Chapter 434: Puzzle

The woman in black walked forward slowly, and with each step, the surrounding lights extinguished in clusters.

Ye Jiaying strained to swallow a mana-restoring potion, trying to replenish more spiritual energy, but she had already consumed too much during the intense battle and developed temporary drug resistance.

She barely managed to restore only two hundred points of spiritual energy, at the cost of her palms trembling uncontrollably like Parkinson's disease, and her long hair falling out in clumps.

Li Cheng's expression was unusually serious; his left hand gripped the levitation engine, his right hand held the Taiyi Blade horizontally at his waist.

The Insect Form + hypersonic elbow strike was the absolute peak of physical attacks a cultivator of this level could muster—even a solid mountain peak could be smashed to pieces.

But this woman in black moved with eerie unpredictability, her exact abilities unknown; if she possessed powers like phasing through matter or spatial teleportation, a single hypersonic elbow strike consuming 300 spiritual energy points could easily be neutralized.

The Taiyi Blade silently sliced a ten-centimeter gash along his waist—just a little longer, and it could directly switch forms.

"Tree Brother, can you read any clues?" Li Cheng asked in a low voice.

"Yes." The Binary Tree, as a core force of Whale Song, could spend accumulated contribution points before each mission to rent non-bound equipment and items.

At this moment, he pulled a disc from his inventory slot and inserted it into his VR goggles.

The VR goggles twisted and transformed into a four-eyed night-vision scope, scanning the woman in black from afar.

【Name: h】

【Gender: Female】

【Race: Puzzle】

【Age: 3 years, 2 months, 7 days】

【Height: 165】

【Weight: 55kg】

【Ability: Reality Warping · Matter Manipulation】

Is there a "Puzzle" race in the battlefield?

There was no time to think further; the Binary Tree immediately projected the information as a 3D hologram into the air and shouted: "Watch out—she's a Reality Warper."

Reality Warper is a broad term, generally referring to exceptional individuals who can alter reality through perception and willpower.

Similar to innate spiritual energy users, they vary in strength and are easily confused with psychics.

Weak Reality Warpers can at most slightly distort physical laws—bending metal spoons with thought, seeing newspaper text through a metal box—like Zhenzi before she died.

Slightly stronger ones can fly, vanish underground, pass through solid walls, teleport over vast distances, or even create objects from nothing—like the protagonists of the movies *Chronicle* and *The Cell*.

Even stronger ones can massively warp reality, achieving a degree of wish-fulfillment—like Alesha from *Silent Hill*, who could pull an entire town into her pocket dimension.

To some extent, characters in comedic cartoons also belong to this level of Reality Warper.

Jumping from a high-rise won't make you fall if you don't look down. Grabbing your own hair lets you lift yourself off the ground. Holding a bomb in your hands only blackens your face.

And even stronger Reality Warpers are virtually indistinguishable from gods—uttering words that become law, manipulating time and space, shattering dimensional walls.

They appear only rarely in scripted missions, and when they do, they're merely background elements.

For example, players are tasked with pleasing Haruhi Suzumiya or SCP-239.

Judging by the aura of the woman in black, she was at least at Alesha's level from *Silent Hill*—roughly ten times stronger than Zhenzi, or ten Witches Carrie.

"Pfft."

Blood Lion roared, exhaled a puff of smoke, and from inside the cockpit, the tip of its boot suddenly kicked the mecha's self-destruct button.

Crack!

The self-destruct button, which should have depressed, remained utterly motionless, as if filled with lead.

The woman in black didn't even look at him—she merely waved her hand, and the fifty-ton Infinite Justice mecha lying on the ground was shoved aside.

"Respected Ms. /Mr. /Non-binary h," Li Cheng said, "no matter what kind of scripted boss you are, trying to talk first is always better. Don't we seem to have no irreconcilable conflict?"

You sealed the first batch of transcenders across the secret realm without randomly killing them—doesn't that prove there's room for cooperation between us?"

Let me put it this way: we're a bunch of wandering cultivators with all sorts of skills.

Whether you want longevity, cosmetic surgery, property purchase, matchmaking, or even leaving the secret realm to enjoy life in the Flower World—I know people in the Special Affairs Bureau; they're experts at smuggling scripted bosses out."

