Chapter 816 - 688: Penguin

"Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going."

Mei Wenyi knelt on the ground in an OTL position, her eyes vacant, murmuring, "What is the meaning of life, what’s waiting for me at the end of the universe..."

This is a side effect of the Zongsi Scale Powder, causing the target to fall into the "Philosopher’s Moment," doubting life.

Fortunately, it comes quickly and leaves just as fast. Mei Wenyi’s eyes cleared up, recalling everything that happened in the Illusion Realm, and she quickly got up to apologize awkwardly to Gouchen and Maxwell.

What can I say.

Gouchen, who had been inexplicably beaten, was full of frustration, holding back the urge to swear, and changed the subject, "As long as it’s sorted out, let’s move out."

"Hold on."

Maxwell raised his hand to stop them, first walking out of the screening room, into the hall, then retrieving a standard medium container and pulling out a pile of scientific instruments.

Including a 3D laser scanner with a stand, spider robots, a quad-copter drone, gas molecule analyzers, and more.

Click clack.

The spider robot began moving, placing various instruments in different corners of the Crimson Cinema. The quad-copter drone continuously shot out strobe lasers, scanning the cinema’s carpet, seats, and stairs in a grid-like pattern.

And transmits the scan results to a portable supercomputer for computation.

"This setup is called the [CSI Crime Scene Reconstruction System], it’s Prometheus’ most advanced equipment.

It can calculate and deduce the crime scene based on traces like footprints on the carpet, fingerprints on the wallpaper, and bloodstains on tiles."

Maxwell explained, "If the scene is well-preserved, such as in isolated caves or ice caves, using the Navigator Guild’s one-time spiritual ability technology, it can even deduce crime scenes from a millennium ago.

An accuracy rate of up to 71%.

A classic case is using this system to figure out that the cause of Ice Man Ozi’s death was being pursued by four others."

The so-called Ice Man Ozi is a male corpse trapped in ice from 5300 years ago in the Alps, dying from blood loss due to an arrow wound.

It’s a thousand years older than the earliest Egyptian mummies, with a long-standing legacy in the mummy world.

(Since its discovery in 1991, scientists have produced countless research papers on Ice Man Ozi’s body, and even in 2026, a quirky scientist used ancient yeast strains from Ozi to ferment and bake sourdough bread.)

The supercomputer’s fan spun rapidly, and the quad-copter drone shot out lasers once more, now forming a 3D projection.

The projection reversed, starting with indistinct figures, only outlines, escaping from the screen one after another,

Rewinding to when Li Cheng and Gray Rain arrived,

Then rewinding further to when Gouchen and others were pulled into various screening rooms by an unknown force,

After a brief pause, rewinding to around fifteen days ago, when five sub-humans with three-meter-long snake tails appeared from the depths of the cinema.

They clearly had some sort of plan, dispersing into various screening rooms, touching the screen with their palms, performing some sort of ritual, then returning the way they came.

(These snake-men had bloodstains on their tails, which dried on the carpet. The fifteen days were deduced from the drying time.)

"So it’s certain that the snake-men indeed tampered with the Crimson Cinema, transforming what should have been horror movie scenes into movies that vary by person."

Maxwell squinted his eyes and rubbed his chin, "And these movies pose no danger, you could even say they’re dreams come true."

"But why would the snake-men do this?"

Don Juan struggled to understand, "Whether it’s a horror film or a comedy, it traps people inside with no fundamental difference.

Could it be that the Snake-man Kingdom also has the ’Geneva Convention’, prohibiting the abuse of prisoners of war?"

"Who knows. Maybe they think comedy films can drag out more time."

Maxwell and the others whispered among themselves, not noticing the fleeting shock in Li Cheng’s eyes.

According to the [CSI Crime Scene Reconstruction System]’s deduction,

At 18:51, Gouchen, Don Juan, Dylan, and others arrived at the Crimson Cinema.

At 18:53, Dylan was dragged away by an unknown force into the screen of screening room 07. The others fell victim one after another.

Half an hour later, at 19:25, Li Cheng and Gray Rain arrived at the Crimson Cinema, with Gray Rain also being dragged by an unknown force, and then Li Cheng retrieved him into the Electronic Pet Egg,

Subsequently, Li Cheng activated the Light Speed Elbow Strike, and due to the Crimson Cinema’s unique nature, the explosion’s power mainly echoed within screening room 06, not affecting the corridor outside.

