As the pinball machine uttered the word "Stop," the entire elevator car suddenly shook violently, and then it actually came to a steady stop. On the computer screen, the rectangular object stopped precisely above the danger zone marked with a red line. The fat man's stop was extremely timely; if his hand had been even a fraction slower, the elevator would have crossed the red line, potentially causing a crash.
If the pinball is released too early, the elevator will stop in the passageway above the basement level, leaving it stuck in the middle. If trapped inside, it will still become a target for the militants in the base, and not just any target, but an immovable one.
The elevator is currently stopped slightly above the basement level. If the elevator doors were opened now, it would be possible to jump down into the basement corridor...
However, since the elevator is now stopped in such an inappropriate position and has activated its emergency stop procedure, the ball can no longer control the elevator door to open through the base's internal system. For now, the only option is to force it open by hand.
"Little monster... now it's up to you. You seem to be much stronger than Long Wu, you should be able to pry open this elevator door, right?"
As he spoke, Tanqiu turned and looked at Zhou Ziwei with a smile. Originally, Zhou Ziwei's code name in the Dragon Group was "Prodigy," but Tanqiu felt that the word "Prodigy" was really not enough to describe Zhou Ziwei's abnormality and monstrous talent. So he changed Zhou Ziwei's name to "Little Monster," completely forgetting that he had lost a bet to Zhou Ziwei. Now he should call Zhou Ziwei "Boss."
Zhou Ziwei didn't bother arguing with the ball about the name. He snorted and stood up, walking to the tightly closed elevator doors. With a slight wave of his hand, onlookers were astonished to see that a pair of metal gloves, seemingly made of platinum, suddenly appeared in Zhou Ziwei's hand.
The metal door of the elevator was so tightly closed that there wasn't even the slightest gap. It was virtually impossible to pry it open by force. So Zhou Ziwei unleashed a powerful surge of earth energy, channeling it into his palm. He then raised his hand and forcefully plunged his fingertips into the closed metal door.
With a muffled "bang," Zhou Ziwei's small hand, clad in a platinum glove, pierced through the thick metal door, inserting half of his palm inside.
Upon seeing this, the muscles on the faces of those around them twitched uncontrollably, and gasps of shock rang out in unison. Then, they looked at each other, their eyes filled with horror.
"Creak—" With his hand inserted into the metal door, it became much easier to exert force laterally. With a forceful pull from Zhou Ziwei, the tightly closed metal door was pulled open without any suspense. The upper half of the elevator was still pitch black outside, while a sliver of bright light shone through the lower third or so of the elevator.
"Everyone lie down and stay alert." Bullet knew that the moment the elevator doors opened was the most vulnerable time to attack. Because of her disability in both legs, she couldn't lie down to observe the situation in the corridor outside, so she could only remind the Dragon Group members.
With a "whoosh," almost everyone in the elevator slumped down.
These Dragon Group members were all highly experienced in combat. In fact, they knew what to do even without being reminded by bullets. Lying down could effectively reduce the chance of their bodies being targeted, and at the same time, they could observe the situation in the corridor. If they were to stand like wooden stakes at this time, they would be courting death.
However, apart from Bullet being unable to lie down due to his leg disability, Blind Boy and Zhou Ziwei remained unmoved, as if they did not take Bullet's orders seriously at all.
Zidan gave the two of them a strange look, but didn't say anything. In fact, seeing their reaction, she basically guessed that there shouldn't be any danger outside for the time being.
Sure enough... the men lying on the ground let out a soft "Huh?" and said one after another, "Strange... how come all these people are dead? Could it be... that we have an inside man in this base?"
The leopard was indeed fast. When he discovered that the corridor below the elevator was full of dead bodies, he was slightly startled. Then, he braced himself with both hands on the ground and his body shot out like a spring, landing steadily on the ground with a "whoosh".
The ground was littered with dead bodies.
Along this long corridor, at least thirty corpses lay scattered on the ground. Due to the limited width of the corridor, these thirty-odd people were divided into three lines of defense, each with about ten people. Each person held a different weapon, and in the first line of defense, there were even two heavy machine guns. The others were all holding different weapons, all in a ready stance, as if they had been waiting here to ambush them.
