CHAPTER 428: CHAPTER 396 DIVERSION

The infant’s head was extraordinarily large, with deformed skull expanding like a soft, collapsible water bag, and its eyeballs protruding due to intracranial high pressure, looking quite terrifying.

The pre-death image cycle of Gary Hoy repeats every four minutes and fifty seconds, while this Vietnamese infant’s cycle is every three and a half minutes.

At the start of each cycle, his eyeballs trembled violently, his breathing suddenly stopped, and after twenty-nine seconds, his heartbeat ceased, declaring his death.

During the Vietnam War, the US Army sprayed 67 million liters of Agent Orange in Vietnam, creating over 500,000 Agent Orange deformed infants and causing more than 2 million Vietnamese children to subsequently develop cancer and other illnesses, including but not limited to blindness, cleft palate, hernia, and polydactyly (extra fingers or toes).

Ironically dark-humored is that among the US veterans who participated in the Vietnam War, at least 250,000 were harmed by Agent Orange, suffering from diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, and affecting their offspring, with no shortage of their children and grandchildren suffering from cancer or deformities.

However, the US Congress, courts, and the US Army have consistently denied the link between Agent Orange and veteran health problems, refusing to make compensation,

stalling, just stalling, until these veterans die off completely.

This incident is also documented in the 9/11 firefighters’ case.

Li Cheng glanced over and roughly understood what was happening—the Vietnamese woman’s husband had died in the war, her child had died due to Agent Orange-induced deformity, leaving her utterly hopeless, she ended her life by taking poison, and like Gary Hoy, was for some reason dragged into the killing field.

Figuring this out, Li Cheng immediately took out a high-powered loudspeaker from the three-dimensional warehouse and shouted to the Red Driver in the high sky: "Take off your jacket."

Huh?

The driver, riding on Pidgeot’s back, shuttling between high-rise buildings and struggling with the ghostly apparitions, heard Li Cheng’s words, full of confusion, but trusting Pifu, still took off his riding jacket and threw it into the wind.

Strangely enough, the ghost immediately caught the falling jacket and tore it into pieces,

then stood dumbfounded between the floors, it was only after a while that it reacted, continuing to chase the Red Driver, but significantly slower than before.

Securing a brief moment, Li Cheng took out a metal tube, storage bag, one-way valve, diversion pump, and plastic conduit from the warehouse, assembling them quickly,

then activated the special effect of [Assembled Puppet·Modified], precisely inserted the metal tube ten centimeters deep into the occipital part of the infant’s skull, connecting the upper end of the suction tube with a plastic conduit and storage bag, diversion pump, one-way valve, routing behind the ear,

then connecting another conduit, inserted it into the infant’s neck, through the internal body, all the way to the abdominal sac of the lesser omentum.

After completing all this under the surprised gaze of Fuding Hualong and White Horse Tombstone, Li Cheng moved back a few steps, waiting for the cycle to repeat.

...Three, two, one, countdown ends.

The infant’s protruding eyes opened again, and the colorless transparent cerebrospinal fluid accumulated in the skull started being pumped out through the metal tube at a visible rate, following the conduit system to the abdomen.

Intracranial pressure rapidly decreased, the deformed head resembling a winter melon slowly shrank, transforming towards a normal head.

The infant, originally dying in the pre-death image, surprisingly survived for twenty-nine seconds, and in the fortieth second, emitted a weak cry.

This cry was like a thunderbolt, causing the Vietnamese woman haunting the sky and chasing the Red Driver to suddenly halt, disregarding the driver, directly returning to the ground, rushing into the stilt house,

ignoring Li Cheng and others, focusing solely on holding and gently rocking the infant. A loving glow unexpectedly emerged on her twisted, resentful face.

"WTF?!"

The Red Driver, still frightened and breathing heavily, also descended from the sky and asked Li Cheng: "Why does this ghost specifically chase me? And prioritize attacking my jacket?"

"The jacket you’re wearing is designed like the M65."

Li Cheng said casually: "During World War II, the US Army created the M-1941 field jacket for combat gear preparation. In the Korean War, they added a liner design, updating it to M-1951; during the Vietnam War, they added zippers, Velcro, and a hood, updating it further to M65.

The jacket you’re wearing, although not military issue and not olive green, uses the same four-pocket design and nylon-cotton blended satin twill fabric as the M65.

So, this Vietnam War ghost mistook you for a US soldier who ruined her family."

"This is... unreasonable disaster!"

The Red Driver was aggrieved and tearful,

Seeing this, Gray Rain sympathetically began to hum the Vietnam War hit song "Fortunate Son."

Now, the cycle time of three and a half minutes came again, this time, under the influence of the diversion system, the infant continued to live for three and a half minutes, while the ghost-like Vietnamese woman clung to her child, indifferent to everything external.

"..."

