Chapter 1 A Certain Multiverse

Two weeks ago, a certain multiverse.

Night, outskirts of Gotham City, outside an abandoned carnival grounds.

Two people were carrying out a clandestine transaction here…

As a burst of light gradually dimmed, the Kongtong Seal and the Tiangang Disha Box turned into dust in Dr. Manhattan's hands, respectively.

"It is done." Then, Dr. Manhattan said this to Feng Bujue in his calm tone.

Jue-ge stood two meters away from the Doctor. Hearing this, he silently felt the changes in himself, and then replied, "But I don't seem to feel anything special."

"That's normal. After all… it's just your 'projection' that's accepting this change, not your real body that exists in some distant other dimension," Dr. Manhattan replied. "In fact, you should be glad about this. If your main body were to undergo that 'change' just now, you would inevitably experience great physical pain."

"Hmm…" Jue-ge pondered for a moment, then lowered his head and used a data perspective to observe his body, "Looking at it… I can indeed see that the data strength has been greatly increased."

"Specifically… your body density has now stabilized at a very high value. Even without any protection, you can resist most conventional weapons in the human world," Dr. Manhattan continued. "Another improvement brought about by this physical change is the surge in strength and speed. With your talent, I think you'll quickly figure out how to control your power output… In addition, the energy you stored in the Tiangang Disha Box has also become a part of you. Your resistance to and control over non-material attacks such as magic, spells, and pure energy have been significantly enhanced."

While the Doctor was explaining, Feng Bujue had opened the game menu and started inspecting his inventory and equipment.

Because Dr. Manhattan was constantly aware of his every subtle movement and psychological change, after the previous explanation, the Doctor continued at the appropriate time, "As for those 'items' that have appeared on you, they all appeared under a certain space-time reversal effect triggered by the Kongtong Seal. The principle of this effect… even I cannot analyze it. All I know is… the particles of this Kongtong Seal show that it does not belong to any universe I recognize, and the materials it regressed seem to come from multiple different universes. This phenomenon exceeds the scope of all the theories I know."

Feng Bujue listened to the other party while he finished his inspection.

Unfortunately, the result made him a little frustrated.

Jue-ge had thought that the Kongtong Seal could restore those items and equipment that were erased by Twenty-Three and that Dream Inc. refused to restore, that is, those that were destroyed at the end of the "Return to Mount Luguba" scenario; but… he was wrong.

The "regression" effect of the Kongtong Seal was not the kind that could be precisely set to a certain point in time. If that were the case, he could completely rewind a little further and retrieve all the items he had lost, such as the Must-Break Defense Blade that was destroyed by Mad-Eye, and the One-Hit Kill Pistol and Contra Medal that appeared in specific scenarios… the strategic significance of these things was much higher than the batch of excellent-grade equipment he had lost.

The actual situation was that the Kongtong Seal regressed things randomly selected from the timeline that this character had experienced.

Therefore, Feng Bujue obtained the following items: Mario's Pipe Wrench, Children's Baseball Bat, Ruined Bat Cape, Drained Residue, Weed *2, Unmoving as a Mountain, and Energy Gauntlet.

Whether it was a coincidence or some kind of system restriction, none of these items were classified as "scenario-related."

Of course, that was not the point. The point was… these things were mostly garbage.

First of all, Mario's Pipe Wrench, which had "medium" attack power, "fire" attribute, and an effect of "chance to inflict a critical hit when attacking the head"; in the early stages of the game, this was naturally a very powerful weapon, but now… in an environment of level 50+, players' weapons were basically of the "stronger" or "very strong" attack power level, because when facing a pile of armor with "stronger" or "very strong" defense power, things with "medium" attack would appear relatively weak. Moreover, the effects of high-level equipment were generally much better than this, even without attributes, it was stronger.

Secondly, the Children's Baseball Bat, a common-quality three-no (no attack power, no attributes, no effects) weapon, made of rubber, a toy… in the early stages of the game, it was also destined to be sold by Jue-ge to the store, let alone now.

Next, the Ruined Bat Cape, Weed *2, and Energy Gauntlet, these three items were all special items that "cannot be taken out of the scenario" but did not belong to "scenario items," only because Feng Bujue had possessed them in the scenario, so they were regressed.

In terms of attributes… the cape was also a three-no; weed… well… it was just ordinary weed, and players could not get "high" from it, because the system could not allow players to experience drugs in the game; and the Energy Gauntlet, was a bit ambiguous, its quality was ruined, its defense power was weak, there was no defense attribute at all, and the effect was… [???]

In the "sub-dimensional space" of the "World Without Games," the Energy Gauntlet had causality-like control over the materials there, but whether it could work in other places was still unknown.

Finally, looking at… Drained Residue, if everyone still had an impression, this thing was the thing that was produced after the Zero-Type Magic Destroyer failed to create an item, and literally, it was completely garbage.

In summary, among the things Feng Bujue regressed, there was only one truly useful thing, and that was Unmoving as a Mountain.