But for some reason... all thirty-odd people who were in the triple ambush have now turned into corpses. Each corpse has a dark, bloody hole between its eyebrows. And if you look closely, you will find that all of these wounds are penetrating, which means that... their heads have been pierced through, with red blood and white brain matter flowing all over the ground.
These people seemed to have died at the same moment, and at the time of their deaths, they seemed to have no sense of the threat of death at all, as if they had died suddenly without warning or sound.
Each corpse retained its original, distinct expression—some were sinister, some cold and cruel, and some were calm and composed. Clearly, death had come too quickly, so quickly that they didn't even have time to change their expressions before their life force was completely extinguished.
Seeing this scene, Leopard couldn't help but gasp again. He looked back at the group of people jumping down from the elevator one by one, exchanging incredulous and terrified glances. If it weren't for the fact that all thirty-odd people here had been killed beforehand, they would have been riddled with bullets by the two heavy machine guns before the elevator even opened. In such a confined space, there was nowhere to hide. Even if they managed to escape the machine gun blockade, they would still be doomed facing the two additional layers of blockade behind them.
However... that danger has now passed, and thankfully it has, otherwise... in the end everyone would involuntarily turn their attention to Zhou Ziwei and the blind boy.
They knew that blind children have exceptionally sensitive hearing, and even if there wasn't much noise going on in the corridor, it shouldn't escape the blind child's ears.
As for Zhou Ziwei... he is said to have the ability to see through things. He has never shown it, but... at least from the moment the elevator doors opened and the bullets told everyone to lie down and be on guard, he refused to follow the order. This shows that Zhou Ziwei clearly knew what was going on in the corridor beforehand. It was precisely because he knew for sure that there was no danger down there that he appeared so calm.
But this guy... since he already knew, why didn't he just say it outright, making everyone tense for no reason?
"What exactly happened? How did these people... die?" After getting out of the elevator with Long Wu's help, Zidan's cold gaze swept over the foreheads of the dead. Then, he frowned slightly and said, "It doesn't look like gunshot wounds... Even if... even if the shape and size of these wounds are similar to gunshot wounds, I'm sure these people weren't shot."
After speaking, Zidan, like everyone else, involuntarily turned her gaze to Zhou Ziwei and the blind boy, as if waiting for these two to answer her questions.
"Hey... don't look at me like that... I don't know anything about this!"
Zhou Ziwei shrugged helplessly, shaking his head as he said, "I only saw it when I opened the elevator door... uh... well, although I have the ability to see through things, but... the elevator was sinking so fast just now, I couldn't see anything through it. Who knows what happened here? Could these people have committed mass suicide?"
"Mass suicide?" Upon hearing this, Bullet's forehead creased with annoyance. He wished he could grab this pretentious guy and give him a good beating to vent his anger.
However… although Bullet knew that this guy must be hiding something from him, he just didn’t know how to expose him, so he could only shake his head helplessly and turn his gaze to the blind child.
"I don't know either..." Although she couldn't see, the blind girl could still feel the bullet staring at her. She shrugged slightly, mimicking Zhou Ziwei, and said in a similarly irreverent tone, "My hearing is pretty good, but... I was really scared during that life-or-death situation... I really couldn't concentrate on listening to any other sounds. I just... I only heard after the elevator stopped... there wasn't a single breath in the corridor outside... which means... there's no one alive outside, so I didn't have to be so nervous."
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 525: Ten Deaths Without Survival
Although Zhou Ziwei and the blind boy's words made a lot of sense, and it seemed... to be true, it would be truly unbelievable if Zidan believed them...
But regardless, what's happening here is a good thing, something that's more advantageous to them. It seems there really is someone of their own in this underground base, and apparently, he's quite a capable person. If that's the case... then the dangers they're about to encounter aren't so terrible after all.
As expected, the bullet didn't dwell on the issue any further. After a moment's thought, it asked the blind boy, "Now... can you hear the specifics of what's going on here? What should we do next?"
The blind boy squinted his large, gray eyes, listened intently, and then said solemnly, "A large number of armed personnel are rushing over from both sides of that corridor ahead. I think... we must find a way to get through this crisis. This place... the terrain here is a bit special. We don't have any cover to rely on, so it might be troublesome."
Upon hearing this, Zidan's expression darkened slightly. He turned his head and looked around, only to find that this was simply a long, straight corridor without a single door on either side. This meant that... the two sides of the corridor were likely solid ground, leaving them with nowhere to hide.
