Chapter 109 - Cloud Burst

Chapter 109: Chapter 105: Cloud Burst"It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what I’m saying. If we’re going to die, let’s die together."

Will lifted his arm and pulled out an exceptionally bulky Single Soldier Rocket Launcher from thin air. The barrel was adorned with black skull stickers, and inside it was installed a round rocket.

"Cloud Burst Bomb!"

Little Red Riding Hood recognized the origin of the rocket launcher and leapt up from her seat, exclaiming, "It’s made with Puppetry Technique!"

The Slaughter Field Game considers even "external items" in the player’s Backpack as part of their Strength. If a newbie stuffed ten mini-nukes they bought into their Backpack, the killing field would indeed issue them a script task with the difficulty level of ten nuclear bombs.

However, there are ways to break or circumvent this rule, such as buying parts to assemble your own weapons and equipment, or seeking help from the Demon Scientist Alliance. They have a Puppetry Technique that can make players fall into a stupor, and in a sleepwalking state use available materials to assemble modern weapons.

Weapons made this way would have their "external item" weight subtly lowered.

Because the Sun Island Abnormality Investigation Bureau works in partnership with the Demon Scientist Alliance Guild, Little Red Riding Hood immediately recognized the origin of the item and loudly warned the others.

Click.

Will hoisted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder, aiming at the blood-soaked Leonardo and Annie.

The Cloud Burst Bomb loaded in the launcher contained a substantial amount of liquid ethylene oxide. The first explosion would release a cloud of gas, filling most of the villa, then instantaneously ignite, creating a second explosion that generates ground overpressure, killing the vast majority of people present.

Even if some players were lucky enough to survive, they would die of asphyxiation due to the ensuing oxygen depletion.

Having a group of people to take the fall wouldn’t be too bad. Will was about to pull the trigger, but suddenly his arm went cold—Jin Huixing had picked up the volleyball discarded by Li Cheng at some point and smashed it into Will’s elbow, breaking his forearm in half.

The severed arm, still attached to the rocket launcher, rolled several times on the ground, but ultimately, the trigger was not pulled.

According to the rules, the beach volleyball game was technically still ongoing— it was Jin Huixing’s and Will’s turn to face Li Cheng and Little Red Riding Hood.

Jin Huixing’s action did not count as a direct attack on an ally; at most, it was a technical foul for a serving error, which wouldn’t trigger a reaction from a mechanical arm.

"Sorry, I don’t want to die."

Jin Huixing whispered softly, dragging the bleeding Will to the door, muttering words even she herself didn’t believe, "The Ant said that if you get out the door first without resisting, you might have a chance to survive."

"Cough cough—"

Will leaned against the wall, coughing violently. Even as Li Cheng continuously sprayed Healing Gel to stop the bleeding on the shoulder stump, Will was still coughing up blood clots and organ fragments.

Clearly, all kinds of glands in his body had overdrawn his Life Force, and his organs were failing and bleeding out.

As the countdown ended, mechanical arms dropped down from the ceiling, picked him up, and tossed him outside.

"Ah ha, that concludes round three of our post-apocalyptic reality love show. Unfortunately, Mr. Will did not get enough votes and has been eliminated. It’s also regrettable that Ms. Annie has died unexpectedly. Now, with two males and two females remaining, the next event will be a cooking display. Who will make it to the end? We’ll be right back after these commercials."

With the broadcast narration, the live TV broadcast ended along with the game. Leonardo immediately ceased his performance, laying Annie down on the ground. He walked over to the side of the beach volleyball court, picking up the rocket launcher and repeatedly attempting to add it to his Backpack.

Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief. The killing field system has strict rules regarding "property rights." You cannot put someone else’s possessions directly into your Backpack while the original owner is still alive.

Now that the pick up was successful, it meant Will was truly dead...

He walked to the door and looked outside.

Darkness enveloped the outside of the villa, and after a burst of roars from mutant beasts, no more sounds were heard.

"You’re quite decisive."

Leonardo retracted his gaze, first glancing at Jin Huixing, who’d decisively betrayed her ’teammate,’ then at Li Cheng who hadn’t made a move, shaking his head in regret, "I gave you a chance. If you had taken action earlier, we could have eliminated one more person."

He was referring to Jin Huixing. Indeed, if Li Cheng had taken the volleyball, it might have been possible to eliminate her before the countdown ended.

"Firstly, I said if you trust me, you might live. You didn’t listen," Li Cheng said noncommittally.

