Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 822 - 821: Sea of Serenity (4k)

Hanxi City, Guangming District, high-rise residential building.

A middle-aged man named Sun Liancheng stood on the balcony, humming a song while adjusting an astronomical telescope and a planetary camera.

He is the former leader of the Guangming District, and due to an unsuccessful career path, he became disheartened and stayed at home.

His hobby is studying astronomy, often taking the children from the Youth Palace to watch the stars. Sometimes he also takes pictures of celestial bodies and uploads them to astronomy enthusiasts' forums, leading a Buddhist and leisurely life.

Today, he is preparing to take pictures of the Moon.

Previously, the Mirage Dragon broke through the clouds, leaving Earth's orbit, crossing the vacuum, and descended upon the center of the Tranquil Sea on the Moon's surface (Lunar Basin, 1700 meters below the lunar surface), starting to emit grayish-white mist, forming ancient oriental style complex building clusters.

With a human girl-like life form, hidden beneath the thick fog.

Professional experts from aerospace agencies across the regions have made countless efforts to try to detect beneath the clouds or to directly contact the Mirage Dragon.

Unfortunately, none of the scientific instruments could penetrate the cloud layer,

whether it's ultraviolet/visible light cameras, near-infrared CCD cameras, laser altimeters, high-resolution cameras, or charged particle telescopes, gamma-ray spectrometers, magnetometers, neutron spectrometers,

when sweeping through the vast cloud areas comparable to craters, no data feedback could be obtained, as if encountered an information black hole.

For the sake of Earth's safety (the Moon's tidal force is related to marine ecology) and to stabilize public sentiment, the aerospace agency accelerated the lunar exploration project, launching a lander with scientific and communication instruments towards the northeast of the lunar surface, landing at the edge of the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace.

Finally, according to the aerospace agency, that lander transmitted some critical information back after entering the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace, but soon lost contact with the dedicated relay communication satellite outside Earth's orbit and the ground command center.

The originally set program of "automatically leaving the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace after losing contact" seems to have malfunctioned too.

As for the content of the critical information, roughly speaking, the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace has no physical entity, the energy fluctuation is very stable, and there's no immediate discernible threat to humans, please rest assured.

Although aerospace departments around the regions unanimously agreed to confirm the situation of the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace and the Mirage Dragon as soon as possible, landing on the Moon is not as simple as going out to buy groceries. Even with strong financial support and various novel technologies brought back from the gaming battleground,

the lunar landing and manned landing projects still need to be gradually advanced and cannot be executed immediately.

This has also stirred up a wave of modest-sized astronomy craze, as the cloud layer in the Tranquil Sea Crater is not stationary but is changing every moment. Sometimes through the thin cloud layer, one can see the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace buildings changing as well.

Astronomy enthusiasts take pictures of the lunar surface daily, uploading to online platforms to record the appearance of the building clusters.

"I wonder what kind of photo I'll be able to take today..."

Sun Liancheng murmured to himself, slowly adjusting the height of the tripod.

From behind, the balcony door slid open, and Sun Liancheng's middle school son, Sun Pengmiao, came over with two cups of hot coffee, handing one to his father.

Influenced by Sun Liancheng, Sun Pengmiao developed a strong interest in astronomy from a young age, winning second place in the Hanxi Youth Astronomy Science Competition, and his photos of celestial bodies have often appeared on magazine covers.

In the real world, Sun Pengmiao has excellent academic performance, is understanding and obedient, but has a relatively solitary personality, without many friends, and usually likes to study computers, astronomy, and mathematics.

Besides his ordinary life, Sun Pengmiao has two other identities—a hacker and a player.

More precisely described, he ranks 181st in individual combat power rankings, Lv21, [Asynchronous Call LAN], the fifth seat of Syndicate adherents.

Compared to the frail teenager with a pale face and a thin figure in the role of LAN,

the real-world Sun Pengmiao is undoubtedly much more normal,

He watched as his father finished adjusting the camera and leisurely took a sip of coffee, "Dad, my scholarship for this semester is coming soon. By then, with the New Year's money, I'll get a big black. We've used Xiao Hei for several years."

Xiao Hei refers to a Star 150750 telescope, while the big black is its large aperture high-end version.

"You should keep your scholarship for yourself."

Sun Liancheng said nonchalantly, "Dad doesn't need you to buy it for me. I'll buy a large aperture apo when there's a discount..."

You didn't buy it last time it was on sale?

LAN grumbled internally but didn't show it on his face.

"Also, with the final exams coming up, you might not be able to sneak up at night to play games."

Sun Liancheng slapped his arm, driving away the mosquitoes,

leaned closer to the planetary camera, and nagged, "There's an advanced class in Normal University Middle School with a strong faculty. You're taking the high school entrance exam next year, you can't slack off, you better get into the advanced class, the learning atmosphere is better and your mom won't keep saying I just let you mess around and play."

Hey, hey, didn't you ask me to get up and take pictures of the Moon with you at night?