Fighting the enemy in this place is indeed a terrible thing.
"Attention all Dragon Group members..." Bullet paused slightly before speaking in a harsh voice, "Our situation is not good. We may have been trapped in this corridor. There is no cover here, so... everyone drag a corpse with you! For now, we can only use enemy corpses as shields. We need to move forward quickly and try to keep the enemy in that corridor and prevent them from coming out... Otherwise... once the enemy takes over the corner of the corridor, we will become even more passive!"
Without hesitation, he grabbed a disgusting corpse whose head was still oozing blood and white fluid, placed it horizontally in front of him, and then, with one hand, turned his wheelchair and sped away towards the corner of the corridor ahead...
The men were naturally indifferent to this matter. Leopard, Ball, and the others immediately followed suit, each picking up a corpse and holding it in front of them before taking long strides to catch up. As for Blind Boy and Jiang Chunshui, they couldn't help but frown slightly.
Jiang Chunshui, in particular, is a person with a slight obsession with cleanliness. Now, she is being asked to put a dead person, and a stinky male dead person at that, on her body. Just thinking about it makes her feel nauseous. How could she possibly do it?
Seeing that no one seemed to be paying attention to her, Jiang Chunshui quietly moved to Zhou Ziwei's side, gently tugged at his sleeve, and whispered, "I...I won't go and hug those corpses, is that alright?"
Seeing Jiang Chunshui's pitiful appearance, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy. He turned his head and secretly glanced at the blind child, who seemed to be watching him intentionally or unintentionally as well. Knowing that his little actions couldn't possibly escape her notice, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Then he nodded to Jiang Chunshui and said, "Okay... if you're afraid of getting dirty, then don't touch those dead people. Hmm... just stay behind me! With me here, no one can hurt you. But... remember, you absolutely can't leave more than three meters away from me... otherwise, I won't be able to protect you."
Jiang Chunshui was overjoyed upon hearing this and nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at rice. She then stuck close to Zhou Ziwei's back, following him like a shadow, and even clung to his clothes with both hands, determined to stay with him even unto death.
Zhou Ziwei's forehead was covered in black lines, and he smiled bitterly to himself. He knew that if the current crisis was not resolved, this woman would probably not let go no matter what... Sigh, well, he had already taken action, and there was no need to dawdle any longer at this point.
Upon realizing this, a cold glint flashed in Zhou Ziwei's eyes. Two of the three butterfly darts he had already released immediately split off and swept swiftly along the horizontal corridor in front of him to both sides.
As a fierce glint flashed in Zhou Ziwei's eyes, a series of faint, short gasps suddenly rang out from the nearby corridor. These gasps were almost continuous, lasting less than two seconds before abruptly ceasing. Anyone who heard them could easily imagine that what sounded like a long gasp was clearly made by many people at once. Yet, these sounds from many people were strung together, like a set of dominoes being toppled, one after another connected, creating an indescribably strange sound.
The blind boy at the back was about to obey the bullet's command and grab a corpse to use as a shield, but after hearing the short yet long cry of surprise, he was suddenly jolted, his mouth forming a wide "O" shape, and he loosened his grip, throwing the corpse he had just picked up back to the ground.
"What's wrong, blind boy? What happened over there? That scream sounded so strange!" Bullet quickly turned around and asked the blind boy.
The blind child seemed oblivious, her mouth agape, stunned and speechless like an idiot, until the bullet asked her three times in a row. Only then did she come to her senses, and then, forcing herself not to look at Zhou Ziwei with her gray eyes, she exclaimed in a low voice, "Dead...all those people...all dead."
"What, they're all dead?" Bullet asked, somewhat bewildered.
“Our enemies… just now there were over a hundred of them…” the blind boy exclaimed in a low voice, then pointed ahead and said, “You’ll see when you go to the corridor ahead… this time they sent over a hundred of them, it seems they were planning to trap our people here no matter what, but now… all of those hundred people have been wiped out in an instant, not a single one survived… they are all dead.”
"Ah... just now? It was that strange scream, and then... they all died instantly?"
With some disbelief, Zidan asked a question. The blind child simply nodded with difficulty and then said nothing more. She quickly turned her wheelchair and sped towards the corner of the corridor ahead.
