Chapter 429

Unexpectedly, the gun barrel did not spew flame, nor did any bullet exit the chamber.

Time seemed slowed down by dozens of times at this moment; Red Spider exhaled in relief, the screen of the Er Cha Shu VR glasses quivering violently as it struggled to focus and locate the bullet.

Li Cheng slowly blinked, his eyelashes casting a grid-like shadow across his vision.

A line—a virtual line piercing through space—appeared out of nowhere, stretching between the IKEA sofa three thousand meters away and the gray-green giant A.

As a perfect-grade consumable weapon, the bullet of 【Miraculous Grace】 had approached the realm of concept, intangible and formless, acting directly upon the giant's life essence.

It forced the giant to stagger backward several steps, then suddenly freeze in place, as over a dozen blurred, slowly toppling backward shadows of giants drifted from behind it.

All the shadows trembled slightly, like afterimages from an old television.

"Cough, cough—is this… a success?"

Inside the cockpit, Blood Lion roared, coughing violently; oil and coolant continuously spewed from the joints of the Justice Mech, fully reflecting his current physical condition.

"Half a success."

Er Cha Shu's expression was grim; Giant A was not dead, at most temporarily sealed. Once the seal broke, it would bounce right back, eat like a horse, and climb five flights of stairs without breaking a sweat.

"We need to move quickly."

At this moment, Red Spider also activated his skill, stepping on the wind as he approached and said rapidly: "This shot from 【Miraculous Grace】 applies debuffs: reduced magic resistance, disarm, and seal. It should last about ten minutes."

This giant possesses attributes of 'ultra-high defense,' 'rapid self-healing,' and 'stronger when injured'—even while sealed, these effects still activate.

Therefore, unless one of you has a devastating killing technique capable of eliminating it instantly the moment the seal breaks,

my advice is to run now."

As the top enforcer of the 【Suit Thugs】 guild, Red Spider's power system was highly complete and refined.

This shot wasn't just the power of 【Miraculous Grace】; it stacked multiple shooting skills and items on top of each other.

Including but not limited to 【Magic Break】—infusing the next bullet with anti-magic enhancement.

【Scout's Sniper Scope】—the farther the target, the higher the damage, up to a fixed bonus cap.

【Gun Soul】—entering a state of complete meditation, temporarily gaining the experience and expertise of history's greatest snipers, such as Simo Häyhä, Vasily Zaytsev, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Matthias Härtel, and Zhang Taofang.

Who dares say I'm cheating? I'll end their life—the S1 and S2 season champion Gun God runes are already equipped.

The excessive drain turned his once glossy, lustrous hair completely white, leaving him gaunt and aged by over twenty years.

"Run. There's no shame in it."

Without hesitation, Blood Lion roared down a vial of healing potion, restoring his injuries.

Affected by the 【Human-Machine Life Link】 skill, the healing effect spread from his body to the Justice Mech.

Broken cables reconnected, damaged brake pad armor automatically detached, and blown tires were replaced.

It wouldn't be restored to perfect condition, but at least it could move again.

Clank-clatter-clunk.

After a series of transformation sounds, the Justice Mech reverted to a heavy-duty truck. Blood Lion roared, waving for everyone to board—

Ten minutes would be enough for them to flee deep underground.

Everyone boarded the heavy-duty truck, except Li Cheng, who stood motionless in place.

"Why aren't you leaving?" Bai Ma Mu Bei exclaimed in shock; in her mind, Master Pi Fu appeared careless and unreliable, but on important matters, he was dependable.

"It's meaningless."

Li Cheng pushed his Information Synthesis Glasses up with his middle finger and said calmly: "Actually, there's not ten minutes—less than three. Look at the giant's soles."

Everyone followed Li Cheng's gaze and saw faint buds emerging beneath the giant's soles.

They resembled parasites, or wax melting into droplets.

"The giant isn't a conventional carbon-based lifeform. If you forcibly call its bodily components 'cells,' then it exists in a constant state of spontaneous birth and death, death and rebirth."

Li Cheng scanned meticulously with his Information Eyes, speaking rapidly: "【Miraculous Grace】 seals the past version of the giant—it cannot seal new giants born from cell division."

Left unchecked, in less than two minutes, it will complete its self-renewal, discard its old self, and 'hatch' a new individual."

Sure enough, within a few breaths, the wax-like substance beneath the giant's soles began to take on the faint outline of a baby-sized human form.

