97: Settlement time! Physical mutations in the real world?

Black Iron City, Central Plaza.

A flash of white light from tearing space, and tens of thousands of players, like potatoes poured from a giant sack, fell scattered across the plaza.

Li Qiang was the first to get up, still carrying the head of an angel statue taller than himself. He looked around, seeing a chaotic yet exultant scene. Players were carrying, hugging, and hoisting all sorts of strange spoils of war—golden pillars, gem statues, glowing rune floor tiles—piling the entire plaza into a giant scrap yard.

"We're rich! We're rich!"

"Hahaha, my backpack is about to burst! I've made a fortune this time!"

"Quick, let's see how many Contribution Points this gold brick can get me?"

The players looked at each other, disheveled but excited, and erupted in thunderous cheers. This Celestial Realm "zero-cost shopping" carnival left every participant with a massive haul, and an unprecedented sense of satisfaction filled everyone's hearts.

However, this boisterous spoils-sharing session didn't last long.

A cold, emotionless System announcement simultaneously echoed in the ears of all players.

[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to all "fourth calamity" Legion players for successfully destroying the Outer Ring of the Celestial Realm core and completing the epic battle "Cloud War"!]

[Calculating rewards based on battle Contribution Points...]

The moment the announcement sounded, a huge, golden settlement interface popped up in front of all players.

At the very top of the interface was an exaggerated, rapidly scrolling number, which was their total Contribution Points.

Li Qiang stared at the number on his interface, and the grilled griffon wing in his mouth dropped to the ground.

[Player "Also a Ruthless Person" Battle Contribution Summary]

[Kill Contribution: 9,874,500 points (including the fatal blow to the final BOSS 'Raphael')]

[Tactical Contribution: 12,500,000 points (proposed and executed 'Nuclear Peace' tactic, 'Mount Seizure' tactic, etc.)]

[Destruction Contribution: 7,650,000 points (accumulated demolition of 11 Celestial Realm buildings, 3 divine statues)]

[...]

[Total Contribution Points: 31,487,900 points]

Over thirty million!

This number made Li Qiang's brain crash for a second. He had worked hard through several versions, and his combined Contribution Points were less than a fraction of this number.

And others were similarly ecstatic.

"Damn! Even I, who just idled, got over two million Contribution Points! Happiness came too suddenly!"

"Over ten million! I have over ten million! What can I exchange for? Can I empty the mall?"

"Look at the exchange list! It's updated! All good stuff!"

Players impatiently opened the Contribution Points mall's exchange list, and their eyes instantly turned red.

[Celestial Heritage Zone (Limited Time Open)]

[Item Name: Broken Seraph Wing (Legendary · Flight Component)]

[Exchange Price: 1,500,000 Contribution Points]

[Description: Raphael's lost wing, can be repaired to serve as the core of a high-mobility flight backpack.]

[Item Name: prism tower Core Crystal (Legendary · Energy Core)]

[Exchange Price: 800,000 Contribution Points]

[Description: Can serve as the ultimate energy source for guild strongholds or large vehicles, with extremely high output power.]

[Item Name: Angel Gene Optimization Fluid (Elementary)]

[Exchange Price: 500,000 Contribution Points]

[Description: After injection, it can slightly optimize the body's gene sequence, enhance all attributes, and has an extremely low chance of Awakening "Holy Light Affinity" Physique.]

[Blueprint: Infantry Lightsaber (Monkey Version)]

[Exchange Price: 200,000 Contribution Points]

[Description: Great Master Wang Wei's passionate work. Although unstable and energy-intensive, it's really cool.]

...The dazzling exchange list made all players drool. Especially the "Angel Gene Optimization Fluid," its description directly ignited everyone's nerves.

"Optimize body genes? Is that what I think it means?!"

"This game... is getting more and more outrageous!"

Just as everyone was figuring out how to spend this huge sum, Su Mu's second announcement, like a bucket of cold water, poured over everyone's heads.

[Important Server-wide Announcement: As the "Cloud War" version content has been fully completed, the server will undergo a major version update.]

[This update will integrate the "celestial technology" and "Abyssal Demonic Energy" major Systems. The estimated server downtime for maintenance is 72 hours.]

[During the update, all players will be forcibly logged off.]

[The server will shut down after a 10-second countdown. 10...9...8...]

"Damn it! No! I haven't exchanged anything yet!"

