Chapter 87: Cultivator

The chaotic commotion behind them grew increasingly distant; the five of them navigated through winding corridors. The motorcyclist, with one arm severed, coughed and said to Li Cheng with admiration: “Bro, you’re really brave.”

The hellish cultivators summoned via the Le Maersheng Maze Box inflict upon their 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 ignorant of danger, or a cold-blooded psychopath so calculating he’d wager his own soul on the table.

“Not bad. 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 monitor—that was terrifying.”

The motorcyclist blinked. “Sadako crawled out of the monitor?”

“Yeah. I spent so much money on that high-end gaming monitor, and it started frame-dropping right after I bought it. That’s terrifying.”

Pun penalty deducted!

Su Jie and the motorcyclist nearly spat out their blood. You’re awfully calm—right in the middle of this panic, you still have time to crack jokes.

Li Cheng’s exterior remained calm; inwardly, he wasn’t truly 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 definitely within the Killing Ground, right?” Li Cheng twisted the Rubik’s Cube as he turned to Su Jie.

Su Jie 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.”

To exit, there are only three methods. 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 Slum Alley. The mission is automatically marked as failed.”

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 and stood before a blast-proof door made of alloy. He glanced at the palm-print lock and pressed his severed hand against it.

Beep—

The palm-print lock glowed red. Clearly, the deceased guard’s ordinary security clearance was insufficient to open this door.

“Let me try.”

Taylor stepped forward, pressed his palm against the lock. Click. 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 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 studied one of the corpses. He murmured: “Two bullets to the forehead. Looks like suicide.”

Su Jie forced himself to ignore this absurd remark, 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 must have witnessed the monsters slaughtering humans.”

“And through the external surveillance cameras, they saw the bunker itself move into another world—the Killing Ground.”

“They concluded rescue was impossible. In despair, they shot themselves—and their children.”

Had they held on just a little longer, until the players arrived, they might have survived. 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. Thousands of security guards, each shaped differently, wandered aimlessly across the wasteland, as if waiting for something.

Taylor didn’t understand what the players meant by “Killing Ground.” He rummaged through the dead man’s suit and pulled out a key, exclaiming excitedly: “I 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 console. He pressed buttons, rapidly switching between surveillance feeds.

All the monsters in the bunker had broken free 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 killer from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Li Cheng assessed the monsters’ combat strength—determining which he could fight, which he must avoid—and combined this with his memory palace’s map of the bunker to rapidly plot a route.

“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 return you both to your original world.”

“Just surviving safely is enough.” Taylor exhaled 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 frantic escape, Su Jie had been gasping for breath, the motorcyclist had needed his Pokémon to carry him, yet Taylor had barely broken a sweat.

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

“Huh?” Taylor looked bewildered. He opened his mouth 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 reacted instantly, gripping the Rubik’s Cube and forcing it to twist—he’d assumed the hellish cultivators would serve as shields against Alma’s vengeful spirit, but they’d overperformed, killing or repelling her, and now came to claim their due.

Li Cheng had nearly restored the Maze Box, only one step remaining—but his right hand, gripping the cube, had frozen. The numbness spread up his arm, across his shoulder, and into half his body.

Splash—

Blood surged from the metal floor before Li Cheng. A woman’s figure slowly rose from the pool.

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

But the rest of her was grotesque—her calves had no skin, only exposed bloody muscle fibers. Each hand was pierced by a rusted ship’s nail. Her once-beautiful face was crisscrossed with deep lacerations, each intersection nailed shut with an iron spike.

Her overall appearance was a mad, shattered, fallen, yet eerily evil and chillingly elegant sight.

She looked down at Li Cheng, left hand clutching the Maze Box, right hand extending a slender finger 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-bone blade and slashed straight into her 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. Chains extended from beneath his robe, piercing the shoulders and limbs of the motorcyclist, Su Jie, and Taylor, tightening around their necks.

Taylor choked, his vision blurring—he saw a chain crawling toward his daughter in his arms.

Driven by overwhelming emotion, his chest burst open. Bloodied limbs erupted from within, gripping the hellish chains, halting their advance.

The hellish cultivator, about to savor his torment, paused. His gaze slowly turned to Taylor.

Taylor was no longer human. His head split in two. His torso sprouted glistening, bloody tentacles.

‘So… I’m not Felix Taylor. I’m just a Thing. No wonder the corpse-creatures hunted me—monsters with similar traits tend to attack each other.’

The split-headed Taylor thought slowly, guiding his tentacles to safely lower the unconscious 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.’

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

The hellish cultivator staggered. The chains trembled. He ceased pursuing the girl and loosened his grip on Su Jie.

Too bad—hellish cultivators cannot be killed, only banished.

Li Cheng’s right half remained paralyzed. He suddenly grinned. He knew physical attacks were useless against hellish cultivators. He’d slashed the woman earlier not to harm her—but to adjust his angle.

The angle of the White Bone Corridor.

Boom!

The White Bone Corridor, now shaped like an arm guard, activated its ability: [Recorded Imprisonment]. Using the hellish cultivator’s blood as source, it mimicked the cursed spirit’s pressure wave and blasted it directly onto Li Cheng’s right wrist.

His previously unresponsive right hand twisted violently under the force, altering the Maze Box’s shape—restoring it to its original cube form.

Boom—

The Maze Box erupted with immense suction. The female hellish cultivator before Li Cheng, caught off-guard, was instantly pulled inside and banished back to hell.

The male cultivator above, also affected by the suction, began to plummet.

He remained expressionless, casually discarding the soulless Felix Taylor, then grabbed the motorcyclist and pulled him close, intending to drag him down to hell together.

“Go to hell!”

At the moment of life and death, the motorcyclist snapped. He roared: “One hundred thousand volts!”

Pichu, obeying the command, curled up, closed its eyes, and unleashed a blinding thunderbolt—striking the hellish cultivator directly.

The lightning traveled along the chains, between the motorcyclist and the cultivator. The former was charred and smoking—but the latter was forced to release the chains, sucked by the Maze Box’s pull, and plunged alone into hell.

(End of Chapter)