Chapter 589: Curse (4K)

Alci’s electronic pupils contracted; her hands withdrew from thin air a standard rocket launcher, and in the instant she thrust her arms forward, she had already aimed and pulled the trigger.

The rocket screamed outward. The clown-costumed Hui Yu stood firm, not dodging or moving, using his left hand—not holding the knife—to snatch the rocket midair; no matter how the exhaust flared from its tail, he remained utterly still.

“Sssss—”

Hui Yu sucked the thick smoke from the exhaust like an e-cigarette, then grinned at the human players, revealing a full set of slightly charred fangs.

BOOM!

Less than a kilogram of high explosive caused zero damage.

Abdulla acted instantly: he shifted sideways, raised his left leg, gripped a pea seed in his right hand, squatted low on his right leg, then swept his left leg forward in a half-circle, planting it firmly; his right arm whipped out like a whip, propelled by the momentum, hurling the pea seed with full force—right beneath the clown’s feet.

The moment the seed touched soil, it split open, sprouted roots, and grew at breakneck speed into a towering tree.

Hui Yu was trapped within the tree’s core, surrounded on all sides by woody pea vines as thick as underground bunkers.

“‘Jack and the Beanstalk’?”

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow; Abdulla belonged to the mid-sized guild 【Eagle of Saladin】, backed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Saudi Public Investment Fund, Kuwait Investment Authority, and Qatar Investment Authority. Though not numerous in transcendent members, they were undeniably wealthy—no wonder they could afford such a clearly high-tier consumable as magic beans.

“No bean works.”

Hui Yu sneered; the woody walls of the magic bean naturally carried magic that blocked the 【Phantom Ambush】 skill’s wall-piercing effect.

She pressed her disguised skull-cracking power hammer against the inner surface of the woody wall and punched the hammer’s tail with all her strength.

The kinetic force of the “through-the-mountain” strike exploded entirely against the wooden wall, blasting open a gap.

Hui Yu stuck her head out of the gap and laughed wildly: “Here’s Johnny!”

“Wrong! Wrong!”

Li Cheng’s eyelid twitched; he gripped his forehead and corrected over the comms: “That’s a line from ‘The Shining.’ You’re cosplaying a clown—not the same franchise.”

Hui Yu replied confidently: “Aren’t both ‘It’ and ‘The Shining’ written by Stephen King? The difference is negligible. Besides, these players will just imagine it themselves.”

“Huh? You actually know Stephen King?”

Li Cheng was deeply shocked, feeling as if he’d discovered his kid, who spent all day watching AI videos of baby dragons and giggling stupidly, suddenly reading extracurricular books.

“Of course!” Hui Yu boasted. “My favorite line from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is what Shawshank said: ‘Some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. Every one of them glows with the light of freedom.’”

You… fine.

Li Cheng had no energy to retort; watching from afar as Hui Yu hacked through the tree wall, he exclaimed: “? She’s fast.”

Wu Quan and the others jumped into their SUV, ignored the shelter capsule’s recovery, and stomped the accelerator, speeding wildly through the streets of the mushroom buildings.

“Bro, why are you still heading toward the factory?”

Li Cheng slapped his thigh and sighed at Hui Yu: “Do it.”

“Got it.”

Hui Yu absorbed the liquid metal portion disguised as corpses, leapt out of the magic bean, and landed atop a mushroom-shaped building.

The human players’ SUV resembled a Dongfeng Mengshi chassis, but its internal structure had been heavily modified—its top speed had jumped from the original 125 km/h to 220 km/h.

The SUV’s tires crushed the cracked ground, kicking up centuries-old dust into rolling clouds of smoke.

“Lost it?!”

REX roared, biting open a packet of hemostatic powder (chitosan-based) and dumping it like water onto Priya’s abdomen—she’d been wounded by a steel pipe edge when the shelter collapsed.

“Not yet!”

Wu Quan glanced in the rearview mirror: the clown’s figure darted like a ghost, leaping lightly between buildings, clinging tightly to the SUV’s rear.

“Fight it!”

Alci stood up, pushed open the SUV’s roof hatch, and turned to face the clown a hundred meters behind.

Her original brain, overwhelmed by fear, automatically secreted massive adrenaline and cortisol; these hormones, precisely regulated by chips, did not accelerate her heartbeat or stiffen her muscles—instead, they activated the dorsal attention system in her frontal and parietal lobes, shutting out distractions, focusing her attention entirely, her mind entering a “low-energy, high-efficiency” flow state—time itself seemed to stretch and slow.

The clown entity had far exceeded their level’s capacity to handle.

