“War of the Worlds, the Earth strikes back?” Zheng Zha and the others stood up from the ground, scrutinizing their surroundings. At the same time, Zheng Zha glanced at his wristwatch, which displayed the mission for this horror film world. Only after losing his position as the captain of the Central Continent Team did he truly feel the inconvenience of many things.

On the ground, besides the few members of the Central Continent Team who were still dormant, there were two newcomers, a man and a woman. If you added Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun to the count, it meant the Central Continent Team now numbered nineteen, which was almost the limit for the most difficult horror films.

Zheng Zha mumbled the words War of the Worlds, the Earth strikes back to himself while looking at his watch. The text displayed on it gradually made his expression serious. After a long pause, only when the other team members had also looked at their watches did he speak with a wry smile, “Speak of the devil, and here they are. We were just talking about encountering a team battle… I didn’t expect it to actually happen. This horror film world is an extremely difficult one for nineteen people, and on top of that, we’re in a team battle, several of our members are still dormant, and we lack a psychic controller.

Our mastery of Eastern Cultivation Technology is only superficial. This horror film situation is extremely dangerous.”

The text on the watch displayed: “Survive for three days in this horror film world. Additionally, side mission: Destroy the alien mothership. Each team member will receive two B-grade side mission rewards, 7000 reward points. In this horror film world, no single-person flight devices are allowed. Within one hour before the bombardment begins, leaving Washington D.C. is forbidden…” “The West Sea Team has already entered the War of the Worlds world ahead of us. Killing members of the opposing team who have not yet unlocked their Genetic Lock will yield a reward of two thousand points.

One C-grade side mission reward. Killing members who have unlocked their Genetic Lock will yield seven thousand reward points and one B-grade side mission reward. For every member of our team killed, the score is reduced by one point; for every opposing member killed, the score is increased by one point. The final tally, multiplied by two thousand, will be the reward points gained by the remaining members of both teams…” Zheng Zha said with a bitter smile to the others, “What’s worse is that

this West Sea Team entered before us. My feelings are really complicated.

The Central Continent Team is rated stronger than them, yet we allowed them to enter the horror film world first, securing the ‘momentum.’ Heh, I really don't know whether to sigh or feel fortunate… Chu Xuan, what are you thinking?” Among those standing, only Chu Xuan had not looked at his watch,

nor had he surveyed the surroundings. He stood there with a furrowed brow, appearing perplexed by something.

After Zheng Zha asked, noticing Chu Xuan still frowning, he immediately clapped his shoulder, “Hey, I’m talking to you.

Are you plotting something again? Spit it out! I’m absolutely sick of your schemes!” “Uh…” Chu Xuan finally looked up at Zheng Zha, his brow still tight as he said, “Zheng Zha, and everyone else, how do you view the Central Continent Team—uh—I mean, do you think we are righteous or evil?” The other team members gathered around.

Ling Dian suddenly spoke up, “It’s hard to call us evil, and hard to call us righteous. We are merely struggling desperately in these horror film worlds. If it’s to survive… what we did in The Mummy last time, we will do again. That’s just who we are.”

Chu Xuan nodded and said, “Yes, we can’t be called righteous or evil; we just do different things based on the situation we are in, just like what we did in the The Mummy world… However, the ‘Main God’ only records it. Upon entering a horror film world, we will be assigned to different factions based on our varying degrees of good and evil. Do you remember the fight you experienced with the Indus Team? You were on the side of the movie protagonists, while the Indus Team was with Imhotep. And during Starship Troopers, we were with the humans, while the team that kept the ‘companions’ was with the bugs. I haven’t sorted out the calculus for this good/evil degree yet—for instance, how many negative points are incurred for killing a member of one’s own team, how many negative points for killing a character from the film, and so on. We don’t know all this, but one thing is certain: based on our actions in The Mummy, where we killed hundreds of millions of people, our negative score must be immense. Yet, why are we still on the side of humanity in this horror film world? According to my initial deduction, we should be on the opposing side in this one…”

Zheng Zha had already unlocked the third stage of his Genetic Lock. He mentally simulated Xiao Honglv’s thought process. After thinking for a long time, he frowned, “Something’s not right. Although the existence of the good/evil degree can be confirmed, conversely, what we did in The Mummy also proves that this good/evil degree might not exist. After all, our team killed hundreds of millions of people. Even if killing one teammate costs ten thousand points and killing one horror film character costs only one point, our 'evil' score would absolutely be greater than any other team’s, wouldn’t it?” Chu Xuan sneered and remained silent. He just turned his head to look at the rest of the team. This action startled Zheng Zha and the others, as a very strange thought entered their minds: Is this guy planning to kill someone just to test it out? They were in a team operation; losing one person meant deducting one point, which affected everyone in the Central Continent Team!