Back in the semi-finals of S2, Jue-ge used Yi Da to blast this gem out, and knocked down Lin Yan in the "King Yama" period with one blow; now that he had recovered it, it was equivalent to regaining an extra skill that could use "hard defense" methods, and it could also be used as ammunition when necessary, which could be regarded as a gain.

"You seem a little disappointed," Dr. Manhattan asked, looking at Jue-ge's reaction.

"Ah… not really…" Feng Bujue responded, already focusing his attention on his skill bar.

Then, his expression changed significantly…

After being "cleaned" by Twenty-Three, Dream Inc. only restored two skills for Feng Bujue, namely Moon Step and Lanjiao (Tempest Kick), while Feng Bujue himself had four skills left in the storage room, namely Ice Sorcerer's Tenacity, Not-So-Careless Repair, Qigong Cannon, and Nanto Flying Dragon Fist.

Considering that his skill bar was now very relaxed, Jue-ge naturally brought all these skills with him, even if two of them (because the levels of various specializations were already very high, Ice Sorcerer's Tenacity was almost meaningless, and Jue-ge was unlikely to use the Qigong Cannon, a move with its own instant-death probability) were basically no longer used.

However, after Dr. Manhattan "restored" him, Feng Bujue found that… his skill bar had simply become empty.

"I say…" Jue-ge certainly had a lot of opinions about this. He immediately looked at the Doctor and said, "...Is there something wrong? Why haven't I regained my lost abilities, and even the existing ones are gone?"

"They are not 'gone,' it's just that you are 'turning a blind eye' to them," Dr. Manhattan replied.

"Your metaphysical answer is really helpful to me," Feng Bujue responded with a sarcastic tone, glaring with dead fish eyes.

"You should understand what I mean." Dr. Manhattan did not have any emotional fluctuations about this. He just continued to say in a straightforward tone, "Now that you have absorbed the dual powers of the Kongtong Seal and the Tiangang Disha Box, what's the point of the so-called 'skill bar' that 'fate' gave you?"

As soon as these words came out, a flash of inspiration flashed in Feng Bujue's mind.

He instantly understood the meaning, and then, he raised one hand, with two fingers together, and suddenly launched an attack towards the distance.

In the next second, an spiritual energy shock shot out from his fingertips, pierced through the air, and entered the water.

The move he used was not even a skill he had ever mastered, but just a skill he had "seen"...

That was the Lingmao Jiu Tu (Spirit Spear Vulture Strike) that the Xuanling Wangzhe (Mystic Spirit Monarch) in the enemy camp used when he was fighting the Golden Warhammer Team in S2; at that time, the other party used this move to attack the robot "Infected Fighter" (made by Musashi Koganei) that Feng Bujue sent out, and Jue-ge was watching the battle in the dark with a data perspective.

"I see… 'invisibility' doesn't matter, because I 'no longer need to see'," Feng Bujue said after finishing this "experiment."

"Yes." Dr. Manhattan nodded. "As long as you can 'understand' the 'truth sequence' you see, you can naturally replicate its operation method. This has something in common with my control over elementary particles, but it's relatively simple." He paused. "For example… if we have a painting in front of us, your ability is to reproduce a very similar painting in your own way after seeing it; and I have to start from the pigments of the painting, the composition of the canvas, and even every brain cell of the original author and his various emotional experiences on the timeline..."

"Okay, okay, you don't need to tell me about the knowledge at the level of quantum observers." Feng Bujue didn't intend to listen to the Doctor's explanation. "Unless I become an existence with the same dimension and ability as you, it's a waste of time."

"Hmm…" Dr. Manhattan pondered for a moment, "So… now, are you satisfied?"

"The deal is done." Feng Bujue gave an affirmative answer. "But… there is a small matter outside of the deal that I would like to ask for your help." Saying this, he took out the Ruined Bat Cape from his inventory. "This… I would like to ask you to keep it for me temporarily."

"Keep it for me?" Dr. Manhattan then asked, "So, who should I give it to later?"

"Heh…" Jue-ge smiled at him and said in English, "you_tell_me."

Dr. Manhattan was silent for a few seconds, then, looking at Feng Bujue, he said, "I understand, I will give it to 'him'."

…………

Now, the main universe, Monster Kingdom.

The Purgatory Unparalleled Explosive Heat Wave Cannon that Feng Bujue unleashed shattered the blast tunnel in a devastating manner; when you don't know how to close a certain "portal," using this kind of power that can shatter time and space to "brute force" it is undoubtedly a good way.

When the tunnel exploded, half of the dozen or so Redshirts that had just crawled out were immediately crushed by the collapsed space-time singularity, and the remaining few unhesitatingly killed Jue-ge a few meters away.

Although Feng Bujue had just finished his move, he was not without a way to deal with this. Even without relying on others, he had at least three or five ways to cope with this round of attack.

However, since arrangements had already been made before the action, he didn't do anything more.