Leaning against the balcony, LAN twitched the corner of his eye, slowly sipping coffee, as his Divine Thoughts moved, the mosquitoes hovering around this floor seemed to sense something, and naturally flew far away.

"Hmm..."

Completely immersed in astronomical photography, Sun Liancheng didn't notice anything outside, he looked at the gradually clarifying Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace in the lens and sighed with emotion.

The universe is vast, time and space are infinite, what are humans in comparison to ancient nebulas and those meddling in trifles and intrigue in the career paths, they are nothing but ants and dust...

Beside him, LAN was dazed, staring at a small spider web under the balcony eaves.

In the last gameplay world with an unusually fast time flow, where he forgot all his memories, he had spent sixteen years, even living longer than "Sun Pengmiao".

If those years count towards his age, he would be over thirty now...

Snap.

The sound of a chair leg scraping on the floor came from beside him, LAN turned to see Sun Liancheng suddenly stand up, his eyes still on the planetary camera, but his face was full of stunned disbelief.

"This, this..."

LAN frowned, a faint light glowed in the deep of his eyes, his sensory perception expanded tremendously.

His gaze swept across the sky, and with strengthened vision seeing the source of Sun Liancheng's shock—vast skies, above the lunar surface, the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace was slowly disintegrating,

a giant dragon head formed from clouds emerged from the center of the Cloud Palace, silently gazing towards Earth.

"That is a dragon..."

Sun Liancheng's words were abruptly cut off, his consciousness was influenced by the spiritual power LAN released, his pupils unconsciously dilated, his shocked expression returned to calm, as if in a trance, silently rising and heading to the bedroom, lying down beside his wife.

LAN did not look back, continued staring firmly at the lunar surface, the expanded senses informed him that his father had returned to the bedroom, with the entire apartment enveloped by LAN's spiritual power barrier.

The Mirage Dragon on the lunar surface has unfathomable strength, immeasurable. To such legendary beings, it is dangerous for mere mortals to gaze upon them.

How long has it been? The Mirage Dragon remains inactive...

[Teacher asked me to notify everyone, to log into the square.]

In the friend system, a notification message arrived from [Lose Control]

LAN took a deep breath, [What happened? Is it related to the Mirage Dragon?]

[I'm just the messenger.]

Lose Control replied.

LAN pressed his lips, glanced at his parents sleeping soundly in the bedroom, but his figure did not disappear from the spot.

————

At this moment, it's not only astronomy enthusiasts like Sun Liancheng observing the lunar surface,

observation stations set by aerospace agencies around the world automatically upload abnormal information to extraordinary events management institutions. In ten minutes, the information is reported layer by layer, and countless calls are made,

super high-resolution photos of the dragon head from the Tranquil Sea Cloud Palace, sent back by the LRO Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, appear on the desks of high-level officials at extraordinary events management institutions worldwide.

The corridor walls of the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters building lit up with red warning lights symbolizing the highest danger level, and employees in Special Affairs Bureau uniforms ran down the halls, rushing back to their posts.

Whoosh—

A breeze swept through the corridor, stopping abruptly at the entrance of a dormitory in the upper floors of the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters.

The wind stopped, and the figure of Scholar Zhu emerged from the wind.

He held a stack of freshly printed lunar photos, took a deep breath, and knocked on the dormitory's wooden door.

"Come in."

A calm voice did not emerge from inside the door, but resonated directly beside the ear.

Scholar Zhu exhaled a mouthful of turbid air and placed his hand on the door handle.

Click.

The door opened with a sound, revealing not an ordinary dormitory room but a vast mountaintop view.

Lush dense forests, ethereal mists, the soft earth underfoot, the crisp bird songs in the ear, and the forest air filled with moisture indicated that this was not an illusion.

At the mountaintop, a simple octagonal viewing pavilion was situated, with a stone table holding a guzheng and an incense burner,

Behind the stone table stood a figure in a white dress, gazing at the distant mountains.

Scholar Zhu climbed the stone steps toward the pavilion, hesitant to directly face the figure in white, pondering how to start the conversation in his mind.

The relationship with the modern Heterodox Academy was too complex. Should he address her as Senior Sister, Master, or Grandmaster?

"The dragon is fine."

The figure in the white dress, or rather Su Ni Sheng, answered his question before Scholar Zhu could speak, "She is only wary."

"Wary of what?"

Scholar Zhu instinctively asked, realizing his tone, and quickly added, "Grandmaster."

Su Ni Sheng did not turn around, calmly saying, "Something is trying to penetrate the wall."

"Wall?"

Scholar Zhu fell into confusion again, but in the next moment, Su Ni Sheng's figure disappeared, leaving only a gentle breeze that disturbed the white smoke rising from the incense burner.

————

Two hundred and ten billion kilometers from Earth, in the deep space untouched by any human.

A door appeared in the void without any sign.

