Player Reload
Chapter 276 - 254: The Water Pipe

Chapter 276: Chapter 254: The Water Pipe

At this moment, Gouchen, whom Joker had been obsessing over, was strolling through the garbage dump in East City.

Mountains of garbage piled up, forming a continuous range of peaks. Rusty, out-of-service excavators, like the stiff arms of dead Giants.

Compared to the surrounding wretched environment, Gouchen was particularly conspicuous.

This young man, in his early twenties and a member of the Global Supernatural Alliance Guild, had sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, a rugged face, and wore a green sports outfit of the same brand as Wu Jing, with a short and a long iron sword hanging on either side of his belt.

In a video game, rookies with basic sets issued by the system look all kinds of cool and impressive. But the real masters often don’t need the attribute bonuses from sets; they choose outfits that suit their unique aesthetic.

This principle also applies to the Slaughter Field Game. Gouchen, dressed in a strikingly different outfit, moves through the piles of garbage with ease, saying to a closed, discarded refrigerator from twenty meters away: "Will you come out on your own, or shall I invite you out?"

After a brief silence, the fridge door was kicked open from the inside, and a pale, bald middle-aged man called Frankenstein jumped out, landing on the ground.

Frankenstein wasn’t too surprised that Gouchen had found him. As a member of the Evil Science Alliance Guild, proficient in biotechnology, given enough time and materials, he could mass-produce synthetic combat beasts using various materials.

To him, the city’s garbage dump was the best material repository—and Gouchen knew this, too, which is why he came here.

What surprised Frankenstein was the timing of his discovery.

"Just now, that Joker launched a terrorist attack at the City Center Museum and revealed our photos.

The official forces of Toy City have noticed the foreign players and have started a citywide manhunt."

Frankenstein stared at Gouchen, his voice hoarse: "Are you sure you want to clash with me at this time...?"

"As long as I kill you before the people from Toy City get here," Gouchen interrupted, "Based on the difference in our strengths, it should take... about four minutes."

Frankenstein’s face looked a bit unsightly; after all, he was also a Level 22 Transcendent, who could pretend to be a deity or demigod in some less developed script worlds.

"I’m really undervalued..."

Frankenstein took a deep breath, his eyes grew sharply focused, and suddenly pulled out a bloody dagger from his Backpack, slicing through the air to form a Space Gate.

A multitude of biological weapons sprang forth from the gate.

Abominations stitched together from Transcendent creature remnants, Hellish Evil Dogs spewing sulfur, swollen flies brandishing Maggot Guns, and synthetic humans with bearded strongman torsos and enchantingly beautiful lower bodies...

A tide of biological weapons swarmed down from the mountain of garbage, rushing towards Gouchen.

The latter did not dodge or avoid, simply unfastening the short and long swords in hand, calmly stating: "Summoner types, Charming types, logistic types like you, will never understand that without consolidating power within oneself, it’s all in vain."

As the word "vain" fell, Gouchen charged into the mass of monsters as if entering empty space.

————

Southern City Park is lush with aquatic plants and quietly secluded—quite peaceful.

Li Cheng stands among the bushes, holding a remote control and piloting a drone to hover and scrutinize.

Gray Rain crouches on the ground, propping his chin with both hands, curiously watching plastic insects crawl beneath a pile of fallen leaves.

The ecosystem of Toy City is quite... magical. Many wild creatures like ants, flies, and mosquitoes are all simulation toys—it’s curious which toy factory’s R&D staff would be so idle as to manufacture simulated mosquitoes.

"The area of Toy City is about one thousand square kilometers; the entire city is situated on a Floating Island, with a chaotic emptiness beneath the island where there’s nothing.

Also, that ’sun’ celestial body is also fake."

Li Cheng adjusted the filming mode of the drone’s camera lens. After reducing the intense sunlight, he could clearly see the slowly descending sun was actually a baby’s head, which occasionally cracked into a big smile.

