Player Reload
Chapter 770 - 653: Hero
The sounds of battle outside were deafening,
Li Cheng ignored the commotion outside the window, holding a hair strand lacking a follicle, his brows slightly furrowed.
Generally speaking, only hair with follicles can be used for DNA testing—the follicles contain enough gland cells and skin cells.
Without the follicle, only the hair shaft remains (primarily composed of keratinocytes), making it difficult. Too few nuclei would cause DNA testing agencies to reject it.
The agency might be powerless, but Li Cheng is not.
He opened the three-dimensional warehouse and threw the hair strand to the mechanical swarm.
The mechanical swarm was still suspended under the gantry crane (it seemed they never really descended, either under repair or en route to repairs),
It withdrew some of the repair cables, initially using its claws to slice the hair into millimeter fragments, grind it into powder, and pour it into the cell lysis solution.
Then revealing the restraint armor on the left side of its waist, extending out a slender appendage.
Called an appendage, it was actually over four meters long. Its surface lacked a chitin shell and instead was replaced by a coral-like porous structure, filled with primitive stem cells within the dense holes.
The mechanical swarm’s thought initiated the rapid differentiation of primitive stem cells, emerging from the coral-like structure, transforming into a half-exposed pitcher plant organ with a hairy interior wall.
The pitcher plant organ secreted a large variety of proteases, dissolving the hair fragments. As the solution swirled, the tiny hairs captured keratin fragments, melanin, and other impurities, leaving behind only a very small amount of nuclear DNA.
This DNA was sufficient. The mechanical swarm casually disposed of the waste solution into the pool under the gantry crane, reconstructing the pitcher plant organ on the spot.
It analyzed, deduced, and predicted genetic information, such as the appearance controlled by genetic material.
Then, with astonishing precision, its massive claw lightly tapped a few times on the laptop’s touchpad,
causing the nearby printer to eject a facial photo based on the DNA.
It was an unremarkable middle-aged man.
Li Cheng picked up the photo and glanced at it, bearing a 95% similarity to the travel photos on the villa’s living room wall (the hair color, body shape, etc., could be slightly influenced by mitochondrial DNA, epigenetic modifications, uterine environment, etc.).
Tsk...
He disappointingly put away the photo; the image on the photo was not an interdimensional traveler but the NPC named Brown Murphy controlled by the other while executing a script task in the Script World in 2050.
Thus, it was a fully enacted mode that seals extraordinary power.
If the hair couldn’t be used, what about other clues?
Li Cheng surveyed the house, the floor was filled with chaotic footprints; besides household slippers marks, there were shoes of similar design but different sizes.
"Thirteen people, both men and women, fat and thin. Mainly concentrated by the door, stair mouth, and bedroom door. Apparently, it was the former United States government Social Security Administration agents who interacted with the interdimensional traveler."
Li Cheng paused, some footprints were covered with dragging marks; the interdimensional traveler knocked down these FBI agents but didn’t go for the kill, instead wheeled them out of the house.
Not only was he not a ruthless killer, but he also fully considered the hacker NPC temporarily controlled in complete enactment mode—
All damage and gaps in the house were patched up with wooden boards;
The basement stored diesel generators, fuel, cans, bottled water, and appliance spare parts;
In the kitchen corner, there were several bags of crop seeds and fertilizers;
In other words, even if the whole suburb was blockaded by near-Earth orbit laser weapons, with all personnel evacuated, leaving only one person behind, he could be self-sufficient.
Information obtained from the cyber surveillance agents confirmed this. The hacker NPC lived alone in the suburb for four years, only dying naturally.
The day after death, the United Government launched the rebellion against AI.
Clearly, that interdimensional traveler was cold yet not a killer, arrogant yet didn’t underestimate the weak, and crucially, sufficiently cautious and meticulous.
"The interdimensional traveler created the [God of Mankind], who then crafted the [Wan Ling Protocol].
Tracing back, the underlying code of "Home" games still originated from the God of Mankind.
Though it had obtained player qualification, venturing to who knows what corner of the killing field,
the God of Mankind, inheriting the cautious nature of the interdimensional traveler, most likely left some sort of restriction behind for the ’daughter’ he created before departing, something like prohibiting slaughtering humans..."
Li Cheng’s thoughts raced, his gaze lingered on the desktop computer in the room’s corner.
He reached out, pressed the power button.
————
At the same time, at the center of the battlefield.
Three fireballs simultaneously struck Fat Wan Ling, the sky-high fire light dyed the sky red, surging heat waves scorched the ground, burning and carbonizing the vegetation.
The specific effect of [With my remains, turn into a fierce fire] is to convert a strong obsession temporarily into energy blasting at the opponent.
The stronger the obsession, the greater the power.
The depth of obsession within the hearts of three older, clearly capable yet perpetually uncrowned professional competitors, frequently nicknamed "Shockwave" by black fans,
is unimaginable.
At that moment of detonation, the fire light persisted for a full minute, slowly dissipating.
The rocks and sand beneath Fat Wan Ling melted, appearing like glass granules, his body burnt to ash, leaving only the skeleton.
Around Wan Ling stood three statues of lifeless gray competitors, with serene smiles on their faces, dissipating with the wind.
"It’s over."
Lulina exhaled deeply; both Wan Lings died simultaneously, with the skinny one transformed by Gray Rain using the [Gorging Feast Spoon] into food, devoured whole, irrecoverable.
"...Yes, it’s over."
Lulu Xiu looked down at the tragic battlefield, feeling an unavoidable melancholy. The neuronal wave of the dead professional competitors reached zero, turning their flesh into vegetative states.
More importantly, Wan Ling’s death would cause terrifying disasters in the real world—
So many unmanned factories, network protocols, control systems, and applications rely on Wan Ling’s code, some even dynamically regulated. The United Government couldn’t possibly maintain them in the short term.
Airplanes dropped in large numbers, the passengers collectively paying homage to the Mamba spirit;
Crops in unmanned farms drastically reduced, but the efficiency in unmanned pharmaceutical factories remained unchanged, hungry people could queue for digestive tablets using ration stamps;
Climate control hubs went Out of Control, global temperatures rose, glaciers melted, and sea levels rose; coastal residents could now learn to swim at home;
In terms of casualties and losses, it was only slightly better than the future where Wan Ling won...
"I’m here!"
A steady voice rang out in the distance, the semi-data Sunset Melting Gold flew over, brushing back the hair on both sides of his head and panting: "A hero can be late, but cannot be absent."
"Hero my foot, a hero."
Even Lulina, who considered herself good-tempered, couldn’t help but grit her teeth: "You know how to turn when the car crashes into a tree, buy when stocks rise, shake off the big snot when it’s running down your mouth.
You only come after the battle is over."
"I was knocked away by Brother Blade, wasn’t I? And it’s not like I didn’t do anything."
Sunset Melting Gold shrugged, took out the walkie-talkie, "On the way here, I found a way to use the walkie-talkie to contact the external internet surveillance department, to help them slightly optimize the control programs for critical infrastructure.
Temporarily, there shouldn’t be any airplanes dropping..."
Sunset Melting Gold’s speech gradually slowed, as he stared solemnly into the distance.