All players: I can choose my own dungeon rewards.

A research institute buried deep underground, forty kilometers northeast of the city of Bamo.

Wang Zhifan rushed all the way here from underground in the city. Thanks to the accurate intelligence provided by AI Xiaohong, he arrived at his destination very smoothly.

At first, he had the idea of ​​paying a formal visit to this place, but after secretly investigating on the spot for a while, he determined that the other party was a secret and closed organization that did not receive outside visitors at all.

Therefore, he had to change his strategy and relied on his abilities such as Shadow Shoes and Space Teleportation to sneak directly into the research institute, wearing a Wind-Hidden Hat to conduct reconnaissance in an invisible state.

At this time, he set his sights on a middle-aged man who was doing experiments, intending to obtain intelligence through him.

Hearing this man's assistants calling him director, Wang Zhifan presumably held a high position in the institute and might know some important information. He then observed and waited patiently for the opportunity.

Suddenly, the door of the laboratory was opened again, and a seemingly ordinary researcher in a white coat walked in from outside, which made the invisible Wang Zhifan frown.

"The strength of this person's aura is not right. It is much stronger than other NPCs... There is something wrong!"

Just when Wang Zhifan, who was in the invisible state, was alert, a researcher came in and sent away the assistants in the laboratory, saying that another laboratory wanted them to help temporarily, and several assistants left quickly.

But this person, who was found to have problems by Wang Zhifan, waited until everyone else left, then closed the door of the laboratory and walked slowly to the middle-aged director who was still busy.

The middle-aged director did not notice anything unusual. He was concentrating on his experiment until the researcher in the white coat raised one of his hands and stretched it towards him.

A miniature human face emerged from the palm of the hand, its eyes staring forward and emitting energy so dim that it was barely noticeable. The middle-aged director who was conducting the experiment suddenly shuddered and his eyes became confused and unfocused, as if he had entered a semi-sleeping state.

"What is a messenger?"

The white-coated researcher who was holding up the human face and performing his trick then spoke calmly, his tone very abruptly.

"The messenger is... a... mysterious... incomprehensible... unknown existence..."

The middle-aged director, who seemed to be hypnotized, immediately answered incoherently, and the sound of his voice showed that he was indeed under control.

"Be more specific. For example, what are their physical features? What means of attack do they have? How much damage can they cause? What attacks can injure or kill them?"

The researcher with a human face on his palm was obviously not satisfied with this answer and immediately asked again.

"I have no idea……"

The middle-aged director, with a dazed look and having lost most of his self-esteem, responded slowly.

This made the researcher who raised his palm look a little irritated, and he muttered:

"If this happens again... there's definitely something wrong with the NPC here!"

"Master, I have completely controlled his consciousness. He really doesn't know."

The miniature face in the palm of the hand spoke immediately after hearing this, indicating that it was not because of lack of effort.

"Well, hold on a little longer, and I'll try to get him to answer a few other questions."

The researcher then began to ask questions such as when the messenger would appear and what relevant physical materials were available, and was very patient.

Wang Zhifan remained invisible and eavesdropped the entire time, which saved him the trouble of investigating it himself.

He had already realized that the researcher who had just come in was actually a player in disguise, whose purpose was also to obtain information about the messenger, and it seemed that he had investigated more than one NPC.

"By the way, there seems to be a little creature eavesdropping outside the door. It must be a summon or clone sent by a player, or simply a player in disguise... I didn't expect the place I chose to be so lively."

After Wang Zhifan slightly expanded his perception, he noticed something abnormal, namely a fly lying outside the door with an aura that was not right.

It has to be said that the disguise skills of these two players are quite superb. If it weren't for his incredibly strong mental attributes, it would have been difficult for him to discover that there were two other colleagues gathered in this small place. At most, he could see through the fake researcher who was investigating intelligence.

He remained invisible quietly, without revealing any flaws, and witnessed the entire process of the player collecting intelligence.

