Chapter 135: Pea

The food shop didn't take up much floor space, and inside it was a mess—juice and drinks spilled everywhere, and the toppled, askew shelves held only three kinds of food: hot dogs, sandwiches, and rice balls, and not many of them at that.

Li Cheng muttered as he rummaged through the food, "Tourist Code Rule Seven: you can hand the food in the shop to a doll whose eyes aren't hollowed out, to get away."

Andre stood by the door, calmly scanning the surroundings. "Are you sure this will work?"

"It should."

Li Cheng casually picked up a rice ball wrapped in oil paper, and the familiar notification 【This item cannot be stored in the backpack slot】 popped up before his eyes.

Which also meant the food in the shop really did have something off about it.

Well, that much was obvious without the system prompt. Through the outer oil paper, he could clearly see a cloudy, lifeless human eyeball stuffed inside the rice ball.

The rest of the food was the same—each one stuffed, more or less, with human parts like eyeballs or fingers.

"I really like one of Hannibal's lines: brother, you smell delicious."

Li Cheng quipped, then piled all the food together.

Whoosh—

A wisp of black smoke drifted over, and as it dispersed, Byron appeared at the shop's doorway.

Because he had appeared out of nowhere, to win their trust he raised both hands to show he meant no harm.

Andre rested his hand lightly on his sword hilt. "How did you get here?"

"That kid from the Special Affairs Bureau was too naive—he didn't notice the woman beside him was already two months pregnant, so the phone booth lost its protective effect."

Byron's reply was concise, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

Some snakes have a groove on the roof of the mouth at the base of the tongue called the Jacobson's organ; every time a snake flicks its tongue, it sends the particles drifting in the air into that groove, where the olfactory center distinguishes the chemicals within.

As a member of the Demon Scientists Alliance guild, he had long ago spent ten evil souls' fragments to buy and learn the Serpent-Wielding Art from the guild.

Just now, it was also through the Serpent-Wielding Art that he had smelled the pheromones on Ding Shaoxia, concluded she was pregnant, and immediately chose to leave, letting Su Jie and the others fend for themselves.

Everyone has to be responsible for their own choices; the Killing Ground won't adjust mission difficulty based on whether a player is good or evil.

"They're coming."

Byron turned to look at the end of the road. A massive horde of dolls was swaying and surging in from every direction, their plush soles pounding the ground in a uniform rustling.

They weren't especially fast, but they were absurdly strong—a casual shove could easily bend a metal streetlamp blocking their path.

Andre stepped slightly aside to let Byron into the shop, then took a Bible, a crucifix, and grenades out of his backpack slot and set them on the counter.

"For the wicked shall be cut off, and the deceitful shall be plucked out"

He murmured the passage from the scripture, drew over twenty short swords from the void, and slotted them into the ring of grooves around his belt. His expression didn't show panic at being surrounded; instead the corners of his mouth turned up, the muscles of his face tightening as he fought to suppress the excitement before the killing feast.

Byron made his own preparations, guzzling down an unidentified pale-blue liquid like a man dying of thirst—this was an internal non-sale item of the Demon Scientists Alliance, squeezed from the souls of cloned humans, able to directly restore Spirit Power and Sanity.

"Tourist Code Rule Five and Rule Nine mention that there are crocodiles in Pirate Harbor, and that they can target out-of-control dolls whose eyes aren't hollowed out."

Byron wiped the soul liquid from the corner of his mouth; his eyes also unconsciously glowed with a pale-blue light. "Didn't you see them on the way here?"

"You mean those?"

Andre gripped his straight sword and pointed ahead—mixed into the doll army were a dozen or so crocodile dolls, with narrow, long snouts, their overall look strongly resembling the crocodile protagonist from the classic mobile game Where's My Water? —a title under the copyright-obsessed Disney as well.

Byron cursed in Arabic. The appearance of the crocodile dolls meant yet another rule had been broken, which was not a good thing no matter how you looked at it.

Twenty meters, ten meters, five meters. The doll army advanced steadily, reaching the front of the food shop.

Andre slapped the counter, and the Bible and other items on it were flung high into the air. He precisely caught two pear-shaped grenades (stamped with the Vatican coat of arms), pulled the pins with his pinkies, and hurled them forward.

Boom!

