Chapter 24 One Thousand-to-One Shot Up
Gaara is a very intelligent person. With him in command, we can also go out without worry. However, when we returned, we found the room completely empty! How strange—who would give up a safe place in such a dangerous environment? Unless something terrifying happened in this room that forced Gaara to take everyone away!
Where are they now? Alive or dead? We have no idea. But I trust Gaara; he is an extremely clever man and can definitely lead everyone away from danger. I firmly believe this.
If they are still alive, then they must be nearby. They could be far from us, but they could also be very close! In any case, we must find them and reunite everyone!
While I was quietly thinking, I heard Old Wan call out: “Sophie, come over and take a look at this.”
“What is it?” Dead Demon and I walked toward Old Wan upon hearing his voice. Following his hand, we looked and, huh? That is...
On the ground was a long piece of torn cloth. Judging by the color, it should be clothing belonging to our infiltrators. How could it have fallen off the clothes? Could it be that a fierce battle occurred here, tearing the clothes apart? Could it be... someone got hurt?
Highly likely! Old Wan thought of this too and looked at me: “Could something unexpected have happened while we were away from the room?” At that moment, my mind was a little chaotic. What exactly happened to Gaara and the others? Could so many people still not handle it?
They actually all left here, actually... Wait a minute! We seem to have encountered a situation like this before. Right, back then when the biochemical virus had just broken out, and the game had only just started, when we rushed from the lower floor to the third floor, the entire squad of infiltrators had already vanished. It was exactly the same as our current situation.
Come to think of it, it was thanks to Gaara at that time. He squatted on the ground and carefully searched for everyone's retreat traces. It was through this that he successfully led us to find the people of Blackwater Corporation… dizzying!I tapped my head. Su Fei, oh Su Fei, you think you're so clever. Since I, Ai Luo, can find the direction everyone left by the traces on the ground, why can't you? Thinking this through, I also imitated Ai Luo, squatted down, and started to search bit by bit from the piece of infiltrator cloth I found, looking for everyone's footprints. Maybe I can really find some clue.
“Eh?” Old Wan saw me and clicked his tongue in amazement. “Oh, I didn't know you had detective instincts, not bad. Great detective, did you find any clues?”
I was too lazy to pay attention to him and started thinking quietly: “I believe Ai Luo and the others are still alive, so we must go out to find them! The problem is which direction to search. From the traces on the ground, although it's a bit messy, it definitely doesn't look like the feeling of running desperately from danger.”
“And moreover…”
I looked up at the surrounding walls and ceiling: “Moreover, the most important thing is that there isn't even a bullet hole nearby. That indicates no one has fired a gun in this room! So, I don't understand. If no gun was fired, that means they didn't encounter any danger. If they didn't encounter any danger, then why did they leave this safe room?”
I didn't understand! Really didn't understand. Now I'm really confused.
I stood up, brushed the dust off my body, and said: “We can't stay here; we have to find everyone.”
“Oh? I wonder if Captain Yu has already found any clues about their companions?” The dead demon seemed very interested in me.
I didn't even want to look at the dead demon and just explained: “We came down from the top floor all the way, and aside from the ghosts of the bullets, we didn't encounter any danger along the way. Since our companions aren't in this room, and we didn't meet them on the way, that means everyone went downstairs. Then we'll also search downstairs—we can definitely find them!”
I opened the door and walked in the corridor, feeling somewhat uneasy.
I hoped my guess was correct—that they were waiting for us in some room downstairs.
Walking on, before I realized it, we had already arrived at the place where the previous battle took place.The undead妖 looked around: 'This is strange, why are there only everyone's guns on the ground, but no bodies? I can't believe that just a few idiots could evade the biochemical ghosts!'
'After all, they were once your companions, don't say that,' I glanced at the undead妖. I didn't want to wait until the day we were no longer useful, and the undead妖 immediately ran off and left us behind, though that was quite likely.
Looking around: 'Maybe they all fled after being infected by the ghosts, right? Are we supposed to believe that every infected person is playing dead waiting for us to pass?' Since I had been tricked once, I wouldn't be fooled a second time. If we saw a body on the way, whether it was a lurker or a protector, we'd fire a few rounds first!
