Chapter 157: Crash Landing

No need to distinguish friend from foe, no need to worry about civilian casualties—every moving object in sight was a valid target.

With the Instant Thunder skill activated, Li Cheng's hair and fingertips crackled with blue arcs of electricity; the thick, heavy, rusted cleaver in his hand swept through the yokai like a lawnmower, reaping their lives.

Before the ash of the last shikigami—blown into burnt paper scraps—had even dispersed, the blade was already slicing into the neck and chest of the next.

The four mechanical arms of the single-soldier exoskeleton on his back rotated freely with multiple degrees of freedom, controlling the shotgun to fire from every conceivable angle—either blasting yokai skulls apart, or punching clean through the Mind Cult believers who tried to shoot back.

Auto-aim isn't a pipe dream; a small headshot lock-on barely counts as cheating.

On the other side of the hall, Hui Yu laughed as she crushed the skulls of two Flying Head Barbarians with her bare hands. Facing an ape demon nearly three meters tall charging at her with a spiked club, she stamped the ground with her foot, leapt into the air, and her body rapidly contracted mid-flight, transforming into a spear that pierced the ape demon's heart and burst out through its back.

Before she even landed, Hui Yu transformed again, extending dense sea-urchin-like spikes from her body; with her eight-hundred-plus-kilogram weight, she crushed another swath of shikigami underfoot.

A drone hovering outside the building's windows faithfully recorded every frame of the battle in one unbroken shot.

"Aaaah, help!"

"Run! Go tell the Cult Leader!"

Watching their companions fall one by one, and assailed by the thick, blood-choking stench filling the venue, the Mind Cult believers' will to fight finally crumbled; many turned and fled the hall.

Some ran up the stairs to inform the so-called Cult Leader; others fought desperately to squeeze into the elevator bay, shoving each other, even firing their guns, all for a chance to escape.

Once these people ran, the battle line collapsed completely. The scattered shikigami were slaughtered cleanly by Li Cheng and Hui Yu. The entire hall was a wreck—nothing left but severed limbs and three Mind Cult believers who had suffered heavy burden and couldn't move.

Li Cheng, who had deactivated the Instant Thunder skill, still had thin smoke rising from his head and body, his whole frame giving off the faint smell of ozone produced by high-voltage static electricity ionizing the air.

He casually stripped off Song Canhui's bloodstained jacket, pulled out his phone from the pocket, brought up the photo of Jiang Wanyong's wife, Jiang Shaoxi, and showed it to one of the Mind Cult believers. "Where is this woman?"

"Go to hell, unbeliever—"

Bang!

The mechanical arm on his back squeezed the shotgun trigger; the pellets struck this believer's face, smashing it into a mangled pulp, and his body swayed and toppled backward.

Li Cheng didn't spare the corpse a glance, turned, walked to the next believer, and continued his questioning: "Where is this woman?"

"I-I don't know."

Bang!

The gunshot rang out again, and another body hit the floor.

The third believer, his legs broken, on the verge of collapse, burst into tears without Li Cheng needing to threaten him: "The Goddess is in a room on the east side of the seventy-second floor."

"Very good."

Li Cheng moved the gun barrel away, removed his vambrace, and summoned the White Bone Corridor.

Inventory space was limited—only twenty slots. A large amount of miscellaneous gear stockpiled for various scenarios of the script mission was piled inside the White Bone Corridor: blasting explosives, detonators, cash from various countries, gold and precious metals, gasoline drums, strongly corrosive liquids, inflatable rubber boats, emergency medical kits, and even a refrigerator connected to a diesel generator, stuffed full of food and drinks.

Li Cheng took out an IED—a simple explosive device (a roadside bomb, timed to detonate via a Casio digital watch)—pressed its adhesive side onto the marble floor, and said with a smile to the Mind Cult believer: "I won't kill you, but this bomb has a delayed fuse. You have one minute to leave the hall."

Saying that, ignoring the man's stunned expression, Li Cheng dismissed the White Bone Corridor and walked with Hui Yu into the stairwell, heading upward.

"..."

The Mind Cult believer, both legs broken, froze for a few seconds; only when the IED's urgent, death-knell beeping snapped him back did he frantically reach to pry the bomb off.

One side of the IED was glued down and couldn't be pulled off by hand. He had no choice but to give up, turn around, drag his two broken legs, and crawl with agonizing difficulty through the hall littered with severed limbs and the unclosed eyes of dead companions, gasping violently, making for the hall's main doors.

Fifteen meters. Ten meters. Five meters.

Just as he was about to push open the hall doors in a surge of desperate hope, the IED detonated with a roar; raging flames blasted the doors apart, and the shockwave shattered the outer glass of several floors.

A shower of glass shards and human limbs flew out the windows, raining down onto the plaza below like a storm. The fireball was visible from several streets away.

