Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab
Fragile Girl
I’m so fragile.
So many people had died right in front of her eyes all at once. Even knowing they were data, not living, breathing humans… Shen Maomao couldn’t help but feel sorrow and fear.
If only she had noticed the abnormality sooner, if only she could have firmly insisted on bringing those people out…
Unfortunately, there were no ‘if onlys’.
The current situation didn’t allow her to wallow in sentimentality. Shen Maomao pushed Lou Jingmo away lightly, then wiped her eyes with her hand, stopping the tears from falling. She sniffled and said, “Let’s hurry, there isn’t much time.”
Lou Jingmo patted her shoulder.
The two didn’t exchange many words, but her mood lightened slightly.
290 thought for a moment, then said, “There will be more difficulties ahead. Everyone present will die. Instead of wasting time pitying others, you should think about how to keep yourself alive.”
Shen Maomao nodded gently. “Mm, I know. Thank you.”
After this ordeal, the group pressed forward again, following 290’s lead to rush towards the elevator.
The distance from Lab B to the elevator was short. They didn’t encounter any further difficulties along this path. When they reached the entrance, two people were already guarding it.
There were some bloodstains on the ground. A man and a woman, both injured to varying degrees, were sitting exhaustedly on the floor, their wounds still seeping blood. Prolonged blood loss made their faces paper-white, which, combined with the signature red eyes of the mutated, gave them an added eerie quality.
290 didn’t recognize these two, classifying them as NPCs, and proactively asked with concern, “Are you two alright?”
The woman shook her head. “We’re fine, just a bit weak in the legs from blood loss. Could someone give us a hand?”
Lou Jingmo narrowed her eyes, carefully observing the two people before them.
Shen Maomao glanced at her, then also looked at them with suspicion and uncertainty.
For Lou-jie to make that kind of expression… there must be something wrong!!
“Alright,” 290 agreed, extending both hands towards the pair.
“Wait!!” Shen Maomao took a step forward, grabbed 290’s clothes, and yanked him backward forcefully, making him stumble away from the two individuals.
Two tentacles, unable to stop their momentum, pierced the air with a swish-swish sound.
The surrounding players were dumbfounded. “What’s going on??”
“What are you trying to do?!”
Shen Maomao hid behind Lou Jingmo, poking her head out to say speechlessly, “What else could they be trying to do? Absorb you, obviously.”
The two players stood up stiffly. Only then did everyone realize: their height surpassed the normal male 290 by a head, their legs were like two bamboo poles, and their arms were two long tentacles, currently flailing wildly in the air.
The players scattered like birds and beasts, screaming and fleeing in all directions. Those two things locked onto 290, their long tentacles repeatedly stabbing into the steel floor, making it easy to imagine the effect they would have on a human body.
Shen Maomao also ran outwards, asking as she ran, “What kind of new monster species is this?!”
Why hadn’t they found it in the computer files?!
“Not a new species.” Seeing they had no intention of attacking others, Lou Jingmo stopped, casually pulling Shen Maomao back. “Look closely at their faces!”
Shen Maomao focused her gaze and finally noticed that their faces seemed slightly larger than the original person’s head. The excess part was wrinkled and pasted onto their necks and foreheads, looking like they had applied an oversized face mask.
“Holy crap!” She understood. “These are those faces!”
Lou Jingmo stuffed the elevator card into her hand. “Go! Open the elevator door. I’ll figure out a way to save him.”
“Be careful then!” Shen Maomao gripped the card tightly and dashed towards the elevator door.
“You too.” Lou Jingmo turned and joined the fray, fighting the monsters alongside 290.
With a beep, the elevator doors slowly opened. The space inside was large, more than enough for twenty people.
Players who had been watching from nearby instantly rushed past Shen Maomao like madmen and charged into the elevator.
Shen Maomao thought, This is bad, and immediately darted into the elevator, guarding the button panel like her life depended on it, preventing anyone from crossing the line.
282 said urgently, “Can’t you let us go first, then go out and wait for them yourself?!”
Shen Maomao stood expressionlessly guarding the elevator door, preventing it from closing, and said coldly, “You wouldn’t try to sabotage the elevator?”
A man nearby had a flicker of unnaturalness on his face for an instant before quickly returning to normal, which Shen Maomao saw clearly.
282 didn’t see it and was still trying to persuade her. “Why would we do something so thankless?”
Shen Maomao scanned the surroundings. “You wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t either.”
282 paused, turned to look at the other players behind him, then fell silent and turned to face the elevator wall, clearly choosing to give up.
A man nearby muttered under his breath, “Why waste so much breath talking to her? It’d be easier to just grab it.”
As he spoke, he abruptly shot out both hands, one to grab Shen Maomao’s wrist, the other to press the close-door button.
Shen Maomao sneered, flipped her wrist, grabbed the man’s hand reaching for the button, and applied force…
Crack! A crisp sound echoed. The man howled in pain, his wrist hanging limply—it was directly dislocated.
