Chapter 197

Li Cheng fired a grappling hook into the side ground ahead of time and swiftly shifted right, barely avoiding the strike.

The follow-up waves of slashing attacks were entirely blocked by Hui Yu, who transformed into a shield shape.

Tribute to the legendary durable king, Hui Yu: as a liquid metal, she possessed extraordinary resistance to pure physical strikes, and still had the nerve to complain, "Feels useless to open his box—it just made him red-hot."

"Useful."

Li Cheng held up the Hui Yu shield, blocking Cliff's punch, and said quickly: "I opened his box after serious thought—most likely, in every identical cycle, I'd do the same—but Cliff just hesitated for a moment."

"You mean—"

"I have no memories from previous cycles. Neither does he."

As Li Cheng spoke, his gaze fixed on the metal tombstone Cliff had thrown earlier.

The tombstone was slanted into the ground, its front still bearing the inscription left by the Mercury Alloy Guild: 【He Rests Here】.

On the tombstone's reverse, the once-carved sinister characters—【Will This Time Succeed?】—had begun to fade.

The engraved grooves had inexplicably grown much shallower, and the rate of fading accelerated with time.

Why was this happening?

Before he could figure out the answer, Cliff smashed through the metal shield with both fists—and immediately saw a rusty cleaver slashing toward his face.

Clang!

Cliff raised his right hand and effortlessly caught the powerful slash with nothing but his arm coated in Armament Haki.

In the next instant, the four mechanical arms on Li Cheng's back, each holding a shotgun, simultaneously fired large-caliber deer slugs at Cliff's eyes.

Eyes were among the most vulnerable parts of the human body; Cliff closed his eyelids and activated both Haki and Rokushiki: Tekkai.

It was precisely this brief moment that allowed Li Cheng to fire another Bat Grappling Hook, skimming the ground as he slid behind Cliff.

With the skill cooldown complete, Li Cheng first fired a gravity energy ball at Cliff's back, then pulled out the Thunder Horn—its final use remaining—and blew it.

Though no clouds filled the sky, a thunderstorm suddenly descended upon them.

Li Cheng used the Assembled Doll effect to detach his left hand holding the horn and hurled it away.

The left hand was immediately drawn by the gravity energy ball and firmly stuck to Cliff's back.

Rolling lightning struck Cliff, especially the rusty steel nail on his head, which acted like a lightning rod, drawing arcs.

Not only that—Li Cheng pulled out the Avenger Minigun, set up the turret on the spot, and pulled the trigger to unleash a continuous belt of rounds.

Between lightning and minigun fire, Cliff had no time to deal with the black hand Li Cheng had placed on his back—literally a black hand.

He was forced to raise both palms to shield the steel nail from further lightning, maintaining Armament Haki and Rokushiki: Tekkai across his entire body, standing rigidly in place.

Anger and hatred flickered in his brows and eyes: though they differed by a full eight levels, and in close combat he could snap Li Cheng's neck like a chicken's, the latter kept pulling out bizarre skill items to forcibly stall time.

But it didn't matter—this level of thunderstorm wouldn't last long.

And the minigun's firing duration was even shorter; the barrel would overheat in moments. Wait, what the hell is that?

Li Cheng held the minigun in his right hand; from his 3D storage, his handless left arm pulled out a large commercial water-cooled screw chiller unit.

This device provided centralized refrigerated water for large mall air conditioning systems and had considerable power output.

Li Cheng activated the Assembled Doll effect and attached the chiller to his body. His blood instantly cooled drastically, acting like coolant, carrying away the intense heat accumulated in the minigun barrel.

Since the Thunder Horn did not attack its user, there was no risk of damaging the chiller unit.

Li Cheng opened his mouth and exhaled billowing steam generated by the hot-cold cycle; his Avenger Minigun, as if granted an infinite non-overheat property, roared continuously, maintaining pressure on Cliff.

This scene was too abstract; Hui Yu, hiding beyond the Thunder Horn's range, clicked her tongue and muttered, "The more I look, the more it looks like an air humidifier."

Shua!

The grass was torn aside as the bandaged man suddenly appeared, bloodstains on his shoulder—he was stunned by the sight before him, paused briefly, then shouted: "Master Pi Fu, we've finished our side. The second battery was charged to Silver Mi, and he's now restored to Lv15."

"Now lure Cliff over there; with all of us coordinating, Silver Mi can kill him."

Amid the minigun's roar, Li Cheng turned his head toward the bandaged man. "Why."

The bandaged man asked: "Huh? Why what?"

Li Cheng said: "Why didn't Silver Mi come himself?"

The minigun kept roaring; to make himself heard, the bandaged man stepped closer and replied: "Don't know. For some reason, he can't leave that mud pit—he could only send us out to search for you in different spots among the grass."

"I understand."

Li Cheng nodded, temporarily detached the chiller unit, and gently patted the bloodstained shoulder of the bandaged man with his left arm.

The next second, the mechanical arms on Li Cheng's back moved at his will—the shotgun fired directly, BLAM! —blowing off the bandaged man's skull.

Skull fragments flew; the headless bandaged man staggered backward and collapsed.

"WTF?!"

The sudden gunfire startled Hui Yu. Though she wasn't any kind of kind-hearted saint, wasn't the bandaged man an ally?

"The blood on his shoulder—it's from the Rider."

Li Cheng said calmly: the worm gene could reshape his face into any appearance recorded in the gene library; just now, when Li Cheng casually patted the bandaged man's shoulder, he recorded the blood's genetic signature.

The Rider had died once before—killed by Zhao Zijing in the previous cycle, his mission battery stolen.

At that time, the bandaged man had no traces of the Rider's blood on him; now he did. Proof it was recently acquired.

Hui Yu finally caught on: "The bandaged man secretly returned to the Rider's death scene… tasted the blood's saltiness?"

"What?!"

Even Li Cheng was stunned by Hui Yu's bizarre logic: "How did you even think of that?"

"He's wrapped in bandages like a cosplay of an Egyptian mummy. Mummies and vampires are both monsters—maybe they all like to drink blood."

Hui Yu declared solemnly: "Besides, every time a Rider has a crash and blood splatters everywhere, the comment sections cheer—proving vampires exist online."

"You're invincible."

Li Cheng rolled his eyes: "I meant—the blood on the bandaged man proves the Rider died again in the next cycle. As for evidence… you shoot."

He told Hui Yu to keep the trigger pressed.

He himself activated the Instant Lightning skill, fired out the bat claw-hook, charged into the thunder region, and stepped onto Cliff's shoulder.

Cliff sensed the situation was bad, endured being struck by the thunder, urgently canceled his Six-Style Iron Block, raised his palm and gripped Li Cheng's right ankle, crushing the ankle joint.

Unfortunately, it was still too late.

"One question — why is your head pointy?"

Li Cheng grinned, reached out and firmly gripped the iron nail on top of Cliff's head, and pulled outward with all his might.

Puchi!

The iron nail came out at once, along with skull fragments and pinkish-grey brain matter.

(End of this chapter)