But the result was the same as the information he had obtained from Xiaohong before. He could get almost no detailed information about the messenger from the NPC. He could only get some scraps, which was far from his expectations for this research institute.

After the players left the laboratory, the flies outside the door also flew away. Wang Zhifan did not continue to follow them, but instead maintained his stealth state and went towards the host location of the research institute.

"Xiaohong, what's the progress of conquering the database here?"

In an empty corner, Wang Zhifan asked the portable AI.

"Master, it has reached 24.51%, but my cracking program seems to have fallen into a misunderstanding. The cracking process may be delayed..."

For the first time, uncertainty appeared in Xiaohong's words. It seemed that the defense strength of the database of this research institute made it very stressed.

"Xiao Hong, maybe it's not that you can't crack it, but there are other influencing factors. Let me go and take a look myself."

Wang Zhifan followed the map instructions provided by Xiaohong and continued to move towards the location of the institute's host computer.

He passed through one wall after another, used space movement to cross several automatic defense barriers similar to laser walls, and finally arrived at the main engine room of the research institute.

As a small research institute, it is obviously not normal for their computer room to have such high defense, and it seems to be hiding some secrets.

But after Wang Zhifan arrived at the location, he did not notice any obvious abnormalities at first. It seemed that this place was full of computers neatly arranged, running non-stop and performing high-speed calculations.

"Xiao Hong, the devices around here don't look very special, so why is it so difficult for you to crack them? Do you want me to make some physical connections to improve your cracking efficiency?"

Wang Zhifan then asked Xiaohong in the computer room, intending to lend it a helping hand.

But strangely, Xiaohong did not respond to him this time, and the smart watch remained silent.

"Xiao Hong? Xiao Hong?"

Wang Zhifan immediately became alert and checked his smart meter, but did not find any faults. So he quickly evacuated the room and called Xiaohong again, and Xiaohong finally responded.

"Master, I was just affected by some strange force and lost contact with the outside world. It's like I was isolated from the data."

Xiaohong immediately reported the situation and made Wang Zhifan aware of the problem.

"A strange force has affected you? Then why didn't I feel anything? Was it because you were attacking that machine room that you were targeted?"

After thinking about it, Wang Zhifan took off his smart watch, put it on the ground, said a few words to Xiaohong, and then sneaked into the computer room again.

This time, he extended his perception very carefully, not missing any details, even though he didn't know much about the large computers buzzing around him.

But after two minutes, he still didn't discover much. He just vaguely felt that something was wrong with this place, but he couldn't tell exactly what was wrong.

"Xiao Hong! Can you see me?"

Looking up at a camera in the corner of the computer room, Wang Zhifan waved towards that direction.

Knowing that Xiaohong has conquered most of the electronic equipment in this institute, he is very secretive in this computer room. After all, Xiaohong will cover up the traces of his presence in real time if nothing unexpected happens.

But the camera did not flash the light as he and Xiaohong had agreed, and it seemed to have no reaction at all, indicating that he had lost contact with Xiaohong in the outside world.

"This is weird...what's going on?"

By this time Wang Zhifan was completely confused. He believed that what was happening now was not Xiaohong deliberately playing a trick on him, but that there really was some force preventing the connection between them.

"Speaking of which, I have carefully explored this place several times and indeed found something wrong... but I can't find where the problem lies..."

Just when he was racking his brains to no avail, an unexpected situation occurred. The Qingdi Sword hanging on his waist began to tremble, which meant that the legendary sword was requesting communication with it!
"Qingdi, have you discovered the problem?"

Wang Zhifan quickly drew out the Qingdi Sword and started communicating with it.

As a high-grade spiritual weapon, although the Qingdi Sword is fundamentally different from real living creatures and cannot be completely regarded as an intelligent being, in many cases, its spiritual intuition as a weapon is much more useful than human wisdom.

This time, it was the company that identified the root problem and provided a solution.

"You mean there is a special rule restricting this place? Can we remove the restriction by breaking this rule?"

