Chapter 204: Succubus

Calculating the time, other players had probably all completed their tasks by now; the alley was packed with pedestrians, bustling and lively.

As the GOC representative Bai Qi had said, the rewards for this large-scale tremor mission were especially generous.

All players who completed the mission wore smiles on their faces, radiating the joy of harvest, brimming with energy.

Externally, every bar, nightclub, and KTV in the alley was packed to capacity, even the roadside sewers reeked of spilled champagne.

Li Cheng and Hui Yu pushed through the throng and arrived at the headquarters of the Evil Science Alliance.

The Evil Science Alliance's headquarters was a black-and-red building with a grotesque, terrifying design—resembling both a twisted demon horn and some kind of spacecraft.

The first-floor lobby was unusually spacious and silent, with only a few household robots, over a meter tall and shaped like pepper grinders, sweeping, mopping, and dusting with brooms, mops, and feather dusters.

Besides cleaning tools, the robots carried rocket launchers, mini rotary machine guns, chainsword blades, laser guns, and electromagnetic cannons—firepower rivaling that of a modern main battle tank company.

"You must be Master Pi Fu?"

A clear voice came from the front desk; a distinctive young woman walked over gracefully.

She had goat horns on her head, bat-like wings on her back, purple eyes, white hair, a beautiful face, dark red skin, and wore a Renaissance-era basque corset with a leather short skirt.

She exuded a lethal charm far beyond her appearance, making one yearn to fall at her feet right then and there.

No amount of goblin or kobold biological modification could produce such an effect.

Without doubt, she was a genuine, authentic succubus.

And unlike modern succubi with slender tails, she resembled the traditional, more bestial kind.

Her lower legs curved backward into goat hooves; her arms, thighs, and chest were covered in thick, curly brown wool; her tail was short and rounded like a goat's.

"It's me. What should I call you?"

Li Cheng held his breath, rubbed his palms together, and had no intention of shaking her hand.

What joke is this? She's a high-level succubus—who knows what would happen if he shook her hand? He might get charmed into drooling like a fool.

"Just call me Hazelnut."

The succubus smiled, tilting her head, eyes sultry, striking the perfect balance between cute and sexy, "Please follow me—the chairman is waiting upstairs."

She walked with feline steps toward the elevator.

Behind her, Hui Yu had no brain organ and was immune to charm; she simply stared at Hazelnut's back with a lecherous gaze, muttering under her breath: "Damn, this perfect? I can't even design a face and body like this in the game."

Even Li Cheng struggled to resist; to counter her all-pervading allure, he quickly activated his Multi-Thread Mind Domain Method and Immersive Roleplay Method, switching rapidly between different thought patterns.

But the effect was unsatisfactory.

The moral exemplar thought pattern held for about five seconds before collapsing, exclaiming: "This woman is terrifying—I can't take it anymore, switch!"

"I'll take over! This monk has no worldly desires! A mere succubus? Watch me remain unmoved, seated in the Four Formless Absorptions, the Four Colorless Meditations!"

The monk thought pattern shouted, took over, held out for about ten seconds, then began breathing heavily and cried out: "Succubus, I need you to aid my cultivation!"

Get lost, you so-called high monk.

Li Cheng internally sighed—these thought patterns were useless; he'd have to rely on himself.

He quietly opened his 3D warehouse and pulled out a thermal imager, an electronic nose, and button-sized electronic ears, installing them on his eyes, nose, and ears using the 【Assembled Doll】 effect.

Sure enough, switching his mode of perception caused Hazelnut's charm to plummet sharply.

Though still unsettling, he could now maintain control.

The three entered the elevator; Hazelnut input 666, and the elevator shot upward rapidly.

"You are a distinguished guest of the Evil Science Alliance,"

Hazelnut chuckled, "I haven't seen the chairman this happy in a long time."

"Really."

Li Cheng paused; on the way here, he had checked the public records on the Bandaged Man—or rather, the Face of Truth.

