Chapter 1

No one could sense how much time actually passed in the half dreamy state. It might have been just an instant, or it might have been an eternity. When everyone in team China opened their eyes, they were lying on an open field. The sky was pitch black but light brightened the areas around them. They were inside a banquet. However, no one around was about to see them because God just sent them here. It seemed like all these people in the banquet isolated an empty area.

“So this is The Lord of the Rings.” Zheng was the first to wake up. He looked around and said.

The battlefield of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings spanned an enormous world. The battlefield of the Mummy and Starship Troopers were incomparable in terms of their sizes because the whole world in The Lord of the Rings was the battlefield.

The series had multiple movies similar to The Mummy. However, God only told them of the world they were in and didn’t specify which movie. Which meant this mission might span through the whole series. Such a large battlefield could take months to complete their mission.

These thoughts crossed Zheng’s mind. He looked back at the supplies they prepared for this movie and they were truly appropriate for this large battlefield.

The other members of the team had also gotten up by this time. Aside from the veterans of team China, there were five newbies on the floor. This movie had a difficulty of fifteen people. That exceeded Zheng’s expectation.

“Xuan, deduce our current location by our environment.” Zheng said to Xuan then looked at his watch.

Xuan looked around, but before he got to speak, God’s voice appeared in their minds.

“Team Africa and team Northern Ice Land has entered The Lord of the Rings. Team East America will enter from a random location after three days. Team Celestial will enter from a random location after ten days. Killing a normal member from another team rewards 2000 points and a rank C reward. Killing an unlocked member from another team rewards 7000 points and a rank B reward. Score minus one for each member of the team killed. Score plus one for killing a member of another team. Final score multiplied by 2000 will be rewarded as points.”

Everyone was stunned to hear this announcement. Xuan pushed his glasses. There were actually five teams in this movie. Not only that but team Celestial was also among these teams. They were one of the two special teams in God’s realm.

Zheng took a deep breath and continued reading his watch. He read the mission out. “All five teams arrive at Barad-dûr simultaneously then get transported back to each team’s respective God’s dimension after thirty minutes. All high-tech weapons are ineffective against natives of The Lord of the Rings. Weapons retains effect against other teams.”

Zheng looked at the others with a bitter smile and said. “This movie looks quite complicated. It was already special the last movie when we had a three-way team battle. And now we are having a five-way team battle with one of the teams being team Celestial. Team Africa is also here. We almost wiped them in the last team battle. Not sure what will happen when we meet them again.”

The five people on the ground moved slightly. Then a muscular middle aged man sat up. He was wearing a tight tank top and shorts you would see from people in gyms. He looked rather manly and handsome. A few seconds later, he jumped up and kicked at the person nearest to him, Gando.

Gando was still stunned by God’s announcement and Zheng’s words. It wasn’t until the man’s foot came near his face before he reacted. He had used the dragon’s blood after all so his speed and other physical attributes surpassed this man. He blocked in front with his arms and boom! The kick knocked him down to the ground.

The man seemed surprised but he continued to charge at Gando. His hand reaching for his waist. Just after he took two steps, there was a sharp pain on his waist and he collapsed on the ground. YinKong was standing behind him.

Gando didn’t get injured so Zheng didn’t care much. Now that the man was subdued, he coughed to get their attention. “I know you have a lot of questions. Sit down and listen. Don’t try to attack us or I can’t guarantee your safety.”

The muscular man’s body convulsed for almost twenty seconds. Sweat rained down his face. He looked like he was poured with water by the time he sat up. His expression was filled with fear when he looked at YinKong. It was like this girl was a demon.

The other four people also sat up, two men and two women. One of the men and women were wearing the same school uniforms and their age were similar. The other two was a handsome teenage boy and a woman in her late twenties dressed in revealing clothes. All four people looked around in confusion.

Zheng decided to let Lan do the explanation. 100 points weren’t a lot but points were as important as ranked rewards to a psyche force user because they didn’t have much combat ability.

The five newbies finished listening to Lan after several minutes. The situation was much better than previous movies since the people around them all had the bodies of a child but their face ranged from kids to elders. They were the well-known Hobbits of The Lord of the Rings, or in another name, the Halflings. The newbies had no choice but to believe with such proof.

The teenage boy was the first to calm down and asked. “Ha, how unbelievable this is! I was discussing hacking with some people on the net then the next moment after I pressed enter I am here. So I have a question, not about the details of God’s realm but is our team strong?”

Zheng smiled bitterly and looked at his team. “I thought we were the strongest team aside from team Devil and team Celestial but we are actually ranked third in this team battle. Team East America is stronger than us and there’s team Celestial in this battle. Anyway, you should know why you are here and what this place is. Before I tell you the rules of team China, tell us your names and occupations.”

