The Engineer

Deep Throat held two Eagle Claw Boning Knives in her hands, rubbing them against each other incessantly, as if sharpening a pencil with a small blade.

The ends of the Eagle Claw Boning Knives were attached to chains, the other ends of which pierced through Deep Throat's ribs and embedded deep into her body.

She walked slowly toward the two hearts, used the boning knife in her right hand to hook Frank's heart, and hung it upon a pillar covered in barbs.

High Priest Pinhead stepped forward and stomped his foot onto the remaining heart, Giovanna's, crushing it instantly.

A shrill, agonizing scream erupted from the heart; it was a sound that could pierce the soul, audible even to the deaf.

It was the sound of a soul being torn asunder.

"Worthless scrap."

Pinhead spoke without a hint of emotion.

The heart hanging on the pillar transformed back into Frank, though his body remained firmly hooked by the barbs on the pillar, suspended a foot off the ground.

"Frank!"

Pinhead looked at Frank and spoke slowly.

"We must hear your confession."

Deep Throat continued, taking up the thread.

"This is not for your benefit."

Pinhead used his telekinesis to send the chains flying toward Frank.

Countless chains hooked into Frank, pulling at his facial muscles and forcing him to utter his final confession:

"God wept."

Immediately afterward, Frank was torn into pieces once more.

Having finished this, the gaze of the Pinhead quartet turned in unison toward Wu Heng and Kirsty.

"We must complete the second confession."

Deep Throat said.

"We still have many sights to show you."

Pinhead added.

Wu Heng had not expected that in a bundled sale, Pinhead would actually become picky, violating the contract after discarding Giovanna.

"Oh, damn it."

Kirsty cursed.

Wu Heng stepped forward, shielding Kirsty behind him. One hand reached into his pocket, clutching the photograph of the Cenobites, while the other hand, hidden behind his back, quietly pressed the Puzzle Box into Kirsty's palm.

Kirsty took the Puzzle Box and quickly slid her fingers across it in a specific sequence.

"Go to hell!"

Kirsty shouted, snapping one half of the transformed Puzzle Box back into its original position.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Deep Throat was halfway through her sentence when, accompanied by a flash of lightning, she vanished along with Pinhead and Chatterer, and all the hellish instruments of torture dissipated.

The obese Butterball removed his sunglasses, revealing eyes sewn shut with thread, and appeared instantly behind Kirsty. He prepared to unleash the power of Gluttony to dissolve her into his body and reclaim the Puzzle Box.

However, the unstable hell-gate had already severed much of the Cenobites' power, and Wu Heng lunged, pulling Kirsty out of the way.

His body was merely grazed by the corner of Butterball's clothing, yet his entire right side began to melt, flowing and seeping into Butterball's body.

He was missing another kidney.

Kirsty endured the surging electric current from the Puzzle Box, ignoring the pain in her body, and used all her strength to restore the box to its original state. Butterball vanished from the spot.

Wu Heng ignored his own injuries; taking advantage of the dissolution of the gateway's domain, he grabbed Kirsty and rushed down the stairs to the first floor.

"Dean!"

Kirsty cried out, her voice choked with tears as she ran.

A corner of the Puzzle Box suddenly rotated slightly on its own.

A rift appeared once again at the top of the second-floor staircase.

The monster that Kirsty had seen in Wu Heng's villa—the one resembling a skinned lizard, crawling upside down—crawled out from the rift once more and began to pursue them.

Seeing the monster emerge, Wu Heng finally pressed the remote button in his pocket.

Boom!

The remote-controlled bomb that Wu Heng had specifically planted in the attic when he went to the villa district to rescue Kirsty was detonated.

The second floor was blown to pieces. Wu Heng embraced Kirsty and lunged out the door, shielding her from the shockwave of the blast.

As Wu Heng lay on the ground, he covered Kirsty's ears.

Blood trickled from Wu Heng's ears, but three notifications echoed in his mind:

[Plot Mission 3: Kill the Cenobites (Mission complete, obtained 10,000 Survival Points, Exploration 55%, Plot Rating increased)]

[Exploration progress reached 50%, identity retention permission for this plot world unlocked.]

[Complete all plot missions to choose an early return.]

The buzzing in Wu Heng's ears gradually faded. Seeing the mission completion notification, he knew he had succeeded once again.