As the Qingdi Sword transmitted spiritual thoughts to Wang Zhifan that only its master could understand, Wang Zhifan suddenly went from being confused to half understanding.

"Special rules? What special rules can there be in this place? This is just a room with computers... Are you talking about some kind of mysterious power? For example, the power from the messenger?"

With the enlightenment of the Green Emperor Sword, Wang Zhifan quickly understood the essence of the matter. Holding the legendary Green Emperor Sword in his hand, he suddenly closed his eyes and tried his best to sense everything around him.

For a moment, the noise of the computer fan, the sound of the hard disk reading, and even the extremely complex current network were all taken into his mind, but the next moment he discarded and blocked them all because they were not the problem.

His perception then transcended the level of conventional matter and reached the level of the laws of space and time. After confirming that there were no obvious problems in these two aspects, it slightly deviated and headed towards a more mysterious and illusory angle.

That is the set of rules mentioned by the Green Emperor Sword, which is more low-level and loose than the world laws such as space and time, but it is a mysterious high-end force that may exist under special circumstances.

At this moment, Wang Zhifan's spiritual attribute of 273 points played a key role. If his spiritual attribute had not reached such an inhuman level, he would never be able to discover what was hidden deep in the world.

"Found it! This strange power... It has always been there, restricting the flow of information in the form of rules! There are some other rules in this world, but it seems that they are incomplete. This world is really abnormal... But let's chop it off first!"

After realizing the target's presence, Wang Zhifan immediately mobilized all his strength, focused his mind and swung the Qingdi Sword in his hand. He moved very slowly but with an extremely firm will, he slashed out!

Because what he wanted to kill was not a person, nor an object, but an abstract and illusory rule! A powerful attack limited to the physical level was meaningless!
It is difficult to explain in detail how to achieve this kind of conceptual attack, but Wang Zhifan, as someone who has initially mastered the laws of time and space, has the strength to do this. Of course, what is more crucial is that the Qingdi Sword in his hand provides incomparable help.

Being able to cut through nothing is a special property of the legendary Qingdi Sword, which gives this magical weapon the potential to cut through everything, whether it is actual matter or some abstract concept, and the so-called rules are naturally no exception.

Time passed slowly, and as Wang Zhifan slashed down with his sword so slowly that it was like a hundred times slow motion, something in the void finally broke, and then quickly disintegrated and dissipated.

He opened his eyes, sheathed the Qingdi Sword, looked around, and saw that everything in the machine room was the same as before, but vaguely brand new.

"It should be fine."

His figure then disappeared from the spot, and he arrived at the location of the smart watch by entering and breaking the dream. The watch was currently on the hand of one of his clones that he had placed there.

"Master, the defense of the database just now suddenly disappeared completely! Did you do something in there?"

As an artificial intelligence, Xiaohong did not need his reminder. It was attacking the computer room every moment. When Wang Zhifan appeared, it had already ended the battle and achieved a complete victory.

"I did do something, but tell me what you found in the database!"

Wang Zhifan is now more concerned about the real gains.

"The database contains a lot of experimental research information, and also contains a top-secret document. I have cracked it and it seems to be about the messenger. I will now present it to you."

As Xiaohong answered, she controlled the smart watch to emit 3D light and shadow, playing the top-secret images it had found.

The video begins with a series of snow-like interferences. There is no specific image content, but a man's deep voice sounds:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we think we have found a way to preserve the messenger’s details.

That is the highest level of encryption, encryption that even the person who recorded the information cannot decipher, coupled with the death of all those who knew about it.

This sounds ridiculous, but we have no better way and can only choose to place our hopes on future humans..."

“The messengers are beings that transcend the physical world. They have no clear ill will toward us humans, nor do they have any verifiable good intentions.

They only come occasionally, passing by this planet and destroying matter and life, just like when we walk on the road and accidentally step on an ant, leaving footprints behind..." (End of this chapter)