Chapter 26: Trapped
“Where’s that?” Luo Yuan climbed up to the fourth floor and asked.
“It’s just further ahead, near the washroom along the walkway,” the pretty girl said while gasping. She could not wait to lie down on the floor.
They ran another 50-60 meters and came back to the entrance of the small meeting room. “Oh shit! We don’t have the key!” Huang Jiahui became a little disappointed.
"It’s fine." Luo Yuan checked the door and realized it was a sturdy wooden door, he then lowered one of his shoulders and slammed against it.
"Bang!"
The door burst open.
They entered the small meeting room which was about 60 square meters wide. It seemed like a small classroom instead. Luo Yuan took a look at the surroundings and quickly moved a few tables to block the entrance. The room immediately became darker.
Huang Jiahui switched on the lights and the exhaust fan and then leaned on the chair. “It’s so tiring. How come Sun Zhuren and Shen are not back yet? Qian Qian, since you were behind us, did you see them?" Only then did she realize that there were two people missing.
“They were at the back. Sun Zhuren was walking together with Shen Xiu, and they should be here soon,” Cao Qianqian said, trying his best to recall what he’d seen.
“Shen Xiu is good at bootlicking, huh. He even remembered to do so at this time," a guy wearing a lattice shirt said, frowning.
"Zhao Tianming, it’d better if you could say something good instead of being sarcastic. You can do the same if you want to excel,” Cao Qianqian could not take his sarcasm and scolded him.
“Just stop talking, don’t bring the insects here!” Huang Jiahui interrupted them.
Both of them quickly shut up and suddenly they heard footsteps. Cao Qianqian was happy and tried to move away the tables.
Luo Yuan stopped her and said, "Don’t move, this is not the footsteps of a human."
The sound was clear and regular like someone hitting the floor with a nail at a certain frequency. All of them became pale.
"Just stay here first, there is only one green bug outside, so we are relatively safe now." He thought they were going to stay there until the bugs left. However, something in his mind changed his plan.
“E-Level Mission triggered”
“Mission: Kill 10 Green Bugs!”
“Time length: 3 days. (Accept/Decline)”
The system sent him a mission. “Damn! Are you trying to kill me?” Luo Yuan cursed angrily, but he accepted the mission. He was just one step away from being ranked Level 5. He would get upgraded immediately once he completed the mission regardless of him gaining one or five bonus skill points. All his skills would get a big upgrade if he could kill all the bugs. Besides that, he could not just decline the mission as he was already in this situation. If he needed to fight anyway, might as well just accept the mission.
The footsteps were getting closer to them and nearer to the door. The sound suddenly stopped and everyone held their breath. Nobody dared to move, it almost felt like the air had frozen too.
The next second, there was a sharp and irritating sound coming from the door, it sounded like the bug was scratching at the door with a piece of metal. The other thing that made all of them collapse in fear was that another bug was also walking toward the meeting room.
“What now, Yuan?” Huang Jiahui asked Luo Yuan as she knew he was stronger than anyone else in the room and was also the only person carrying a weapon.
Luo Yuan thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t think the door can last long, so we need to kill the two bugs outside. Otherwise, we’ll be killed when they come in here.”
“Don’t open the door! You want us to die?” Zhao Tianming screamed out in a low voice. "They won’t be able to come in. We have many people here and there are many tables blocking the door.”
“Yes, you’re right! We should move the tables there, hurry up!” Cao Qianqian refused to take the risk and quickly moved some tables over. Zhao Tianming also helped her carry the tables.
Luo Yuan was conflicted as he needed to kill the green bugs and complete the mission and he knew there was a good opportunity to catch them one by one outside. However, he also knew the bugs would definitely rush into the room if the door was opened. He worried that they would then hurt or even kill the staff. He hesitated to sacrifice those innocent people just for the sake of completing the mission. Although he had changed compared to the time before animal mutation, but he was still not a cold-blooded person.
“Why are you still standing there? Come and move the table!” Zhao Tianming said as he saw Luo Yuan just standing there and doing nothing. Luo Yuan didn’t want to argue with him and proceeded to help them. “Keep holding a knife and pretending!” Zhao Tianming whispered when Luo Yuan walked toward them.
Nobody knew whether he’d said it intentionally as Cao Qianqian could hear it even though she was standing at the far end. Luo Yuan looked serious and stopped, he turned around and walked towards Zhao Tianming.
He wasn’t a calculative person or someone who couldn’t take any criticism. But the main problem was a person like Zhao Tianming could be a bomb that could exploded at any time when everyone was busy fighting together.
“What do you want to do?” Zhao Tianming asked fiercely.
“Xiao Luo, please calm down. Zhao Tianming, quickly apologize.” Huang Jiahui knew Luo Yuan had learned martial arts before and he could easily kill Zhao Tianming.
“Why should I apologize? I didn’t say anything wrong.” Zhao Tianming refused to apologize.
“Don’t worry, I just wanted to tell him a story,” Luo Yuan said, stopping Huang Jiahui. “I think you probably aren’t aware of this, but ten days ago there were around seven gangsters who challenged me like you just did. I used my knife to chop off their heads and hands. Yesterday, someone shot me from behind and I chopped off his hand and then poked through his stomach. Even cut his intestines. So do you want to try your luck?” Luo Yuan asked Zhao Tianming.
