Chapter 92: Hormones

As he displayed his phone, Li Cheng also kept an eye on the TV screen. The scrolling comments didn't find anything odd about the photos of Asuka and Rei Ayanami; instead, they lamented how hard his life was and voted for him heavily.

【Sigh, I heard similar stories a few years ago】

【Yeah, but now we're in the era of space exploration—tragedies like this won't happen again】

Li Cheng watched the comments fly by and raised an eyebrow slightly. What do you mean, it hasn't been many years since the era of space exploration?

Also, after the nuclear war, Evangelion wasn't preserved, but the entire Fast & Furious film series survived? Or is it that

"Master Pi Fu?"

Li Cheng's thoughts were interrupted by Little Red Riding Hood, who nervously asked: "What talent should we show?"

With Leonardo's help, Leon's piano playing reached world-class levels; Harley's singing was no less impressive.

Will and Annie both had excellent physical conditioning and precise control over their muscles. Even without any rehearsal, their dancing was crisp, rhythmic, and sharp—as if they were professional dancers.

Even Jin Huiying took out an easel and canvas, skillfully sketching the two dancers on the floor—no one knew what skill she used, but her drawing was lifelike, and her vote count rose steadily.

Shouldn't it be expected, given this is a death match quest? Each of them has a few tricks up their sleeves.

"With Harley as a singer, choosing to sing would be unwise," Li Cheng whispered to Little Red Riding Hood. "What can you do?"

Little Red Riding Hood looked embarrassed. "Uh, I can make coffee and prepare Western-style omelets and egg fried rice—I saw the ingredients in the fridge."

Are you working at a maid café?

Li Cheng's expression turned odd—he had actually been taken by Han Letian to visit a maid café in Yin City.

But whether the café owner had a bizarre mindset or modern society suffered from labor shortages and poor staff training, all the maid girls spoke with strong local accents.

【Two male guests! Please come in~ Watch your step!】

【Dude, what do you wanna eat?】

【Why ask if it's good? Just drink if it tastes nice!】

It's not that dialects are bad, but after that, Li Cheng lost all pink fantasies about maid cafés.

"Let's skip the coffee and egg fried rice."

Li Cheng rubbed his temples. Not only would the audience likely not appreciate such a talent, but even if they did, he couldn't choose it—everything here felt strange; who knew what the show's organizers had mixed into the fridge's ingredients?

Don't end up mutating your genes and growing three heads and six arms.

"Dance, like them."

"But I don't know how," Little Red Riding Hood fretted.

"Don't worry, I'll lead you."

Li Cheng rolled up his sleeves, took Little Red Riding Hood's hand, placed her left hand on his left shoulder, let his gaze grow distant, wrapped his left arm around her back, and clasped her right hand with his own.

Experience Roleplay Method, activate.

His entire demeanor shifted instantly—from casual and carefree to elegant and composed. The character he portrayed was the blind retired officer from the film *Scent of a Woman*, played by Al Pacino.

Li Cheng guided Little Red Riding Hood through a tango, matching the music with steps that alternated between fast and slow, still and dynamic, graceful and fluid.

Will and Annie, dancing together on the other side of the living room, noticed the commotion and exchanged glances: 'Take them out?'

'Take them out.'

According to the rules, each viewer gets only one vote per round, and once cast, it cannot be changed.

Since both couples chose to dance, they would inevitably split each other's votes.

Will and Annie locked eyes, their expressions tender, their steps subtly shifting southeast.

Whoosh!

Annie spun sharply, her red dress flaring up and blocking one camera lens.

In the blind spot of another camera, Will produced a large syringe and silently stabbed it toward Li Cheng's spine.

At this distance, drawing his 170mm straight blade was too slow; Li Cheng barely extended a mantis arm blade from his forearm and blocked the syringe's needle.

He had anticipated Will's interference—rolling up his sleeves was precisely for this moment.

Bone blade versus needle—over a dozen clashes rang out in a flash.

As the red skirt slowly settled, Will quietly retracted the syringe into his sleeve and casually wrapped his arm around Annie.

Annie pressed close to Will's ear and whispered: "He's just a Lv6 lone wolf player—how did you fail to take him down?"

Will knew he was at fault; he shook his numb arm slightly and muttered: "His physical stats are definitely higher than Lv6—he's from some major guild."

