.

The information wave indicated that the other end of the spatial distortion pointed somewhere thousands of miles away...

————

Disregarding the shocked and bewildered Liu Wu Dai, Li Ang’s figure flickered and had already appeared on the distant sea surface,

the edges of the Dragon Head White Lab Coat he was wearing glowing dimly as if being burned by flames,

beneath his feet, the seawater suddenly exploded with a "bang",

sending towering water columns crashing down, only to be entirely blocked by the psychic shield around Li Ang.

"..."

The water columns subsided, Li Ang lightly stepping on the fluctuating sea water,

feeling the rapidly declining Spirit Energy within him, he roughly estimated and then exhaled a heavy breath.

He had indeed teleported beyond a distance of 500 km, aided by two new skills.

[Skill Name: Eagle Eye Sight Range]

[Type: Universal]

[Special Effect: Extreme Vision. Greatly enhances vision, strengthens central vision, peripheral vision, and stereoscopic vision]

[Consumption: At least 10 Spirit Energy Value/second]

[Cooldown: 3 minutes]

[Learning Requirement: Physical Attributes greater than or equal to 10 points, Perception Attribute greater than or equal to 15 points]

[Remark: The higher the visual acuity when enhanced, the more Spirit Energy consumed]

[Remark: The moment I close my eyes, the world disappears]

This skill was one Li Ang bought from the mall,

paired with [Detective’s Monocle] (effect is to enhance perception ability),

Li Ang can see things at a vast distance as clearly as with a high-powered telescope.

For ordinary players, the skill might not seem that impressive; seeing things clearly, what could it change?

No substitute for real telescopes and camera equipment.

However, combining [Eagle Eye Sight Range] with another skill reveals an Unison Effect.

[Skill Scroll Name: Bullet Teleportation Technique]

[Attribute: Consumable, disappears after one use]

[Type: Universal]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Special Effect: Gunfire Companionship. After using a firearm to shoot a physical bullet, you can instantly appear at the bullet’s impact point]

[Consumption: At least 100 Spirit Energy Value]

[Cooldown: 5 seconds]

[Learning Requirement: Perception Attribute greater than or equal to 15 points]

[Remark: The farther the teleportation distance, the more Spirit Energy consumed]

[Remark: The undefeated second King of Guns remained free despite a century-long chase across the Galactic Empire. Legend says, deep in a dungeon, he left a supreme gun capable of defying all rules]

This [Bullet Teleportation Technique] Skill Scroll is the most expensive item Li Ang has recently purchased,

selling for over thirty thousand Game Currency,

even in the Game Mall Auction House, it is considered a rare and extravagant item.

To say he wasn’t reluctant to spend that money would be a lie,

Li Ang’s stockpile of Game Currency reduced by nearly half.

But the [Bullet Teleportation Technique]’s effect truly lives up to its price,

fire a physical bullet, and upon impact,

you can instantly appear at the bullet’s impact position.

The ability to see miles away with the Eagle Eye Sight Range skill, coupled with Bullet Teleportation Technique, and the guaranteed hit effect of the Colt Revolver,

combining the three, Li Ang can now achieve teleportation over a thousand miles, accomplishing super-long-distance, mostly unreasonable teleportation.