"You will receive an additional reward of 50 Merit Points, and each of your teammates will receive 25 Merit Points. This reward will not be affected by the upper limit for obtaining Merit Points in this world."

"The Kill Reward is currently undergoing a random draw. The Kill Reward will be randomly generated from the equipment possessed by the Contractor you killed, and then randomly distributed to someone in the team."

"No teammates are present within a three-hundred-meter radius, so the Kill Reward will be directly allocated to you."

"The drawing process is taking slightly longer. Beginning the calculation to restore the data of the fallen enemy.... Please wait patiently."

"Warning, warning, data anomaly detected! The anomaly is caused by four soul-bound pieces of equipment within the deceased enemy's data that have not yet expired!"

"Data sorting in progress.... Please wait patiently...." Just then, in the turbulent flows of time and space far in the distance, a colossal nightmare domain drifted, its blood-red conduits floating like tentacles, extending for at least several kilometers, perhaps even dozens of kilometers long. At a glance, it commanded solemnity, immensity, and awe!

Inside this domain, within the Military Rank Privilege Chamber, rested an incubation pod that appeared to be of the highest echelon.

The 'Unmodified Amniotic Fluid Tank' that Fang Senyan and the others had previously acquired already seemed to be the crystallization of technology, but compared to this incubation pod, merely judging by outward appearance, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth. The former looked like a childish doodle, while the latter seemed like the high-end crystallization resulting from the efforts of hundreds of development teams, complete with bizarre, organic, flesh-like components surrounding it—uncannily precise.

Suddenly, intense electrical arcs erupted around the incubation pod. However, instead of conveying a feeling of sharp slaughter and destruction that electricity usually inspires, these arcs imbued observers with a peculiar sense of vibrant vitality!

Strictly speaking, this phenomenon was entirely normal. As is widely known, the origin of carbon-based life is inseparable from organic matter like amino acids. Earth, supposedly originating from the Big Bang, started as a scorching sphere of molten rock, meaning organic matter could not have existed initially.

So, where did the first organic matter come from? This question is essentially a pursuit of the origin of life itself. In 1953, an American graduate student named Miller conducted a famous simulation experiment... one designed to test the chemical evolution process of life's origins by simulating how lightning and thunder in the reducing atmosphere of primordial Earth could generate organic matter (especially amino acids).

This experiment proved that under specific conditions, lightning could synthesize inorganic matter into organic compounds. Therefore, it suggested that while lightning possesses an aspect of destructive thunderous dominance, in its other, hidden facet, it actually nurtures life.

The electrical discharges appearing around the incubation pod at this moment were maximizing the "life-giving" aspect inherent in lightning!

Suddenly, a synthesized electronic voice sounded:

"Temporal and spatial fault turbulence is frequent around the target world. The success probability of executing Plan One is no more than 30%! Based on the owner's prior settings, activation of Plan Two is required."

"Warning, warning! Executing Plan Two will cause the modulation pod to experience energy leakage, explosion, electrical whipping, and other phenomena due to overload. This instrument will ultimately lose all functionality. Please maintain a distance of at least twenty meters. Countdown initiated: Ten, nine, eight......."

"Plan Two: Clone Project officially initiated. Activate the Soul Vortex Wormhole!!"

Amidst the fierce crackling sound of intense current, the red indicator light atop the incubation pod began to flash rapidly! Immediately following, thick, massive white currents boiled outwards, violently whipping the surroundings!

"Ah!! No! Impossible, how could you possess the power of Annihilation...."

With a series of crackles and pops, the incubation pod finally belched thick black smoke, and the rampant overflowing energy vanished.

A man violently pushed open the lid of the pod and sat up, his facial muscles contorting in a silent scream, eyes tightly shut, his chest heaving like a bellows about to burst. But quickly, he calmed down, slowly opening his eyes:

"....It seems I was indeed taken down by that Sailor. That guy is a genuine pervert."

"What a shame. The spatio-temporal turbulence near that Doomsday 2012 hell-world was too severe, so I could only manage a soul traversal back. My Tomb of the Queen of Blades thus overloaded and was utterly destroyed. Damn it, despicable! Even the weapon spirit of Gungnir was annihilated. I will kill that bastard!!!"