Although the blind boy told her that all the enemies ahead were dead, not a single one was left, Zidan still dared not be careless and did not throw down the corpse blocking her way.
Although she believed the blind boy's words, she was convinced that he wouldn't lie to her... at least not in this kind of situation.
However, she was still very careful. Otherwise, if there were even one or two people among those hundred or so enemies who weren't quite dead, and she suddenly rushed out recklessly, wouldn't that be courting death?
With a "whoosh," the wheelchair stopped at the corner of the T-shaped corridor. As expected, there were corpses everywhere, one after another, a horrifying sight.
The corpses were still in their original, rapidly moving posture, each holding a different weapon, but now they were lying face down on the ground, one on top of the other. Each of them had a round hole about the size of a one-yuan coin ripped open in the back of their head, from which streams of white brain matter and red blood were gushing out like a spring. The hundreds of corpses were all connected together in the same way, a sight that was incredibly horrifying.
When the others saw the bullet stop at the corner of the corridor and then stand there, their hearts skipped a beat. However, they were certain that there was no real danger there now, so one by one they ran over. Some were cautious and, like the bullet, still held a corpse in their hands, while the bolder ones simply threw the corpses away and quickly walked over.
Seeing the same situation, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and finally turned their attention to the blind child. After all, they had all seen the blind child's reaction. She had clearly heard something, and after the sudden change, she clearly stated that all of the more than one hundred people here had died. She should know very well how this happened!
"You don't need to look at me like that. I... I still don't know."
Although he couldn't see, the blind child could still feel the pairs of puzzled eyes fixed on him. He couldn't help but give a bitter smile and said, "I could only hear a gust of wind blowing from east to west, and then... then all these people fell down, and their breathing and heartbeats gradually stopped... That's how it happened... That... that terrifying attack was so fast, so fast that these people didn't even have time to react. I... I couldn't even tell what it was. I only know... the speed of this attack was almost infinitely close to the speed of light. I believe... ordinary people facing this attack wouldn't have time to dodge, or even have time to think before they were killed. What a terrifying attack method! I... I really couldn't tell what it was."
The blind boy's tone carried a hint of shame, a shame that was hard to tell whether it stemmed from revealing a secret about Zhou Ziwei, or from... the unease he felt for not telling his old comrades, Zidan and the others, everything he knew.
However, she wasn't actually lying. Although she knew very well that the terrifying lightning attack just now was probably caused by Zhou Ziwei, and the reason was likely that Jiang Chunshui didn't want to use the corpse as a shield to contaminate her body, so Zhou Ziwei had no choice but to suddenly attack. Otherwise... this time Zhou Ziwei probably wouldn't have acted so readily.
However, the blind child truly couldn't discern what Zhou Ziwei had used to attack. The sheer terror of killing over a hundred people in the blink of an eye was chilling to contemplate. And because the thing was so incredibly fast, practically at the speed of light, even with the blind child's exceptional hearing, she could only hear a "whoosh" sound that echoed through the corridor before disappearing. How could she possibly know what it was?
Upon hearing the blind child's words, everyone gasped in astonishment once again, their hearts churning with disbelief. They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with disbelief. They couldn't believe who had just made the move, or how powerful that person was, instantly killing a hundred people without leaving a trace. Was this... a human, a ghost, or a god?
Bullet paused for a moment, then a graceful smile appeared on his lips. He nodded slightly and said, "Alright... whoever is helping us, in any case... they're a friend, not an enemy, so let's not speculate! Everyone, let's continue... According to the previous intelligence... our target this time should be a biological laboratory on the third basement level. From here, we should be able to reach that laboratory by going through the corridors on either the left or right. Does everyone want to proceed together, or split up...?"
"Is that even a question? Of course we split into two groups. Isn't that how we always operate?" Ball said, somewhat puzzled. He was right. In the past, when faced with this situation, they would usually split into two groups to avoid having all their men rush over from one side while the enemy slipped away from the other, which would be a huge blunder.
“No, I disagree. It’s better if we all work together…” The blind boy said meaningfully, “It’s obvious that there’s a very powerful expert helping us in this underground base. However, he’s probably only one person. If we split into two groups now, he probably won’t be able to take care of everyone. In that case, one of our teams might reach our destination smoothly, while the other side might suffer heavy casualties. So, I don’t agree to split up.”
