Chapter 198: Iron Nail

"Aaaahhh!"

Cliff let out a piercing scream, flailing his arms wildly overhead, but Li Cheng easily dodged back thanks to the recoil of the 【Death Curse Stream】 water cannon.

Li Cheng leaped backward away from Cliff, and as he left, he retracted the bat claw stuck to Cliff's left hand.

The iron nail was in hand.

【Item Name: Slave Master's Nail】

【Type: Worn Item】

【Quality: Fine】

【Effect: Soul Seizure. Driven into the skull of a target possessing a central brain and advanced intellect, it forces submission and compels obedience to commanded orders.】

【Cost: None】

【Cooldown: 31 days】

【Requirement: Intelligence attribute ≥ 15 points】

【Note: After generations of enslavement by mind flayers, the gnomes finally broke free from their control with the aid of the evil god Lagdu. But prolonged servitude permanently altered their nature, making them gloomy, pessimistic, irritable—and like their former masters, they now hunted slaves everywhere.】

【Note: "Big bonus! 100 free pulls on login!" said the owner of an 18th-century Atlantic slave ship at a slave auction.】

Cliff, stripped of the nail, collapsed weakly to the ground, eyes rolling back, unconscious.

Li Cheng remained silent, first downing a mini life potion to heal his shattered ankle, then attempting to store the 【Slave Master's Nail】 in his backpack slot.

Indeed, it went in.

The arena had detailed rules governing player item ownership; it was impossible for "Player A to tap Player B's shoulder and instantly loot all of B's equipped gear into his own backpack."

The fact that it could be directly stored in Li Cheng's backpack proved the Slave Master's Nail was not Cliff's item.

"So that's how it is."

Li Cheng exhaled slowly, picked up the metal tombstone from the ground as Gray Rain stared in confusion.

The inscription on the back of the tombstone was nearly faded away; Li Cheng extended his mantis-arm bone blade and carved a new line.

【Will this one succeed?】

He made no deliberate effort to guide the strokes—just sketched casually—but the characters perfectly aligned with the previous writing.

Gray Rain widened her eyes in shock, unable to comprehend what had happened.

"We should go."

Li Cheng returned the metal tombstone to its original position, planting it beside the 【Bismuth Yellow】 corpse, then called to Gray Rain, mounted the bat-wing motorcycle, and sped toward the Y-shaped pipe.

In this thicket labyrinth formed by temporal currents, only the system-issued radar compass could be trusted for direction.

Moments later, Li Cheng and Gray Rain returned to the clearing where the Y-shaped pipe lay.

On the pipe's left side, two circular blue slots meant for batteries were empty.

On the pipe's right side, the gap continued to leak golden temporal currents, like a wall of sighs.

Gray Rain frowned, puzzled: "We don't have any batteries. Why come back here?"

"Wait a moment."

Li Cheng said calmly, "Someone will come."

After a dozen seconds, the thicket parted—Zhao Zijing appeared, holding the radar compass.

Her face showed no wrinkles, proving she came from the next cycle.

"Master Pi Fu, you're here?"

The new Zhao Zijing exhaled in relief: "We've charged the second tube with 60% battery power to Silver. He's restored to Lv15."

With his help, we should be able to kill Cliff. Let's go."

Li Cheng stood still, smiling: "Call my cycle Cycle A, and yours Cycle B.

When the Zhao Zijing from Cycle A—who has been affected by the temporal current—finds Cycle B, the Zhao Zijing in Cycle B should say one of these lines:

'So this is what you look like without makeup.'

'Zijing, why didn't you tell me you had a sister?'

'Time, slow down—don't let you grow old anymore.'

Am I right?"

This barrage of lines had too many absurdities; Zhao Zijing from Cycle B twitched at the corner of her eye, her expression screaming: "So you know how ridiculous you are? Damn, your self-analysis is spot-on."

"I won't go with you, Zhao Zijing of Cycle B,"

Li Cheng smiled, "or rather—Silver's tool."

"Huh?" Gray Rain raised an eyebrow, then after a moment, realized: "Wait—what do you mean, tool?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Zhao Zijing took a deep breath: "Time is limited. Cliff could appear at any moment."

"Since stepping into this thicket, I've had many questions."

Li Cheng interrupted Zhao Zijing: "If killing everyone = escaping the cycle,

killing most people = restarting the cycle,

then why is Cliff the only one still alive in the Mercury Alloy Guild?

Everyone else—Bismuth Yellow, Silver—they're all long-dead mummies."

"I don't know," Zhao Zijing said grimly. "Perhaps the Mercury Alloy Guild's cycle alternates with ours, stretching their cycle time so long that their corpses have all mummified."

"That explanation has merit, but I lean toward another: The Mercury Alloy Guild is anchored to the final scene.

They're like the brick walls of a village. Cracks run through them.

Our cycle is the 'One Child, Best Child' propaganda poster on that wall—each time, it's washed away and repainted.

But the brick wall itself remains permanently fixed."

For example, this one."

Li Cheng took out the recording pen that belonged to Bismuth Yellow, "This pen is in my hand, and I absolutely will not put it back.

Every loop, the new player squad can always find it."

To verify his own conjecture, Li Cheng pressed the recording pen's button and, with a solemn expression, began to sing, "Shaolin kung fu is good, really good. Shaolin kung fu is awesome, really awesome."

After singing two off-key lines, Li Cheng stopped recording and shrugged, saying, "Based on my understanding of myself, in every loop I would do this.

The recording doesn't contain these two lines of song, and combined with my test on Cliff,

it proves that every loop, everything about the mercury alloy gets reset back to its initial state. Including Cliff's and the secret silver's own memories.

The only thing that won't be reset is the trace amount of electricity accumulated inside the secret silver's body.

"." Zhao Zijing fell silent.

Hui Yu, meanwhile, looked thoughtful — no wonder Li Cheng had previously wanted to carve words on the metal tombstone.

The tombstone was something from the previous loop, permanently fixed, so the words Li Cheng carved also possessed, to a certain extent, a solidified quality, able to withstand the loop's baptism and be preserved into the next loop.

"There's still one question — why did the Zhao Zijing from the previous loop — let's call her C-Zhao Zijing for now,

after reviving the secret silver, take her own telekinesis arrow and blow her own head off?"

Li Cheng said casually, "According to the secret silver's explanation, C-Zhao Zijing couldn't accept the ending where she was bound to die, so she ended it herself.

But that doesn't quite hold up. Wouldn't the correct approach be to cooperate together, take out Cliff, and then everyone end themselves to break free of the loop?

Unless, she was given an order — after using the battery to revive the secret silver, immediately kill herself, to prevent us from getting answers out of her.

And the one who gave C-Zhao Zijing that order was the secret silver from the previous B-loop, which had absorbed two batteries' worth of electricity and recovered to Lv15 strength."

(End of chapter)