The Hand of Confession – Chapter 180

Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab

White Light

An exit?

What was a duo became a trio. 300 refused to walk in front, demanding the three walk side-by-side—probably afraid we’d attack her from behind?

That was completely unnecessary worry. We were still counting on her to lead the way to the elevator; why would we attack her for no reason? Did she think finding the elevator was too easy?

The entire third floor seemed to have broadcast speakers, and beneath them gathered rows upon rows of creaking, scraping monsters. Crackle— A speaker was pierced by sharp claws, spitting out two streams of sparks. The monsters below scattered with a whoosh, dispersing into different monster piles to continue their struggle against other broadcasts.

The music effectively masked the group’s footsteps. 300 walked quickly, and the three of them passed through the corridor like the wind, attracting no attention from any monsters.

Shortly after, rounding a corner, the two saw an elevator that was still operational.

Unfortunately—directly above that elevator was a broadcast speaker, and a small cluster of Smiley Face Monsters had already gathered beneath it.

300 complained, “Great, now what do we do with so many monsters? I really don’t know what you two were thinking…”

Shen Maomao cut her off, unable to stand it anymore, “Just shut your mouth!”

So much for breezing through all those corridors. Now that they’d reached the destination, she could complain without restraint about how the earlier convenience was causing problems now.

300 jumped, startled, and whispered, “Keep your voice down! What if you attract them?!”

Shen Maomao was speechless. “As long as you don’t talk, nothing will happen.”

300 glared at her.

Shen Maomao decided to just pretend she didn’t exist and turned to Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie, what should we do?”

“Take this.” Lou Jingmo tossed her a water gun, then took two steps forward. “Wait.”

300 piped up again, “What are you planning? I think I have the right to know what you’re going to do next. I need to be responsible for my own safety, and you need to be responsible for my safety too… Where did you even find this water gun? What does it do? Can you get one for me? Say something! Are you feeling guilty? Are you planning to use me as bait?”

Shen Maomao: “…”

Some people were truly strange. They hadn’t done anything truly evil, but they were just impossible to like. 300 was a prime example of this type.

Still, Shen Maomao suppressed her impatience and roughly explained the situation: “This stuff dissolves on contact with water. We’ll use water for defense and figure out a way to clear the area around the elevator.”

300 might be annoying, but valuing her life wasn’t exactly a crime. Overall, wasn’t she just an ordinary player who couldn’t read the room and had something wrong with her head?

—Anyway, her behavior was still within Shen Maomao’s tolerance range for now.

Shen Maomao thought for a moment, then added, “Don’t worry, I can protect you.”

300 was completely unconvinced. “Can you give me a weapon? Can the two of you share one? I can only feel safe with a weapon in my hands.”

Shen Maomao bared her teeth at her. “What a coincidence! I also need a weapon in my hands to feel safe.”

“Cut the crap.” Lou Jingmo drew a circle on the ground with water around the three of them, keeping them inside, then produced a small throwing knife. Aiming at the speaker above, she flicked her wrist, and the knife flew out like an arrow loosed from a bowstring—swoosh—hitting bulls-eye.

The broadcast noise stopped abruptly. The monsters piled beneath froze for an instant, then scattered like headless flies. A few ran towards the spot where the group was hiding.

Shen Maomao gripped her water gun tightly. 300 forcibly squeezed between the two, picking a very safe position.

A large wave of black surged forward rapidly. The smaller ones instinctively skirted the water marks and ran past like lightning; the larger ones, however, set their sights on Shen Maomao’s group.

The first monster made its move, launching itself several yards¹ into the air with a push from its hind legs, preparing to show the trio what it meant to have Mount Tai crashing down².

A huge shadow fell over them. Lou Jingmo pulled the water gun trigger, spraying out a large stream of clear water. The monster, with no leverage in mid-air, twisted its body and actually dodged completely, not getting a single drop on it.

Beside her, Shen Maomao quickly followed up, landing a stream of water squarely on the monster’s red eye. The monster let out a piercing shriek and began to melt like ice cream, dripping onto the ground (drip, drip) and turning into a puddle of black, viscous liquid.

The other monsters, eager to attack, swarmed forward, trampling over their comrade’s remains, screeching and chittering (jiji zhizhi).

Shen Maomao felt nauseous and continued spraying water at the monster pile.

The monsters shrieked and scattered, fleeing in all directions. On the patch of ground they vacated, the black puddle from before was already gone.

Lou Jingmo suddenly grabbed her hand. “Don’t attack proactively. Move forward. Defend as we advance!”

Shen Maomao obediently lowered her water gun. The two flanked 300, pushing forward with difficulty through the monster swarm.

Most monsters weren’t interested in them, having already joined the main forces under other broadcasts. Only a sparse seven or eight monsters remained around the group. With more monsters continuously getting hit, by the time they finally struggled to the front of the elevator, only two were left.