So far, everything was normal, but then, the deduction clearly showed that after using the Light Speed Elbow Strike, Li Cheng pierced through the walls of screening room 06, continuing into screening room 08, disappearing into the screen.

At 19:37, Li Cheng flew out of screening room 08, entering the screen of room 06, where Gouchen was located.

From Maxwell and the others’ perspective, there was nothing wrong with the above process—

After Pifu arrived at the Crimson Cinema, he spent 12 minutes breaking free from his movie screen, rescuing Gouchen, Dylan, and other companions in turn,

But from Li Cheng’s perspective...

He had no memory of these 12 minutes at all! He couldn’t even detect the interruption in his memory.

After the Light Speed Elbow Strike, it directly transitioned into the Dragon Clan set in room 06.

With his hairs standing on end, Li Cheng maintained an outward calm but inside he used the Mind Swapping Great Swarm to frantically ask, "From 19:25 to 19:37, did I say anything to you, give any instructions?"

"No."

The Mechanical Swarm answered crisply, he had been acting as a prison guard, keeping watch over Zongsi.

It wasn’t Zongsi, the latter didn’t have the chance to use scale powder on him.

Nor was it the Crimson Cinema, the Illusion Realm’s mystery level wasn’t beyond comprehension and could be countered by props like the [Vast Sea Soul-locking Bell].

There was only one possibility left: it was he himself who sealed the memory.

Without altering his expression, Li Cheng removed the button-shaped sport camera, using the [Assembly Puppet] to insert it directly into the back of his neck. Sure enough, at 19:36, there was an operation record deleting the video up to 12 minutes prior.

The operation record clearly marked the operator as none other than Li Cheng himself.

Throbbing pain pulsed through his temples as blurry memories flooded his mind.

Before rescuing Gouchen, he had indeed entered the screen of room 08, and the scene was... Madagascar’s Penguins.

It was an animated film he loved as a child, and one of his childhood dreams was to grow up and work in a decent zoo, taking care of pandas, elephants, hippos, capybaras, penguins, anything that didn’t involve interacting with humans.

Li Cheng, or rather the Li Cheng constrained by the Illusion Realm plot, wearing work pants and rain boots, carrying a nylon broom,

While wearing headphones, humming a tune, he cleaned the penguin habitat.

Thud.

The broom hit something, prompting "Li Cheng" to instinctively remove his headphones, looking up to say "Sorry."

Only after speaking did he realize it was already seven at night, and the New York Central Park Zoo was closed, there shouldn’t have been visitors in the penguin habitat.

"No need to apologize."

A slightly comedic voice sounded ahead, and "Li Cheng" widened his eyes, seeing the speaker was unexpectedly a penguin.

Its feet were chrome yellow, chin black, eyes surrounded by white—standard Antarctic Adélie penguin.

What was unusual was a red bow tie on its collar and a wooden gentleman’s cane in its flipper.

"What’s wrong, can’t recognize me?"

The Adélie penguin tapped its cane on the icy surface, smiling wryly, "You even inherited a toy factory from me."

Bang!

The memory abruptly broke off,

"Pifu, Pifu?"

The call seemed to echo from afar, as Maxwell and others looked at him in confusion, "We should go. To the Snake-man Kingdom, our next stop."

"Sorry, I got distracted."

Li Cheng inwardly roiling yet outwardly calm as a placid lake, realizing that he had indeed sealed his memory for some reason,

Replied with complete composure, "I was contemplating some serious philosophical questions just now."

"What philosophical questions?"

Dylan asked reflexively, immediately earning a disdainful glare from Gouchen, who knew Pifu’s quirky nature.

"For example, sporting brands claim marathons can enhance physical fitness, yet marathons were established to commemorate someone who died after running a marathon."

Li Cheng said with complete seriousness, "The opposite of stocking angels are suspender demons;

A fetus develops fingerprints at three months, so it’s hard to catch a two-month-old fetus committing a crime;

Hawking has passed away, should we wish him a safe journey?"

The room was silent enough to hear a pin drop, Maxwell’s facial muscles twitched for a while, "Is that so, those are truly valuable philosophical questions indeed... Let’s hurry and move out."