Chu Xuan didn't do the bizarre thing they imagined. He just looked up at the sky and said, “In your minds, what is so-called evil?” (This guy… why does he feel so strange now? As if he’s lamenting something with emotion… Could he have unlocked the fourth stage of the Genetic Lock? Impossible! When has he ever teetered on the brink of death? This guy always puts others on the brink of death… Has he really unlocked the fourth stage?)

While Zheng Zha was still in shocked contemplation,

Cheng Xiao was the first to speak, “Evil? That refers to evil deeds, right? If you ask what an evil deed is, it’s basically something you shouldn't do…” “Philosophically speaking, so-called evil…” Chu Xuan glanced at everyone. Before he could speak, they already wore expressions of not understanding. He could only sigh, “Then let’s put it simply: evil can be seen as sin, the sin within one’s own heart. Therefore, evil is subjective; what one person considers evil, another might not. If there were no widely accepted societal morality, based on the individual alone, absolute good and evil do not exist… Zheng Zha, do you remember how the ‘Main God’ knows if we have leaked any information about the ‘Main God Space’—I mean, regarding returning to the real world.”

Zheng Zha paused and said, “It’s based on whether the memory of the leak exists in our minds… Are you suggesting that the ‘Main God’ judges a team’s good/evil degree based on the sense of guilt present in our hearts? If we brutally murdered someone, or committed some nearby wicked act, **. Or a massacre, our memories of sin will lead the ‘Main God’ to judge us as evil. If we helped someone, the satisfaction and good intentions in our hearts will lead the ‘Main God’ to judge us as good. Is that it?”

“Precisely,” Chu Xuan nodded, saying, “Since the legacy of Eastern Cultivators includes both the true essence energy of legendary righteous cultivators and the demonic energy of legendary devil cultivators, it means the ‘Main God’ cannot judge a team based simply on narrow concepts of good and evil. The ‘Main God’ cannot have a preference for good or dislike for evil; to it, good and evil are merely different alignments. Both groups belong to humanity. The ‘Main God’ will not treat us differently in horror film worlds based on the team’s morality. Our positions are equal.”

Chu Xuan frowned and continued, “Although we killed hundreds of millions of people, we were attacking from extremely far away using the Demon Cannon, so there was no sensory stimulation for us. That is the first point. The second point is that we gave ourselves a ‘reasonable explanation.’ Just as mentioned before, we were merely struggling; we were forced into it—that is our explanation. Since we couldn't see the deaths with our own eyes and had a reasonable justification, those hundreds of millions of people were just numbers, similar to how the Air Force is always the branch least likely to suffer psychological trauma in wartime; we were in a similar position. Therefore, our ‘evil’ degree is not very high, compared to the team we are about to face… Since so many conditions are known, this opposing team should have the following characteristics: First, their team number is large, or including the newcomers, they number nineteen people in total. Second, their ‘evil’ degree is high; the guilt in their hearts tells them that what they did was wrong. Third, their team evaluation is good; even though they are weaker than us, the ‘Main God’ still pits them against us, the Central Continent Team that has already defeated the Heavenly God Squad…”

“Adding these three conditions together, there is a more than sixty percent chance that this West Sea Team is the one we encountered in Starship Troopers. They should possess a similar nature. This team is likely one of those rare groups where a few strong individuals hold the majority of the weaker ones captive. These few strong individuals possess extremely high fundamental qualities, whether in terms of attributes exchanged with the ‘Main God,’ bloodline, genes, skills, etc., or the weapons and items they possess, such as high-level offensive weapons and defensive items… There is a greater than sixty percent chance that the team we are facing is of this nature.”

Zheng Zha let out a breath, about to say something, when suddenly violent fire clouds erupted in the sky. A large patch of red mist pressed in from the distant horizon, looking as if fire was descending from the heavens. When the fire clouds slowly faded and dispersed, a massive, pitch-black object was revealed: a gigantic flying structure floating high in the sky, almost the size of the city below. This was the alien mothership from War of the Worlds, the Earth strikes back—no, it should be a type of drone ship, carrying countless smaller flying warships, as well as heavy weaponry capable of annihilating a city with a single shot, and protected by shielding sufficient to withstand a nuclear attack. This was an aerial fortress that current human technology could not counter…

War of the Worlds, the Earth strikes back… had begun!