PGVCW 76

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 76: The Human Form of 007

For Xia Wang'an, 007 transforming into a human was an inevitability.

Yet she had not anticipated that 007's appearance would turn out to be so astonishingly attractive.

One had to bear in mind that Xia Wang'an's aesthetic standards had long since been warped during a decade of brutal combat in her past life, making it exceedingly difficult for her to appreciate normal human features.

Most of the time, she would even feel that a razor-sharp maw lined with venom sacs was far more aesthetically pleasing than the actors featured in television dramas.

Fortunately, she still retained an appreciation for human physiques; thus, when binge-watching shows in her spare time, Xia Wang'an's preferred actors were strictly those with great builds, while placing minimal demands on facial aesthetics.

The savior's personal preferences had even directly influenced Blue Star's entertainment industry, leading to the emergence of numerous performers possessing ordinary facial features coupled with exceptional physiques, which in turn reshaped audience standards.

The New Aesthetic

With their bellies full, everyone now possessed the energy for physical conditioning. Currently, the most thriving establishments on Blue Star were fitness centers of every variety, which had concurrently driven an explosive, exponential surge in the population of异种 hunters (Anomaly Hunters).

Even Xia Wang'an herself was astonished to discover that a day would come when she found a specific human's visage genuinely breathtaking.

So terribly handsome!

Xia Wang'an blinked without pausing, fixing her gaze squarely upon the young man before her. She had always been direct; finding him visually striking, she immediately voiced her sincere praise aloud.

She offered the highest accolade of her entire existence: "He's practically even better-looking than Cortez."

If anyone else had overheard such a remark, they would undoubtedly have struggled to ascertain whether she was offering a compliment or an insult.

Cortez—the notorious final boss from the popular Blue Star video game Monster Battlefield—sported blue skin, long fangs, shrieked madly on a continuous loop, and roamed about sowing destruction while glaring with a pair of ferocious crimson eyes.

Yet upon receiving such high praise, 007 immediately broke into a delighted smile: "Really? Does Host like it?"

Xia Wang'an nodded with absolute conviction: "I like it!"

"007 is now the most handsome human being."

She patted the youth atop his head. Given the disparity in their heights, under normal circumstances she would have needed to levitate slightly to reach his crown, but 007 had already lowered his head with practiced synergy, patiently submitting to his host's petting.

He even proactively inquired: "How does the tactile feel strike you? Do I need to make any further adjustments?"

"The tactile feedback is excellent; just leave it exactly as it is. I adore 007 just like this right now."

Xia Wang'an's mood was exceptionally buoyant.

Not solely because 007 possessed such striking visuals, but also because she had finally resolved a massive, underlying hazard lingering within the depths of her consciousness.

007 had thoroughly manifested as an independent human entity; she no longer needed to harbor any anxiety that he might one day vanish due to a collapse of her own mental stability.

The two of them—one indulging in head-pats, the other submissively receiving them—created a tranquil tableau of passing time.

The Crater Impact

You Mo spat out a mouthful of ash and dragged himself upward from the bottom of the crater.

He had initially stationed himself near the rim of the giant pit while Xia Wang'an was still descending from above—

Who could have predicted that upon landing, she would be intercepted and caught right out of mid-air by a young man who had apparently materialized out of a lotus root?

Yet perhaps due to the excessive altitude drop, or perhaps on account of the 2.8-meter heavy black blade clutched in her grip—

Although the Anomaly World had already mutated into a hybrid domain populated by Daoist cultivators, roaming anomalies, and wandering human souls, it evidently still retained a baseline allegiance to Newtonian physics.

Consequently, Xia Wang'an struck the earth with the kinetic profile of a high-altitude meteorite, dragging 007—who was tightly embracing her—down into the ground to carve out a massive subterranean trench.

The impact had fortuitously hurled You Mo, who had been standing nearby watching the spectacle with a dumbfounded expression, straight down to the bottom of the pit before he could even register a defense.

Clambering out just now, he instantly locked eyes with the two figures lightly bounding out of the earthen trench.

Good grief.

What conceptual difference was there between this scenario and opening your front door only to find a pack of S-rank anomalies staring directly back at you?