Shen Maomao glared imperiously at the crowd and asked coldly, “Anyone else have objections?”
Silence fell in the elevator. No one dared mention leaving first again.
The man clutched his wrist, his face covered in cold sweat, and shot Shen Maomao a venomous look.
Shen Maomao stared anxiously outside, in no mood to care how much he hated her.
Lou Jingmo and 290 were no match for these two monsters and were being chased all over the place. Knowing the creatures feared fire, both tried their best to use items that could create flames, but the monsters agilely dodged them all.
During this time, several more people squeezed into the elevator by hugging the walls. Soon, the elevator was packed full. Shen Maomao urged anxiously, “Lou-jie! Stop tangling with them! Get on the elevator!”
Lou Jingmo responded with an affirmation, grabbed 290 by the collar, tossed him into the elevator, and threw a handful of small explosive balls behind her.
290 landed heavily in front of the elevator door. Before he could get up, Shen Maomao bent down and hauled him inside.
Lou Jingmo ran closely behind towards the elevator. Shen Maomao quickly stepped aside to make room for her.
Lou Jingmo flashed into the elevator. The items were triggered by the two monsters, exploding against the metal wall. Seeing their prey had all escaped, they let out unwilling roars, their tentacles rapidly shooting towards the elevator.
The man with the dislocated wrist yelled, “Close the door! Quick!!”
Shen Maomao immediately pressed the close-door button. Lou Jingmo also gripped her dagger, ready to block this attack.
A loud shout came from the distance: “Wait! Wait for me!”
Shen Maomao’s hand, reaching out, paused.
The man roared angrily, “Do you want all of us to die with him?!”
Shen Maomao pressed the close-door button decisively, saying almost cruelly, “You’re overthinking it.”
She could distinguish between close and distant relationships. Lou Jingmo was still guarding the door. She could risk her own life, but she would never gamble with Lou Jingmo’s life. Her bottom line wasn’t herself, but Lou Jingmo.
Shen Maomao held up the elevator card and looked at Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie?!”
Lou Jingmo understood her meaning almost instantly and said concisely, “Throw it!”
Shen Maomao immediately threw the elevator card out through the not-yet-fully-closed elevator doors.
The elevator doors slowly slid shut. The two monsters, for reasons unknown, suddenly changed targets, simultaneously thrusting their tentacles towards the man running frantically towards them.
Two blood-stained tentacles emerged from the man’s back. The elevator doors closed completely. The last thing reflected in their eyes was blood splattering across the entire wall.
The elevator ascended smoothly.
Everyone inside collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
290 climbed up from the floor, patted the dust off his clothes, and said with lingering fear, “I really don’t know where I managed to provoke them.”
A woman nearby said, “Why did you throw the elevator card away! What if we need it later?”
Lou Jingmo looked at the elevator doors reflecting their images and said coldly, “We found the elevator card.”
The implication being: how she handled it was none of your damn business.
The woman pressed her lips together and said no more.
There were now ten people in the elevator, all players, both men and women.
The rest were either dead or hadn’t managed to reach the elevator in time.
Shen Maomao considered that she had done everything she could1, leaving the door card for those who hadn’t made it. Whether the card would be lost, or whether they had the ability to reach the elevator, was not something she had the spare energy to contemplate.
290 couldn’t help but remark, “So this is the Phase Two form written about in the research report. But I just don’t know if it attached itself to a human face, or if it’s detaching from a face—”
Shen Maomao personally leaned towards the first option, though she didn’t hope for a chance to verify it.
Accompanied by a creak, the elevator came to a steady halt. Simultaneously, the elevator doors slowly opened to both sides.
Everyone in the elevator prepared their defenses. Those with low combat power wished they could sharpen their heads to squeeze into the very back of the crowd2.
An icy aura swept in. A metal corridor, identical to the one on the fourth floor, appeared before them.
And directly in front of the elevator, a huge, black monster lay sprawled on its back at the entrance, blocking their entire path.
A collective gasp echoed in the elevator.
290 pulled a small bottle from his bulging pocket and gestured with it towards the crowd in the elevator.
Lou Jingmo also symbolically tossed a small bottle—kept in her pocket for appearances3—to Shen Maomao.
Shen Maomao said quietly, “Let’s use my bottle first. She and I move together, so using one bottle isn’t a big deal.”
290 was happy to conserve resources and immediately put his bottle back. “Well, thank you very much then.”
“Don’t mention it.” Shen Maomao stuffed the bottle into his hand. “Sprinkle it.”
290: “? You want me to do it??”
Shen Maomao said, “I’m a fragile girl. How could I dare face a monster directly?”
The man clutching his wrist: “…?” Who’s fragile??
The author has something to say:
Let’s run a poll in the group! Little Ancestor or Chen Meihan, pick one. I’ll write based directly on the poll results _(:з」∠)_
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