Chapter 390: Shunt

The infant's head was abnormally large, its skull deformed and swollen, soft and collapsible like a water bag, while the eyes bulged outward due to intracranial pressure, appearing deeply terrifying.

The repetition cycle of Gary Hoy's final moments was every four minutes and fifty seconds; the Vietnamese infant's cycle was three and a half minutes.

At the start of each cycle, his eyes trembled violently, his breathing halted abruptly, and after twenty-nine seconds, his heartbeat stopped, declaring death.

During the Vietnam War, U. S. forces sprayed 67 million liters of Agent Orange in Vietnam, producing over half a million Agent Orange-deformed children, and causing more than two million subsequent Vietnamese children to develop cancer and other illnesses, including but not limited to blindness, cleft palate, hernias, and polydactyly.

In a grimly ironic twist, at least 250,000 U. S. veterans of the Vietnam War also suffered Agent Orange damage—diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's—and passed these ailments to their descendants, whose children and grandchildren frequently developed cancer or deformities.

Yet the U. S. Congress, courts, and military have consistently denied any link between Agent Orange and veterans' health issues, refusing compensation.

They drag, they stubbornly drag, simply waiting until these veterans die off to avoid astronomical payouts.

This incident is also recorded in the case of the 9/11 firefighters.

Li Cheng glanced once and understood the situation— the Vietnamese woman's husband died in the war, her child perished from Agent Orange deformities, and utterly without hope, she poisoned herself, like Gary Hoy, drawn into the killing ground for some reason.

Realizing this, Li Cheng immediately took a high-power loudspeaker from his 3D storage warehouse and shouted toward the crimson rider in the sky: "Take off your jacket."

Huh?

The rider, perched atop a Gyarados and struggling to evade vengeful ghosts among the skyscrapers, blinked in confusion at Li Cheng's words, but trusting Master Pi Fu, he removed his riding jacket and tossed it into the wind.

Strangely, the ghost immediately caught the falling jacket, tearing it into shreds.

Then it stood dazed between floors, and only after a moment did it resume chasing the crimson rider—but its speed was clearly much slower than before.

Seizing this brief window, Li Cheng took from his warehouse a metal tube, a liquid reservoir, a one-way valve, a bypass pump, and a plastic conduit, assembling them rapidly.

He then activated the 【Assembled Doll·Modified】 effect, precisely inserting the metal tube ten centimeters deep into the occipital region of the infant's skull, connecting the tube's upper end to the plastic conduit, reservoir, bypass pump, and one-way valve, routing it behind the ear.

He then attached another conduit, inserting it into the infant's neck, threading it through the body's interior until it reached the lesser omental sac of the abdomen.

After completing all this, before the stunned gazes of Fu Ding Hua Long and Bai Ma Mubei, Li Cheng stepped back several paces and waited for the next cycle.

Three, two, one—the countdown ended.

The infant's bulging eyes opened again; the colorless, transparent cerebrospinal fluid accumulated in its skull was visibly pumped out through the metal tube, transported along the conduit system into the abdomen.

Intracranial pressure dropped rapidly; the once melon-like deformed skull gradually shrank, transforming toward a normal head shape.

The infant, who had died in the death replay, now lived past twenty-nine seconds—and at the fortieth second, emitted a weak cry.

That cry was like thunder; the Vietnamese woman chasing the crimson rider in the sky suddenly stopped, ignoring the rider entirely, and rushed down to the ground, bursting into the stilt house.

She ignored Li Cheng and the others, cradling the infant gently in her arms. On her twisted, venomous face, a tender glow of affection suddenly appeared.

"WTF?!"

The crimson rider, still gasping and shaken, landed from the sky and asked Li Cheng: "Why does this ghost only hunt me? And why did it target my jacket first?"

"The jacket you're wearing is an M65-inspired design."

Li Cheng said casually: "During WWII, the U. S. military developed the M-1941 field coat for wartime readiness. In the Korean War, they added a lining and upgraded it to the M-1951. In Vietnam, they added zippers, Velcro, and a hood, upgrading it again to the M65.

Your jacket, though not military issue and not olive green, uses the same four-pocket design and nylon-cotton twill fabric as the M65.

So, this Vietnam War ghost mistakes you for a U. S. soldier who destroyed her family."

"This is pure bad luck!"

The crimson rider was nearly in tears.

Hui Yu, seeing this, sympathetically began humming the Vietnam War classic "Fortunate Son."

The three-and-a-half-minute cycle returned again; this time, the infant lived through the full three and a half minutes thanks to the shunt system, and the ghost-like Vietnamese woman held her child, utterly indifferent to everything else.

"."

Fu Ding Hua Long, being a trained elite agent of the Special Affairs Bureau, quickly grasped the situation, his eyes gleaming as he said to Li Cheng: "Brother Pi Fu… you revived this child?"

"Can't say I revived him. In the real world, this child truly died. What appears here is more like a recording."

Li Cheng paused, then said: "Dioxin in Agent Orange is an extremely potent cytotoxic chemical that causes deformities in infants, including narrowing of the cerebral aqueduct.

