Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Even with the boy there, not all five members of the squad made it through the instance alive. The girl he had rescued survived because her teammates kept her shielded in the middle of the group.

By the time the hot-tempered young man cleared the instance, half his body was gone. Any injury, no matter how severe, would heal after an instance was cleared, but that didn’t make what he had experienced any less real. He curled into a ball on the floor and suddenly began sobbing at the top of his lungs.

Other than those two, the only survivor was a taciturn middle-aged man.

Of the five, their captain and another young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six had both died.

The boy’s ability was absurdly powerful, but the toll it took on his body and the restrictions on its use were equally severe. He couldn’t use it a second time anytime soon.

Since this incident had taken place in a warehouse, relatively few civilians had been dragged into the instance. Of the thirty-one people caught inside, twenty-six survived.

A plump woman in loungewear opened her eyes. The computer that had been connected to her hands was gone, leaving her looking like an ordinary housewife. Her expression was lost and grief-stricken.

Everyone present had already removed their hats. Even though they had seen the outcome through the computer, that didn’t mean they could accept it calmly. Many of their eyes were red.

Players who died in a Horror Game Instance vanished for good. There weren’t even any bodies left for them to recover.

A psychologist approached, intending to take the hot-tempered young man and the girl away for treatment, but the young man shoved him aside.

Still feeling the agony of his body being torn apart, the young man lay sprawled on the floor and pounded his fists against it, screaming in anguish, “The captain is dead! Brother Zhang is dead! Brother Zhang’s daughter was just born! She was just born! And he died to save them! To save them!”

He pointed at the civilians who had made it out alive. Medics and staff were already tending to them.

His eyes were bloodshot with rage. “If it weren’t for them, Brother Zhang wouldn’t have died! The captain wouldn’t have died! Why? Don’t our lives matter too?”

Clearing the instance should never have cost them so dearly. They had already found the key to clearing it, but then they spotted the middle-aged man they had driven away earlier secretly following them. Remembering that he had said he still had family waiting for him, they let him stay.

Who could have imagined that the man would side with the monster and betray them at the very end?

The very people they had protected had only cared about keeping themselves alive. Because the safe room could hold only so many people, they had simply shut the door, locking the squad and several other civilians outside.

Brother Zhang had been the one to find that safe room. There had clearly still been space for several more people. The squad had already been prepared to stay out themselves.

But it wasn’t the same. Choosing to stay outside was not the same as being locked out.

They had entered the instance to save people, and this was how it ended?

The hot-tempered young man pushed himself to his feet. A blade riddled with cracks appeared in his hand. It had belonged to the captain.

“What gives you the right to be alive?!”

The middle-aged man reached out to stop him. The girl’s eyes burned with hatred. The captain had died protecting these very people.

“We never wanted you to die.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“That monster stops for five minutes every time it kills someone. We left people outside with you.”

“You’re the ones who chose to protect them.”

“You’re government personnel. Protecting us is your job.”

“I’m a major taxpayer! You people are paid with my money, so of course you should protect me!”

Yu Huan sat in his wheelchair, his expression cold.

“Enough. Shut up!”

Those who had remained outside could no longer hold back either. They roared, “You… You people aren’t human!”

The boy with the special ability knelt dazedly on the floor, staring at the shattered plastic figures. The moment they broke, he had tried to sew them back together, but it was impossible. As the chaotic voices raged around him, he clutched the little plastic figures to his chest in panic.
The treated wound on his back split open and began bleeding again. The medical staff tried to take him to the hospital, but he refused and would not let anyone come near him.

The bespectacled woman’s eyes were bloodshot, and her hands trembled. Yet all she said to Yu Huan was, “I’m sorry to trouble you.”

Yu Huan had seen more than enough of the ugliness in human nature, yet every time he encountered it, he still found it revolting. He rose, and a scythe as tall as a man appeared in his hands. Gripping it with both hands, he swung it viciously toward the warehouse, completely severing the connection between the Horror Game Instance and this place.

That single strike drained all the color from Yu Huan’s face. The scythe vanished, and he sank back into his wheelchair, clutching his chest. “Do you still think it was worth it?”

Before the bespectacled woman could answer, the taciturn middle-aged man had already stepped in front of the hotheaded young man and the girl, shielding them behind him. “Our team will never take part in another rescue like this.”

At those words, all the government personnel fell silent.

The woman in loungewear moved her lips, but no words came out.

The middle-aged man stared coldly at those who thought they were safe now and were loudly insisting none of this was their fault. “I hope every one of you survives the Novice Instance. Once each of you becomes a Full-fledged Player, our team will hunt you down. We will have our revenge.”

“Chen Zhan!” someone immediately called out in alarm. “They… they weren’t all in favor of it.”

But even he couldn’t bring himself to claim that they were all innocent.

Chen Zhan’s expression remained cold. “All I care about is the outcome.”

Their team had once had seven members. Now, only three remained.

The girl finally broke down sobbing. “The captain and the others shouldn’t have died! They shouldn’t have died!”

The hotheaded young man was still trembling all over as he stood. “We stopped wanting to take rescue missions a long time ago! No one saved us when we first entered an instance either. If it hadn’t been for the captain and Brother Zhang, we would’ve quit accepting these missions ages ago!”

“When we take on an instance ourselves, dying only means we weren’t strong enough. But they shouldn’t have died. They shouldn’t have died like this!”

Chen Zhan swept his gaze across the crowd. “Back then, someone from your Special Department saved a member of our team. Since then, we’ve taken part in seven rescue missions, saved over a hundred people, and lost four of our own. I’d say we’ve repaid that life-saving debt, wouldn’t you?”

His question was directed at the bespectacled woman.

Before she could answer, someone irritated by Chen Zhan and the others’ aggressive attitude spoke up. “But we paid you money and points for every mission. The life you enjoy now-”

“Shut up!”

Before he could finish, everyone present sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.

The person standing closest to the speaker slapped him across the face.

But it was already too late.

The girl raised her head and gritted her teeth. “You think we did it for the money? For the points? You people stand safely outside and watch without ever having to risk yourselves. What a joke. You’re all such a joke…”

This time, the hotheaded young man didn’t lose his temper. But everyone knew this reaction meant his heart had truly died. Anger, rage, hurt, and hatred all meant there were still feelings left. It was only when a person became calm that it was truly over.

“I don’t give a damn about your money or points. If that was all I wanted, I could’ve joined one of the major guilds. They’d have paid me more.”

Chen Zhan gave the bespectacled woman a long, searching look. “Let’s go.”

The bespectacled woman’s voice was hoarse as she said, “Though we die a hundred deaths, we shall never retreat. We shall protect all lives and never regret it.”

Chen Zhan and the others paused, but in the end, they left without looking back.

Yu Huan took a moment to recover. When he saw the people from the Special Department coming over to speak with him, he immediately leaned toward the boy beside him and patted his head of white hair. “So you’re not their teammate after all. Does that mean you’re hired child labor?”