Hell difficulty! Greed's mental influence

Lu Ce looked at the hanging saw, and only one thought remained in his mind.

—Whoa! Wasn't this a perfect chance to earn Pain Points?

The real world and the game world were interconnected, but injuries sustained in the real world required hospital treatment, and serious ones could even leave him disabled.

But in the game, he knew very well that meeting the conditions for a perfect clear would grant free treatment for all injuries. That was also why he had insisted on joining the game.

The risks were high, but for him, the returns would absolutely be maximized.

"What does this mean? What does this mean? You call this a game?!"

"No one told me about this before! This is outright deception! I'm reporting you!"

Listening to the wailing around him, Lu Ce was already numb. He turned to look at the woman beside him, who was crying and making a scene.

Report them? To whom?

Didn't she know where she was? Although Lu Ce had known there would definitely be players at the start of the game who couldn't grasp the situation, someone this absurdly clueless still exceeded his expectations.

Lu Ce opened his personal livestream screen to see whether the "viewers" had any information about the other nine players.

But when he looked, he discovered that an unusually large number of people were watching him.

: Is this the perspective of a player with a perfect clear? I came specifically to see what top players are like.

: This scene is kind of terrifying. I've never seen one like this before...

: Good thing I decided to wait and see what kinds of games there were. Well, now I know—I'd better just be a viewer.

: I checked the other nine. Only three have cleared a game before; the rest are playing for the first time. Looks like this is the only player with a perfect clear.

Only then did Lu Ce realize that although their livestreams were assigned randomly, they could also be searched and filtered by category.

If that was the case, then players with perfect clears would soon be thrust into the spotlight.

That might not necessarily be a good thing... The world would never casually allow a single individual to possess superhuman power. Fortunately, he had chosen a mask.

Still, his personality and habitual movements might also be noticed by people with ulterior motives...

"I'm quitting! I'm quitting! I don't want to saw off my own leg!"

"Let me quit! I'm not playing anymore!"

While Lu Ce was observing, the woman beside him was still sobbing and pleading through tears, clearly unable to face reality.

But what Lu Ce hadn't expected was that there actually came a response from above.

A mechanical voice replied from the air:

The shop system will open shortly. During the game's preparation phase, players may purchase Exit Coins for forcibly withdrawing midway.

Once an Exit Coin is used, the player will permanently lose their eligibility to participate in the game.

The shop cannot be accessed during the game.

Exit Coins...

There was something like that too...? Lu Ce thought to himself, but did not show anything on his face. At a time like this, he had already figured out how to milk Pain Points for all they were worth.

"What do you mean, we can't quit?!"

"The lava is already rising! My head is spinning! Let me down!"

Amid the woman's shrill, unceasing screams, the sound of metal grinding suddenly rang out from above, cutting through the panic and despair in the air and instantly drawing the attention of the other nine people.

Above the lava, one of the chains suddenly began to sway violently. The creaking sound immediately silenced all the shouting.

The chain shackled to Lu Ce's right leg was now swinging fiercely through the air, while Lu Ce swung back and forth like an agile monkey.

With a snap, Lu Ce reached out and grabbed the rusty saw hanging overhead.

"Hehe, the chain quality is pretty good. It doesn't feel loose at all, even after all that swinging."

After yanking the saw down in one pull, Lu Ce's relaxed voice echoed through the cramped space. The nine people around him all widened their eyes, staring in shock at the first person to make a move.

—Was he insane?! Was he really going to saw off his leg? With that rusty saw?!

"Honestly, you guys are really being generous. This is the only tool here, and none of you even fought over it, so I just got to take it?"

"Sawing off your own leg to escape—what an old-fashioned method. By the way, did you really pay Chainsaw Massacre its copyright fees?"

Holding the saw, Lu Ce was in no hurry to act. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he casually chatted while swinging through the air.

That inexplicable sense of ease made the people around him seriously wonder whether he understood at all that the only way to survive this predicament was to saw off his own leg.

But from the very first thing he said, Lu Ce himself had actually realized something—this was not entirely his usual personality.

His current mental state felt like that of someone half-drunk: still fully capable of controlling his thoughts, yet subconsciously wanting to spout nonsense completely unlike his usual self.

This might be... the effect of the Sin Mask on his face—amplifying the corresponding traits in his humanity, while also granting matching benefits!

Lu Ce did not want to restrain himself too much. Greed, talkativeness, cunning—when facing such a brutal game challenge, these were exactly the traits he needed!

And in the future, he could also use these traits to keep those "viewers" watching him from easily connecting his in-game self to his real-world self.

Besides, he really wanted to see what kind of boost "Greed" would give him.

It seemed someone had already taken the first step.

In the scorching air, that mechanical voice appeared again. But this time, it carried a rare hint of humanity.

Just obtaining the saw did not yet count as successfully surviving.

"Got it, got it. It's just sawing off a leg—what's the big deal? It's not like this is my first time sawing one off..."

"I just think this game is seriously lacking in fun and exploration. It's really boring." Lu Ce continued, his voice practically on the verge of breaking into a "Heh heh heh" laugh.

"Since I'm the first one to get the saw, shouldn't there be some kind of reward?"

Lu Ce finally bared his fangs. Beneath the blue mask lay a chilling ambition and greed.

The other nine contestants around him had all fallen silent, quietly watching the figure hanging there as he bargained. In this horrifying scene, he seemed to be the only one who still treated it like a game.

The game naturally contained many hidden achievements and special rewards awaiting discovery, but players had to uncover them on their own.

"Alright, alright. So stingy—you won't give me anything."

"I'm just asking: what if I saw off my leg and still don't get rescued? I don't really trust this. I'm swinging around like this—if I saw off my leg and accidentally fall into the lava, what then?"

No. That is not part of the game. The platform beneath your feet is extensible. As long as you free yourself before the lava covers it, there will be no problem.

"So, as long as I saw off my leg, I can get free, right?"

Correct!

Light flowed across the blue mask, forming a smiling face, as if some scheme had succeeded.

A cold glint flashed. The rusty saw pressed against his own leg, and he began sawing!

But the iron chain was shackled around his right ankle.

The leg he was sawing was his left!