Chapter 289: Druid

The head balloons look pretty intimidating, but they seem to have only one attack method: intestines.

Huiyu planted both feet into the ground, yanked hard on the intestines, and wrapped them around lamp posts or scrap building materials to keep them from drifting away.

The head balloons on the outskirts, meanwhile, were picked off one by one by Li Cheng with the Avenger autocannon, bursting open like fireworks and spraying brilliant sprays of blood.

Along with the popping of the head balloons, a heavy object wrapped tightly in several loops of intestines crashed to the ground, smashing a big crater fifty meters behind the armored transport.

From the sound, it seemed to be some kind of stone?

Li Cheng gestured for Xue Luomeng and the others to stay put in the vehicle, then walked forward and activated the scan function on his information-integration goggles.

What had fallen from the sky was indeed a brown stone, with a burly human-shaped outline, obsidian eyebrows and hair, and rather rugged features.

Huiyu asked, puzzled, "Is this a statue or The Thing from the Fantastic Four?"

A strange flash flickered across the lens of Li Cheng's information-integration goggles. "Neither. It's an earth elemental."

"Ahem—"

The earth elemental rubbed the marks the intestines had left on his neck and slowly climbed to his feet. The moment he saw Li Cheng and Huiyu standing outside the crater with their flag spear and iron pot aimed at him,

he immediately guessed what was going on, hastily raised both hands, and rendered a French military salute. "Don't shoot! I'm a member of the Monster Alliance guild. Here's my ID."

So saying, he voluntarily displayed his ID. The words 【Lv17】 【Wild Heart · Hundred-Bai Jixiong】 lit up above his head, and he also produced a parchment scroll.

Hundred-Bai Jixiong? That ID seemed familiar.

Li Cheng thought back. When the Global Occult Coalition had summoned players for a meeting earlier, it had stressed that, because this mission was quite special—concerning an otherworld invasion—and involved a huge number of participants,

to prevent Earth players from killing each other off and wasting energy in infighting, the GOC had taken quite a few measures.

Including, but not limited to, having willing players upload their IDs to this mission's database to build a foundation of mutual trust;

handing out action cameras, so that if any players did turn on each other, footage could be recorded and settled later;

and handing out contract scrolls—the very one Hundred-Bai Jixiong had just pulled out.

【Scroll Name: Covenant Oath (Party A)】

【Attribute: Consumable】

【Type: General】

【Quality: Rare】

【Effect: Two players, under conditions of absolute voluntariness (free from threats, blackmail, coercion, illusion, or mental manipulation), may actively sign an oath regarding a specific condition. The system notarizes both parties, who shall jointly abide by the agreed terms. Any subjective or objective violation of the agreed terms will cause the player to experience intense psychological and physiological discomfort lasting 5 hours.】

【Consumption: None】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Requirement: Both players must possess a species-comparable level of intelligence】

【Note: A single player may only be bound by one Covenant Oath at a time. The oath persists indefinitely until triggered, until one party dies, or until both players agree to dissolve it.】

【Note: An oath may only be formed if it is feasible. When one party breaks the oath, the other party's oath is simultaneously dissolved.】

【Note: Oath-breakers must swallow a thousand needles.】

This 【Covenant Oath】 counts as an internal item of the Global Occult Coalition.

The system's notarization ensures that the party who actively breaks the oath suffers physical and mental torment comparable to swallowing a thousand needles.

Though it's not enough to drop dead on the spot, the five-hour duration is enough to cover most of a player's time in a danger-filled mission, and one careless moment of physical and mental strain could kill them on the spot.

When the GOC handed out the 【Covenant Oath】, it embedded a preset template: roughly, Earth players should not actively attack each other, and if possible, should not actively harm ordinary people who came from Earth either.

Li Cheng scanned the text of the oath, found nothing wrong, and clicked agree.

A golden light flashed across the parchment scroll, and it burned itself to ash.

"How did you get trapped by these head balloons?"

Li Cheng asked, puzzled, "Aren't you a Lv17 druid?"