"It’s the sun baby from Teletubbies, huh?"

Li Cheng wiped away the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead. Watching it on TV was one thing, but seeing an infant as large as a star in reality was as chilling and bizarre as it gets.

Looking at the time, it was almost six o’clock...

Buzz buzz.

Li Cheng’s phone vibrated, displaying a received message.

The message was sent from an unusually long, untraceable temporary number, with the content being only "Under the rockery, on the bench."

There was indeed a rockery in the park. Li Cheng let Gray Rain take over the drone controller to monitor the vicinity,

while he himself walked to the base of the rockery and sat on the wooden bench, quietly waiting to see what the sender was up to.

After a while, a not-so-tall figure quickly approached from the shadows of the trees,

wearing a black hood, face mask, glasses, covered up tight all over, and took a seat right next to Li Cheng on the bench, leaving a gap between them.

"Don’t turn your head to look at me, act like nothing is happening,"

the mysterious figure feigned playing with a phone, speaking in a low voice to Li Cheng, "You weren’t followed, were you?"

"No,"

Li Cheng replied, as his Information Integration Glasses on the bridge of his nose quietly activated the Special Effect, reading some information about the mysterious person—[Toy City Nuclear Power Plant Worker],[Excellent Employee]

"I’ll cut to the chase. There’s an issue at the Toy City nuclear power plant. Often late at night, trucks of unknown origin come in, unloading patients in late stages of malfunction, rigid all over."

The mysterious figure spoke quickly. Despite the intentionally lowered voice, one could still discern the subtle undulations of an Italian accent, "Here are some photos I took secretly."

He handed over a potato chip bag to Li Cheng, which contained more than a dozen photos. The photos showed a group of people in yellow hazmat suits unloading malfunctioning patients from a truck and transporting them into the power plant building.

Judging by the angle of the shots, the photos seemed to be taken secretly from within the bushes.

Li Cheng accepted the photos, gaining some insight. This mysterious person was a journalist’s informant, exposing major insider information in hopes that the latter would uncover and publicize the truth.

This must be a perk given by the system to the lowest-level players, right? After uncovering the inside information, one could either threaten Toy City Hall with a major scandal to keep them from pursuing him, or coerce City Hall into helping hunt down other players.

"No problem."

Li Cheng took the potato chip bag and casually asked, "You’re Mr. Mario, aren’t you?"

"What?!"

The mysterious person trembled and quickly denied, "I’m not, I’ve done nothing, stop spouting nonsense!"

You are.

Of short stature, Italian accent, and the big nose peeking out from under the mask, you’re just short of handing over your ID card.

"You’re quite the amateur as a journalist, how could you probe into an informant’s identity? Although I truly am not Mario. I’m leaving, don’t follow me!"

The mysterious person cursed under his breath and jumped off the park bench, quickly heading toward the back of the rockery.

Li Cheng made a gesture towards Gray Rain hiding among the bushes, who immediately understood and quietly flew the drone over.

All they saw was the mysterious figure glancing around before diving into a green drainage pipe and vanishing without a trace.

When Li Cheng and Gray Rain went over, the pipe was empty, with no sign of anyone.

Being able to use pipes for instant teleportation, and you still say you’re not Mario.

Gray Rain scratched his head, "What do we do now?"

"Follow up on these photos."

Li Cheng held up the potato chip bag, his expression turning serious, and said, "As a journalist, I can sense the scent of a major scandal behind this—it’s like Clinton’s zipper incident, Obama’s Prism scandal, and Namikaze Minato’s issue."

"So quick to get into the role, huh? And Namikaze Minato’s scandal, that’s from Hokage, right, does he also have one?" Gray Rain commented.

"Probably rigged relations to appoint his own son as Hokage, I guess."

Li Cheng said offhandedly, about to pull out his phone to check the map when suddenly, the unexpected happened.

The soil under his feet suddenly softened, a strong suction force emerging, pulling him straight into the ground.