Fuding Hualong, trained as an elite agent by the Special Affairs Bureau, quickly understood the situation, eyes flashing with brilliance, and said to Li Cheng: "Brother Pifu really brought this child back to life?"

"Can’t really say revived, in the real world, this child is indeed dead, what’s appearing here is more like a recorded image."

Li Cheng pondered for a moment and said: "Dioxin present in Agent Orange is a highly cytotoxic chemical that can cause deformities in infants, including midbrain aqueduct stenosis.

Obstructive hydrocephalus causes congenital hydrocephalus in infants, leading to increased intracranial pressure, enlarged heads, compressing the brain tissue, resulting in intellectual dullness, vision impairment, limb paralysis, ultimately dying from multiple complications."

"So, you performed a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt on the infant?"

White Horse Tombstone pointed at the shunt on the baby’s shoulder, "A relative’s child of mine had one of these tubes put in five years ago. It was some brand called Medtronic."

Uh... Big sis, you’re really not treating us like bad people at all.

Globally, the incidence rate of hydrocephalus is about 5-15 people per 100,000, varying with different regions, countries, and demographics, with infants making up about 40%.

Roughly calculated, this amounts to 320,000 new cases each year.

White Horse Tombstone directly mentioned her relative’s child underwent surgery five years ago. By excluding areas with poor medical conditions, and narrowing down to cases using the Medtronic shunt, it’s actually possible to identify her.

If this had happened in the first two years of the killing field opening, once the real identity of a Lone Wolf player was uncovered, their fate would be nothing short of tragic.

People would come looking for them in no time, kill them to seize their player abilities,

or kidnap their relatives, forcing the player to surrender their equipment and items, handing over all the gains from each script task.

However... White Horse Tombstone is a well-known Lv29 Lone Wolf, who has always shown herself publicly, upholding justice, helping the weak, and practicing the spirit of chivalry. Her friends are spread across various guilds, and few forces would deliberately look for trouble with her.

Previously, a newcomer from the Wild Laughter Troupe wanted to make a name for himself with an impressive act, specifically unboxing her and posting her family’s information on the forum,

Which resulted in... with the help of her friends from the Whale Song Guild, using network technology to reverse box him out, finding him offline directly in the streets of Paris, and hammering him to death with iron fists; then casually leaving.

A Transcendent killing someone in public is a serious crime with the Global Supernatural Alliance.

However, since White Horse Tombstone also had friends in France’s official agencies and the European GOC Branch, they erased the memories of all onlookers at the crime scene and "detained" her symbolically for a few days at a resort in Marseille.

"Hmm..."

White Horse Tombstone looked more and more uneasy, pointing at the shunt system and asked Li Cheng, "Why does this tube look so strange? What brand is it?"

"? No brand. All parts are assembled temporarily."

Li Cheng said naturally, "The metal straw is from buying a Coke, the liquid reservoir comes from a male prosthesis, the one-way valve was dismantled from a washing machine, and the shunt pump and plastic tubing were from aquarium supplies.

So far, it’s working well."

Ah...

Ah?

The Red Driver and others stared wide-eyed, internally a million grass mud horses galloping, not knowing where to start with the ridicule.

After a while, they finally managed to say, "What the heck is a male prosthesis?!"

"You guys don’t even know this?"

Li Cheng pushed his Information Integration Glasses and said casually, "It’s an artificial material and autologous tissue implanted into the human body through surgery. It usually includes medical silicone, PTFE materials, and one’s own fat,

mainly used to improve the appearance or function of the male genitalia, such as enlargement, correction of innate or postnatal deformities, beautification of the appearance.

In short, it’s something that exists to meet the demand of ’Chicken You’re So Beautiful’."

Including White Horse Tombstone, all three had a pained expression, and the Red Driver squinted and said, "I seriously suspect you did all this just to say those four words."

"Am I that kind of person? If I were that kind of person, then ’Pifu’ would be written backwards."

Li Cheng first defended himself righteously, then switched his tone, "You guys might not know, but that new shop with a 95% positive rating in the slum, the Star-casting Anvil, is owned by me,

We don’t only offer the Rare Artifact Equipment Creation business, but also body modification services.

We can replace and enhance all organs including the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, limbs, and glands.

For 1000 Game Coin, you’ll be broad-shouldered and burly,

For 2000 Game Coin, you’ll cleanse your meridians and essence,

For 3000 Game Coin, you’ll be transcendent!

The prices are fair, treating all customers equally, hotline 199*******."

Li Cheng’s sales pitch was overly deliberate, and Red Driver and Fuding Hualong exchanged glances, hesitated, "Who are you talking to?"

"The audience."

Li Cheng said as a matter of fact, "When you guys go out, don’t you upload the walkthrough video recorded with the sports camera onto Fly Online? The audience watching it is like free advertising."

"...I’m convinced."

The Red Driver pressed his hands together, rolling his eyes.