Chapter 54: Finally Dead
Facing the burning gazes of his teammates, Zhang Yuanqing spoke his mind.
"I have an item that can tie up the car robot and buy us plenty of time to find the controller."
Ashamed Father, Xi Shi, and Xie Lingxi all furrowed their brows.
Fire Demon and Great Sage Equal to Heaven, meanwhile, looked utterly bewildered. "An item? Aren't our skills and items all sealed?"
Xi Shi flashed her socialite smile and explained, "We found a card in one of the cars earlier. It says we can use an item once."
They could use an item? Fire Demon and the Great Sage brightened at first, then immediately frowned. The latter ventured cautiously, "You're saying you want to use an item to fight that car robot alone and stall for time?"
Fire Demon recalled just how ferocious the robot had been and shook his head vigorously. "That plan won't work, unless our active skills get unsealed too. If we could use them in conjunction with that item, then maybe then we'd stand a chance against that thing."
This time, Xie Lingxi, with her soft and delicate voice, sided with Fire Demon as well. "Bro Wang Tai, that's really dangerous. We're all Transcendent tier Spirit Realm Walkers. The items we have access to are mostly around that level too. Can a Transcendent quality item really handle the car robot?"
Items were categorized by type rather than grade, but every Walker knew that grade was a hidden attribute. Items obtained during the Transcendent stage generally belonged to that tier.
Ashamed Father said flatly, "This idea is reckless. If a single item could easily resolve the danger, then that card would never have appeared in the car."
He was reminding Zhang Yuanqing not to misjudge the situation and waste a card for nothing. After all, this was an S-rank mission. How could it possibly be that simple?
Clearly, the whole team thought Wang Tai's plan was unreliable. But thanks to the prestige Zhang Yuanqing had earned through his own actions, they only raised objections without outright shooting it down.
An ordinary item certainly wouldn't cut it, but a rule-type item absolutely could. He could see his teammate's skepticism, but Zhang Yuanqing smiled faintly, fully aware of what the Red Dancing Shoes were capable of.
"I'm an experienced Spirit Realm Walker. How could you all doubt my judgment? Don't forget, we're all in the same boat. Why would I gamble with my own life?"
His expression radiated confidence, and his tone was perfectly calm.
At that moment, his track record of being consistently reliable did its work, and the rest of the team frowned in silence. They still weren't entirely convinced, but no one was going against him, mainly because they either had no items at all, or nothing powerful enough to fight the robot.
Ashamed Father said nothing more either. Setting aside the "experienced" part, he could at least agree with the second half of that statement.
"Time is limited," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Everyone, start looking for car keys."
The six Spirit Realm Walkers sprang into action. In the time that followed, Zhang Yuanqing found two car keys, Xi Shi found one, Great Sage Equal to Heaven found one, and Xie Lingxi found another.
They each located their corresponding vehicles and unlocked them. Apart from the little girl's car, which contained a metal card, no one else found anything.
Xie Lingxi's card read: "You have one chance to redirect aggro."
Too bad the cars in the parking garage can't be driven, Zhang Yuanqing thought with regret.
Immediately, the shrill roar of an engine echoed from the distance.
The group froze like startled deer, craning their necks and turning toward the sound.
At the entrance to the parking garage, the two-meter tall car robot had appeared once more. It gripped its chainsaw in one hand, red light blazing from both eyes, the speaker on its chest blaring: "Everyone must die..."
Xi Shi screamed, "Wang Tai!"
The others scrambled toward the same car in a frenzy, yanking open the doors but not climbing inside just yet. Instead, they turned to Zhang Yuanqing with a hint of expectation in their eyes.
He pulled the metal card from his pocket.
【Ding. Would you like to use the card to activate your Inventory?】
"Yes!"
Immediately, he felt the Inventory's presence return. He opened it quickly and summoned the Red Dancing Shoes.
Two streaks of dark red light appeared, dancing gracefully through the air before coalescing into a pair of red dancing shoes in front of their useless owner.
Tap, tap...
The dainty, exquisite shoes circled Zhang Yuanqing once at a brisk pace, their steps haughty and indifferent to all, yet carrying a certain playfulness, as if delighted to finally be let out to dance.
In the eyes of Xie Lingxi and the others, though, the sight was downright unsettling.
Dancing shoes? And a pair that moved on their own, no less?
They couldn't tell if it was just their imagination, but just looking at the Red Dancing Shoes filled them with an instinctive chill and dread. There was no logic behind it, but pure gut feeling.
Zhang Yuanqing sighed inwardly. If I wasn't backed into a corner, I wouldn't want to use these either.
When he had first seen that card, his immediate thought had been, The Haunted House is in the bag.
No matter how terrifying the spirits inside the Haunted House might be, they were still spirits at the end of the day. The Demon-subduing Awl contained the Power of the Diurnal Spirit and held half of the Three Paths Mountain Goddess's yang soul. It was the bane of all things yin.
Once they entered the Haunted House, he could brandish the Awl, and under its blazing radiance, even the most ravenous ghostly bride would crumple into nothingness, sobbing through her tears, "Please, my lord, no~"
But sadly, dealing with the current crisis took priority. This Underground Parking Garage stage wasn't complicated, just brutally difficult.
