Chapter 67

The chaotic commotion behind them grew ever more distant; the group navigated a winding maze of corridors, and the motorcyclist with a severed arm coughed once, saying to Li Cheng with admiration: "Bro, you're truly fearless."

The hellish cultivators summoned via the Le Marchan Maze inflict upon the summoner all manner of tortures beyond human physiological limits, then drag their soul into hell for eternal torment.

For ordinary people, it's better to die quickly than fall into their hands.

This self-styled Chu Xuan, a sadistic cosplay enthusiast, is either a reckless fool unaware of danger, or a cold-blooded psychopath so calculating he'd wager his own soul on the table.

"Not bad—it's just this level of adventure."

Li Cheng kept running, speaking calmly: "Last time I watched the Sadako video on my brand-new Sony 8K 240Hz display—that was scary."

The motorcyclist blinked. "Did Sadako crawl out of the screen?"

"Yeah. I spent so much money on this premium gaming monitor, and it started frame-dropping right after I bought it—terrifying."

Pun penalty deducted!

Su Jie and the motorcyclist nearly spat out their blood—you're awfully calm, even in such a tense moment you still have time for jokes.

Li Cheng's exterior remained calm; inwardly, he wasn't overly panicked—the hellish cultivators were indeed powerful, but as long as he restored the Rubik's Cube, he could easily send them back to hell.

Moreover

"This place is indeed within the Killing Ground, correct?" Li Cheng twisted the Rubik's Cube as he turned to look at Su Jie.

The latter tucked away the nearly burned-out candle, guessing what Li Cheng wanted to ask, and said: "Yes. After accepting a standard exploration mission in the Killing Ground, players cannot use the logout function."

There are only three ways to exit: one, complete the mission.

Two, survive until the mission time limit expires, rendering the mission invalid.

Three, leave the mission zone and find a phone booth to teleport to the Shabby Street—the mission automatically fails."

Considering Alma's strength, Su Jie didn't believe any player could survive her relentless pursuit for two hours.

That left only two options: complete the mission or escape the bunker. But these two options were essentially the same. According to the map, to escape directly, players would have to dig through nearly a hundred layers of reinforced alloy walls—utterly impossible.

"We've reached the command center."

Li Cheng stopped, standing before a blast-proof door made of alloy, glanced at the palm-print lock, and pressed his severed hand against it.

Beep—

The palm-print lock glowed red—clearly, the dead man's ordinary security guard clearance was insufficient to open this door.

"I'll do it."

Taylor stepped forward, pressed his palm against the lock. "Click," and the door swung open.

Inside the command center, lights blazed; hundreds of screens lined the walls, displaying surveillance feeds from every corner of the bunker. On the floor lay over a dozen human corpses, long dead—including several underage children.

None of the corpses showed signs of being mutilated or devoured by monsters; each had been shot cleanly through the head. The only handgun lay clutched in the hand of a middle-aged man dressed in a high-end tailored suit.

Li Cheng stepped into the room, his expression grave as he scanned one of the corpses, murmuring: "Two bullets to the forehead—looks like suicide."

Su Jie forced himself to ignore this absurd comment, shut the blast door, and glanced at the wall-mounted surveillance screens: "Almost everyone in the bunker is dead. The few survivors left in the command center likely witnessed the monsters slaughtering humans."

Then, via external bunker surveillance cameras, they saw the bunker itself transported into another world—the Killing Ground."

Convinced rescue was impossible, they took their own lives—and those of their children."

Had they held on just a little longer, until the players arrived, they might have had a chance to survive. But now, it was too late to say anything.

The motorcyclist didn't care about their fate; he stared up at the large screen and whispered: "Outside the bunker, there are Killing Ground security guards."

Beyond the bunker lay a barren desert, where tens of thousands of security guards of varying shapes wandered aimlessly, as if waiting for something.

Taylor didn't understand what the players meant by "Killing Ground." He rummaged through the dead man's suit, pulled out a key, and cried excitedly: "Found the main control room key! Here!"

He handed the key to Li Cheng, cautiously asking: "Mr. Chu, can my daughter and I leave with you?"

"Don't ask me. Ask him."

Li Cheng pointed at Su Jie, then took the key and walked to the command center's control panel, pressing buttons to cycle through the surveillance feeds.

All monsters within the bunker had lost control and wandered aimlessly through the corridors; some blocked the path to the main control room.

Jason from Friday the 13th, Michael Myers from Halloween, the Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Li Cheng assessed the monsters' combat strength—which he could fight, which he must avoid—and rapidly devised a route using his memory palace's map of the bunker.

"Hmm," Su Jie scratched his head. "If you mean leaving the bunker and heading to a safe zone, yes, that's possible. But I can't guarantee I'll send you both back to your original world."

"Just surviving safely is enough," Taylor sighed in relief, not daring to hope for more.

"Once you're out, behave properly," Li Cheng said without turning around. "Don't think about nonsense."

