Chapter 414: Shame

"."

Li Cheng exchanged a glance with Binary Tree. This toll was a bit too abstract. Staring into someone's eyes for ten seconds—who do you think you are, Ghost Rider?

Binary Tree said in a low voice, "This condition is negotiable, but you have to put him down first."

"No problem."

The horse-headed man s let go cleanly, and Red Spider dropped to the ground, clutching his neck and coughing twice.

"You're definitely thinking, am I Ghost Rider, with the Penance Stare—lock eyes with someone and see all the sins buried in their heart, judge their soul and burn them to death."

The horse-headed man s seemed fully confident he could suppress the three players, hands on hips, completely unguarded. "Relax, I don't have the Penance Stare. I have this."

He snapped his fingers with one hand, and the heavy crimson velvet curtain on the theater stage drew itself open, pushing out three wooden backdrop panels forming an enclosure from behind.

The backdrop panels were painted to look like a classroom—desks, stools, TV, projector, air conditioner, everything was there. High school physics problems were written on the blackboard.

On the podium in front of the blackboard stood a life-sized wooden puppet: middle-aged man, gray shirt, beer belly, glasses.

And behind the desks sat a group of student puppets wearing high school uniforms.

All the puppets could move on their own, their postures and motions no different from a real person's, yet their faces were unnaturally stiff. The uncanny valley effect was at its peak.

"Blood Lion. Roar?"

All three players cried out in shock at once. The face of one high school student puppet in the back row was none other than Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao, more than ten years younger.

This vice guild-master of 【Mecha Thunder】 in the real world, currently sporting a full beard, was then still green and tender, even a bit of a pretty boy (side proof that his mane of red hair was dyed later),

He sat in the back row, pretending to listen attentively to the teacher, while in reality under the desk he was playing the mobile game *Defend the Radish 2* on his iPhone 6 with one hand.

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao—or rather, his puppet—kept playing on his phone, completely ignoring the three players' shouts.

"What's wrong with him."

Binary Tree barked in a low voice. The VR goggles on his head lit up with charging red light like heat vision, and his arms turned into green data, constructing an exaggerated-looking futuristic firearm.

His electronic brain stored massive amounts of player identity data.

The uniforms those puppets on stage wore were indeed the ones Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao wore in high school.

And the faces of every student in the class matched up one-to-one with these puppets—every single one checked out.

"Don't get worked up."

The horse-headed man s said lightly, "He's just trapped. By his. shame."

Huh?

The physics teacher puppet on the podium was lecturing on a physics problem. "Listen carefully, this is another freebie. In an infinitely large uniform magnetic field—"

Suddenly, the teacher noticed Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao wasn't paying attention in the back row. Without changing expression, he set down the chalk and strode toward the back of the classroom.

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao's desk-mate immediately sensed something was off and kicked him hard under the desk with his shoe.

The latter came to his senses and hurriedly stuffed his phone into the deepest part of the desk drawer, but it was already too late.

The teacher held out his hand and snorted, "Hand it over."

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao stood up, tongue-tied. Seeing him like that, the teacher reached into the drawer and fished out the phone, about to confiscate it.

"Teacher, don't—"

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao hastily grabbed the teacher's wrist. In the scuffle, their palms accidentally swiped across the phone screen, exiting the game interface and switching to. Kuai Bo.

"Mmm-ah-ah~"

The moans rang through the classroom, and everyone froze.

"Our school has always upheld the educational philosophy of 'Virtue Broad, Learning Deep, Practice Earnest, Vision Far,' deepening reform of education and teaching, cultivating students' innovative thinking and cultural confidence."

Coincidentally, the principal was escorting leaders from the Education Bureau past the classroom window. The principal had already realized something was wrong and abruptly raised his voice in explanation, trying to drown out the increasingly impassioned moans. "Students at our school have repeatedly achieved excellent results in academic competitions and cultural-sports activities—"

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao snatched the phone from the dumbfounded teacher's hand and frantically mashed the volume-down button, but in his panic he made the sound not only fail to drop but grow even louder.

"Mmm-mmm-mmm! Ah—"

The sound lingered on, ringing to the skies.