In the GOC's database, Hundred-Bai Jixiong was a druid who wielded the power of nature—not only able to commune with nature's will and cast primal spells, but also able to transform into various wondrous creatures.

By all rights, dealing with these single-attack-method head balloons should have been a piece of cake.

"Uh, I was fighting a bunch of monsters and nearly ran out of stamina, then got jumped and knocked out by the head balloons."

Hundred-Bai Jixiong scratched his cheek. "Probably because in earth elemental form my neck is pretty thick, so the head balloons' intestines couldn't strangle me to death no matter how long they squeezed, so they just tied me up and hauled me off."

Li Cheng's brow arched slightly. That works too? What a legendary choke-hold king.

Seeing Li Cheng say nothing, Hundred-Bai Jixiong thought of something and hurriedly whispered, "Brother Master Pi Fu, I've heard 【Midnight Howl】 mention you. He's a good buddy of mine, and he bragged that in the previous mission you planned everything down to the last detail, were skilled in both literature and martial arts, and combined wisdom with courage."

【Midnight Howl】 was the werewolf teammate they'd run into during the earlier mission to escort the Retrospect Chamber battery.

At the end of that mission, to express his thanks to Li Cheng, he'd even pulled out several dozen of his own wolf teeth and given them to him.

Because the battery mission had the Retrospect Chamber behind it, afterward neither Zhao Zijing from the GOC background, Crimson Racer from the 【Thousand-Throated Beast】 guild, nor Midnight Howl from the 【Monster Alliance】 guild,

had uploaded video footage to the player forums the way players usually did.

So Hundred-Bai Jixiong's claim of really knowing Midnight Howl was probably true—he wasn't lying.

"You're too kind."

As the saying goes, everyone props up the flower-decked sedan chair. Since Hundred-Bai Jixiong's attitude was sincere, Li Cheng wasn't stingy about showing goodwill, and he nodded at once: "Brother Midnight Howl also contributed a lot in that mission. Especially at the end, when he boldly claimed the prophet's identity and triggered infighting among the good guys—that left a particularly deep impression on me."

Wait, what bold claim? Are you playing Werewolf here?

A strange expression crossed Hundred-Bai Jixiong's stone face. He did know that Midnight Howl hadn't played a key role in that battery mission—basically a free-ride carry—but Master Pi Fu's way of praising him

was like praising Liu Shan for being able to coordinate with Zhao Yun, Zhao Zilong, at the age of one and charge in and out of Cao Cao's elite formation seven times at Changban Slope.

Better not to praise him at all.

"What about me, what about me?"

Huiyu's eyes lit up and she pressed, "How did Midnight Howl rate me?"

Hundred-Bai Jixiong's expression stalled. In Midnight Howl's account, the main act was Master Pi Fu; Huiyu was more like a piece of equipment hanging off him, barely mentioned at all.

But the occasion didn't lend itself to telling the truth, so he could only brazenly make something up: "He also said you're supremely skilled in martial arts, invincible in every battle, unstoppable in every attack, with the courage of a man who could take on ten thousand."

"Hahaha."

The rare-to-show-up Hui Yu nodded and laughed heartily, his expression warm: "If you're a friend of Haoyao, then you're our friend too—come out of the pit first. Hungry? Let's have some Nine-Turn Large Intestine together."

As he spoke, Hui Yu turned his ten fingers into sharp cleavers, cleanly and efficiently slicing the intestines into small segments, chopping the scallions, ginger, and garlic into fine bits, ready to heat the oil in the wok.

Baiji Bear's eyes widened, his originally brown granite-like face showing signs of turning into white marble, his expression literally paling as he hurriedly said: "No, no, I just ate before taking on this mission."

"Have just a little more."

Li Cheng added amiably: "She's been learning this dish, Nine-Turn Large Intestine, for months now—the sour, sweet, fragrant, and salty flavors are all balanced, the color is rich red, the texture tender and soft; aside from the possibility that the insides weren't washed clean, it's perfect."

Not washing the insides clean IS the biggest flaw, you know?!