The grenades detonated abruptly, bursting with dazzling light, accompanied by a faint, indistinct "Hallelujah~" of chanting; the blast wave directly shattered the six innermost dolls and blasted the surrounding ones apart.

Andre tossed the Bible into the air; the hardcover book disassembled itself mid-flight, its pages fluttering down like leaves in the wind.

【Item Name: Zhichi Scripture】 【Type: Ritual Tool】

【Quality: Fine】

【Effect: Within Arm's Reach. Causes the scripture to scatter within a twenty-meter-diameter range; for three minutes, every two seconds, the user may teleport to the location of any page. After use, the user cannot leave this range until the effect ends or is manually deactivated】

【Cost: 200 Spirit Power】

【Cooldown: 20 minutes】

【Equip Requirement: Possess any religious faith】

【Note: After the effect ends, the pages will reassemble on their own. The pages can be destroyed, and destroyed pages cannot be used again】

【Note: Is a priest's death a promotion or unemployment?】

Andre braced one hand on the counter, vaulted over it, drew the straight sword at his waist, and charged into the monster horde, launching a fierce, swift killing performance.

Thrusts, elbow strikes, knee strikes, straight kicks—as if he were a cold, emotionless machine, every part of his body performing a killing function.

"Therefore when thou art judged, the wicked shall not stand, and the sinners in the congregation of the righteous shall not stand!"

He shouted the Bible proverb at the top of his lungs, aimed his straight sword at the dolls' heads, drove it deep into the skulls, and twisted to pulp the brains—to prevent the extraordinarily tenacious dolls from getting back up.

A gust of wind howled behind him; Andre activated the scripture's effect, instantly teleporting ten meters away, dodging the dolls' attack, and continued shouting proverbs as he killed without pause.

Byron, beside him, also sprang into action, unleashing a skill called 【Medusa's Gaze of Serpent-Binding】, summoning over a dozen slender green snakes from the sleeves of his black robe; each snake's slit pupils glowed like lanterns.

The dolls swept by the light rapidly lost the color of their plush fur, petrifying and hardening. Their movements grew sluggish and dull, until they stopped moving entirely.

The petrification effect also stripped away their bulletproof properties; Byron drew his gun and fired, and the dolls' heads burst apart on cue.

Occasionally a doll would try to break through the line and rush inside, at which point Li Cheng would pick up a piece of food and accurately toss it into its arms.

The doll that got the food would first freeze, then slowly and forcefully stuff it into the mouth area of its head-covering, oblivious to everything outside.

The whole feeding process took quite a bit of time, serving as a kind of control effect.

The problem was, there were too many dolls. The three of them tried hard to clear them out, but still couldn't prevent the food shop from being surrounded layer upon layer.

The air-raid siren kept blaring without pause; Andre's left arm and right leg had been struck by the dolls and broken on the spot. The pale-blue glow in Byron's eyes had reached its peak—he couldn't drink any more soul reagent; one more sip and it would saturate and crystallize out.

Fifty portions of food were left, but the air-raid siren showed no sign of stopping. And since the food could only be eaten in-store—turning to ash the moment it left the shop—the three of them were effectively trapped here, like frogs being boiled in warm water.

Unless—

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched. A certain possibility occurred to him, and he shouted, "Cover me!"

Then he scooped up all the remaining food and leaped to the back of the shop.

With one fewer person helping to hold the line, the pressure on Andre and Bai Long suddenly spiked.

The dolls' attacks were plain and unadorned—great force behind heavy blows. A single palm strike could easily smash through a reinforced concrete wall.

This kid isn't going to sell us out, is he?!

Bai Long felt an ominous premonition rise in his heart. He didn't even have the leisure to look back, barely managing to hold the line.

"No fine food, no pricey food—crunchy snacks all day, every hour!"

From the back of the shop came Li Cheng's muttering and the sound of him gulping food. A moment later he stood up again, belly bulging, and charged out of the grocery store at the forefront.

What is he going to do?!

Under the stunned gazes of Andre and Bai Long, Li Cheng plunged straight into the monster pile, took a deep breath, and—like a Peashooter—spat out three compressed rice balls?

The dolls hit by the rice balls all stopped in place, letting him pass right by them.

Li Cheng used gestures and eye contact to signal "follow me," continuously spitting rice balls on one side while gripping his 170mm straight knife and hacking away on the other, clearing a path.