There was another advantage to deploying the Red Dancing Shoes, though: deterrence against the evildoer.
If the evildoer threw caution to the wind and tried to eliminate him, and that worst case scenario came to pass, the ownerless shoes would revert to their original state and hunt down every Spirit Realm Walker in the area.
Everyone would die together.
As he watched the car robot barrel toward them, Zhang Yuanqing said softly, "Go."
The Red Dancing Shoes shot forward.
Two streaks of faint red light, swift as lightning, slammed into the car robot's chest. A thunderous clang rang out as the steel colossus, charging with the force of a freight train, was actually sent skidding backward.
It didn't stop there. Having kicked the robot still, the shoes unleashed an even more furious barrage of stomps, each blow shaking the mechanical body violently and sending it staggering.
The car robot's advance was perfectly contained.
It swung its chainsaw in fury, but the weapon that could cleave metal and shatter jade couldn't so much as graze the pair of red dancing shoes. They seemed to exist outside of reality itself.
The only regret was that the car robot's body proved equally indestructible. The shoes couldn't damage it either.
In Fire Demon and Xi Shi's eyes, though, this was quite possibly the most beautiful sight in the world.
"What kind of item is that? What kind of item is that?!" Fire Demon cried out in shock and delight, his eyes gleaming with naked envy, clearly coveting the item for himself.
The hearts of Xi Shi, Xie Lingxi, and the others finally settled back into place as they too gazed at the Red Dancing Shoes with varying degrees of envy and longing.
Given how scarce items were, Spirit Realm Walkers harbored a desire for powerful items that was practically coded into their DNA.
"Don't get in the cars. Go find more keys!" Zhang Yuanqing shouted, then added, "The catch with these shoes is that if I don't recall them to my Inventory within an hour, they'll start killing indiscriminately."
Fire Demon and the others paled slightly. Whatever greed they'd been harboring vanished in an instant, and they threw themselves into the search without another moment's hesitation.
Great Sage Equal to Heaven tore his reluctant gaze away from the shoes. Thinking of the price, he called out, "Wang Tai, you'd better not die on us!"
If he died, those shoes would become another danger. An enormous one.
In the time that followed, the Red Dancing Shoes bore the heavy responsibility of intercepting the car robot, preventing crisis after crisis on their behalf. Finally, after a full thirty minutes of relentless searching, Xie Lingxi found the controller inside a sports car.
"Is this it? Is this it?!" the little girl screamed at the top of her lungs.
This girl's luck is unreal!
The others dropped what they were doing and rushed toward her at unprecedented speed.
In her hands was a long, black, rectangular metal device resembling one of those old brick phones, complete with an antenna on top and a red button in the center.
"Try it," Fire Demon urged.
Xie Lingxi glanced at Zhang Yuanqing. Seeing him nod, she pressed the red button immediately.
In that instant, everyone held their breath and looked toward the robot still battling the Red Dancing Shoes nearby.
The towering steel frame suddenly seized up, as if someone had yanked its power cord. Every movement ceased, and the red glow in its eyes went dark.
Tap, tap, tap...
The Red Dancing Shoes delivered a few more kicks for good measure. When the iron lump just stood there motionless, offering no response, the shoes paused in apparent confusion, then tapped their way back to Zhang Yuanqing's side.
Relief washed over him even as the corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly. Here it comes. It's coming to make me dance...
"We did it!" Xie Lingxi cheered.
Xi Shi and the others let out exhausted breaths, joy blooming across their faces.
Nobody had died. It was a flawless clear.
They were just about to shower Zhang Yuanqing with gratitude and praise when, in the distance, the red eyes of the motionless car robot suddenly flared back to life. There was another sharp mechanical roar, and it shot toward them like an arrow.
What? Every face went white.
Zhang Yuanqing's blood ran cold as he roared, "Stop it!"
He issued the command to the Red Dancing Shoes again, but it was too late. The car robot had already blown past the shoes, replicating the very first scene all over again as it crashed into the group. Its target was unmistakable: Xie Lingxi, the one holding the controller.
It happened too suddenly. No one had time to react. They dove aside on pure instinct, unable to comprehend why everything had gone wrong so abruptly.
Had the controller malfunctioned?
Had the mission parameters changed, rendering the controller useless?
In Xie Lingxi's wide eyes, the steel monster bore down on her at terrifying speed. The buzzing chainsaw screamed in her reflection. Her mind went completely blank.
In the next moment, what filled her vision was Ashamed Father's plain, honest face, his eyes burning with ferocity and a deep resolve.
He threw himself into Xie Lingxi with everything he had, shoving her out of the way and hurling himself onto the chainsaw.
The saw cut him clean in half at the waist. Intestines, organs, and his upper body hit the ground together with a wet slap, as blood sprayed outward in a gruesome blossom.
A crazed laugh erupted from the speaker on the car robot's chest. "I am no longer who I once was! Demon Lord, you're finally dead. You're finally dead! Demon Lord, you killed me, but don't think that you'll survive either..."
