Chapter 1

The scenery had changed to that of God’s dimension as Zheng opened his eyes again. Though his injury was so heavy that he lacked even the ability to speak a word. Blood was flowing out from his lungs. Finally, someone yelled for God to heal the whole team and deduct the points from the respective member. A beam shot down from God and enveloped each member.
(So many beams… everyone made it back alive.) Zheng had difficulty moving his head so he looked around with his peripheral vision. There were several girls on the floor and about ten beams. The sight calmed him down and he slowly savored the pain from the repair at the DNA level.

“What?” Zheng grabbed Kampa by the collar and cried in anger. “Why? Gando died? Impossible! How could we return if he died? That’s impossible! He must have completed the trust I placed on him. He must have kept the AllSpark until the last second! You lied. How could he have died?”

Kampa opened his lips but no word came out. He shook his head.

Zero walked over to Zheng and gave a sigh. “We are sorry. Gando died. He brought the AllSpark to us but then the Valkyrie ran out of energy. The robots got…”

“What were you doing?” Zheng continued to shout. “Everyone was fighting with their lives. I am certain Gando was really giving all he had. He didn’t run. He fulfilled the task I entrusted him… How could you let him die?”

The rest of the team met eyes with each other. There was nothing they could say in reply. It was an accident. If YinKong was a bit faster and sliced the robot’s arm, if Zero was ready to shoot at the time, if Heng could shoot faster, if Kampa or WangXia happened to kill that robot… There were so many ifs. Yet, every human only had one life. Ifs couldn’t be applied to a life. Twelve people entered Transformers. Eleven people returned.

“He really died…” Zheng slowly calmed down. He sat down on the floor and murmured to himself. “Gando… don’t have a chance to revive anymore. He really died.” That was when he suddenly remembered everyone else in the team didn’t have a chance to revive anymore. They all died once already.

“Is it because it has been too long since anyone died?” Xuan’s indifferent voice came through. He recovered to his normal look. He looked to Zheng calmly. “What do you think this place is? A vacation home? Do you want to spend some points and take a vacation? Stop kidding me. This is God’s realm. What made you believe that people don’t die? Have you forgotten how many people have died? Do you think we can do what we want in the movies after we became strong?”

Xuan’s words were always sharp and blunt. It was not because he was cruel. That was how he thought. You couldn’t expect someone who didn’t care about his own life to care about others’ lives.

“Yeah… he’s dead.” Zheng sighed. He stood up and patted off the dust on his shirt. His head remained low as he said. “Life is so fragile… It really has been too long before someone died. I thought we could all live on, at least until we return to the real world… I was too naive.” He quietly walked to his room.

It was noon of the next day when Zheng appeared again. The team gathered on the platform as custom. Once all members arrived, they would discuss future plans concerning exchanges and the next movie. It had always been this way. However, Zheng’s depressed look made everyone worried. They thought he would remain depressed for a few days. But he came out the next day.

“Please. Do you wish for me to stay depressed?” Zheng glanced over the team. “You can’t let memories drag you down for your whole life. I am sad not only because a comrade died but also that the belief I have been holding onto shattered. But I haven’t given up on this belief. We will live Gando’s portion for him. Let us all make it back to the real world alive. Wouldn’t that be better?” He then looked to Xuan.

Xuan and HongLu were discussing the AllSpark that they brought back from Transformers. No one else understood what they were talking about.

“Ahem. Leave the theories for later. Xuan, I have a question. You mentioned because of our increased rating, we are going to enter an extremely difficult movie. I just looked at our next movie. It’s A Nightmare On Elm Street 3. This is unfortunately a movie that can’t be explain with science. It has been so long since we are given such genre. So you are right. The next movie is going to be really dangerous.” Zheng said.

Xuan nodded. But then HongLu spoke before he opened his mouth. “That’s for certain. This is the same conclusion I reached. So get rid of your carefree attitude. In fact, we were still walking near the edge of hell prior to The Lord of the Rings. The next movie could bring us back to when Zhang Jie was with us… No one is safe. This is God’s balance. With each death, our strength would lower and so would our rating… If possible, let the newbies all die in each movie. This will lower our rating slightly, or at least we won’t see an increase.”

Zheng’s face twitched but he couldn’t speak what he wanted. “We can leave this for next time. Xuan, are these the AllSpark’s pieces? Do they have any use?”

Xuan threw a thumb size piece to Zheng. God’s voice sounded in his mind as he touched the piece.

“Spatial energy converter piece. Able to supply energy after repair.”

“Spatial energy converter? What’s that?” Zheng asked with curiosity. “Isn’t it called the AllSpark?”

