Chapter 188: Betrayal

"The Retrospection Chamber," Midnight Howl widened his eyes, "they want to travel back in time?"

In some urban legends, the Retrospection Chamber, located deep within the Killing Ground, allows one to traverse time and return to the past, altering history and remedying regrets in life.

The earliest source of this urban legend is lost to history; no one knows its approximate location, let alone obtains a map.

All players treat it as mere rumor, like the air inside a bag of Lay's potato chips.

"Quiet, quiet—this is critical."

Li Cheng raised his hand to cut off Midnight Howl's excited babble and continued listening to the next recording.

"We can't verify the map's authenticity, but faced with the real threat of the curse, we can only take the gamble."

From the voice recorder came Bi Huang's bitter voice, "The guild members sold every unused asset, poured all the money into equipment and gear, and even took out a massive bank loan."

Fully armed, we departed from Flame Bay, boarded a Federal Bureau of Investigation ferry to the farthest known boundary, then switched to aerial transport and plunged into the endless wilderness.

Our team was thoroughly prepared; the guild leader, 【Silver/Mithril】, was a psychic adept who mastered both Psychic Prophecy and Psychic Enchantment abilities.

He could perceive the future; under his leadership, we killed every threat in our path and avoided enemies we couldn't handle, until we entered this patch of grass. The nightmare began then.

Bi Huang's voice grew agonized, "We couldn't escape—no matter what method we tried, we couldn't escape. Spatial teleportation failed; burned grass regenerated within seconds; the scenery ahead was always identical."

Worse still, the Killing Ground's scheduled script missions, which should have been issued regularly, never arrived.

The Killing Ground never makes mistakes; the delayed script mission proves only one thing—this is the Retrospection Chamber, or at least part of it. We are trapped within a temporal current."

"Within this temporal current, the Corpse Web Curse is indeed suppressed—but what's the difference between being unable to escape and hell?"

"Cliff went mad. As the guild's melee adept, he screamed nonsense like 'The leader betrayed you,' ambushed and killed two companions, severely wounded the leader, then fled alone into the grass."

"We couldn't find him, but the madman seemed to have fused with the grass itself—appearing and vanishing without warning, each ambush successful."

"The surviving companions grew fewer; I was wounded and separated from the others. I don't know how long I'll live—if you—whether you're a guildmate or a later player who found this recorder—"

"Please go to Credit Suisse, withdraw the remaining eight million dollars from account 1321******945, and donate it to a charity. The password is the date of the French Revolution. You may keep a portion as reward."

The recording ended, leaving only repetitive static.

The people present exchanged glances; Midnight Howl hesitated, "That's it?"

"That's it."

Zhao Zijing clenched her lips tightly; Bi Huang's recording was grim—the Mercury Alloy Guild's ten adepts: one gone mad, one dead, the remaining eight likely met the same fate.

If the recording was true, then we too might never escape, ending up either mad or dead.

"The only good news is we have the mission battery and radar map device. The Killing Ground never issues a mission guaranteed to kill; if Mercury Alloy couldn't do it, maybe we can."

Zhao Zijing said calmly—this speech was meant to comfort Midnight Howl beside her, or perhaps herself.

Wait, where's Master Pi Fu?

Zhao Zijing turned her head and saw Li Cheng squatting on the ground, fiddling with a calculator.

"What are you doing?"

"Calculating money," Li Cheng said matter-of-factly. "Bi Huang left eight million dollars. I'll donate it for him—keeping 15% for myself isn't too much, right?

I plan to spend this money on two bowls of soy milk—drink one, pour out the other—and use the rest to buy Mengya electric toothbrush, latex pillow, neck massage device, silk summer cooling blanket, men's underwear, weight-loss pills, skincare, shampoo, lutein."

Holy shit, I blurted out—did you take all this money and not buy a house or a car, just all these ad products?

Zhao Zijing's facial muscles twitched; just as she was about to speak, a familiar cry rang out: "Help!"

Catherine's voice.

Zhao Zijing's expression shifted; she immediately unleashed her psychic force, parting the grass at the twelve o'clock direction like Moses dividing the sea.

Catherine sprinted toward them, multiple scrapes on her face and hands, lips cracked, expression terrified—as if fleeing something.

She saw Li Cheng and the others—her face lit up with ecstatic relief—then froze instantly. An invisible force from deep within the grass severed her waist in an instant.

Catherine's lower half staggered forward a few steps; her upper half fell to the ground, slow yet swift, her eyes still filled with bewildered confusion.

Everything happened too suddenly; Zhao Zijing felt every hair on her body stand on end, instinctively releasing psychic force to form a barrier around herself.

Li Cheng moved faster than her—he drew a rusted cleaver from thin air, activated the 【Lightning Flash】 skill, electric arcs flickering through his hair, muscles exploding with power under micro-current stimulation.

Step!

Li Cheng shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, leaping over the depression and charging into the twelve o'clock grass.

The invisible force did not resist Li Cheng—it seized Catherine's two severed body parts and retreated swiftly into the deep grass.

Think you can run?

Li Cheng immediately activated the title skill 【Dead Man's Gambit】's effect, boosting the random probability of an event, and hurled the rusted cleaver hard in a random direction.

The door-sized blade, empowered by the absurdly mystical laws of probability, sliced through air and grass leaves—*clang! *—striking its target.

A muffled cry of pain came from the grass; the wounded unknown entity fled rapidly with Catherine's remains, vanishing from sight.

"."

Li Cheng stared at the gradually regrowing tall grass and raised an eyebrow.

This area has self-repairing properties; blood splattered on the ground was instantly absorbed by the soil—no trail to follow.

"What happened?"

From the six o'clock direction came Chi Hong Che Shou's confused voice—he had also breached the grass barrier and reached the depression, accompanied by Bandage Man, Mendoza, and… Catherine?

"Raise your hands!!"

Midnight Howl's expression changed drastically; he raised an M249 squad automatic weapon, its muzzle pointed at Catherine.

The British girl, terrified and bewildered, instinctively raised both hands, her body rigid.

"Calm down, what's going on?" Chi Hong Che Shou was baffled. "She's been with me the whole time."

(End of Chapter)