On a flat wasteland, the SUV might have used its endurance to pull away—but the mushroom city’s roads were crooked and winding; they’d be caught within minutes.

Escape was impossible. The only path to survival was counterattack.

The air around Alci twisted; a half-set of exoskeleton armor materialized out of nowhere.

The armor had no frontal plating; instead, two massive mechanical gorilla arms held a hive-type mini-missile launcher and a 25mm chain gun.

Alci’s prosthetic thigh skin split in four directions, tearing her white stockings; her bones transformed into spikes, piercing the sofa seat, distributing her weight across the SUV’s frame.

Undeniably, times were advancing; the emergence of Lujie had accelerated the speed, integration, and spread of technology.

This indirectly elevated the overall strength of players at every tier.

Five years ago, a new player without connections was lucky to have an M2 “Old Dry Mother” heavy machine gun.

A new player with connections could spend extra money to buy genuine U.S. military heavy weapons, armored vehicles, even surface-to-air missiles—U.S. troops stationed overseas, especially in the Middle East, were notorious for selling equipment: from bullets and spirit-ring-equipped rifles to night-vision goggles and radios, even infantry fighting vehicles—all were for sale.

Now, no smuggling needed. New players only needed to sign a wager agreement with a bank before each mission, staking their player qualification for ten thousand game coins, and they could buy any equipment—including spiritual artifacts.

Just like now: the missile launcher and chain gun fired simultaneously; every third round, a special round transformed into emerald ghost fire, clinging like a parasite, curving to chase Hui Yu.

Seeing this, Hui Yu didn’t dodge at all—she slowly swung her blade horizontally, as if releasing blade qi.

“Explosives team, fire!”

Li Cheng commanded calmly; the machine servants hidden in surrounding buildings rotated their turrets and fired invisible vector rounds, detonating the ghost fire midair.

Hmm… perhaps due to the forging materials originating from Nazi Germany and Caoxian, whether cylindrical or cubic machine servants, despite no formal training and only data input, displayed remarkably high tactical proficiency.

After detonating the ghost fire, the cylindrical machine servant became ecstatic, struggling to suppress the urge to raise its right mechanical arm.

The neighboring cubic machine servants couldn’t hold back—they jumped up and down inside the cabin, raising their mechanical arms, like this, \0/

\o/

\0/

Hui Yu, having successfully shown off, forced her lips downward, vanished instantly—activating 【Phantom Ambush】, diving underground, emerging ahead of the SUV with perfect timing, standing directly in its path.

Elbow strike!

The liquid metal beneath Hui Yu’s feet rooted deep into the ground like tree roots; the SUV couldn’t push past her—it was flipped forward, its front end soaring upward, rolling over.

If it landed like that, the vehicle would be totaled. At the critical moment, Ada again: her unhealed limb stumps spewed green data streams, covering the vehicle, instantly repairing the front end and damaged engine, further adjusting the vehicle’s roll direction to ensure a stable landing.

Not bad.

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow; Ada’s data manipulation was far superior to Stack Troopers or Batmos—she consumed less spiritual power, operated more efficiently, and even generated a nitrogen propulsion system on top of repairing the vehicle.

The SUV’s exhaust spat You blue flames, accelerating further—just as the vehicle rounded the corner, about to shake off the clown—

TING!

Hui Yu flung her chain-linked cleaver, piercing the armored body and bulletproof glass, driving straight into REX’s ribs.

REX spat blood, his eyes still dazed; the next second, the chain tightened, yanking him and the entire pane of bulletproof glass out of the cabin.

“R—E—X!”

Alci cried out in anguish; six days of brutal survival, mutual support—just hours away from mission completion…

Wu Quan, seated at the wheel, veins bulging—his emotions made him press the brake—but the calm voice in his Wanyan headset pulled him back to reason: “Your mission is to survive!”

The battlefield is material; raw courage cannot narrow the gap in power.

The SUV’s tires skidded slightly but continued racing toward the city’s edge.

At the same moment, REX struggled to transform midair: his skin covered in dragon scales, his tailbone sprouting a dragon tail, his entire body shifting toward a T-Rex.

According to the square-cube law: when an object’s volume scales proportionally, its surface area grows with the square of its linear dimension, while its volume grows with the cube.

If he became a T-Rex, the punctured lung wound wouldn’t be fatal… right?

Hui Yu grinned wickedly; the blade lodged in REX’s ribs expanded proportionally, causing more blood to gush from the wound.

PLOOSH!

Hui Yu shook the chain, yanked out the cleaver, then casually slapped the side of REX’s skull; the hidden skull-cracking power hammer within the blade’s body smashed the ten-ton T-Rex to the ground.