The boy said with a smile. “My name is Hao Tian, a second year high school student and hacker. I also train regularly but I probably can’t fare in life and death fights. I am quite smart so I think I can help you in some ways.”

Zheng nodded. The muscular man then followed. “My name is Li Shi. I am a private bodyguard. I was training with three other people then came here when I was operating the fitness machine. I thought that YES meant starting the machine. I am trained in close combat and can use most firearms. Ahem. Of course not as good as her.” He peaked at YinKong.

Seeing these two people quickly introduced themselves, the woman also said. “My name is Xie Zhen. I am a secretary to a manager in Sina, a famous corporation.” She seemed proud of her occupation. Though her attire made her look improper. Noticing the others were looking at her, she smiled charmingly at Zheng.

The two students looked at each other then turned their head away as if they were in a fight. The girl said. “My name is Ai Nana, a student. I am not good at anything. You can abandon me if you want.”

The boy panicked and quickly stepped in front of her. He said with a smile. “She had a fight with me, don’t mind her. My name is Zhang GuangYan. I am also a student but I have really good memory. Hope I can be able to help you.”

The newbies were aware of their situation as soon as they confirmed the environment was real and Zheng didn’t lie to them. The veterans could have obtained various enhancements and abilities in who knew how many movies. They knew they were powerless in front of these ten people. Furthermore, since this was a team battle, the other teams were definitely going to kill them if they were found. So they had to rely on the veterans to survive this movie.

That was actually overthinking the situation. Xuan had discussed with Zheng that due to the size of the world, it was easy to hide people. They were going to hide the newbies before the major battles and they would try not to abandon any newbie since their deaths would bring down the team’s score. They also had the virus for turning people into Nemesis’s, the biggest trump card for team China.

“Then we…” Zheng smiled at the newbies. Suddenly, a middle age Hobbit walked past him. The invisible wall had disappeared and the movie began for them.

They had much less time to prepare than previously. Zheng and the other veterans looked surprised but fortunately, the area remained calm. Xuan confirmed that they were safe so they walked over to the edge of the banquet.

Zheng had to pause telling the newbies to be careful. He had some important things to discuss with Xuan. “Where are we currently at? And what time period?”

Xuan was looking over at the newbies with a smile until Zheng asked him. Then he calmly replied. “We are in the Hobbit’s gathering place. Currently safe. The time should be the start of the first movie. The main character’s uncle is about to head out. This is his birthday banquet.”

Zheng noticed Xuan’s expression and quickly called for Lan in his mind. He said through soul link. “Hey, you looked strange. What are you planning? You have to tell me in advance!”

“Nothing.” Xuan adjusted his glasses.

“Liar.” Zheng was feeling more and more strange. He wouldn’t bother guessing what other people were thinking but this was Xuan. He immediately wanted to question Xuan but a sense of danger struck him from the front. Zheng drew out Tiger’s Soul from the ring without thinking and took two steps forward. Two men stood by the edge of the banquet.

One of the man was dressed in casual attire. He had a lovely baby face and was smiling peacefully.

The other man’s gaze looked sharp. He put a chocolate bar into his mouth and bit it in half.

The scenes in the movie covered most of Middle Earth. The size of this world could accommodate the five-way team battle.

In the original movies, the Dark Lord Sauron forged multiple rings in an attempt to rule over the whole Middle Earth. He gave the Rings of Power to the leaders of the Dwarfs, Elves, and humans and they would in turn rule their race with the power of the rings, while Sauron created the One Ring for himself that ruled the other rings.

A war between good and evil broke out. The good achieved victory after the sacrifices of many. However, a human high king retained the One Ring due to greed. The One Ring which had its own mind abandoned the king. Many years passed. The ring fell into the hands of a Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. The Hobbits were fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life and a race that the One Ring couldn’t seduce effectively. Thus, the One Ring remained in peace and Bilbo Baggins obtained a long life due to its power.

As time passed, Bilbo gradually felt the power of the ring. Before he became inseparable with the ring, he handed the ring to his nephew, Frodo Baggins. At the same time, subordinates of Sauron learned that the Hobbits had the ring and sent the Nazgûl to seize the ring in an attempt to revive the Dark Lord Sauron. Other forces joined in the fight to seize the ring, including humans, Elves, Undead, Trolls and other races.

The trilogy of The Lord of the Rings was such a massive war.

Zheng sensed killing intent from the front and drew out Tiger’s Soul. YinKong, Zero, ChengXiao, Heng and the rest of the veterans were slightly slower than him. However, they all went into defensive positions and brought out their weapons. Lan, Gando and the newbies stood in place until they could see the two people ahead. Two humans among the Hobbits were obviously suspicious.

