59: Chapter 59 Testing

Time is the cheapest yet most extravagant unit of measurement in this world.

For the native creatures, it is a slowly flowing river;

for the players, it is merely a row of jumping numbers in the bottom-right corner of the screen, a death warrant for the respawn countdown, and a progress bar for construction queues.

Three weeks have passed since that internal war that nearly broke out.

Three thousand meters above the Black Rock Valley, a miracle is happening.

Amidst the once-empty sea of clouds, a massive floating platform with an area already exceeding thirty thousand square meters hangs silently, like a chessboard forgotten by the gods.

This is "pangu project No. 1," the cornerstone of the City of Liver Emperor.

At this moment, "pangu project No. 1" is less of a city's foundation and more of a super-construction site—the most chaotic yet vibrant one in human history.

Tens of thousands of players flow across it like worker ants, diligent to the point of madness.

[Black Iron Rocks] weighing several tons are hoisted by anti-gravity rune arrays, embedded seamlessly into predetermined positions under the precise control of "Architect" players;

weapon refiners, sweating profusely beside temporarily erected hundred-meter blast furnaces, pour cauldrons of molten [Star Steel] solution into massive molds, casting the keel that supports the city's skeleton;

further away, thousands of life-skill players are laying down complex energy pipelines and runic circuits, those shimmering lines that will become the blood vessels and nerves of this future city.

"Get your shit together, all of you! Raise the temperature of blast furnace No. 3 by another five hundred degrees! The puppet transport team over there, your route is wrong! Bypass Zone C! We just laid down a 'Sound-Dampening Rune Array' there; do you want to wake up the 'Formation Master' who just fell asleep?!"

Liver Emperor V87 stands on a temporarily constructed command tower, his eye sockets sunken and bloodshot, but the light burning in his eyes is even more intense than the blast furnace behind him.

He has been online for over five hundred consecutive hours, his voice raspy like a broken gong, yet he feels no fatigue, only an incomparable excitement from creating history with his own hands.

Beside him, All Realms Connector holds a thick ledger, laughing so hard that the fat on his face trembles.

"Boss Liver Emperor, this is incredible!" he exclaims sincerely. "Just now, the total transaction volume of our 'Heavenly Commerce Chamber' on 'pangu project No. 1' officially exceeded one million low-grade spirit stones! And guess what? The largest order was an anonymous purchase by the Purifiers alliance for a batch of [Demonized Scorpion Needles], a specialty of the Symbiosis Faction."

"Oh?" Liver Emperor V87 raises an eyebrow. "That guy Holy Light Hunk, he says no with his mouth, but his body is quite honest."

"Heh heh, that's called tactical necessity." All Realms Connector points to the distance, toward an area specifically carved out and shrouded by a powerful barrier—the PVP arena of the City of Liver Emperor.

"The armor-piercing arrows they temper with [Demonized Scorpion Needles] are exceptionally effective against those monsters that have evolved 'Energy Scales.' In exchange, the Symbiosis Faction has bought a large quantity of [Holy Light Crystals] produced by the Purifiers from us, using them to neutralize the demonic backlash caused by their research into the Heavenly Demon Strategy. A perfect supply-and-demand loop, and I am the toll station for this loop!"

He laughs like a fox that just stole a chicken.

This neutral city has not only failed to eliminate conflict but has instead pushed the "arms race" between the two major factions into a white-hot frenzy.

They have shifted their real-world battlefield away from each other and toward the vast Demon Realm, competing to see who can hunt higher-level monsters, who can expand their territory further, and who can provide more and rarer resources for the city's construction.

All the spoils of war eventually flow into the massive furnace that is the City of Liver Emperor, converting into nutrients for the city's growth and skyrocketing contribution points for the players.

Amidst this bustling scene, unnoticed by anyone, a trace of highly discordant "noise" quietly infiltrates the underlying logic of the world.

At first, it was just some players responsible for precise rune engraving who noticed a one-thousandth-of-a-second delay in their operations.

Immediately after, players controlling transport puppets discovered that the system's auto-pathfinding function had developed some minor, inexplicable deviations.

"What the fuck? Did my HUD just flicker?"

"What's going on? System prompt: Unknown energy field interference, partial functions restricted? Is this... a version update?"

"Something's wrong! Look at the sky!"

A cry of alarm causes countless players who were buried in their work to subconsciously look up.

Then, everyone freezes.

The sky has, at some point, turned into an eerie, dark gold color, as if glazed glass had melted.

The sea of clouds has stopped moving, the sound of the wind has vanished, and the background audio of the entire world seems to have been muted, leaving only the players' heavy breathing and frantic heartbeats.

An indescribable, suffocating pressure slowly descends from the nine heavens.

It is not a physical pressure, but an absolute suppression stemming from the level of "rules."

It is as if ants are looking up at a god, or as if code is facing root access in the backend.

Every player, whether they are a renowned PVP master or an obscure life-skill player, feels at this moment that everything about them—their level, equipment, skills, and even their very existence—has become fragile and unreal, as if a single thought from the other party could completely "delete" them.

Deep in the Demon Realm, there is a valley entangled with blood-colored vines.

Zero is leading his core subordinates from the Symbiosis Faction to besiege a terrifying giant beast that has just evolved from a "Datafied Monster" into a "Law Aberration."

Every attack from this giant beast carries the power to distort space.

However, the moment that dark gold sky descends, the arrogant giant beast lets out a whimper and actually prostrates itself on the ground, trembling as if it has encountered a natural predator.