"Hiss!"

The sheer awkwardness of the scene made Grey Rain, watching from the audience seats, curl his toes into the ground.

Bang!

Perhaps the shame was too intense—the puppet representing Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao suddenly exploded, shattering into countless wood chips.

Time itself froze and reversed at that moment, rewinding to the scene where the physics teacher had just begun his problem, and a new cycle began.

"." Binary Tree pressed his lips together slightly. He seemed to understand what had just happened and said to the horse-headed man s, "Staring into your eyes brings back the most mortifying moments of your life?"

"Correct."

The horse-headed man s nodded. "Ghost Rider's Penance Stare makes the target recall every crime they've committed, making their soul feel all the harm and pain they've caused the innocent, and judges and punishes them.

If there are no crimes, no harm is done. If the sins are grave, they fall into hell forever.

As for my eyes, the effect is similar.

Only it's swapped for every shameful moment in your life. If the target can endure it and isn't captured again by the emotion of shame, nothing happens.

If they can't endure it, they become like him—a puppet, and also. an eternal actor in my theater."

"Actor?"

Red Spider couldn't help saying, "Dude, that's a pretty weird kink."

"How is my kink weird? My kink is perfectly normal."

The horse-headed man s declared loudly, "What do you know? These social-death scenes, mixed with awkwardness, guilt, vexation, and shame—I'll never get tired of them no matter how many times I watch.

It's the soul-stirring throb that, no matter how many years pass, when you suddenly remember it at night, you still roll around hugging your pillow!

It's art! It's aesthetics!

It's 'fine writing comes from heaven, caught by a ready hand'!

It's the unrepeatable miracle of life!"

The horse-headed man grew more and more agitated as he spoke, his body continuously swelling and rising until he was almost level with the theater's second floor.

"Fine, fine, fine, you're right about everything, calm down."

Binary Tree hurriedly waved his hand,

The horse-headed man snorted coldly, his body shrinking back to its original size. "How about this — as long as you can hold eye contact with me for ten seconds, I'll release this Blood Lion thing and let you pass.

Of course, if you want to fight, I'll keep you company."

Hearing this, the three players exchanged glances. "We need to discuss it."

"Suit yourselves."

The horse-headed man, quite confident, waved his hand, gesturing for the players to discuss among themselves.

The few stepped aside, and Binary Tree first deployed his Data Domain to block and isolate sound.

Li Cheng's expression was solemn. "Let's discuss how to handle this."

"The Quantum Prediction System shows that if we fight to the death, our win rate doesn't exceed 20%."

Binary Tree pressed his lips together slightly. He was lv28, Red Spider was lv27, Master Pi Fu lv21.

He wasn't clear on the other two's skills and equipment combinations, but even by the most optimistic estimate, their side's win rate hadn't passed half — the horse-headed man was very likely lv30 or higher.

"In other words, we can only bet against him?"

Red Spider tapped his forehead with the barrel of his gun, his expression twisted as if wearing a mask of agony.

Both he and Binary Tree had their player essence stripped away, unable to return to the real world. Even if they held out here for seven more days until the script mission,

once the mission ended, they'd still be teleported back to the Jin Zita secret realm.

No way to retreat.

"Can't we just force our way through?"

Grey Rain raised his hand. "The entire inverted pyramid's passage system is that straight, only turning at the very end. Just grab the Blood Lion Roaring puppet and sprint straight through, wouldn't that work?"

"Not really."

Li Cheng glanced at the horse-headed man — he seemed to be getting bored waiting, his body flickering rapidly like the Flash or Quicksilver. In the blink of an eye, he'd somehow produced a ceramic teacup, coffee maker, kettle, and small wooden table,

and was leisurely brewing himself a cup of coffee.

His speed was different from that earlier prosopometamorphopsia patient — the latter teleported, while the horse-headed man was simply fast.

If the players tried to sprint through, they'd probably be caught up in minutes,

and considering there might be other anomalies underground, they'd be caught in a pincer attack — even more doomed.

After a brief discussion, Binary Tree dismissed the soundproofing domain and strode toward the horse-headed man. "We can agree, but you have to agree to a few conditions from us too."

(End of chapter)