Chapter 144 - Gunfight

Chapter 144: Chapter 130 GunfightI really shouldn’t have given her electronic devices...

Li Cheng’s eyelids twitched violently as he took the smartphone and tablet from Gray Rain amid her pleading, "First, copy these Chinese texts five times each! Every character must be accompanied by pinyin!"

Gray Rain protested, "I can understand and speak, that’s enough. Why bother learning to read and write?"

"If you can’t read and write, you can’t even understand the instructions and safety signs on household appliances." Li Cheng took the smartphone and tablet under his arm and slammed the bedroom door shut with a bang.

The effect of the translation beans is limited to allowing users to master only the speaking and listening aspects of a language, not reading and writing.

Previously, after seeing something about "no work, no food" on TV, Gray Rain actively volunteered to take on some household chores she could manage, and Li Cheng agreed after much hesitation.

Then he saw Gray Rain cramming the computer tower, laptop, gaming console, and the like into the washing machine for a wash—she couldn’t understand the manual.

"Literacy is essential, abducting a woman with an intellectual disability is a serious crime..."

Muttering to himself, Li Cheng returned to his room, opened the surveillance feed on his computer, and watched Gray Rain’s study progress through a miniature camera in the study.

(After moving out, to prevent burglary and spying by organizations like the Special Affairs Bureau, Li Cheng installed numerous miniature cameras around the home, all connected to an internal network. Whenever he left the house, he also placed strands of hair in the door latches to alert him of any break-ins).

At first, Gray Rain copied the texts earnestly in the study, but got impatient after just three minutes. She repeatedly looked up at the clock and then, with her eyes rolling, stood up and pretended to vomit.

"Urgh—"

Her chest and abdomen convulsed and she slowly regurgitated an e-ink reader.

Li Cheng, on the other end of the monitor, was full of questions. In order to make full use of the Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method for learning, he had bought dozens of e-readers, usually kept in the hidden layer of the bookshelf. How did Gray Rain find them?

"Hehehe."

Gray Rain chuckled quietly, turned on the e-reader and tapped open a book, switching on the audiobook mode.

"Misty Romance? A great beauty is pregnant with her twenty-first child on the run, with four overbearing CEOs chasing after her, calling out ’darling, be careful!’"

The voice of an AI narrator came from the e-reader, causing Li Cheng’s temples to twitch. Pregnant with twenty-one children? What kind of bizarre female-centric novels are these nowadays?

"Amid the wind and rain, twenty-one children are accidentally separated and scatter to various places. Each is extraordinarily talented—their physique and intelligence surpassing that of adults by age three. After returning to the great beauty’s side, they embarked on a journey known as The Great Expedition. Little did they know, the four tyrannical CEOs would not easily give up the custody rights of their children..."

Damn, so it’s this kind of twenty-one childbirth plot. The genetic progenitor is some eternal creature, right? And the great beauty has been cultivating for millennia, right? And those four CEOs are respectively named Tyranny, Nagou, Seduction, and Trickery, right?

Li Cheng sprayed salt soda on his computer screen and hurriedly wiped it clean— he only had a little over fifty game coins left, and breaking the computer would mean buying a new one.

"They say mechanical life is supposed to be mad cool and badass. How come mine is so different..."

He grumbled, about to go to the study to catch Gray Rain in the act, when his phone vibrated. It was a text message from Han Letian, "Buddy, time to head out!"

Almost forgot about that.

Li Cheng slapped his forehead. Today was a class activity, they had planned to go out and have fun.

It’s said to be a class activity, but it wasn’t very formal. Organized by Shao Wangshu and funded by her in the name of supporting her family’s business, she invited everyone to a newly opened upscale Trendy Play Hall in a shopping mall—to play real-life CS (Counter-Strike) and arcade games.

As gossip is human nature, after spending some time together, the classmates all knew that Shao Wangshu’s family was super-rich, the kind that could rival Suzuki Yuuzi from "Detective Conan," so nobody was too embarrassed to take freebies and hastily agreed.

