Chapter 140: “Wujiu, we can’t get in, but you can!”
After hearing all this, [Yang Erci] remained silent for a while.
But Zhong Yirou felt more and more uneasy, “If that’s really the case, then why did that masked person know so precisely that the email would be sent to Yang Erci, and happen to find us?”
This seemed too coincidental. After all, the email was sent to the “wrong” recipient.
“That’s why I always believed that this masked person also has the ability to rewind time,” An Wujiu said calmly, but his words shocked everyone else, “If not, it would be impossible for him to intercept you so accurately while everyone was fleeing, and then rush to your home to cover the rear. Even if there is more than one masked person, they couldn’t be so well-prepared.”
“You’re right,” [Yang Erci] lowered her eyes, “So, the Yang Erci in your world actually died unjustly. That email should have been sent to me.”
“You can’t say that,” Zhong Yirou shook her head, “As Wujiu said, if that masked person really can rewind time, then he has experienced this scenario many times, so he is experienced. He knows whose hands the email will end up in. This is something we can’t avoid.”
What she said reminded An Wujiu.
If the masked person really has the ability to rewind time like him, his starting point seems to be much earlier than his own. After all, the first time he experienced a rewind, that person seemed very experienced.
He was indeed a troublesome opponent.
“Now we have two tasks,” Shen Ti held up two fingers, “First, find the mastermind behind this, which must be the ultimate goal of all the games. The second is probably to deal with this masked person.”
Wu You heard what he said and expressed his own opinion.
[You’ve got the priorities reversed.]
“I like it that way,” Shen Ti said deliberately.
In fact, Shen Ti really thought so.
His intuition told him that things wouldn’t develop so straightforwardly; for example, the masked person being Sha Wen’s minion, a weapon thrown out, and solving him would allow further attack on the CEO of Sha Wen.
He didn’t think it would be that simple.
Along the way were once bustling streets, high-rise buildings like steel jungles, but now they were utterly ruined, with traces of burning and destruction everywhere. The past prosperity had vanished, leaving only a mess and long-lasting silence.
Clearly, the area they were driving through had already been swept by the pollutants. Even if they wanted to collect some time, it would be difficult to find any.
But An Wujiu still noticed a dead pollutant by the roadside, its bloated and massive body still wearing tattered pieces of a police uniform.
At this moment, he suddenly felt a bit of despair, even though he knew very well that under the so-called power of “God,” even those with supreme authority were just ants that could be crushed at any time.
They all were.
“It feels like there aren’t many living people left,” Shen Ti said, looking out the window. One building after another passed by, with bloodstains and broken limbs left uncleaned on the chaotic streets, and the smell of decay permeated the entire city.
They, this city, or rather the whole earth, was like a crushed can.
Bloody and mangled.
“Many have relocated,” [Yang Erci] said.
An Wujiu was a bit puzzled, “Relocated to where?”
“To a concentration area, a gathering and mutual aid effort spontaneously organized by people from F City,” [Yang Erci] explained, “To be precise, it’s the upper-class people of F City. They pooled money to buy a giant airship similar to Noah’s Ark, planning to leave here and go to an island, which is said to be sparsely populated and one of the few places not overdeveloped.”
Shen Ti laughed, “Do they think they can avoid participating in the game by going to an island? They underestimate the altar too much. And by upper-class people, do you mean the airship only carries the wealthy?”
“Of course,” Zhong Yirou sighed, “Damn capitalism.”
“That’s the arrogance of the upper class,” [Yang Erci] said quietly, looking out the window, “In their eyes, people at the bottom are groups that can’t create value. Therefore, their genes are worthless. If they’re not excellent, there’s no need for them to survive.”
An Wujiu had no interest in this classist perspective. He himself was a product created by those so-called “upper-class people,” valuable but without freedom.
He turned the car right, “They invited you too, didn’t they?”
[Yang Erci] did not deny it, “A former colleague asked me if I wanted to go, but you can imagine, those high and mighty people would never allow me to bring a pollutant onto the airship. It’s like they prepared a perfect Noah’s Ark, and I would board it to punch a big hole in the ship.”
“I know better. I also know that these people are the most useless in the apocalypse,” [Yang Erci] smiled, “They only fight amongst themselves, and no one listens to anyone else’s command.”