Obstructive hydrocephalus leads to congenital hydrocephalus in infants and toddlers, increasing intracranial pressure, enlarging the skull, compressing brain tissue, eventually causing intellectual dullness, vision loss, limb paralysis, and death from multiple complications."

"So you performed a ventriculoperitoneal shunt on the infant?"

Bai Ma Mubei pointed at the shunt tube on the infant's shoulder: "My relative's child had this same tube inserted five years ago. Used a Medtronic brand."

Uh… sis, you really don't think we're bad people, huh?

Globally, the prevalence of hydrocephalus is about 5 to 15 cases per 100,000 people, varying by region, country, and demographic; infants and toddlers account for roughly 40%.

Roughly speaking, that's about 320,000 new infant and toddler cases annually.

Bai Ma Mubei directly mentioned her relative's child had surgery five years ago; excluding high-prevalence areas with poor medical access and narrowing the scope to cases using Medtronic shunt tubes, she could literally be pinpointed.

If this had happened during the first two years the killing ground opened, once a Lone Wolf player's real identity was exposed, the consequences would be unimaginably tragic.

They'd be hunted down within minutes, killed, and stripped of their player qualifications.

Or their loved ones would be kidnapped, forcing the player to surrender equipment, gear, and all rewards from each scenario.

But Bai Ma Mubei, as a famous Lv29 Lone Wolf, has always appeared publicly, upholding justice, fighting the strong to protect the weak, practicing knightly ideals, and maintaining friendships across all guilds—very few factions dare seek her out.

Previously, a new member of the Laughing Gang tried to make a big splash and become famous by exposing her; he posted her family's data on the forum.

The result? She used her connections in the Whale Song Guild to reverse-expose him via network tech, tracked him down in person, and in broad daylight on a Paris street, punched him to death with her iron fist, then walked away without a second glance.

A supernatural being committing murder in public is a grave crime under the Global Supernatural Alliance.

But because Bai Ma Mubei had friends in France's official agencies and the European GOC division, both groups erased all eyewitnesses' memories of the scene, symbolically "detaining" her for a few days at a resort in Marseille.

"Hmm."

Bai Ma Mubei stared harder, puzzled, pointing at the shunt system and asking Li Cheng: "Why is this tube so weird? What brand is it?"

"? No brand. All components were assembled on the spot."

Li Cheng said naturally: "The metal tube came free with a soda, the reservoir is from a male prosthesis, the one-way valve was taken from a washing machine, the bypass pump and plastic conduit are from aquarium supplies.

So far, it's running fine."

Ah.

Huh?

The Crimson Racer and the others' eyes went wide, and ten thousand alpacas stampeded through their hearts — for a moment they didn't even know where to start roasting him.

They had no idea that, under the utterly unreasonable modification effects of 【Assembled Ragdoll】, every component could operate in a way that was "bizarre yet logical,"

After a long while they squeezed out a single line: "What the hell is a male prosthesis?!"

"You guys don't even know that?"

Li Cheng pushed up his Information Integration Glasses and said breezily: "It's a kind of artificial material and autologous tissue implanted into the human body through surgery — usually medical-grade silicone, polytetrafluoroethylene, or one's own fat, in three categories,

mainly used to improve the appearance or function of the reproductive organs — for example, enhancing shape, correcting congenital or acquired deformities, beautifying the appearance.

In short, it's an existence born from the demands of Golden Rooster Standing, Crane Among Chickens, Hearing the Rooster Rise and Dance, and — well — 'Chicken, You're So Beautiful.'"

The three of them, including Bai Ma Mu Bei, all wore egg-aching expressions. The Crimson Racer squinted and said: "I seriously suspect you staged this whole thing just so you could say those four words out loud in broad daylight."

"Am I that kind of person? If I were, the two characters of 'Fubi' would be written backwards."

Li Cheng first struck a righteous, stern pose, then shifted his tone: "You guys might not know, but that new shop on Shabby Street with a 95% positive review rate — 【Zhu Xing Zhen Tai】 — was opened by yours truly,

and the shop doesn't just offer the 【Crafting Equipment from Rare Relics】 service, it also provides body modification services.

It can replace or enhance every organ, including the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, limbs, and glands.

1000 game coins for a tiger's back and bear's waist,

2000 game coins to cleanse your marrow and remold your meridians,

3000 game coins to make you transcend the mundane!

Fair prices, no cheating young or old, hotline 199*******."

Li Cheng's sales-pitch voice was far too deliberate. The Crimson Racer and Fu Ding Hua Long exchanged glances and said hesitantly: "Who exactly are you talking to?"

"The audience, of course."

Li Cheng said as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "Once you guys get out there, won't you upload the strategy video shot by your action camera to the Flying Net? The viewers watching is basically free advertising."

"…I'm done."

The Crimson Racer pressed his palms together, rolled both eyes, and muttered under his breath: "If I cut this part out of the strategy video, won't you just blow up?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Li Cheng said with a beaming smile: "But your tailbone is still installed in your spine — if you want it fixed back, I'd still recommend coming to my shop for a follow-up. I would absolutely never do something like leaving you lying on the operating table for forty minutes."

(End of chapter)