It was arguably even more terrifying; after all, this young maiden's combat efficacy drastically eclipsed that of any S-rank anomaly.

His brain whirred at hyper-speed, cycling through an exhaustive repertoire of self-introduction strategies within the span of a heartbeat.

Just as he parted his lips to speak, Xia Wang'an had already completed a swift, clinical appraisal of his person:

"You are not allied with the Corrupters."

It was delivered as an absolute declarative statement, entirely devoid of interrogative inflection.

You Mo, who hadn't managed to utter a single syllable yet: "......"

Xia Wang'an cast a casual glance toward the massive crater behind him: "During the earlier skirmish, I overheard you address her as Sovereign Martial King. Is she the Imperial Princess Rong Luo?"

You Mo: !!

For a breathless instant, he remained paralyzed, uncertain whether to register profound shock at this preternatural entity's preternatural auditory acuity, or absolute dismay that she possessed knowledge of Her Highness's true moniker.

Having engaged in combat so fiercely, surrounded by swarms of Corrupters and mutants launching a coordinated assault upon her solitary person—

Despite facing such overwhelming pressure, how on earth had she managed to preserve cognitive bandwidth sufficient to eavesdrop on his casual utterances?

"Y-you... how did you ascertain that?"

Xia Wang'an replied casually: "I simply hazarded a guess, and it appears my intuition was accurate."

Primarily, the sole Sovereign Martial King within her database happened to be this specific individual; eliminating Rong Luo left zero alternative variables.

She stepped forward, directing her gaze down toward the colossal beast resting at the base of the crater.

Within historical records of the Cangming World, the persona of the former Sovereign Martial King, Imperial Princess Rong Luo, stood out with stark prominence—she was an absolute monarch characterized by majestic dignity, benevolence, and profound devotion to her subjects.

She possessed formidable personal combat efficacy, excelling not only in military command and martial warfare, but maintaining unflagging diligence across administrative governance.

When her dynasty collapsed under terminal crisis, it was she alone who shouldered the destiny of Cangming, rallying the realm's paragons, reorganizing military legions, and establishing the bastion known as Martial King City.

Furthermore, when the Corrupters initiated their sinister incursions under a veil of conspiracy, Rong Luo was the first to perceive the anomaly; operating under conditions where virtually the entire geopolitical landscape had been compromised, she executed swift executive decisions—sacrificing a fractional vanguard, herself included, to preserve viable sparks of civilization for the future.

Had the Corrupters not violated standard protocols by forcibly extracting the remaining elite martial artists from the Cangming World, perhaps by the time Xia Wang'an traversed into that realm, its populace would have successfully completed their collective transition into empowered martial practitioners.

In short, despite never having met the sovereign in person, Xia Wang'an had long maintained a distinct mental archetype of Rong Luo.

She envisioned her as immensely powerful and fiercely majestic.

And presently—

The reality matched her preconceptions to an absolute degree.

Meeting the Sovereign

Surveying the powerful, imposing giant spider crouching before her, Xia Wang'an exhibited exquisite courtesy, executing a formal salute in strict accordance with the traditional protocol of the Cangming World.

"Xia Wang'an pays respects to Sovereign Martial King."

Not only did You Mo stand frozen in sheer disbelief, but even the gargantuan beast at the bottom of the crater—bearing zero remaining resemblance to a conventional human configuration—appeared momentarily stunned.

She hesitated for a protracted moment before lifting several hundred of her arachnid limbs, executing a somewhat clumsy, unfamiliar interlocking gesture of return courtesy with painstaking effort.

"Your Highness! You have regained consciousness?!"

You Mo stared in profound shock, moisture welling visibly within his eye sockets.

The giant beast displayed subtle mental exhaustion.

Click, chatter—

Her spider limbs collided once more, producing distinct clicking reverberations.

Xia Wang'an graciously assumed the role of translator: "She states that she has remained conscious the entire time."

Click, chatter—

"She also explains that her earlier assaults against you were executed solely because Corrupters were actively monitoring the sector; the moment she confirmed surveillance sweeps had shifted away, she deliberately ceased attacking you."

