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Chapter 223 - 204 Sharp Sharp

Chapter 223: Chapter 204 Sharp Sharp

Li Cheng, being cautious, prematurely shot out the Bat Hook to the side and swiftly moved to the right, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The subsequent Gale Foot Slash Wave was then blocked entirely by Grey Rain as it transformed into a shield form.

Salute to the Legendary Endurance King, Grey Rain. As a liquid metal, her resistance to pure physical strikes is extraordinarily high, and she even had time to quip, "Seems opening his box wasn’t very useful, it just made him heat up."

"It’s useful."

Li Cheng held up the Grey Rain Shield to block Cliff’s fist and quickly said, "My decision to open the box was made after careful consideration. In a likely similar loop, I would do the same, but Cliff still hesitated for a moment earlier."

"You mean..."

"I don’t have memories from the previous loops, and neither does he."

Li Cheng stated, then turned his gaze to the metal tombstone that Cliff had thrown earlier.

The tombstone, slanting in the ground, still bore the inscription left by the Mercury Alloy Guild on its front—[He rests here]

The backside of the tombstone, originally engraved with [Will it succeed this time?] in fierce script, showed signs of fading.

The engravings inexplicably began fading, becoming shallower over time and accelerating as time went on.

Why is this happening?

Before he could understand the answer, Cliff smashed through the metal shield with his fists, only to find a rusty machete slashing towards him.

Clang!

Cliff raised his right hand, skillfully catching the heavy slash with his palm covered in Armament Haki.

In the next instant, Li Cheng’s four mechanical arms on his back, each holding a shotgun, fired large-caliber deer-hunting rounds at Cliff’s eyes.

Being highly vulnerable, Cliff closed his eyelids and simultaneously activated Armament Haki and Six Styles Iron Block.

In this brief interval, Li Cheng managed to shoot out the Bat Hook again, drifting close to the ground sliding behind Cliff.

With his Skill cooldown finished, Li Cheng first launched a Gravity Energy Ball behind his opponent, then took out the Thunder Horn, blowing it for the last remaining use.

Despite the clear sky, a thunderstorm suddenly emerged.

Li Cheng, using the Assembly Puppet Effect, detached the left hand holding the horn and threw it.

The left hand was immediately drawn by the Gravity Energy Ball, firmly adhering to Cliff’s back.

Rolling thunder struck Cliff, particularly his rusted steel spike on his head which acted like a lightning rod attracting the electric arcs.

Not just that, Li Cheng also pulled out the Avenger Cannon, set up the turret on the spot, and pulled the trigger to fire the ammo chain.

With both thunder and machine gun fire, Cliff didn’t even get a chance to worry about the literal ’black hand’ Li Cheng had placed on his back,

Forced to raise his palms, protecting the steel spike on his head from further lightning, he continued to maintain Armament Haki and Six Styles Iron Block, standing rigidly in place.

His eyes glowed with fury and hatred. Despite being eight levels below, close-combat would allow him to snap Li Cheng’s neck as easily as snapping a chicken’s neck, yet Li Cheng always managed to pull out odd Skill Items, somehow dragging out time.

But it didn’t matter, a thunderstorm of this level wouldn’t last long.

And the time the machine gun fired was even shorter – the barrel would overheat in minutes... what the hell is that?

Li Cheng, holding the machine gun in his right hand, pulled out a large commercial water-cooled screw chiller unit from his three-dimensional warehouse with his left arm that no longer had a hand.

This device, used for centralized cooling of chilled water in large shopping malls’ central air-conditioning systems, was considerably powerful.

Li Cheng activated the [Assembly Puppet] Special Effect, integrating the chiller unit onto his body. The blood in his vessels immediately cooled down drastically, much like a coolant, taking away the intense heat accumulated in the gun barrel.

Since [Thunder Horn] doesn’t attack the user himself, there’s no need to worry about the chiller unit getting damaged.

Li Cheng opened his mouth, exhaling a dense cloud of steam generated from the hot and cold cycle, while his Avenger Cannon, as if bestowed with an everlasting cool attribute, roared continuously, maintaining suppression on Cliff.

This scene was really quite abstract. Gray Rain, who had taken cover outside the range of Thunder Horn, smacked her lips and muttered, "Why does it look more and more like an air humidifier..."

Swish!

The bushes parted, and a bandaged man stained with blood on his shoulders suddenly appeared. He was quite shocked by the sight before him and, after briefly hesitating, immediately shouted, "Mr. Ant, we have handled it on our end, the second battery has charged Mithril, he has now regained Level 15 strength.

Now, if we draw Cliff over, and everyone coordinates, we can have Mithril kill him..."

Amid the roaring of the machine gun, Li Cheng turned his head to look at the bandaged man, "...Why."

The bandaged man asked, "Huh? Why what?"

Li Cheng said, "Why won’t Mithril come here himself."

The machine gun continued to roar, and for the sake of a clear conversation, the bandaged man moved closer and replied, "I don’t know, for some reason, he can’t leave that mud pit and can only let us scatter, searching for you around the bushes."

"I see."

Li Cheng nodded, temporarily dismantling the cold water unit, and gently patted the bandaged man’s blood-stained shoulder with his left arm.

The next second, an arm from Li Cheng’s mechanical suit leisurely moved, and the shotgun directly fired, shattering the bandage man’s head with a bang.

The skull flew apart, and the headless bandaged man staggered back and fell.

"WTF?!"

The sudden gunfire startled Gray Rain. Although she wasn’t exactly a good Samaritan, wasn’t the bandaged man supposed to be an ally?

"The blood on his shoulder belongs to the Driver."

Li Cheng spoke calmly, the worm gene able to alter one’s facial features to someone else’s recorded in the gene database, Li Cheng had pretended to casually pat the bandage man’s shoulder to record the genetic information of the blood.

The Driver had died once before, killed by Zhao Zijing in the bushes in the previous cycle, and his task battery had been stolen.

At that time, there had been no blood from the Driver’s corpse on the bandage man’s body, but now there was, proving it was recently acquired.

Gray Rain, realizing what happened later, wondered, "Did the bandage man sneak back to where the Driver died and tasted the blood’s salinity?"

"What?!"

Even Li Cheng was taken aback by Gray Rain’s bizarre thought process, "What are you thinking?"

"He’s covered in bandages like he’s cosplaying an Egyptian mummy, and both mummies and vampires are demons, maybe they both like sucking blood."

Gray Rain argued righteously, "Also, every time a motorcycle rider has an accident and blood is everywhere, the comment sections cheer, proving there are vampires online."

"You’re unbeatable."

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, "I mean, the blood on the bandage man proves that the Driver in the next cycle died again. As for the evidence... you do the shooting."

He let Gray Rain continue pulling the trigger.

He then activated the Instant Thunder Skill, shot out the Bat Hook, and stormed into the Thunder Area, stepping on Cliff’s shoulder.

Sensing trouble, Cliff gritted through the thunder strikes, hurriedly disengaged Six Styles Iron Block, and grabbed Li Cheng’s right ankle, crushing the joint.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

"One question, why is your head so pointy."

Li Cheng grinned, firmly grabbing the iron nail on Cliff’s head, and exerted all his strength to pull it out.

Puchi!

The iron nail came out with a sound, bringing along fragments of the skull and gray and white brain matter.