Chapter 66: Driving the Tiger

A group of people leapt onto the rubber raft; Li Cheng started the engine and sped forward in the speedboat.

The motorcyclist, having lost too much blood, was nearly unconscious; four Pokémon crowded against his chest, squealing frantically.

"Make way!"

Su Jie reached out and pressed his hand against the motorcyclist's gushing shoulder wound, desperately releasing his healing skill. As flesh buds writhed at the wound, they finally plugged the vessels and stopped the bleeding.

Too drained from spiritual energy, Su Jie had no time to wipe the sweat from his brow; he rummaged through his backpack slot for a bandage caked in powder, wrapping it tightly around the motorcyclist's shoulder. Finally, he pulled out a vial of red potion and shoved it into the man's intact left hand, forcing him to swallow it.

【Item Name: Mini Life Potion】

【Type: Consumable】

【Quality: Rare】

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

【Effect: Heals partial external injuries and most common diseases. Recovery speed and efficacy depend on the user's physical strength】

【Cooldown: Only one bottle can be consumed within one hour. Effects are overwritten by Small, Medium, or Large Life Potions】

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

Li Cheng glanced at the empty square crystal vial; unlike the healing potions players drank like water in online games, Life Potions from the Killing Ground were true divine medicines.

Its healing range included, but was not limited to: external wounds, cancer, sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, uremia — one dose, and the illness vanished instantly.

As long as the brain wasn't shattered or the heart pulverized — injuries that caused instant death — it could keep the victim alive.

Since Life Potions only appeared as quest drops or in players' personal Shangcheng (the Shangcheng system had two types: one public, accessible to all players, refreshing fifty items daily; one personal, refreshing fifteen items daily),

their price far exceeded the average for Rare consumables, and they were often priceless — appearing only to be snapped up immediately by large guilds.

(In the real world, ultra-wealthy elites and powerful officials also hoarded Life Potions for emergencies, directly inflating their price.)

"Gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp."

After drinking the Life Potion, the motorcyclist's shoulder wound ceased oozing blood. He lifted his head dazedly and whispered weakly to Su Jie: "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Su Jie gave him another painkiller injection, then wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to look behind.

The spirit Alma, in the form of a little girl in red, still stood motionless. The deep-sea octopus tentacles around her tried to retreat, but she forcibly pulled them out of the ventilation shaft with spiritual power, crushing them inch by inch in midair.

In the lore of the video game "Extreme Panic," Alma Wied was a born psychic from childhood, akin to Sadako, possessing telepathy and telekinesis.

At age eight, she was imprisoned by her father and an ATC tech company closely allied with the U. S. military, subjected daily to inhumane experiments to develop a new generation of U. S. military communication systems based on telepathy.

Later, at age fifteen, while unconscious, she was implanted with her father's genetic material and forcibly impregnated, giving birth to two male infants who also possessed spiritual talent. Both infants were taken by the tech company for further scientific research.

After enduring this series of horrific torments, Alma fully turned dark. Even after her physical body died, she returned to the world as a vengeful spirit, launching a bloody retaliation against ATC and humanity.

In the ending of the first game, even a nuclear explosion failed to kill her. Not even Su Jie, specialized in healing, or the motorcyclist, specialized in summoning — not even three higher-level pure combat players brought in — could gain any advantage over Alma —

Her physical body was dead; the little girl in red was merely an illusion created by her powerful lingering psychic energy.

"There's another longer route on the other side of the Ocean Park leading to the command center. Let's take that path."

Li Cheng, steering the rubber raft, recalled the map he'd seen earlier and said quickly: "What's the word from your earpiece, Su Jie?"

All Ten-Eye communication earpieces connected to the Tianyan System in the Ten-Eye Room, where a female customer service agent answered and gave guidance.

This was no secret in the Killing Ground; the Special Affairs Bureau sometimes gifted or rented earpieces to friendly guilds.

"Temporarily safe — that deep-sea octopus has no time to bother us. Watch out!"

Before he finished speaking, a multi-story slide standing in the water was yanked by invisible force and toppled toward the raft.

Li Cheng yanked the steering wheel hard, barely dodging the collapsing steel frame, but more buildings, floating human corpses, and shark carcasses were hurled at the boat by psychic power.

At the last moment, Su Jie pulled out a candle, rubbed his finger across the wick, and lit it.

The candlelight, faint, enveloped the boat, blocking all external objects.

Su Jie held up the candle and shouted: "Time is limited — we must lose her!"

The red-clad Alma spirit had already dealt with the deep-sea blood-sucking octopus; like a TV signal with poor reception, she flickered in and out on the water's surface, passing straight through the Pokémon's lightning and fire attacks, following closely behind the boat.

Wherever she went, water reversed, metal twisted, buildings collapsed — a scene of natural disaster.

It was likely that when the candle in Su Jie's hand burned out, she would dive forward and crush them all with psychic force.

The Killing Ground never assigned impossible missions, especially at the start. Even in the most desperate situation, a path to survival always existed.

Li Cheng's gaze sharpened; he yanked the steering wheel hard, making the boat drift ninety degrees across the water and head back toward the direction they'd come from.

Boom!

The rubber raft slammed onto shore; Li Cheng sprinted like an arrow, and amid his companions' stunned gazes, he snatched up the Le Marceau Puzzle Box from the ground.

He activated the Multi-Brain Domain Method, rapidly simulating the Rubik's Cube structure in his mind.

Holding the severed hand, Li Cheng twisted the cube through his palm, transforming it into a long bar, then hurled it violently to the ground.

Clang!

The cube struck the ground, and a needle-like spike shot up from its top. Just like in the movies — it was a trap.

Li Cheng gently placed the severed hand onto the needle. As the tip pierced the skin and drew blood, an inexplicable, eerie sensation descended upon the narrow corridor.

Swish swish —

Chains dragged with sudden noise; the previously smooth wall split open like human skin, gushing forth torrents of blood.

Two hellish emissaries, dressed in black leather and adorned with countless nails and torture implements, stepped through the blood to enter the corridor.

Their faces expressionless, their eyes first swept over the three players and the Taylors, then turned to Alma on the water.

The hellish emissaries and the psychic spirit both fixed their gaze on the living — neither would yield, even knowing this was Li Cheng's tactic of driving a tiger to devour a wolf.

Invisible forces clashed through their gazes; instantly, the sea of blood churned, bricks and stones flew, and the corridor shattered like a demolition site.

"I won't interfere. I'm leaving now."

Li Cheng gave a thumbs-up with the severed hand, grabbed the cube, yanked Su Jie and the others who were still frozen in place, and ran like hell.

(End of Chapter)