Chapter 30

Wen Ruyao said, “After we get out, don’t look back. Keep heading south.”

With less than ten minutes, just fleeing the bombing zone on foot would take some distance; there was no spare time to think. They had to make a decision immediately.

“You… you’re really going out?” The Thin Man watched Su Xing and Wen Ruyao stand up from the floor, readying themselves, and quickly glanced at the container door twice. Nervous, he said, “It’s crawling with those ants out there! The second that door opens—”

“You’re not thinking of just leaving on your own, are you?”

Scarface yanked hard on the chain tightly locked around his wrist a few more times. After a cold glare from Su Xing, a flicker of fear still lingered in his heart, but he gritted his teeth and yelled, “You two are free, but we’re still chained here! The moment that door opens, you’ll be the death of us!”

He wasn’t wrong. An ordinary person couldn’t break free from the chains on their own like Su Xing could. If they wanted to leave, they first had to break the door, and doing so would mean certain death for those left behind.

“Ladies, why not h-help us get this stuff off too?” The Thin Man put on a fawning face, looking at Su Xing with a smile.

Su Xing narrowed her eyes.

She was just an ordinary person. She generally couldn’t stand by and watch others die. Besides, they were currently trapped in the same enclosed space, their fates linked. She didn’t want her actions to drag others to their deaths.

It was just that the three men opposite were clearly not good people, all with criminal priors. Especially that rapist, who disgusted Su Xing to the extreme. She had absolutely no desire to help such a scumbag survive.

She pressed her lips together tightly, hesitating for a second.

“Clang—”

At that moment, Plain-Face, who had been sitting off to the side, unnoticed, suddenly stood up. He snapped open the chain binding him. Under the astonished gazes of Scarface and the Thin Man, he used his bare hands to help them break their chains one by one.

Seeing the scrawny Plain-Face suddenly possess such strength, Scarface stared in shock for a few seconds, looking him up and down. “How can you? Don’t tell me you also…”

Plain-Face shook his head woodenly. After freeing the two, he timidly stood behind them, his facial expression a complete reversal from when he was talking to Su Xing and the others earlier.

“You punk, really lucked out.”

With the restraints on his hands gone, Scarface narrowed his eyes, casting a jealous and envious glance at him. Then he looked over at Su Xing. Probably feeling emboldened now that he had a strong helper on his side, still holding a grudge over that knife wound, his gaze carried a hint of provocation.

But Su Xing had no time to deal with him. She just found the shift in Plain-Face’s demeanor slightly odd. But at this moment, she couldn’t spare attention for matters unimportant to her.

She and Wen Ruyao stood before the tightly closed container door. They pushed tentatively a few times. The door seemed to be bolted from the outside.

“Can you ram it open?” Wen Ruyao asked with a frown.

“Should… be possible.” Su Xing placed her palms against the door. Without a second thought, she slammed her shoulder into it. The thick metal door immediately began to shake violently, emitting booming thuds. Judging by the look of it, a few more hits and breaking through wouldn’t be difficult.

But after a few attempts, Su Xing stopped. Not because it hurt, but because she was startled to realize she was increasingly instinctively putting herself in the “meat shield” position, taking the brunt of the force and injury.

“By now, outside should already be surrounded by the ant swarm. Just ramming the door open like this, I’m afraid…” Su Xing listened to the sounds outside, hesitating.

Wen Ruyao pressed her lips together, pondering for a moment without speaking, only slowly closing her eyes.

The two stood silently in place, making no move for a long while. Scarface grew impatient. He yelled, “What are you two dawdling for? If we don’t go now, we’ll be blown to bits! Little lady—” He glanced at the shrinking Plain-Face and corrected himself: “Little Zhang, you go ram that door open!”

Plain-Face was utterly obedient to Scarface. He nodded, turned, and walked to the door, ready to charge it. Su Xing frowned and coldly raised an arm, blocking him.

“Hey, what the hell are you two trying to do?” Scarface’s face twisted into a snarl. But as soon as he finished speaking, his expression froze.

Those rustling, crawling sounds outside were actually starting to slowly recede! They could feel the ant swarm gradually moving away from them!

Su Xing looked up in surprise at the pitch-black ceiling. Her right shoulder suddenly felt heavy. Wen Ruyao, lips tightly bitten, face drained of color, leaned against her, breathing slightly ragged. “Quickly, go.”

“You…”

Su Xing was momentarily stunned. Then, with several loud “bang bang” impacts, Plain-Face suddenly delivered several ferocious kicks to the container door. Finally, with a “clang,” the door burst open.

The sky outside was already faintly brightening. Through the dim morning light, the group of people who had been locked inside the container for a day and a night saw the scene outside, and their hearts jolted.

The defensive “high wall” originally stacked from shipping containers nearby had already been impacted and collapsed. Massive containers were scattered haphazardly, blocking the road. On every visible surface of the ground lay an inky, pitch-black expanse. Half-human-length black ants were piled layer upon layer, flowing across the road surface like a black river. Staring closely, all one could see was a dense, writhing mass of grotesquely enlarged ant heads and bodies.

Su Xing, who had trypophobia, felt her empty stomach churn uncontrollably. She dared not look directly at this terrifying scene anymore. Strangely, however, the massive ant swarm outside, which blanketed the sky and covered the earth, seemingly coating every surface in sight, left an extremely narrow gap directly before them—just wide enough for a single person to pass through. Faintly, it seemed to lead towards the edge of the ant swarm.

