Chapter 488: Corridor

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the familiar bathroom.

Outside the window, thousands of lights glowed; the bathroom water heater hummed softly as it ran, and the TV in the living room still played a variety show.

"Oh my, I'm exhausted."

Hui Yu stood with arms crossed, chest puffed out proudly.

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, still thinking about the final segment of the Oracle's conversation, and retorted to Hui Yu: "What did you even do to get so tired?"

"The movies, look." Hui Yu lifted a string of solid-state drives like picking up a bunch of bananas, "A total of over five hundred films and TV series that emerged unexpectedly due to causal disruptions from the Black Pharaoh's premature ascension."

Entrust these cultural works to broker agencies; let them negotiate with media companies, deducting the percentage attributable to illegal piracy, and combine television broadcast rights, overseas distribution rights, merchandise licensing fees, streaming platform licensing fees, and song synchronization royalties—the projected income is approximately

Hui Yu's little head spun, literally rotating to dissipate heat.

Seeing this, Li Cheng felt a flicker of satisfaction.

After installing the 【Silver Wing Path】 gold-threaded glasses designed to optimize mechanical life, Hui Yu's computational power and logical reasoning abilities underwent a qualitative leap.

At least she no longer made mistakes like before—when given a primary school math problem: a 400-meter track, Xiao Ming running at 4 meters per second, racing Xiao Hong from the same starting line, and meeting again at the 80-second mark,

she concluded Xiao Hong's running speed was negative one meter per second.

Xiao Hong was said to have performed the moonwalk right there on the track.

In short, what Li Cheng ultimately discussed with the Oracle will be set aside for now,

he sent Hui Yu off to calculate her income by counting on her fingers, while he briefly surveyed the rewards from this mission.

【Player Overall Performance: S+, Game Coins and Experience Gained Increased to 160%】

【Reward Settlement In Progress】

This escape from Lolita Island, the mastermind behind the scenes—the Black Pharaoh—was executed on the spot; all eight SVIPs were eliminated; not a single player died—even though Li Cheng still didn't know the names of those two guys who won the whole thing by doing nothing.

"Essentially, this mission was a boomerang caused by the Oracle's malicious meddling in the script world."

Li Cheng muttered to himself: "People really ought to hold some reverence for karmic retribution—don't go shitting everywhere, or one day you'll have to come back and dig it up."

【Mission Reward 1: 1500 Experience Points; an additional 100 points for each extra VIP killed】

【Mission Reward 2: 3000 Game Coins; an additional 300 coins for each extra VIP killed】

Checking the mission log, he had killed a total of 25 VIPs; adding this to the base experience gave him 4000 points, and after multiplying by the 1.6 multiplier, his total experience reached a terrifying 6400!

Previously, Li Cheng's experience bar was Lv21, 272/2100,

now, his aura finally ceased concealment, revealing itself—he leveled up three times in succession,

It was unmistakably Lv24, 72/2400.

"The bonus rewards exceed the base experience—this must be a perk of special roleplay missions."

Li Cheng beamed; the second reward—game coins—was equally outrageous: 10,500 multiplied by the 1.6 multiplier shot straight to 16,800 game coins.

"No wonder big guilds implement contribution point systems—high-level transcenders' earning capacity is completely different from low-level ones."

Watching the numbers on his player panel's currency column flicker, Li Cheng marveled: members of big guilds could turn their mission rewards into contribution points at a 1.2–1.5 multiplier rate,

then use those points to purchase internal guild products.

It seemed like they were making a fortune, but in truth, these products were either manufactured by the guild's logistics department or crafted by powerhouses above Lv35.

The guild paid relatively controllable costs and reaped real gold and silver game coins in return.

In a sense, this was a form of industrial-agricultural scissors gap.

Li Cheng tucked his 16,000 game coins into his pocket and turned to the next reward.

【Mission Reward 3: Large Life Potion ×1】

With a thought, a square glass bottle materialized in his hand. The bottle had thick walls, a capacity of about 1.5 liters, and a cork stopper made of oak. Through the glass, he could see a crimson liquid, like blood, sloshing back and forth.

【Name: Large Life Potion】

【Type: consumable】

【Quality: Concept】

【Usage: Perform the "drink" motion (no actual ingestion required) to fully consume it】

【Effect: Ultimate Healing. Instantly heals all external bodily injuries and nearly all diseases, restores Spirit Power to maximum】

【Cooldown: None】

【Note: Applicable to carbon-based life (either chirality), silicon-based life, arsenic-based life, amino-based life, sulfur-based life, nitrogen-based life, etc.】

Like the Emergency Escape Card, the Large Life Potion was directly classified by the Arena as a Concept-level item,

with it, even a direct nuclear blast wouldn't be terrifying—drop a drop of blood, resurrect on the spot, and wake up ready to fight for another hundred years.

The only concern was what "heals all injuries and illnesses" truly meant—did it include already-removed body parts like the appendix, wisdom teeth, or hemorrhoids?

If it could regenerate everything, he might as well remove a kidney before using it for fun, then trade it for a new iPhone.

Li Cheng carefully placed the Large Life Potion at the very bottom of his inventory slot, beside his most valuable toy factory key.

【Mission Reward 4: After single-handedly killing 15 VIPs, randomly select one item from the player's inventory and upgrade it to Epic quality】

Here it comes, the main event!

Li Cheng rubbed his hands together like a green fly lurking in a back-alley eatery, his face lit up with an unstoppable grin.

He already had several Epic-quality items; Epic couldn't become Epic again, but the rest—whether the assembled doll, the Suicide Notebook, or the Ape Regression Gun—could all be massively strengthened.

From this perspective, losing the bat-wing armored motorcycle was actually a good thing—it eliminated a suboptimal option.

Goodbye, I'll always remember you, Heavy—Armored—Motorcycle!

Li Cheng rubbed his hands so fast sparks nearly flew; finally, as the second hand on the wall clock hit zero, he roared, "Open!"

He clicked on Reward 4 with his mind.

【Item Upgrade Complete】

After a brief delay, a searing heat surged through Li Cheng's wrist; the Perfect-quality 【Holographic White Bone Corridor】 automatically detached and hovered midair, disassembling into smooth, jade-like bone fragments.

【Item Name: Heat Death Corridor】

【Type: Portable Item】

【Quality: Epic】

【Effect: Cosmic Collection. Opens a museum located in a sub-temporal space, capable of collecting all slain or captured transcendent lifeforms, placing them in stasis. Upon paying a certain cost, they can be briefly summoned forth via summoning arts】

【Cost: Base 150 Qi points; upper limit depends on the strength of the collected specimens】

【Cooldown: Base 10 seconds; upper limit depends on the strength of the collected specimens】

【Usage Requirement: Level 20 or higher】

【Note: This item is bound; once bound to a player, it cannot be transferred】

【Note: What the Heat Death Corridor collects are temporal fragments of transcendent lifeforms, each possessing full consciousness】

【Note: This is a brand-new collection gallery, its lintel inscribed with stirring words: "Wait—you repaired the Heat Death Corridor? Unbelievable! Feel free to expand your collection, preserving as many sparks of civilization as possible against the universe's march toward entropic oblivion."】

【Note: Want to play Pokémon battles? I'll bring Maxwell's Demon, Eternal Wound Imoku, and a Transformer named Unicron】