Zero snaps his head up, and for the first time, an emotion called "horror" flickers in his terrifyingly bright eyes.

He can clearly feel the untamable, demonic power within him, derived from the Heavenly Demon Strategy, shrinking away in terror like a mouse seeing a cat.

On another piece of land purified by holy light.

Holy Light Hunk cleaves an elite monster in two with a single sword strike, golden holy flames purifying its remains.

He senses the pressure and knits his brows, but unlike the fear felt by other players, his first reaction is anger.

An anger that his territory has been brazenly invaded by a stronger being.

"Who goes there, playing god!" He grips his greatsword tightly, golden flames erupting into the sky as he attempts to resist the pressure.

However, the moment his holy flames touch that dark gold sky, they are extinguished without a sound, like a tiny flame meeting an ocean.

"Pfft—"

Holy Light Hunk is struck as if by lightning; his face pales, and he is forced back half a step by the backlash of this invisible power.

The Purifiers members behind him are all horrified.

The next second.

Crack—

A sound like a mirror shattering resonates deep within everyone's soul.

In the center of the dark gold sky, a pitch-black crack appears out of thin air.

It is not a spatial gate, nor is it a teleportation array.

It is "the world" itself being forcibly torn open by a higher-level "authority."

Three figures slowly step out from the crack.

They are not riding any magic treasures; they simply walk on the void as if stepping on solid ground.

The leader is a young man wearing robes embroidered with the sun, moon, and stars.

His face is as handsome as jade, but his eyes are colder and more arrogant than ten-thousand-year-old black ice.

His gaze sweeps over the magnificent City of Liver Emperor below without a hint of admiration or curiosity, only an undisguised, visceral disgust, as if he were looking at an eyesore, a twisted tumor growing in a garden.

He is none other than the Chief Examiner of the Central Sacred Land—Chief Examiner.

"Filthy, chaotic, disorderly..."

He parts his thin lips slightly; his voice is not loud, yet it rings out clearly in every inch of space within a hundred miles, reaching the ears of every player.

"A group of parasites stealing the world's origin, an out-of-control law aberration. You are the 'tumors' of this realm."

As soon as these words are spoken, all the players are in an uproar.

"Holy shit! What's the deal with this NPC? Such a big mouth!"

"Tumor? Who is he calling that?"

"Damn it, is he a BOSS? Brothers, get ready to aggro!"

A hot-tempered player from the Divine Wind Battalion roars and immediately unleashes his Flying Sword, which turns into a streak of light and shoots toward Chief Examiner in the sky.

Chief Examiner does not even glance at him.

One of his attendants, equally arrogant, simply flicks a finger impatiently.

Ding!

A soft sound.

The fine Flying Sword, imbued with the player's full power, shatters into pieces mid-air and turns into dust.

The player who attacked lets out a scream, his body gripped by an invisible force from thin air, his limbs twisting, and in an instant, he is squeezed into a bloody ball of flesh; with a flash of light, he turns into white light and disappears from the spot.

One-shot!

An instant kill, a dimensional-reduction strike that didn't even count as an exchange!

If the previous pressure only caused fear, this bloody scene instantly cools the frenzy of all the players, a chill shooting from the soles of their feet to their scalps.

"Silence."

Chief Examiner utters the two words indifferently.

The entire world seems to have truly been pressed on the pause button.

His gaze sweeps past tens of thousands of players and lands precisely on Zero, deep in the Demon Realm.

"The Heavenly Demon Strategy... an evil technique long since listed as forbidden, has actually been revived here. And in a way I have never seen before, even more distorted."

He looks at Holy Light Hunk, his brows slightly furrowed: "Stealing the power of holy light without a heart of reverence. Arrogant, conceited."

Finally, his gaze falls upon the City of Liver Emperor, upon those complex runes and architectural styles that do not belong to any inheritance in this world.

"And this... this deformed city that blasphemes the laws of creation."

He is like a doctor coldly reading out a patient's diagnosis report.

"No need to struggle, no need to explain." Chief Examiner slowly raises his right hand, palm upward. "I come in the name of the Sacred Land's laws, not to inquire, not to communicate."

"Only to—judge!"

The moment his words fall, a ball of golden light suddenly ignites in his palm.

Within the light, a primitive, solemn, golden scales of law, exuding an immortal aura, slowly emerges.

One end is carved with "Good," and the other with "Evil."

The scales of law!

The moment it appears, all players' system panels flash with frantic, scarlet warnings.

[Warning! Unknown over-specification law artifact detected!]

[Warning! Your activity logs are being forcibly read!]

[Warning! Judgment program initiated...]

"In the name of the Heavenly Dao, I shall settle all the 'causes' you have accumulated since you were born into this world, and bestow upon you the 'results' you deserve."

Chief Examiner's voice is devoid of any emotion, like a judgment from the Heavenly Dao.

"Now, let me see how much... original sin you, this 'tumor,' have accumulated."

He flicks a finger, and the scales of law instantly expands, blotting out the sun.

Golden radiance pours down like a waterfall, enveloping the entire Demon Realm, the City of Liver Emperor, and the head of every player.

At this very moment, deep within the ancestral hall, Lu Bei, who has been silently observing, feels his heart skip a beat.

He feels that beneath that magnificent, heaven-like power of judgment, there is another gaze hidden—a gaze like mercury flowing over the ground, pervasive, carrying a trace of playfulness and curiosity.

The target of this gaze is not the players, nor the scales of law.

It is himself.