Luo Yuan’s coldness and his obvious killing intent made Zhao Tianming terrified. He felt as if his heart was squeezed tightly and his legs were numb. He didn’t even realize his shirt was wet. Zhao Tianming could actually br better off but Luo Yuan had intentionally scared him to teach him a lesson. He was just an ordinary person so the pressure was enough to make him collapse.
“Please remember, if you don’t have the guts to fight, then don’t challenge others. Otherwise, you will die terribly,” Luo Yuan said.
“You, you’ve killed people before?” Cao Qianqian immediately felt regret and didn’t dare to look at Luo Yuan. These people used to work in the government sector and had received sufficient food supply to live a stable life. Those things made their minds stay in the past even if they were aware of the current chaos. None of them really understood what was happening outside.
"There are so many people dying in the city, so who cares if they are being killed by mutated animals or by human beings?" Luo Yuan said, turning around to look at her.
Cao Qianqian was frightened and remained silent.
“I think that’s enough, don’t scare her anymore,” Huang Jiahui urged him. She then turned around and talked to Cao Qianqian. "He was trying to protect himself, and self-protection is legalized according to the Law."
If one had a crush on the other, the bad things they did would not affect their feelings. Huang Jiahui didn’t realize that she was in a good mood from the moment Luo Yuan came. After a while, there were more and more footsteps drawing closer to them until they could no longer identify how many more bugs were outside. The corridor was very noisy.
The strong wooden door was shaking repeatedly. A long, sharp, and semi-transparent leg slipped in through a newly made gap in the door. Cao Qianqian covered her mouth and the tears rolled down from her eyes.
Luo Yuan immediately pushed against the door as he saw the scene and the bug’s leg got stuck but did not break. The leg seemed to be quite strong.
“You, come and push the door.” Luo Yuan instructed Zhao Tianming. He was quite obedient after being threatened by Luo Yuan and quickly walked over and followed what he was told to do. Human beings were almost always the same, they liked to bully the nice people but were scared of the fierce ones. They didn’t listen when others talked nicely to them. However, they would be very obedient and follow all the instructions once their life was threatened.
Luo Yuan waited for Zhao Tianming to press on the door. He took out the Zhanmadao and sliced the bug’s leg. Surprisingly, the bug’s leg wasn’t broken even by the sharp knife. Luo Yuan only managed to cut half of the bug’s leg before feeling exhausted. This was way harder than the time when he bumped into the king of the rats. The green bug was triggered by the pain and produced some weird sound which sounded like boiling water. The insect crazily banged the door with a great force. Luo Yuan pulled back the knife and chopped at the same spot again. Finally, he managed to break off the leg!
He picked up the long green leg, which looked slightly different from the bug’s body. The leg was semi-transparent and shiny, and looked very strong. People might think it was an emerald if they didn’t know it had come from a bug. Luo Yuan didn’t use much strength and the sharp leg cut into the wooden table. It was easy imaginable that it would be very easy to use this to pierce into a human body.
Luo Yuan used his super power to identify the bug’s leg.
“Sharp leg from a green bug.”
“Function: Material.”
“Rarity: Light Blue”
“Weight: 50 grams”
“Comment: It’s very strong and sharp, perhaps you can make it into a weapon.”
“Light Blue!”
Although he has been prepared psychologically, Luo Yuan still couldn’t hold his temper when he confirmed the difficulty of this mission. A light blue creature again, and this time there were several of them. The light blue creature seemed to be less valuable now? Why were there so many required or an E- mission?
In fact, it was really not easy for him to complete this mission. It was similar to him killing ten king rats or ten big snakes. He felt hopeless when he thought about it. He pulled out the sharp leg and passed it to Huang Jiahui. “Hui, you hold this for self-protection.”
Huang Jiahui was a police officer before and her mental condition was stronger than that of an ordinary person. If it had to be justified with a number then her determination level should be around 10-11 which was stronger than what normal people possessed. This should make her braver than the other two during a critical moment.
Huang Jiahui took the sharp leg and said, “Thanks!”
Zhao Tianming and Cao Qianqian envied her but they didn’t say anything as both of them weren’t as close to Luo Yuan.
The green bug kept banging the door and producing the weird sound.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Zhao Tianming seemed to be giving up as he sweated a lot and said, “I’m exhausted, I don’t think I can’t continue. Cao Qianqian, please help.”
Cao Qianqian peeped at Luo Yuan and then looked at Huang Jiahui, only then did she walk over hesitantly.
“Wait!” Luo Yuan seemed to have an idea. “I don’t think this is a good way and it can’t be sustained for long. Jiahui and Qianqian please stay back, while Zhao Tianming, you don’t push too hard so that this bug can enter and I can kill it.”
“Luo Yuan, do you really think you can manage this?” Zhao Tianming wanted to reject but he did not dare to do so.
"Don’t worry, I don’t simply make a decision if I can’t handle it," Luo Yuan replied.
Zhao Tianming felt slightly relieved and told himself inside, “The worst thing that could happen is death, chill!” He slowly released the door and the gap begun to grow. A cable-like antenna came into the room first, and then the bug pushed against the door to make the gap bigger. It began to push the head in as well. It looked like a complicated robot, which freaked them out.
Zhao Tianming slowly boosted his courage and prepared to escape. At that moment, he suddenly saw a beam of light cross in front of him followed by very strange sound.
“Close the door!”
Zhao Tianming immediately slammed it shut when he heard Luo Yuan’s shout. He turned around and pressed on the table with his back. He slowly sat down on the floor and stayed stationary.