I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

After some time, the battle, which ended without any suspense, came to a close.

"Cough, who are you people...?!" The last female player who tried to escape looked down at the front of her combat uniform, which was stained with blood, and stared wide-eyed in disbelief. She tried to turn her head to look with difficulty, but collapsed halfway through.

Cheng Fei wiped the blood off the black longsword behind her and calmly put the weapon away.

Ye Shuang, who was holding an ordinary longsword on the other side, breathed a sigh of relief. She first nodded slightly to the young man, then subtly looked away.

Next, the four people on the ground checked the sailing warships docked there to make sure there were no stragglers inside, and Cheng Fei fired a green signal flare into the sky.

The Miriam slowly descended, and the few people who remained disembarked.

"Teacher Shen, don't you think our pincer attack just now was pretty cool?" Cheng Fei made a scissor shape with his index and middle fingers, not without pride.

"Go in." Shen Xi looked up at the passage ahead, then walked past him expressionlessly.

The boy looked at his scissors, smacked his lips, and followed along.

Shen Xi stopped to examine the corpse on the ground, a thoughtful look on her face. "It's definitely a player. Did they say anything?"

“There’s absolutely no useful information.” Cheng Fei shrugged.

"Could it be that the avalanche was also there to investigate..." Shen Xi frowned.

"Who knows? Whatever, we've already killed them all." The boy shook his head.

"Why didn't you leave any survivors for interrogation?" Weinuo asked curiously.

This caused the other players around to exchange glances.

"These people aren't afraid of death. I'll explain it to you another time." Nagasaki Asuna's eyes darted around, and she tilted her head, revealing a smile.

The baby-faced girl seemed to understand but not quite, and gave up asking further questions.

Leia and Eve looked at each other but didn't offer any opinions.

The group continued forward and officially entered the passage formed by roots at the base of the wall.

The air was silent, except for the orange-yellow fluorescence that seemed to come from nowhere illuminating the environment. Upon closer inspection, one could feel the fluorescence flickering slightly in a breathing-like rhythm.

The passage wasn't long, and they soon reached its end.

The dense roots blocked the group's path. These roots were sharp and covered with barbs, intertwined tightly and impenetrably. Upon closer inspection, one could see that they bore charred marks.

Zhou Han's small nostrils twitched, and she frowned. "Why does it smell like something is burning?"

Cheng Fei noticed the supplies piled up against the wall, squatted down to inspect them, and said, "Gasoline, explosives... Teacher Shen, it seems they tried to force their way through, but failed."

Shen Xi stared at the thorns ahead, her brows furrowing slightly. After thinking for a moment, she turned to look at Leia and said, "You give it a try."

The elven saintess nodded, a hint of hesitation appearing on her heroic face. Under everyone's gaze, she took the floating, glowing silver triangular pendant in her palm and stepped forward.

"Try saying 'Open Sesame'?" Cheng Fei stood by with his hands in his pockets, looking very serious.

As expected, the boy's words were ignored. Rhea stepped forward and whispered, "God, your protected Elkonis is going astray. Please guide us..."

Shen Xi raised her chin, her face indifferent.

As Leia finished speaking, after a brief silence, the hard thorns in front of the girl miraculously began to wriggle and move aside.

Everyone stared at this scene with astonishment in their eyes.

“The legend is true, elves can communicate with the World Tree…” Vino stared wide-eyed, muttering to herself.

Cheng Fei clasped his hands together in a second and bowed his head with a sense of piety. "God, I apologize for our disrespect towards you in the past. Please talk to me properly and don't hold a grudge."

"An opportunistic aquatic mammal." Shen Xi kicked him, clearly annoyed.

“Teacher Shen, I know that as the Celestial Queen you look down on the local gangs, but as the old saying goes, even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. You'd better not be too arrogant, lest the World Tree gets upset and ties you to the wall like that dragon outside.” The boy lowered his voice, revealing a serious concern.

"Enough with the nonsense, get out of here!" The girl was even more annoyed and struck him again.

"Stubborn to the end." Cheng Fei sighed and took the lead.

Leia and the others followed behind.

In the long passage, thorns parted one by one to make way for the group of people.

After a while, they walked out of the passage.

Before me lay a vast, flat open space, like stepping inside a hollow tree trunk. The mist dissipated, and looking up, I could see the roots winding their way to the sky, seemingly extending all the way to the treetop.

Cheng Fei put his hands on his hips and looked around at the world before him, then couldn't help but say, "Teacher Shen, don't you have a feeling that this place looks a lot like the final boss's room?"

After speaking, there was no response for several seconds.

