Chapter 1

The black mist corroded YinKong’s arm in a blink of an eye. There was nothing left to one of her arms. However, on the remaining hand, she was holding onto Sauron’s broken arm tightly. The One Ring lost its vicious aura that it had when Sauron wielded the ring. The black glow was still visible, much different than the dullness it had when the Hobbit possessed it.

“God, give everyone a full…” As Zheng was going to speak the last word, he saw Xuan drew his pistol. Several shots fired at HaoTian’s head. His head busted like a watermellon. No amount of healing could save him.

Everyone was shocked. Zheng ignored his burn as he grabbed Xuan at once and roared. “You gone mad? Or controlled? Do you want me to bust your head too?”

Xuan slid the pistol back into his sleeve then calmly said. “I will explain the situation later. There’s also something I am quite interested in… Put the questions away, you should give everyone a complete heal first. The corrosion is spreading to YinKong’s heart.”

Everyone looked to YinKong. The corrosion continued moving toward her chest after taking her arm away. The clothes near her arm was gone already. Zheng was scared and dropped any attempt to reason with Xuan. He yelled to God. “Give everyone a full heal! Deduct the points from me!”

Beams shot down from God and enveloped everyone aside from HaoTian, who was totally dead from a busted head. The beams on most only lasted for an instant. While the beams on Xuan, Zheng and YinKong were more intense. The three of them floated up the beams.

The next time Zheng opened his eyes, his skin was restored. Both him and YinKong had completed the healing but Xuan was still floating. They walked out of the beams. The platform grew noisy as their women also came out.

Zheng chatted with Lori for a bit then he held her hand and sat on the floor. The group began a conversation.

Xuan’s healing took five minutes, longer than any that they had experienced. As he descended from the beam, Zheng leaped from the floor and punched him on the face before Xuan got a hold of himself. It sent him flying six meters.

Zheng rushed over and picked him up. “What did you think comrades are? Answer me! Your weights? Or chess pieces? Answer me! I admit we don’t possess your intelligence. I admit your plans acquired benefits for us. I don’t know how you did it or what you did, but I know it was all for your scheme that none of our veterans died in this five way battle with team Celestial and the others. But! Do you think we should thank you?”

Zheng did not feel that was enough and punched Xuan again on the chin. The first punch already came with a bone fracturing sound. This one basically crushed the bones of Xuan’s chin. He was not sent flying as Zheng was holding him by the collar and shouted. “We are comrades! Not robots used by your to obtain victory! Not parasites leeching on you! We fight together!” Zheng breathed heavily, pondering if he wanted to give Xuan a few more punches.

Xuan’s chin was deformed at this point but there was no sign of pain on his face. He uttered strange sounds to God. A beam landed on him again and pushed Zheng away. Ten seconds later, Xuan came out of the beam.

“I could not speak due to fractured chin. Needed to restore first.” Xuan said.

Zheng was speechless. That was when he remembered Xuan did not have a sense for pain. Beating him up would not served no purpose other than wasting points. The realization depressed him. Nothing felt more discouraging than going against Xuan. Hitting him was useless and arguing… he had no chance. For a moment, Zheng felt he didn’t know what to do.

Xuan ignored the fact of getting hit. He sat down on the floor and said. “There was intention to let you know part of the plan in the beginning. However, HaoTian brought too much uncertainty, especially since he had over 50% chance of betraying. I couldn’t know for sure if he carried an audio transmitter. If any part of my plan was leaked, Adam wouldn’t give up such a good opportunity and the chance of us being wiped would be over 70%.”

Zheng took a deep breath. “Fine. I will let them pass. Now tell me what actually happened in Lord of the Rings? Why did you feign death. Wait, you really did die and we heard the notification at the time. I have a lot of questions. Why did you have to die? How did you die? How could you continue to exist afterward? What was the point? Secondly, HaoTian was part of our team. Where could he go if he betrayed us? Wouldn’t he also die if he betrayed us? Thirdly, what was the conversation between you and team Celestial? What about team East America? Tell me all of them!”

Xuan explained the process in details slowly. It started with HaoTian’s origin. He was sent the U.S. and raised by an undercover family. Then he grew up to become a top special agent for the country. Then he formed the God and Xian Thieves with Adam. Xuan explained a few unusual actions he took after HaoTian entered the Lord of the Rings world. Such as how he quickly accepted the mission to lead Zero and the other veterans to surprise attack Isengard.

