Chapter 478: Triggered by "StarCraft"

As a textbook transmigrator, Boss Fang naturally felt it only right that the earth should be round.

Born and bred in this otherworld, the locals naturally found his notion utterly preposterous, offering him their unanimous dissent.

Yet Boss Fang saw little sense in bickering with them; he had transmigrated after all, so who knew what other eccentric wonders might exist?

Of course, he remained privately convinced of his own rightness; surely the sun, moon, and stars overhead could not lie?

Setting that dispute aside, the players still found their gaming immensely delightful; though the single-player campaign took place mostly upon various planets, it did nothing to hinder them from marveled at the magnificent ocean of stars during the cinematic cutscenes.

"These Zerg look terrifyingly powerful too..." Neng Bi posted another image in the group chat, showing the Zerg overtaking a battlecruiser in the void, "How on earth do they fly?"

"They fly with wings, obviously (funny face)"

"Nonsense! Look at this big crab-like bug, where are its wings?"

Boss Fang: "(cold sweat) They fly using psionic energy..."

From dawn till dusk, the group was ablaze with discussions on such novel questions, like why the starry sky was always dark, and why they didn't just fly up during the day.

Meanwhile, a collective of artifact masters had begun embarking upon their latest round of research.

"Look at this, everyone, isn't it powerful?!" In the artifact masters' chat, Tang Yu dropped an image of a mushroom cloud, "I finally managed to deploy it, after getting obliterated by the AI countless times... (laughing out loud)"

"How can it possess such terrifying might?! (horrified)"

"What is this? A new magical artifact?" asked some artifact masters who had yet to witness such a spectacle.

Li Haoran: "Can anyone explain the underlying principle here? What kind of gunpowder could ever yield such destructive force?"

Duan Yue: "Dammit, back when I accidentally blew up my furnace while forging the Sky-Cleaving Mirror, I never saw anything close to this power..."

As was universally known, the earliest gunpowder was an offshoot of alchemy, and similar substances did exist in this world, though they were mostly discarded as failed alchemical products.

Lan Mo: "This 'mushroom cloud' seems impossible to study, fellow Daoists. After all this time, this old man still hasn't grasped a thing."

Jun Yangzi: "Personally, I find this Gauss rifle far more intriguing. It utilizes lightning, and isn't lightning just a form of spellcasting? Spells are precisely our forte!"

Duan Buyi: "(disdainful) It requires a highly stabilized current of lightning, not the mere shocking of people that we are used to."

Jun Yangzi sent a crude schematic of the mechanism, followed by a blueprint for a giant crossbow, glaring and huffing, "Can we not find a way? Ordinary mortals managed to construct it, honestly..."

"My idea is to first fashion it into a vanguard weapon, like the Immortal-Slaying Crossbow. Though this crossbow is somewhat rudimentary, its simplicity makes it easier to append other frameworks."

In truth, Perfected Master Aquarius was also a deeply seasoned artifact master, and having just joined the chat, he happened upon the discussion: "Our Sky-Heaven Academy possesses a spell that can refine thunderfire into delicate threads. I wonder if that might be worth a try?"

"It is entirely feasible!" Tang Yu clapped his hands, his eyes gleaming, instantly abandoning the utterly incomprehensible mushroom cloud, "I reckon the structure of this crossbow can be simplified even further, and as for the spell... it would be best integrated as an array. Shall we... sketch out a draft first?"

"Splendid, splendid!"

"Once designed, this artifact will be absolutely peerless!"

"I feel we could make it even grander than it is in the game."

"We could build a massive version to mount upon our dharma-vessels, inscribed with runes."

Li Haoran: "Indeed, invincible!"

"Uh..." Someone posted a screenshot of a carrier into the group, bearing the username Dharma-Vessel Expert Gongshu Kuo, "Fellow Daoists, is there any way we can fashion our dharma-vessels like this?"

"Well... (awkward) you take your time researching that, brother."

"Wishing you success."

"I hope to see it within my lifetime."

"If your research succeeds, your name will surely endure for a thousand generations."

"No, ten thousand generations."

"..."

For these artifact masters, the joy of gaming each day lay not merely within the game itself; analyzing all sorts of bizarre magical artifacts and then "discussing the Dao" in the group chat every day was a chief pleasure of theirs.

Of course, there was another faction—the salted fish who did nothing but play games, such as...

Jiang Xiaoyue was currently driving a vulture, shrieking and screaming the entire way, until Boss Fang, with a dark face, muted her external communications.

Su Tianji was controlling Kerrigan, who was still a Ghost agent at this point, and thanks to her decent marksmanship, she was making smooth progress.

She casually tossed a screenshot into the group chat, showing her leaning behind a ruined low wall deep within the debris of a Terran base, lightly wiping away a bead of sweat: "This campaign was so difficult, but this master still prevailed, hahaha! (husky laughing face)"

"Which campaign is this?"

Su Tianji: "The one where I was sent to delay the Protoss army. Just me, all by myself (Jiang Xiaoyue's smug victory sign pose)."

Evidently, contending against so many Protoss elites entirely by one's own strength was an epic victory, a battle worthy of the history books.

Jiang Xiaoyue: "Sister Su, why are you stealing my signature emoji! (angry)"

"So impressive, I haven't even reached that part yet!"

"How spectacular!"

Su Tianji: "It is finally over. After this, your sister needs to have a good rest!"

Set against the backdrop of the Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg, every single campaign in StarCraft could indeed be called epic. Its sheer grandeur was far beyond anything other games could match, especially within the system's fully restored version.

Mortal humans, as minuscule as ants, stood amidst those colossal ruins, gazing into the distant sky where a massive mothership, capable of blotting out the heavens, revealed but the tip of an iceberg through the clouds. Smoke swirled, swarms of Zerg drifted in the air, and throwing oneself into such battles allowed even a cultivator to experience that bizarre, magnificent splendor firsthand, leaving their blood boiling involuntarily.

As if answering some sort of call, countless Zerg swarmed forward like an incoming tide.

"Eh? Boss, why has my communication cut out here? Didn't they say we could retreat once the fight was over?" Su Tianji's message suddenly flashed in the QQ group.

"That campaign with Kerrigan?"

"Then you are finished. You have probably been betrayed."

Su Tianji: "What!?"

Donning her tactical visor and peering ahead, she saw the dense, suffocating ranks of the Zerg, surging toward her position like a vast ocean.

There was no retreat, and no reinforcements; from all directions, blotting out the earth and sky, were nothing but bugs.

Perhaps this was the first time humanity truly felt that the swarm was akin to heavenly wrath—nay, even more terrifying than heavenly wrath.

The rifle slipped from her fingers, and despair, cold as seawater, submerged her entirely.

Perhaps only at this moment did one truly receive the most visceral understanding of why a Terran elite would embark upon the Blade Queen's path of vengeance.

"Holy crap, I'm not playing anymore!" A sudden burst of profanity ensued.

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Happy New Year's Eve, everyone.

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