Qiu Shi didn't know whether he could trust Zheng Ting. When Xing Bi asked him to go out, he chose to let Zheng Ting go out first.
If Zheng Ting was not trustworthy, Xing would at least be distracted when he was climbing out. At this critical moment, if Zheng Ting wanted to launch a surprise attack, delaying for even one minute would be fatal.
But he didn't expect that Xing Bi would directly stop Zheng Ting from leaving.
In other words, Xing Bi never believed Zheng Ting from the beginning.
Qiu Shi understood Xing Bi. He wanted to help his own kind as long as there was a glimmer of hope. He would also want to let go of those symbiotes in the nest who were willing to leave. He even did not give up on the super-communist Zheng Ting.
At this moment, in the last few minutes, he pointed his gun at Zheng Ting.
"Blow up that box." Xing Bi pointed a gun at Zheng Ting with one hand and threw a bomb to Bai Zhan with the other.
Bai Zhan took the thunder and walked to the box. The box was buckled. He raised his leg and stomped on the lid of the box, breaking the metal buckle.
When I opened the box, I saw rows of small black blocks neatly inserted in the box.
"Can it be blown up?" Bai Zhan asked, "Should we take it out and deal with it?"
"No," Xing Bi replied simply, "You can't take anything out of here."
"It can't be blown up." Zheng Ting said.
"Explode." Xing Bi said, looking at Zheng Ting. "When 249 was transferred to the box, he was already under surveillance by the base and was about to be killed. It's impossible for him to get any high-end goods. Even if he did, he would be discovered. It can only be an ordinary storage device that is not easily discovered during an inventory."
Zheng Ting didn't say anything.
"The research institute has not been officially opened, and he can't find a particularly suitable place here, so he has been wanting to return to the core area of the base," Xing Bi said, "Am I right?"
Zheng Ting remained silent.
"You have been activated since he arrived here. You are too familiar with this place and 249," Xing Bi said, "You want me to take you out, but you didn't even change the name of 'replica'..."
The ground beneath my feet continued to shake as explosions sounded everywhere.
"Written in your mind is the Zheng Ting who wanted to destroy humanity when you left the base. He has never changed," Xing Bi said. "You have been with 249 for too long. You live here, watching what he shows you and thinking what he wants you to think. He didn't give you a chance to change. 249 didn't give up because you and he both knew that you would find a way to survive with him."
Bai Zhan took the bomb and kicked the box into the small house next to him, preparing to blow up the box inside.
The moment he turned around, Zheng Ting rushed over.
When Xing Bi fired the gun, Qiu Shi couldn't tell how he felt. Zheng Ting knew that no matter how fast he was, he couldn't be faster than the gun in the hands of a first-level undercover guard, but he still chose to rush towards the box.
"I'm sorry." Xing Bi said in a low voice.
The bullet pierced Zheng Ting's neck. He leaped into the air and then fell heavily, with blood splattering all over the box.
Bai Zhan threw Lei into the box, closed the lid, turned around and rushed out of the hut.
The most high-tech mine currently available in Cloud City exploded in the box.
It is much more powerful than Deng Yeye’s Nomad’s Thunder.
Qiu Shi felt his eardrums were hurting.
The walls of the room collapsed, the entire equipment room was shaking, the metal plates on the ceiling began to fall, and the flickering lights all went out...
It was as if the house knew that the last person who needed this room had died, and that house, which had seemed solid before, suddenly began to collapse.
The institute's self-destruct system had begun to explode all around them from the outside in.
"warning..."
The female voice ended the warning amid the explosion.
"Those with broken ribs go first." Xing Bi walked to the door.
Qiu Shi jumped up and grabbed the door. His injured ribs did affect his movements, so he didn't have much strength. He kicked Xing Bi on the shoulder before he fell out.
Bai Zhan also climbed onto the door, and glanced at Xing Bi as he raised his leg.
Xing Bi grabbed his ankle and pushed him out.
"Hey, that's not what I meant..." Bai Zhan flipped out.
Xing Bi jumped out next.
There was already thick smoke outside, and explosions and flames were seen everywhere.
"Go down." Xing Bi said as he took out a spare rope from the bag on his waist, put it around Lin Sheng's waist, and tied the other end of the rope around his wrist.
They had to descend through the damaged floors and walls to escape from the water below.
Lin Sheng was seriously injured. The penetrating wound on his neck could not be treated with the things in the medical kit. In such a chaotic environment, any accident could trap him.
"Keep your eyes on Old Deng," said Xing Bi.
"Yeah." Xu Jie responded.
"I'm fine," Deng Yeye said, "It's just a small injury to my arm. It won't affect me. Qiu Shi is seriously injured."
Xing Bi glanced at Qiu Shi, and Qiu Shi walked to Ji Sui: "I'll follow Ji Sui."
"Okay." Xing Bi nodded, "Watch out for explosions, let's go."
"I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry about me," Bo Zhan said, "I'll go down first."
