Chapter 1 Wait a Moment!

Six mechs floated thousands of meters above the planet, not far from the planet's defensive shield.

After the players adjusted their mechs' communication channels, Lou Jia was the first to call for everyone to stop.

"Look at the Zerg distribution map."

Lou Jia sat in the mech's control room, a three-dimensional interstellar map centered on their planet displayed before him.

Every player had one.

The interstellar map showed various types of Zerg, represented by different colors, densely packed and intertwined outside their planet, forming an encircling "sphere" around it.

The sight made everyone's scalps tingle.

Lou Jia felt like he had instantly returned to their professional command class.

He once again experienced the tense feeling of being grilled by the teacher with rapid-fire questions.

Different types of Zerg mothers, Zerg generals, and countless high-level Zerg were at the forefront. If it weren't for the game's design limitations, in reality, these forces would be enough to instantly destroy their planet.

Looking at the display, Mingmei recalled the scene in *Blood Precursor* where she and Mu Chen were suddenly ambushed by vanguard Zerg.

Looking at the current distribution map, she felt that the previous encirclement and pursuit were nothing compared to this.

"The closer to the planet, the higher the level and combat power of the Zerg. The further away, the lower and mid-level Zerg. What's going on?" Zhen Po said irritably, and curiously asked Lou Jia, "Bro, have you seen this kind of formation in your command class?"

Lou Jia: "..."

In Lou Jia's command class, the teacher had cited countless cases.

They had analyzed the Zerg's common distribution formations and combat methods in every human-Zerg battle. He had also privately studied many obscure, small-scale Zerg combat styles.

He had only seen such a crude scene of being surrounded by countless Zerg in one piece of data.

Fifteen years ago, a small asteroid established by the Empire mainly for entertainment facilities was raided by a Zerg mother leading five Zerg generals and countless Zerg soldiers.

At that time, they used the Zerg mother and Zerg generals at the forefront to destroy the asteroid, including everyone on it, with overwhelming force.

And this time, it was even more outrageous.

However, perhaps afraid of affecting morale, Lou Jia chose to hide the truth: "No, it's just a game... after all, it's a game."

"Actually, the purpose of designing the game like this is obvious, right?" Lu Gui suddenly said, "Either we improve our combat skills and fight these Zerg generals, or even the Zerg mother-level ones, at our 'doorstep,' and then find a way to capture one as food;

Or we improve our escape skills, directly pass through the encirclement to hunt ordinary Zerg on the periphery, and then pass through these encirclements to return."

Hearing Lu Gui's words, Lou Jia didn't say anything, but Yuan Fang cursed the game planner, "The two choices you said are completely unrealistic. Both are a dead end if you're not careful. Only this planner dares to come up with this kind of design that wants to kill players."

[Yeah, it's too doggone!]

[Help, I dare not think about it anymore. Don't look at what Brother Zai Zai said so easily, but like this handsome guy said, it's total annihilation if you're not careful.]

[This is simply to make players die quickly, or grind them to death slowly with a blunt knife, letting them choose a way to die.]

[Why are you so pessimistic? Can't you think they can surpass themselves and kill everyone?]

[Kill everyone... Zerg generals, Zerg mothers, thousands of Zerg, with A-level mechs? Have you seen any war history? Do you think they are General Mei Qiu wearing SS-level mechs? Or Marshal Barbara, who transcended human limits with physical training in her early years?]

[Actually... the Federation also has a Major General who killed three Zerg generals with an A-level mech back then and was posthumously awarded the rank of Major General...]

[It's a pity that he fell at the end and his body was never found. Glory remains, but the person is gone.]

[Hey, hey, hey! The task of this round is not to kill Zerg, but to cook! How did you know about killing Zerg?!]

[Hehe, if you can't even kill Zerg, how can you cook? Keep dreaming!]

…

Mingmei was distracted watching the dense barrage of comments in Lu Xiaoyao's live broadcast room, and when she came back to her senses, she realized that Mu Chen had not joined the conversation all along.

"What's wrong?"

