In the eerie stillness, her fear was abruptly extinguished, leaving her frozen, staring dumbstruck at that pole.
Why did that look so familiar?
The next second, Chu Chenli released his grip, abruptly pulling Nurse Peng to the side.
The three flower-mouthed vines, seemingly coming back to their senses, swung down with the IV stand, smashing into the ground. Then they began to roll back and forth, and the slender tendrils surged, like waves of wind-blown wheat— a revolting mockery.
They appeared to be in great pain; the tendrils that had extended towards the door recoiled in agony. The remaining flower-mouths that hadn’t been attacked also opened wide in suffering, resembling the laboured breaths of a human struggling for air.
Chu Chenli pulled Nurse Peng. “Hurry, let’s go!”
Nurse Peng, now awakened from her stupor, staggered on her sore legs, following Chu Chenli toward the stairwell.
The corridor was long and dark, but strangely enough, they could see things around them quite clearly. This included Chu Chenli’s face.
It was at this moment that Nurse Peng noticed Chu Chenli’s unusually pale complexion.
She stiffened, suddenly recalling the words Dr Du had admonished her with not long ago.
Chu Chenli should still be lying on the sickbed.
Because she didn’t check his medicine.
When Dr Du scolded her, she felt deeply wronged, even harbouring some resentment towards Chu Chenli. She hadn’t particularly liked him before, but she hadn’t joined in any malicious talk wishing for his death either. It was just negligence at work— carelessness and laziness that resulted in her failing to promptly check the list of special medicines in the pharmacy.
Who would have thought that someone would actually take direct action to harm Chu Chenli?
In the end, the blame was pinned on her.
Resentment stirred in her heart. Instead of leaving work at the usual time, she had to stay in the medical department to investigate the surveillance records, identify everyone who entered the pharmacy at that time, and pass the suspect list to Dr Du.
Somehow, she became the victim.
Because of these two hours of overtime, she didn’t have time to escape and was trapped by that monster.
In the end, at the peak of her desperation and helplessness. It was this “troublemaker” who saved her. Whatever resentment Nurse Peng had before now turned into gratitude and guilt.
Especially when she noticed the expression on Chu Chenli’s face, she felt so ashamed that she could hardly lift her head.
She was a bit worried and hesitantly asked, “Are you okay?”
Chu Chenli glanced at her, pursed his lips without speaking, just gesturing with his eyes for her to keep up, while accelerating his pace around the corner.
Nurse Peng understood— he was not okay.
To be precise, the situation was really bad.
An ordinary person would have difficulty walking smoothly after a long sleep.
For Chu Chenli, who was injured and drugged, surviving was already a miracle.
With his own safety in jeopardy, he still wanted to save her.
The more Nurse Peng thought about it, the more she felt self-reproach.
“I’m sorry…” she couldn’t help but mumble.
Chu Chenli paid no attention to her, and his brow gradually furrowed.
On the other side of the corner, where the stairs should have been, was a narrow and dim corridor, with no end in sight at a glance.
But there was only this path in front of them; they could only follow it. At the next turn, there was an identical corridor to the last.
It seemed that they were in a labyrinth in the shape of the Chinese character “回” .
At first, there were ward doors on both sides of the corridor. Later, they turned into blurry square shadows, and eventually disappeared altogether, leaving only the dark yellow walls, seemingly endlessly extending into the darkness.
They were stuck, tapped in an endless maze.
Nurse Peng stopped talking, and she had to exert all her strength to keep up with Chu Chenli’s pace.
Fortunately, Chu Chenli did not abandon her. Whenever she lost strength and subconsciously slowed down, putting a certain distance between them, he would proactively stop and wait for her.
Nurse Peng gritted her teeth and silently quickened her pace. She didn’t know how long they had to walk, but the black shadow behind them followed them consistently. She had the constant fear that if they stopped, a giant mouth would pop up and swallow them whole.
They could only continue moving forward.
“Eleven…” Chu Chenli suddenly spoke, and his steps came to a halt.
They passed the eleventh corner and finally saw the shadow of the original corridor leading to the stairwell.
Nurse Peng struggled to recognise the place. It looked nothing like before: instead, the platform had widened and lengthened, with the end of the stairs on both sides swallowed by darkness, as if abruptly hanging over a cliff.
Small spiders crawled out from all directions in the darkness, converging towards the large spider in the centre of the platform.
At first glance, the large spider was only half a person tall.
But it opened its mouth, and small spiders continuously crawled in, causing the large spider’s body to inflate like a blown-up balloon.