Xuan nodded. “I was suspicious of the truth behind the AllSpark since watching the original Transformers movie. It involves quantum theory. It’s a waste of time to explain given your intelligence and knowledge…”

Aside from HongLu, everyone else was staring at Xuan with glimmering eyes. They were obviously interested to hear the content as a story. It wouldn’t be boring as long as they didn’t have to study.

“Fine. I will put it in simple words. Physics is separated into two fields. In classical physics, if I hit you with my fist, both you and my fist will feel pain, except at different degrees of pain. This is the theory of relativity. There’s also the law of conservation of mass and energy. The other is quantum physics, which challenged our prior understanding of the world. The universe is more complex and mysterious than we imagined. In quantum physics, my fist will not come into contact with your body. There’s a force in the atomic and molecular level that repels the two objects. The mass-energy equivalence invalidated mass and energy conservation.” Xuan said to the team.

Zheng waved his hand and said. “What does this have to do with the infinite energy of the AllSpark? And what is that spatial energy converter referring to?”

“Mortal’s wisdom.” Xuan sneered. “Keep listening. You won’t comprehend what’s coming next without hearing those words. There’s a hypothesis in quantum theory and special relativity that energy exists in empty space. Space itself might be a form of matter. This matter can be converted to energy and the energy determined the balance of our universe. Using the mass-energy equivalence equation, a space the size of a hydrogen atom when converted to energy contains more energy than all the mass within 200 lightyears combined. Which means whoever holds the technology to convert space into energy, or simply, whoever controls energy… can create worlds, creatures, or even the universe…

“In fact, the Lambda Driver and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception could be explained through the causality of quantum physics… This realm and everything in the exchange system is the embodiment of the highest level of science.”

Xuan looked at the team and calmly said, “An explanation for the Lambda Driver and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception should be obtainable through special relativity, although we our current technological level has not achieved the necessary height to do so yet. But it is possible… You lack the prerequisite knowledge so it’s going to be difficult to explain. I can only provide you with an abstract. There are two hypotheses in special relativity. Neither has been proved, at least that humans can’t prove them with our current technology. The hypotheses are time and space are an illusion created by consciousness.
“Under the quantum theory of T-symmetry, our actions influence both the future and the past centered on the point we are at. You might ask how could you influence what has already happened, what has become history? This leads to what I feel is the most uncomfortable theory in relativity, causality.

“To give you an analogy, I punched Zheng and he fell. The punch is the cause and the fall is the effect. Yet, in the theory you can view this sequence of events as he fell, which caused me to punch him. The future diverges to an infinite number of worldlines. Our actions are predetermined… No matter how hard you try, or not try, if you have given up, or even if you attempt to kill yourself, all these outcomes are long set. Such a distressing feeling this theory gives me.

“A neuroscience professor at California University performed an experiment on patients who were going to undergo neurological surgery in the 70’s. He only anesthetized the patients’ scalps and skulls during the surgery, leaving them awake awake. He monitored the patients’ brains with a machine. When he pricked their fingers, a pain signal registered in the brain instantly. The patients also reported pain. When he excited the area of the brain that regulates pain, there was a delay before the patients reported pain. At the same time, pain signals registered in the brain. Numerous trials reached the conclusion that pain signals appear at the same time as the sensation, which means there was no processing time in between. Then it leads to the hypothesis that pain signals are produced the moment before any damages occur… If that’s true, do we suffer damage before we foresee the incoming cause?”

Seeing most of the team looked lost, only HongLu was smiling, Xuan continued, “This isn’t knowledge you can understand. The Lambda Driver and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are realizations of this level of technology. For the Lambda Driver, we can assume it determines an outcome with my faith. It will then search for this outcome among the worldlines… The Eyes of Death Perception the follows the same technology but instead, it works by cutting off the link between cause and effect, erasing an existence.”

(Shouldn’t have entered a discussion regarding science with Xuan. This is like asking for an insult.) Zheng smiled bitterly and interrupted, “Put these aside. Let’s continue with the profit from Transformers. Can we repair the AllSpark? Doesn’t the Lambda Driver allows you to choose an outcome? What if you choose to repair the AllSpark? Sounds like wish granting. You can wish for anything as long as you have the faith.”

Xuan sneered, “What are you dreaming? How can something that grants wishes exist in this world? If it does exist, it’s not something we can posses. I would simply hypnotize myself to believe I unlocked the fifth stage if that’s the case. Causality items are not omnipotent. I do not know the working process behind the AllSpark. I do not know how to repair it. I do not know what happens after I repaired it. It’s like creating a being using God. Can you create an exact copy of Gando?”

“… No.”

“Neither can I.” Xuan waved his hand, “Nothing in this world is omnipotent. The more power it possesses, the more restriction is put on it. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception is powerful enough to kill you in one hit but it also comes with harsh restrictions. Zero can only succeed 70% of the times on still objects. This percentage would be amazing if it reaches 10% while you are sprinting. The Lambda Driver has similarly harsh restrictions. It consumes my life as I use it. I would die from age in just several minutes if I don’t have the heal from God… Let’s move to our next plan.”

