Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Through her doubled vision, Lin Yinxi saw Xu Haitang draw the dark red taboo pistol.

Several tiny fleshy tentacles bizarrely split from its metal barrel and plunged into the blood vessels in Xu Haitang’s wrist with a wet puncturing sound.

They rapidly sucked her blood.

Her already-fair face grew paper-white.

Bang!

A scarlet bullet formed from blood screamed out, striking the male doctor precisely between the brows.

The upper half of his head burst like a rotten watermelon. Rank chunks of flesh splattered an entire wall.

But entities could not be killed.

The headless male doctor remained standing. Flesh buds writhed and grew furiously at the stump as his twisted remaining body lunged again.

“You two run first!” Xu Haitang shouted.

Then she glanced aside and paused.

There was nobody beside her.

Wiping her nosebleed, Lin Yinxi had already slipped a considerable distance along the wall.

Panting, she did not pause for a single step.

She couldn’t help it. She ran slowly.

Slow birds had to fly first. Think of the tortoise and the hare.

She had no taboo artifact for fighting. Running faster was how she helped: stay away from the battle and avoid becoming a burden.

Chu Yanran was just as useless in combat and fled quickly too.

She stripped as she ran. “Aaah, stop chasing me! I’ll give you back these stupid clothes!”

A fork appeared ahead. Pointing left, she said, “This door leads to Zone A’s exhibition hall!”

Xu Haitang was still fighting fiercely and had not managed to break away from the entities and reach them.

“Wait a moment.”

Holding the silver case she had stolen from the female doctor, Lin Yinxi called toward the entities, “Hey! Do you still want this case?”

She had noticed from the start how much the female doctor treasured it.

Sure enough, it caught her attention.

Lin Yinxi scattered the scalpels inside all over the floor.

The female doctor grew frantic. Her body stayed still, but her neck whipped toward them.

Lin Yinxi threw the case down. “If you want it, take it! Pick them up yourself!”

She had drawn some of the attacks away from Xu Haitang.

Xu Haitang gained a moment’s respite.

Rather than running toward Lin Yinxi, she turned and went back the way she had come.

Lin Yinxi waited no longer. Before the female doctor reached her, she hurried into the nearby branch.

Half the male doctor’s head slowly regrew.

Unwilling to let them go, he activated the infirmary’s red alarm.

Instantly, red light engulfed the corridor.

[Exhibit riot detected in Ward 116!]

[Damage detected in the infirmary passage!]

[Initiating emergency hazard-avoidance procedures!]

The corridor’s space changed.

The floor vanished beneath Lin Yinxi’s feet. The previously flat surface suddenly split from the center toward both sides!

“Hold on to me!” Reacting instantly, Chu Yanran dug one hand into a gap in the broken tiles and grabbed Lin Yinxi’s collar with the other. Gritting her teeth, she said, “Don’t let go. I’ve got you. This time, it’s my turn to help.”

Below was an enormous black pipe, its bottom nowhere in sight.

A powerful stench of fermenting dead fish struck her face.

Lin Yinxi strained to reach upward.

Sadly, she wasn’t strong enough.

Stone crumbled at the edge, and she fell into the endless abyss.

“Lin Yinxi!” Chu Yanran tried to catch her, but she was far out of reach.

“Forget me! Meet in Zone C!”

The black pipe swallowed Lin Yinxi’s voice.

…

“Aaaaaah!”

This had to be the world’s most terrifying slide!

A layer of slippery dark green algae lined the pipe. Her body hurtled uncontrollably downward through the darkness.

The weightless sensation nearly made her vomit.

She had no control over her direction.

After sliding for an unknown length of time, she landed with a heavy splash in a bone-chilling pool.

The impact left her thoroughly dazed.

A large mouthful of salty, fishy dirty water flooded into her mouth.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

She struggled out of the water and sprawled on the moss-covered bank, vomiting violently.

It was too dark to see her hand in front of her face. Only far overhead, an emergency light with a faulty connection buzzed and flickered an eerie green.

This place… seemed to be a drainage system.

Lin Yinxi shook dirty water from her hands. By the weak green light, she made out her surroundings.

A foul pool lay here. Countless indescribable chunks of meat, half-dead entities, discarded medical instruments, and… a rotting merfolk creature whose mutation had failed floated on its surface.

Lin Yinxi crawled over to look.

On the merfolk creature, she found a visitor’s identity card.

Directly ahead on the bank stood a rust-covered iron sign.

Twisted lettering in red paint read: Landfill.

“Why is there such a huge wastewater pool beneath the aquarium…”

Lin Yinxi remembered apparently hearing someone mention groundwater contamination nearby back at Jincheng University.

There was trouble in this wastewater.

The entities in it all struggled to climb out.

She looked around, trying to find a weapon.

Just then, she heard very faint footsteps behind her.

“Who?” She turned.

“Unless you want to draw out the Scavengers in the water, you’d better stop rummaging through the rubbish.” A low male voice came from the shadows to her right.

Then, beneath the underground emergency light’s eerie green glow, a figure emerged from behind a pile of discarded iron frames.

His black shirt blended into the darkness behind him.

Hair hung over his forehead, concealing his left eye and preventing her from seeing his full expression.

His exposed right eye was deep and cold, like an utterly still pool, quietly appraising her.

“Yang Shu?” Lin Yinxi recognized his face, surprised. “What are you doing here? Did you fall from above too?”

Standing on the slippery moss, he came no closer. “I didn’t fall. I followed Jellyfish Café’s water-supply pipe here. This is a shortcut to Zone C.”

His words were half true, half false.

Lin Yinxi did not entirely trust him.

“How do you know it’s a shortcut?”

Yang Shu gave no further explanation. He merely raised his hand.

Between his index and middle fingers was a slip of paper with damaged edges and dark red bloodstains.

“I got here a little before you. I found these incomplete rules about Zone C on the half-dead employees in the water.”

At the mention of rules, Lin Yinxi’s eyes brightened. “What do they say?”

But Yang Shu turned his fingers and tucked the paper into his palm.

His eyes lowered, his icy gaze settling on her wrist.

“No hurry.” His voice dropped, with a hint of dangerous curiosity. “First, tell me where you got your employee wristband.”

Lin Yinxi pulled her sleeve down and lied without changing expression. “Didn’t you see it before? From the woman at the information desk.”

“Don’t play dumb.”

Yang Shu exposed her lie mercilessly. “What you got there was the lowest-grade pale blue Cleaner Wristband.

I’m asking about the one you’re wearing now. The one with the containment center’s mark.”