Perhaps sensing his words lacked conviction, Li Cheng flipped his palm and pulled out a stack of photos from his 3D storage compartment, displaying them to the woman in black.

In one, a grotesque wooden figure with a human face stood in a stadium, holding a baseball bat.

"This is Tungtungtungtungsahur from the AI Shanhaijing world—he's the star batter in the Special Affairs Bureau's 10th Extraterrestrial Life Friendly Exchange Games."

Li Cheng pulled out another photo: a girl with twin buns holding a large green onion.

"This is Hatsune Miku. She has fifteen years of music composition experience, with thousands upon thousands of artistic works, impeccable virtue and talent, fans worldwide. She's currently a National First-Class Singer and a professor at the China Conservatory of Music—her new single 'Eight Directions of Onions' is number one on the charts."

The third photo showed a colossal octopus-headed ancient god squatting on a reef, radiating malevolent energy.

"This one's even more heavyweight—Cthulhu, you know? He's now the NSQD tourism ambassador. His slogan: 'R'lyeh, an ancient underwater cultural city, millennia of heritage, unparalleled scenery, more Maldives than Phuket.'"

Li Cheng was making it all up; Ye Jiaying and Blood Lion, who had already resigned themselves to death, stared in stunned silence, barely holding back.

Dude, where the hell did you get these photos?

The Binary Tree could see through the ruse—the photos still bore clear traces of AI generation; he guessed that the moment the woman in black appeared,

Master Pi Fu had remotely activated the AI image generator and photo printer inside a space item to urgently print this stack.

Perhaps Li Cheng's bluff was too outrageous—the woman in black finally stopped walking.

She paused for several seconds, scanning everyone present, a hint of sorrow in her eyes, then spoke slowly: "At the very bottom of the inverted pyramid lies your stolen player essence, and a hidden passage."

Defeat me, pass the final trial, and you can escape through the hidden passage."

Hidden passage? Escape route?

Li Cheng seized on the clue instantly and rushed: "Ms. h, you're not the master of the secret realm? We don't need to fight to the death—we can sit down and negotiate. If all else fails, just tell me what 'Chayuji' means?"

Negotiation? Anything can be negotiated.

From her demeanor, this woman in black h was clearly far more reasonable than the sarcastic Horse-Headed S, the incommunicable Flesh Mountain L, the hostile Grey-Green Giant A, or the antagonistic Suit Baby E.

Too bad

"A, L, S, E—and me—we're all Chayuji. At least, we're all part of him."

The woman in black darkened her gaze, then raised her palm and said calmly, "Defeat me. If you cannot overcome me, there's no need for you to go down."

Without any extraneous motion, the utility poles, traffic lights, cars, and billboards along the street were each crushed and torn apart along invisible arrows.

Li Cheng urgently slammed out a palm of hurricane-force wind, shoving his teammates away, while he himself grabbed Hui Yu and leaped backward in retreat, narrowly avoiding the invisible threat.

His mind raced: the best way to counter a reality-warping opponent was to strike from beyond visual range, annihilating them instantly, giving them no time to react—it had to succeed on the first try.

"Master Pi Fu,"

The Bai Ma Mu Bei suddenly turned her head and said calmly, "Take everyone and go ahead first. I'll hold the rear."

"Huh? Are you sure?" Li Cheng paused, his tone veiled. "I still have one final trump card—perhaps it could work."

"Don't worry, my last move is extremely powerful—and it doesn't distinguish between friend or foe."

The Bai Ma Mu Bei pressed her lips together; much of her face had just regrown, her skin pale with a flush, her gaze resolute yet tinged with sorrow. "Go quickly—it's running out of time."

"Chì chù."

Among players, few were ones to dawdle; since the Tombstone Sister had said so, Li Cheng seized the unconscious Red Spider and Nicolas in each hand, grabbed Er Cha Shu and Changsun Yao, and boarded the armored truck of Blood Lion's Roar.

Crushing through the ruined commercial pedestrian street, it sped toward the passage ahead.

"Now, it's just you and me."

The Bai Ma Mu Bei turned back, gazing at the woman in black standing a hundred meters away, and resolutely drove the coffin into the ground, then punched open the iron chains bound to its surface.

(End of Chapter)