Chapter 409: Rain Sister

When Li Cheng and Grey Rain arrived at the temporary camp, the entire camp was in chaos.

Shouts, accusations, and pleas intertwined in a noisy clamor.

The dining area was unattended; the food in the pots had burned, emitting a strong smell of char.

"What's going on?"

Grey Rain scratched his head in confusion, glanced around, saw no one was paying attention, then sprinted to the buffet area, muttering, "I figured no one wanted this anyway."

He used tweezers to pick up lobster, abalone, Kobe beef steaks, and piled them onto his plate.

He even had the leisure to tie an apron around himself.

Li Cheng was equally baffled; he saw players on the open ground bickering fiercely, some of whom, after showing signs of inner struggle, vanished right where they stood.

Clearly, they had logged out of the arena and returned to the real world, abandoning this exploration.

This involved sunk costs—these players had risked their lives, traversed a cluster of buildings teeming with eerie entities like Vietnamese ghost women, and finally found the secret realm's entrance.

Just as they were about to locate the hidden chamber and divide the spoils, they exited at the critical moment, rendering all prior investment worthless. It made no sense whatsoever.

"Master Pi Fu?"

Tie Gu of 【World Nuclear Peace House】, leveraging his height advantage, spotted Li Cheng from afar and waved to him.

Li Cheng pulled Grey Rain, who was still gorging himself, toward the members of 【World Nuclear Peace House】, and asked, "Who's in charge here now?"

"Technically, no one is in charge."

Tie Gu sighed, shaking his head, his brow etched with anxiety, and explained the current situation as concisely as possible.

Twenty minutes ago, the Whale Song Guild's 【Door-Breaking Difference Engine】 successfully breached the secret realm, carving a portal into the surface of the inverted pyramid.

Players had successively sent drones, fiber-optic robots, spirit servants, and shikigami into the portal, but received no feedback whatsoever.

The fiber-optic cables of the sent machines snapped; the spirit servants and shikigami went offline.

It was speculated that behind the portal lay an amorphous space that, to some degree, did not obey physical laws.

After deliberation and divination, the temporary committee selected nine players—including Sun Changyao, leader of 【World Nuclear Peace House】, and Whale Song's Ercha Shu—as the first reconnaissance team to enter the secret realm's core.

Soon, Ercha Shu sent back word that the area below was still safe, urging the dispatch of second and third waves of players.

Subsequent players who arrived also sent back confirmation of their safety.

But a Whale Song member stationed on the surface sharply noticed a deviation in Ercha Shu's habitual phrasing during communications, and cautiously sent a partial differential equation on fluid dynamics.

Solving it by human brain alone was nearly impossible; it required Whale Song's proprietary skill.

Then, the walkie-talkie went silent.

Not just Ercha Shu—all second and third wave players had ceased all communication.

The answer was obvious: all the explorers, including Ercha Shu, had been controlled by some entity, and were now attempting to lure more players down.

This was terrifying—the first wave, including White Horse Tombstone and others, were seasoned players averaging level 27, and with the possibility of a hidden chamber at stake,

Ercha Shu, Blood Lion Roar, and others had temporarily leased epic-grade equipment from their guilds.

If these powerful players could be silently controlled within minutes of descending, unable to even log out of the arena,

then anyone else going down would be no different from helping someone on Pinduoduo cut a price.

"Regardless, we must save our leader."

You Anjian, gripping his sword, took a deep breath, his expression torn; the other members nodded silently.

They were all rejects discarded by major guilds—Sun Changyao had given them a second chance, helping them structure their power systems and properly settle their families.

Hearts are made of flesh; with Sun Changyao's fate unknown, they had no choice but to risk everything.

"The pills are ready."

The round-faced youth 【Today I Didn't Take My Medicine】, who had been tinkering with a gourd in the corner, wearily stood up and distributed the pills to his comrades.

The information-integrated glasses showed these pills were named 【Bloody Surge】, capable of trading life force for temporary power.

"Though it may be presumptuous,"

Tie Gu hesitated, embarrassed, "Master Pi Fu, would you join us to find our leader? We can pay you now—immediately."

At these words, You Anjian, Ozaki Aoi, and Today I Didn't Take My Medicine all slowed their movements by half a beat.