Li Cheng didn’t want to participate in the event at first, but after moving, he became busier and busier, and it would inevitably attract attention if things went on like that. It was better to act normal until the Genetic Hunger issue was resolved.

He glanced at his watch; there was still half an hour until the rendezvous. He immediately went to the study to remind Gray Rain of some common sense matters, such as not to answer if someone knocks on the door, not to pick up the phone if it rings, and not to stick hands into electrical sockets, etc.

After giving his instructions, he left the house, went downstairs, got on his bike, and headed to the agreed-upon location.

The Trendy Play Hall had just opened recently. The spacious real-life CS arena inside had been readied early on with equipment and props for the students.

The guns looked exactly like real firearms, they didn’t shoot actual bullets, but they created realistic noise when fired. They also had internal inertial measurement units, which transmitted the bullet trajectories back to the control room for calculation.

Receiving a fatal shot would result in being judged as "dead," and for non-fatal areas like legs or arms, the player could still move. However, the corresponding parts of the camouflage uniforms they wore would vibrate intensely to simulate an injury.

The crowd, grouped in teams of five, entered the field filled with shipping containers and wooden walls. Students without military training naturally couldn’t boast of any professional skills, and soon the field was filled with widespread gunfire, screams, and cursing.

"Remember, no speaking Russian."

"I hit an ally! Friendly fire, cease fire!"

"Good, get them on the market!"

With Li Cheng’s current level, playing this sort of real-life CS presented no challenge. He coasted through the game, betraying a few teammates along the way, and ended up hiding alone in a small room, so bored that he used his hearing to listen to the gunfire outside and simulated the situation on the field in his mind.

Bang!

The wooden door was pushed open from the outside, and Shao Wangshu, with disheveled hair and bearing a gun, hopped in on one foot. He instinctively raised his weapon on noticing someone in the room but lowered it again on seeing it was Li Cheng.

"Got shot in the leg?"

Li Cheng glanced at Shao Wangshu’s one-legged stance. The latter tearfully nodded.

"Hurry up and clear the field! I still have to rush home to watch Musk’s SpaceX Starship launch for the fourth time."

"Starship, huh? Salute to the legendary heat-resistant King of Tiles, salute to the legendary Attitude Control King of Grid Fins, salute to the legendary Blockage King of Fuel Valves..."

The everyday bickering between Zhan Xinyu and Evans could be heard in the corridor outside. The two could not stand each other on a normal day, but in random team events like this, when put on the same team, both displayed quite impressive combat skills, quickly eliminating other teams and starting to clear the field.

Zhan Xinyu pressed against the wall, sliding the rifle’s butt over his shoulder and slightly to the back before entering the room, always aiming the barrel at the corner. After entering, he quickly restored the butt to its original position.

This was necessary because the width of the doorway was narrower than the length of the gun. If the barrel pointed downwards, it wouldn’t be possible to shoot the moment he stepped through the door. But with this stance, he could maintain the sight’s field of vision and always keep the barrel pointed forward.

Zhan Xinyu entered first, followed swiftly by Evans, who moved through like a butterfly threading flowers, the barrel of his gun pointing towards another corner providing cover for his teammate. His actions were crisp and decisive.

It was not surprising for Zhan Xinyu, as the Iron-blooded War Wolf, to master indoor CQB techniques.

As for Evans, who considered himself a spiritual American... he adhered to the principle of "Everyone has guns, so he will not be reckless." He signed up for a shooting class while on vacation with his parents in Hawaii, preparing early for his move to the United States.

All you can say is that eccentrics have a wide range of talents. The two worked together and quickly swept through each room and were soon about to reach the room where Li Cheng was hiding.

"What do we do? Should we run?" Shao Wangshu, who was leaning against the wall to stand, asked nervously. Li Cheng, still nonchalant, was just about to utter some lackadaisical words when suddenly a system prompt sounded in his ear.

Another task had arrived.

His expression tightened slightly, and his fingers quickly squeezed the trigger, firing at Zhan Xinyu and Evans as they entered the room, hitting both and ending the battle.