Chapter 437: Director

Distant basalt pillars emitted a faint, intermittent sound like ocean waves.

An intensely ominous premonition, like a heavy curtain, enveloped everyone.

"Here it comes!"

Accompanied by Binary Tree's tense shout, blood-red, salty seawater surged forth in a twenty-meter-high tidal wave, sweeping toward them.

"Get to the Gundam!"

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao bellowed, piloting the Infinite Justice Gundam backward swiftly to evade the water. As Changsun Yao boarded the Gundam, she didn't forget to drag along San Riyue's corpse.

Clank—clank—clank—

The tank treads beneath the Infinite Justice Gundam crushed rows of basalt pillars, but they could not match the speed of the rushing waves.

At the critical moment, Binary Tree threw out a device resembling a diving bell figurine, instantly erecting a hemispherical waterproof shield large enough to cover the Infinite Justice Gundam, holding back the tons of crimson water.

"98% water, the remaining 2% proteins, glucose, hormones, electrolytes, enzymes, shed cells."

Li Cheng adjusted his Information Synthesis glasses, his brow furrowing unconsciously, "Is this amniotic fluid?"

"Yes. Bloody amniotic fluid."

Binary Tree clenched his lips tightly; normal amniotic fluid is usually colorless and transparent, or slightly cloudy pale yellow. Red fluid is bloody amniotic fluid, typically associated with placental abruption, placenta previa, cervical bleeding, and similar conditions.

Thud!

A mature human hand, thickly covered in hair, slammed heavily against the outside of the waterproof shield.

Then, a familiar human face pressed against the shield, burbling out bubbles.

It was Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao.

Changsun Yao, Li Cheng, and Binary Tree instantly reacted, turning toward the Infinite Justice Gundam's cockpit.

The Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao who should have been sitting in the cockpit had, at some point, been replaced by a withered, slender figure in a hood.

Its entire face was hidden beneath the hood; its exposed hands and feet, protruding from coarse fabric, were covered in all manner of wounds.

Including but not limited to cigarette burns, lash marks, cuts, blunt-force contusions, and more.

"Paper God Technique—"

Changsun Yao unhesitatingly activated her last-resort ability, her body dissolving into thousands of paper fragments that fluttered in the wind.

Yet the hooded figure merely raised one index finger, instantly disrupting Changsun Yao's ethereal form. She screamed in agony, reverting to human shape, then tore out both eyes from her eye sockets with bare hands.

"Cyber Art—"

Binary Tree's roar had not yet ended when the hooded figure's index finger touched him; his entire body froze. He shrieked, swung his fist, and crushed his VR goggles, then gouged out his own eyeballs.

Not only Binary Tree— even Red Spider and Nicolas, lying unconscious in the Infinite Justice Gundam's hand, stirred and tore out their own eyeballs.

So that's how it was—the Card King had been captured and controlled by this hooded figure named F.

A lightning thought flashed through his mind; at that moment, unspeakable terror flooded his entire body.

His limbs turned icy, blood reversed its flow, his heart stopped beating.

Li Cheng unhesitatingly severed the brain region governing fear, slapped the back of his skull, and forcibly ejected both eyeballs, still connected to nerves, from his eye sockets.

Simultaneously, he flung out an electronic pet egg, sealing away Grey Rain—who still didn't understand what was happening—and immediately opened his player profile, exiting the Killing Ground.

Plop.

His feet once again touched the familiar living room floor.

Li Cheng gasped for breath; a rhythmic throbbing pain pulsed through his skull. The healing ability he'd stolen from Daqun took effect, stopping the bleeding.

"Huh? We're back in the real world?" Grey Rain, released from the electronic pet egg and still ready to fight, held his skull-cracking power hammer, "What happened?"

"That thing burns Sanity Points directly. Everyone else is dead."

Li Cheng installed electronic prosthetic eyes into his empty sockets; merely locking eyes with the unseen hooded figure for half a second had burned away 650 Sanity Points.

Binary Tree, Changsun Yao, Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao, and the comatose Red Spider and Nicolas—all five had, like the Card King, been instantly brainwashed and controlled by the hooded figure, and all had gouged out both eyes.

Only because he reacted quickly and removed his own eyes first had he narrowly escaped control.

The first, second, and third waves of players who entered had all perished. Li Cheng paused to think, then opened his friend list and found the liaison representative for this operation.

This exploration of the secret realm was primarily led by two dozen mid-sized guilds, with major guilds like Whale Song and Special Affairs Bureau also sending participants.

