Chapter 525: Autopsy

The city hall castle was built against the mountain, its towers towering and majestic, the gates tightly shut, and the moat before it long dried up, leaving only a thin layer of pale yellow substance clinging to the bedrock.

Li Cheng gasped as he inserted the brass key into the lock and pushed open the gate. Wanli Fengdao, Claudia, and Mian Yue, all battered and bruised, passed him and collapsed into the castle.

"Wu—"

A deafening roar came from afar; the Fungus King leaned against the bell tower, his body swollen to thirty meters, his legs deeply rooted into the ground, fungal filaments spreading across the entire square.

Item 【Xian Qi Wu】, requires 24 hours to activate; upon effect, comprehensively enhances all base stats, including a temporary increase in player level;

Skill 【Sheng Xi Ji Yu】, upon activation, ignores ally or enemy, continuously draws life force from surrounding soil and living beings, greatly enhancing self-healing speed;

Skill 【Shen Wei Hua Shen】, usable only at Lv32, scales body size and strength proportionally;

All items and skills stack together; the core item 【Xian Qi Wu】 requires 24 hours to charge, and the mission's time limit is 48 hours, so the Fungus King only activated it upon boarding the train—now it's ready to unleash.

Countless mechanical gargoyles in the sky continuously fired beams at the giant mushroom man, taller than the bell tower.

Fungal filaments grew and withered instantly, renewed as they faded, yet each time the Fungus King stood still and swung his fist, each breath he took scattered endless spores.

Spores adhered to the gargoyles' surfaces expanded like foam rubber upon contact with air, infiltrating engines and dragging the gargoyles to the ground, aiding the seaweed-like filaments in strangling and tearing them apart.

Such an exaggerated power boost must come at an equally steep cost; Li Cheng nodded from afar toward the Fungus King and slammed the gate shut.

"How much air do your lungs still have?" Claudia rasped; though she had just replaced her bottled lung, after a brief firefight, she already felt intense fatigue.

"70%," Wanli Fengdao peeled back his skin, checked the remaining gas in the bottle, his mind racing—if player strength equaled remaining lung gas, then everyone's consumption rate had been accelerating continuously, leaving at most…

10 minutes.

"No time left. Move."

Wanli Fengdao led the way; the astronaut Wil was located at the deepest part of the castle, requiring passage through the great hall and side halls.

They smashed open the great hall doors to find the floor littered with motionless, rigid mechanical townsfolk.

Unlike the spectral jump-rope girl and shopkeeper Robinson, these "people" possessed physical bodies—men and women, old and young—holding hands, expressions vacant, their spines connected via metal hoses to a small gas-collecting well in the center of the hall.

The gas-collecting well was coated in dust, clearly abandoned for years, causing all the townsfolk's mechanical organs to cease functioning, long dead.

A single glance told Wanli Fengdao what had happened—the mechanical residents needed high-pressure gas to survive, but both the medium well in the bell tower and the large well in the church had gradually failed to supply sufficient pressure.

With no other options, the mechanical residents had gathered en masse in the hall, breathing the last of the high-pressure gas, holding hands as they welcomed death.

After countless script missions, they had seen too many horrific tragedies.

Once a passionate youth, Wanli Fengdao had not become numb like some teammates, treating scripted characters as pigs, dogs, or score-farming tools; instead, he retained basic empathy while learning to control his emotions.

'These people are already dead—illusions created by the Dreamland. The priority now is finding the astronaut.'

They smashed open the side hall door and found, starkly out of place on the red carpet, an autopsy table—and behind it, a narrow tunnel leading to the metal dome.

Ding-ding-ding—

Clear chiseling sounds echoed from deep within the tunnel; Wanli Fengdao exhaled in relief, suppressed the prickling unease, and charged forward. The surroundings were pitch-dark, the air putrid; Xiao Dao Ge could feel the chiseling was just ahead, even faintly seeing the astronaut Wil's silhouette gripping an ice pick.

Yet every step drained his strength rapidly; Wanli Fengdao stretched out his hand in vain and collapsed, weak and spent.

Pah.

A bat hook gun caught his belt, dragging him out of the tunnel; Wanli Fengdao slowly regained awareness, only to see his Zhan Long Sword fallen ten meters from the entrance—far from the tunnel's end.

That tunnel was like a celestial abyss, separating the players from the astronaut.

Wanli Fengdao gasped, gripping his knees: "Drones—anyone still have a drone? Fly in and find the astronaut."

"Useless. The tunnel's space functions like a mystic lock—every step forward imposes severe burden on players, including script items and drones."

Mian Yue saw clearly, her expression turning serene.

This was no ordinary script mission with clear objectives or hints. They had done everything possible—failure was unavoidable.

The only consolation: Mian Yue and the other three companions had all purchased commercial insurance.

"." Claudia bit her lip, unwilling, and slit open a dozen blood bags, directing the blood flow into the tunnel.

But the problem remained: brain processing slowed drastically, strength vanished rapidly—impossible to sustain; she slumped, hands hanging limply, leaning against the wall.

Outside the castle, explosions grew fainter, while pounding against the castle gates intensified—the gargoyles had subdued the Fungus King and now diverted power to hunt the players.

"Thank you all for your efforts and companionship. No feast lasts forever. Looking back on the time we shared, every effort, every collaboration, every late-night grind, is etched deep in our hearts. Together, we were a flame; apart, we are stars across the sky. The road of the martial world is long—until we meet again. Let us ascend to the peak together."

Amid the oppressive silence, an AI-synthesized voice suddenly echoed from nowhere—and even more absurdly, PPT slides projected onto the side hall's walls, cycling through headshots of Lei Yesi, Griffin, White Horse Tombstone, the Fungus King, and others.

"???"

Wanli Fengdao's eyelid twitched; he covered his forehead and groaned: "Is this some startup's farewell speech after burning through investors' money? Like we're all dead already."

"Wait—how the hell did you make this PPT? We've been together the whole time."

"You don't get it—my action cam has built-in editing. Automatically captures teammate headshots."

Li Cheng casually tucked away the action cam: "Of course, I'd never use teammates' photos to take out online loans."

"So you're issuing a heist warning now? Like Kaito Kid?"

Wanli Fengdao rubbed his temples, then suddenly paused: "Do you already have an answer for this mission?"

"Can't call it an answer—just a guess."

Li Cheng strode toward the autopsy table in the side hall, swung one arm over the railing, and lay down on it: "I'm going to dissect myself."