In almost the blink of an eye, it reached the height of one’s shoulder.
Six dark yellow eyes locked onto Chu Chenli, barely disguised hunger in each iris.
It didn’t move, the two people at the corner doing the same.
BarrÃng where they stood, every inch of the floor was crawling with small spiders.
Nurse Peng was trembling with fear, but the desire for survival still prevailed. Their only hope was now Ye Lanzhou.
“Commander Ye…” Nurse Peng murmured to herself, looking up at the side of Chu Chenli’s face.
Suddenly, she remembered something, anticipation taking over her expression. “Commander Ye will definitely come to rescue us! He cares so much about you, he will definitely come save you!”
In the past ten years, he had persisted through tremendous pressure to protect Chu Chenli, displaying the significance he held.
There was no reason for Commander Ye Lanzhou not to come to their rescue in the face of danger within the base.
As long as they hold on a bit longer—
“Once Commander Ye arrives, everything will be fine,” Nurse Peng, who practically grew up hearing talk about Ye Lanzhou, was particularly convinced of his abilities.
“He’s dealt with so many different species of mutants— this mere spider will definitely be a piece of cake for him!”
She was attempting to comfort not just Chu Chenli but herself too.
Chu Chenli could hardly speak at this point, and she didn’t expect him to have any strength left for a fight. He was unarmed, so what could he possibly do?
All they could do was pray for rescue to arrive soon.
Chu Chenli glanced at her, wanting to sigh.
Nurse Peng’s level of optimism might be…just a bit too high.
There were at least two mutants in the building. The large spider was aggressive, with strong regenerative abilities. If he didnt lose control of his ability, he could easily kill it with just a raise of his hand. Of course, Ye Lanzhou could also do the same.
The real trouble was the other one.
Attached to the building, it transformed the surroundings into an illusion, trapping them inside and consuming them for its sustenance.
Currently, its abilities are still somewhat weak, as it’s only able to create a maze.
But it had also formed a symbiotic relationship with the large spider. That was inconvenient. It told him the solution wasn’t as simple as killing the spider directly.
At the very least, they needed to reduce this floor to ashes.
He could just blow the whole building up. He hesitated. He couldn’t. After all, there were other people outside, and an out-of-control ability would almost certainly cause collateral damage, possibly even accidental casualties.
He quickly abandoned this idea.
But when it came to how to escape, the first face that flashed in his mind was Xiao Mu’s— the expert and natural enemy of awakened mutants with his abilities.
But currently, he didn’t know where he was.
If he was too far away, even Xiao Mu may be powerless.
This was not a world in the infinite flow game.
Next was Xiao Bai.
Unfortunately, Xiao Bai’s abilities seemed to have only awakened not long ago, and he couldn’t even control the activation of it, let alone use it to deal with these monsters.
The last person that Chu Chenli thought of was Ye Lanzhou.
If it were him, Chu Chenli would undoubtedly risk his life to save Ye Lanzhou. If it were ten years ago, he would have been confident that Ye Lanzhou would definitely risk his life to save him.
But now…after ten years of separation, seeing Ye Lanzhou always rushing to side with others, Chu Chenli no longer had that confidence.
Yet, when it came to someone who could save them, besides Ye Lanzhou, there seemed to be no other option.
Nurse Peng said with full expectations, “Commander Ye will definitely come!”
Chu Chenli did not shatter her hope, sighed slightly, and responded somewhat tiredly, “Hopefully.”
He began to feel a wave of dizziness.
He unconsciously bit his lower lip to the point of blood.
After the adrenaline rush, the effect of the medicine just taken began to take effect. The restlessness he had been feeling slightly subsided, but his level of fatigue began to surge.
In his blurry vision, the giant spider had already become taller than a person.
Perhaps feeling more confident, the large spider, which had been pinned in place, began to swing its hairy claws.
A jet black vine silently extended from the darkness behind them, crawling over from their feet.
Chu Chenli felt a chill behind him and instinctively turned around, using the last bit of his strength to pull Nurse Peng away.
The flower-like mouth, twice the size of a human head, chomped down on air.
Afterward, he heard Nurse Peng’s scream and her tearful exclamation, “Chu Chenli! Don’t die! Commander Ye will definitely come to save us! Hold on!”
Chu Chenli wanted to say, “I’m not dead yet, stop shouting.”
But he couldn’t utter a word.
TL note: I’m very sorry! The chapters have been increasing in length which makes it harder to keep up. To ensure a more consistent release schedule, I have decided to split some of the longer chapters. Thank you for your understanding!!!