At that same moment, Liu Chengzhe and his two companions, who had watched through the building's internal CCTV exactly what had happened downstairs, were plunged into utter shock.

"That's not Song Canhui."

Liu Chengzhe stared fixedly at the bloody scene on the monitor, like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

"Over sixty shikigami... all of them killed."

The Mind Cult's Cult Leader was equally dazed, muttering to himself uncontrollably. Although the slaughtered shikigami were only mid- and low-level yokai like kappa, red oni, and ape demons, they were still demons far stronger than ordinary humans.

"Cult Leader, sir, this is bad!"

The conference room door was smashed open from outside; the believer who burst in couldn't be bothered with etiquette, gasping for breath as he shouted: "Someone's fighting their way up! We have to evacuate now!"

"Helicopter!" Liu Chengzhe shot up from his chair. Taking the elevator at a time like this was suicide. "There's a helicopter on the seventy-fifth floor at the top of the building. We leave by air."

He charged out of the room first, calling the helicopter crew on the rooftop from his phone, telling them to prepare for immediate takeoff.

The Cult Leader, supported by a cluster of believers, followed behind, not forgetting to shout back: "Bring the Goddess too!"

As for Prosecutor Jin, he had no idea what was going on and passively followed the crowd, sprinting up the stairwell.

By the time the group reached the seventy-second floor, some hyper-active Mind Cult believers had already arrived pushing a wheelchair.

Jiang Shaoxi sat upright in the wheelchair, sunk in a deep sleep. There were no wounds on her body; she wore an ornate red-and-white miko outfit, and her face was even made up. She didn't look like a kidnapped hostage at all—she really did look like the so-called Goddess.

The group reached the rooftop. The helicopter crew on the landing pad had finished their emergency preparations; the rotor blades slowly began to spin, whipping up a gale.

"Take off! Take off!"

Under Liu Chengzhe's hoarse, desperate urging, the helicopter gradually lifted off, pulling away from the rooftop.

At that moment, Li Cheng and Hui Yu—who had cut through the Mind Cult zealots throwing their lives away to block their path—pushed open the iron door to the rooftop and frowned slightly at the helicopter pulling away.

"Can't catch us now, can you? Hahahaha."

The intense adrenaline rush of having narrowly escaped death made Liu Chengzhe briefly forget his usual habit of keeping his emotions off his face. He gripped the cabin handle tightly and laughed out loud at the two figures on the rooftop—he'd even forgotten to buckle his seatbelt.

Then, the laughter died in his throat.

Li Cheng raised his right arm; beneath his palm, a viciously styled motorcycle materialized out of thin air.

It bore the signature black-and-red livery of the Demon Scientists Alliance guild, a streamlined body, a horizontally opposed eight-cylinder engine, blood-red turn signals, and bat-wing-shaped air intakes.

Li Cheng swung onto the bike, pressed a button on the handlebar, and the engine let out a rolling roar like a long-dormant beast; the indicator lights on the body lit up one by one, and the exhaust pipes spat out a blast of sulfurous, scorching hot air.

Hui Yu stood at the edge of the rooftop, liquefied her arm, and reshaped it into a metal ramp bridging the concrete floor and the helipad. She then nodded at Li Cheng, signaling he could go.

Bat-wing heavy armored motorcycle—advance six.

Li Cheng clutched the electronic pet egg in his hand, leaned his body forward, and settled into the motorcycle's curves.

Rubber tires screeched violently against the ground, and at the instant of maximum speed, the restraints released as it shot forward like an electric bolt.

Hum—

The motorcycle raced along the metal ramp, leaping out of the building. Li Cheng pressed the pet egg button, sealing Grey Rain inside the egg, then rode the heavy-duty motorcycle as it traced an arc through the air, slamming straight into another skyscraper dozens of meters away.

Liu Chengzhe and others on the helicopter stared in stunned silence; Prosecutor Jin blurted out in disbelief: "Is he trying to kill himself?"

The expected scene of the motorcycle crashing into the wall, exploding, and plummeting never came—Li Cheng yanked the handlebars sharply upward, aligning the bike parallel to the skyscraper's exterior wall.

Then, the metal blades on both sides of the intake vents opened automatically, like bat wings, radiating demonic energy.

【Item Name: Bat-Wing Heavy Motorcycle】

【Type: Vehicle】

【Quality: Premium Item】

【Effect: Soul Vehicle. Consumes massive fuel to activate demonic magic, enabling the vehicle to travel at high speed over solid or liquid surfaces in near-anti-gravity fashion】

【Consumption: 1 liter of No. 0 diesel containing no less than 7% human blood】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Condition: None】

【Note: This product is a sincere creation of the Demon Scientists Alliance. Buy quality goods, visit Demon Sci Alliance. Super Brand Day Sale: Free gifts with every purchase. Dear, go home and check—your village has been blessed with a succubus!】

【Note: Do not believe rumors on player forums or other platforms about the Demon Sci Alliance's after-sales quality. Don't spread lies, don't believe lies. We at Demon Sci Alliance never abuse customers due to our size, nor do we ever tear up after-sales agreements and refuse compensation.】

【Note: "You talk like such a biker. I hate bikers the most." The Tiger King cursed, then slaughtered the City of Moon God's biker sect.】

Ignoring the three absurd notes, this premium vehicle's effect truly justified its 2800-game-coin price.

