Chapter 573

If possible, Li Cheng absolutely did not want to show up in person; he'd rather spend that time posting online some outrageous remarks like "Clowns rule the halls, masters wander the streets, and the Four Saints of Zhangyang have lost one—no longer worth the name," just to relax, or tighten more screws on the Imperial Guard's armored vehicles.

But he couldn't truly ignore it—not only was Wu Quan under the Special Affairs Bureau, bound by a thread of goodwill, but Ada was also a key member of the Whale Song Guild; if she were captured by the Dream Curse, the Whale Song Guild would truly lose its mind.

Considering the Dream Curse wouldn't kill players immediately, but instead control them and wait for the next scenario mission to send them into the scenario world, this meant the Whale Song Guild had ample time to mount a rescue.

To prevent the Toy Factory from being exposed, Li Cheng had no choice but to act.

"Tung... bone?"

Wu Quan and Abdullah recognized the legendary skeleton knight, their expressions stunned, disbelief etched on their faces.

Among the players, Ada, the strongest scout, was already critically wounded; she could only see the skeleton knight's back, draped in a tattered cloak full of holes.

Li Cheng hovered above the swamp water using his levitation engine, wearing armor that was, in fact, hastily welded from rebar, steel bars, and steel plates.

He ground down the weld seams with a grinder, then sprayed on a coat of Vanta Black paint—a coating that absorbs 99.9% of incident light, including visible, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation; adding carbonyl iron also enabled electromagnetic wave absorption.

His own head was concealed within the neck section of the armor; the skull above the neck came from a discarded American veteran homeless man stored in a refrigerator freezer.

As for the red glow inside the skull, it was merely a red electronic candle used during holidays.

"Senior Tung Bone, that house is strange!"

Wu Quan, frantic with anxiety, instinctively shifted his arm forward, crawling two meters; Li Cheng immediately used his levitation engine to drift forward the exact same distance.

The Ten-Eye communication earpiece was still active; getting too close might make Customer Service Xiao Yuan notice something off.

"Uhh..."

The giant ghostly infant, floating in midair, sucked its thumb, its navel still attached by an umbilical cord; with a gaze of pure, innocent innocence, it stared at the skeleton knight, then opened its bloody maw and bit down hard.

"Watch out!"

Alcys instinctively cried out; she didn't know the skeleton knight's identity, but from Wu Quan and Abdullah's reactions, he must be some high-level player above Lv20?

Or perhaps a native powerhouse of the Killing Ground?

As a semi-cyborg, her spinal chip partially regulated her metabolism, giving her greater resistance to muscle relaxants than natural humans; now regaining partial control of her body, she instinctively summoned her powered exoskeleton and fired a hostile air missile from the rocket launcher mounted on her shoulder at the ghost infant's head.

Holy shit, lady, stop messing around!

Li Cheng internally screamed in protest—his makeshift cosplay armor couldn't withstand even the blast wave from a missile; he thrust his left fist forward, seemingly ordinary, but infused with condensed Qi internal explosion power; one strike shattered the ghost infant's forehead like an overinflated balloon, sending it flying backward, spiraling chaotically above the swamp in Brownian motion.

Meanwhile, the skeleton knight's right hand seized the hostile air missile; in the corner unseen by Alcys and the others—and by Customer Service Xiao Yuan—a hidden ape-descended gun in his palm fired several bullets at point-blank range, shrinking the missile into a firecracker branded 【Old Black Double Pop】, then casually snuffed out the burning fuse.

Li Cheng tilted his head slightly, the eye sockets emitting a chilling red glow; then he turned his head back.

To onlookers, this scene appeared as the skeleton knight effortlessly catching the missile and reducing it to nothingness, his gaze conveying disapproval toward the human players—actually, Li Cheng dared not fully turn his head, fearing they'd spot the red LED electronic candles installed in the skull's eye sockets.

Wu Quan pulled Alcys aside and said gravely: "Senior Tung Bone is a native powerhouse of the Killing Ground; he existed long before human players ever appeared, a thousand centuries ago."

Abdullah also spoke with deep reverence: "The Flame Bay was the first hidden zone ever discovered, now jointly managed and operated by multiple guilds including our own Saladin's Eagle, the Royal Ecclesiastical Knights, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the GRU, and others."

That's what the official forum website says.

But in truth, the Flame Bay was originally occupied by a divine abomination; Tung Bone appeared, slew that abomination, and walked away; only then did human players get a chance to scavenge—the four-kilometer-long sea monster skeleton, now used as a breakwater at the bay's harbor, stands as proof of that legendary battle."

Abdullah took a deep breath, adjusted his red-and-white checkered headscarf, and said solemnly: "Legend says a plague abomination once stung Senior Tung Bone; after five days of agonizing struggle, the plague abomination died."

Medusa glanced at Tung Bone from afar—and turned to stone herself."

Tung Bone never breathes; he merely intermittently captures air."

Tung Bone never swings his sword; his sword moves itself out of sheer terror of him."

Tung Bone can defeat the highest-level security guard army in ten seconds—nine of those seconds are spent waiting for the guards to muster the courage to charge him."

The founder of Saladin's Eagle had likely witnessed firsthand Tung Bone slaying the sea monster abomination, and had bragged about it to his inner circle countless times; Abdullah's tale was so vivid and detailed it left listeners stunned—even Li Cheng couldn't help internally muttering that Saladin was clearly a bone-deep braggart.

The mold dwelling in the crude house remained unmoved by the ghost infant's death; instead, it dripped strands of mycelium, seeping into the spirits' bodies.

The grotesque spirits emitted even denser malevolent energy.

A small amount of this evil energy seeped into the swamp water; countless aquatic creatures instantly died and floated to the surface.

Under the cover of night, the swamp fell utterly silent—no insect chirps, no bird calls; all the spirits leaned forward in unison, then surged forward!

The ghost bride floated forward gracefully, lifting her wedding gown; the man-eating python slithered across the water, its patterned back resembling driftwood;

The hellish monk clutched a Rubik's cube, releasing a skin-stripping curse; a humanoid abomination formed of countless flies buzzed toward them with a deafening hum.

A true scene of a hundred ghosts marching at night.

Li Cheng did not dodge or retreat; he simply raised his skeletal hand toward the sky and pressed down casually.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

All the Imperial Guard vehicles, embedded with the 【Eternal War Map】 in the sky, fired simultaneously; invisible vector projectiles precisely struck the spirits, tearing and shattering them.

A few spirits lacked physical form or possessed self-healing abilities; they partially submerged in the water and accelerated toward Li Cheng.

Li Cheng still did not retreat; he merely gripped the hilt of his greatsword and lightly tapped its blade against the water's surface.

The next instant, every spirit submerged in the water was forcibly expelled—even the fly abomination shrieked in agony, unable to maintain its form.

"So... strong..."

Alcys felt her organic and electronic brains both crashing; she couldn't understand Tung Bone's movements, nor sense any spiritual energy fluctuation from him.

Of course she couldn't—Li Cheng had summoned the Farmhand via a summoning spell, who now wore sunglasses and lurked beneath the water, whipping his leather lash until it smoked.

Black spirit? (Candyman, American folk horror, a black demon with a hook)—three lashes.

Non-human spirit? Not even human anymore—five lashes.

White spirit? How dare you—how white could you be compared to my Farmhand? Additional crime—ten lashes.

Every spirit, regardless of race, was brutally whipped—and naturally floated to the surface, continuing to be bombarded by artillery fire.