Without waiting for Xing Bi to speak, Bai Zhan rushed into the flames rising from the cave entrance and jumped into the broken hole.
Then I heard his voice coming from below and in the headphones at the same time: "Ah!"
"Where did you hit?" Ji Sui shouted.
"The landing point is half a meter to the right," Bai Zhan shouted, "the height is three and a half meters."
"Got it." Xu Jie jumped down.
Deng Yeye jumped down as well.
The explosion sounded again, this time very close, right behind them.
Qiu Shi turned around and looked at the flames coming out of the equipment room. The entire door had been engulfed in fire, with thick black smoke, and the sound of explosions could be heard constantly from the equipment being burned.
Qiu Shi followed Ji Sui and jumped into the hole in the ground.
It was unknown what the lower level was like, but it was also a sea of fire. During the fall, Qiu Shi could smell his hair being burnt. There were debris all over the ground, and when he landed, there was an explosion and he felt the burning heat coming towards him.
Xing Bi and Lin Sheng also jumped down. The bleeding from Lin Sheng's wound had stopped temporarily, but in the light of the fire, they could see that half of his uniform had changed color.
"Which way?" Deng Yeye asked.
"Follow me," Bai Zhan said, "towards the dock."
The communication equipment has been set up. Li Feng stood in front of the large screen in the command center, folding his arms and watching the images transmitted back from the beach.
The battle was over, and the troops sent by Yuncheng had basically cleared the battlefield. Cars could be seen on the coast, and the reefs and beaches were full of people, their soldiers, vagrants, refugees...
Everyone was looking at the sea.
Li Feng didn't know what the sea surface usually looked like, but he could see that this vast expanse of sea was different from the ones in the distance. There were huge waves constantly rising due to the explosions on the seabed, and whirlpools formed by the disintegration and sinking of the main body of the building. They appeared, disappeared, appeared, and disappeared again.
All kinds of debris were floating on the sea, churning with the water, rushing to the shore, and then being carried back into the sea by the waves.
Li Feng kept staring at the painting, trying to see something other than the clutter.
Those who didn't make it out before the building began to disintegrate.
The ambush team is also in place, and will immediately clear up any abnormalities.
"Let me take another look at the picture." Li Feng tilted his head and whispered to Chen Dang beside him.
Chen Dang projected a small screen in front of him. It was an image automatically sent back by Xing Bi's communication system and a sketch they drew on the ground. It roughly showed the internal structure of the main building of this part of the institute. It was incomplete, but it gave an idea of their location and the surrounding layout.
"Their best chance of escape might be to go down through the floor, or directly into the sea if the wall is damaged," Chen Dang said, "or to get out from where they entered, which looks like a dock."
"Normally with their abilities, how long will it take them to get out?" Li Feng asked.
"To be honest," Chen Dang said, "I don't know. The situation underwater is complicated. After the building disintegrated, it was like a jungle. They could be trapped anywhere. When they went into the water, Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye only brought a set of respirators each..."
"You don't know this?" Li Feng said, "You know more than the King of Hell."
"They are waiting for your order," Chen Dang said. "We can't contact them now, which means we can't be sure whether 249's data has been finally destroyed."
"Why?" Li Feng sneered. "Before I didn't say anything, no one mentioned the destruction, but now everyone is anxious. In the current situation, who should be sent to blow up? Will they die? Besides, the opportunity has been missed. If they blow up now, everyone will think of them as killing a hero. Can these people use their brains?"
Chen Dang said nothing.
"Help me connect with the on-site commander." Li Feng said.
A somewhat unfamiliar voice came from the other end: "Command center, the commander is injured and unconscious. I am the acting commander Liu Chen."
"Is the current sea water condition suitable for going into the water?" Li Feng asked.
"Experienced divers think it's OK," Liu Chen replied, "but we don't have professional divers, and in such sea conditions..."
"Let that guy," Li Feng pinched his brows, "that..."
"Jiang Liu and Lao Qi." Chen Dang reminded in a low voice beside him.
"Jiang Liu and Lao Qi," Li Feng said, "let them come over."
A man's voice soon came from the other end: "I'm Jiang Liu, who's looking for me?"
"Sixth Brother," Li Feng used the name that Bai Zhan had called him before, "Find the vagrants to go down and look for them. Their biochemical bodies can last longer, but Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye are humans. Without respirators..."
"I'll arrange it." Jiang Liu said.
"Let Commander Liu arrange equipment for them, including speedboats, respirators, thrusters, and underwater lighting," Li Feng said. "We have all of these."
"They might raise the price," Jiang Liu said. "Homeless people don't care about justice."
"It's a normal transaction," Li Feng said, "You decide. We can give you whatever you want, but you have to rescue the people first."
"Okay." Jiang responded.
Liu Chen's voice came out: "Command center."
"Try to satisfy them. The nomads have helped a lot this time," Li Feng said. "We should give them enough face, but we should limit the weapons. Yuncheng is not a wishing well that will grant every wish."