With demonic energy empowered, the heavy motorcycle's tires clung firmly to the skyscraper's glass facade, its exhaust spewing black smoke as the roaring engine drove the vehicle hurtling along the hundred-meter-high wall.

Along its path, a distinct sulfur trail remained.

The distance between the motorcycle and the helicopter shrank rapidly; at the instant it cleared an entire building, Li Cheng stored the vehicle in his backpack slot and activated the temporary skill—Replica of the Bone Corridor Wings—to extend his aerial glide time.

Wind howled past his ears; the city's neon lights spread beneath him. On the helicopter, Liu Chengzhe and the others gaped in disbelief, unable to comprehend what they saw.

Clang!

At the peak of his glide, Li Cheng fired a bat hook, embedding it into the helicopter's wheeled landing gear. His body swung upward, rising to the helicopter's exterior.

Through the glass, he saw Jiang Shaoxi, wife of Jiang Wanyong, in the corner. Oddly, Jiang Shaoxi had been pregnant for months before her disappearance, nearing childbirth—yet now her abdomen showed no bulge.

Regardless, saving lives came first. Li Cheng reached out, yanked the cabin door violently off its hinges, and it tumbled downward, crashing into the Hanjiang with a towering splash.

"Don't come near me!"

Liu Chengzhe's voice shrieked in terror; the entire aircraft trembled slightly as two Cult of Mind followers frantically bit their tongues, spitting blood onto paper cutouts to summon spirit familiars.

Spirit familiars exist between physical and spiritual forms; too large a spirit could not be summoned inside the helicopter. Thus, two orbs of ghostly fire emerged.

The pale-blue ghost flames shot fireballs outward, forming two straight lines. Li Cheng sidestepped the flames, reached out, and seized the unconscious Jiang Shaoxi.

The chaos severely disrupted the pilot's control; the helicopter swayed wildly in midair, on the verge of capsizing.

Facing this life-or-death crisis, Liu Chengzhe, who prided himself on controlling Seoul's ever-changing situation, collapsed in terror—yet the Cult of Mind's master, the Japanese old man, his eyes flashed with ruthless resolve, pulling two red paper cutouts from his pocket.

The color difference might indicate different spirits; Prosecutor Jin had no time to ponder—he opened his side cabin door and shoved the unsuspecting cult master out with brutal speed.

The swift, merciless motion was more like that of some unnamed Augusto Pinochet than a prosecutor.

The surprised master instinctively grabbed the nearest object—Liu Chengzhe's ankle—and both men tumbled from the aircraft, plummeting five hundred meters toward the Hanjiang.

"Master!"

The two fanatics' eyes bulged with rage; they leapt up, their ghost flames losing aim, firing wild fireballs that accidentally pierced the windshield and struck the pilot in the head.

Killing the pilot, they also incinerated the cockpit panel.

Alarm lights flashed rapidly; alarms blared throughout the cabin.

The helicopter's tilt angle grew ever steeper, spiraling uncontrollably toward the Hanjiang below.

Li Cheng glanced briefly at Prosecutor Jin, whose face bore a look of stoic resignation, then casually yanked him out of the helicopter.

Left hand gripping Jiang Shaoxi, right hand gripping the prosecutor, Li Cheng stabilized himself midair using the temporary skill 【Winged Glide】, then re-summoned the heavy motorcycle.

Clamping the vehicle between his legs, he activated the Soul Vehicle effect, riding along the exterior wall of a riverside building to dissipate gravitational potential energy before landing smoothly.

At that moment, the Chengzhe Group helicopter, now out of control, crashed into the Hanjiang. After a brief delay, a brilliant fireball erupted from the water's surface.

Passing vehicles and pedestrians were drawn to the crash, pulling out phones to photograph and record.

Li Cheng casually tossed the dazed prosecutor aside, pulled Jiang Shaoxi close, and gently patted her cheeks.

She appeared to have taken sedatives—she remained unconscious, even when he slapped harder.

Li Cheng released Grey Rain again; just as the two debated whether to administer a mild electric shock to Jiang Shaoxi,

After breathing the night air for a long while, Jiang Shaoxi finally woke, vomiting violently onto the roadside grass (likely from the helicopter's motion), then lifted her head, eyes unfocused, staring at Li Cheng: "Husband?"