"You dog developer! You tricked me! You're shutting down the server just as I got rich?!"

"Three days! I have to wait three days! I'm going to die without playing Xujie!"

Amidst wails and curses, all players' figures turned into streaks of white light and vanished from Black Iron City.

The entire world finally returned to peace... In the real world, in Su Mu's private villa's underground central control room.

Su Mu sat with his legs crossed, looking at the massive energy reserves and data streams on the main screen, a joyful expression of harvest on his face.

The battle in the Celestial Realm yielded far greater rewards than he had imagined.

Not only did he plunder a massive amount of resources and energy, but more importantly, there were the core data brought back by Wang Wei and the others.

"The 'Sky Dome' sequence's Soul Matrix Technology, a creation of a high-dimensional civilization... although only a small part has been analyzed, it's enough to make 'Spark's' underlying protocol take a leap forward."

Su Mu's finger swiped through the air, bringing up 'Spark's' core control panel.

[Spark · Dimensional War Command Center]

[Permission Level: LV.4]

[Energy Reserve: 78% (Extremely Abundant)]

[Conquered Planes: 1 (Wasteland Mechanical Realm)]

[Explored Planes: 2 (Dwarf Dungeon, Outer Ring of the Celestial Realm)]

[Core Functions: fourth calamity Deployment System, Omniscient Analysis System, Reality Feedback System...]

His gaze fell upon the "Reality Feedback System" section.

[Reality Feedback System (V2.0)]

[Physical Synchronization Rate: 1%]

[Mental Synchronization Rate: 3%]

"A 1% synchronization rate can already make players' physical qualities far surpass ordinary people. So what if... it's increased a bit more?"

A bold idea formed in Su Mu's mind.

As players grew stronger, they reached higher and higher levels. The Celestial Realm War had proven that mere games were no longer enough to cope with future challenges. The power from the game must be gradually and controllably guided into reality.

This was necessary preparation for the upcoming global open beta and for potential real crises.

"The analysis of celestial technology has made the link between Soul and body more stable. Increasing the synchronization rate to 5% is within a controllable risk range."

"Let me see what interesting flowers these 'leeks' I personally planted can bloom in the real world."

A playful smile curled at Su Mu's lips, and he lightly tapped the control panel with his finger.

[Confirm to increase "Physical Synchronization Rate" from 1% to 5%? This operation will consume a large amount of energy and may cause unpredictable reality fluctuations.]

"Confirm."

[Command received. Synchronization rate adjusting... Expected to be completed during the first deep sleep of all 'players' after they go offline.]

Having done all this, Su Mu stretched, then turned off the screen.

He knew that three days later, when the server reopened, the entire world would be different... Midnight, in an ordinary apartment building in a certain first-tier city in China.

Li Qiang abruptly sat up from his gaming pod.

He felt hot all over, as if countless ants were surging through his blood vessels, and every muscle was roaring with a craving for strength.

"Damn it, these after-effects are getting stronger."

Li Qiang grumbled as he walked to the living room and took out a bottle of iced cola from the refrigerator. Without thinking, he instinctively tried to crush the can with one hand, as he usually did, before throwing it away.

This time, however, the sensation was completely different.

He felt no resistance at all; the hard aluminum can, in his hand, was like soft modeling clay, easily twisted into a crumpled mess. The cold cola splashed all over his hand.

"Huh?"

Li Qiang was stunned, looking down at the shapeless piece of scrap metal in his hand, then at his palm.

He vaguely felt that his strength seemed to have increased quite a bit.

He looked around, his gaze falling on the newly bought titanium alloy thermos cup on the table, which was advertised as military-grade and usable as a hammer.

A ridiculous thought arose in his mind.

He walked over, picked up the cup, took a deep breath, and applied the same ruthless force he used to smash BOSSes in the game to his five fingers.

"Transform for me!"

"Creak... Squeak... Crunch..."

A grating sound of metal twisting echoed.

The incredibly hard titanium alloy cup, strong enough to crack walnuts, was crushed inch by inch into a bizarre shape in his hand, as if it had been run over by a hydraulic press.

When Li Qiang released his hand, the cup clattered to the floor.

It had become a complete, shimmering piece of metallic trash.

Li Qiang stared blankly at his hands, then at the scrap metal on the ground, his mouth slowly widening, his eyes filled with incredulous shock.

"Damn... my strength..."