"Secondly, as a former HR professional, I’m only good at recruiting, never eliminating. But it’s odd, the accounting firm that audited the US military I worked for never seemed worried about having too many employees."

? Good grief, no wonder there was no concern over staff surplus.

Whizz!

A piercing sound came from outside, and an iron chain ablaze with fire shot through the darkness, burst into the villa, and impaled Leonardo’s abdomen.

Cursed items are a rather special category among various types of equipment and tools. They autonomously manifest their effects when the user sustains major injuries or dies.

The burning chain pierced through Leonardo’s body, coiling around his waist several times. It yanked him from the ground with brute force and dragged him outside the house.

Li Cheng, who was closest to him, immediately braced his feet against the wall and grabbed Leonardo’s right arm, trying to pull him back into the house. But the strength of the chain far exceeded expectations, and it tore open a gash across Leonardo’s belly during the tug, revealing his innards and artificial organs.

"Chop off his lower body!"

Li Cheng shouted a reminder, and Jin Huixing reacted, drawing her knife across Leonardo’s waist.

Alas, it was still a step too late.

With a tearing sound, the skin on Leonardo’s right arm peeled off like a dishwashing glove, and he was dragged out of the house by the chain into the darkness.

Some magic had been cast over the open space outside the villa, making the flames of the chain grow dimmer the deeper it went.

One could vaguely see the source of the chain, which was Will’s intact corpse, quietly lying dozens of meters away in front of the villa.

He was breathless, tilting his head towards the villa, his mouth stretched into a wide grin. His back was entwined with a mass of chains, resembling both octopus tentacles and Medusa’s hair, awaiting Leonardo’s arrival.

If the Shift Position skill were still available, Leonardo might have used it to switch places with someone else and escape to safety.

But a cooling time of 10 minutes was still too long...

Watching himself about to be devoured by the burning chain, he pulled out the rocket launcher from his Backpack and resolutely pulled the trigger towards Will’s corpse.

Seeing this, Li Cheng didn’t hesitate to detach the White Bone Armor and threw it towards the direction of villa’s living room. As soon as the White Bone Corridor touched the ground, it immediately transformed, forming a doorframe, revealing a vast space behind the door.

"Get in!"

At Li Cheng’s prompting, Little Red Riding Hood and Jin Huixing rushed into the corridor; Li Cheng himself used the Bat Hook Claw Gun, aiming at the ceiling, and with the movement Special Effect of the Bat Gun, drifted into the door.

Boom!

Outside the villa, the Cloud Burst Bomb exploded. The initial burst of flame was like striking a match in a perennially dim room, followed by an abrupt expansion by hundreds to thousands of times.

The shockwave effortlessly blew away the villa’s security door and swept away roof tiles. The raging fire ignited wooden beams, silk curtains, and furniture alike.

As the oxygen was consumed by the flames, those hiding in the white bone corridor immediately felt suffocated. Fortunately, there were a few diving oxygen masks in a corner box of the corridor, and once put on, they quickly recovered.

The explosion came fast and left just as quickly. Li Cheng stepped out of the White Bone Corridor to see that half of the villa was affected by the Cloud Burst Bomb, with the roof flipped open, walls collapsed, and chaos everywhere.

The mechanical arms hidden in the ceiling tracks were exposed without their supports, looking like tree branches.

"Oh no,"

The sports field’s broadcasting equipment was damaged by the shockwave of the explosion, so a mechanical arm brought a new one from the living room. Through it came the familiar, magnetic background narration, "Mr. Leonardo has caused irreversible damage to the villa’s rooms including the kitchen, making the next round of Cooking Show impossible to proceed, forcing the program to jump to the final Round of Hand-in-Hand. This round demands a huge popularity of 10 million, please prepare as soon as possible..."

"What if,"

Li Cheng suddenly took off his mask and spoke to the broadcast: "What if I refuse?"

"Mr. Ant?" Little Red Riding Hood, who followed him out of the corridor, looked utterly bewildered. Since the beginning, the villa’s broadcast had been monologuing and had never interacted with the players.

Moreover, with one boy and two girls left on the field and following the prior deductions, Li Cheng was in no position to lose, so why provoke?

Not only Little Red Riding Hood didn’t understand, but Jin Huixing who left the corridor was also shocked—Little Red Riding Hood and Mr. Ant already knew each other, and now with only three people left on the field, she had anticipated being targeted and even eliminated.

"No answer, huh?"

Li Cheng did not stop to explain but stared at the broadcast and said calmly, "Then what if I leave the villa?"