There are only two kinds of people who can disguise their identities right under a Game Master’s nose. Besides top-tier hackers, the only ones left are...

"The Network Supervision Division under the Computer Network and Information Security Administration Center of the United Government."

The Beastman said in a low voice. The skin on his body writhed, morphing into a suit similar in style to the two GMs’ outfits.

The difference was that he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, and his entire face was unnervingly smooth, with no facial features at all.

"Network supervision..."

The two GMs exchanged looks. Zenith Skytop Company’s Home project had already become the second reality for tens of billions of people; the company itself had become too big to fail.

The United Government naturally had to regulate it, and the two GMs also knew there had always been network supervisors embedded in the company.

The problem was, Skytop Company had always been very supportive of the United Government. At every annual meeting the company executives would go on stage and passionately sing "Entering a New Era," "A New World," and other such progressive songs.

If he really was from network supervision, he could just have the GMs cooperate with his work—there would be no need to hide his identity, right?

"Interesting."

Sunset Melting Gold braced both feet on a crack in the rock. His severed left arm had not recovered; with his right hand he hooked a protruding rock and hung himself upside down from the dome. Lost in thought, he said, "The GMs coming here proves Skytop Company has already noticed me.

Network supervision coming here proves the state apparatus has taken an interest in this incident.

Yet network supervision didn’t notify Skytop Company, and instead sent someone to sneak in and lie low. That indirectly proves it wasn’t Skytop Company who reported the anomaly up to network supervision.

More likely, network supervision learned of the abnormal situation through other channels and judged that the development of events had already exceeded what Skytop Company was capable of handling."

He hooked the rock wall using only his feet, tapped his own shoulder with the broken long spear in his right hand, and analyzed, "So here’s the question: what are these ’other channels’ network supervision used?

My teammates and I have been very cautious. Even in head-on fights with pro players, we never left any loose ends that could be traced.

The biggest—or rather, the only—flaw you might have exploited is... Zak.

He failed to leave Game Lobby 018, or else was captured shortly after he left it and then divulged key information.

After network supervision learned of this, they bypassed Skytop Company’s authority and directly tracked the Teleportation Gate records of the two game players we kidnapped, Garrosh and Yawei.

Following those logs, they ended up here."

"..."

The member from network supervision remained in Silence. Although Sunset Melting Gold hadn’t guessed everything, he was about seventy to eighty percent on the mark.

In reality, the network supervision department had received a report from an RLG pro team. They had run through the so‑called Compound No. 5 synthesis route inside a virtual program, which was why they took this matter so seriously.

"According to the current laws of the Earth United Government and the internal regulations for handling ’Undefined Threats,’ until your identity is verified, you will be regarded as an ’Unrated Risk Source.’ Please cease all resistance immediately and cooperate with our investigation."

As the network supervisor spoke, whooshing sounds of air being cleaved echoed from the depths of the cave.

One, two... more than thirty network supervision operatives flew over at high speed from the distance.

The Electronic Eye in Sunset Melting Gold’s eye sockets trembled at high frequency, evaluating the possible battle situation.

The top professional players in Home World had combat power roughly equivalent to Level 30–Level 35 under the Battlefield System.

This group of network supervision hackers, while not on par with pro players in terms of neural reflexes, experience, or mechanics, made up for it by being able to invoke a portion of GM permissions, and they had the advantage in numbers.

If it came down to a real fight, his win rate would be only... 0.3%.

"Smeagol."

Sunset Melting Gold suddenly spoke up. The two GMs didn’t understand and reflexively asked, "What?"

"Smeagol."

Sunset Melting Gold repeated, "An ordinary Hobbit—kind, timid, full of curiosity and a desire to explore. Until one day, he went boating with a companion, discovered and was then bewitched by the Supreme Magic Ring. Over five hundred years, his body gradually deformed, and he often made a ’Gollum’ sound."

The more the two GMs and the network supervisor listened, the more wrong it sounded; they struck without hesitation.

The former drew two miniature sci‑fi pocket Handguns called [Little Cricket], while the latter reached into the void and yanked out an old refrigerator, then flung the fridge door open.

[Item Name: "Ice Cool Xiamen" Refrigerator]

[Type: Industrial Product (Consumption Type)]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Special Effect: Ice Age. Consumes coolant to fire a directional ultra‑cold ray that freezes the target down to −230°C. If the target is a living being, it will halt nearly all vital functions except for thought, until the ice naturally melts]

[Consumption: Consumes 0.7% coolant per second, which cannot be replenished by any means]

[Cooling Time: None]

[Use Conditions: None]

[Note: Current remaining coolant: 64.3%]

[Note: "Froze to death." Officer Wang opened the freezer in the corner of the suspect’s room, glanced inside, and said.]

The refrigerator had a red energy-efficiency label with the number ⑥ stuck in the corner. For home appliances, the lower the efficiency Level the better: Level One is the most energy-saving, Level Two is relatively power-saving, Levels Four and Five are power guzzlers, basically phased out.

