Chapter 472: Taste

Are you doing this on purpose, or by accident, or deliberately by accident?

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched; he didn't bother wondering if Joker was settling a personal score, yanked the youth's golden hair, and asked: "Are you VIP or SVIP? Where's Epstein? How many armed forces are on the island? What's this so-called big day?"

"I'm VIP. Epstein should be in the northern forest of the island. I don't know the armed forces, but there's definitely a private military company."

The golden-haired youth, having had his gag removed, hesitated slightly in answering the last question, struggling to say: "Even if I answer, you'll still kill me in the end, won't you?"

Oh, this kid isn't stupid.

The three players exchanged glances; Joker immediately pressed the electric shock button, jolting the golden-haired youth into a "huh-huh" scream as he rolled on the ground, yet he still refused to speak.

"Got any bottled water?" Joker scratched his head. "Just go straight for waterboarding."

"It might not work."

Li Cheng shook his head. "This guy's done plenty of abuse and being abused—he's played suffocation games N times. We don't have time."

"Use this?" The Oracle raised a rusty surgical knife. The item's original name was 【Skin-Splitting Blade】, Perfect Quality. After system nerfing, it became 【Playhouse Series · Little Doctor's Scalpel】.

"No. Spiritual power's worth saving."

Li Cheng rolled his wrists. "Let's go with the old KGB method."

Saying that, he dismantled the camera from its tripod, idly noticing the DCIM folder filled with countless photos and videos of abuse and even murder. He raised an eyebrow.

Said nothing, just unplugged the camera's power cord with its step-down transformer, peeled back the rubber insulation, and jammed the exposed wires directly into the golden-haired youth's genitals.

Intelligence agencies worldwide employ many interrogation methods: physical torture, psychological pressure, drug-induced hypnosis, seduction, and manipulation.

In the early 2000s, the CIA hired two inexperienced former Air Force psychologists who devised a procedure called EIT Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.

They institutionalized methods including beatings, sleep deprivation, simulated waterboarding, and confinement in small spaces, applying them to terrorists.

Yet years later, postmortem reviews proved these methods were no more effective than persuasion and bribery, made evidence collection harder, served only as torture for torture's sake, and carried legal risks.

To avoid jail, the CIA and U. S. military scrambled to cover it up, trying to prove EIT was effective.

In contrast, the KGB's decades-old tradition was simpler and more practical: sudden physical torture aimed at shattering psychological defenses immediately.

Zzzzt!

The prior electric shock was far more terrifying than this one—the golden-haired youth instantly passed out.

Li Cheng gave him no time to recover. He took the rusty knife from The Oracle, sliced off the youth's left eyelid and right ear, stuffed them into the now-awake youth's mouth, forcing him to chew and swallow.

His psychological defenses collapsed instantly. The golden-haired youth sank into a dazed state—even without the gag, he lost the ability to scream or call for help. He answered everything asked.

When the golden-haired youth arrived by yacht, he saw a group of SVIPs and VIPs in black robes walking with Epstein into the island's northern forest.

Their faces wore Satanist skull masks.

In the 1960s, American author Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco, opposing traditional Christian doctrine, promoting materialism and secular desires, and attracting many figures from the arts.

The most famous among them was Spanish artist Salvador Dalí (the one with the upward-curling mustache), who created the artwork "The Silent Lamb"—seven women forming a skull pattern, later used on the poster of the film of the same name.

The Church of Satan itself was never a tightly organized group. After Anton LaVey's death in 1997, it splintered into many branches. Some sects began worshipping the demon god Moloch, conducting live "sacrifices."

That group of black-robed SVIPs probably went with Epstein into the forest to worship the demon god.

"You people, once you have enough money, ordinary sensory stimulation won't satisfy you anymore—you've got to do this anti-human crap, right?"

Li Cheng sighed. He'd once completed a death match mission called 【Baekje Black Heaven】 and killed many South Korean cultists.

The problem is, South Korea can at least be blamed on poor control and tangled politics and religion. But America? From the top down, it's rotten through and through—using anti-human acts as a bond, taking decadent indulgence as a point of pride.

Skulls like ridges, bones like forests. A whole cannibalistic Lion Camel Ridge.

"What now?" Joker dropped the golden-haired youth, now like a slab of rotten meat. "I come with you?"

"No," The Oracle shook his head. "The scalpel can only maintain one skin at a time. Too many surveillance cameras on the island—they'll catch you."

"Stay here. We'll go find the player you saw at the underground auction. Less than half an hour has passed since the mission started—we still have time."

Li Cheng slipped into the security guard's skin, tossed the walkie-talkie to Joker. "Use the walkie-talkie to contact."

He and The Oracle reboarded the security guard's spaceship. As they left the villa, a guard stopped them, suspiciously asking: "Wait—you were upstairs for so long. Why?"

The Oracle's face didn't change. "Mr. Walter invited me to play a game with him. Any problem?"

"You?"

The four guards froze collectively. Golden-haired Walter had all five vices, but his tastes were still normal.

Security guard Bob was broad and fat, bloated with flesh, even had a full beard—he didn't fit Walter's tastes at all.

"After eating all the delicacies, you start craving street food."

The Oracle spread his hands. "Besides, fashion trends are cyclical—maybe in a few years, my look will be in style."

This—

The four guards exchanged glances. They truly couldn't find a counterargument—they'd seen countless rich perverts: billionaires who stole from supermarkets, wives as beautiful as angels who lusted after fat, middle-aged Filipino maids.

After seeing enough, you just got numb.

"Oh, by the way,"

The Oracle turned to remind them: "Mr. Walter's in the middle of something now. He told me to tell you—no matter what, don't disturb him for the next eight hours."

Having finished, the two players stepped onto the shaded path and sprinted toward the island's west.

At that moment, the system alert chimed:

【One VIP has died. Current player ability unlock progress increased by 2%.】

Huh?

The Oracle frowned. "Are other players on the island starting their actions? No—it's Joker who killed Walter."

After completing Stage One objective 【Escape SVIP Cell】, the system rewards increase ability unlock progress by 10% based on current progress.

For players, this means a slight increase in maximum spiritual power.

Considering Li Cheng and The Oracle's spawn points differ from Joker's, each player's ability unlock progress is separate.

The reward share for killing Walter was split into three parts, distributed among Li Cheng's trio.

Good news: weakened versions of items and skills like 【Bat-Wing Weight Armor Motorcycle】 and 【Ride the Tide, Rush the Wind, Flip the Clouds】 were unlocked, including 【3D Warehouse】, which also increased storage capacity,

The bad news is

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

Joker's voice came through the walkie-talkie, "I'm on the rooftop now. It looks like someone over at the pavilion has already noticed you guys escaped."

At the pavilion, in the underground prison, a supervisor stared at the empty SVIP cells, his face darkening to an iron-blue as he roared at his subordinates: "Are you telling me Bob had a sudden attack of conscience and ran off with two SVIP slaves?"

"That's what it looks like." The security captain, drenched in sweat and at a loss for how to explain it, hurriedly tried to make amends: "The dock on the island is still under our control. He can't get off this island. I suggest we sound the air-raid alarm and conduct a dragnet search of the whole island."

"Idiot! Tonight is a big night. If we make a commotion and disturb the SVIPs, will you take responsibility?"

The supervisor berated him sharply, took a deep breath, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said, "Connect me to yacht number 003. Yes, bring Dr. Henry Lee, the criminal investigation expert on the yacht, over here.

We have a rat. It's escaped."