“Based on his impression of me, it was unlikely that he would cooperate without huge pressure. Furthermore, this cooperation was him acting as my subordinate. I became suspicious at the time and gave him the hypnotizing device. The hypnotizing device was also a mind controlling device. If he betrayed me, I could gain control of him. If he didn’t, the device would be used to control the Nemesis. Given his personality, he would use the device for certain once he confirmed my death. He would not let the other members gain control of the Nemesis.

I began to consider the possibility of faking death. However, there was a critical flaw. If HaoTian betrayed us, a fake death would make him become alert. He would at least know that I was suspicious of him. Gandalf also died and revived in the movie. That was why I seeked Galadriel. Her blessing bestowed the unique attribute of elves to my mind, which was preventing the mind from dissipating after death. My body died at the time but my mind remained in the body. An attempt to explain it with science is electrostatic resonance. Fluctuations in our minds cause our brains to emit electrical signals. Theoretically, information and the mind can be converted into an wavelike or electrical existence. However, the complexity of such existence cause it to rely on physical forms. If technology reaches a higher level, particles in the air can be tuned similar to electrical signals of the brain. Which meant the mind could separate from the brain and exist using the particles as carrier… This is merely my speculation. My body was indeed dead at the time but my mind remained conscious. The state could not last long and does not allow the mind to use the body nor could the mind come into contact with the outer world. That was why the leaf of Telperion was necessary.”

Zheng looked at him with surprise. “The leaf of Telperion?”

Xuan nodded. “Yes. Galadriel described it as an aggregation of higher level energy, which grants the body the energy it required. Even after the body died, one could move given the leaf of Telperion. Of course, a mind was needed to control this body. Thus, the gift you received from her was the leaf.”

Zheng interrupted him. “Wait. Why didn’t she give the gift directly to you? What if I couldn’t remember to give you the leaf?”

Xuan glanced at him and said calmly. “I made the plan with the assumption that we were being monitored. If that was the case, Galadriel giving me two gifts was abnormal. Such abnormality would mean we had lost. Therefore, that item must be given to you, the leader. Of course, I could also get the item in secret. However, how could anyone take it out and feed it to me under surveillance? Someone was bound to discover the act. Comparing the two scenarios, giving the item to you then had you feed me without knowing the plan… was the start of the plan.”

That was the start of the plan… These words struck a blow to their confidence. So Zheng thought. The rest of the team members also had the same thought. All the calculations that happened up to this point were merely the beginning of the scheme. No one else on the platform here would come up with such schemes.

“Following that, our team split into two groups. One of the reasons is to make HaoTian wear the device after my death. He will gain control of the Nemesis but I will gain control of him at the same time. His threat will only be disarmed under such condition. Furthermore, my death will puzzle Adam’s decision making… Then I assigned Zero… And I left Rohan under the aid of Legolas…”

Xuan gave a detailed account of the battle in the Lord of the Rings. How he planned using the blessing and achieved victory with his death. Afterward, he led their group to force team Celestial to a compromise. Each step of his plan was closely linked to Adam’s plan. Zheng was sweating when he learned there was someone stronger than Luo YingLong in team Celestial.

“Correct. The limit of our team’s strength is approximately half of the full team Celestial. Based on this fact, team Celestial lives up to being the second strongest team in the realm, with team Devil being the strongest. Our rank hovers between third to fifth.” Xuan said with certainty.

“Is that so?” Zheng smiled bitterly. He patted Xuan’s shoulder and said loudly. “Anyway. It was all thanks to you this time. We might really have gotten wiped, not to mention the results we achieved… But damn you. Did you think we wouldn’t worry about you? You are not a machine. You are our comrade. A comrade that we can depend our lives on and fight by our sides!”

“Comrade…” Xuan lowered his head slightly. He pushed his glasses and said. “You can only be comrades if you survive. The dead can’t talk.”

“Haha. Who said the dead can’t talk? Weren’t you talking before?” Zheng laughed and patted his shoulder again.

Xuan rubbed his shoulder. He couldn’t feel the pain but he seemingly heard a cracking sound coming from his shoulder blade. He didn’t feel this would accomplish anything but he suspected Zheng was getting his revenge, using the act of excitement to hit him.

