Chapter 247: Water Pipe

At this very moment, Seeing Gouchen, the one constantly on Joker's mind, was strolling through the garbage dump in the east of the city.

Vast amounts of trash were piled into small mountains, forming a continuous range of peaks; rusted, non-operational excavators stood like the stiff arms of dead giants.

Compared to the terrible surroundings, Seeing Gouchen stood out exceptionally.

This young man, affiliated with the Global Supernatural Alliance Guild, appeared to be in his early twenties; with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, his features were rugged, and he wore a green Plum Blossom brand tracksuit identical to Wu Jing's, with one short and one long iron sword hanging on either side of his belt.

In a certain video game, beginners using the basic sets issued by the system might look wildly cool and domineering, whereas true experts, often needing no attribute bonuses from such sets, would choose attire suited to their unique aesthetic.

This principle could also be applied to the Killing Field Game; wearing this stylistically incongruous outfit, Seeing Gouchen drifted lightly through the trash piles, and from a distance of twenty meters, spoke to an abandoned refrigerator with its door closed: "Should I invite you out, or will you come out yourself?"

After a brief silence, the refrigerator door was kicked open from the inside out, and a bald middle-aged man named 【Frankenstein】, with a pale complexion, jumped out and landed on the ground.

Frankenstein was not particularly surprised that Seeing Gouchen had found him; as a member of the Evil Science Alliance Guild specializing in biotechnology, given enough time and materials, he could mass-produce synthetic war beasts from all sorts of substances.

This city's garbage dump was, for him, the best material library—Seeing Gouchen knew this as well, which was why he had come here.

What surprised Frankenstein, however, was the timing of the other's arrival.

"Just now, that Joker launched a terrorist attack at the downtown museum and released photos of all of us.

The official forces of Toy City have already noticed the external players and are launching a city-wide manhunt."

Frankenstein stared at Seeing Gouchen and said hoarsely, "Are you sure you want to fight me at a time like this?"

"As long as I eliminate you before the people from Toy City arrive, that will suffice."

Seeing Gouchen interrupted, "Estimating based on the gap in our strength, it should take about... four minutes."

Frankenstein's expression turned somewhat ugly; after all, he was a Level 22 Transcendent, capable of posing as a deity or demigod in some relatively backward script worlds.

"Truly being looked down upon."

Frankenstein slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, his eyes becoming incredibly sharp, and suddenly drew a blood-stained dagger from his inventory slot, slashing the air to form a spatial gate.

A massive number of biological weapons surged out from the spatial gate.

There were Abomination beasts stitched together from corpses of Transcendent creatures, Hellhounds spewing sulfur, swollen flies wielding maggot guns, and cyborgs with the upper body of a bearded burly man and the lower body of a seductive beauty's legs.

Countless biological weapons dove down from the trash mountain, rushing toward Seeing Gouchen like a tidal wave.

The latter neither dodged nor avoided, simply unfastening his one short and one long sword, and stated calmly, "Players like you from the Summoning, Charm, or Support categories will never understand that failing to attribute great power to oneself ultimately amounts to nothing."

As the word "nothing" fell, Seeing Gouchen charged straight into the pile of monsters, moving as if through an uninhabited land.

————

Chengnan Park was lush with water plants, secluded and quiet, exceedingly peaceful.

Li Cheng stood within the shrubbery, holding a remote control, maneuvering a drone to ascend and hover, conducting reconnaissance.

Meanwhile, Hui Yu squatted on the ground, propping his chin with both hands, curiously watching plastic insects crawling beneath a pile of fallen leaves.

Toy City's ecosystem was quite... miraculous; many wild creatures, such as ants, flies, and mosquitoes, were simulated toys, and one could not help but wonder which toy factory's R&D staff had been so idle as to manufacture simulated mosquitoes.

"Toy City covers an area of approximately one thousand square kilometers; the entire city is located on a floating island, beneath which lies a chaotic Sun Wukong void, containing nothing.

Additionally, that celestial body known as the 'Sun' is also fake."

Li Cheng adjusted the drone camera's shooting mode, and after weakening the intense sunlight, immediately saw clearly that the slowly setting sun was actually a sun shaped like an infant's head, occasionally grinning broadly.