Whoosh whoosh—

In that second, Xiao Tan and Xu Huai殇 both soared into the air… the former flashed to Feng Bujue's back with lightning-like speed, put his arm around Jue-ge's waist, and then with a step, the figures of the two disappeared from mid-air at the same time.

At the same instant, Xu Huai殇 unsheathed her twin blades.

Because she was equipped with the passive skill Ambidexterity, Xu Huai殇 could use both hands to perform two different skills at the same time (provided that the skills can theoretically be used with one hand). At this moment, the Falling Flower and Flying Floss in her hands each made a move, Blood Smoke Flowing Wind in her left hand and Evening Night Slash Dance in her right hand, two kinds of slashes with different effects and killing ranges, each hitting those irregularly positioned Redshirts at the most appropriate angle, speed and strength… to the greatest extent.

When Xu Huai殇 finished her move and slowly fell from the air, the corpses of those Redshirts had already fallen to the ground one step ahead of her. And Wang Tanzhi and Feng Bujue appeared behind Bill and Dian He Wang as if they had teleported.

This was why Feng Bujue didn't do anything after blasting the tunnel…

Because Jue-ge had told the two teammates before breaking through the tunnel: "If there are any Redshirts that slip through and attack me after I finish my move, just in case… Xiao Tan will be responsible for pulling me to a safe area, and Xiao Shang will kill the pursuers."

After all, Feng Bujue was going to use the Purgatory Unparalleled Explosive Heat Wave Cannon, even if his current stamina and spiritual power limits were already very high, he still considered the possibility of himself "entering a state of exhaustion after finishing his move," so he made this thorough arrangement.

At the moment, although he did not enter that state, but out of trust in his teammates, and… laziness… so he didn't do anything extra after making his move.

"Awesome, awesome." After seeing Xu Huai殇's performance, Feng Bujue couldn't help but praise her. "Every time I see you again after a period of time, your strength will have a significant improvement… to be honest, I really admire you."

"Isn't this a matter of course." Xu Huai殇, who returned to the ground, did not show any joy at Feng Bujue's praise. She just calmly replied, "For professional players, 'improving strength' is their duty, right? There is nothing to praise or boast about."

"Hehe… what you said makes the position of those actors who shout about how 'dedicated' they are when they encounter a bruise or a scratch, go into the water in winter, or wear fur coats in summer very embarrassing," Jue-ge ridiculed.

"I think you should use 'athletes who get high salaries, are out of shape, and can't even pass the physical fitness test' as an analogy here," Xu Huai殇 said, "Because the 'actors' in your example…" Saying this, she raised her hands and made quotation marks, "...whether they can be called 'actors' is debatable."

"Hmm… that's right." Feng Bujue nodded. "Thinking about it carefully, if the investors who spend money to hire these people are not buying 'acting skills,' but to guarantee box office… from this point of view, they have also completed their duties."

"Have you two chatted enough?" Seeing that they were getting more and more excited, Dian He Wang interrupted again with his "unhappy" expression. "Do you know that nine out of ten of the things you said we can't hear or understand (there is a system shielding reason)?" He turned his head, looked at the black sky in the distance, and then said, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the Monster Kingdom… um… this explains why they sent so many troops… In short, we have now reached our destination and temporarily got rid of the pursuers, so what's the next step?"

The question was naturally asked to Feng Bujue.

"Before I say what to do…" Jue-ge also took the opportunity to look at Old Wang and replied, "You…" He glanced at the Billy brothers, "have you all felt it too?"

"Ah…" Billy replied, "The Dou Mo (Fighting Demon) is also here, but… he is still very far away from us at the moment."

"If nothing unexpected happens…" Feng Bujue continued, "I think we should have just caught up with the moment when the Dou Mo and the Redshirt Legion are attacking the Monster Kingdom." He paused and asked, "Speaking of which… the war has been going on for two years, why are they only attacking here now?"

"On the one hand, the Monster Kingdom is located in a remote area and is extremely difficult to reach." Zhuan Jiezun then replied, "On the other hand… in the early stages of the war, the number of the Redshirt Legion was not as large as it is now. I am afraid that with their combat power at that time, they may not be able to take this place."

"Oh?" Feng Bujue said, "Is the Monster Kingdom so powerful?"

"As a single force, the Monster Kingdom is far stronger than any of the Four Pillars of Gods." Zhuan Jiezun said, "It's just that the residents of the kingdom are content with their lives here and have no intention of participating in the battle for supremacy in the main universe. And from the perspective of the Four Pillars of Gods, this 'marginal land' separated from other regions of the main universe has neither any value to occupy nor is it an easy bone to chew… so…"

At this time, Billy replied appropriately, "To use an example from the history of your world, it is equivalent to… Iceland in World War II suddenly mastered twice the combat power of the German army. In this case, I am afraid that no one would attack it before other battlefields are completely settled, right?"

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue pondered for a few seconds, "Your example is very good, but does that mean…" As he spoke, his eyes changed slightly, "Right now, the Monster Kingdom is the last front in the main universe…"