Chapter 391: Poison

"In short,"

Li Cheng turned his head to look at the Vietnamese woman holding the child and gently rocking him while humming an unknown lullaby, and asked the others, "What do you think—why is her behavior pattern different from Gary Hoy's?"

In this secret realm, Gary Hoy—the unlucky bastard who crashed through the glass window frame and fell from a twenty-four-story building, earning himself a Darwin Award—had a translucent form that couldn't be touched, and his loop footage couldn't be altered.

But this Vietnamese woman could not only see, touch, and harm players, her loop footage could also be rewritten.

"Could it be that the level of resentment is different?"

Fu Ding Hua Long frowned and said, "In real-world works of fiction, and in the scripted missions derived from them, there's this rule—

The more tragic the death, the stronger the resentment, and the more unfulfilled wishes, the fiercer the vengeful ghost after death."

"Hard to say."

Bai Ma Mu Bei shook her head. "That does match intuition, but things in secret realms can't be judged by intuition. There are plenty of people in the world who die tragic, resentment-filled deaths—

so why were Gary Hoy and this Vietnamese woman replicated in here? The era, location, cause of death, and interpersonal relationships of the two are completely different."

This question couldn't be answered for now. Li Cheng thought for a moment, took a few ten-meter-long power strips from the warehouse, connected them to each other, then found a house in the building complex that still had electricity, plugged them in,

and used a type-c power cable to connect to the drainage tube hanging on the baby's body.

The hydrocephalus shunt valve needs to be pressed 1-3 times every 24 hours. Under the effect of the assembled rag doll, the shunt valve was now equivalent to being electrified and would press automatically—using it for several decades wouldn't be a problem.

The Vietnamese woman still showed no reaction, but for a brief moment, she seemed to raise her eyelids and glance at Li Cheng.

"What are you doing?"

Crimson Racer swallowed. He had earlier steeled himself with great resolve to not sell out his teammates, withdraw from the killing field on his own, and return to the real world.

Now he was afraid Li Cheng was about to pull some stunt again and reawaken this Vietnamese woman, wishing he could shout, "Widow, you must not sleep!"

Fortunately, Li Cheng only slowly picked up the bowl of poison beside the woman, then stepped backward step by step until he was out of the stilt house, before showing the poison to the others.

【Item Name: Lethal Zhen Poison】

【Type: Consumable】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Smooth on the lips, a line down the throat. After injection, ingestion, or absorption, the target enters a poisoned state. Effective against any form of life (plants and animals, spirits, silicon-based lifeforms, undead, constructs, mythological creatures)】

【Cooldown: None】

【Cost: None】

【Usage Requirement: Intelligence attribute greater than or equal to 3】

【Note: The poisoning effect varies in severity and duration depending on the target's vitality. The minimum guarantee is 1 minute of muscle paralysis, arrhythmia, vomiting and diarrhea, and dimming vision】

【Note: You are so poisonous you are so poisonous you are so poisonous wuwuwu】

Hmm?!

Several players raised their eyebrows in unison. The fact that it could be certified by the system proved that this bowl of poison was itself an anomalous item. And the key was that it was a Perfect-quality consumable!

Grey Rain also exclaimed in surprise, "Oh? This can drop an item? Hohohoho, that's wild."

Li Cheng weighed the ceramic bowl in his hand. "Since it's a Perfect item, how about we discuss splitting it?"

"Just keep it."

Bai Ma Mu Bei shook her head. This bowl of poison had been obtained by Li Cheng through his own ability, and the player group didn't have a rule of "everyone present gets a share."

What she was worried about was something else—since this Vietnamese vengeful ghost could drop gold coins, could the dead elsewhere in the building complex also drop equipment and items?

Danger and opportunity coexisted. In a killing field, the greater the opportunity, the greater the risk tended to be. Especially with what appeared to be the ultimate treasure of a hidden realm.

Fu Ding Hua Long and the Racer also thought of this point and fell silent.

Boom!

A deafening explosion came from afar, and a mushroom-shaped pillar of fire pierced through the black snow and shot straight into the clouds.

Rolling shockwaves swept down the street, shattering large numbers of windows, with shards of glass raining down like a storm.

"Let's go check it out."

Bai Ma Mu Bei hoisted her coffin and sprinted toward the explosion, the others following one after another.

