Chapter 189: The Divine

After a brief exchange, the crimson rider produced evidence—the first button on his collar was in fact a sports camera, clearly recording all footage, proving that Catherine had indeed been beside him just now.

"The Catherine we saw had body heat and a shadow—she was definitely alive."

Midnight Howl's eyes widened in horror as he whispered, "The recording said this place is affected by temporal currents—could it be that both Catherines are real, just existing in different time flows?"

No one could answer his question. Zhao Zijing lowered her face and said solemnly, "High Grass?"

"I think it's more like 'Triangle of Fear.'" Li Cheng said casually.

'Triangle of Fear' is a 2009 British-Australian psychological thriller about an endless cycle of death.

'High Grass' is a 2019 American horror film adapted from the famous novel by Shi Difen King.

The original novel is classic Shi Difen King cosmic horror; the film version added an infinite-loop premise similar to 'Triangle of Fear.'

The existence of two Catherines was too bizarre. Zhao Zijing kept her head lowered, her eyes scanning everywhere, beginning to suspect whether another version of herself lurked somewhere in this grass.

Zhao Zijing had originally belonged to the Special Affairs Bureau, having undergone its full training and ideological education, later assigned to the Global Supernatural Alliance to resolve anomalies worldwide.

She lacked nothing in experience, ability, willpower, or character.

She believed she would never fall into the boring philosophical trap of "Which one of me is real?" If a second version of herself truly existed, she would step forward and cooperate to find a way out of this grassland.

Since no counterpart had appeared, that proved either no counterpart existed—or the grassland held some other mechanism.

Li Cheng, however, took it lightly and smiled: "If this really is a 'Triangle of Fear' scenario, it's not without advantages—at least we won't run out of food."

"You mean kill yourself and eat your own corpse?"

The crimson rider couldn't help retorting: "Aren't you afraid of prion disease?"

"What are you thinking? I'm a vegetarian."

Li Cheng sneered, then fixed his gaze on the Pokémon Bellossom beside the crimson rider's foot, his eyes gleaming strangely as he muttered, "Smells bad, tastes delicious."

The Bellossom, terrified by his stare, scrambled behind the crimson rider and trembled uncontrollably.

"Enough, stop fooling around."

Interrupted like this, Zhao Zijing couldn't maintain her solemnity. She sighed: "At least we've gained a few pieces of intelligence."

"One: Staying here until the 48-hour mission window ends and exiting the killing ground is impossible. The Mercury Alloy Guild has already proven that."

"The only way out is to complete the mission and place the battery at the designated location."

"Two: Clifford, the close-combat specialist from the Mercury Alloy Guild, has gone mad and slaughtered his teammates. If he's still alive, he's likely somewhere in this grassland. We must move quickly."

In the Global Supernatural Alliance's database, Clifford has been officially classified as MIA (Missing in Action).

Information about him is scarce; all that's known is he possesses a Level 20 physical enhancement ability.

Zhao Zijing had no desire to fight in this eerie grassland. After confirming she could not store the 【Bismuth Yellow】 corpse or the metal stele in her backpack,

she immediately ordered everyone onto the armored vehicle, detouring around the pit, continuing toward the direction indicated by the radar map.

"The battery's remaining charge has dropped again."

Midnight Howl nervously patted the mission battery—the original 80% charge had now fallen below 70%, and it was uncertain whether it would still function.

"By the way, Master Pi Fu."

Catherine hesitated for a long while, then raised her arm timidly: "Could you pull out your prophetic drawings one more time? Since 'I' have already been cut in half once, maybe the new drawings will show something different?"

"Yes."

The cooldown for the 【Diary of Self-Death】 was not long. Li Cheng took out seven sheets of paper and had everyone take one for another round of readings.

The results matched exactly the previous ones: the crimson rider vomited his organs, Midnight Howl drowned in water, Catherine was still cut in half (the girl was nearly in tears).

The only difference was Li Cheng—he stood beside Grey Rain, and both their bodies were simultaneously erased from a large portion.

"Hmm."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin, thought carefully, then pulled out his digital pet egg and released Grey Rain.

Grey Rain, weighing over eight hundred kilograms, suddenly appeared in the cabin, causing the rear compartment to sink.

Mendoza, the bandaged man, and other ordinary people grabbed the handrails to avoid being thrown off their seats.

At this moment, Grey Rain wore a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops, sitting cross-legged and happily scrolling through her phone, looking utterly lazy and content.

"Now I'm fully prepared, brimming with positive energy."

"Come back, Battle Arena—my most cherished belief."

"Cai Xukun, Chen Linong, Fan Chengcheng, Huang Minghao, Lin Yanjun, Zhu Zhengting, NinePercent."

Her phone blared an inexplicable TikTok audio. After a moment, she realized she was no longer inside the pet egg, looked up at Li Cheng, and asked, "Uh… is this still China?"

"We're already in the killing ground."

Li Cheng pulled Grey Rain to sit beside him and introduced her to the others: "Let me introduce you—this heavyweight is my partner. She holds multiple identities: battle-hardened veteran, interstellar pirate, multiverse-level escapee."

"Don't be fooled by her laziness now—her true combat power rivals mine."

This statement had too many absurd points. The crimson rider, out of politeness, said nothing—but inside, he was furiously mocking:

Heavyweight? Nothing else stood out, but her weight was definitely heavyweight—the whole vehicle shook under her. Truly, sisters united, snapping steel bars.

Given Li Cheng's bizarre behavior, the rider didn't believe a word of the veteran, pirate, or multiverse escapee claims—he assumed Li Cheng was just blowing smoke as usual.

"Ah, be modest, be modest."

Grey Rain waved her hand cheerfully, thoroughly enjoying the praise.

Li Cheng had originally planned to summon Grey Rain only in extreme danger.

But since her image had already appeared in the prophetic drawings, he no longer needed to worry so much.

"Uh…"

Midnight Howl hesitated, then asked: "Aren't there no internet signals here? How are you able to scroll TikTok?"

"I downloaded them in advance."

Grey Rain looked utterly reasonable: "This phone has about 1TB storage—I downloaded over 800GB of short videos, enough for months.

Originally, there was some huge 'root' file taking up space—I wanted to delete it to make room for more videos, but the phone kept crashing. I don't know why."

As long as you're happy.

Everyone, including Midnight Howler, wore constipation-stricken expressions as they looked at Li Cheng and Grey Rain sitting together, and could only sigh that they truly had the fortune of three lifetimes to be stuck with two divine teammates.

The armored vehicle drove forward continuously, and every so often, the players in the rear compartment would take turns sitting at the observation seat, vigilantly watching the tall grass around them.

Unexpectedly, the armored vehicle did not come under any attack. After a two-hour drive, Zhao Zijing's excited voice came from the driver's seat up front, "We're here, get out!"

The group filed out of the vehicle one after another, and saw the terrain ahead suddenly open up—no tall grass grew here, just like at the pit where 【Bismuth Yellow】's corpse lay.

On the open ground nearly three hundred meters in diameter, a Y-shaped metal pipe stood alone, exposed.

The blue arrow of the radar map device pointed straight at the left side of the Y-shaped pipe.

(End of chapter)