This remark sounded bizarre at first, but during their desperate flight, Su Jie had been gasping for breath, the motorcyclist had needed his Pokémon to carry him, while Taylor had astonishingly not broken a sweat.

Moreover, according to his earlier claim, he was merely an electrical engineer—his deceased wife held the clearance to open the command center.

"Huh?" Taylor looked bewildered, about to speak—when suddenly a metal chain shot from the wall behind him, piercing his shoulder, coiling around his body, and hoisting him and his daughter into the air.

The motorcyclist and Su Jie were likewise hoisted by chains.

Li Cheng instantly reacted, unhesitatingly gripping the Rubik's Cube and forcing it to twist—he'd assumed the hellish messengers would serve as shields against Alma's vengeful spirit, but they'd overachieved, killing or repelling Alma, and now came to claim their due.

Li Cheng had nearly restored the Maze; only one final step remained. But his right hand, gripping the Cube, felt frozen—paralyzed. The numbness spread along his arm, shoulder, and into half his body.

Splash—

Blood suddenly surged from the metal floor before Li Cheng; a female figure slowly rose from the pool.

She was the female hellish cultivator, nearly 1.9 meters tall, with ashen-white skin. Her already voluptuous, sensual figure was accentuated by a black leather bodysuit and fishnet stockings. Her ample chest, barely held up and covered by two thin ribbons.

But the rest of her was grotesque—her calves had their skin peeled away, revealing bloody muscle fibers; each hand was pierced by a rusted ship's nail. Her once-beautiful face was crisscrossed with deep lacerations, each intersection driven through with an iron nail.

Her overall appearance was a wild, shattered, fallen ruin—yet radiated eerie, evil, chilling elegance.

She looked down upon Li Cheng with disdain, her left hand clutching the Maze, her right hand extending a slender fingertip to teasingly trace his chest, slowly slicing open his skin.

Li Cheng's expression didn't change. From his still-mobile left hand, he extended a mantis-arm bone blade and slashed it into the woman's neck.

Blood sprayed. The nearly decapitated female hellish cultivator didn't show pain—instead, she smiled with pleasure.

In their world, pain was pleasure, suffering was bliss. Eternal torment meant eternal ecstasy.

Above the command center, the male hellish cultivator floated, his robe extending countless iron chains that pierced the shoulders and limbs of the motorcyclist, Su Jie, and Taylor, tightening slowly around their necks.

Taylor was on the verge of suffocation; in his blurred vision, he faintly saw a chain crawling toward his daughter in his arms.

Driven by intense emotion, his chest spontaneously ruptured, and bloodied limbs emerged from within, gripping the hellish cultivator's chain tightly, halting its advance by even a fraction.

The hellish cultivator, about to savor his cruel pleasure, stopped, his gaze slowly turning toward Taylor.

The latter had already lost his human form; his head split into two halves, and bloody tentacles grew from within his torso.

"So I'm not Felix Taylor. I'm just a monstrosity. No wonder the corpse-transformed ones chased me—monsters with similar attributes are more likely to attack each other."

Taylor, his head split in two, thought slowly, controlling the tentacles to safely lower the fainted girl to the ground.

"But so what? I inherited Felix Taylor's memories and thoughts—I am Felix Taylor. I am her father. I must protect her."

Taylor, fully transformed into a monster, climbed up the chain, opened his gaping maw, and lunged at the male hellish cultivator, biting down on one of his arms.

The hellish cultivator staggered, the chain trembled, ceasing its pursuit of the girl and releasing Su Jie.

Unfortunately, hellish cultivators cannot be killed—only banished.

Li Cheng, whose right half-body was rigid and immobile, suddenly grinned. He knew full well that ordinary physical attacks were useless against hellish cultivators; just now, slashing at the woman before him was merely to adjust his angle.

The angle of the Bone Corridor.

Boom!

The Bone Corridor, shaped as an arm guard, activated its ability, 【Engraved Imprisonment】, using the hellish cultivator's blood as a source to mimic the wrath of a death curse and blast a high-pressure water jet directly onto Li Cheng's right wrist.

His previously unresponsive right hand was forcibly rotated by the external force, altering the shape of the Puzzle Box until it reverted to its original square form.

Boom—

The Puzzle Box suddenly unleashed a powerful suction; the female hellish cultivator before Li Cheng, caught off guard, was instantly drawn into the Puzzle Box and banished back to hell.

Meanwhile, the male cultivator high above was also affected by the terrifying suction, falling downward.

He remained expressionless, casually discarding the soulless Felix Taylor, dragging the driver before him, intending to pull him down into hell together.

"Go to hell!"

In the moment of life or death, the driver snapped completely, shouting: "One hundred thousand volts!"

Pichu, upon receiving the command, curled up, closed his eyes, and unleashed a blinding Thunder, striking the hellish cultivator directly.

The lightning traveled along the chain, conducting between the driver and the hellish cultivator; the former was scorched and smoked all over, but the latter was forced to release the chain, swept away by the Puzzle Box's suction, falling alone into hell.

(End of Chapter)