Chapter 84: Dragon

Even through a layer of laminated glass, the faint sound of chewing could still be heard from the cafeteria.

The driver lowered his voice and asked, “What now?”

“We need to figure out what happened here first,” Li Cheng said, adjusting his glasses. “The alien’s neck contained a synthetic crystal, and the wall advertisements labeled this place as a theme park.”

My guess is that the park’s operators, like in the movie Jurassic Park, lost control completely.

More than twelve hours, forty-one minutes, and thirty-seven seconds ago, some accident occurred, causing all the monsters to break free and slaughter the humans.

“Huh?” Su Jie exclaimed. “Mr. Chu, how do you know the exact time of the accident?”

“I deduced it from the corpses,” Li Cheng said. “Under room temperature, after death, human muscles undergo rigor mortis due to lack of blood and oxygen. It first appears in the eyelids and throat, then spreads gradually across the body, peaking between twelve and sixteen hours.”

The earliest corpses show this condition, and their corneas are slightly cloudy—consistent with a twelve-hour timeframe.

The driver couldn’t help asking, “But how did you calculate the seconds?”

“Oh, that,” Li Cheng shrugged. “I compared the time on the broken wall clock, which had stopped, with the wristwatches still ticking on some of the corpses.”

So why did you just waste all that time talking nonsense?

The driver’s eyebrow twitched, barely suppressing his urge to retort.

“Anyway, twelve hours isn’t long. There might still be other survivors hiding somewhere. We could find one to interrogate, or locate the bunker’s map and head to the main control room mentioned in the mission.”

Li Cheng suddenly paused, bent down, and pressed his ear to the floor, listening intently. “There’s a human—male—running desperately ahead.”

Without another word, he sprang up and dashed down the corridor.

Su Jie hurried after him; the driver grabbed Walking Grass and sprinted behind, whispering low, “How do you know it’s human? From footsteps?”

“Yes,” Li Cheng replied at breakneck speed. “Footstep frequency, weight, spacing—all reveal the type of shoes worn, the person’s weight, height, whether they’re walking or running, and if injured.”

The only tricky part is distinguishing a sexy office worker in high heels from a seventy-year-old wealthy woman using a cane—both make the same ‘tap-tap-tap’ sound.

??? What the hell have you been through?

Amid the exasperated expressions of the driver and Su Jie, Li Cheng kicked open a heavy door and saw a man frantically fleeing toward them.

He was in his forties, Caucasian, with a full beard, wearing a yellow technician’s vest, his face twisted in terror.

Behind him chased a creature of bizarre design.

It stood nearly two meters tall, vaguely humanoid, with large patches of rotting skin, a bloated abdomen, both arms transformed into cleavers, its lower jaw gone, and vascular organs dangling from its mouth.

It was a “Pregnant” variant from the video game Dead Space—a transformation of infected pregnant women.

“Help!”

The man, seeing other humans, immediately screamed for aid.

Li Cheng tilted his chin, signaling the man to move aside, then stopped, flipped his palm, and pulled from his backpack a semi-automatic shotgun fitted with a long suppressor.

The gun was manufactured by European Heavy Industries, featuring a rotary drum magazine, its overall shape resembling South Africa’s Striker series weapons.

Bang! Bang!

Li Cheng fired two rounds, striking both sides of the creature’s shoulders—immediately, flames erupted violently.

Was that… Dragon’s Breath ammo?

Su Jie’s mind briefly conjured the idea, then dismissed it. Dragon’s Breath ammo replaces pellets with magnesium flakes and granules.

When fired, the magnesium ignites intensely, creating a dazzling spectacle like a dragon breathing fire—hence the name.

In some marketing blogs and video games, Dragon’s Breath ammo is portrayed as apocalyptic. In reality, magnesium flakes are too light to deliver sufficient kinetic impact, and the granules burn too quickly to transfer sustained heat—best case, they ignite outer clothing. In combat, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits; it’s just flashy theater.

As for the gun in Li Cheng’s hands, it was likely modified—using standard deer-hunting incendiary rounds—allowing prolonged burning upon impact.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The creature, terrified of fire, was repeatedly struck—its limbs shattered, body torn apart, skull blown to fragments.

‘Of course, this monster’s neck also contained a synthetic crystal.’

Li Cheng thought idly, then fired another round into the creature’s abdomen—according to game logic, its belly might also harbor a transformed infant creature.

Once the monster fell completely still, Li Cheng turned to the driver. “Your Walking Grass should know the Dissolution Liquid skill. Melt this thing down.”

“Got it.” The driver nodded, signaling Walking Grass to activate its ability. A transparent liquid sprayed over the creature’s body, dissolving it—this entity wasn’t a single living organism, but a mass of animated mutated cells; even if chopped into mince, it would remain “alive.” Only complete incineration or acid dissolution could fully eliminate it.

After disposing of the creature, Li Cheng turned to the terrified man and studied him. “What happened here?”

The man, clearly traumatized, recounted the events in a disjointed, trembling narrative, from which the three players learned the full story.

This place was called “Dark Universe Theme Park,” secretly built underground by a super-rich investor to recreate horror monsters from films and video games, attracting visitors. It was currently in internal testing before official opening.

The man identified himself as Felix Taylor, an engineer responsible for maintaining the park’s power systems. His wife also worked here, handling marketing.

About thirteen hours ago, a severe earthquake struck the park, causing all monsters to go berserk and massacre the staff.

Taylor hid himself and narrowly escaped death. Just as he despaired, believing his wife and daughter were dead, he received a call from his daughter—she and her mother were hiding on the opposite side of the park and still alive.

To find his family, Felix left his hiding spot, only to be spotted and pursued by the Pregnant creature.

“Wait—I still don’t get it. How did you create these monsters?”

The driver frowned. “Cloning? Genetic engineering? That doesn’t make sense—how much revenue could ticket sales possibly generate? Would you ever recoup the costs?”

“We didn’t create these monsters,”

Taylor forced his gaze away from the two human hands hanging from Li Cheng’s chest and answered honestly. “A year ago, an expedition team discovered something in the Arctic. That thing could read human thoughts and summon bizarre monsters out of thin air.”

The driver stared in disbelief. “You turned that thing into a theme park? Didn’t anyone see the risk? Didn’t any government or organization step in to seize it as a strategic weapon?”

“Our synthetic crystals were designed to perfectly control the monsters’ thoughts and behavior, so we weren’t afraid of losing control. As for the rest—I don’t know. I’m just a low-level employee.”

The three players exchanged glances. This Taylor and the bunker beneath them clearly originated from another world—when shown a star map including the Big Dipper, he recognized none of it.

Such cases have occurred before. The Killing Ground occasionally pulls in beings, structures, even cultivators from beyond Earth through rifts.

But it’s unclear whether the park was pulled into the Killing Ground first, triggering the monsters’ breakout—or whether the earthquake happened first, then the entire park was dragged in.

(End of Chapter)