Chapter 1 What Is That?

"Hmm?" Looking askance at the Redundant Soldiers that had poked their heads out of the wall, Piccolo (that's right, the Piccolo from *Dragon Ball*; actually, "Piccolo" is a more accurate and literal translation; of course, I also encountered the "Kami" setting first) pondered, "What is that?"

"Awoo--" Responding to him (although Namekians have no gender, they are generally regarded as "he") were a few roars.

"Tch... Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to want to communicate with me." Piccolo was still cross-legged in a meditative pose as he muttered this.

But the next second, his figure instantly appeared at the wall, standing in front of the two Redundant Soldiers.

"I can't sense their presence at all..." Piccolo calmly gazed at the two monsters who looked even less human than he did. "Are you even living beings..."

*Boom-*

Before he could finish speaking, one of the Redundant Soldiers swung a punch at him.

Piccolo merely made a grabbing motion with one hand, lightly raised his forearm to block, and effortlessly caught the opponent's fist.

"Oh? Is that all you've got?" A hint of disdain flashed in Piccolo's eyes. "Hmph... Boring..."

Before the "ing" of "boring" could even leave his mouth, Piccolo's other hand shot out like lightning with two finger jabs, piercing the foreheads of the two Redundant Soldiers.

In the blink of an eye, Piccolo had casually annihilated the two Redundant Soldiers.

However, their attack did not stop there...

Just as the two Redundant Soldiers dissipated into data fragments, another wall on the other side was also shattered, and... it was shattered by a single punch.

"Oh? What is it this time..." Piccolo turned his head and saw a purple-black arm, shaped like a human arm, reaching in from outside the wall.

A second later, the arm retracted, then threw several more punches, quickly creating a gap large enough for itself to pass through, and barged into the room.

"This one seems to have some skill..." Piccolo said coldly, looking at the Marauder.

In that moment of distraction, suddenly, two more arms reached out from cracks in the wall beside him, and clamped down on his shoulders.

"Ugh-- I was careless." Piccolo said in a low voice, "So there was backup here..."

The Redundant Soldiers and Marauders did not react to Piccolo's words in any way; they were simply efficiently executing the order to "erase activity data."

In the blink of an eye, the Marauder that had invaded from the other end of the room charged towards Piccolo, who was pinned against the wall and unable to move, and delivered a straight punch to his left chest.

*Boom-*

The heavy, powerful fist was like a siege ram, smashing solidly into Piccolo's chest.

The result...

"Hmm..." Piccolo grunted softly, then looked at the Marauder in front of him with a nonchalant tone and said, "You're very strong... but your attack lacks any 'ki'..." As he spoke, he slowly raised his hands and pressed them against the heads of the two Redundant Soldiers behind him. "I won't be defeated by punches like that."

As soon as he finished speaking, Piccolo exerted force in both palms, and the heads of the two Redundant Soldiers were easily crushed like eggs.

*Pa pa pa-*

At the same time, the Marauder continued to throw punches and kicks at Piccolo without stopping.

Clearly, the Marauder would not react in any way to the deaths of the other two data entities, nor would it feel any fear; it simply continued to attack according to its own rhythm...

"This guy... could it be a robot..." Piccolo quickly sensed the abnormality in his opponent, and therefore, he would not hold back...

Piccolo completely ignored the opponent's punches and kicks, and in a flash, he appeared behind the Marauder and kicked a large hole in the latter's torso with a side kick.

In the blink of an eye, the Namekian had eliminated four Redundant Soldiers and one Marauder, almost always with a single strike.

"Although they're not very strong, the fact that they possess the ability to 'tear space' is also true..." After the Marauder also turned into data fragments, Piccolo looked at the damaged wall and muttered thoughtfully, "What exactly is happening to this space..."

As he pondered, more impacts came from outside the walls of the storage room... and new enemies poured out of the gaps that had already been opened...

...

At the same time, in the Mall, Area 101.

Earlier, when I mentioned Area 1, I said that it was the mall plane with the "largest number of players and the highest overall quality." The reason I used "very high" instead of "highest" was because... when it came to player strength, Area 101 completely surpassed all other areas.

Of the top ten teams in this S2 preliminary round alone, six were from here: Bingdi, Hongying, Jianghu, Zhushen Teams 1 and 2, and Order Team 2.

As for the reason why they were concentrated in this area... it has been mentioned before, so I won't repeat it here.

In short, the players in this area... are very strong.

How strong? They managed to withstand the attack of the Redundant Soldier legions with far fewer numbers than Area 1, and... even gained the upper hand.

This was also the only phase space where the "number of players who escaped back to the landing space" was less than the "number of players who stayed in the mall."

"Damn it... what the hell is going on? Has the Dream Corporation management gone mad?" In the center of the plaza under the big screen, [Fearless Warrior] wielded the spear in his hand, sweeping away the Redundant Soldiers while cursing.

This main force of Order Team 2 used weapons and routines that were all very open and powerful, making him extremely strong and at ease on this kind of battlefield.

"Are you sure this is a problem with the game company?" [Knife Fiend], who was suppressing and sweeping away Marauders not far from him, responded when he heard this. "I think this is similar to the situation in the S1 finals--the Derivers have forcibly intervened in the match."

"[Paper Cut]," who was assisting the two of them from the side, interjected, "But they're not just interfering with the match this time... Invading the safe zone within the game, forcing the system to change the boundaries, forcibly preventing players from going offline, etc., if all of this is the autonomous behavior of a group of AIs... I'm afraid we can't regard *Thriller Paradise* as a simple game, can we?"

"Hey-- you guys over there~" Just as these three members of Order and Jianghu were talking, someone suddenly shouted loudly at them from more than ten meters away, "Be careful! There's a strange thing coming from above!"

The person who shouted this was [NamesAreHard], the bald-headed Xiaoming from Bingdi; he was also one of the strongest shooting players in the game, so his eyesight was naturally excellent. Therefore, he was the first to see the anomaly occurring on the dome.

And Knife Fiend and the others quickly looked up when they heard this...

They saw that directly above them, in the cracks of the dome... there were two round, bloodshot eyeballs as big as water tanks.

Immediately afterwards, a hand as big as a tent... grabbed the edge of the crack and began to further tear the opening.