The explosion site was a scene of utter devastation. In a crater resembling a meteorite impact, two figures were moving at high speed, fighting desperately.

One was a burly middle-aged priest wearing round-frame glasses, a cross hanging from his neck, holding two straight short swords in his hands, with identical short swords hanging from every corner of his inner vest and long coat.

It was none other than Father Andre, whom Li Cheng had encountered during the Disneyland mission.

Clang clang clang clang clang—

Father Andre's martial arts had reached perfection, his two short swords sweeping like a raging storm, relentless and unending.

At the same time, his tempered body allowed his fists, legs, knees, elbows, and forehead to all serve as weapons.

His opponent was 【World Nuclear Peace House】's Ozaki Aozora.

She was about the same age as Li Cheng, with blue shoulder-length short hair, wearing a kimono.

Ten fingers wore rings of varying sizes, each ring connected to invisible, intangible threads of spiritual energy, through which she controlled ten puppets.

The puppets were all made of ceramic, some humanoid, some beast-shaped, and their speed could actually keep up with Father Andre, who specialized in close combat with physical enhancement.

"Roar!"

A bear-shaped puppet rose up on both legs and used its body weight to press down on Andre.

The priest planted his left foot on the ground, raised his heel,

his right leg muscles taut, nearly bursting the trouser leg, and suddenly leaped into a kick, the tip of his long boot at the instep striking the bear puppet's jaw.

This jaw-shattering spring kick was nearly a full split, textbook and fierce.

The kicked bear puppet was sent flying high. Before it could land, Father Andre leaped up and delivered a diagonal kick in mid-air, sending the bear crashing into another humanoid ceramic puppet.

Clang.

The two puppets smashed into the bottom of the crater. Father Andre rushed forward and pinned both puppets in place with eight short swords wrapped in pages of the Bible—

These puppets had no strict weak points and came with a certain self-healing ability, making them quite troublesome to deal with, so sealing was the better option.

"Ten minus two, eight left."

Just as Andre was about to rise, the humanoid puppet beneath the bear puppet suddenly extended its limbs, like a bamboo cage, clamping down on Andre who was standing on the bear puppet.

At the same time, the thick armor on the bear puppet's chest abruptly opened, revealing a small energy crystal hidden inside.

The energy crystal rapidly shifted from blue to red, and just as it was about to explode, the remaining puppets swarmed over, tightly covering the bamboo cage to prevent Andre from escaping.

All of this happened in just a few short seconds. The players who had just arrived hadn't even figured out what was going on when the puppets detonated with a roar, creating an explosion at the spot slightly smaller in scale than the previous one.

As for Andre, he had activated the 【Inch-Scale Scripture】 he had taken out before at the Disney park, teleporting himself thirty meters away,

Although the right half of his face was charred to coal and his eyeball was gone, he had at least survived. His remaining left eye stared coldly at the puppeteer Ozaki Aozora.

"Ugh—"

The crimson racer said, puzzled: "Why are two players fighting each other?"

"No idea."

Li Cheng shook his head. He only knew those two, not well enough to call them familiar. "Maybe they had a grudge before. In scenario missions, killing people for treasure, snatching someone's opportunities—that kind of thing is way too common.

Being a person, you still have to keep a low profile. Like me, I never make enemies with anyone."

"Why is it that I just don't believe a word of what you're saying?"

The crimson racer squinted and roasted: "If the number of people in the entire Killzone who want you dead hasn't passed two digits, I'll eat my computer screen."

Li Cheng was about to retort, but then thought of the huge bunch of people he'd screwed over—Gouchen, Zhongtian North Pole, Bart Mo Si, the Maniacal Laughter Troupe, and the Prometheus Company that had designs on the Toy Factory.

Seems like it really has passed two digits, huh. Well then, never mind.

He immediately said nonchalantly: "Zhu Bajie, you're greedy again. Next time I won't bring you slop."

"What the hell kind of slop—Zhu Bajie was just mistakenly reborn as a pig, he's not actually a pig."

"Then I won't bring you Master's bath scrub mud."

"There's Tang Monk meat in the bath scrub mud, right? Lucky for you Tang Monk isn't Jewish."

While the two were chatting nonsense, Bai Ma Mu Bei flashed forward and stepped between Andre and Ozaki Aozora. "Both of you, stop. No more fighting."

(End of chapter)