Both of them were young man. The baby face guy looked calm and peaceful. The chocolate eating one’s eyes felt sharp. Though it was the baby face who was sending off signals of danger and killing intent. Zheng felt that he was a slab of ice. That sensation made him feel in danger. He held Tiger’s Soul in hand and as soon as these two people did anything out of the ordinary, he would use instant Destruction to kill them.

Baby face shrugged and smiled. “Don’t mind us. We are just testing the strength of the third ranked team. I apologize if we offended you. How about you, Neos?”

Neos gave a cold smile in response. He finished the chocolate bar on hand and said to Zheng. “Pardon my embarrassment in the last team fight. I died before seeing my enemies. I am the leader of team Africa, Neos. I come here with the leader of team Northern Ice Land, Gungnir, in hope of forming an alliance with team China to withstand the incoming strikes from team East America and team Celestial.” He turned around and walked toward an area away from the banquet. There were several big tables and over twenty men and women sat around them.

Gungnir smiled at team China then followed after Neos. Neither of them paid attention to team China’s reaction.

“That’s the leader of team China. He has a self-created ability. The strongest person on my team said he has the power to take on a whole team by himself. I don’t specialize in combat so how do you feel about his strength?” Neos said to Gungnir via his mind. He brought out another piece of chocolate and licked it.

As soon as Gungnir turned around, his smile disappeared. There was sweat all over his face. “Incredibly strong. I almost couldn’t hold myself from attacking the moment he brought out his sword. Even though I haven’t fought him, but I felt like there was a blade in front of me when he stared at me. This man his hiding a devil inside him.”

“That makes things difficult. Even though we need to form an alliance in this world, we will eventually fight each other in the future.” Neos snapped the chocolate. “If he’s really so strong, the addition of that person in their team… If you don’t hold back in a fight, who of you would win?”

“My Hie Hie No Mi is only rank A but it’s still much stronger than the Goro Goro No Mi user in your team. I am probably at fifty fifty against the leader of team China. But if his self-created ability is too strong, I won’t try to fight him.” As Gungnir came within ten meters of the other people by the tables, his expression turned back into a smile.

Neither Zheng nor Xuan wanted to fight two teams under this situation. These two teams entered the movie before them. There was no information on the influence they established nor the ambushes they might have set up. So it was better to sit down peacefully and listen to what they had to say.

“We team Africa entered this world ten days ago from the swamp west of Hobbiton. It took us five days to get out of the swamp. We coincidentally met team Northern Ice Land that entered five days ago from the border of the swamp. Fortunately, we both encountered a snake fifty meters long and had a head that was four meters thick. Our firearms were useless against it so we had to join together. Without that snake, we would have probably got into a fight.”

The three teams sat together. There was a total of forty-three people. Both team Africa and team Northern Ice Land lost a person in the swamp. According to them, the first three teams entered this world from a fixed location. They knew team China would enter from Hobbiton. The remaining two teams were going to enter from a random location instead. This fact gave them bad feelings.

Zheng also learned from people he knew in team Africa that they had already experienced four movies after Starship Troopers. One of those movies was The Mummy. This meant that different teams experience movies at a different rate.

Gungnir said with a smile. “We have discovered this situation when we met other teams. We both felt the number of times the other teams experience movies were not right. The stronger teams will get increasingly difficult movies but their rate will decrease. Usually, regular teams would go through two movies when a strong team goes through one. This isn’t important. We can gift you this information after we form an alliance. The question now is do you wish to form this alliance?”

Zheng had entered the third stage and simulated HongLu’s thinking. Several seconds later, he said. “No problem. An alliance is needed if we want to fight team East America and team Celestial. This is why our teams entered in nearby locations. However, I have a requirement that we will retain our teams’ independence. We can exchange information and support each other but only the leaders can command their own team. We won’t have situations where the majority is able to force demands on the other team. If that happens, we will be your enemy.”

Since team Africa and team Northern Ice Land had already formed an alliance, there might be hidden agreements amount them. Having the possibility where the three teams would vote for their actions was not in the interest of team China. The other teams could put them into baits. This was the only thing Zheng worried about. They had Xuan in the team so the only ones that had to worry about being taken advantage of was them.

Neos and Gungnir looked at each other them both held out their hands. Neos swallowed his chocolate and smiled coldly. “We are allies then. This world is going to be the battlefield of us five teams. The victor will bring back unimaginable points and rewards. There’s hope for all of us but I will let you know that team Africa will be the biggest winner among all teams!”

Zheng smiled coldly in return then turned to Xuan who didn’t seem to care much. He thought Neos was being overconfident.

Fireworks exploded in the sky and lighted it with gorgeous colors. This was the work of Gandalf. The plot of the movie began.