This Blood-Colored Lizard Monster had made a brief appearance in the first installment of the plot.

It was actually an Engineer of Hell, responsible for the daily maintenance and construction of the underworld; their modifications were highly specialized.

While the Engineer possessed strong regenerative abilities, it had not been granted supernatural power, nor did it wear the skin-garments provided by Leviathan, meaning it could be harmed by conventional weapons.

If the Cenobites summoned by the Puzzle Box to harvest souls were the soldier ants of the colony, then the Engineers were the worker ants—though it was undeniable that they, too, were a form of modified Cenobite.

Wu Heng had originally thought that by capturing Frank early and altering the plot, he had missed his chance to encounter this rarely seen Engineer, making it impossible to complete the third mission.

He had carried the remote-detonated bomb just in case, but he hadn't expected the plot to twist and turn back to its starting point. That was why, the moment he sensed Kirsty was in danger, he had left the bomb in the attic.

The monster that appeared at the very end of the plot had finally shown itself.

After studying all the plot details, Wu Heng had analyzed that if he truly wanted to rely on ordinary means to complete the third mission, his only chance would be to seize a fleeting moment to kill this Engineer, who only made a brief appearance at the end.

Unfortunately, when a Cenobite died, the power and soul granted by Leviathan would return to Leviathan, and they could even be resurrected by it.

Wu Heng couldn't even Siphon them; no matter how weak a Cenobite was, it was still a Cenobite. If he could take a sip, he couldn't even imagine the taste...

"Dean, are we safe? Are you alright?"

As Kirsty fell to the ground, she had already restored the twisted corner of the Puzzle Box.

The wooden house, now missing half its structure, finally fell silent, with only the ruins still emitting black smoke and flickering flames.

Kirsty watched Wu Heng's wound with a broken heart, wanting to use her clothes to bind it but fearing she might aggravate the injury. Such a wound...

Wu Heng heard the sirens of police cars and fire trucks approaching from the distance and saw a crowd beginning to gather around them.

"Back to the villa. I have a way to recover."

Wu Heng put his tattered trench coat on inside out to cover the wound on his right side. He walked a few dozen meters with Kirsty and hailed a car to head toward the villa.

Back inside the villa, Wu Heng opened a custom-made refrigerator, where sealed blood bags were neatly arranged.

Kirsty followed by Wu Heng's side, watching his movements with worry. In her understanding, someone who had suffered such a severe injury should have been dead long ago, yet Wu Heng remained calm, showing no signs of weakness.

She watched with her own eyes as Wu Heng took a bag of sealed blood from the refrigerator and tore it open with scissors. The blood vanished rapidly, and the wound on Wu Heng's waist healed to a visible degree.

"This! Dean. You..."

Kirsty's eyes held a hint of terror.

"Kirsty, the truth is, I also escaped back from Hell."

Wu Heng touched his fully restored kidney area; it felt very strong and completely intact.

He turned back to look at Kirsty and said earnestly.

This matter could not be hidden.

Since Kirsty had already been targeted by Nailhead's Hermit, she would inevitably continue to have contact with Hell and would eventually learn about the Cursed Disciples.

It was better for Wu Heng to explain it clearly to Kirsty in advance, so that at the very least, she would know how to react when she encountered these things again.

"Dean, I only know that you saved me. I'm so scared."

Kirsty walked up and gently wrapped her arms around Wu Heng's waist, stroking his healed wound with her hand and pressing her head against his chest.

Wu Heng let out a sigh of relief. At the very last moment, he had almost shouted the human name of Butterball to awaken its memories and escape, but fortunately, he had held back.

The photograph of Nailhead and the true identities of the quartet were his trump cards for returning to the human world from Hell; he wouldn't use them unless he was truly on the verge of dying into the underworld.

Wu Heng had been fully prepared for this adventure. The worst-case scenario was simply dying into Hell, then awakening the quartet's memories to escape once more.

Kirsty was no mere damsel-in-distress heroine; she was a true protagonist, an indispensable link in the path he was planning for the future.

If Kirsty died prematurely, he wouldn't dare enter this world again, and keeping his trump cards would be useless at that point.

So, he had to give it his all!

But fortunately, both his trump cards and his allies remained. This time, it was a profitable venture!

Would you be willing to trade your collection, monthly tickets, and recommendation votes for two tubes of toothpaste from me?