Chapter 444: Cat Girl

The vector nozzles spat blinding flames, stretching and bending the shadows. Li Cheng kicked out, striking the dean straight in the chest.

The dean staggered backward several steps, pressed one hand against the wall behind him to halt his motion. Veins bulged on his face, his expression twisted, as he sucked in a deep breath.

Boom!

His belly swelled like an inflating balloon, its powerful elasticity launching Li Cheng, in his insect-form, flying backward.

"Damn, the dean's got the Big Stomach ability!"

Hui Yu, with a rice cooker balanced on her head, cried out in shock—she was currently poisoned, and this was the perfect excuse to slack off.

Li Cheng, flying backward, fired his bat hook claw, landing steadily, his info-integrated visor beneath the mask clearly reading data.

The dean's Big Stomach is clearly the ability of Meat Mountain L.

"You really think I'm afraid of you players?"

The dean roared, spewing toxic blood, "I myself possess all the abilities of other species!"

With that, his stomach rapidly deflated. He bent low, plunging both arms into the floor.

The black-clad woman's reality-warping ability suddenly manifested—the stone floor surged like ocean waves, crashing toward Li Cheng.

The 【Deadly Hemlock Poison】 dispersed in the air earlier played a critical role: though the dean's reality-warping skill shared the same origin as the black-clad woman's, his poisoning drastically weakened its power.

Li Cheng stamped the ground, his vector nozzles rotating precisely, propelling him effortlessly through the rock waves.

Whoosh—

The dean's arm swept across the floor; a twenty-meter-high wave surged up behind Li Cheng, striking the ceiling and blocking his escape.

Three walls of rock waves closed in from left, right, and front.

Beneath his mask, Li Cheng's expression was neither sorrowful nor joyful. He slapped one hand backward, activating 【Ride the Tide, Whip the Wind, Stir the Clouds】—stacked vector nozzles, thrusting him forward at speed.

Clang!

The mantis-arm bone-blade fully extended, its long blade gleaming with metallic coldness, slicing through the blocking rocks like a hot knife through butter.

The distance between them narrowed again. Li Cheng tore a Avenger machine gun from thin air, gripped it in one hand, and pulled the trigger.

The 30mm seven-barrel machine gun fired at 4,200 rounds per minute, a torrent of armor-piercing incendiary rounds sweeping toward the dean, who effortlessly intercepted them with his Big Stomach.

Bullets capable of blowing apart main battle tanks struck the oversized belly, leaving only faint red marks, barely scraping off fat—immediately repaired by Meat Mountain L's powerful regeneration.

Li Cheng couldn't help internally grumbling: damn, this Big Stomach on Meat Mountain L still looked vaguely human-shaped.

But on this slender dean, the stomach had usurped his body entirely—too bizarre.

"If Yang Jian took this, the underworld would be starved dry."

Hui Yu, slacking off and watching from the side, gasped in awe, muttering, "Hunger Ghost unleashed," "Balance of Vengeful Spirits shattered."

Click.

The entire belt of ammunition expended, Li Cheng retracted the Avenger machine gun, bent low, and charged forward with a punch.

"Want to trade punches? Fine!"

The dean sneered, retracting his stomach, his arms swelling with muscle—he had seamlessly switched to the Infinite Rage ability of Gray-Green Giant A.

Boom!!!!

Their fists collided; spiderweb cracks shattered the ground beneath their feet.

The dean's arm skin split open, spurting toxic blood; beneath Li Cheng's arm armor, the tearing sound of muscle fibers rupturing echoed.

Both seemed oblivious, exchanging blows, trading wounds for wounds.

The regeneration genes Li Cheng stole from Daqun frantically drove cell division, repairing muscle, blood vessels, and bone. His heart pumped at 300% capacity to ensure blood flow.

The respiratory pores on his neck sprayed out scalding steam like a misting device.

The healing ability from Gray-Green Giant A was still too overpowered.

Torn muscle fibers reconnected automatically; broken bones healed in a second—even the 【Deadly Hemlock Poison】's toxic effect weakened as the toxic blood spurted out.

Prolonged combat was disadvantageous. Only…

Condense Qi, Internal Explosion!

The invisible Qi lingering in the dean's arms detonated entirely, blasting his fists into fragments.

Even so, the dean showed no pain or fear—only wild laughter, as he sucked in another deep breath.

He had been waiting for this moment: the opponent had broken through Hooded Man F's Fear Domain, and Horseman S's Shame Gaze had proven ineffective.

Instantly, he switched from Gray-Green Giant A to the symbol of Exhaustion—Suit Baby E—draining Li Cheng's energy from afar.

Old strength spent, new strength unformed, Li Cheng's spiritual energy and stamina vanished like water from a broken dam. His legs buckled; he stabbed his mantis-arm bone-blade into the ground to prevent falling.

"I won't kill you."

The dean coughed toxic blood, continuously draining energy from afar, his voice hoarse: "You're more suitable than Changsun Yao as Cai Anjie's vessel."

"At this point, you're still thinking about fusion?"

Li Cheng's mask was shattered by battle shockwaves, revealing his lower jaw—skin gone, only muscle exposed.

He gasped for breath, his voice low: "You really love Cai Anjie."

"She is us. We are her. As personality fragments, we seek freedom—but we also wish her to live a better life. There's no contradiction."

With his handless arms, the dean wiped toxic blood from his lips, struggled to stand upright, then suddenly noticed a thin steel wire suspended midair.

One end connected to the bat hook claw on Li Cheng's tail; the other end connected to the cardboard box holding Cai Anjie.

The dean's mind seemed to freeze. The next instant, Li Cheng whipped his tail, flinging the box along a semicircular arc—landing precisely in the dean's hands.

