Chapter 225: Fly Over the Madhouse (1)

Crack!

Li Cheng, lying on the car repair slab, tightened the bolts under the chassis with a wrench, wiped the slight sweat from his forehead, and slid out from beneath the vehicle.

During this period, he was primarily occupied with the following tasks.

First, he entrusted Changsun Yao to find a repair shop named 【Torch Tree】, and spent a thousand game coins to reforged his own 【Nuclear Lighter】.

The newly forged Nuclear Lighter was fully filled with fuel and came with a note: "Cannot be repaired again," equivalent to one more use.

General fine-quality items typically sell for two to three thousand. This thousand-coin repair fee was worth it.

The second task was to find a suitable insect species.

The Two-Yin Blade not only resolved the risk of insect-lord divine corruption but also converted all of it into combat power.

As Li Cheng's own life intensity gradually increased, absorbing new genes could now be prioritized.

The third task was to continue studying the Odd Mechanic skill. There was no shortcut—only practice and accumulation.

For this, Li Cheng bought a large number of household appliances, CNC lathes, construction machinery, gasoline and electric vehicles, dismantling and reassembling them repeatedly, feeling that in a little while he could level up his Odd Mechanic profession again.

In the corner of the warehouse, Hui Yu, hearing the repair noises stop, quickly locked her phone screen and hid it beneath her pencil case, pretending to continue writing her Chinese homework.

Li Cheng drank electrolyte water and walked over to the desk, glancing briefly.

Question:

Diligent student Xiao Li urged her desk-mate Xiao Ming to pay attention in class, but Xiao Ming replied: "Studying is for making money—I own dozens of rental properties, why should I study?"

Question: What might happen in the future?

Feeling the pressure of Li Cheng watching from behind, Hui Yu bit the tip of her mechanical pencil, had a sudden idea, and wrote:

"Many years later, facing this desk-mate turned husband, Xiao Li would recall that afternoon when she urged him to study."

???

Li Cheng's face darkened, and he gave Hui Yu a light chop to the head. "You writing One Hundred Years of Solitude here?"

"What's One Hundred Years of Solitude?"

Hui Yu rubbed her head, her face radiating an unspoiled beauty, as if about to add, "Can you eat it?"—deliberately acting cute.

In truth, Li Cheng cared so much about Hui Yu's studies, coaxing, tricking, encouraging, and pushing her to read, mainly due to two reasons.

First, mastering knowledge genuinely improves survival chances in the Killing Ground.

Second, he firmly believed that one must learn until death—only by continuously studying and deepening one's understanding of the world can life gain meaning.

Otherwise, one becomes like the teenagers "cultivated" by American-style happy education, spending all day flying leaves, attending parties, and discussing LGBTQIAPKDX awakening culture, nothing else.

Speaking of which, Hui Yu's 256GB brain capacity is indeed a bit low—should he go back to Lousjie again?

See if there are any floppy disks, hard drives, SSDs, or other devices to upgrade a robot's brain capacity.

As he pondered, the system alert suddenly sounded.

Considering the time, a mission should arrive now.

【Mission Type: Script Mission (Solo)】

【Mission Name: Fly Over the Madhouse】

【Mission Objective: At 12:00 PM, wear goggles and wait for teleportation】

【Mission Time Limit: None】

【Mission Reward: None】

【Mission Penalty: Permanent Stagnation in the Script World】

Another solo script mission?

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. Both the mission name "Fly Over the Madhouse" and the penalty of permanent stagnation in the script world radiated unmistakable malice.

It made one suspect whether this damn system had eaten too many chilies, suffered severe constipation, and was now taking out its frustration on players.

"Since I've got an Emergency Escape Card as backup, might as well give it a try."

Li Cheng rubbed his palms, made brief preparations with Hui Yu, put on his goggles, and stood in the living room waiting for teleportation.

Three, two, one.

As the living room clock's second hand reached zero, the scenery before him abruptly changed.

White. Everywhere he looked was white.

In a three-meter-by-three-meter square room, walls, floor, and ceiling were all padded with white impact-absorbing material.

This padding is commonly seen in interrogation rooms and observation cells, primarily to prevent detainees from injuring themselves by banging against walls or floors.

Additionally, the padding has some sound-dampening properties, reducing the detainee's exposure to screams or cries from adjacent rooms, lowering psychological pressure.

As for Li Cheng himself—

At this moment, he was wearing a white restraint suit, curled up in the corner of the room.

The restraint suit was one size larger than his frame, made of thick, durable coarse cloth, covered in buttons and straps that tightly bound his hands in front of him and his legs together, leaving him immobile.

Moreover, his mouth was sealed with strong tape, his head covered by a white hood, with only two Kong Dongs allowing him to see the outside world.

The overall appearance resembled Hannibal from The Silence of the Lambs.

"What the hell kind of opening is this? What's going on? Is this level of lockdown even necessary? Even the psycho who assassinated the U. S. president wasn't this tightly contained!"

Li Cheng's eyes widened, unable to resist complaining—but his mouth was sealed with tape, so he could only emit muffled whimpers.

【Stage Two Mission Objective: Explore the hospital, remain alive】

【Mission Time Limit: 5 hours】

【Reward 1: 1300 Experience Points】

【Reward 2: 1800 Game Coins】

【Reward 3: One Random Skill Scroll*1, quality determined by completion rating】

【Reward 4: Shangcheng VIP Trial Card*1】

【Task Penalty: Permanent Stranding in the Script World】

Holy shit, I literally say holy shit.

Li Cheng's expression turned extraordinarily vivid,

There are two types of player shopping systems: one is the public shop, visible to all players, refreshing fifty items daily; the other is the personal shop, refreshing fifteen items daily.

Due to the existence of the Slum Alley, players can barter with each other at lower prices, significantly reducing the prominence of the shopping system compared to when the Death Game first launched.

But the VIP Shopping Card is different—it, like the Emergency Escape Card, is a special item directly issued by the Death Game system. The latter allows players to instantly exit a mission,

while the former instantly refreshes the player's personal shop, generating fifteen items of at least premium quality, each priced at least 20–30% off.

In other words, even if the shelf lacks the exact item a player needs, they can buy everything due to the price advantage, then sell it all at the Slum Alley auction house, making at least 4,000 in-game coins per transaction.

Purely handing out money to players.

But one of the Death Game's unwritten rules is that reward corresponds to risk.

Such a generous reward signals the extreme difficulty of this mission.

【Mission Briefing Sent】

【Saint Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital is a specialized psychiatric facility located in New England Town, staffed by a team of experienced senior doctors, nurses, and other professionals dedicated to providing patients with the highest quality care and enjoying a prestigious reputation nationwide.】

【Yet beneath the flowers, there is noise. Some patients who recovered and returned to society have accused the hospital's medical staff of using drugs to control patients and subjecting uncooperative patients to physical and psychological abuse.】

【Rumors even claim the hospital secretly conducts unethical medical experiments.】

【As a patient under the new director's strict supervision, you must escape first to achieve your secret goal.】

【Good luck】

"WTF"

Li Cheng took a deep breath through his nostrils; if his mouth weren't sealed with tape, he would already be screaming curses.

But worse was yet to come.

【In this mission, players are in full roleplay mode: no attribute enhancements, no use of skills or skill scrolls except title skills, no access to inventory items, no use of equipment or props.】

(End of Chapter)