Li Cheng was likely the only person who had entered the inverted pyramid and survived.

He briefly reported to the liaison what had occurred in the secret realm, including the deaths of Binary Tree and the others.

After a moment of silence, the other side still expressed regret and gratitude to Li Cheng.

Hours later, the player forum updated a post announcing the failure of this secret realm exploration: all surviving players had evacuated, and websites like World Nuclear Peace had posted obituaries—

Due to the automatic closure of the portal, even You Anjian and others from World Nuclear Peace could not recover Changsun Yao's corpse or arrange a burial for her.

Perhaps this is the fate of the Chosen—standing by the river long enough, you will inevitably get wet; ninety-nine percent of players will one day die mysteriously in a script mission or Killing Ground.

Li Cheng closed the forum page with a sigh; this was his first mission failure since his debut.

But there was no time to mourn Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao and the others. Li Cheng had Grey Rain separate a portion of its liquid metal, shaping it into simulated eyeballs, and inserted them into his sockets. Then he left home and mounted his bicycle.

"Where are we going?" Grey Rain, now fully transformed into a sleek silver hoodie worn by Li Cheng, whispered softly.

"Red Star Orphanage."

Li Cheng still remembered the clue mentioned by San Riyue; following the Yinx City mobile map, he found the orphanage.

oC〇

Contrary to his expectations of outdated facilities and harsh conditions, the Red Star Orphanage's buildings were brand-new and well-maintained.

The children running and playing on the playground wore bright, sunlit smiles, "Cai Anjie, slow down!"

"Pfft~ Come catch me, dummy!"

Li Cheng found an empty public restroom nearby, pulled out his full disguise kit, and transformed into a middle-aged man dressed in a sharp suit, unmistakably a successful professional.

He had Grey Rain mimic him, transforming into a wealthy lady.

For the first time experiencing mission failure, Li Cheng wanted to know why—and the key lay in this orphanage.

The best way to gather intelligence, besides using the temporary skill 【Extract Brain Entropy】 to forcibly read memories, is naturally to pose as a couple seeking to adopt a child from the orphanage and conduct on-site investigations.

"A beautiful lady, right?"

Rarely getting to undertake a mission in the real world, Grey Rain was ecstatic, vigorously kneading his liquid-metal face to reshape it. "How's this?"

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched; his head throbbed again. Grey Rain's transformed face was unmistakably Sophie Marceau. "No. No foreigners." "What about this one?" Grey Rain rubbed his face again, switching to Noguchi Yui.

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched. "Isn't Noguchi Yui still a foreigner?"

"Isn't she from Okinawa? Okinawa historically belonged to China."

Psychologically convinced he was already Chinese, the Wolf Grey Rain muttered a rebuttal, yet still obediently kneaded his face, switching from one face to another.

Jia Jingwen, Qiu Shuzhen, Tong Liya—even a female professional Go player, a second dan whose name he refused to disclose, appeared.

"Are you cosplaying the Goddesses of Hupu's past contests? The orphanage staff aren't idiots."

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, giving Grey Rain a light but firm knuckle rap to the forehead. "Just pick any face."

"Oh."

Grey Rain rubbed his face, transforming into a refined lady, linked arms with Li Cheng, left the public restroom, and entered the Hongxing Orphanage.

Under the guise of a successful couple, both with health issues preventing them from having children,

they met the director in the orphanage office—a kind elderly man in his seventies or eighties, speaking with a Wenzhou accent.

"Welcome to our facility. First, thank you for your interest in adoption—choosing to adopt means being willing to rebuild a child's family with love. It's an admirable decision."

The director was still speaking at length when Grey Rain raised his palm. "Give us five!"

Are you buying buns here, ordering five at a time?

Li Cheng elbowed Grey Rain discreetly, cleared his throat, and said, "My wife means we both have health issues, and since our financial situation is comfortable, we're considering adopting two children at once so they can have each other for company."

"I see."

Adopting two at once was uncommon. The director hesitated briefly, then continued his introduction.

While his attention was distracted, Li Cheng quietly connected a data cable to the office computer's main unit and rapidly downloaded the orphanage's records.

He searched for all personnel records from the past decades: adopted children, unadopted children, those who died of illness, those who entered society.

Nothing found.

Li Cheng's brow furrowed involuntarily. Among all the records, there was no orphan matching the appearance of the so-called "Chayuji" corpse from the secret realm.

Even after Li Cheng reverse-engineered the likely childhood appearance of "Chayuji" using human anatomy, no match existed.