They had often heard Sun Changyao speak of Li Cheng, her tone filled with admiration and regret.

This kid had risen from an ordinary person to level 20 in such a short time, never joining any guild, repeatedly playing pivotal roles in major events like Noah Gao Ta—and Sun Changyao had failed to persuade, cough, sign Li Cheng into 【World Nuclear Peace House】. It was a tremendous loss.

"Let's talk about payment later—I'll take a look at what's going on first."

Li Cheng shook his head; he had agreed to join this exploration because he had received Sun Changyao's intelligence and came specifically for the Insect Lord's infection body.

Now that his goal was achieved, any further gains were pure profit.

He walked past the members of 【World Nuclear Peace House】 and headed straight for the steam-powered 【Door-Breaking Difference Engine】.

Beneath the difference engine, on the ground of the inverted pyramid, a three-meter-square black plane gaped open.

All light cast upon it was swallowed; the plane rippled like water, constantly undulating.

Beside the plane, representatives of various guilds were still arguing fiercely, especially the two dozen mid-sized guilds that organized this expedition—

They had invested more sunk costs, and thus bore heavier psychological burdens from abandoning the exploration.

"Can all the court ministers, weeping through this night until dawn, and dawn until night, weep Dong Zhuo to death?"

Li Cheng's loud cry cut through the argument,

All guild representatives turned their heads simultaneously toward the voice; many wore expressions of "Who the hell is this?"

"You're here."

Fu Ding Hua Long, seeing Li Cheng, exhaled in relief and introduced him to the others: "This is Master Pi Fu—the one who single-handedly killed two Red-Risk-level wraiths."

A man's reputation, a tree's shadow.

The descent of Noah Gao Ta onto Earth could be seen as the landmark event signaling the arena game's entry into a new phase.

Guilds with access to top-secret documents naturally knew that the player with the ID 【Master Pi Fu】 had played some crucial role within it.

"This one here is even more heavyweight, Sister Hui."

Seeing no one introduced her, Hui Yu slapped her chest and introduced herself: "Fists that can hold a man standing, arms that can let horses run, strength to uproot mountains, propping up the heavens and spanning the seas, majestic on all sides with killing aura swirling, loyal to the king and guarding the convoy, showing off my merit!"

Not Sister Yu, not Sister Yu, not Sister Yu?

Fu Ding Hua Long and Crimson Racer, who had been sitting in the corner as background props, twitched at the corners of their eyes.

But they saw Li Cheng take out his phone and show everyone the cartoon drawing of the cherry tree and the chili tree. "I discovered this mural by accident while exploring the building complex. It doesn't match the surrounding architecture at all.

Has anyone found anything similar?"

The players exchanged glances. A member of the Whale Song Guild hesitated, then said: "When I first entered the building complex, I saw a similar cartoon drawing. It was a flock of ducks."

He digitized his index finger, inserted it into his temple, pulled a green line out of his brain, casually flicked it, and tossed it onto the TV screen, projecting an image of cartoon little yellow ducks swimming under a bridge arch.

"Anything else?"

Li Cheng's eyes lit up. The art style of these little yellow ducks was identical to the chili tree, clearly left behind by the same person.

"That's all, just this one."

That player shook his head and frowned: "Do you have any guesses?"

"I wouldn't call it a guess, I just find it suspicious."

Li Cheng took back his phone, used the electronic pet egg to recall Hui Yu, and himself strode toward the pitch-black plane.

"Wait,"

Fu Ding Hua Long and Crimson Racer stood up at the same time. "The secret realm's situation is unclear. It's too dangerous for you to go down alone."

"I didn't say I was going down alone."

Li Cheng, who had long since used the Death-Seeking Notebook to predict the probability of death, grinned, took out a sheepskin scroll, and said: "There's him to take the lead."

Saying so, he tore open 【Summoning Art · Estate Guard】. As a flash of white light passed, the cowboy-hat estate owner with a left-hand revolver and a right-hand whip materialized out of thin air.

A warm, beaming smile hung on his face. His gaze subtly swept over the dark-skinned players, triggering intense discomfort in them, before he dove headfirst into the pitch-black plane.

Li Cheng followed right behind, assuming a diver's posture, executing a 360-degree spin in mid-air, and plunging into the black plane.

(End of this chapter)