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly realized the truth and stopped raising any objections. Indeed... if they were separated, one team would have to face the enemy's attack alone. There were only seven people in total. If they were separated, each team could only have a maximum of four people. And if they encountered a situation where hundreds of people were coming at them head-on, how could a mere four people possibly handle it?
"Alright then! Let's all move together! But this time we have to be quick, we can't let anyone get away no matter what."
Seeing that everyone, though silent, clearly agreed with the blind child's opinion, Zidan nodded, waved his hand, and immediately led the group to the left...
There is only one elevator connecting the underground base to the small building on the island in the lake above. Within the entire underground base, there are a total of four staircases for passage. In addition, there are some elevators that can only travel back and forth within the underground base, but these elevators have now been completely shut down by the pinball control program.
Taking the elevator down is the fastest way, but it's also the most dangerous. If you get trapped in a small elevator, you're likely to become someone else's prey and get beaten up at any time.
They had no other way to go when they came down from the small building on the island in the lake, but now that they have a choice, naturally no one would want to take the elevator again.
The underground base was enormous. It took them nearly five or six minutes to walk from the first to the third underground level. Along the way, they encountered three waves of ambush, but... in all three instances, they were wiped out by the lightning-fast attacks before they could even meet the enemies.
After the three waves of sniping were thwarted and more than two hundred people were killed, no one came to snipe them anymore. It seems that although the underground base is not small, it is not a bottomless pit. How many people can the entire underground base hold? In just a short time, more than four hundred people have been killed. It is estimated that even if the armed men here have not been completely wiped out, they should be almost gone!
Moreover, if those militants weren't fools, they should understand that under the threat of that mysterious force, no matter how many people they could muster, they would only be sent to their deaths.
With a muffled "boom," when Long Wu smashed the door of the No. 9 biological laboratory on the third basement floor with his fist, everyone's eyes widened in shock. The laboratory was in complete disarray, as if it had just been ravaged by a typhoon. Various documents and instruments were scattered all over the floor, but there wasn't a single person in the huge laboratory. Only a gust of wind, seemingly from nowhere, kept blowing from a secret passage in the laboratory, sending a chill down everyone's spine.
"Oh no..." The blind boy's slightly pointed ears suddenly twitched rapidly twice, and he cried out in horror, "It's water... I heard the sound of waves crashing, water is being poured down here... water is being poured down here."
"Damn it!" In this maze-like underground base, if someone were suddenly flooded by the lake and turned into an underwater world, it would be an absolute disaster. They didn't have any underwater breathing or survival equipment on them. Being trapped more than 200 meters underwater like this would be a near-death experience... If they couldn't find diving equipment, oxygen tanks, or anything like that, then... it would be a certain death.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 526: Can I Tell You?
Although they had long suspected that there should be another exit in this underground base, and that it should be an exit leading to the lake, they hadn't expected these guys to be so ferocious, starting to pour water into the foundation. After all, although Zhou Ziwei had silently killed many people along the way, all of them were armed personnel within the base. As for the researchers, Zhou Ziwei hadn't touched a single one. And with so many researchers... under the condition of the lake water pouring in, probably none of them would be able to escape.
After Zhou Ziwei mastered the ability to control water energy during the tsunami, he naturally had nothing to fear about water anymore. Moreover, most of the important figures in this research base had left through the secret passage of this laboratory, and these people who left would inevitably take the three water spirit seeds with them, so... Zhou Ziwei had to chase after them.
Furthermore... this seems to be the closest place to the exit in this underground base. If Zhou Ziwei wants to survive, he must rescue Zidan and the others from here.
"Those who don't want to die, come with me..."
Zhou Ziwei moved swiftly and immediately ran straight towards the direction from which the sound of the waves was coming.
After a slight hesitation, the others followed suit. They were all seasoned veterans and naturally understood what to do in this situation.
Although rushing out from where the waves came down is extremely difficult, staying here would be certain death. Moreover, they are elite special forces soldiers of the Republic, and their mission is not yet complete. To complete the mission, they must chase after the people who just escaped from here through this secret passage, and only then will they have a chance to retrieve the three important seeds.
Zhou Ziwei rushed into the messy laboratory and released his soul power to search the area. He found nothing of value or anything that caught his attention, so he didn't linger and sped up, heading straight into a completely open secret passage at the back of the laboratory.