Chapter 110: Narrating the Cage (Seven)

Li Cheng pulled the SCAR rifle from the void and fired at the laser array above. The copper bullets either ricocheted off the metal rods or were split cleanly in two by high-energy lasers.

Meanwhile, the gravitational coefficient of the surrounding environment continued to rise; the heaviness in every part of his body became increasingly pronounced—now, attempting to leap across the room without stepping on the floor was impossible.

"The sudden spike in gravity occurred right after the grappling gun fired and hit the distant floor tile. That means these tiles may also have gravitational sensors—must be stepped on in a specific order."

Li Cheng crouched halfway, resisting cerebral hypoxia from the high gravity, when his gaze caught a detail.

On the surface of the first row of ten floor tiles, shallow engraved numbers formed a relief—only visible clearly from a half-crouched angle.

Ten tiles, ten digits: 5170106050.

What is this? A phone number? Or some social app ID?

His oxygen-deprived, hypoxic brain struggled to think, while simultaneously fighting the intensifying gravity.

Suddenly, Li Cheng remembered something and stepped forward onto the second tile of the first row.

Seeing no sudden increase in gravity, he stepped next to the third tile of the second row, then the third tile of the third row, then the fourth tile of the first row.

5170106050—the sum of all individual digits is 25, exactly matching the number of primes between 1 and 100. Treat the hundred floor tiles as a sequence; these digits represent the count of primes in each column.

Li Cheng moved back and forth across the prime-numbered tiles in the first and third columns; fortunately, each tile was 1.5 meters wide, not too far.

When he reached tile 83, he leaped with all his strength, riding the surge of death curse from the Bone Corridor's high-pressure water cannon, and successfully crossed the final row to reach the opposite side.

At that moment, the lasers descended to less than two meters above the ground—just barely missing Li Cheng,

turning him into Li Cheng·Hero Fragment

which could be exchanged at Shangcheng once collected.

"Huh."

Li Cheng exhaled, enduring the black-out effect with gritted teeth, smirking smugly: "Ten-odd times gravity trying to trap me? Back in my training room, I endured three hundred times gravity's hellish trials."

Ignoring this self-proclaimed Vegeta-style boasting, the so-called black-out was actually a pilot's symptom: during tactical maneuvers, increased blood weight lowered blood pressure, causing blood to pool in the limbs and deprive the brain, resulting in loss of central and peripheral vision.

In other words, temporary blindness. He'd just finished the last few steps relying purely on memory.

As Li Cheng's foot touched non-tile ground, the surrounding gravity coefficient rapidly decreased, producing a seasick swaying sensation.

The rope tied to the red button before him also swayed and fluttered.

Li Cheng reached out, grabbed the button, and pressed it hard—then immediately realized his mistake.

Given his usual caution, he shouldn't have pressed it so hastily.

At the very least, he should've activated the nuclear lighter, used its light to thoroughly explore the dark area, confirm no hidden dangers, then act on the button.

The hypoxia and cerebral hypoperfusion from high gravity had clearly affected Li Cheng's brain, dulling his reactions and impairing his memory, leading to an unwise decision.

Shhh—

A foul, gusting wind suddenly blew from the darkness ahead. A strange creature opened its massive jaws toward Li Cheng.

The creature's size rivaled an elephant's, but its body was flatter, with eight pillar-thick limb structures, and its skin was pale blue and hairless.

Its eyes, mouth, and ear holes were all crammed onto the front of its face, while a thick, long rod grew from its head—the very rod to which the red button's rope was tied.

If forced to describe it, it resembled a deep-sea anglerfish—or the little stool fishermen use in the real world to hold their rods steady.

Crack!

The half-anglerfish, half-stool monster slammed its jaws shut—but bit nothing.

Li Cheng barely pulled his arm back, then drew the 170 Straight Knife from his backpack slot and slashed it hard against the monster's forehead.

Thud!

The sensation from the blade felt less like cutting flesh and more like striking a metal lump. Li Cheng's wrist throbbed from the impact; staring at the monster's forehead, which bore only a white mark, a thought flashed through his mind.

'Damn, this thing's huge and flat, with eight legs—probably a native of some high-gravity planet. No wonder its bones are so hard.'

In many fantasy novels, native creatures from high-gravity planets instantly dominate when brought to low-gravity worlds, thanks to their superior physical conditioning.

Like the American officer who stumbled onto Mars in *John Carter*, or Superman landing on Earth, or Tang San crossing into the Douluo hydrogen planet.

Cough.

His scattered thoughts faded. Li Cheng snapped back to reality, faced the monster opening its jaws again, took out the nuclear lighter from his backpack slot, set it to level four, and pressed it hard.

Boom—

A flame column, comparable to a flamethrower, blasted straight into the monster's mouth.

The creature could not withstand this scorching assault; it reeled backward several steps, writhing on the ground in pain, vomiting profusely and spewing thick mucus that expelled the fuel oil along with it.

Before Li Cheng could deliver a finishing blow, it scrambled up and fled into the darkness on all eight limbs.

This matched Li Cheng's deduction—the stool monster's attack pattern resembled ambush predators like trapdoor spiders or anglerfish; it lacked strong combat instincts and fled when faced with a strong opponent.

With the firelight illuminating the room's depths, he now saw the scene: a sloping ramp descended into the distance, ending at a horizontally mounted revolving door leading to an unknown area.

After the stool monster fled, the revolving door could no longer be opened. Among the mucus it had vomited lay a pink children's backpack.

Li Cheng pried up the backpack with his 170 Straight Knife; its material was brand-new, each zipper hung with rabbit plushies, and inside all compartments was only one 5∑ coin and a child's drawing.

The drawing style was innocent and childish: on the left, a long-haired adult woman in a bulletproof helmet, holding a machine gun, smiling broadly; on the right, a little girl, also wearing a helmet and holding a long rifle.

Behind them lay a pile of bloody, unrecognizable remains.

On the back of the drawing was a line of writing: "When Anna grows up, she wants to go to battle and fight monsters like Mommy."

"Ugh—should I praise the planet Anna comes from for being so warlike that even kids dream of the battlefield? Or should I say the designer of this Reverse Room is utterly deranged? Deliberately setting up this scene to imply the little girl got eaten by the stool monster?"

Li Cheng, feeling both physically and emotionally nauseated, tucked the backpack away but left the 5∑ coin behind.

(End of Chapter)