Chapter 244

Something's wrong, terribly wrong—nine or even ten parts wrong.

Li Cheng gripped the windowsill, his information-integrated glasses continuously gathering data.

The "residents" of this city did not match the height of ordinary toys in the real world or their depictions in literature.

For instance, the original green plastic soldiers, a few centimeters tall, had been enlarged here to nearly one meter.

The original ten-meter-tall Optimus Prime had been shrunk here to about two meters.

Moreover, every toy's clothing and behavior carried a strong sense of everyday life—

A 0.4-meter-tall Pikachu in a suit, carrying a miniature briefcase, trudged out of a building with the exhausted expression of a salaryman collapsed from overtime.

He stopped at a street stall and bought a grilled cold noodle from the vendor, Kabuto (the robot from the classic tokusatsu series "Tetsujin 28").

Next to the barbecue stall stood a two-meter-tall King Kong gorilla running a stinky tofu stand.

As the saying goes: observe the minute to understand the grand, see a single leaf to know autumn. From just these few seconds of imagery, Li Cheng had gathered ample information.

First, the "rules" of this world differed from reality—real LEGO bricks could never build a hundred-meter skyscraper.

Second, the city's production and social order were stable and orderly, indirectly reflecting a powerful administrative system behind it.

The vendor gorilla was King Kong, the great ape from FC's classic title "Donkey Kong," one of the earliest villains in video game history.

Elsewhere on the street were Vega, leader of the Shadow Syndicate from "Street Fighter," Dr. Eggman from "Sonic the Hedgehog," and Shredder from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"—all classic villain bosses.

To keep these celebrity-like villains in check, the toy city likely had a powerful police force, army, and prison system.

Third, toys did not necessarily retain their original abilities—for instance, Li Cheng saw Optimus Prime, dressed as a construction worker, boarding a Totoro bus.

He couldn't help but want to yell, "Bro, aren't you Optimus Prime? You can transform into a full-sized American truck—why are you taking the bus?"

At this moment, the system notification chimed belatedly.

【Mission Briefing Sent】

【Toy City, a burgeoning city standing beneath the dome】

【The sacred factory grants us life; the great furnace bestows upon us free will. We are toys without masters—we live for ourselves.】

【We labor, strive, and live. United in purpose, we pooled our strength and spent twenty years building this city from nothing.】

【Though an unknown plague now spreads through the city, the public health department is pouring all its efforts into analyzing the disease and developing a vaccine. As always, the flame endures; hope never dies.】

This mission briefing used a first-person narrative, as if spoken from the perspective of the city's builders.

The terms "factory," "furnace," and "disease" within it were deeply concerning.

As the briefing was delivered, a new description appeared at the bottom of the player's personal panel: 【Corruption Level: 0/1000】.

Additionally, the mission log kindly listed the IDs and levels of the other five players participating in this 【Toy Assault】.

"No surprise this is a special mission—previous deathmatch missions never revealed information about other opponents."

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow: the other five were 【Deceiver·Joker】【Lv20】,

【Hell Engine·Frankenstein】【Lv22】,

【Ready Block·Batomos】【Lv21】,

【Arbiter·Gouchen】【Lv23】,

【Brown Rat·Eugene】【Lv19}.

"Joker Cervantes mentioned this name before—he's also a member of the Laughing Troupe guild. He stole a fire dragon egg from Dawson of the Thousand Throats Beast and left a fire dragon fruit behind as compensation. A real character."

Li Cheng's mind raced: "Frankenstein—I think I've seen descriptions of him on player forums. He's from the Alliance of Demon Scientists, a notorious bio-weapon inventor.

He once sold biological toxins to African warlords, killing at least fifty thousand people.

The remaining two, Batomos and Gouchen: the former is from the Whale Song Guild, the latter a member of the Global Supernatural Alliance.

As for the last one, Eugene—

If I recall correctly, he was on Changsun Yao's bounty list. He was once a member of the 【Zhong Lou】 guild, stole the Golden Arrow from them, defected, and has been hiding in the Shadow Realm of Yin City ever since.

Never expected to meet him here."

Among these people, the lowest level was Lv19, the highest was seven levels above Li Cheng. All had some reputation.

In contrast, Li Cheng was only Lv16. His role in helping 【Truth's Side】 travel back to establish the Evil Science Alliance was known only to himself and Truth's Side.

To everyone else, this 【Pi Fu】 was a complete nobody.

What was that saying again?

When Pi Fu joined a deathmatch, every opponent erupted in confusion: "Who the hell is Pi Fu?"

New players might not know who Pi Fu is. As a veteran, I can tell you honestly—even veterans don't know.

"Except for Eugene, who defected from the Zhong Lou Guild, the other three are all major guild members. That means they can temporarily borrow powerful gear or skill scrolls from their guilds.

The upside is, these people know each other are the greatest threats—and they're likely to overlook me."

Li Cheng was rubbing his chin when a joyful cheer erupted outside the room.

He stepped out the door—the cheers came from the neighbor's house to the right.

A LEGO postal worker grinned as he handed a large cardboard box to a LEGO couple: "Congratulations! The city hall has approved your fertility application. I'm here to deliver your child."

Huh?

Under Li Cheng's bewildered gaze, the couple happily opened the box. Inside, cushioning foam held scattered LEGO brick child limbs.

The couple assembled the limbs—no sooner had head and limbs been attached than the LEGO baby began to cry.

Instantly, a pile of inanimate objects became alive.

【Is this how reproduction works? Since LEGO bricks can't reproduce, the city hall just distributes components?】

Li Cheng, activating his multi-threaded mental domain, thought rapidly: 【Do other toys reproduce this way? What do the "factory" and "furnace" in the mission briefing mean? Are they the origin of all toys?】

"Hey, you're the new guy who moved in, right? The reporter?"

A slightly hoarse female voice came from the left.

Li Cheng turned his head and saw the door of the apartment on the left open— a young woman in her twenties, with brown short hair, emerald-green eyes, holding a canned beer, and eyes worn with age, was speaking to him.

"Uh, yes."

Li Cheng nodded. On paper, his strength was undoubtedly the weakest among the five people participating in this mission.

For the sake of balance, the system had set him up with a safe apartment building as his starting point, and arranged in advance a legitimate journalist identity that could move in and out of various venues without easily arousing suspicion.

Thinking of this, Li Cheng quietly slipped his hand into his pocket and felt around. Sure enough, he found a press card and a crumpled ball of paper.

On it was written: "Chengnan Park, 18:00."

The brown-haired young woman had clearly been drinking—her cheeks were flushed—and she asked casually, "Since you're a reporter, you must have some exclusive news, right? What's actually going on with the epidemic in the city? It's been almost a year and it's still not resolved."

"Well, about that—"

Li Cheng still didn't know the script world's setting, so he quickly played it off with a laugh. "My exclusive news is that the broad public should follow the City Hall, follow all of City Hall's directives, don't panic, don't spread rumors, let's weather this together, overcome the difficulties. The epidemic will pass eventually."

"Stop, stop, stop."

The brown-haired young woman rolled her eyes and cut him off. "Save those talking points for the newspaper."

"Got it."

Li Cheng's face was as thick as a city wall; he felt no embarrassment at all. On the contrary, the more he looked at her, the more a strange sense of familiarity welled up in him. "By the way, I just moved here—I haven't caught your name yet?"

The young woman took a sip of canned beer and said lazily, "Kinomoto Sakura."

(End of chapter)