Zheng nodded and looked at the AllSpark with pity. He didn’t understand the things Xuan explained but he still got some facts from it. Like the AllSpark could produce infinite amount of energy. It combined with the One Ring could give him an endless supply of Qi, Blood Energy, and even refined Qi. The whole team’s strength would jump several levels with it.

“Sigh. We only got the base 1000 points after such a dangerous movie. And lost one person…” Zheng said.

HongLu said, “That’s why we need to discuss our next plan. If we go into the next movie with overconfidence again, we might not ever leave it.”

Zheng nodded. He looked to the other members, “We will pause any enhancements this time since we only obtained 1000 points. I still have 10000 points left over. However, since I used up all the refined Qi, I have to exchange 90 days in the Lord of the Rings. There’s also a need to see how the excavation is doing. We have no more members to revive but we need to save some points to enter The Mummy and maybe bring Imhotep over… Try to save some points in the remaining nine days aside from resupplying the basics. Who knows what will happen in the next movie? As for A Nightmare in Elm Street…”

While Zheng was going over the next movie, Xuan suddenly said to him, “The Magic Cannon will be completed soon. We can bring it into the next movie if possible. I have modified the Nightmare you gave me last night as the transit system of the Magic Cannon. Be prepared because you might not be able to ride it anymore.”

“Eh?” Zheng felt lost and looked to Xuan, “Magic Cannon? The one created around the One Ring? What do you mean you modified the Nightmare? What transit system? Can’t ride it anymore? Didn’t you promise not to damage the Nightmare when I handed it to you?”

“Uh…” Xuan paused for a moment. “I lied.”

Zheng lowered his head without a word. He quietly took out Tiger’s Soul and said, “Are you looking to die? Want me to do it for you? The fuck! That Nightmare is the last one! The Ringwraiths are all killed! Where can I find another anti-gravity mount? Do you realize how cool it looks riding the Nightmare especially wielding the upgraded Tiger’s Soul? I can also grow a pair of wings… I have just started imagining it and you modified it already? Go to hell!”

Zheng wouldn’t really cut Xuan with Tiger’s Soul. He was just ranting. He stopped after the rest of the team held him back. Then he requested Xuan to take him to the Magic Cannon. He still had a tiny bit of hope left.

(The modification is probably just securing the Magic Cannon on top of the Nightmare. I would just take it off if I can…)

As Zheng entered Xuan’s room along with everyone, his sword dropped to the ground and his mouth opened wide… He was shocked.

The Magic Cannon itself wasn’t too bizarre looking. Its silver shell gave it a retro appearance similar to cannons from the industrial era. The only difference being a lack of an ignition fuse. Instead, where the fuse would be located was replaced with a silver box.
However, the transit system of the Magic Cannon was bizarre… Four skeleton legs extended below the metal construction.

“Ah! My Nightmare!” Zheng crawled on the floor. His trembling hands reached out for the skeleton legs. Yet, when he saw the legs were fused with the metal part above, his hands froze. A long moment went by before he said in a dreadful voice, “What is this? Tell me! What is this thing?”

“The Magic Cannon.” Xuan confirmed with a nod. “The design is modified from the original Magic Cannon from God’s realm. The original used energy stones as its reserve. However, this one uses your Qi and Blood Energy, which are much larger in quantity than energy stones. These two energies would undergo fusion in the same process as your Destruction. The One Ring will then further refine the energy.”

Zheng interrupted him, “That was not what I meant! I am asking why have my Nightmare turned into this? Have you ever seen a cannon with four legs?”

Xuan continued in agreement, “No. But it does not obstruct me from designing the Magic Cannon. Have people from a hundred years ago ever seen an aircraft carrier? Experimentation is more important than everything.”

“That wasn’t what I was saying…” Zheng didn’t know how to respond. He looked at those four skeleton legs with despair. These legs were the symbol of the coolest mount he had ever rode on, which became the legs of this bizarre cannon.

Xuan patted the cannon’s shell and said, “The anti-gravity attribute of the Nightmare allows it to carry the multi-ton weight of the Magic Cannon and also allows it to fire at any terrain. This is the best transit system of the Magic Cannon. I can not reach an estimate of its power. The force produced by Destruction is massive. The further refinement from the One Ring will push this force to a level beyond imagination… The assembling will be completed in a few more days. Wait and take it into the Lord of the Rings to test it out.” Xuan turned around and gave Zheng a thumbs up.

Zheng yelled back at him, “What are you kidding me? I believe it is powerful but if you can’t even estimate it, do you think I am safe testing it out? What if it explodes? Will I never come back?”