Click, chatter—

"She is currently stating that despite maintaining lucidity, her cognitive processes frequently regress into bestial impulses, rendering her incapable of suppressing numerous instinctive drives. She advises you to maintain a respectful distance for your own safety."

"Oh, she adds that I require no such precautions, because she is utterly incapable of defeating me."

You Mo had reached a state of cognitive saturation so absolute that language failed him entirely.

"H-Her Highness... is actually capable of speech?!"

Conversely, Xia Wang'an regarded him with mild perplexity: "She mentioned that she responded to your utterances on every single occasion. Did you genuinely fail to notice?"

You Mo stammered: "I—I consistently assumed Her Highness was merely grinding her mandibles!"

The giant beast surged upward from the crater abruptly, every single bristle across her carapace standing on end as she emitted a piercing, aggravated clicking shriek.

Click-chatter! !!

Before Xia Wang'an could initiate translation, You Mo had already scrambled to his feet with practiced agility and bolted into the distance.

"I understand! I've decoded the message! Her Highness is instructing me to scram! I'm scrambling right now!"

The Offer of Return

You Mo had operated under the assumption that the day's maximum psychological quota would consist of risking execution to provoke the Corrupters into casting him directly into the breeding pools.

He had entirely failed to anticipate that this shock would rank as the most minor anomaly encountered throughout the entire day.

Xia Wang'an pivoted smoothly toward Rong Luo, inquiring directly: "My operational capacity is currently sufficient to escort all of you back to Cangming. Do you desire repatriation?"

This time, the astonishment shifted entirely to Rong Luo.

You Mo flattened himself prone upon the terrain some distance away: "You possess the capability to repatriate us? We are permitted to return home?!"

Click, chatter—

Rong Luo extended an arachnid limb, gesturing first toward You Mo—who remained overcome with overwhelming emotional agitation—then sweeping the appendage outward toward the desolate horizon.

Ultimately, she omitted any gesture toward her own person.

Click, chatter—

Rong Luo recounted her historical journey: she had once stood among the apex sovereigns; throughout prolonged attrition against the Corrupter hierarchy, she successfully identified critical tactical vectors, rallying surviving companions to initiate systematic guerrilla resistance.

During their initial expulsion from Cangming, they had remained entirely oblivious to the vast multiplicity of external dimensions; yet across extended operational timelines, they evolved into an intractable insurgency that the Corrupter regime found increasingly difficult to suppress.

Prior to Xia Wang'an's materialization, Rong Luo and her surviving cohort maintained clandestine sanctuaries dispersed across diverse realities; lacking intrinsic spatial-temporal transit capabilities, every dimensional migration demanded calculated gambits—exploiting strategic ruses to trap Corrupter operatives and executing high-risk spatial jumps precisely at the millisecond of their self-detonation.

Click, chatter—

Rong Luo narrated those historic trials with meticulous articulation; Xia Wang'an listened with absolute, focused absorption.

She even reached into her spatial storage pendant, extracted a voluminous bucket of popcorn, partook independently, and proactively offered a portion to Rong Luo.

To state the facts transparently, Rong Luo had not partaken of conventional human nourishment across an extended epoch; strictly speaking, she had existed in a state of chronic caloric deficit.

Unwilling to consume human flesh—despite the primal bestial urges howling incessantly for sustenance within her biological matrix—whenever starvation approached critical thresholds, she resorted to cannibalizing her own severed limbs.

The Price of Survival

Yet this grotesque survival mechanism had yielded an unexpected tactical windfall: following self-cannibalization, her regenerating anatomy developed vastly superior density and resilience against external devastation.

Consequently, she preserved her formidable combat dominance, retaining her status as the most lethal and intractable mutant engineered within the breeding facilities despite active containment.

Click, chatter—

Xia Wang'an nodded intermittently, offering targeted commentary and posing occasional analytical inquiries as the narrative progressed.

This dynamic placed You Mo in an excruciating predicament; entirely incapable of decoding his sovereign's intricate click-chatter lexicon, yet burning with curiosity regarding the dialogue, he lacked the temerity to interrupt their discourse.

Compelled to seek alternative clarification, he crawled sideways toward 007: "Can you comprehend this dialogue?"

--