Actually, everyone is the same. If it weren’t for encountering An Wujiu and Shen Ti, [Yang Erci] would never have had companions.
This method of converting pollutants into combat power, probably only these two people in front of her could achieve it.
Zhong Yirou thought for a moment, “Actually, your colleague is quite nice, wanting to take you along.”
“Is that so?” [Yang Erci] smiled, “But I don’t get along with him. His private life is a mess, and he has no bottom line for doing things, though he is loyal. But he can’t take care of me; he has a paralyzed sister…”
Sister?
An Wujiu quickly asked, “The colleague you’re talking about, could it be Gabriel?”
“Yes,” [Yang Erci] was a bit surprised, “Gabriel Silva, do you actually know him?”
Shen Ti interjected, “I told you we’re friends.”
At this moment, An Wujiu was a bit worried, “How did he contact you? Aren’t all signals cut off?”
[Yang Erci] said, “I ran into him when I was preparing to come to L City. He was just going to pick up his sister at the Sacred Heart Clinic. She had just been sent to the hospital a few days ago. We met, and he even invited me over.” She added, “He never told me he knew someone like you.”
“I got to know him through the Yang Erci of my world. He’s a good man and has helped me a lot.”
An Wujiu thought that the Gabriel in his world and the Gabriel that [Yang Erci] met must have been in different states at the beginning of the game because that Gabriel didn’t know him.
However, once pollutants start to gather and erupt on a large scale, the first thing they would all do is go to the hospital to pick up their hospitalized sister. This wouldn’t change.
With this information, he could find Gabriel in the next round. Gabriel had helped him so much, so he at least had to ensure his safety.
“We’re almost there.” [Yang Erci] pointed the way for him, “Drive up the mountain. It’s in the park at the top.”
Shen Ti leaned half his head out, looking out the car window. The view here was astonishingly good. If it weren’t so unsafe outside right now, this place, with its sea view and mountain backdrop, lush vegetation, and blue coast, would be a luxurious and artistic resort area.
The place where the rich worked was like this, but the poor only had the slums without sunlight.
“Will we be able to get in?” Zhong Yirou was worried about the security system here.
As a former researcher who once worked here, [Yang Erci] explained, “There’s only one security system. See that all-glass building? That’s the company’s building. The security system is only set up at the entrance. It’s said to be the world’s safest non-military defense system, so there’s only this one.”
It sounded a bit exaggerated, but for a multinational corporation that controlled the global biotech industry, this was standard.
After all, they were a den of demons that could bypass governments and use a large number of living human test subjects.
The development of technology and the progress of human society all originated from the wisdom of these top individuals.
But for a company like Sha Wen, their inflated wisdom was like a pair of overreaching hands, touching places they shouldn’t and couldn’t understand.
It was an unknown that could destroy the entire world.
They drove in, and there were almost no traces of pollutants here, so it still looked quite clean.
But when they arrived at this gigantic place, as beautiful and magnificent as an opera house, this facade of peace was finally shattered.
“The safest defense system…” Zhong Yirou was incredibly shocked at the sight before her. She might never see such a scene again in her life.
In front of the beautiful and transparent glass building, before the large doors, was a mound of corpses. Human bodies were mixed with the bizarre limbs and tentacles of the pollutants. Sharp mouthparts still twitched, as if they had nerve reactions.
The half-congealed mixture of foul-smelling mucus and blood enveloped everything. The remnants of agony, death, and despair. This liquid, almost covering the entire ground, still slowly flowed outward, extremely slowly, like countless hands seeking help, but it was too late, far too late.
Shen Ti said nothing, got out of the car with the others, and walked a few steps forward alone. He picked up a severed hand from the ground and threw it towards the open door.
As soon as the hand traced an arc and landed at the entrance, the laser grid inside the door was activated. Sharp alarms sounded, and in an instant, the hand was sliced into countless pieces, scattering over the mound.
“No wonder they dare to boast.” Shen Ti pretended to shiver, acting scared, and hugged himself, leaning close to An Wujiu.
[Yang Erci] speculated, “I guess too many people, including pollutants, tried to break in here, so the security system automatically escalated to a high-level danger status, resulting in such extreme security measures.”
Zhong Yirou stared at the mound of countless limbs, gradually losing her ability to think. She hallucinated, seeing a hand move and stand up.
All the fragments moved!