Xuan waved his hand at him then said in a serious tone, “That’s the basic situation. The reason I rushed out the Magic Cannon is in preparation for the next world. I don’t know if you have seen A Nightmare on Elm Street but I did, from the first movie to the last… This series is among the unsolvable genre. No one can overcome its horror, at least in the original plot. Do you still remember what I said to you in Transformers?” Xuan pulled over a chair. He sat down then picked up the glasses on the table.

That was when Zheng realized Xuan wasn’t wearing his regular plain glasses. He also pulled a chair over and sat down. The rest of the team found their own seats. Zheng replied, “Yes. You said our performance in the Lord of the Rings was too impressive so our current rating is very high. The upcoming movies could be extremely difficult and dangerous.”

Xuan nodded, “We are at a point of no return. We can only keep growing. Grow to a level where we can ignore the rating system before our rating reaches too high.”

HongLu interjected, “I don’t know how impressive you performed in the Lord of the Rings. But continue at the difficulties of our current movies, we should meet team Devil again in four to five movies. What do you think, Xuan?” HongLu admitted Xuan was smarter than him after the defeat in Transformers. He still frequently interjected with his opinions, though he also asked for confirmation at the end.

Xuan nodded, “Right. We are in a severe position. The difficulty of the movies we will go into is greatly increased, like the modified Transformers, A Nightmare on Elm Street. This signifies God has given us special attention. No one is safe in this kind of movies. I can foretell that our team will walk on the border between life and death. We might even end in a wipe. This is why I rushed out the Magic Cannon. If this movie can be solved through physical means, I don’t mind erasing the town from Earth!

“There’s also a question I have to ask. Are you prepared to meet the demon again?” Xuan looked over everyone then turned to Zheng, “You are the strongest member of the team, the leader, and the backbone. Do you have the confidence to defeat your clone? Judging from what team Celestial had said, he’s powerful enough to take on Luo YingLong and another fourth stage member, and the rest of team Celestial. Are you strong enough to do this?”

Zheng clenched his teeth. The figure from Resident Evil surfaced in his mind. The scar on his face, the sword, the wings, the black flame… Zheng could only win against the him from back then at 50% with his current strength. He had realized their gap after the Heart’s Demon he experienced in Transformers. There was a gap in pure strength, and a larger gap between their minds. Zheng actually lost himself to the Heart’s Demon but Xuan pulled his heart back with the Lambda Driver, which meant he still hadn’t passed his test.

“No. I still can’t beat him…” Zheng said, clenching his teeth.

Xuan nodded then turned to Heng, “And you? We can see you are growing. Can you overcome your weakness and shoot at the clone of the person you love? Tell me! Can you?”

Heng’s face turned white in an instant. After a moment, he shook his head with a bitter smile. “No. I can’t. I can’t do it… I can only hold her back or maybe… No. I just can’t.”

“And you?” Xuan then turned to YinKong. “Can you defeat the person you hate? Don’t lie. I inquired your experience from Zheng. You hold no secret to him after being revived. Tell me. Can you defeat him?”

YinKong glanced at Zheng then lowered her head and pondered. She replied with difficulty, “No. I can’t. I don’t know how to surpass him. I don’t know how to seek this revenge. If the problem lies in the difference between our strength, this gap will only grow with each passing day. He is the most gifted assassin in the clan. I am far from him.”

Xuan nodded then turned to Kampa, WangXia and Zero. “And you? What would happen if the enemies broke us apart? If they closed in on Zero before he used his ability? If they broke Kampa’s weapon? If WangXia ran out of energy?”

The three members remained silent. They had always worked in collaboration and kept distance. Zheng could take them out in one hit without Explosion or Destruction if he came close to them, so not to mention clone Zheng. Their weaknesses were too obvious.

“TengYi is a support with knowledge of ancient languages and history. So you don’t have to participate in combat. Then Lan. I heard Zheng mentioned there were two psyche force users in team Devil. Can you take them out or mask us from them? Are you able to not drag the team behind?

“Honglu. Are you able to formulate strategies with a calm mind against the person who once defeated you? What kind of support can you give to the secondary team?”

No one had a reply to Xuan’s questions. They thought team China had become strong after the victory in the Lord of the Rings, and survived so many movies without deaths. Yet, it wasn’t until Xuan’s questioning did they realize they were so weak in the face of team Devil.

“Wait.” ChengXiao said, “What about me? Why didn’t you ask me? Do perverts have no rights?”

Xuan glanced over him then said to the team, “That’s our situation. Two paths lie ahead of us. Either get wiped, multiple deaths in the least, or defeat that team when we meet them again in four to five movies! Let us become the strongest team in this realm! We have no other choices!”