Chapter 146

Amidst the storm of lightning, Li Cheng extended his left palm and firmly gripped the doll's skull. Its eternally unchanging cold eyes now seemed to flicker with shock.

Boom!

Li Cheng brought his single arm down hard, slamming the doll's head into the ground. The liquid metal armor forged from gray rain sprouted rough spikes beneath his boots, piercing the ice to provide firm traction.

Leaning forward, lowering his center of gravity, bending his thighs, Li Cheng began sprinting across the ice, pressing the doll's skull downward, driving its occiput into the ice like the prow of an icebreaker, plowing through layer after layer of frozen crust.

Worse still, the Thunder Horn's generated storm was highly intelligent, moving in sync with Li Cheng. Whenever ice blades or frost swords formed nearby, lightning serpents and thunder vipers instantly shattered them and pierced downward through the ice, continuing to strike the doll itself.

The doll writhed violently, attempting to counterattack; eternal frost spread along their point of contact, rapidly coating the liquid metal in a layer of white frost.

Li Cheng and Gray Rain immediately cut their losses, deliberately severing the frozen, hardened portion of Li Cheng's left arm.

The Thunder Horn automatically targeted all entities except its user; lightning struck the falling metal fragments, melting them.

The melted lumps of liquid metal rolled away across the ice as spherical forms, grumbling loudly.

"This kid's really Lv9?"

Bai Lang's expression twisted as he watched from afar. Typically, a superhuman of this level, limited by finite spiritual energy, couldn't sustain many pieces of equipment or skills, and usually relied on modern gunpowder weapons as their primary attack—firing from a distance.

Close-quarters combat demanded extreme physical, psychological, and martial skill—and offered a poor cost-to-effect ratio.

Moreover, close combat increased injury risk—all medical items and skills in the Killing Field game were astronomically expensive; black-market merchants in the Slums dared sell a crude wound-healing bandage for two or three hundred game coins.

"Probably."

Su Jie nodded with a complex expression; he was certain that when they last met, Master Pi Fu hadn't possessed this ability. "We should go over."

He activated his rocket pack and flew forward; Bai Lang and Andre followed behind.

Boom!

The path ahead was blocked by a tall building. Li Cheng seized the doll's skull and smashed it into the wall. After repeated blows, half the doll's head had been ground flat, exposing masses of cotton stuffing, its body covered in scorch marks from lightning.

In his right hand, Li Cheng held a polished, gleaming silver 170 Straight Blade, slashing from upper right to lower left into the doll's shoulder.

Clang—

The razor-sharp blade, which had cut through everything thus far, struck something solid and lodged itself within the doll's chest cavity, unable to advance further.

Solid ice.

At some point, the doll had grown countless ice columns beneath its skin, each as strong as alloy material, protecting its heart and spine.

Additionally, the chilling aura clinging to these ice columns rapidly expanded, forming a shell of ice over the doll's body and freezing the 170 Straight Blade in place, preventing its withdrawal.

Beneath the ice shell, the doll's face trembled violently, attempting to shift into its next form.

Death Curse Current!

Li Cheng activated the Bone Corridor; his wristguards spat forth black water like naval cannons.

The doll instinctively sensed danger, immediately halting its transformation and releasing more frost to freeze the black water.

The black water solidified into thick ice, forming a coffin-like shell that sealed the doll inside, connected to Li Cheng's palm via the blade as a bridge.

If one had to describe it, it resembled a candied hawthorn.

Swish—

Li Cheng shifted his foot sideways, twisting his waist sharply, gripping the blade's hilt with both hands, and slammed the coffin-like black ice against the wall, shattering the brickwork.

Behind the wall was a candy shop, its glass display cases filled with assorted candies and chocolates. The Thunder Horn struck indiscriminately, melting the sweets and filling the room with sweet fragrance.

Li Cheng fired his bat hook into the ceiling, gaining temporary acceleration; as he slid forward, he swung the blade again, using the ice mass to smash through the opposite wall and burst out.

He then activated the temporary skill he had acquired in his last mission: 【Feather Glide】, briefly gliding through the air to extend his hang time.

Useless.

Inside the ice coffin, the doll began shifting forms once more. Each transformation repaired previous injuries and grew stronger. Then, it would effortlessly crush these—

Wait, what's that?

Inside the black ice coffin, the reflection showed the scene behind the shop's wall: a red telephone booth, unmistakably familiar, symbolizing absolute safety.

The spherical liquid metal Li Cheng had previously scattered had, during their struggle, circled around to the street behind the shop and cooperatively opened the telephone booth's door.

As long as no more than two humans entered, the booth was an absolutely safe zone within the entire park. Rule Nine of the Security Code stated that if a visitor's skin began sprouting hair, they could be brought inside the booth to remove the contamination caused by the Princess Doll.

Like Don Quixote charging a windmill with his lance, Li Cheng shoved the blade, along with the ice coffin atop it, into the telephone booth.

Only one step remained.

The sheath-like liquid metal encasing the blade split apart, allowing the rusted great sword hidden within to slide free—now, no obstacle remained.

No!

For the first time, the doll's eternally frozen, impassive face twisted with intense emotion—fear, regret, hatred, and resentment flashed across it.

But none of it could stop Li Cheng's hand, slow yet resolute, from closing the telephone booth's door, sealing the black ice coffin—and the doll within it.

Hiss—hiss—

Like air leaking out, the doll rapidly shrank, withered, and turned into a patched, hastily stitched cloth doll.

It's over.

Li Cheng exhaled a stream of frigid air, stepped back half a pace, and stared solemnly at the telephone booth. Only after confirming the cloth doll inside no longer moved did he lower his nuclear lighter from the fourth setting.

"Whoa, so cold! I'm outta here!"

Gray Rain withdrew from armor form, retracted the liquid metal from the ground and the telephone booth, and hurriedly teleported back into his electronic pet egg, glancing back at the horizon as he left.

About two minutes remained until sunset; with the doll's regression into cloth form, the air raid sirens echoing in the sky fell silent, and the fantasy castle dissolved on its own.

【Routine Mission "Night of Terror in the Amusement Park" Completed】

The system notification chimed, declaring the mission fully concluded.

Bai Lang, hearing the system broadcast, changed expression slightly, gave a distant wave, and sprinted urgently toward the park exit.

Andre did the same: after nodding to Su Jie and Li Cheng and muttering "Thank you," he left the park in the opposite direction from Bai Lang, not wanting to stay a second longer.

Clearly, they both believed Li Cheng's earlier story about the Special Affairs Bureau deploying agents to surround this place in the real world—and refused to linger.

"Master Pi Fu, thank you this time, Special Affairs Bureau"

Su Jie had only just opened his mouth to say something when Li Cheng cut him off. "I didn't fight that puppet to the death for your sake or for the heads in your hands, so save the pleasantries. Besides, I've always belonged to a brother unit of the Special Affairs Bureau—Dragon Concealment Military Base—so there's no need for any recruitment pitch. We'll meet again on the road."

What the hell kind of 'Dragon Concealment Military Base' is that? Don't tell me you still remember the Chu Xuan character setting from the last mission?!

Under Su Jie's utterly pained expression, Li Cheng pulled open the phone booth door, shattered the black ice coffin, took out the cloth puppet, turned around, and left in a洒脱 manner.

(End of chapter)