"Teacher Shen?" The boy turned around and froze.

He didn't know when, but there was no one behind him, as if he had walked in alone from the beginning.

The boy's heart skipped a beat, a bad premonition surged into his mind, his body tensed, and he drew his black longsword.

Suddenly, a dazzling light shone above his head. The boy looked up and saw a blazing fireball hurtling towards him. Even though he had activated Zero, he couldn't react in time.

Cheng Fei instinctively covered his eyes with his arm. The next moment, the expected impact did not come, and the world around him turned completely black.

"Oh no, am I dead?"

The boy muttered to himself as he looked around, only to find that he wasn't dead, but had somehow been transported to a strange starry sky.

Cheng Fei pondered for a second, guessing that he had fallen into some kind of illusion, and became at ease.

A deafening roar suddenly entered his ears, and the sound waves, so tangible, gave him the illusion that his whole body was trembling.

He looked up and saw the strangely shaped fighter jet streaking overhead, its tail flames trailing behind it. It was then chased and struck by a beam of light shooting from behind, exploding into a fireball in mid-air before tumbling and crashing to the ground.

All around him were endless cities engulfed in war, filled with thick smoke and flames from explosions, and even the low-hanging clouds seemed to be ablaze, burning the earth below with them.

In the city, humans are chased by bizarrely shaped robots, screaming and crying as they flee in all directions. Some raise weapons resembling magic staffs to fight back, only to be burned to ashes by energy weapons.

Cheng Fei recognized that the architectural style was exactly the same as those he had seen not long ago.

The boy realized that what was being presented before him was the true history of this planet.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet trembled.

He turned around and realized he was standing on the edge of a meteorite crater. The crater was located on the coast, and thick smoke was still billowing from the charred soil. Seawater was pouring in, making a hissing sound.

Dark red roots twisted and grew from the bottom of the crater, rising up at a visible speed, pushing aside the surrounding earth, and growing into a towering tree with a flat canopy over this scarred world in the blink of an eye.

After countless days and nights, the humans who survived in the ruins staggered to the tree and looked up at it with incredulous shock.

Long, thin roots hung down from the giant tree, seemingly trying to gesture something in front of the humans, leaving them looking at each other in bewilderment.

At this moment, a bizarre army of robots emerged from the seabed, their heads flashing with lifeless red light, and raised the energy weapons on their arms to fire at the humans.

Thick roots burst forth from the soil as if alive, entangled and strangled all the robots, and then intertwined to form a sturdy wall, protecting the humans within.

The giant tree continued to grow, its canopy reaching the clouds, becoming more magnificent than any mountain range, its roots spreading deep into the earth, enveloping and entwining every handful of soil and every stone.

……

781. A Dimensional Slit

Centered on the giant tree, the earth, completely entangled by its roots, trembled violently, and unimaginably heavy mountains, rivers, and plains all detached from the planet's surface and floated into the air.

Then, a thick, almost tangible white mist was released from the roots of the giant tree, endlessly engulfing the planet's surface.

Under the encroaching white fog, the swarms of sweeping robots became sluggish and eventually collapsed to their knees. The patrolling unmanned combat aircraft crashed one after another, turning into fireballs, and the automated factories built in various places gradually ceased operation.

Only on the floating ground, the robots and humans who were brought up with them continue to engage in a cycle of slaughter and being slaughtered.

The giant tree used its roots to snatch young men and women from among humans, and when these people were released, their offspring all had pointed ears that were different from those of ordinary people.

The strongest woman among these descendants listened intently beneath the giant tree, gradually revealing an expression of understanding. She attempted to speak in some language, and bright blue runes appeared, imbuing her with an incredibly powerful force.

She taught the language to her companions, led them to take up arms, and began to eliminate the remaining robots, eventually clearing the enemy from the floating land.

Under the worship of ordinary humans, life and civilization flourished anew on the floating land, enduring countless years, until one day...

Four-legged behemoths with wings on their backs burst forth from the sea of ​​clouds formed by white mist, landing in human cities, roaring and destroying everything in their path. Even the attacks of their pointed-eared offspring could not penetrate their steel-like scales.

The destruction caused by the behemoth was so great that even the earth could not be spared. The floating land, which was gathered together by the roots, shattered into countless small pieces and scattered. The broken mountains and rivers fell into the sea of ​​clouds.

As the behemoth began to tear at the giant tree itself, space suddenly distorted, tearing apart amidst serpentine currents, from which a mysterious girl stepped out.