Even the foul stench of blood in the air gradually took on a strange sweetness.
It was sweet, a sickly sweet smell…
“Hey!”
Zhong Yirou was shaken hard and snapped back to reality, staring blankly at Shen Ti, who was holding onto her.
An Wujiu noticed that her sanity value had dropped again; now there was only a quarter left, which was very dangerous.
“Yirou, don’t look at those things,” he said to Zhong Yirou, “Your mental state is unstable right now. Try to think of things that can strengthen your resolve.”
Zhong Yirou nodded, lowering her eyes to avoid looking at those things.
She thought of Yang Erci and the possibility of seeing her again. This time, she wouldn’t let her leave.
[What now? Do we still go in?]
Wu You also saw the pile of nauseating things in front of him.
“He must be in there,” An Wujiu looked up at the glass building’s towering top, “Sha Wen’s CEO, Russell.”
Zhong Yirou suddenly remembered something and grabbed An Wujiu’s sleeve, “Oh right, Wujiu, we can’t get in, but you can!”
“Me?” An Wujiu didn’t understand what she meant.
“Yes.” Zhong Yirou pointed to the chip behind his ear and said, “I talked to Erci about your chip. The owner of this chip seems to be someone from Sha Wen, a researcher who worked with her!”
An Wujiu retrieved the chip’s information and compared it with [Yang Erci].
[Yang Erci] confirmed, “Yes, he seemed to have suddenly died two months ago. Sha Wen’s permission cleanup is done every three months, deleting all permissions of former employees.” She calculated and told An Wujiu, “You can still use it.”
“Isn’t it a bit risky?” Shen Ti grabbed his wrist and said, “What if something goes wrong? You could lose your life.”
An Wujiu reversed his grip on Shen Ti’s hand, squeezing it tightly, and looked at him, “I have to try.”
Shen Ti knew he couldn’t stop him and had nothing more to say.
If stubbornness were a contest, An Wujiu would surely win the world championship.
Without heeding the others’ hesitation, An Wujiu walked alone toward the grand door and the mound of corpses.
Even if he couldn’t succeed, he could try again. He was confident he could do it.
If he failed this time, at least he could react faster and make better decisions next time, just like that masked man. His experience would always help him achieve better results.
An Wujiu believed in himself and his companions.
Thus, stepping through the slime and limbs, he walked to the door and paused.
Finally, he closed his eyes and took a step forward.
The extreme situation he imagined didn’t happen. Instead, he heard Zhong Yirou cheering behind him.
“Did it work? He really has access!”
An Wujiu looked up at the scanner at the top of the door.
[Abraham Cruz, Biology Department Researcher.]
[Welcome back!]
It really scanned through.
An Wujiu entered and turned back to his companions.
“I’m in. What about you?”
“Didn’t Wu You just say he could climb rooftops?” Zhong Yirou thought of a solution, “Let’s see if we can break in from the top.”
She waved to An Wujiu, “Don’t worry about us. Go find who you need to find, or first get to a safe place and gather as much information as possible!”
She was right.
Time was limited. Since they had reached the core of the Altar, they had to gain something.
“Be careful.”
An Wujiu checked his wristwatch.
There were less than four hours left.
There probably weren’t any pollutants inside, so increasing his time was unlikely.
An Wujiu ran to the elevator, taking one last look at Shen Ti through the glass.
Shen Ti smiled at him, tilting his head.
The door opened, and An Wujiu entered the elevator. The floor information showed that the CEO’s office was on the 47th floor, but his chip only granted access to the 46th-floor lab. He had to take the stairs from the 46th floor.
So far, in this loop, he hadn’t encountered many people, including other players from the game. Their fates were unknown.
And his sister, when they went back, they found she had suddenly disappeared, not kidnapped. Now that he thought about it, it was probably because the game had already started and Lilith had been transported elsewhere.
He didn’t know if he could find her and protect her in this loop.
An Wujiu felt uneasy.
The elevator moved faster than he expected.
[46th floor reached.]
The door opened slowly, and An Wujiu’s pupils dilated instantly.
The persistent masked man appeared in front of him, holding a gun.
The gun was pointed at Lilith’s temple, who was held by him with one hand.
In the second they made eye contact, the masked man laughed softly.
Right before An Wujiu’s eyes, he pulled the trigger.
