Chapter 403: Oppression

The instant his words fell, the chimneys jutting from the red beetle's back erupted with surging flames like a fighter jet's vectoring nozzles,

the powerful thrust propelling the beetle from where it stood.

Li Cheng's pupils contracted. The single most powerful item on him, 【Hover Engine】, once activated could be called a second coming of a water droplet; its only two flaws were its enormous consumption and its lack of targeting.

The red beetle wheeled sharply midair, so fast that in Li Cheng's retinas only streaks of afterimage remained—he simply could not lock on.

He drew a deep breath, his chest swelling high, and then,

"Roar!"

The skill 【Dragon's Breath】 activated instantly; a crimson dragon phantom materialized above Li Cheng's head and spewed a fan-shaped blaze of roaring fire forward.

The omnipresent fungal mat was reduced to charcoal in an instant, giving off wafts of roasting-meat aroma,

while the chitinous armor on the red beetle's exterior rapidly took on a metallic sheen. It charged head-on through the terrifying heat to Li Cheng, its two scythe-like forelimbs slashing in from left and right.

The skill 【A Knight Does Not Die Empty-Handed】 activated. The steel banner-spear in Li Cheng's hands, with the exquisite force of a Wudao Sect grandmaster, tapped twice between the beetle's two scythes, propelling himself backward and narrowly dodging the strike.

The whole sequence looked light and effortless, but the split tiger-mouth of his palm and the faintly fractured arm bones silently attested to the peril just now.

The red beetle gave Li Cheng no chance to catch his breath. The vectoring chimney nozzles on its back fired again, drifting and weaving like lightning,

its two forelimbs pressed flat against its body, spinning like a top fitted with blades, hacking toward him as it rotated.

Clang clang clang clang!

Li Cheng's spear darted out like a dragon, blocking in rapid succession as he retreated.

At the same time, the 【Ape Degeneration Gun】 stuck to his belly fired twice, yet failed to hit the red beetle—the creature deliberately flung off two pieces of its outer carapace, blocking the gun's bullets much like a tank's reactive armor against anti-tank weapons.

Plop.

The two pieces of carapace degenerated into steaming, turkey-flavored rice crust, and crashed to the ground.

Li Cheng backhanded a bat-claw grapple to widen the distance again; the two scythes split into the floor, shattering the reinforced concrete, which crumbled down to the fourth basement level.

The fourth basement level, like the second, was completely empty, but for some reason two cartoon-style cherry trees and chili trees were painted on the walls.

There was no time to wonder why there would be pictures of chili trees. Li Cheng activated 【Instant Thunder】 and 【Leopard Leap Double Jump】, dodging and weaving past plasma cannons, leaping down a floor,

when suddenly his brain gave a twitch and he flung a 【Death-Curse Torrent】 at the ground beside him.

Huh?!

In a flash, Li Cheng had already realized—the red beetle was not a player, it could not possibly wield such an ability.

In other words, the interference came from... He Sai.

【Skill Scroll Name: Mind-Scrambling Confused Thought】

【Attribute: Consumable (single use only)】

【Type: Psionic】

【Usage: Active】

【Rarity: Fine】

【Effect: The greatest chaos in history. Designate one target, causing their thoughts to deviate randomly from their actual actions for 10 seconds. If the target is a Summoner, it additionally forces them to release a random skill.】

【Cost: 110 Spirit points, 100 Sanity points】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Requirement: Have resided in a mental hospital for at least seven days without being suspected by anyone】

【Note: There are only 8 billion people on Earth, and you're telling me the movie made 10 billion at the box office? You think I'm brainless?】

He Sai's head still had its eyes rolled back, a torn sheepskin scroll clamped in its mouth, silently releasing its curse power.

What the hell...

Li Cheng inwardly shouted "WTF." Sure enough, the brief flicker of self-awareness He Sai had shown earlier was a trap—he had long been completely controlled by the red beetle.

