Chapter 1 A Different Light

Suddenly, a streak of strange light lit up from the far distance ahead.

Feng Bujue immediately turned off the lighting equipment in his hand and stared into the distance… at the end of that narrow, dark tunnel, a spot of scarlet was particularly eye-catching.

"Is it the exit…" Brother Jue muttered, "Red light… I have a feeling there's a conspiracy."

He slowed down slightly and approached the entrance at a leisurely pace. Before long, he felt a distinct heatwave rush towards him.

Because the slope of the tunnel sloped downwards slightly, the location of the safe house was lower than the surface, and the temperature was lower. Now, approaching the entrance, the temperature suddenly rose, reaching about thirty-five degrees Celsius.

"Whoa… if this world is generally this temperature, that's really not going to be easy…" Feng Bujue muttered.

Actually… it wasn't that difficult. As he muttered this, he already had a plan in mind…

The simplest way was to buy another set of spare clothes, and whenever he queued for Free Exploration mode, he would change into another set of clothes before entering. With Brother Jue's personality, he would likely spend very little money to put together a vest, shorts, and flip-flops "Fire Cloud Evil God Set". With that kind of look, even forty degrees wouldn't matter.

Whoosh—

Just as Feng Bujue reached the entrance, a gust of hot wind swept past, and the heat felt like the lid of a steamer had been lifted, causing him to retreat a few steps.

"Sigh… as expected, it's a desert…" Feng Bujue looked at the endless rolling yellow sand in front of him and sighed.

Although he was mentally prepared, he was still quite disappointed when he saw it with his own eyes.

He would rather have been randomly assigned to a universe where Skynet and humans were fighting in a doomsday battlefield than be assigned to a place where no one gives a damn. But reality proved once again… life is ten to one that things won't go as you wish.

"Alright… can't give up hope." Feng Bujue said, covering his mouth and nose with his gloves, stepping out of the tunnel and into the endless desert. "Maybe this is a corner of the DC or Marvel universe…"

This sentence was indeed his true thoughts. The universe that Feng Bujue wanted to go to most was undoubtedly these two filled with superheroes.

First of all, he had a very comprehensive grasp of the information on these two universes, such as the personalities, abilities, and weaknesses of the main characters; and the major events that were about to happen or had already happened, he knew them all like the back of his hand. Secondly, the resources in these two universes were extremely rich. Super technology, magic, mutant gene derivatives, aliens, and even cosmic gods could all be developed and utilized…

In addition, there were some personal reasons. Brother Jue always had a few things he wanted to do, such as bankrupting Batman, traveling to the Yellow Lantern Corps' planet, talking about life with Doctor Manhattan, removing Doctor Doom's mask, listening to Black Bolt sing, turning Tony Stark into a woman, and so on…

It could be said that these were two treasure-like universes. The stronger the player's abilities, the more benefits they could get, and these benefits were almost inexhaustible.

However… the facts proved that Brother Jue was thinking too much.

How could the system send him to such a good place…

…………

"General, the drones in the third experimental area seem to have photographed something."

"Switch the screen to the main display."

"Yes, sir."

"Hmm… is that… an Earthling?"

"According to the appearance database identification match, there is an 84% probability that it is an Earthling, a 10% probability that it is a Hacker Star person, and a 6% probability that it is another deformable species."

"Hmph… no matter what it is, capture it first."

"Understood."

"First Squad, be advised, an unidentified intruder has appeared fifty kilometers west of the base. Please immediately engage and capture."

…………

Looking at Feng Bujue's side, he had no idea that he was being targeted. At this moment, he was sprinting wildly in the desert…

Brother Jue had just discovered that the "running on water" effect of [Stepping on Air] worked the same on sand. So for him, running in the desert was easier than walking, basically like walking on flat ground.

"In any case, as my first safe house to enter this world, its location cannot be in a barren environment where you can't meet anyone even after walking for days and nights…" Brother Jue thought as he ran. "In that case, I'm likely to leave the scenario due to the game time issue before I find the next safe house." He licked his dry lips. "If I run in a straight line in one direction like this, I'll definitely encounter something… Even if I can't get out of the desert, I should at least find a camp or an oasis."

In just ten minutes, his entire body was soaked with sweat, and the high temperature caused the water in his body to be rapidly lost. Although players in the scenario world didn't need to eat, drink, or excrete, feelings like "fatigue" and "discomfort" would still cause physical exertion. And when the physical strength value became zero, the survival value would be threatened. Therefore, the "environment" was also the player's enemy.

