56: The Emperor brand fire hydrant, at your service (not by a long shot)!

"Let's play a new game!"

The five powerhouses almost froze, their eyes filled with horror.

The girl, who called herself An'an, clapped her hands happily.

In her innocent eyes,

Shone the joy of a child finding a new toy.

"Let's play... hide-and-seek, okay?"

Her words were light and naive,

Yet carried an undeniable,

Absolute command, like the laws of the world.

"You guys, turn into all sorts of little things and hide well. Then, I've found some 'new friends' to look for you. If you get found, you 'lose'~"

She smiled, her eyes curving.

But she didn't explain what the consequences would be after 'losing'.

The moment her voice fell,

The entire world began to disintegrate!

The eternal twilight, the crimson earth, the shattered sky,

Were wiped away as if by an invisible giant hand.

Replaced by...

A brand new,

Incredibly real modern urban street.

The glass curtain walls of skyscrapers reflected a false sunlight.

On the asphalt road, rows of brand new cars were parked.

At the entrance of the coffee shop on the street corner, exquisite tables and chairs were set out.

In the park not far away,

The fountain was gushing water cheerfully.

This was an empty,

Perfect and dead silent city model.

At the same time,

An irresistible,

Incomprehensible mighty force,

Descended upon the five members of the Joint Squad!

The Human Emperor Gu Yanci roared.

Golden Imperial Dragon Qi soared into the sky,

Attempting to resist this power.

But the Dragon Qi, before this mighty force,

Was like a breeze brushing over mountains,

Not stirring a single ripple.

He watched helplessly as his body was twisted and compressed,

Finally, with a "clang",

He turned into a red fire hydrant standing by the sidewalk.

What a great humiliation!!!

This was the first time in the Human Emperor's life,

He had felt such pure humiliation, named powerlessness.

In the shop window,

Ye Liuli's figure transformed into thousands of shadows, trying to escape,

But was forcibly pressed back to her original spot by an invisible force,

Turning into a plastic mannequin wearing a black evening gown,

With a stiff, commercial smile still on her face.

In the center of the park fountain,

Ling Xi's sacred radiance was compressed and shaped,

Becoming a pure white dove statue, holy yet comical.

On the wall at the street corner,

An inconspicuous surveillance camera quietly appeared.

That was Cang Xuan.

He almost immediately accepted reality,

Operating his Heavenly Mystery Art to its extreme,

And began, from this new perspective,

To deduce the causality of the entire 'game field'.

And in a dark alley,

Ye Qiong turned into a discarded, old black umbrella, lying quietly next to a trash can... "What the hell?! Guys, what's going on?!"

21st century, a certain fish live streaming platform.

The streamer with the ID "Sniper God Hao Ge" and millions of followers was staring at the screen, dumbfounded.

He was originally live streaming a shooting game called "Gun King Showdown."

Challenging for fifteen consecutive wins in "Hide-and-Seek Mode."

But just now,

The game screen flickered,

And he was loaded into a new map he had never seen before.

This map... was a bit too realistic!

"What the heck is the official doing? No announcement for a new map? But this modeling is too awesome! It feels like every frame is burning up my graphics card!"

Hao Ge interacted with his audience,

While skillfully checking his equipment.

The countdown ended, and the game began!

"Here we go! Seeker! Watch me, Hao Ge, dominate the whole field today!"

He confidently carried a Gatling machine gun and rushed into the street... The live stream bullet comments instantly filled the screen:

"Hao Ge, go go go! Smash those noobs who are hiding!"

"This map looks so cool, I want to play too!"

"I bet a pack of spicy strips that Hao Ge won't find more than ten this round."

...Hao Ge was indeed a professional player.

He immediately showed terrifying strength at the start.

He almost didn't hesitate at all.

He fired a burst at a trash can placed in the middle of the road.

"Puff."

One player was eliminated.

"Hahaha, which idiot put the trash can in the middle of the road?"

He then furiously strafed a potted plant at a tricky angle.

"Puff."

Another player was out.

"It's all basic skills, everyone, calm down!"

Hao Ge said proudly.

Then,

He passed by the red fire hydrant.

As a professional player, his intuition was screaming.

The position, color, and lighting of this fire hydrant,

Were impossibly perfect.

So perfect... it looked like a fake deliberately placed there!

"Guys, watch my performance!"

He grinned menacingly.

Aimed the Gatling gun at the fire hydrant.

And pulled the trigger!

"Da da da da da da!!!"

Sparks flew, and gunshots were deafening.

However,

That fire hydrant remained motionless.

The game HUD displayed a line of red text: [Invalid Target]

Hao Ge's smile froze on his face.

"What the hell? A bug? This is definitely a bug! Is the model stuck?!"

He yelled at the live stream.

The bullet comments exploded instantly:

"Hahahahahahaha! I'm dying of laughter! Streamer battles a fire hydrant!"

"Esports, no eyesight needed!"

"I testify, the fire hydrant moved first!"

Hao Ge's mindset was a bit broken.

He cursed and continued to walk forward.

He didn't know.

While he was struggling with the fire hydrant,

Cang Xuan, who had transformed into a surveillance camera,

Had already transmitted his next 30 seconds of movement,

Shooting angles, and even his reloading habits,

Through divine sense to his other four 'teammates'.

Thus,

Hao Ge's gaming experience began to become incredibly bizarre.

He felt a lamppost was suspicious and was about to shoot.

A butterfly "just happened" to fly past his eyes, making him half a second late.

The lamppost was not hit.

He felt that a mannequin (Ye Liuli) in a shop window seemed to have moved its eyes.

But when he stared intently,

The mannequin was perfectly still, like a dead object.

Ye Liuli used her shadow power,

To create a delay of zero point zero something seconds in his vision,

Perfectly evading his observation.

Time passed by minute by minute.

Except for the two rookies at the beginning,

Hao Ge found nothing.

He felt like he was being played by the 'props' of the entire map.

"Guys! I'm telling you, this map is haunted! Absolutely haunted! These b*stards are all cheating! No, this isn't cheating, it's the GM playing with me in the backend! I've played hide-and-seek for ten years, and I've never seen anyone hide so well!!!"

Hao Ge raged impotently in the live stream.

And the audience,

Gradually noticed something was off, beyond the initial teasing.

"No... don't you think this game is too realistic? Look at the dust, look at the light and shadow... Is this really a game?"

"How do I feel like it's not the streamer playing the game, but the game playing the streamer?"

"I swear! I really saw a trace of golden light flash from that fire hydrant just now! It was fleeting!"

..."Hahahahaha! How interesting! It's truly too interesting!"

In the Sea of Concepts,

Gu Jianghan looked at this absurd scene,

And was already slapping his thigh with laughter.

To make a group of gods who wielded laws,

Obey the game rules of mortals.

And then use their laws,

To counter the 'game skills' of mortals!

This extreme misalignment,

This dimension-reducing, playful torment,

Was simply the highest level of black humor in the universe!

An'an... you truly are a born master of drama!

Only one minute of game time remained.

Hao Ge's mindset completely exploded.

"Damn it! I'm not looking anymore!"

He roared,

And pulled out a high-explosive grenade—an area-of-effect damaging item—from his backpack.

He stared intently at the red fire hydrant that had made him look like such a fool.

"I don't care if you're a f*cking bug or not! I'm going to blow you out today!"

He shrieked, pulled the pin,

And fiercely threw the deadly grenade,

Towards the fire hydrant, which was transformed Gu Yanci, the Human Emperor.