Chapter 256

Shell after shell slammed into the nuclear island's breach and the rescue convoy below, forcing Naruto to stay put and intercept them. "You bastard! Do you know how many lives will be lost if the nuclear plant is destroyed?!"

"Looking at the Fukushima example, if you don't count them, then there are no casualties, right?"

"Besides, I've done every evil deed imaginable—so evil doesn't exist in the world anymore, which means I'm good."

Li Cheng snorted, glancing regretfully at the explosion's firelight. If he could have captured or detained Naruto, he'd have had leverage to negotiate with Toy City. Too bad.

The roar of engines drew nearer as five G81 Eagle Gunships, their searchlights blazing, sped swiftly toward the nuclear plant through the night sky.

"Let's go!"

He shouted to Huiyu, then mounted the Bat-Wing Weight motorcycle.

The latter had just faced the Flame Curse: first, she used her liquid-metal defense to withstand the initial wave of flames.

Taking advantage of Eugene's belief that she had melted, she activated the Phantom Strike skill, closed the distance, and smashed her skull-crusher into Eugene's head.

Ripples surged across his body's surface—each ripple signaled the shattering of a protective ornament.

She paid a heavy price, reducing the skull-crusher's power by 99%, yet three cracks still split the center of Eugene's skull, the bone fragments caved inward, blood gushing freely.

He was flung backward, and with the last vestige of his will, he cast Apparition, teleporting to the edge of the nuclear island's containment shell, beside Naruto.

"Tch."

Frustrated she hadn't landed a killing blow, Huiyu spat, transformed into a giant iron ball, rolled toward Li Cheng, hooked onto the back of the Bat-Wing Weight via chains, and sped away.

Three of the five G81 Eagle Gunships remained at the nuclear plant to assist Naruto's defense; the remaining two pursued relentlessly, hanging tight behind Li Cheng.

The gunships no longer cared whether they'd hit civilians—their multiple pulse laser turrets fired directly at the highway below.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Pulse lasers blasted craters into the concrete roadway.

Li Cheng maintained his multi-threaded brain domain technique, gripping the motorcycle handlebars with his left hand, while with his right he pulled from his storage a monocular night-vision scope, a sound-image analyzer, and a thermal imager, then used the 【Assemble Puppet】 effect to attach them to his body.

His nervous system connected with the electronic devices; suddenly, new sensory functions appeared in his mind.

He could "see" invisible light.

He could "hear" ultrasound and infrasound.

It felt like a girl who, from childhood to adulthood, had just watched her first porn—her heart surged with overwhelming excitement, and she unconsciously felt she'd grown a phantom penis.

Ignoring that bizarre analogy, Li Cheng, now plugged with sensory organs, truly achieved literal "eyes seeing all six directions, ears hearing all eight."

He gathered massive amounts of data, his brain processing at lightning speed.

He fed all variables into calculations: motorcycle speed, each laser turret's angle, turret rotation rate, pulse laser firing intervals.

He manipulated the heavy motorcycle with extreme agility, twisting and dodging like an eel across the road, avoiding volley after volley of fire, and entering a mountain tunnel.

The tunnel was about seven meters high—too low for the gunships to enter.

Two loud thuds echoed as the rear hatches of both gunships opened; two squads of Space Marines didn't bother with rappelling ropes—they simply jumped from midair, crashing onto the highway.

Inside the tunnel, thick fog generated by the Mist Concealment technique filled the air; vehicles ahead and behind dared not enter the fog and slammed on their brakes, nearly causing a chain-reaction crash.

The yellow Chevrolet Camaro, narrowly avoiding being rear-ended, emitted a "Kukukaka" mechanical sound as it transformed into Bumblebee, then blasted a long string of curses through its onboard speaker system.

(According to lore, Bumblebee's vocal system was destroyed by Megatron in battle, so he could only sample audio clips from his onboard system to speak.)

The vehicle behind was a black sports car from Cars; in response to Bumblebee's accusations, it fired back with a barrage of African-American slang, lifted its front wheels, and gave Bumblebee the middle finger gesture.

Chaos erupted everywhere: four-wheel-drive toy cars, go-karts, electric remote-control cars—all jammed together; even a motorcycle warrior pulled out a violin and began playing.

It fully embodied the vibe of relaxation. "Charge!"

The Space Marines maintained high tactical discipline; without verbal communication, they spontaneously formed ranks and charged into the fog, advancing with alternating bursts of explosive rifle fire, wary of any sudden ambush.

The anticipated attack never came. When the Space Marines reached the fog's center, they saw only a massive crater gouged into the tunnel's concrete floor, revealing a hidden sewer below.

Li Cheng and Huiyu had vanished.

————

Perhaps anticipating future population explosion, Toy City's sewer system had been built exceptionally wide—wide enough for vehicles to pass through.

"To test whether a nation or city is developed, just wait for a rainstorm—it may have the money to build skyscrapers, but lacks the will to develop sewers."

Li Cheng rode along the stone ledge beside the sewer, remarking sincerely: "Skyscrapers are visible; sewers are not. You only see their true nature during a heavy rain."

"Are you talking to me?"

Huiyu, sitting on the backseat and hugging Li Cheng's waist, asked in confusion.

She had no desire to turn into a giant iron ball rolling through the sewer, so she split half her body and slipped into an electronic pet egg.

The remaining half shrank into a 1.2-meter-tall Huiyu; her vocal cords shortened with her size, making her voice childish—making one wonder, "Whose kid is this?"

"No, I'm just quoting a certain Ms. Long Yingtai who doesn't want her name revealed."

"According to her standard, a city like New York, where 37mm of rainfall causes total flooding, is clearly heartless and underdeveloped."

Li Cheng said casually, pulling from his storage a battery-powered wireless surveillance camera, then sticking it to the sewer wall with tape as a warning marker.

Bart Moss had previously hacked into Toy City's network and stolen a map of the city's confirmed sewer system.

Li Cheng followed the map, winding through twists and turns, exiting the sewer and entering an abandoned subway tunnel. He sprayed himself liberally with deodorant.

Then he took out the pink, fist-sized Ten-Ingredient Supreme Pill, and bit into it.

It emitted an exotic, intoxicating aroma, smelling like a divine elixir; its taste was pleasant too—similar to sweet lion's head meatballs.

His depleted spiritual energy instantly replenished to 630/630, though the corruption level remained, displayed as 315/1000.

"This trip was a total loss,"

Huiyu muttered: "Didn't kill Eugene, and now my corruption level's higher."

"Not entirely a loss—we got this at least."

Li Cheng picked up the skull-crusher, still smeared with Eugene's blood and bone fragments.

He lightly touched the dried blood with his fingertip; his facial muscles writhed, reshaping into Eugene's likeness.

"Help me set up a studio,"

Li Cheng took out a camera, a fill light, and a laptop, and smiled mysteriously: "It's time to put on a good show."