Chapter 123: Gunfight

She shouldn't have been given electronic devices.

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched violently; amid Huiyu's pleading, he took away her phone and tablet, "First, copy these five Chinese lessons five times each! Every character must include its pinyin!"

Huiyu protested, "I can understand spoken language—that's enough. Why do I need to learn reading and writing?"

"Without reading and writing, you won't even understand appliance manuals or safety signs." Li Cheng tucked the phone and tablet under his armpit and slammed the door shut with a bang.

The effect of Translation Bean is limited to enabling the user to comprehend a language's listening and speaking—it does not include reading or writing.

Previously, when Huiyu saw "He who does not work shall not eat" on TV, she voluntarily requested to take on household chores within her capacity; after much hesitation, Li Cheng agreed.

Then he saw her putting the computer tower, laptop, game console, and other devices into the washing machine to scrub and rinse—she couldn't read the manuals.

"Illiteracy is unacceptable; abducting a woman with intellectual disabilities is a serious crime."

Li Cheng muttered to himself as he returned to his room, opened the surveillance feed on his computer, and monitored Huiyu's progress through the miniature cameras.

(After moving out, Li Cheng installed numerous miniature cameras throughout his home to prevent burglars or organizations like the Special Affairs Bureau from spying—these were only connected to the internal LAN. Every time he left, he placed strands of hair in the door and window latches to detect intruders.)

In the study, Huiyu initially copied the lessons diligently, but within three minutes grew impatient, frequently glancing at the clock, then her eyes rolled, and she stood up pretending to vomit.

"Puke—"

Her chest and abdomen writhed, and slowly she vomited out an e-ink e-reader.

"???"

On the other end of the monitor, Li Cheng was baffled—he had bought dozens of e-readers to optimize his multi-brain-domain learning method, storing them all in the bookshelf's hidden compartments. How had Huiyu found them?

"Hehehe."

Huiyu giggled softly, opened the e-reader, tapped open one of its books, and activated audiobook mode.

"Fleeting Romance? A stunning beauty gives birth to twenty-one children and runs away with them; four ruthless CEOs chase after her, shouting, 'Darling, be careful!'"

The e-reader's AI voice recited the text; Li Cheng's eye twitched repeatedly. Twenty-one pregnancies? What the hell? Have female-oriented novels evolved into this now?

"In the storm, the twenty-one children got separated and scattered across the world; each possessed extraordinary talent, surpassing adults in physique and intellect by age three. After returning to the stunning beauty's side, they launched a campaign called the Great Expedition. But unknown to them, the four ruthless CEOs would never easily relinquish custody of their children."

Fuck me, so that's what twenty-one pregnancies means—gene originals, right? The stunning beauty is a yellow weasel with ten thousand years of cultivation, right? And the four ruthless CEOs are named Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch, right?

Li Cheng spat a mouthful of salt soda onto his computer screen and quickly wiped it clean with paper—he only had fifty-some game coins left; if he broke the computer, he'd have to buy a new one.

"I was told mechanical lifeforms are all cool, edgy, and badass. Why is mine different?"

He muttered, about to head to the study and catch her red-handed, when his phone vibrated—a message from Han Letian: "Buddy, it's time to go!"

Almost forgot about that.

Li Cheng slapped his forehead—it was class activity day; they'd planned to go out.

Called a class activity, but it wasn't formal—Shao Wangshu had organized it, paid for it herself, under the pretense of supporting her family's business, taking everyone to a newly opened high-end toy and entertainment center to play live-action CS and arcade games.

Gossip is human nature; after spending time together, classmates had all learned Shao Wangshu's family was obscenely rich—comparable to the Suzuki Sonoko from Detective Conan—so no one felt guilty about free food and drinks, and everyone agreed.

Li Cheng originally didn't want to join, but since moving out, he'd become increasingly busy; if he kept this up, he'd draw attention. Before resolving his gene hunger, it was better to appear ordinary.

He checked his watch—half an hour remained until the meeting. He immediately went to the study to instruct Huiyu on basic rules: don't answer the door if someone knocked, don't answer the phone, don't stick fingers into outlets, etc.

After giving the instructions, he left the house, went downstairs, and rode his bike to the meeting spot.

————The toy and entertainment center had just opened; its large live-action CS arena had already prepared all the gear for the students.

The guns looked identical to real firearms, didn't fire bullets, but emitted realistic gunfire sounds and transmitted bullet trajectories back to the server via internal inertial measurement units for calculation.

A fatal hit would register as "dead"; non-fatal hits to limbs like calves or arms allowed the player to keep moving, but the corresponding parts of their camouflage uniforms would vibrate violently to simulate injury.

The group entered the arena filled with shipping containers and wooden walls, five per team. Without military training, the students had no professional skills; soon, the arena erupted in widespread gunfire, screams, and curses.

"Remember, no Russian."

"Friendly fire! Stop shooting, it's our guy!"

"Alright, take them out!"

At his current level, this live-action CS posed no challenge. Li Cheng slacked off, betrayed a few teammates, and finally hid alone in a small room, bored enough to listen to the gunfire outside and simulate the battlefield situation in his mind.

Boom!

The wooden door was shoved open from outside; Shao Wangshu, hair disheveled, staggered in holding a rifle, standing on one leg. She instinctively raised her weapon, then lowered it when she recognized Li Cheng.

"Hit in the leg?"

Li Cheng glanced at her one-legged stance; she nodded tearfully.

"Hurry and clear the area! I still need to get home to watch SpaceX's Starship fourth launch."

"Starship? Hail the legendary heat-shield martyr, hail the legendary attitude-control martyr grid fins, hail the legendary fuel-valve clogger."

Outside in the hallway, the usual bickering of Zhan Xinyu and Evans echoed—the two constantly annoyed each other, but in this random-team setting, they'd shown excellent combat discipline, quickly eliminating other teams and now entering the cleanup phase.

Zhan Xinyu pressed against the wall; before entering, he slid the rifle stock up and back over his shoulder, keeping the muzzle always aimed at the corner. Upon entering, he swiftly returned the stock to its original position.

This was because the doorframe's width was narrower than the rifle's length; if the muzzle pointed downward, he couldn't fire instantly upon entry. With this posture, he maintained sightline and kept the muzzle always forward.

Zhan Xinyu entered first; Evans followed like a butterfly flitting through flowers, his rifle aimed at the opposite corner, providing cover. His movements were clean and precise.

It wasn't surprising that Zhan Xinyu, the Iron Blood Wolf, mastered indoor CQB tactics.

As a self-proclaimed American enthusiast, Evans followed the principle "Everyone has a gun, chaos won't happen"; during a trip to Xia Weiyi with his parents, he took a firearms shooting course to prepare early for immigration to the U. S.

Only the peculiar could be so multi-talented. The two coordinated efficiently, clearing rooms rapidly, soon approaching the room where Li Cheng hid.

"What do we do? Run?" Shao Wangshu, leaning against the wall, asked anxiously. Li Cheng remained nonchalant, about to utter some lazy remark, when suddenly a system alert chimed in his ear.

Another mission.

His expression hardened slightly; his finger snapped the trigger, firing the instant Zhan Xinyu and Evans entered the room, hitting both and ending the battle.

【Mission Type: Regular Mission (Team)】

【Mission Name: Night of Terror at the Amusement Park】