"The sun-baby from 'Teletubbies', is it?"

Li Cheng wiped the cold sweat that did not exist on his forehead; seeing it on television was one thing, but witnessing an infant the size of a star in reality was as horrifying and bizarre as anything could be.

Calculating the time, it should be nearly six o'clock...

Buzz, buzz.

Li Cheng's phone vibrated, indicating the receipt of a text message.

The sender of the message was a very long, untraceable temporary number, and the content read only: "Below the rockery, on the bench."

There was indeed a rockery in the park; Li Cheng had Hui Yu take over the drone remote to monitor the vicinity,

while he himself, carrying his phone, walked to the base of the rockery, sat on a wooden bench, and waited quietly to see what scheme lay behind this.

After a while, a figure of not great height walked quickly over from under the tree shadows in the distance,

wearing a black hood, mask, and glasses, wrapped up tightly from head to toe, and sat directly beside Li Cheng on the wooden bench, leaving a gap in between.

"Don't turn to look at me; act as if nothing is happening,"

the mysterious person pretended to play with a phone and said to Li Cheng in a lowered voice, "No one followed you, right?"

"No,"

Li Cheng replied, while the Information Integration Glasses on the bridge of his nose quietly activated their special effect, reading out part of this mysterious person's information—【Toy City Nuclear Power Plant Worker】, 【Excellent Employee】.

"I'll make this brief; there's a problem at Toy City's nuclear power plant. Often in the dead of night, trucks of unknown origin drive in, unloading patients suffering from late-stage Malfunction Syndrome, their bodies completely stiff, from the vehicles."

The mysterious person spoke rapidly; although he deliberately lowered his vocal pitch, a faint Italian rising-and-falling accent was still detectable, "These are photos I secretly took."

He handed a potato chip packaging bag to Li Cheng, inside which were a dozen or so photos showing a group of unidentified individuals in yellow protective suits unloading Malfunction Syndrome patients from a truck and transporting them into the nuclear power plant building.

Judging from the shooting angles, these photos must have been taken secretly while hiding within the shrubbery.

Li Cheng took the photos, a realization dawning in his heart; this mysterious person was an informant for a journalist, leaking major inside information in hopes that the latter would uncover the truth and make it public.

This should count as a welfare benefit from the system for the lowest-level players; after uncovering the inside story, one could retreat by using the major scandal to threaten the Toy City Municipal Hall into stopping their pursuit, or advance by coercing the Municipal Hall into helping hunt down other players.

"No problem."

Li Cheng accepted the potato chip bag and casually asked, "You are Mr. Ma Liao, correct?"

"What?!"

The mysterious person trembled all over and hastily denied, "I'm not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!"

You are.

With a short stature, an Italian accent, and a large nose exposed outside the mask, he might as well have just reported his ID number.

"You journalists are too amateur; how could you probe an informant's identity? Although I really am not Ma Liao. I'm leaving; don't follow me!"

The mysterious person cursed as he jumped off the park bench and ran quickly toward the rear of the rockery.

Li Cheng gave a wink to Hui Yu in the shrubbery; the latter immediately understood and maneuvered the drone to fly over quietly.

The mysterious figure looked left and right, then dove straight into a green concrete drainage pipe, vanishing into thin air.

By the time Li Cheng and Gray Rain rushed over, the concrete pipe was empty; not a single soul could be seen.

"Using pipes to teleport? And you still say you're not Ma Liao."

Gray Rain scratched his head. "What do we do now?"

"Investigate these photos, of course."

Li Cheng waved the bag of potato chips in his hand, his expression turning solemn. "As a journalist, I can sense the whiff of a major scandal behind this, just like the Clinton Zipper Gate, the Obama Prism Gate, or the Minato Water Gate."

"Getting into character so fast, are we? Besides, isn't Minato from Naruto? Did he have a scandal too?" Gray Rain retorted.

"Probably something about nepotism, arranging for his own son to become Hokage."

Li Cheng said casually. Just as he was about to pull out his phone to check the map, a sudden anomaly occurred.

The earth beneath his feet abruptly softened, generating a powerful suction that dragged him straight underground.

(End of Chapter)