Perhaps it’s due to the nature of life forms being separated by a layer of internet; skills like brain search, soul capturing, and mind control tend to be less effective on players like Garrosh and Yawei who have neural plugs at the back of their heads.

However, through indirect probing, Li Cheng and his team still managed to gather a lot of information about the outside world.

For example, the current timeline is the year 2068 AD, which is also year 20 of the Earth Federation Calendar since the end of the Third World War.

Due to the aftermath of the war and the rise of unmanned factories, the Earth Federation Government deliberately guided the public to invest their energy into the neural-plugged network Metaverse.

Just the "Home" project alone boasts 2 billion monthly active users.

Such a massive user base naturally led to the emergence of a virtual economy dependent on the Metaverse and a large number of professional teams.

These teams have complete setups including team doctors, head and assistant coaches, analysts, psychologists, and even nutritionists—basically, people in charge of using discount Divine Coupons for ordering takeouts for team members.

"The high-end combat force of front-line teams can reportedly easily crush Level 20 NPC security groups, which in the killing field system aligns with Level 30 to Level 35 standards."

Li Cheng quickly said in the communications channel: "Two fists can’t take on four hands, and a thug can’t handle a crowd.

We have changed our appearances, and we are clearly different from before in Hall 018, which is enough to fool them from afar.

But masters are well-known and named,

If we get entangled with other professional teams, it’s too easy to get recognized. If they call their friends to gang up on us, we’re done. We must act quickly and decisively."

"...Although I don’t know why you lumped us together with thugs, it’s certainly true."

Lulina griped, but her hands moved swiftly as she took out a Spirit Ball and summoned a chubby, transparent large jellyfish.

Named "Sleep Aid Jellyfish," it crawled close to the building, extending its straw-like tentacles through the window cracks, its umbrella-like top emitting pale yellow hypnotic gas, cautiously spraying it inside the house along the tentacles.

Just at that moment...

Buzz!

A circular iron disc flew in from an extremely far distance at terrifying speed, penetrating the Sleep Aid Jellyfish in an instant, tearing through it from behind,

without slowing down, flying over half of Round Clam Town, and crashing toward the mountainous outskirts of the town.

The iron disc maintained a constant speed, with no rocket propulsion flames or sound and light special effects.

It read "Ductile Iron" on the top and "Municipal Drainage" on the bottom, clearly a sewer manhole cover.

Having used electromagnetic railguns himself, Li Cheng instantly recognized this manhole cover was violently launched by electromagnetic force.

The severely torn transparent jellyfish instinctively curled up into a ball from delayed pain. Lulina quickly retrieved it with her Spirit Ball and turned her head along with Li Cheng to look in the direction the manhole cover flew from.

It was a five-person team, and leading them was unmistakably Yu Meiqin, her expression indifferent as she skillfully produced a new cast iron manhole cover from the void.

This Yu Meiqin was the champion of the last grand tournament (her team collected the most golden coins), and her four teammates were no ordinary foes either.

Li Cheng could see them from afar, and as fellow Transcendents, they too noticed the players hiding above the clouds from afar.

"Power fluctuation shows as... deep red."

A man with blond hair in a suit calmly said, wearing a tie with a golden skull motif; his ID showed as "Jiliang Jiyin."

"Capable of posing a strong threat to us, I haven’t seen these people in the top fifty ranked professional teams."

Spoke an elementary school kid, standing on a skateboard, backpack strapped on, round glasses reflecting eerie glints, munching on freshly baked naan, with a traditional Xinjiang six-pointed cap on his head, ID shown as "Kudo Shin-ichi";

"Maybe they’re a newly emerged team. The fact that they could track the ’Family Guy’ location ahead of us suggests they have a very capable analyst on their team."

In a low, hoarse voice, a slender figure in a black mask and cape with the ID "Lulu Xiu" said, "Too bad, they’re certainly no match for our ’King’s Road’ team."

"That’s right."

A sunny and handsome young man with brown hair laughed heartily, holding a notebook with "DEATH NOTE" on the cover, ID shown as "Ye Shenyue," "We are the God of the Home World, any opponent will be easily crushed by us."

"..."

"..."

High above the clouds, Li Cheng, long accustomed to the accelerated thinking of the Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method, could almost hear his brain creaking to a halt.

After a full half-second, he shouted in his mind, "Damn it, I just casually mentioned it, but there really is a naan-eating Kudo Shin-ichi!

Were it not for White Horse Tombstone’s invitation, I’d seriously doubt if this is some kind of quirky script world created by the system.

Moreover, the most crucial point is, why is Ye Shenyue Black?!

On Team King’s Road’s far left, the handsome brown-haired guy holding the Death Note, with dark skin, full lips, and dreadlocks, was quite the hellish joke.

Compared to Li Cheng’s struggle to hold back, Garrosh’s surprise, Lulina and Carlos appeared more guarded.

The former clenched two Master Balls tightly, the latter, rarely initiating an attack, struck two daggers toward the air in front of him.

Clang!

The daggers were launched and reached, predicting Yu Meiqin’s remote teleportation position, aiming for her eye sockets and chest.

Unfortunately, Carlos’s stats were still a bit low.

Arcs of electricity surged around Yu Meiqin, melting the two daggers from a distance, her arms gripping the ends of the manhole cover, using her arms as an electromagnetic rail,

with a bang, launching a supersonic manhole cover at close range toward Carlos.

In the current timeline of the Home World, it’s 2068; the original ’Magic Forbidden Book List’ anime no longer had official sequels, being more akin to a high-quality niche masterpiece that some people always loved to talk about.

Thus this Yu Meiqin is not synonymous with Misaka Mikoto.

At least this instant teleportation move falls outside the realm of superpowers.

"Huh? You can dodge?"

Yu Meiqin raised an eyebrow as Carlos anticipated her attack, cast his Skill, and fled twenty meters away.

A twenty-meter distance for Transcendents of this level is akin to being within arm’s reach.

Yu Meiqin once again blinked in front of Carlos, but suddenly a Gray Rain vehicle shot up from below the clouds.

The Skull Shattering Power Hammer swung around, its shaft nearly bent, the hammer head engulfed with tremendous force smashed toward Yu Meiqin’s head.

Zap!

Yu Meiqin’s electric light surged, her slender waist snapping backward at an acceleration that made one worry it might break, dodging the strike.

Meanwhile, the tip of her boot gently touched Gray Rain’s calf, and then, discharged electricity.

The surging current blasted the metallic body of Gray Rain, liquid metal boiling violently—compared to flames or freezing, electric shocks could be considered the most efficient attack against nanomachines.

"I can’t possibly tell you anything ahhhhh——"

Gray Rain, continuously electrocuted, shed ball-shaped metal droplets, and suddenly Yu Meiqin’s expression changed drastically, releasing Gray Rain, and forcefully stepped on the cloud layer, retreating abruptly.

The incident happened so suddenly that Lulina only saw two blurred figures flashing above the clouds at high speed, leaving indistinct afterimages on her retina.

Li Cheng didn’t utilize the Alchemy Magic Cannon, didn’t use the Disease Unclean Book, nor did he activate the Liangyi Blade’s Insect Transformation Form, he simply flicked out the Mantis Arm Bone Blade, pursuing Yu Meiqin at high speed.

The two Bone Blades swung like the wind, with no gap, preventing the opponent from teleporting away.