He had never appeared since his disappearance, and his wife and children had undoubtedly died—their funeral arranged by relatives.

In other words, the Face of Truth had permanently abandoned the "Bandaged Man" human identity.

Over four years, he had steadily climbed from Lv1 to Lv40, one of only ten such people worldwide.

He had endured countless dangers, hardships, and trials along the way.

It was hard to say how much of the original "Bandaged Man" personality remained after all that.

Ding—

The elevator stopped midway at floor 444; as the doors opened, a palm-sized chibi-style hellhound barked softly, leaping into Hazelnut's thick wool and wriggling cutely for affection.

Li Cheng adjusted his 【Information Synthesis Glasses】; whether on the succubus Hazelnut or the chibi hellhound, the glasses could only extract one or two trivial bits of information.

Their true strength was at least Lv20, possibly Lv30.

Hui Yu stared at the adorable chibi hellhound nuzzling Hazelnut's chest, swallowed hard, "Can I pet it?"

"Of course, it's very soft."

As Hazelnut reached to hand the hellhound over, Hui Yu ignored it entirely—instead, she shoved her hand into Hazelnut's woolly chest and rubbed it back and forth.

?

Li Cheng, who had been thinking seriously, felt a question mark appear above his head.

What the hell? So it wasn't about petting the hellhound—it was groping, right?

Embarrassed by his pet's behavior, Li Cheng swiftly delivered a palm strike to Hui Yu's arm, forcing her to pull her hand back, then awkwardly apologized to Hazelnut: "Sorry, she never went to school—doesn't know social etiquette."

Hui Yu, unfazed by the palm strike, grinned foolishly: "Kids don't know any better—just playing around."

In Li Cheng's 【Information Synthesis Glasses】 view, Hui Yu's inner thought was: "This succubus wasn't lying—this really does feel great."

"N-no problem. Actually, I never went to school either."

Hazelnut covered her chest with one hand, cheeks flushed, shaking her head rapidly.

Fortunately, the elevator had reached floor 666, finally relieving the awkwardness inside the cabin.

"The chairman's office is at the end of the hallway—just walk straight."

After saying this, Hazelnut pressed the elevator button and descended with it.

Li Cheng and Grey Rain exchanged glances. Unexpectedly, this floor looked very much like a modern office building—black floor tiles, white wallpaper, artwork hanging on the walls. There was no sign at all that this was where the leader of the Evil Science Alliance resided.

They passed through a long, narrow corridor and reached the end.

The office door was half-open. Li Cheng knocked, and a calm voice came from inside, "Please come in."

The former Bandage Man, now the Side of Truth, stood behind the desk. "Sorry I can't come out to greet you in person—I'm busy with this."

Suspended before the Side of Truth was a brilliant nebula, within which floated the corpses of tens of thousands of Flame Demons, like ants in zero gravity.

And around each Flame Demon floated an even larger number of crystal constructs.

These constructs emitted wisps of starlight, dissecting the Flame Demon corpses and installing extremely complex, tightly packed mechanical components inside.

Brains modified, weapons installed, armor overlaid.

Grey Rain asked instinctively, "What is this?"

"A Flame Demon figurine army."

The Side of Truth, his face hidden beneath a hood, said with a light laugh, "Consider it a small personal hobby of mine."

An army of over ten thousand fully equipped, heavily modified Flame Demons could easily crush one—or even several—modern armies that didn't deploy nuclear weapons.

But in the Side of Truth's mouth, it really was just a small hobby.

With a casual wave, he set the brilliant nebula aside. "Please, sit. Would you like a drink?"

From within the nebula, a prism-shaped crystal construct flew out on its own. It passed through the office, opened the liquor cabinet, took out a bottle, and poured two glasses of richly fragrant wine for Li Cheng and Grey Rain.

"Thanks."

Li Cheng took the glass but didn't drink. Instead, he asked directly the question that had been troubling him for a long time: "Was this electric energy retrospective mission arranged by you?"

(End of chapter)