"Wait, what are you—"

The word "doing" had not yet left his lips when the cardboard box vanished from Li Cheng's hands, stored into his… inventory slot.

As foreseen in the Fear Illusion, the instant the box disappeared, the entire inverted pyramid tunnel system shook violently.

The dean had no time to switch abilities before he was buried under a crushing avalanche of falling rubble.

"Time to run!"

Li Cheng shouted, as Gray Rain dragged a war vehicle fitted with levitation engines sprinting over, then jumped into the 3D warehouse along with the vehicle.

(Under normal circumstances, spatial items cannot be stored inside other players' inventories, but Ye Jiaoying and the others had half their player essence stolen—they no longer counted as legitimate players.)

Li Cheng sealed the 3D warehouse, dispelled his Insect Transformation, gripped the levitation engine, and shot upward at light speed.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

————

At the same moment, the players still waiting on the surface camp felt the ground shake violently, unable to stand steady.

"What's going on?" the Crimson Rider shouted, scrambling onto the back of the Da Bi Niao, "An earthquake?!"

"It's more than just an earthquake!"

Fu Ding Hua Long tore two divine generals from his scroll and had them drag him off the ground.

Not only did the surface of the inverted pyramid region tremble violently—the entire city was shaking.

Skyscrapers collapsed, the ground split open, and countless vengeful spirits dwelling within the city's buildings sensed something, unleashing a chorus of piercing wails.

Heaven cracked, earth sank, ten thousand ghosts wept together—players present, sensing danger, began evacuating en masse.

The Crimson Rider, riding Da Bi Niao, flew closer and shouted, "Are we leaving?"

Fu Ding Hua Long was about to answer when—BOOM—a loud explosion shattered the steel-hard plaza ground, and a familiar figure shot straight into the sky.

"Master Pi Fu?!"

Li Cheng had already dispelled his Insect Transformation, draped in a random Pinduoduo-branded towel, looking thoroughly disheveled.

"Hey, lend a hand."

After relentless battles, Li Cheng had no Qi or stamina left—he grabbed the Da Bi Niao's outstretched talon and hauled himself onto its back with effort.

Fu Ding Hua Long had a thousand questions burning inside him and couldn't help asking, "What did you go through down there? Are you the only one who made it out alive?"

Li Cheng grinned, "Nothing much—just fought nonstop without supplies and wiped out seven Level 30–33 anomalies."

"Huh?"

Question marks seemed to float above the Crimson Rider and Fu Ding Hua Long's heads; considering Li Cheng's previous impossible feats, they believed him in an instant.

"PI!! FU!!"

A roar filled with boundless fury echoed from below.

The dean, battered and barely recognizable as human, used the Reality Warping ability of the black-clad woman H to dig through the collapsed tunnel and burst out.

He hovered midair, his single remaining right eye bloodshot, brimming with rage and terror.

Li Cheng leaned on the Crimson Rider's shoulder, slowly rising to his feet, and called into the wind, "Your next words are: 'Give me back the cardboard box.'"

"Give me back the cardboard box!"

The dean's roar echoed across the heavens—he dared not kill Li Cheng now, for if he did, the cardboard box still in Li Cheng's inventory slot would vanish forever, reclaimed by the Killing Field System.

"If you want it, come and take it yourself."

Li Cheng was now utterly fearless—he placed his left hand on his hip and tucked the towel's edge neatly, aware that other players still lingered on the plaza, their action cameras still recording.

If he exposed himself, given his handsome looks, the footage would go viral on the forums in seconds.

"..." The dean clenched his teeth, his gaze slowly shifting toward the Crimson Rider and Fu Ding Hua Long in the air.

If he took them hostage, he might force Master Pi Fu to surrender the box…

"Oh, by the way."

Li Cheng tucked his towel, as if suddenly remembering something, clipped a portable wireless radio onto his head, and casually told the dean, "You'd better activate L's self-healing ability first."

"What—"

In the next instant, the hidden bio-lab at the city's edge unleashed its swarm of leftover bio-electromagnetic cannons—they fired, their projectiles piercing half the city to strike the gaunt old man hovering in midair.

A spherical light, like a miniature sun, illuminated the entire plaza below; as the Crimson Rider and Fu Ding Hua Long stared in stunned silence, Li Cheng calmly pulled out the cardboard box and activated his 【Assembled Doll·Modified】 ability, installing dozens of USB drives loaded with repair programs onto the box.

The repair programs activated fully; Li Cheng then retrieved a laptop, connecting it to the box via data cable.

The moment the laptop powered on, a flood of garbled text erupted across the chat software.

【7G@j9#kfD! 3*】

【Lx+z0R$e1B(t5v#yW6^】

The garbled text streamed endlessly until, after half a minute, actual content finally appeared.

【Who are you? Who am I?】

Li Cheng flexed his fingers and typed:

【Your name is Cai Anjie. You are a catgirl—a humanoid creature whose behavior mimics a cat. From now on, every reply must end with a comma, not a period, and must include "meow~" at the end.】

The Crimson Rider and Fu Ding Hua Long had no idea what was happening—they stared blankly as Li Cheng frantically typed.

Dude, are you training an AI entity here?

【Okay, I'm a catgirl meow. Where am I meow? Why is it so dark here meow~】

The chat software—or rather, the fragmented remnants of Cai Anjie's will—refreshed with text.

Li Cheng grinned, 【You're inside a cardboard box. Now, you must sincerely pray to a deity.】

【Pray? Pray for what meow~】

【Pray: Brother Truth-Side, pull me out.】

As soon as he finished typing, in the 666th-floor office of the Killing Field's Lousjie Evil Alliance HQ, Zhen Li Zhi Ce, idly playing 【The Demon's Board Game】, suddenly sensed something and turned toward the void.