...Meanwhile, in another city, in a programmer's apartment at a major internet company.

Wang Wei woke up with messy hair. He felt his brain had never been so clear, as if it had been formatted and reinstalled with the latest System.

He habitually picked up his laptop, wanting to glance at the complex algorithm he'd stayed up all night trying to fix.

However, as his gaze fell upon the dense code on the screen, a miracle occurred.

The symbols and logic that once gave him a splitting headache now appeared as clear and simple as 1+1=2. The underlying operational logic of every function call and every variable transfer automatically unfolded and simulated in his mind like a 3D model.

"This redundant variable can be removed... This nested loop can be optimized into recursion... This API interface has a risk of memory leak..."

He didn't even need to think; countless optimization schemes and BUG points flashed through his mind like a barrage of comments. His mental calculation ability at this moment seemed comparable to a supercomputer.

He picked up the keyboard, his hands flying across it like phantoms.

In just ten minutes, a complex project that would take a team a week to complete was completely restructured, optimized, and tested by him alone, in a manner that could be called art.

Wang Wei looked at the perfectly running program on the screen, pushed up his glasses, and fell into a long silence.

"My brain... seems to have been overclocked?"

...In Shanghai, in a luxurious river-view apartment.

Lin Xiaowan, wrapped in a silk bathrobe, lazily walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Strange, why does it feel a bit hot?" she complained, feeling that the air conditioner's temperature wasn't low enough.

The moment she finished speaking.

The room's temperature, as if truly obeying her command, dropped several degrees with an imperceptible yet real magnitude. A faint coolness began to spread around her.

Lin Xiaowan was startled. She looked at her hand, then at the air conditioner remote.

She seemed to have... done nothing?

...Similar scenes were simultaneously unfolding in tens of thousands of corners around the world.

The official forum of "Xujie," after hours of silence, was suddenly ignited by countless bizarre-looking posts.

[Holy crap! Brothers! Something big happened! I think I've really become a superhero! Pictures and truth included!]

In the post, a player uploaded a video. In the video, he simply jumped lightly, and his entire body bounced over a meter high, his head nearly hitting the ceiling.

This post was like a signal.

[Me, me, me! Me too! I just woke up feeling my eyes a bit itchy, rubbed them, and found I could see the subtitles on my neighbor's TV across the building! Clearer than a telescope!]

[What's that? I just yawned, and a small Spark shot out from my hand, burning a hole in my bedsheet! My mom thought I committed arson and almost beat me to death!]

[Fire-elemental big shot upstairs, don't leave! I'm electric-elemental! I just touched my phone, and it burned out due to voltage overload! Now my dad is hanging me up and beating me!]

Initially, these posts were dismissed as collective jokes and pranks by players.

But as more and more videos and evidence were uploaded, the entire internet completely boiled over!

A muscular man in a gym effortlessly lifted a 200kg barbell as if it were a toy.

A female college student in her dorm room muttered to a glass of water, and that glass of water actually formed a thin layer of ice without any cooling equipment.

An ordinary office worker, waiting for the subway, instinctively grabbed an advertising billboard pillar next to him because he lost his balance, and a clear five-finger print was pressed into the stainless steel pillar!

Panic, shock, fanaticism, disbelief... countless emotions intertwined and fermented online.

People finally realized that the game "Xujie" might truly be more than just a game.

And this storm, sweeping across the internet, quickly caught the attention of the real power-holders in the real world.

China, Beijing, deep within an unmarked underground building.

In a massive intelligence analysis center, the atmosphere was extremely tense.

"Report! Confirmed that all 'Xujie' deep players nationwide have shown varying degrees of abnormal enhancement in physical functions!"

"Report! News from North America, their 'superhumans' have also appeared! A player single-handedly stopped an out-of-control truck on the street!"

"Report! We attempted to track the physical location of the 'Xujie' server... Failed! Its IP address jumps tens of thousands of times per second worldwide, making it impossible to locate!"

An old man with white hair and a general's star on his shoulder stared intently at the video on the large screen, the one where the titanium alloy cup was crushed by bare hands, his own hands trembling slightly.

He remained silent for a long time, then issued an order in an extremely solemn voice.

"Immediately raise 'Xujie's' threat level to the highest."

"Use all available resources, at any cost, to contact its operating party."

"I need to know if this is just a game..."

"Or... a declaration of invasion from an unknown dimension!"