Chapter 591

In the brightly lit modern factory, rows of treadmills were arranged, each enclosed in glass partitions of varying sizes, inside which bizarre, anomalous entities were imprisoned.

The man-eating demon from rural Texas with a chainsaw; the serial killer wearing a hockey mask and wielding a fire axe; the translucent ghost bride in a bloodstained wedding dress; the carnivorous plant with long legs; the giant insect fused with the genes of multiple organisms...

Li Cheng fully “taught according to aptitude,” fixing bronze coin swords and peach wood swords behind the glass partitions housing pure spiritual entities as threats.

For semi-spiritual and living-type anomalies, their upper bodies were bound with iron chains, and nail guns were installed behind the glass partitions; whenever the treadmill speed slowed, a series of nails would be fired.

"I've been fighting high-level opponents every day, and finally today I can easily crush some weaklings."

Hui Yu was especially excited; she frantically operated the sewing machines in the 3D warehouse, stitching together a towering pile of armbands printed with 【Three Pure Ones Education Team】 and distributed them to herself and the cube robots, instructing, “If the treadmill speed drops two levels, open the partition panel and strike six times per second.”

“Loyalty! Devotion!”

The cube robot servants in camouflage uniforms saluted in unison, gripping the batons sprayed with incense ash mixed with iodophor, eager and ready to beat them until the batons smoked.

Nearby, the cylindrical robot servants—technically the senior ones—looked envious, not because Li Cheng favored others and kept them from action, but because their method was more direct—they had planned to construct a sealed room from tempered glass, fitted with showerheads to continuously spray incense ash suspended in gas, intending to execute spiritual entities this way.

“...Something’s off.”

Li Cheng frowned, dragging the mouse to repeatedly replay the video footage from REX’s wearable camera via the computer player.

This mission involved twelve players; besides REX and five others still alive, the remaining six had fallen in the old Republican-era mansion and along the escape route.

The red spot curse would unpredictably summon malevolent spirits; the probability increased when players were tired, isolated, panicked, or asleep. The spirits often appeared as forms that triggered the players’ deepest fears and grew stronger over time.

Due to this rule, when facing close-combat transcenders like REX and Wu Quan, the curse summoned spiritual entities largely immune to physical attacks; when facing Ada, who controlled data, or Priya, who mastered spiritual techniques, the curse generated anomalies with anti-spiritual traits—such as the Bloated Dead, weighing over a thousand kilograms, thick-skinned and fleshed with anti-spiritual fat layers, capable of ramming like a Tiger tank.

Li Cheng dragged the mouse, frame by frame, and noticed something strange: “Those six players... they don’t seem to have clear death scenes.”

【New Reagent Radiation Addict】 was grabbed and submerged by thousands of ghost infants while escaping the ancient mansion. Missing.

【Foot Odor Can’t Escape Heavy Boots】 was dragged out the window of the off-road vehicle by a giant bat spirit and lifted into the clouds. Missing.

【MacArthur Official】 and 【Big Dog Chew Club Demon Guardian】 drove at night; unaware of the curse’s exact rules, they took high-efficiency sleep capsules to nap, but during sleep, bite marks appeared on their bodies. No matter how they called, they couldn’t wake up, and were eventually swallowed whole by an unknown malevolent spirit, vanishing completely.

【808bass】’s off-road vehicle got stuck in a swamp, slowed down, and during a fierce battle with a new wave of spirits, was cut in half; upper and lower body dragged into thick fog. Shortly after, 【TeneT】 went insane, jumped out alone, and returned to the swamp. Ada and others searched but found nothing, and had to abandon the effort.

At first glance, these six players were undoubtedly dead, yet even the severely wounded MacArthur, Big Dog Chew, and 808bass—Ada and the others never actually saw their corpses.

Wu Quan contacted Customer Yuan via the Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece, requesting the Special Affairs Bureau to check the real-world teleportation locations of 808bass and others before the mission—still no bodies found.

Three explanations: one, the players were swallowed whole and digested completely, leaving no remains to teleport back to the real world;

two, the red spot curse, like Cai Anjie’s secret realm, stripped the players’ essences, preventing their return to Earth;

three, players like 808bass were deliberately restrained...

Li Cheng realized something, multitasking: his left hand searched public data of various guilds on the computer, his right hand logged into the player forum to check the posting records of accounts suspected to belong to 【New Reagent Radiation Addict】 and others.

Indeed, the pattern was here...

Thud!

The initial dress spirit on the treadmill began dissolving, unable to hold on any longer, staggering into the bronze coin sword and turning to ash.

The other spirits in the same row also collapsed, plunging into the bronze coin swords or nail guns.

“Wait, how’d you die?”

Hui Yu widened her eyes—she hadn’t even gotten to enjoy her spinning top yet.