"The sun here is also very worrying…" Feng Bujue looked up at the sky. "The color is obviously different from the sun I know, and I don't know what the ultraviolet intensity is… If this isn't Earth, the laws of celestial motion will be difficult to say… Maybe the sun here won't set for over fifty hours; or… the temperature at night is higher than during the day; or… maybe it's actually night now, and that red thing in the sky is essentially the moon…"

Unconsciously, he let his thoughts run wild again, and launched into boundless speculation…

In general scenarios, due to the limitations of tasks, time, and the scenario map, Feng Bujue had no chance to further understand the various detailed settings of those worlds. But in Free Exploration mode, "exploration" was the key, and players could completely abandon the ideas of general scenarios and explore infinite possibilities.

Because in this mode, there was no so-called "goal," and players didn't have to follow the routine of fighting monsters, leveling up, and getting equipment. As long as they were willing, they could even run for president… Of course, they would have to leave this world every once in a while.

Kaka… Kaka…

Suddenly, from behind a sand dune to Brother Jue's left front, there was a sound, which sounded like the footsteps of a large animal.

Feng Bujue looked towards the sound and happened to see several huge metal heads poking out from behind the sand dune.

"Robots?" Feng Bujue's first reaction was… Transformers. But after watching for a few seconds, he realized something was wrong. The cockpits of those large mechs were transparent and located in the abdomen of the mech; and there were pilots inside.

This was in broad daylight, and Brother Jue's eyesight could reach extremely far. He concentrated his attention and observed that those pilots were obviously not humans. Although their body shape was quite similar to humans, their shoulders were quite unusual… The shoulders of these creatures were all in a highly raised state, with the highest point close to the temples, and their armpits were probably level with their necks.

Because these "people" were all wearing uniform green uniforms and helmets, Feng Bujue could only see this one difference of "amazing bone structure" for the time being. Presumably, if observed at close range, the differences between them and humans would be even greater.

"Hmm… looking closely, their mechs also have an m-shaped design on their shoulders…" Brother Jue had stopped now, waiting for the other party's reaction.

"Earthling, cross your hands over your chest! Stand still!" One of the mech pilots warned Feng Bujue.

The voice was obviously amplified and came from a part of the mech, so Feng Bujue, standing more than ten meters away, could hear it very clearly.

"Ah, it really is an alien…" Brother Jue crossed his hands over his chest as he was told, and muttered in a low voice, "Uh… wait, from their point of view, I'm the 'alien,' right…" He had already begun to observe the other party's actions with great interest, and launched various speculations in his mind, such as: the technological level of this race, their cultural level, social structure, reproduction methods…

"Report to base, this is First Squad, I am Captain Jiejiejiejie. The target seems to understand our language and has not made any obvious resistance." Jiejiejiejie, the pilot of the leading mech, said into the communicator, "Is it possible to adopt Capture Strategy Three, over."

After a brief silence, the base gave a reply: "Affirmative, please be careful, Jiejiejiejie, over."

After receiving approval from his superiors, Jiejiejiejie turned on the amplifier again and said to Brother Jue: "Earthling, you are under arrest, please cooperate with our work and do not make unnecessary resistance."

Feng Bujue stood still. He really wanted to cooperate with the other party's actions, but he didn't know what counted as cooperation.

"What should I do…" Brother Jue wondered to himself, "On Earth… regular troops usually ask the subdued to raise their hands behind their heads and kneel on the ground. But here, they want me to cross my arms and stand… Of course, this is also understandable, given their skeletal structure, it must be difficult for them to make the movement of putting their hands behind their heads." His gaze shifted, and he had counted the number of mechs in front of him, eleven in total. "If I extrapolate according to this line of thinking, in the eyes of the people of this race, bowing may be equal to contempt, nodding may be equal to ridicule, smiling is anger, touching the leg is sexual harassment… Oh, wait, touching the leg is also…"

Kaka, kaka.

The mech piloted by Jiejiejiejie walked forward at this time, approaching Brother Jue. The height of the mech was about ten meters, and the body shape was the same as their operator, with extremely high shoulders.

"Stand on the robot's palm." Jiejiejiejie said, controlling the mech to stretch out its hand.

Without saying a word, Feng Bujue did as he was told. The moment he stepped on it, the robot's palm began to deform, turning into a spherical hollow iron cage in two seconds.

Jiejiejiejie also breathed a sigh of relief at this moment. He adjusted his tone and said seriously: "I am Lieutenant Jiejiejiejie of the Shoulder-Shrugging Star Army. I now formally announce that you have been arrested for stealing military secrets."

"Well… as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do…" Feng Bujue smiled self-deprecatingly.