Chapter 86: Drive the Tiger

A group of people leapt onto the rubber boat; 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 in panic.

“Make way!”

Su Jie reached out and pressed his hand against the motorcyclist’s gushing shoulder wound, pouring all his healing power into it. As the wound’s granulation tissue writhed, it finally sealed the vessels and stopped the bleeding.

Too drained to wipe the sweat from his brow, Su Jie rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a bandage caked in powder, wrapping it tightly around the motorcyclist’s shoulder. He then pulled out a vial of red potion and forced it down the man’s uninjured left hand.

【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 (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 remedies.

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

As long as the injury wasn’t something instantly fatal like a shattered brain or pulverized heart, it could keep the victim alive.

Since Life Potions only appeared as quest drops or in players’ personal shops (there were two shop systems: one public shop, refreshing fifty items daily, and one personal shop, 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 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 ducts with psychic power, crushing them inch by inch in midair.

In the world of the video game "Extreme Panic," Alma Wied was a 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 fifteen, while unconscious, she was implanted with her father’s genetic material and forcibly impregnated, giving birth to two male infants who also possessed psychic talent. Both infants were taken by the company for further scientific study.

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 first game’s ending, 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 — could gain any advantage against Alma —

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

“There’s another long route on the other side of the Ocean Park leading to the command center. Let’s take that path.”

Li Cheng, steering the rubber boat, recalled the map he’d seen earlier and said quickly: “Su Jie, what’s the word from your earpiece?”

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

This wasn’t a secret in the Killing Ground; the Special Affairs Bureau sometimes gifted or rented earpieces to friendly guilds.

“Temporarily safe — the 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 rubber boat.

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

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

The candle’s faint light enveloped the boat, blocking all external objects.

Su Jie held up the candle and shouted: “Time is short — 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.

By the time Su Jie’s candle burned out, she would likely 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, spinning the boat ninety degrees on the water and heading back the way they’d come.

Thud!

The rubber boat slammed ashore. Li Cheng sprinted forward, and before his companions’ stunned eyes, snatched up the Le Marsham Puzzle Box from the ground.

He activated the Multi-Brain Domain Method, rapidly simulating the Rubik’s Cube’s 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.

Shhhhh —

Chains dragged across the floor. The once-smooth walls split open like human skin, gushing torrents of blood.

Two hellish emissaries, clad in black leather and adorned with countless nails and torture devices, stepped through the blood, arriving in the corridor.

Their faces expressionless, they scanned the three players and the Taylors, then turned their gaze to Alma on the water.

The hellish emissaries and the psychic spirit both fixed their eyes 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. Blood surged, bricks flew, and the corridor shattered like a demolition site.

“I won’t interfere. I’m leaving.”

Li Cheng gave a thumbs-up with the severed hand, grabbed the cube, yanked Su Jie and the others from their stunned stillness, and bolted away.

(End of Chapter)