This Level ⑥ energy consumption... it might as well own shares in the nearby power plant.

Vmm!

A white extreme-cold ray shot straight at Sunset Melting Gold. His expression didn’t change; instead of retreating he advanced, stamping on the rock wall to dive downward while backhandedly sweeping across the space in front of him.

[Cyber Martial Arts·Maze Sandbox]

Sandbox, a computer term, refers to an isolated environment provided for a running program.

Manifested in the outside world, that is... spatial isolation.

The space in front of Sunset Melting Gold suddenly split apart, turning into maze-like strips and squares.

The Perfect Level refrigerator’s freezing ray had a directional Attribute; it automatically sped through the maze, searching for an exit. But the fraction of a second this delay cost was already enough for Sunset Melting Gold to raise his right hand and snap his fingers.

Snap!

Gollum, who had been hiding in a crack in the rock wall, was hit by the spatial division effect, and his whole body shattered into dozens of cubes.

Spatial division wasn’t lethal; Gollum could still breathe and his heart was still beating, but the Supreme Magic Ring he held had already slipped from his finger and fallen into the palm of Sunset Melting Gold.

"One Ring to rule them all; One Ring to find them; One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them..."

As a geek shut‑in who often played tabletop campaigns with friends, Sunset Melting Gold couldn’t be more familiar with this verse.

He flicked his eyes at the two shocked GMs, the sweating cybersurveillance officer, and the agents flying in from afar,

then, without hesitation, slid the Supreme Magic Ring onto his index finger.

The next instant, he vanished from where he’d been. The extreme-cold ray, having lost its target, burst out of the maze, wandered for a brief moment, then could only blast into the cavern dome, frosting a vast swath of rock with ice and snow.

"My precious! Someone stole my precious!"

Having lost both the Ring and his ability to move, Gollum collapsed on the ground and shouted in grief and rage.

The GMs didn’t even look at him. One turned his head and asked the cybersurveillance agent, "Where’s Sunset Melting Gold?!"

"...He turned invisible."

The cybersurveillance agent wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. In the original work, the Supreme Magic Ring’s functions included but were not limited to life extension, invisibility, mind-reading, and thought control.

It’s just that its three main bearers—Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo—were all pure-hearted Hobbits, which made the Supreme Magic Ring look like a maggot, pretty much useless.

With the Perfect concealment granted by the Ring plus Sunset Melting Gold’s own datafication ability, all traces—heat, smell, Spiritual Energy fluctuations, and so on—were directly erased. He slipped away right in front of everyone.

One GM hesitated and asked, "What do we do now? Should we notify our superiors?"

"No need. The upper management of Homeland Company and our own leaders are watching the livestream right now."

The cybersurveillance agent shook his head. "The good news is that Sunset Melting Gold and the other hackers don’t seem to have the ability to open a Teleportation Gate on their own; they have to rely on Players in the Home project.

Currently, only one Player in the world has logged into The Lord of the Rings: Gollum server. Find him, and we’ll find Sunset Melting Gold.

As for the other hackers..."

The cybersurveillance agent pressed his wristwatch, popping up a 3D projection. The image showed a squad of fully armed Special Forces soldiers riding in an attack helicopter, flying low over a concrete-and-steel forest of high-rise buildings, where barely any lights were visible.

"Th-this... this is the real world?"

The two GMs gasped and stammered.

The cybersurveillance agent didn’t answer. The attack helicopter hovered near an apartment building. A Special Forces soldier wearing a Power Exoskeleton leaped out, jumped into the corridor, and kicked open the blast door with one blow,

then thudded through a narrow living room devoid of any signs of Life, heading straight for the game pod in the corner of the room.

The game pod was angular, shaped like a metal coffin. One of the Special Forces soldiers installed some device onto the pod’s data interface,

then yanked the pod door open and hauled out a thin, frail girl,

ignoring her dazed confusion and complete lack of understanding of what was going on, and shouted directly at her: "Xu *ying, static-root identity code DGH130047X, Home ID [Yawei].

We are the United Government Special Affairs Administration Mobile Task Force, ordered to take control of your Home game account.

Please come with us."

"I... what?"

Yawei had no idea what was happening and was hoisted up by the shoulders by the Special Forces soldiers and sent onto the attack helicopter.

Since acid rain was falling from the sky, the helicopter pilot even considerately increased rotor speed to scatter the raindrops for Yawei.

As for Yawei’s game pod, in her place, a Special Forces soldier with a full beard and a hard, steely expression that screamed "elite", took off his helmet, removed his Power Exoskeleton, took a deep breath, and lay down in the pod.

The brain-computer interface connected automatically. In the few brief seconds as his consciousness linked up, the account was overridden, and his body was about to fall asleep,

the bearded Special Forces soldier—who had long since studied all the data on Yawei—was already saying in a syrupy, coquettish voice, "Tombstone Sister, is Brother Blade about to win?"