"No excuse is valid for failure. I'll handle it."

Annie turned, seizing the pause in the music's variation, and moved toward Little Red Riding Hood like a waltz partner exchange.

This time, Will deliberately blocked the camera's view.

Clang!

Annie's fingers extended into sharp claws, slashing toward Little Red Riding Hood's arm.

Her timing and angle were perfectly cunning—exactly out of the camera's frame, while Li Cheng's entire body remained visible, making it hard for him to intervene.

(If he attacked, Annie could instantly retract her claws and feign a helpless victim, successfully framing him again.)

At the last moment, Little Red Riding Hood dropped into a crouch, hugged her head with both hands, and a faint glow surrounded her entire body.

【Title Name: Crouch and Cover】

【Activation: Active】

【Effect: Authority Defense. While crouching and hugging the head, the entire body is treated as a single unit, and all damage taken is calculated based on the highest defense stat of any equipped item, lasting 5 seconds】

【Cost: 20% of total Spirit Energy capacity】

【Cooldown: Maximum two uses per 24 hours】

【Note: In nature, some creatures react to danger with instinctive behaviors—turtles retract their heads and limbs into their shells, red pandas stand upright and spread their arms to appear larger, and a certain vampire lord of the Red Magic Mansion who refuses to reveal his name crouches and covers his head】

After activating this title skill, Little Red Riding Hood's entire body defense became equal to that of her highest-rank equipped armor—the premium-quality lacquered leather shoes on her feet.

The special effect of these lacquered leather shoes is to absorb energy from the earth, temporarily boosting their defense and weight.

And when it is linked with a title skill, it can produce a 11>2 effect.

Anne's cat paw struck Little Red Riding Hood's head like hitting an alloy steel plate—instead of breaking through, the paw itself shattered into several pieces. She winced, her face contorting in pain.

The background music shifted melody, the mechanical arm repositioned the camera, and by the time Anne tried to strike again, it was too late; she could only throw herself into Will's arms.

Little Red Riding Hood was also pulled up by Li Cheng, as if nothing had happened, and moved away from Will and Anne.

Ilvan, previously eliminated, had physical attributes far exceeding normal humans—yet he was still ruthlessly impaled by the mechanical arm. None of the players dared test the consequences of killing directly under the cameras.

Will and Anne, one with aching arms, the other with bleeding fingers, moved stiffly, their motions uncontrollable. Meanwhile, the voting segment on the TV screen had reached a fever pitch—all votes were extremely close, making it impossible to determine who would be eliminated.

Snap!

Will suddenly extended his foot beneath Anne's. As she was about to step on it, her pale, long leg beneath the red dress sharply lifted, hooking backward.

She showcased her body's curves to the camera while avoiding the high heel crushing Will's instep.

"Hehe,"

Anne cast a sultry glance at Will—everything was in her eyes—"You want me to step on your foot, make the audience think I stumbled in my dance, and lower my impression score? Too naive."

Their alliance was temporary from the start; sudden betrayal was only natural.

"Is that so."

Will sneered inwardly, spun her around several times by her waist, bringing them beneath the central air conditioning vent.

The villa used a central air conditioning fresh-air system—the AC unit hidden in the ceiling. Will stood with his back to the vent, the constant-temperature airflow passing beside him and blowing toward Anne.

A scent, indescribably pleasant or foul, surged straight into Anne's mind. Her face flushed involuntarily, her eyes gradually growing hazy.

Caught!

Anne instinctively tried to break free, but her hand was firmly gripped by Will.

"Want to escape? Do you think you can slip out of my control?"

My title is 【Rival to All】.

Will's lips curled slightly as he gazed at her with deep affection.

He belonged to Gen-Sys Biotech Corporation, and unlike players hired only after becoming Chosen Ones, he had been an employee from the start—a true insider, naturally given the company's full investment in his training.

The company implanted multiple glands inside him, using biological science technology retrieved from the Killing Fields, capable of regulating hormones and neurotransmitters.

These glands could aid combat and enhance the body, and at need, release hormones to trigger spontaneous production of phenylethylamine, dopamine, endorphins, norepinephrine, oxytocin, and vasopressin in those nearby.

Causing them to involuntarily develop a certain fondness for Will.

