Player Reload
Chapter 320 - 292 Destiny

Chapter 320: Chapter 292 Destiny

After finishing speaking, the GOC representative snapped his fingers, sending hundreds of biomechanical drones that resembled locusts flying out from beneath the table.

Each drone carried a capsule, which it precisely delivered to the hands of the players present.

Li Cheng glanced down, noting that the capsule was a disposable space storage device, containing a full set of items.

Included were an anti-interference long-range walkie-talkie;

A motion camera and multi-functional drone that could be bound to the player;

A spiritual energy contract that restricted players from attacking each other;

A one-time protective barrier carried as a ring;

A fine-quality high-power hand cannon that fired high-power demon-breaking lead bullets;

A multi-terrain armored transport vehicle;

Besides that, there was a full set of personal protective equipment, ranging from rare to fine quality.

’Quite generous.’

Li Cheng was slightly surprised. These items stored in the space capsule could add up to over ten thousand game coins.

Two hundred players would amount to over two million game coins.

Investing such a large sum of money even before the task officially started, GOC was indeed wealthy and powerful.

Everything that needed to be said had been said, and the players exited the killing field, returning to the real world to prepare.

"Bai Jie,"

An assistant approached carefully and asked, "Will anyone participate in this task?"

Despite GOC’s friendly gestures through their speech and equipment distribution,

The players were quite realistic, likely recognizing the risks and opportunities intertwined, and choosing to refuse the task outright.

Among the 250 players, it would be fortunate if even 200 executed the task.

As for taking the initiative to actively investigate the hidden truths of the otherworld and rescue Earth’s compatriots, these tasks would still rely on GOC and other official institutions.

"I don’t know."

Bai Qi looked at the empty hall and sighed lightly, "All we can do is our best,"

’Leave the rest to fate.’

In the living room, Li Cheng glanced at an old photograph on his phone album, showing himself with his cousin and cousin sister back in kindergarten, and silently set down the phone.

Click, click, click.

As the clock’s second hand reached zero, Li Cheng, fully armed and wearing a yellow reflective hazmat suit, disappeared from the living room, and the scenery before his eyes changed abruptly.

This is...

He looked around and found himself in a city ruin.

The concrete road was covered with cracks caused by earthquakes, debris from collapsed buildings blocked the streets, burying the rust-stained abandoned vehicles.

Li Cheng took out an electronic pet egg and released Gray Rain, who was wearing the same hazmat suit.

"Where have you brought me, is this still domestic?"

Gray Rain looked around with confusion, "Where’s the promised otherworld? This looks like a post-nuclear war ruin."

"It shouldn’t be a nuclear war."

Li Cheng squinted his eyes toward the distance, where some still standing tall buildings resembled dead trees, their surfaces pocked and scarred with deep, narrow animal claw marks—effects clearly not caused by nuclear explosions or artillery fire.

The visibility in the sky was very low, with gray dust storms constantly blowing, reducing the horizontal visibility to less than a kilometer.

Moreover...

Li Cheng looked down at the road, judging from the rust on the roadside vehicles, the disaster causing all this must have occurred at least over a year ago.

Logically speaking, without human intervention, a year should be enough for the ruins to overgrow with weeds and partly restore the wild ecosystem.

Yet there was nothing—not even weeds or insect chirps and birdsong—eerily quiet.

After contemplating for a moment, Li Cheng took out the GOC-provided drone and sent it into the air.

The drones from official institutions indeed surpassed mass-produced drones on the market in quality—fast flight, stable connectivity, full functions. Various built-in sensors quickly transmitted all kinds of data back to the remote control in Li Cheng’s hand.

The surroundings were detected to have no radiation, and the air composition was consistent with Earth’s atmosphere, making it breathable.

One point to note was that the gray dust storm enveloping the city ruin seemed to weaken signals; if the drone flew beyond one kilometer, it would lose connection.

Unless using fiber optic guidance to extend the distance.

Li Cheng raised his eyebrows, "The dust storm consists mainly of inorganic small particles, predominantly calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate, similar to bone ash."

"Bone ash?"

Gray Rain exclaimed, "How many people must be cremated for this."

"Not necessarily humans, animal bone ash also contains calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate."

Li Cheng was particularly knowledgeable about bone ash. In a high school political class on investment and financing, the teacher had students draft business plans for simulated investment and wealth management.

Li Cheng decisively chose to invest in a crematorium, offering many innovative services.

For example, bone ash blind boxes—allowing customers to randomly select a piece to take home;

Second furnace half-price—encouraging customers to find someone to split the cost;

Guaranteed SSR after ten draws—secretly placing glass beads before the cremation to ensure a steady supply of Shariputra;

Authentic bone china—collaborating with ceramic factories to use bone ash for making bone china, enabling customers to become cups and bowls accompanying loved ones daily during meals, creating a warm, close bond.

This business plan was extremely detailed and complete, yet unfortunately did not receive an excellent rating.

"Anyways, let’s look for signs of living beings first."

This Anchor Line mission was of the killing type—each unit killed would yield corresponding experience and game coins—indicating there would undoubtedly be monsters.

Li Cheng controlled the drone to descend and plug in the slender, lightweight optical fiber guidance, then sent the drone back into the dust storm to survey the surroundings and build a 3D map.

As Li Cheng busied himself operating the drone, Gray Rain wandered around and discovered four human skeletons inside an abandoned car, exclaiming on the spot, "Hey, come over and look at this."

"What’s up."

Li Cheng multitasked, holding the remote control while stepping down the ruins.

Inside the abandoned pickup truck lay four skeletons of varying sizes, all with bullet holes in their heads, dead for at least over a year.

Judging by the skeletal formations, they were a male and female adult, and two children.

Among the skeletal remains of the adult male in the driver’s seat, a revolver had fallen.

"Looks like a father killed his wife and children in utter despair before committing suicide—a scene straight out of ’The Mist.’

Li Cheng pried open the car door with one hand, searching the glove compartment to find four newspapers.

The newspapers were dated from January to December 2001, with the content reporting,

January, Dr. Noah, who had won the Nobel Physics Prize three times, invented the Super-light-speed Space Jump Engine.

February, the Soviet Union and the United States announced cooperation to jointly build humanity’s first spacecraft equipped with a space jump engine.

September, the spacecraft was completed and, under global attention, instantly teleported to Neptune’s orbit, staying for several hours before teleporting back to Earth’s orbit.

Signifying humanity’s ability to venture beyond the Solar System and formally step into the galaxy.

December, earthquakes and tsunamis were frequent worldwide, suspected to be caused by Earth’s magnetic poles reversal.

Thus, GOC’s envisioned scenario of the otherworld using all its civilization’s resources to invade Earth did not occur.

On the contrary, this otherworld itself was a post-disaster wasteland.

To determine how the disaster happened, the answer might lie with Dr. Noah, the three-time Nobel Prize winner who invented the space jump engine...

Bzzz!

The remote control in Li Cheng’s hand beeped with a prompt, the drone had detected a heat source signal one kilometer away, its contour indicating it was a humanoid creature.

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