Some black patches remained on the ground—corpses absorbed by other Smileys. Besides those, there were some glistening water stains, announcing that Shen Maomao’s water gun was out of ammo.

The two remaining monsters were several times larger than the previous ones, as if they’d eaten Jinkela³, and their speed and power had increased more than a little.

300 urged anxiously, “The elevator card? Quick, give it to me! I’ll open the door!”

Lou Jingmo, seemingly without any guard against her, directly handed her the elevator card.

300 swiped the card. The elevator doors slid open, revealing an empty car.

The woman darted into the elevator, then turned and waved at the two. “Hurry up and get in!!”

Lou Jingmo used her water gun to force back a lunging monster. “We have to wait for people.”

The woman stomped her foot anxiously. “At a time like this, why do you still care about anyone else’s life or death?”

Shen Maomao said, “Throw us the elevator card. You go first!”

The woman hesitated for a few seconds, then suddenly wasn’t in such a hurry anymore. She said, “No, I can’t abandon you!”

Shen Maomao was suspicious, finding it hard to believe this woman would be so kind-hearted.

Keeping her eyes fixed on the two Smiley Monsters, she said, “You’re completely useless here anyway. Better to just go up quickly and stop holding us back.”

For 300 to have escaped the pincer attack of Little Ancestor and the spider monster, she must have had some fighting ability. But she hadn’t lifted a finger from start to finish, only hiding behind the two of them, and had even nearly tripped Shen Maomao once.

Truly useless.

300 almost exploded with anger, sitting in the corner of the elevator and muttering incessantly, “How could you say that about me? What kind of person are you? Blah blah blah blah…”

Shen Maomao felt a headache coming on. If her hands weren’t full, she really wanted to tape 300’s mouth shut, or just knock her out.

The two monsters had lost all patience. They reared up high, emitting low growls from their mouths, clearly about to attack directly.

Just then, Shen Maomao’s eyes widened in surprise—behind the monsters, 290 appeared, holding a large bottle of water. Tiptoeing, he jogged lightly, silently arriving behind the monsters.

“You— Mmph mmph…” 300 saw 290 too and was about to say something when Shen Maomao swiftly turned, rushed into the elevator, and clamped a hand over her mouth.

The pressure on Lou Jingmo instantly multiplied. But by now, 290 had reached the monsters’ backs. He raised his hand and splashed the water forward. It was like throwing a whole bottle of sulfuric acid; it began corroding the Smiley Monsters’ skin.

In an instant, the two monsters melted into two pools of black water. 290 wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “Are you guys okay?”

Shen Maomao released 300, disgustedly wiping the saliva off on 300’s clothes. “We’re fine.”

290 said, “The intel was incomplete. These Smiley Monsters attack with their feet. Anyone hit gets their flesh and blood sucked dry instantly, leaving only skin and bones… Anyway, we should leave quickly.”

Lou Jingmo glanced at her watch. “Ten minutes left. Are you alone?”

290 called out to the other side, “Hurry over! It’s clear here!”

Two or three figures ran out from the corridor corner—it was 282 and his two teammates.

So they had been nearby all along, just hadn’t dared to come out.

290 said, “There were two others originally, but they were ambushed by Smiley Monsters. We couldn’t save them.”

Shen Maomao noticed that as he spoke, 282, standing beside him, trembled violently three times, likely recalling the scene.

The group entered the elevator. Lou Jingmo held the door open, preventing it from closing, keeping track of the time on her watch.

More people staggered over from the distance. Time ticked by, second by second. Everyone already inside the elevator car was silently praying for time to pass faster, faster…

Finally, the time Shen Maomao had agreed upon with them arrived. The last remaining person never made it.

Excluding the two confirmed dead by 290, who knew if the remaining one had died in a monster’s mouth or had found a card and already left? But none of that had anything to a_do with them anymore.

Lou Jingmo closed the elevator doors. The elevator slowly ascended, carrying them away from the third floor.

The atmosphere in the elevator was very silent. Shen Maomao leaned against the cold elevator wall, emptying her mind.

290 started chatting with 300, asking how she got to the third floor.

300 inexplicably seemed to take a liking to him, told him a bit about her experiences, then glanced furtively at Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao and began subtly badmouthing them.

Shen Maomao: “…” Hasn’t she been beaten enough?

Lou Jingmo glanced at her coolly but said nothing.

300 shrank back behind 290, saying timidly, “What are you doing? What I said was clearly the truth!”

290 rubbed his forehead, looking troubled.

Fortunately, the elevator arrived. He breathed a sigh of relief and interrupted 300, “Shh—quiet down. Watch the doors!”

The doors slowly opened. A sliver of white light pierced through, stunning everyone.

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