Combined with Will's own extremely high charm attribute and his charm skill, this allowed him to manipulate NPCs into aiding him in countless scenario missions—achieving objectives without bloodshed. This was the origin of his title skill.

"Humans are not as advanced or transcendent as imagined. The human body is merely the vessel of the brain, and the brain is objectively regulated by biochemistry.

In the end, humans are merely slaves to biochemistry."

Will clasped Anne's hand and smiled warmly, fully activating his skill. He never dreamed of making her fall in love with him—he wanted her to lose composure and humiliate herself on camera.

Will had already deduced the three rules of this mission. First: ensure you are not eliminated.

Second: on the basis of the first rule, eliminate players of the same gender whenever possible.

Third: if you cannot eliminate a same-gender player, prioritize suppressing and eliminating the most attractive opposite-gender player. If absolutely necessary, eliminate anyone at random.

The first two rules are easy to understand; the third stems from game theory. Suppose three men each have a charm value of 90, and four women have charm values of 90, 90, 90, and 95.

Then the one with 95 holds the strongest "bargaining power" in the entire field, able to maintain her invincibility through alliances and incitement.

Whoosh—

The gentle breeze from the central air conditioning carried the hormones, drifting through the room.

Merely smelling a trace of it made Jin Huiying blush, Little Red Riding Hood's eyes spun in circles, her hands clasped between her thighs motionless, while Li Cheng felt nothing—the Worm Lord's infection had long since made his body vastly different from ordinary humans'.

As for Anne.

She stiffened at first, then slammed her high heel firmly onto the ground, seizing the moment when Will was fully focused on releasing his skill, wrapped her arms around his waist, spun them forward several times, adjusting their positions until they stood directly before Leonardo and Harley.

What the hell?! Shouldn't you have lost control immediately?!

Will's heart jolted. Anne's lips curled into a cold smile as she whispered close to his ear: "Don't forget—I'm from the Monutong Alliance."

In the early days of the Killing Fields, there had been a guild called 【NuWuTong Alliance】—established roughly simultaneously with the Demon Scientists' League, a veteran powerhouse whose power system centered on potions, astrology, tarot, and witchcraft, accepting only female players.

In the second and a half year after the Killing Fields opened, its guild leader 【Dir】 vanished without explanation, leaving the guild leaderless and unable to seize the critical strategic resource Hidden Interstice, plunging it into decline.

When the second leader took over, she enacted sweeping reforms, introducing a new cultivable power system that reversed the decline and renamed the guild 【Monutong Alliance】.

Outsiders thought it was just the new leader burning three fires—but they didn't know the essential difference between Nuwutong and Monutong: the former required innate biological femaleness, while the latter could be attained by biological males through transformation.

Will struggled to break free, but his prolonged skill activation had drained his strength; his hand was firmly held by Anne, and he could not escape. Her gaze was eerily familiar.

"Want to escape? Do you think you can slip out of my control?"

Transformed into a Monutong, Anne had long consumed various drugs—her internal hormonal logic was utterly unlike that of a normal human. Will's skill attack had zero effect on her.

Anne gave Jin Huiying a glance, then dragged Will in circles to the piano. The potent hormones swirled through the air, causing Leonardo and Harley, who were singing together at the piano, to suddenly change expression.

Leonardo involuntarily leaned forward, covering his pants. Harley, who had been leaning on the piano to sing, lost her footing and collapsed face-first onto the floor.

Though she immediately pushed herself up with one hand, leaping to her feet like a fish, the awkward posture and the ugly expression frozen in the moment of her fall were perfectly captured by the HD cameras and broadcast on the TV screen.

"Sorry, slipped and lost my balance."

Loud protest was meaningless now—the audience couldn't smell the air in the room. Harley forced a faint smile, her resentful gaze sweeping over Will and Anne before turning to the TV screen.

This incident gave her vote count a reprieve, dropping her to last place among the remaining seven.

The broadcast voice sounded at once: "Unfortunately, Ms. Harley failed to secure enough votes and is eliminated."

Boom—

Harley extended both hands, fingers interlocked to form a triangle between her thumb and index finger, from which a bolt of lightning erupted, shattering the broadcast speaker in the ceiling corner and forcibly cutting off the narrator.

(End of Chapter)