He paused, fabricated a random excuse, pulled away the overeager Grey Rain—who had been preparing to adopt dozens of twin pairs for a matching game—and took his leave from the director, exiting the orphanage.

"So… no clues about 'Chayuji'?"

Back home, Grey Rain scratched her head in confusion. "Should we just use 【Extract Brain Entropy】 on the director?"

"Possible, but unnecessary."

Li Cheng shook his head. The director was a good man, and the 【Extract Brain Entropy】 skill only retrieves the most recent, vivid memories—it can't perform targeted searches.

"If I'm not mistaken, the inverted pyramid secret realm is likely similar to the situation of Yuan Zhixia's cousin, Yuan Donglian."

Li Cheng paused, then said: "Yuan Donglian vanished in the real world three and a half years ago, fell into a killing field entity, and entered a sealed hidden space called 【Ten Thousand Eyes Room】."

She couldn't escape the hidden space, but later managed to contact the Special Affairs Bureau, which eventually recruited her.

She now uses 【Ten Thousand Eyes Room】 as a liaison for the Special Affairs Bureau."

"Hmm."

Grey Rain slowly understood. "So you mean 'Chayuji' also accidentally fell into a killing field entity and entered some hidden space? Then why didn't it contact us?"

"It's almost certainly no longer human."

Li Cheng rubbed his throbbing temples. "Remember the clues from the secret realm?"

The bio-lab with the ouroboros symbol, the children's graffiti in the basement, the British courthouse appearing on a commercial pedestrian street—

these clues likely correspond to Flesh Mountain L, Grey-Green Giant A, Woman in Black H, and Suit Baby E.

They were all living humans in the real world, just like 'Chayuji,' who fell into the chamber and became anomalous entities.

And perhaps 'Chayuji' is the most unique. Remember what Woman in Black H said before? After passing the final trial—the Hooded Figure F—you reach the secret realm's end.

'Chayuji' is likely the final boss.

As for why no trace of it can be found in the real world, there's an explanation—the killing field's facilities operate near the level of Law-force: infinite energy, time reversal, causality manipulation.

Perhaps once it entered the hidden space, all its traces in the real world were erased. It can no longer be found."

With that, Li Cheng logged into the player forum and contacted a hacker via the black market interface, sending the image of the Woman in Black.

The hacker was likely an unofficial member of the Whale Song Guild. After scouring citizen databases in all major countries, he found no one matching the Woman in Black's appearance.

"Tch."

Grey Rain clicked her tongue. "The trail ends here. It's really… frustrating."

She had at least traveled south and north with Li Cheng, transported the High Tower from another world back to Earth, and indirectly saved a Level 40 apex powerhouse.

In a sense, she had profoundly altered the world's balance—a hero of the pet realm (?).

Yet in this secret realm exploration, she hit a wall. All clues vanished. She never even saw the hidden space, let alone understood its function.

"Life is nine out of ten disappointments. Just surviving this time is enough. White Horse Tombstone, Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao, Binary Tree—weren't they all prodigies? Still died suddenly, inexplicably."

Li Cheng shook his head. "Still, cherish what's before you—"

For some reason, his speech slowed abruptly. His face turned ghastly. He suddenly realized something—the persistent, rhythmic headaches over the past few hours were too regular. Not like exhaustion of sanity. More like… a melody. The melody of a ringing bell.

"What's wrong?" Grey Rain asked urgently.

"The Three-Day Moon prophecy said F's power is infinite fear."

Li Cheng took a deep breath and stared at his palm. "What I fear most is losing this hard-won peace.

I fear losing control over fate. I fear I won't be able to get you out alive."

Fuck! We're still inside the secret realm!"

In the next instant, the living room wall collapsed, the chandelier fell, and the floor shattered.

The surrounding environment abruptly changed; Li Cheng and Hui Yu returned to the inverted pyramid mystery realm.

The hooded figure F slowly waved his index finger, pointing at Li Cheng's hollow eye sockets.

Time seemed slowed by countless times; Sun Zhenyao, who had gouged out her own eyes, and the binary tree still screamed pitifully in place.

At Li Cheng's waist, the epic-quality artifact 【Ocean-Soul Binding Bell】 was frantically shaking on its own—its effect, Soul Protection, increased the user's sanity cap by two hundred points and greatly enhanced resistance to all types of illusions.

It was thanks to this that Li Cheng did not, like Sun Zhenyao and the binary tree, instantly fall under the hooded figure's mind control.