This door seemed to be made of wood, its surface pink, with a round metallic doorknob, looking quite ordinary.

The doorknob slowly turned. If it weren't in a vacuum, there should have been the sound of a click.

The door was pushed open from the inside,

and a somewhat rotund spacesuit, over a meter tall, stepped out—a brilliant starlight gleamed inside the door, definitely not belonging to the solar system's star field.

Lights illuminate the inside of the spacesuit's visor, revealing a creature resembling a penguin, with blue feathers on the back, white on the front, a slender beak, and a red-and-white checkered tie around the neck.

"..."

The penguin floated in the void, looking left and right, soon finding his target in the vast starry sky.

An 815-kilogram deep-space probe manufactured in the 1970s, powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.

The Voyager 1.

This probe witnessed the auroras behind Jupiter, photographed colorful images of Saturn, and from six billion kilometers away from Earth, looked back and took a family portrait of the solar system planets—Earth, which carried countless lives, birthed brilliant civilizations, and was endowed with various sacred meanings, was merely a tiny, faint blue dot amidst the starry sea.

Voyager 1's plasma subsystem had ceased thirteen years ago, its planetary radio astronomy experiment halted twelve years before. Its data recorder, gyroscopes, and various scientific instruments had long stopped operating due to a lack of energy.

Without any surprise, in five years, it would slip into irreversible dormancy due to a lack of power supply for any single instrument, forever losing contact with humanity,

like a message in a bottle, it would drift alone into the depths of the universe until retrieved by the next "person."

The penguin named Archille floated silently in space, drawing out an oddly shaped pocket watch.

His calculations were accurate,

for this door appeared in Voyager 1's trajectory,

The numbers on the pocket watch jumped wildly, clearly showing the real-time distance between the two.

Seconds elapsed; the probe once carrying humanity's hopes and ambitions drew nearer, gradually enlarging.

Finally, it zipped by fifty meters to the side of the door.

No human noticed the vast yet gentle electric energy enveloping the pocket watch,

as the current flowed into the ancient, slumbering astronomical probe the moment Voyager 1 passed by.

The instruments reactivated, data transmission began, and Archille's visor clearly reflected all the man-made information Voyager 1 carried.

Among them was that gold-plated copper disc recording greetings in 55 human languages and various music.

"This is a gift from a small, distant world. It contains our voices, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and emotions. We strive to live through our era, entering yours..."

Archille softly recited the greetings on the record in flawless English.

A fleeting trace of melancholy passed through his deep black eyes as he gently closed the pink wooden door. Once opened again, the starry sky outside the door shifted anew, as if the door could freely traverse through star fields and descend at any location.

Archille stepped through the doorway and closed the door again.

————

On the moon, Tranquil Sea, Cloud Palace.

The Mirage Dragon's head, formed by clouds, silently gazed at the vast heavens.

The Drought Demon, seated cross-legged atop the dragon's head, sensed something and calmly said, "He's arrived."

Upon hearing these words, the Mirage Dragon's head slowly descended, bearing the Drought Demon beneath the clouds, diving rapidly, skimming the surface of the Tranquil Sea.

There, without anyone's notice, a pink door had quietly stood upon the lunar surface.

Standing outside the door, Archille looked up at the giant dragon head diving towards him, his expression unperturbed.

Boom!

The dragon, solidified from cloud and mist, landed on the ground, causing tremors and fissures in the surface.

The dragon's head bowed slightly, the Drought Demon slid down the scales, landing expressionless in front of the spacesuit-clad penguin.

Archille's muscles at the edge of his beak twitched into a smile, he theatrically bowed in his rotund spacesuit, "Greetings, mightiest in the Crystal Wall System.

I come from the Virtual Sea in pursuit of peace."

"..."

The Drought Demon folded her arms in front of her, sizing up Archille, then said indifferently, "I'm no greatest; you've got the wrong person."

"In these times when other great entities are either dead and gone or asleep, not yet fully awakened, you are the mightiest of the Crystal Wall,"

Archille smiled wryly, "As the battle for the door approaches, I wonder if you have chosen your proxy yet.

If not, perhaps I could suggest a few candidates..."

"She has chosen."

A voice came from behind, a middle-aged man in a plain suit with an amicable expression, with no distinctive features, walked across the lunar soil; he was Professor of the Syndicate.

The Drought Demon's face showed displeasure, and even the Mirage Dragon narrowed its eyes unfavorably, exhaling long streams of mist from its nostrils.

The Professor stopped appropriately, raising his hands to indicate he meant no harm.

Archille looked at the Professor with some surprise, there was a particular rhythm in the opposite party, quite similar to his own.

A native that broke through the Crystal Wall?

No, though his presence was faint, this man in the suit should be another Jumper, only he had lingered on Earth for so long that he had lost much of his usual Jumper aura.

"All the awakened Immortal Species on this planet have chosen their proxies."

The Professor smiled at Archille, "May I presumptuously ask, is the previous Crystal Wall contract still in effect?"