“I can’t hold it for too long… you, hurry,” Wen Ruyao’s body had already gone limp. She could barely maintain balance leaning against Su Xing.

Su Xing glanced sideways. Without a second thought, she bent down and hoisted the clearly incapacitated Wen Ruyao onto her back. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted forward.

[Beep—Bootlick Value +1]

“…”

Su Xing found she hardly reacted to those two words anymore.

Behind them, Scarface and the others, still in a daze, also snapped to their senses and ran out after Su Xing.

Su Xing held her breath, forcing herself to look only at the buildings ahead, trying not to think about the massive ants packed densely by her feet. But her heart still pounded wildly.

Incredibly, the ants didn’t attack them.

Su Xing, carrying Wen Ruyao, sped ahead like an arrow loosed from a bow, followed by Scarface, then Plain-Face. Trailing at the back was the Thin Man, who, due to his weakness, couldn’t run fast enough.

Because the situation was so perilous, no one noticed behind them. After Wen Ruyao passed, this small escape path began to “close” again, and its closing speed grew faster and faster.

After running without knowing for how long, just as they were about to cross the ant swarm and reach the open main road ahead, the Thin Man, already gasping for breath, had fallen some distance behind Plain-Face. A moment’s inattention, and he was caught by the closing ant swarm behind him. Suddenly, he felt a piercing, excruciating pain in his ankle beneath his pant leg. A very large ant had fiercely bitten his trouser leg with its sharp, powerful mandibles.

“Ah! Save me—” The Thin Man watched the path beneath his feet become submerged by ants reaching up to his knees. His face instantly contorted in terror. His body lurched sideways, and he swung his arm, trying to grab the person ahead.

Plain-Face dodged forward. The Thin Man fell to the ground. Before he could utter another syllable, he was instantly engulfed by the pitch-black swarm, vanishing from sight.

“Damn, what happened?! Let’s go!” Scarface heard the commotion, glanced back, then turned his head and ran forward without looking back.

Plain-Face looked at the ground behind them. The area covered by the ant swarm formed a vague “human” shape, which was then dismembered within a second.

Beneath his wooden expression, a hint of discordant cold sharpness flickered in his eyes. He quickly turned and followed closely in Su Xing’s direction.

The early morning sky brightened rapidly. With her mind almost completely blank, Su Xing ran desperately until she reached the main road, which still retained its original appearance. She ran forward for quite a distance before slowing down.

“Huff… huff, I said, can we stop now?” Scarface, following behind her, had long been panting and out of breath. He yelled out.

Wen Ruyao gently patted Su Xing’s shoulder from behind. She looked down, staring at the black box phone in her other hand, and whispered in Su Xing’s ear, “Su Xing, stop now. We’ve already left the bombing zone.”

The phone in her hand wasn’t her previous ordinary one—that had long since run out of battery and died. What she held now was the special device Qin Mo had given her. She didn’t know what powered it, but after all these days, it could still be turned on.

The map displayed on it was precisely the vicinity of the stadium. And now, a red circle that wasn’t there before had appeared over this area.

Hearing her speak, Su Xing finally slowed to a halt.

“You can put me down now.”

“Ah? Oh.”

It was as if there was no weight on her back at all. Su Xing had almost forgotten she was carrying someone.

After helping Wen Ruyao down, she finally took in her surroundings.

The sky overhead was now fully bright. They stood in the middle of the road, but the scenery around them looked like the aftermath of a top-tier typhoon—buildings all around were in a chaotic, ruined state.

S City was a city with excellent greenery. Roadsides were planted with many thick, tall trees. But now, regardless of how thick the trunks were, they were all broken, roots and all, lying on the ground. Some were uprooted, some seemingly snapped right in the middle of the trunk, branches and leaves a mess. Abandoned cars on the road were also twisted in shape, windows smashed. Some car bodies were even riddled like honeycombs. Further away, roadside shops hadn’t been spared either, glass shattered into powder. Faintly, small clusters of giant ants that had broken away from the main swarm could be seen inside.

“Huff… finally stopped. Tired me to death…”

Scarface plopped down onto the asphalt, drenched in sweat. He panted for air, then narrowed his eyes. He noticed that besides himself, everyone else was neither red-faced nor out of breath, looking as if they hadn’t run such a long distance at all. This made him seem like the only weakling. He swallowed hard, cursing them as freaks inwardly, and pushed himself up with his hands. As soon as his hands pressed against the rough asphalt, the earth let out a rumble, shaking so hard he stumbled, his hands going numb.

In the distant sky above the stadium area, mushroom clouds began to rise. The bombing had started.

With one shockwave after another, the mist column closest to them—or perhaps it could no longer be called a mist column, because the mist that had shrouded its exterior had mostly dispersed, revealing its original interior appearance. They were dark brown tendrils, crisscrossing and intertwining like thick plant stems. Countless such strands twisted together, each one immensely huge, forming a colossal object reaching straight into the clouds.

Far away, a thing with wings seemed to fly out from within that giant pillar, passing through the pale blue sky, its direction exactly towards the stadium where the loud explosions were occurring.

“Son of a bitch! Now the military and the shelter are gone. This damn S City doesn’t have a single safe place left!” Scarface scrambled up from the main road, furious and exasperated.