Chapter 277 - Hacker

Chapter 277: Chapter 255 HackerIn the blink of an eye, Li Cheng was pulled down ten meters underground, where the soil was thick, sticky, and moist, devoid of oxygen for breathing.

Moreover, the surrounding soil was compressing and hardening at an extremely fast rate, gripping his limbs tightly like a hydraulic press, exerting pressure from all directions.

If the trapped individual’s physical condition wasn’t up to the mark, just this alone could crush their bones and cause internal bleeding leading to death.

Li Cheng’s heart rate was steady; he didn’t rush to use Demon Exchange to return to the surface, instead, he activated the Special Effect "Assembly Puppet", detaching a section of bone from each of his five right-hand fingers, and then placed all the bone segments into his Backpack.

With the sections of finger bones removed, the range of motion in his right hand increased significantly. Li Cheng clenched his fist and launched the "Condensed Qi Internal Explosion Fist", smashing repeatedly against the solid rock walls.

The formless qi adhered within the rock layers, accumulating to a certain extent before explosively detonating like an underground blast, directly shattering the compacted soil layers.

The hardened soil became loose again, and Li Cheng activated the temporary Skill "Leopard Jump Double Jump", stepping on the rocks below and leaping out of the soil.

At this moment, Gray Rain was still crouched where Li Cheng had vanished, turning his hands into drill heads and digging through the soil with a sweaty forehead, trying to locate him.

"Stop digging, I’m here."

Li Cheng called out to remind him, flicking his hair back and brushing off the messy soil, looking around.

Silence surrounded him, with no one in sight; only by activating the Information Integration Glasses could he notice the invisible green lines drifting through the air.

These were not merely rays of light, but strings of data code.

Vast amounts of code, like a spiderweb, connected to a nearby street lamp’s bulb.

Li Cheng picked up a stone and casually threw it, accurately hitting and bursting the street lamp.

Bang—

Green data spewed out, forming a vague human silhouette, standing atop the lamp post, looking down at Li Cheng.

Among the six players participating in this deathmatch mission, only one possessed this ability.

"Bartmos from the Whale Song Guild, a Level 21 Transcendent."

Li Cheng said interestingly, "Just now, you first digitized the surrounding environment, then manipulated the data to soften the soil and drag me underground in an attempt to trap and kill me.

If it had been an ordinary Level 16 player, caught off guard, they indeed might have fallen for your trick—as many Equipment and Skills require gestures or movements to activate,

and in that environment, it would have been very difficult just to move a finger.

What I’m curious about is, how did you find me so quickly?"

Li Cheng’s starting identity was assigned by the system, with relevant records in Toy City’s citizen database; he hadn’t done anything out of line under surveillance cameras—

like shouting "The unchanging spark in your fingers is my only faith, I trade my lifelong integrity for Gin Tama never to end, in this life without regrets I hope to be reborn in Fantasy Land" and running on the street to take photos with various celebrities;

mocking Autobots, "You guys talk like a bunch of mechanical bikes.";

or using "Sex toys are toys too" as a reason to recruit mercenaries.

"I didn’t track you, I was tracking Mario."

Bartmos’s green silhouette moved its lips, and a device hidden in the bushes transmitted his mechanical electronic voice,

"Toy City is a city with a population of over eight million, more than 80% of which are Lego and mass-produced plastic figures. True named toy citizens make up only a very small part of it."

Bartmos calmly said, "Toy City is in the midst of a major event called ’Malfunction Syndrome’, if the killing field were to arrange roles, it would clearly be easier to allocate important roles to those well-known toy characters."

As it turns out, Mario, as a classic IP character, has generated huge profits of more than thirty billion US dollars for Nintendo over the decades,

In terms of commercial value alone, it can sit at the same table with Pocket Monsters, Star Wars, Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty.

The hacker first tracked Mario and then followed the trail to Li Cheng.

"A group of players with an average Level of 21, and a lone wolf at Level 16 mixed in, is already very suspicious. As it turns out, I was right."

Bartmos, looking down from above, said to Li Cheng, "You are definitely not an ordinary Level 16 player, whether it’s your basic physical attributes or your summoned creatures."

"Who are you calling a summoned creature? Who are you calling a summoned creature?"

Gray Rain’s eyelid twitched, he rolled up his sleeves, revealing his iron-hard biceps, "You little brat, have you never seen the underworld? Do you dare to come down here, I’ll make you fly with your pretensions!"

"Oh? This thing can actually talk?"

Bartmos was somewhat surprised, as he was observing the world in the form of data streams instead of with the naked eye. In his view, Gray Rain clearly displayed attributes such as explosive strength, low intelligence, and insufficient brain capacity.

He had originally thought it was a battle-crazed unit like an ogre or a giant monster, but unexpectedly, it could also produce human speech.

"Damn it, Aminos!"

Gray Rain was so angry that his head virtually exploded, desperate to rush up and beat Bartmos right there and then.

Li Cheng quickly stopped Gray Rain, saying, "Have you finished analyzing? Now it’s my turn.

From the actions of that Joker, among the six people in this mission, the strongest and most threatening is undoubtedly Gouchen from the GOC Guild.

With your capabilities, you won’t likely be able to handle him.

Here comes the problem, to win this mission you have to survive till the end. Following normal logic, you, being in the middle in terms of strength, should find allies to collectively combat Gouchen.

Or simply find a place to hide and use your greatest advantage—hacking skills. Secretly create disturbances, lure Toy City officials to chase after other players, enabling you to survive till the end.

Not act like a battle maniac, going after other players from the start and attacking me, the one with the lowest level and weakest apparent strength.

After all, even if I were weak, eliminating me would still consume a certain amount of spiritual power and increase the erosion level, effectively benefiting others.

Eliminate the impossible, and the remaining possibilities become quite clear.

One, your hacking abilities are not infallible. After the official forces in Toy City react, you can’t hack into electronic systems as arbitrarily as in other script worlds—

There’s no shortage of computer geniuses in numerous literary works, causing your hacking advantage not to be as great as imagined.

Two, your hacking abilities require consuming a significant amount of spiritual power. Due to the erosion level system, you can’t overuse your abilities, especially when you need to save your strength for the final showdown with Gouchen.

Three, you possess some ability to control, brainwash, or manipulate other Transcendants, taking control of me as if obtaining a strong fighter, and it wouldn’t take up your erosion level share.

That’s also why you’d rather take the risk and deal with me first."

After a moment of silence, Bartmos’s green phantom nodded, "It seems, Stack Soldier’s evaluation was not wrong, you are indeed very clever."

"Too kind, too kind."

Li Cheng modestly said, "Don’t mind my current unkempt appearance, I was once a renowned inventor, whose project was the human water heater—converting zero-degree water through the human body into 37°C urine, proving humans are a type of new water heater."