Mingmei reached out and touched Mu Chen's cold hand, which felt completely different from usual.

"Sorry."

Mu Chen unilaterally closed the players' internal communication channel, turned to look at Mingmei, and said seriously, looking into Mingmei's concerned eyes, "Maybe I was wrong this time, dragging you to die with me."

Mingmei: "What do you mean?"

"I think... the design of the Zerg formation is not from Mr. Yan Hui."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Role-playing, there should be real Zerg inside the outer Zerg."

Mingmei: ??!!!

[In fact, your Uncle Yan Hui's holographic escape game has more functions than you see~]

Mingmei once again remembered what Uncle Ruan Ruan had said to her.

"How could it be...?"

Mingmei's heart was beating violently. She didn't dare to directly ask him if those Zerg were here "serving their sentences" like him.

"Waste utilization, right? Destroying the body, extracting the spiritual power from the Zerg core and storing it in the game, providing overly realistic combat scenarios for those in need... such as military academy students or army simulations."

Mu Chen said, not noticing Mingmei's unnaturalness just now.

He kept tapping the seat's operating handle and continued, "I once met some people who were forced to stay in the game for other reasons. They once told me that they had seen real Zerg in the game, but I had never seen them."

Are there other people "serving their sentences" in the game like Mu Chen?

Mingmei carefully considered this possibility.

"Do you remember the amusement park bombing instance?"

"I remember."

"There was an original version of that, where the amusement park incident was not caused by bombers, but by a Zerg raid. This incident has a prototype."

"The guy who played the NPC in the old version told me that they would never forget the spiritual fluctuations of the Zerg who attacked the amusement park. So when the spiritual fluctuations of that Zerg appeared in the game, he confirmed that it was that Zerg.

The guy who launched the strongest attack."

"But... about the old version you mentioned, I haven't heard of an old version of the amusement park instance when I used to browse the forum."

Mingmei frowned. Although no strategy guides were useful now, many people were still active in the game forum.

Comparisons between new and old versions, thoughts after the game came out, etc.

"Because the old version existed for too short a time, after the design came out, the game's function did not meet the requirements designed by Mr. Yan Hui, so it was redesigned. Few people should have played the old version, and maybe no one even cleared it."

"What do you mean by meeting the design requirements?"

"Meimei, you should have heard of the 'Eternal Life Project,' right?" Suddenly, Mu Chen mentioned a field that seemed completely unrelated to the game.

The Eternal Life Project was a project jointly promoted by the Hua Lan Starfield United Main Brain and the Research Institute.

It was said to be used to infinitely extend the lives of certain people, which naturally attracted the attention of many people.

However, because the design involved many ethical issues, it once aroused opposition from many people and participated in space游行 activities.

Although the plan has never been publicly declared terminated, the news of the plan has gradually faded away in recent decades.

Regarding this, a thought flashed through Mingmei's mind that she herself dared not believe. She opened her eyes wide to look at Mu Chen and received the other party's silent nod of acknowledgment.

Her uncles seemed to have participated in this "renowned" experiment!

"Then are we going out or not?"

Suddenly, Lu Xiaoyao's voice came from the communication channel that Mu Chen had reopened, drawing Mingmei's attention back.

"Go out."

Lu Xiaoyao's words elicited answers from several people in succession.

"If you're so timid in the game, wouldn't you be scared to death when you really see the Zerg? Hahaha, it's a good opportunity to see the world in this game!"

Zhen Po's hearty laughter spread through the communication channel, followed by Zhen Hu's reprimand to his younger brother for being quieter.

He only asked him to be quieter, without denying what he said.

"I was overthinking it."

At this time, Lou Jia also recovered from his initial nervousness, "Yes, this is just a game. No matter how the enemy changes, as long as our goal is clear, we just need to move forward towards the goal firmly."

"Then... what is our goal?"

Suddenly, Lu Xiaoyao asked a very realistic question: "Are we going out for a stroll and coming back; or are we going to just do it? What can we catch and bring back after we go out?"

Everyone: "..."