Chapter 448: Chapter 416: Fragment

What the hell, if I remember correctly, this is Secret Realm exploration, not a Script Task, right?

Where am I being sent off to? Is this still in the country?

If it weren’t for the Vast Sea Soul-locking Bell I’m carrying, Li Cheng would doubt whether he had fallen under Infinite Moon Reading.

“Why can I hear…”

Gray Rain was equally shocked and bewildered, “Could it be that I am also a player?”

“Stop fantasizing. Fake.”

Li Cheng took off the small sports camera from his chest, pressed playback, and the camera clearly transmitted the system broadcast.

At the same time, the task log on the player panel was empty, without any clues.

Li Cheng calmly looked around; there were no broadcasting speakers in the corners of the ceiling, yet the inexplicable voice had appeared in surround form.

The entity that created this disturbance was very aware of the player’s task type and possessed unknown power, able to remotely interfere with the air to form sound waves.

A trap, a prank… or maybe a friendly tip?

No time to think slowly, the images of the Binary Tree and the Red Spider within the book pages were slowly fading.

They seemed to be aware of their predicament, with only half their faces left, desperately winking and gesturing for Li Cheng to rescue them.

The problem lies in how to save them.

If Fuding Hualong were here, perhaps he could use the skills of Divine Brush Ma Liang to draw the complete images of the Binary Tree and others, bringing them out…

Wait a moment.

Li Cheng suddenly noticed a detail: the Binary Tree’s VR glasses weren’t worn before the eyes but were on top of the head. The revealed right eye blinked rhythmically.

Morse Code?

Blinking represented short signals, and closing the eye represented long signals; the Binary Tree was clearly using Morse code to transmit information to him.

Deep Learning, and, Image…

Li Cheng scanned the nearby bookshelves, indeed finding a book titled “Deep Learning and Image Recognition.”

He quickly opened the book and found a page with a printing error; its corner was precisely the missing half of the Binary Tree’s face.

Tear.

Li Cheng tore the edge of the page; the fragment was thick and durable, with the Information Integration Glasses indicating its material was unknown, resistant to acid, alkali, tearing, and burning.

He placed the fragment beside the Binary Tree, and the fragment, as if magnetic, automatically adhered, completing the Binary Tree’s face.

“Hah!”

The Binary Tree took a deep breath, its eyes filled with fear and relief. Trapped in the book, it couldn’t make a sound but mouthed silently, “Are you Pifu?”

“It’s me.”

Li Cheng knew lip-reading and could understand what the Binary Tree was saying. To prevent the other party from not knowing lip reading, he quickly took out his phone, inputted text, and displayed it to the Binary Tree, establishing communication between them,

“Who locked you in the book?”

“A tall, skinny woman in black clothes.”

The Binary Tree knew the situation was urgent and wasted no words, “We were attacked right after entering the Secret Realm. She has the ability to distort reality, directly controlling all of us, and after waking up, we ended up like this.

Can’t log out of the Slaughter Field and currently have no clue where Andre and the others went.”

Another tall, skinny woman, coupled with the suited infant, there seem to be quite a few anomalies in this Secret Realm…

“I just heard a low voice disguised as system broadcast, instructing me to save you within ten minutes.”

Li Cheng, thanks to his years of playing as a keyboard pianist in online games, typed quickly, “Also, how did you know that book contains your fragments?”

“Disguised as system broadcast? What do you mean?”

The Binary Tree was puzzled at first, then said, “That ‘Deep Learning and Image Recognition’ book is a project organized by our school, co-authored by my teacher and me.

If I’m not mistaken, my and Red Spider’s fragments should be scattered in books that contain our memories or represent our life.

You can try finding ‘Turing’s Biography,’ ‘C Primer Plus,’ ‘Effective Java,’ ‘Clean Code’…”

Aside from those who joined official state institutions, most players highly value personal privacy, with the greatest hatred and fear of being exposed.

The Binary Tree directly revealing he is the author of that book essentially exposed his real identity.

If this were during the initial years of Slaughter Field Game, it might have played out as “You wouldn’t want your player identity to be discovered by your family, would you, haha.”

Overall, the matter has its priorities,

The Binary Tree listed a bunch of book titles as if reciting dish names.

Li Cheng activated Information Integration Glasses and Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method, installing multiple Electronic Eyes, scanning through rows of bookshelves to find all the books mentioned by the Binary Tree,

Indeed, in one of the code books, he found new fragments—the Binary Tree’s right hand.

Is this trying to piece together a ‘Dark Great Mage’ from Yu-Gi-Oh?”

“I’ve found it too!”

Gray Rain excitedly claimed credit, finding the Red Spider’s face fragment in a book, “The Matrix Art Collection.”

“Am I still alive?”

Red Spider breathed deeply and quickly exclaimed, “I don’t usually read books, maybe you should look in the following: ‘Criminal Psychology,’ ‘Autopsy Report,’ ‘Poison Guide,’ ‘Men’s Fashion,’ ‘Twilight,’ ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’…”

Damn, what kind of genius are you.

And isn’t Fifty Shades of Grey the adult version of Twilight?

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, his hand moving swiftly to find the books.

Time passed by the minute, with six minutes elapsed, and they had only half-completed piecing together the Binary Tree and Red Spider’s images. No matter how hard they tried to recall, they couldn’t think of other books that might contain their fragments.

“We won’t make it.”

Li Cheng put down the books; the library floor held tens of thousands of books, arranged without order.

In the absence of clear hints from the Binary Tree and Red Spider, there was no way to find all the remaining fragments.

“Is this the end?”

The image of the Red Spider had grown thin, almost blending into the white paper.

His eyes lifeless, he sighed with resignation, calmly saying, “Mr. Pifu, may I trouble you to tell Liz at the Fallen Angel Bar, Sophie at the Red Dance Shoes Club, Minian and Cecilia at MintClub… I love them after returning to the slum.”

???

Are these all your mistresses? Dude, your kidneys are doing well. But if I remember correctly, MintClub is a nightclub under the Evil Science Alliance, isn’t it?

In contrast, the Binary Tree was much calmer, calmly dealing with affairs of the future.

Whale Song is a large guild; every deceased member receives family allowances, so there’s no worry about posthumous affairs. The Binary Tree’s friends would help handle his affairs, such as deleting internet browsing records and the like.

“I only said conventional methods won’t make it; I didn’t say you can’t be saved.”

Li Cheng picked up the Steel Banner Spear, swung a Gravity Energy Ball from the tip.

The surrounding gravity instantly changed; the bookshelves screeched and rubbed against the ground, countless books flew towards the flag spear, adhering around the pole.

Li Cheng stepped back and then summoned, out of thin air, the Magic Energy Cannon Tower, the long barrel aiming at the flag spear, spitting fierce fire.

Due to the change in gravity, fuel did not drip downward but adhered firmly around the Gravity Energy Ball, greatly enhancing combustion efficiency.

Ordinary paper materials turned to flying ash, while fragments transformed by players could withstand the flames.

Gray Rain’s eyes were sharp and quick, picking out the fragments and patting off the dust in time.

Li Cheng held the flag spear like an Olympic torchbearer, swiftly moving through the bookshelves, searching the books.

Education, Literature, Art, Humanities and Social Sciences, Economic Management, Success and Inspiration…

Row after row of bookshelves burned, with all fragments extracted.

Li Cheng put the fragments together, the book “Robot Motion Programming” suddenly expanded to two meters in height, the Binary Tree and the Red Spider, surrounded by the scent of fuel, rolled out from the pages.