Nothing left but a head, yet still able to use skill scrolls.

Understanding it is one thing, adapting on the fly is another. Thoughts and actions out of sync—wanting to strike but lifting a foot, wanting to turn but bending at the waist—Li Cheng simply could not plant his steel banner-spear into the ground to open a Purification Domain and strip away the curse.

Fortunately, he still had one item.

At his heel, a bronze bell mottled with rust appeared out of thin air and, under gravity, crashed to the ground.

Vast Sea Soul-Locking Bell,

【Effect Two: Silence. After ringing the bell, interrupt the target's currently casting skill and seal that skill for one hour.】

He Sai's interference-type skill scroll would scramble one's actions, but a player taking an item from their inventory is essentially an interaction with the system and does not count as an "action."

As the bell hit the ground and rang out, the chaotic feeling imposed on his whole body vanished in an instant.

Li Cheng took out that 【Perfect Replenishment Pill】, bit down hard to replenish his Spirit, then spewed black dragon acid toward the ceiling breach, forcing the red beetle back.

In barely a dozen seconds, he had been forced to use a pile of skills and items, and still hadn't found a chance to use the Hover Engine.

If you swapped in a same-level lv21 player, they'd probably have had their head lopped off by the Abomination-infected and their hot blood drunk dry by now.

Grey Rain also knew this was a life-or-death moment. He hefted the Skull-Crusher Power Hammer and smashed it viciously toward He Sai.

The latter ducked into the cannon's base like a turtle pulling in its head,

but under the hammer's concussive strike, force was transmitted through, and with a bang he was blasted out the opposite side of the cannon base, half his skull caved in,

no longer able to perform the action of "tearing the skill scroll."

No matter—He Sai's remaining value had already been squeezed dry,

the red beetle leapt down to the fourth basement level, its two scythes sweeping like a whirlwind, clinging to the pursuit like a ghost, while issuing commands in the form of pheromones.

The fungal mat clinging to the third basement level's ceiling suddenly tore open, hatching countless flying insects from within.

These flying insects resembled Earth's pea aphids of the order Homoptera, with a pair of wings on their backs and abnormally swollen abdomens divided into two compartments, each compartment stuffed full of liquid.

Countless bloated aphids surged straight at Li Cheng, the liquids in their abdominal compartments mixing,

and then—explosion.

The detonation velocity of an explosive is an important indicator of its explosive performance; the higher the detonation velocity, the greater the power.

The detonation velocity of black powder is roughly 300–500 meters per second; TNT is 7000 m/s; RDX is 8750 m/s; HMX is 9100 m/s.

Constrained by chemical reaction kinetics—especially the kinetics themselves—a wall known as the Sighing Wall of ten thousand meters per second stands in the way of conventional explosives' detonation velocity.

Once the detonation velocity exceeds a critical threshold, it inevitably interferes with the explosive's own chemical reaction, thereby reducing the detonation velocity.

Precisely for this reason, these pea aphids chose to blaze a different trail.

Every aphid is effectively a biological detonator, treating the extremely faint bioelectricity in its body as an instantaneous electric detonator. Upon reaching the designated location, they detonate simultaneously with zero delay.

Thereby sidestepping the limits imposed by the explosive's chemical reaction kinetics.

Its detonation velocity just barely reached 9500 m/s.

Boom!!!

The thunderous roar was deafening,

the entire basement shaking violently, on the verge of collapse.

The red beetles, whose armor protection far exceeded that of a tank, easily withstood the blast, casually shaking the dust from their bodies.

As for Li Cheng, he stood amid the ruins, activating 【Stubborn Rock Rooting Art】 to harden his body, and at the cost of his left arm, just barely blocked the explosive shockwave.

His right arm gripped 【Liangyi Blade】, plunged into his own chest.

Crack, crack.

Li Cheng opened his petrified eyes, his battered body suddenly swelling.

(End of this chapter)