Player Reload
Chapter 289 - 266: Detained

Chapter 289: Chapter 266: Detained

The journey that followed fully demonstrated why Toy City’s Lower Nest was a place even the Terrorist Mobile Team was reluctant to come down to.

The air here was murky, visibly filled with a great amount of dust particles. Some of the ground appeared firm but was actually soft and rotten mud that was dangerously easy to sink into.

Moreover, the terrain was rugged and complicated, reminding Li Cheng of the mazes he would doodle under his desk when he got bored in class.

Inside the tablet, the official map of Toy City’s Lower Nest quickly reached its limits.

Fortunately, Li Cheng had Information Integration Glasses, which he turned on to passive scanning mode to find traces of human movement, and he continued to follow those traces.

After about half an hour and a descent of roughly five or six hundred meters, the terrain became more open, and signs of man-made structures became obvious.

"Is this... a tunnel?"

Gray Rain was quite puzzled and saw a vast network of tunnels emerging out of nowhere underground, constructed of cement walls, occasionally using some LEGO bricks.

Crowded with a pile up of machines, pipes, wires, and cables on both sides, it felt cramped. Every so often, there were electric lights hanging on the walls.

Large machines that resembled air purifiers buzzed, constantly drawing the murky air from the tunnels’ entrances and, after purifying it, pumped it through ventilation ducts to other areas.

Li Cheng thought silently, ’Overall, it is a bit like a modern city’s underground pipeline system, but the problem is, it’s too deep, not at all like it could be connected to Toy City above ground.’

Gray Rain, following Li Cheng’s lead, peered around and said in a lowered voice, "There are sleeping bags ahead."

The tunnels branched out in all directions, complex and intertwined, with scattered sleeping bags at some intersections, suggesting that people—or something else—lived here frequently.

The two quickly made their way deeper into the tunnels, with Gray Rain asking, "Who built such a huge project?"

"I don’t know, but it’s certainly not those suffering from severe diseases."

Li Cheng scanned the mottled walls, "Judging from the flaking of the cement on the walls, the history of the entire tunnel system is at least fifteen, maybe even over twenty years. It almost traces back to the establishment of Toy City."

Public records on that period are sparse, merely stating that under the leadership of the great Mayor Dumbledore and Deputy Mayor Einstein, the earliest citizens worked tirelessly to establish Toy City from nothing above ground.

"What a pity."

Gray Rain patted the wall regretfully, "If it weren’t for the disease, this place would be quite suitable for retirement."

"Indeed." Li Cheng nodded in agreement. With its vast area, populous community, complete entertainment, and the presence of high-end forces, Toy City was a place where one could live comfortably and seek masterships to enhance combat abilities.

He casually mentioned, "There were related cases on the forums. Some players encountered comparatively peaceful scripted worlds, where the penalty for failing the mission was permanent stay, so they simply chose to give up the mission and stay forever in the scripted world."

"There are people like that?" Gray Rain was astonished. "What about their friends and family?"

"Those who make such choices are mostly lone wolves. They either don’t have close relations with their family or don’t have family at all."

Li Cheng smirked and said, "Then there are those who borrowed too many Game Coins, Equipment, and props from the bank and couldn’t pay them back, so they just took off.

Running off to other scripted worlds counts as escaping.

Come to think of it, for players who live in constant uncertainty, being able to stay for a long time in a scripted world they like could be considered a life well spent.

For example, Rice Guards make it to Genshin Impact, Hunk of Iron, Zero Zone;

Hermes to My Little Pony Valley;

Viet Cong to Fantasy Land;

Hammer fans to Warhammer 40K, Cthulhu enthusiasts to Innsmouth, and the like."

Hey, hey, the first three examples could slide, but the last two don’t seem like they would have a good ending at all, right?!

Traveling through time should be terrifying rather than exciting, right?

Gray Rain’s expression became subtler as she thoughtfully imagined which type of world view she would choose if she were to be stranded in a scripted world.

"First of all, there must be modern entertainment, plenty of food and fun. Secondly, it should be peaceful, but not too peaceful — it’d be best if I could justifiably kill and kill and kill something."

"The Hunger Games and the Humanity Extermination Project, right?" Li Cheng glanced at her, "You’ve really thought this through."

"One must have dreams," Gray Rain said assertively. "But if these people get their wish and permanently stay in the scripted world, how would the forum know they’ve succeeded? They can’t send back a message to inform."

"Hmm? Not bad, you’ve even thought of that."

Li Cheng spoke casually: "There’s a theory on the forum that players who choose to stay in the scripted world will be ’discriminated’ against by the system, and are more likely to be chosen for deathmatch tasks. Just like Jiang Zhihui.

This information is gathered from participating in deathmatch tasks—if you choose to stay in the scripted world, you can’t go back to the slums,

and without this platform for communication and trading, players will naturally progress slower in strengthening their capabilities, hence more likely to die without understanding why..."

The moment the words left his mouth, Li Cheng’s eyes sharpened, and he pulled out a rusty machete from the void, inverting its blade to shield his left side.

Boom!

The concrete wall to his left suddenly burst open, an invisible monster broke through, swinging its slim and sharp tail, tipped with a chainsaw, towards Li Cheng’s chest.

The dust in the air outlined its form—a fearsome mechanical dog with a red solitary eye and a futuristic sci-fi design that looked intimidating.

Slash!

The mechanical dog’s metallic long tail was intercepted by the rusty machete, wrapping around the blade and sending sparks flying.

The chainsaw at the end of the tail spun rapidly, emitting a shrill buzz, but couldn’t even touch Li Cheng.

Li Cheng, who had prepared by activating his Information Integration Glasses, swung the blade, pulling the mechanical dog in front of him, and delivered a series of punches with his left hand.

The mechanical dog reacted promptly, skillfully turning its limbs to dig its claws into the concrete ceiling, avoiding Li Cheng’s tide-like attacks while simultaneously retracting its metallic long tail and retreating several steps.

"Don’t move! Or I’ll kill her."

A loud shout came from behind, as a swordsman wearing a white outfit with an orange cat head brandished his long sword at Gray Rain’s neck.

Apparently, the swordsman with the orange cat head was Rainbow Cat, the male protagonist from the domestic animation "Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit: The Seven Heroes".

And the red-eyed mechanical dog with optical camouflage was LQ-84i from the video game "Metal Gear Rising".

Both of their bodies were tainted with a dark purple faulty substance, but it wasn’t severe.

Li Cheng had a weird expression. On one hand, the styles of these two characters were strikingly different; on the other hand, he wondered what Rainbow Cat was thinking, holding Liquid Metal hostage.

It was as absurd as Captain America trying to strangle a robot in "Avengers 2".

"Don’t worry about me, just go!"

Gray Rain cried out, stepping forward and swiftly turning her head, voluntarily sliding her neck across the sword.

"?! "

As a righteous and glorious hero of a children’s animation, Rainbow Cat never expected a hostage to commit suicide so violently, causing his Changhong Sword to tremble involuntarily.

But the next second, Gray Rain, with her neck sliced open, spraying Liquid Metal blood, fiercely turned back and delivered a punch right to Rainbow Cat’s chest, smashing the hero against the wall.

"Don’t move! Or I’ll kill him."

Gray Rain pressed the Skull Shattering Hammer to the side of Rainbow Cat’s forehead, grinning as she spoke.