Loki stood up, placing a hand on the edge of the incubation tank. Instantly, a series of prompts appeared:

Tomb of the Queen of Blades (Damaged) Grade: Legendary Item. Hint: This is an incubation tank once used by Queen Kerrigan. It possesses immense power, but regrettably, that power is currently draining away, and only Her Majesty the Queen can recharge it. Description: It can save you once, perhaps twice, but it absolutely cannot save you a third, fourth, or fifth time. Therefore, please escape this damned space as quickly as possible. Cherish your life, cease fighting. Description: Even the damaged Tomb of the Queen of Blades is priceless. It can be used as ordinary salvage to exchange for a large number of Universal Points, or it can be gifted to the Space in exchange for substantial Potential Points. You can also permanently deposit it in the Space to receive astonishing compensation in Merit Points.

"Heh heh, that fellow named Sailor must have been lusting after my Gungnir, haha. Too bad my soul is immortal, so all soul-bound equipment should, in essence, still be anchored and thus would not be included in the opponent's loot draw.... Hmmm, let me think. Besides those four soul-bound items, I truly don't have anything else of significant value on me. Ah, wait! There's that thing Steel File asked me to place in the team warehouse! I hadn't managed to put it in yet—could he have drawn that one...? Warning, warning, data anomaly detected! The anomaly is caused by four soul-bound pieces of equipment within the deceased enemy's data that have not yet expired!"

"Data sorting in progress.... Please wait patiently."

"Data sorting complete. Awakener 1018, the soul of the Forged One you killed still survives, therefore the soul effects of his equipment remain active. The soul binding will take effect, so your drawing can proceed, but it must be conducted after excluding the four soul-bound items."

"As compensation, the drawing scope will be expanded to include your entire inventory, and the evaluation of eligible items will not be lower than S-rank or Legendary grade."

"Drawing in progress......."

"Awakener 1018, you have drawn the Legendary Rare Item: Pandora's Box. Use with caution."

Pandora's Box: A rarely seen item, mysterious and bizarre to the extreme. Legend says it can fulfill any wish, but it might also unleash infinite calamity. Before opening Pandora's Box, a sacrifice can be performed. The sacrifice may influence the final outcome of opening the box....

Seeing this series of prompts, Fang Senyan was not overly surprised.

He had long anticipated that Loki would not be so easily killed. If he could be dispatched so simply, how could he have ascended to the rank of Major General? Such a monstrous individual must possess his own unique life-saving trump cards.

Managing to shatter him once in this world, forcing him to escape with only his soul, meant that his physical body was likely a clone pre-stored in the Space. This essentially meant his physical combat strength had regressed by one or two worlds. Meanwhile, Fang Senyan himself was advancing rapidly. With this contrast—one advancing while the other retreated—their power levels had drawn closer. Thus, the next time they met, Fang Senyan should possess the strength for a head-on confrontation.

Pandora's Box, newly acquired, was a rhomboid chest, about fifty centimeters tall. It defied gravity, resting suspended in the air with its lower sharp vertex pointing towards the ground. The box was predominantly an antique bronze color, bearing the weight of history, but on every facet, there was a large, bowl-sized transparent oval gemstone. The gem types were Lapis Lazuli, Red Molybdenite, Ghost Crystal, and Trithium Crystal—all objects known for extremely potent mana amplification.

Winding characters, filled with solemnity, adorned the box's surface, yet mortals could not decipher their meaning, as they were reportedly Divine Script. Around Pandora's Box, illusions would occasionally flicker—priestesses in white robes, blooming flowers, streaks of thunder, ivory-colored marble—all rendered with startling clarity and lifelike detail.

The offerings for the divine chest were deposited through miniature black holes that periodically appeared above it. According to the prompts, the owner could open Pandora's Box at any time to gamble on their fortune. For some unknown reason, ever since Fang Senyan obtained Pandora's Box, he felt its activity accelerate more than ever before. Even the faceted gemstones surrounding the box grew warm and hot, radiating a soft light that, when combined, could almost rival the daylight.

Fang Senyan, injured and exhausted, dared not linger long near this water outlet, fearful that Steel File's group might track him down. Having exerted all his ultimate moves, he was barely alive and lacked the ability to fight another three hundred rounds with them. Once the water flow subsided, he retreated and hid back into the underground passage, waiting for his comrades to arrive for extraction.