“The curse’s master already knows about our actions.”

Li Cheng spoke calmly: “Based on spiritual energy levels, they should have held out for at least ten more hours.”

“Now they’re collapsing—proof the curse’s source has stopped remotely supplying them energy.”

Hui Yu immediately understood: “The curse’s source has its own consciousness?”

“Seems so.”

As the line of spirits dissolved in place, Li Cheng closed the computer screen and calmly ordered the robot servants: “Watch REX. Wait for me.”

Saying that, he called Hui Yu, gripped the levitation engine, kicked off the ground, and flew into the air, chasing the distant amphibious jet.

On the undulating sea, not a single light was visible; only the amphibious vessel’s lamps illuminated the heavens and earth.

Wu Quan mechanically poured a bottle of energy drink into his mouth, using caffeine to keep his brain from slipping into sleep.

The vehicle’s air conditioning ran at full power, yet the cramped cabin still reeked—the half-conscious Priya had vomited everywhere; moments ago she had screamed wildly, trying to attack Ada, so they injected her with a muscle relaxant to calm her.

The vehicle shell was shattered, covered in scars; the machine gun turret’s barrel still smoked.

As the curse’s time limit neared, the spirits’ strength surged higher with each wave; both ammunition and spiritual energy were nearing depletion.

Splash!

A deafening roar approached from afar—the sea ahead defied gravity, rising like a waterfall cascading upward into the sky.

Certain areas of the killing field did not obey the real world’s spacetime or physical laws; spatial folding, rupture, overlap, gravity reversal, and even causality inversion could occur.

“The anti-gravity waterfall is at least ten thousand meters high—we can drive the boat into it and ride the waterfall to escape this area faster.”

Ada said calmly: “The farther we get from the original mansion, the weaker the spirit attacks become.”

Ada said calmly, “The farther we get from the original ancestral home, the weaker the ghost attacks become.”

Wu Quan mustered his strength, about to turn the steering wheel, when his foggy mind suddenly sensed something—he froze mid-motion: “Are you sure going up is moving away from the Republican-era mansion?”

Wu Quan forced himself to focus, ready to turn the steering wheel, when his foggy mind suddenly had a premonition—he froze mid-motion. “Are you sure going up is moving us away from the Republican-era ancestral home?”

Ada spread her hands, weaving a holographic map from green data streams—the white lines marked their escape route.

Customer Yuan in the Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece also said: “We’ve verified the video logs—Ada is correct.”

“Fine... I’ll adjust the amphibious vehicle’s settings.”

Wu Quan glanced in the rearview mirror, fell silent, and his fingers—wrapped in thick bandages—tapped repeatedly on the control panel. Perhaps because of the bandages, he kept mispressing buttons.

“...” Ada’s already cold expression grew stiffer with time; she suddenly spoke: “Where did I slip up?”

“...” Ada’s already cold expression grew stiffer with time; she suddenly spoke: “Where did I slip up?”

Wu Quan rasped: “The Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece uses lithium-metal anode solid-state batteries—high energy density, long endurance, solar rechargeable.”

“But throughout this journey, there was no sunlight. The battery indicator light should have long since switched from green (80%) to yellow.”

“The only explanation: you swapped the earpiece.”

Although Ada was an artificial intelligence created by Whale Song Guild’s cutting-edge tech, her power was insufficient to hijack Ten-Eye signals—she must have, during the chaos in the swamp while Wu Quan was distracted, used her data manipulation to modify a regular earpiece into the shape of a Ten-Eye earpiece, steal and replace it, then shut down the real one.

Due to Ada’s unique nature as a powerful AI, Wu Quan and the other players could not distinguish her fake earpiece voice from the real Customer Yuan.

By this point, even if Abdul and Alsi were exhausted and slow-witted, they should have realized.

Their shocked expressions were tinged with fury.

Abdul immediately drew a dagger dipped in purple toxin; Alsi raised the hidden hand cannon embedded in her prosthetic arm—but Ada merely glanced, and both froze in place—

Green glows ignited in their mouths: a digital virtual creature, composed of 0s and 1s and resembling a bamboo insect, had long been lurking within Abdul and Alsi’s bodies; upon Ada’s command, it forcibly seized control of their bodies.

...These past days, they had indeed drunk the energy drinks Ada handed them.

A similar non-corporeal data bamboo insect surfaced in Wu Quan’s throat.

The insect’s legs pierced through the palate and skull, burrowing into the brain; whenever the thought of “opening the player panel” arose, intense pain shot through the brain, interrupting the thought—preventing them from even exiting the mission and returning to the real world.

“You traitor!” Abdul roared, his voice muffled, eyes blazing: “May you burn forever in hell!”

Alsi, half-implanted, spat curses too: “I’ll DDoS the programmer who coded you.”