Her slender figure was enveloped in a flowing halo of light, her long silver hair as dazzling as a galaxy, and her face as the embodiment of beauty in the human world. When the giant beast roared at her, her pure blue eyes simply lifted slightly, and an icy blue torrent surged from the void, turning the giant beast into frost-white dust.

Faced with the overwhelming onslaught of giant beasts, she stood still and stared. All the attacks launched against her seemed to hit an invisible wall. She slowly gazed at the world before her, her gaze seemingly piercing through all barriers, understanding everything that was happening in the world.

Then, the space around her tore apart continuously, and countless steel armies poured out from them, spreading to every corner of the planet. The giant beasts were swallowed up by the terrifying artillery fire, and the nests hidden under the sea of ​​clouds evaporated in the sun-like brilliance.

She descended upon the canopy of the giant tree, her aura gradually fading, and the pointed-eared descendants who had fled here gathered around her...

When Cheng Fei tried to get a closer look at the girl's face, the incredibly realistic scene before him suddenly flickered violently and then vanished without a trace.

The boy came to his senses and found himself standing in the open space where he had been before. The others behind him were also standing still, motionless, and the surroundings were still empty.

Cheng Fei thought for a moment, then clasped his hands together in prayer towards the sky, "God, so this is what you're showing us? If so, please show your support."

After he finished speaking, he stood there with his hands on his hips, waiting, but the roots that had been expected didn't droop down and gesture at him.

The other person seemed to ignore him.

The boy smacked his lips, gave up trying to communicate with a plant, and turned his attention to the others.

Nagasaki Asuna suddenly swayed. After Cheng Fei caught her, the girl opened her eyes, looking bewildered. "Cheng Fei, what was that just now?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it's an illusion created by the World Tree." Cheng Fei pinched her soft, sweet cheek.

"So the World Tree isn't absorbing Light Magic Particles, but rather it's saving the world?" Nagasaki Asuna tilted her head.

Cheng Fei nodded, "If it's not lying."

At this moment, the others also opened their eyes one after another.

"How could it suddenly disappear? I was almost able to see that girl's face clearly!" Miriam shouted, grabbing her hair and looking left and right as if searching for something, with a subtle sense of reluctance on her face.

Cheng Fei barely managed to restrain himself from telling her the girl's identity.

"It's finally over? That was terrifying! I had already logged out of the game." Zhou Han patted her flat chest in relief, then looked to the side, "Ruan Jingyi, are you alright?"

The quiet girl shook her head.

Soon, the last shadow opened its eyes, seemingly quite frightened, its pupils contracted and its face filled with terror. It was only after Nagasaki Asuna knelt down and comforted it that it calmed down.

Except for one person.

"Is Shen Xi alright?" Ye Shuang asked, observing the still motionless, aloof girl with concern.

"It's been so long, is it stuck?" Cheng Fei stepped forward and examined that expressionless, exquisitely beautiful face. "Teacher Shen, if you don't react soon, I'll have to give you a kiss?"

Shen Xi trembled violently, then suddenly opened her eyes, focusing her gaze on his face. Her pupils contracted slightly, her eyes suddenly became moist, and her expression was indescribably confused.

"I haven't even kissed him yet, is it really necessary to cry?" Cheng Fei was shocked.

Without saying a word, the girl suddenly ran forward hurriedly, her expression anxious and her steps unsteady.

"Teacher Shen, what's wrong?" Cheng Fei asked in surprise and quickly followed her.

Seeing this, the others also ran up.

Led by Shen Xi, the group ran to the depths of the open space, where a strangely shaped, massive, silver-gray building appeared. Despite being covered in dust, it still looked exceptionally sturdy.

Shen Xi stopped, panting, and looked around as if searching for something.

"Is this a teleportation station?" Nagasaki Asuna looked at it.

"Hard to say, it's much bigger than a typical teleportation station." Cheng Fei looked up and surveyed it.

In an inconspicuous corner next to the building, there were some ordinary miscellaneous items that were clearly not Protoss creations, also covered in dust, having been there for who knows how many years.

Shen Xi slowly walked towards the pile of clutter, her pure blue eyes unblinking, her hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly.

"Teacher Shen, did you just see something?" Cheng Fei suddenly realized that she probably saw a hallucination that was different from others.

The girl didn't answer him. Instead, she walked over and squatted down to search among the clutter.

Soon, she pulled out an old photograph as if she had known about it beforehand.

Shen Xi swallowed hard, smoothed out the photo, and wiped away the thick layer of dust covering it. She could see that it was a photo taken in a hospital ward, in which a smiling woman had her hand on the shoulder of a little girl with a blank expression.

Everyone, including Cheng Fei, was stunned.