Meanwhile, the giant's main body slowly flaked away, like sand eroded by wind.

"I fucking" Blood Lion roared an oath; this giant's value was too high—laser eyes, ultra-defense, infinite energy, infinite HP, built-in flight, stronger the more you hit.

If placed on a modern Earth in a parallel universe, one giant could crush all standing armies; only a nearby detonation of atomic or hydrogen bombs might destroy it.

Compared to it, the Horse-Headed S and the Meat Mountain L

Were just cosplaying shameless versions of the Evil Knight and David Bowie.

Can't run, can't kill,

Bai Ma Mu Bei, sleeves torn to reveal muscular arms, sighed and pulled a WWII-era military flask from her inventory, taking a deep swig.

The liquor wasn't some special battlefield brew—it was simply the homemade vodka her late grandparents had distilled.

Others' eyes dimmed; players lived precarious lives, their average lifespan even shorter than drug-addicted pharmacists and bodybuilders, yet here were a group of Lv27 and Lv28 players

who died in a secret realm over a rumor, never even seeing the legendary Hidden Realm—it was too frustrating.

"Master Pi Fu, since your player essence hasn't been stolen, you should be able to return to the real world anytime, right?"

Blood Lion pulled a pre-prepared envelope from his inventory: "Please deliver this letter to my guild's leader."

"I still have one last trick up my sleeve—maybe, possibly, perhaps I can kill the giant."

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. "Not the backup hidden energy source, are you?"

"You guessed right."

Blood Lion sighed helplessly—he planned to activate 【Human-Machine Life Link】, swallow the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Pill, overload the engine, and detonate the mech, achieving dual self-destruction of man and machine; the estimated blast would equal at least a medium-yield tactical nuke.

Upon hearing this, all other players turned to him, their gazes filled with shock, concern, or solemn respect.

"Don't look at me—if there were another way, I wouldn't kill myself."

Blood Lion sighed helplessly, skillfully pulling a half-crushed pack of cheap cigarettes from the truck drawer, lighting one up,

"Also, I made a personality backup at the Songwhale Guild, and spent a fortune hiring the Wicked Science Alliance to custom-make a perfect-grade clone body.

"After I die, the Wicked Science Alliance will activate the clone, implant the memories, and take my place looking after my family.

"In a certain sense, the new me will be luckier than the Transcendents still struggling to survive in the Killing Grounds."

So it is said: a man about to die speaks kindly.

The Blood Lion, having calmly accepted death, let out an especially carefree roar, took a hard drag on his cigarette, blew out the smoke, then drew it back in through his nose, letting it swirl in his lungs.

"Alright, you lot, get out of here. Leave this area."

The burly, bearded big man tossed down his cigarette butt, crushed it under his foot, then stuck his hand out the truck window and vigorously raised his middle finger at the void. "Damned Killing Grounds, I screw your ancestors."

With that, he pulled off the truck's steering wheel, revealing a red skull-head button hidden inside.

"Uh, actually, there's no need to be in such a rush."

The mood had already been built up to this point, and Li Cheng's expression turned a little awkward. "I have a method that I'm not sure will work."

He took out the butterfly hairpin he had captured, and from his dimensional warehouse, he brought out a large number of metal buckets, PVC plastic pipes, and drainage connectors.

"Wait, you're going to—" Binary Tree, who had reacted first, widened his eyes.

"Mm, that's right."

Li Cheng's hands moved swift as lightning, activating 【Assembled Puppet · Modified】, forcibly splicing these things together until they formed a spherical device.

It used the plastic pipes as its skeleton, the drainage connectors as joints, with all the metal buckets facing inward.

Somewhat similar to a 3D laser scanning system.

Li Cheng attached a levitation engine to the spherical device, gently lifted it, and while the grey-green giant was pinned in place, pressed it down over the giant so that every bucket was aimed at him.

Then, he took a water pump and a water tank out of the warehouse, and pumped water into the pipe system.

Thanks to the levitation engine, the water pumped in was not affected by gravity and did not flow to the ground, but clung inside the buckets.

As for the final step—

Li Cheng placed the butterfly hairpin into the topmost part of the pipe and softly chanted: "Cha Yu Qi."

The next second, a sudden change occurred—every bucket sprouted a rotting corpse, which waved its corrosively rotting arms with claw and fang, neatly gouging into the giant.

(End of chapter)