REX regressed to human form; he tried to forcibly exit the mission—but his rapidly dissipating will, weakened by blood loss and concussion, could no longer Ningju consciousness to open the player panel.

Is this… the end…

Before slipping into complete unconsciousness, REX mustered his last strength and pressed the button on the walkie-talkie hanging at his side.

The next second, a rotund white police officer, wearing the golden badge of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office in New York, appeared out of thin air beside the street—his belt held a baton, his hand gripped a taser, and he shouted in extreme panic: “FREEZE! Put your hands up!”

WTF?

Hui Yu blinked; she was currently in her horror-clown form—was this cop not afraid?

Without much thought, Hui Yu kicked a roadside stone; the rock struck the obese officer’s forehead like a bullet, killing him instantly.

Unexpectedly, as the officer fell dead, two Ford F-150 police pursuit vehicles materialized from thin air; eight officers stepped out, raising pistols, shotguns, and designated marksman rifles.

“Isn’t that the 【Fireline Police Walkie-Talkie】 I sold earlier?”

Li Cheng, watching from high above, couldn’t help slapping his forehead. 【Item Name: Fireline Police Walkie-Talkie】 (not counting characters)

【Quality: Fine】

【Effect: Call for Support. Upon use, instantly summons one fully armed officer to fight for you. The officer can partially understand user commands and lasts up to one hour. If the officer is defeated by enemies, additional forces will be summoned.】

【Note: Subsequent reinforcements, after the initial officer is defeated, will gradually upgrade equipment—from Glock pistols, rubber batons, and tasers, to AR rifles, bulletproof vests, and shotguns. If further reinforcements are repelled, additional vehicles, armored cars, and helicopters may be summoned.】

This item was obtained by Li Cheng after completing the 【Leap into the Madhouse】 scenario mission.

The effect was actually quite strong—five-star wanted status could summon armed helicopters, useful for either pursuit or delaying enemies.

But the usage requirement demanded U.S. citizenship and a police license—these days, risking World War III and being sent to a U.S. internment camp just to join American citizenship? That’s not like joining the Kuomintang in 1949—it’s outright joining the Qing army in 1949.

Li Cheng had immediately listed the walkie-talkie on the auction house; he never expected to encounter it here.

“Uh…,” Hui Yu scratched her head, ignoring incoming bullets, casually crushing the motion camera attached to REX’s body, and asked Li Cheng casually: “Now what?”

Li Cheng thought for a moment: “Theoretically, if you don’t defeat this batch of officers, the next batch won’t spawn. But only players know this item’s info. You’re playing a supernatural entity—stick to the lore.”

“OK.”

Hui Yu leapt into the crowd, blade rising and falling, hand moving with the knife, unleashing a storm of blood and gore.

Li Cheng watched from high above, and only when Wu Quan’s off-road vehicle drove out of the Mushroom City with no sign of returning did he descend, inject REX with another dose of anesthetic, and press his hand against REX’s forehead to activate the [Visual Memory] skill.

[Visual Memory] is essentially a high-end version of [Absorb Brain Entropy].

A 3D projection floated above REX’s head, clearly displaying all his recent vivid memories, including the mission details of [Dream Curse] and his survival experiences over the past six days.

“Survive seven days under the curse’s pursuit...”

Li Cheng pondered; his judgment was correct—if this were merely a survival task, not [Find the Toy Factory],

then there was no need to continue hunting Wu Quan and the others.

But the killing ground is boundless—could it really be that coincidental?

Li Cheng casually pulled out a laptop, connected a data cable to the back of REX’s neck using a makeshift doll.

Grey Rain, clearing the third wave of American police, turned curiously and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I don’t plan to kill REX. To prevent someone from accessing his brain after he returns to the real world, it’s better to alter, delete, and implant a series of memories of being tormented by the clown.”

Li Cheng said offhandedly, “Also, I want to see just how strong this curse really is.”

He tapped a few keys, completed the memory modification, then used the makeshift doll to peel off the entire patch of skin on REX’s back covered in red blotches.

As expected, after the red-blotted skin detached, REX’s dermis once again revealed a large area of red blotch curse.

“The curse follows the person. If so...”

Li Cheng murmured, took a refrigerator from the automated storage, removed REX’s head, and swapped it with the head of a frozen dog-man corpse inside the fridge.

The red blotches flickered, as if hesitating, then after a brief delay, appeared on the back of the dog-man corpse now wearing REX’s head.

“Can the curse replicate itself?”

Li Cheng’s eyes lit up; a plan flashed through his mind.