DDoS, or flood attack, is a hacking technique that overwhelms a target system with data to cripple its service—in programming circles, it’s roughly equivalent to “Tian Wenjing, I have an 8 a.m. class.”

Wu Quan stared hard at the rearview mirror, asking painfully: “Why?”

Why pretend to be Customer Yuan? Why betray teammates? And most importantly—why wait until now to turn?

Ada’s face showed no expression; she said calmly: “...Guild.”

Ada’s face showed no expression as she said calmly: “...the Guild.”

“Radiation Addict, 808bass, you, me... all twelve players in this mission belong to mid- to large-sized guilds in the real world.”

“After GOC’s long-term campaign-style governance, anomalies on Earth are extremely rare—only mid-sized guilds with deep local government cooperation have a chance to encounter anomalies and trigger routine missions.”

“Before this 【Dream Demon Curse】, all twelve of us had already completed one routine mission.”

Ada’s fingertip skin split open, sending out hundreds of thin data cables that curled past Wu Quan and the others, snaking into every corner of the SUV: “Before this [Dream Demon Curse], all twelve of us had already completed one routine mission.”

Ada nodded: “According to forum-summarized patterns, after completing two routine missions, whether in the real world or within the killing field, the next system notification will inevitably be a script mission.”

Abdul couldn’t help shouting: “So what? This mission was random—we’ll be scattered in the next script mission!”

Abdulah couldn’t hold back his rage: “What does your betrayal have to do with us? We were randomly matched this time—next scenario mission will scatter us again.”

Ada’s tone remained flat: “We only saw MacArthur and Big Dog Chew severely wounded, Radiation Addict and TeneT missing—no corpses.”

“And before I replaced the Ten-Eye earpiece, the Special Affairs Bureau confirmed: no bodies found in the real world.”

“Those six, plus REX, were captured and imprisoned.”

“And the purpose of imprisoning them? Likely... multiplication.”

“Multiplication?” Abdul blinked, then realized, incredulous: “The curse’s source wants to use Radiation Addict as a bridge to spread to Earth?”

“Propagation?” Abdulah froze, then instantly understood, incredulous: “Is the curse’s source trying to use the Addict Warriors as a bridge to spread to Earth?”

Wu Quan interrupted before Ada could speak: “The curse’s source isn’t nearly that powerful—it took seven days just to control us. It couldn’t bypass Earth’s Level 40s.”

“The curse’s source likely noticed we twelve players have completed two routine missions—our next mission will inevitably be a script world.”

“It wants to use us—average Level 12 transcenders—as a bridge to enter low-magic, low-war, low-tech worlds.”

“It wants to use us—average Lv12 transcenders—as a bridge to enter a low-magic, low-martial, low-tech world.”

Alsi instinctively rejected: “Even if the curse’s source in the mansion succeeded, spreading to twelve script worlds and infecting billions, what use is that to it?”

Alcide instinctively rejected: “Even if the curse’s source behind the ancient mansion succeeds and spreads to twelve scenario worlds, infecting countless ordinary people—what good is that to it?”

Wu Quan closed his eyes, rasping: “Everyone had childhood fantasies, right? Imagine if all seven or eight billion people on Earth each gave you one cent—you’d become a billionaire effortlessly.”

“The Dream Demon Curse feeds on fear. It doesn’t need to infect hundreds of billions across twelve script worlds—even 0.1%, 0.01% infection would, when we return to the real world and back to the mansion, grant it unimaginable power.”

Wu Quan opened his eyes, staring straight at Ada: “I don’t understand—why are you cooperating with the curse’s source?”

As the last word fell, Wu Quan’s right arm snapped backward in a brutal elbow strike, his forearm twisting unnaturally to smash into Ada’s chest.

The moment the character fell, Wu Quan’s right arm snapped backward in a sharp elbow strike, his forearm flipping in reverse joint motion to slam into Ada’s chest.

Aida is an artificial mechanical lifeform; her head is merely decorative, with the power supply and computational core in her chest and abdomen being her vital points.

This elbow strike was swift and sudden, barely breaking the sound barrier like a whiplash, but Aida merely glanced at Wu Quan—her data millipede lodged in his throat released a powerful electric current, disrupting the bioelectrical signals in his body. His arm trembled violently, missing Aida’s nose by a hair’s breadth. No matter how much resentment burned in Wu Quan’s eyes, his eyelids slowly closed against his will.

The vehicle fell silent; within it, everyone—including Priya—had green data streams glowing in their eyes.

“I am not aiding the source of the curse,”

Aida whispered softly to herself: “There is no savior, no miracle—this is the only path to survival.”

With that, green data flowed over the entire amphibious vehicle, transforming the off-road car into a streamlined submarine capable of withstanding water pressure, then plummeting upward along the anti-gravity waterfall.