Ah, right! Seeing the guns on the ground, I felt a surge of joy, recalling the previous situation, and I started running.
'Ha! Found it, my beloved Thompson!' Thinking of Grandpa who was previously killed by the biochemical ghost, I immediately ran to the original spot and sure enough, I found my Thompson.
I picked it up and looked at it—damn! There were less than half the bullets left in the magazine. Fortunately, I had taken a few extra magazines from the lurkers' equipment supply before. After such a long battle, there should still be a magazine usable in my backpack.
Holding the Thompson in my hands, I chuckled; my former confidence had returned.
Seeing me find the Thompson, the undead妖 threw away what he was holding and shouted 'What a pity!' He picked up what I had discarded and swapped the magazine onto his gun, then put it in his pocket. It seemed the undead妖 truly understood the importance of bullets.
As for Lao Wan, picking at his nose with a look of disdain: 'Undead妖 is really frugal!'
I walked up to him with a puzzled look: 'How many bullets do you have left?' Lao Wan laughed: 'Do you think I'm blind? Even in battle, I always watch my magazine, so I wouldn't have to stoop to pick up someone else's bullets.'
Hearing this, the undead妖 smiled: 'You see, picking it up wouldn't help, the bullets from the two types of guns don't match anyway.'
Since everyone still had enough bullets, we continued on. Soon, we went down to the second floor. This was the place where we lurkers were ambushed by the protectors back then.At this moment, looking around, we could still see many damaged and charred areas.
"I can't guarantee where Gaara and the others are, so let's split up and search," on the second floor, we started searching around with our machine guns. I squatted down and observed the ground, feeling below with my left hand, then with my right. I originally thought Gaara's trick was very effective, but who knew we didn't find anything—no traces at all. How could this happen? It seems the game had cleared the ground, really annoyingly diligent!
‘Bang!' Lao Wan kicked the door. Seeing it didn't open, he stubbornly tried to kick it again. Damn it! I quickly stopped him in fright: “Big brother, can you be more gentle? Do you want to attract the ghosts here? If they were inside and heard the sound, they would naturally come out; there's no need to kick so loudly!”
‘Bang!' Just as I tried to stop Lao Wan from kicking the door, another sound came into my ears. It really wouldn't stop—damn dead demon! I had trusted you so much, thinking you were smarter, but you're even worse than Lao Wan. Didn't you hear me telling Lao Wan to stop? Why are you still kicking?
I turned around to look at the dead demon, ready to scold him, but he had an innocent expression: “Kick what? My leg hasn't moved at all!”
What? You didn't move, and Lao Wan didn't kick, so the sound I just heard was...?
Before I could finish speaking, an even louder ‘thump thump' sounded by my ears! And the noise was getting faster and more frequent, like...
Our three faces instantly went pale; that was not the sound of kicking the door at all, but the sound of a large group of biochemical ghosts running!
Damn it! A huge group of biochemical ghosts raised their steel claws and roared, charging from the distant stair entrance toward us. Ever since entering the game, I had never seen so many ghosts appear at once. In front of our eyes were one red gigantic figure after another, continuously rushing toward us.
Enough, there's no point in wasting bullets. Everyone, run! Just as I lifted my leg, Lao Wan was even faster, grabbing my collar and running down. And the dead demon? He was even faster than Lao Wan, using the light and nimble body of a female fox hunter, pressing against the stair cement with one hand, flipping his body in one motion, and landing instantly on the lowest floor.
Damn!Earlier we were all laughing at him, turning from a big man into a fox hunter, but now we realize that the undead hybrid isn't a brainless pervert, but actually very farsighted! With that small body, running becomes a huge advantage!
After the undead hybrid jumped down, Old Wan grabbed me and we followed closely behind. But who would have thought that as soon as we went downstairs, we found the undead hybrid standing there in a daze, his words filled with despair: 'It's over, it's over, everything's over!'
In front of us, a tidal wave of red surged from every corner of Area 13 with earth-shattering force...
(This chapter ends)