“As to killing HaoTian. The reason I killed him as soon as we return instead of waiting for the heal was because I couldn’t be sure if God would heal the part of his mind that was controlled. The only choice was to kill him, even though he obtained a sizable amount of rewards and points.” Xuan said.

Zheng finally remembered about the rewards and said with surprise. “Oh yea. Rewards and points. Our profits are superb, more than any other movie we have been through. I also brought back the Nightmare.”

The ladies noticed his mount way earlier. The skeleton horse was rather scary to them. Except Kampa’s woman showing interest as she uttered words like cool. She stared at the Nightmare with a pair of glittering eyes., The other women’s reactions were rather normal.

Zheng frowned when he tried to recall what they should have earned in the Lord of the Ring. “It doesn’t add up. We lost one point from your death. Four newbies got killed afterward. We were down three points if we don’t count HaoTian. I killed one member from team Celestial. Zero killed one. Shouldn’t we be at negative 6000 points with just this? I earned some points but Kampa and the others…”

Xuan shook his head and said in a mockery. “Have you forgotten the mission reward? Each movie character that survived is 1000 points, and minus 1000 for each character that died. In the end, we lost three Hobbits, Theoden, Denethor, and one of his son. These are all noted as mission characters, which amount to 5000 points. However, we have more surviving characters in comparison. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, one Hobbit, Gandalf, Boromir, Eomer. So that’s 2000 points we obtained. Each of the battles at Helm’s Deep, Gondor, Mordor is 3000 points. The base reward for any movie is 1000 points. The main missions by themselves are 12000 points. You killed a Balrog that’s worth 8000 points and a rank A reward. An unlocked member worth 7000 points and a rank B reward. Two Ringwraiths totalling 10000 points and a rank B reward, two rank C rewards. You should end with 31000 points after deducting the 6000 points. And one rank A reward, two rank B rewards, two rank C rewards.”

Zheng was shaking as he listened. He was excited and anxious. It was like a poor person suddenly hit the lottery. Zheng wasn’t exactly so poor but he had to carefully consider every point he spent. All the exchanges involving ranked rewards needed to be discussed with the team in case they missed something for the next movie. The sudden wealth struck his mind. He spaced out for some time before walking up to God.

“Man, happiness came all too sudden. Do I really have 30000 points? And so many ranked rewards…” Zheng muttered. He had seemingly lost himself and laughed like an autistic person.

Xuan ignored him and went under God. He began checking his own rewards and points.

Zheng’s conscious returned. Basing on Xuan’s calculation, even those who didn’t really do anything would receive 6000 points. That by itself was a plenty for a regular movie. Everyone had enough to exchange for a lot. The amount of ranked rewards they had was not bad either. Zheng earned a lot and so did the rest of the team.

YinKong walked out from underneath God. Her eyes were glittering with a hint of excitement. It was such a rare sight for someone normally so cold. She took several deep breaths then said. “I have two rank B rewards…”

Zheng said with a smile. “Yeah, you killed a level 8 Ringwraith. Your rewards are of course plentiful.”

“And two rank A rewards.” YinKong finished. She looked straight into Zheng.

Zheng froze in a shock. Everyone else froze. They looked at YinKong in a sense of confusion. ChengXiao roared. “The joke’s gone too far! Do you really get bonus rewards and points for having huge cups? It also came with interest… insanely high interest. Two As for two Bs.” He looked struggling from resignation.

YinKong kicked the ground and flashed over to ChengXiao. Her elbow struck his throat. ChengXiao immediately squatted down and coughed, unable to utter another word.

Xuan turned around. “That means Sauron has been killed. As I speculated, his life dwelled in the ring. When we brought the ring back to God’s Dimension, Sauron’s entrance was illegal. He was a movie character but we did not exchange for the right to bring him back. According to the rules, God should have erased him. And the rewards from the kill landed onto YinKong.”

“Haha…” Zheng’s laughter was tearing his mouth. If it wasn’t for Lori being by the side, he would have grabbed YinKong and pinned in circles. A rank B reward used to make two teams fight with their lives and now there were two rank A rewards…

The surprise wasn’t over. YinKong pulled out a ring glowing with a dark light. The ring itself didn’t look unique. But all ten members knew this was the One Ring worn on the broken arm.

YinKong nodded lightly. “Its function is…”