"I understand." Liu Chen said.
"Let Sang Fan and Feng Zhi lead the team down," Li Feng said, "and ensure their safety."
"Got it." Liu Chen said.
Sang Fan threw the gun behind him, raised his legs and walked into the sea: "Let's go."
"Equipment," Feng Zhi called her, "Once the vagrants are equipped, we have to bring equipment too."
"I don't need any equipment," said Sang Fan.
"The people down there need it," Feng Zhi whispered, "They've been here for so long, either they're trapped or someone is injured and moving slowly."
"Yes," Sang Fan nodded, "I understand."
In addition to the necessary equipment for each person, spare respirators and thrusters, as well as medicines, were all packed in a diving bag. Feng Zhi tied the bag around his waist.
"They will be okay, right?" Sang Fan suddenly asked.
"No, four of the strongest submerged guards are in there," Feng Zhi said, grabbing a homeless man who was about to go into the water as he passed by them, "Third Master, what do you mean?"
"Fuck," Li Rui pulled off the cloth wrapped around his face, "You can recognize this?"
"We recognize people by more than just their faces," Feng Zhi said, "Where are you going?"
"Go into the water to save him," Li Rui said, "My savior is down there, there's no way I won't go down."
Feng Zhi raised his eyes and quickly searched among the homeless people who were preparing to go into the water.
"We didn't let Daxiong go," Li Rui said, "He's big and can't be hidden."
"You didn't hide it either." Sang Fan said.
"Follow your sister Fan and follow her instructions." Feng Zhi did not stop him. Time was pressing. "The situation down there is complicated. We may not be able to take care of you in the first place."
"Don't worry." Li Rui adjusted his diving goggles, ran over with the thruster and jumped onto the speedboat.
Although the institute has not been officially put into use and has not even been completed, the self-destruction device is very complete. The entire main building has been torn into pieces, but the explosion continues.
There would be no large-scale flames from underwater explosions, but the powerful impact and shock would still cause undercurrents to churn beneath the water surface. Coupled with the slowly sinking buildings, their progress was very difficult.
This floor is full of small rooms. No one knows what they are used for. Qiu Shi always feels like a prison.
These complex walls and pillars are like a dense forest.
The surroundings were completely filled with water. Most of their bodies were soaked in water, and many parts of their bodies were already above their heads. The two humans, Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye, needed to rely on the underwater air chamber formed by the angle of the room to breathe.
Except for Xu Jie, everyone was injured, and the injuries of the biochemical bodies had not been treated yet. No matter how strong the submerged guard was, it would be a huge drain on the body if he was wounded after a battle and traveled through the freezing cold underwater jungle.
Xu Jie emerged from the water: "There's a passage ahead. We can breathe after about 50 meters. Be careful of the explosive undercurrent on the left."
"How about," Qiu Shi hesitated for a moment, "Old Deng and I stay here, and you guys go out first, can that be faster?"
"No." Lin Sheng answered simply.
"It's too complicated down there," Xing Bi said, "The place where we came from before has completely collapsed."
"Going out first and then coming back to find you is basically going to the grave," Bai Zhan said, "Let's go."
"You are really good at talking." Deng Yeye said.
After another wave of dark waves brought by the explosion passed, Qiu Shi took a breath and followed Ji Sui into the water.
Without respirators or thrusters, Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye, two injured men who couldn't swim, basically relied on grabbing the debris around them to move forward in the freezing sea water. When there was nothing to grab, they could only grab Xu Jie and Ji Sui's trouser legs one by one.
After passing two more gas chambers, Qiu Shi felt that he had been frozen to the point of losing consciousness. An iron pillar that rolled over from somewhere underwater hit his leg. He didn't even feel the pain until almost five minutes later. The pillar had already drifted away to who knows where.
"We're almost there," Ji Sui went ahead to explore the way this time. "We can see the edge, but we have to dive down about 20 meters. Plus, there's no place to breathe the whole way."
"The house is still sinking," Bai Zhan looked around, "They probably won't be able to get out unless they take a breath."
"Let me try." Qiu Shi took a deep breath and held it, then sank into the water, wanting to see how long he could hold on.
To be honest, he felt that he had almost reached his limit. His eyes were hurt by the sea water, and all kinds of inexplicable wounds on his body were also painful. He still had some physical strength, but the low temperature had made his whole body stiff. Deng Yeye's face was frozen blue and her lips had lost their color. He guessed that he would not be much better.
Moreover, he had not even been underwater for a minute when he began to hallucinate.
He suddenly stuck his head out of the water: "Shit, did the water damage my eyes?"
"What's wrong?" Xing Bi immediately reached out and pinched his chin and stared into his eyes. "It's very red. Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt, I just saw a white light flickering around, like a searchlight!" Qiu Shi suddenly reacted, "I saw the light of a flashlight!"
Bai Zhan and Xu Jie sank at the same time and swam quickly towards the light.
"Is there anyone coming to pick us up?" Deng Yeye asked.
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi breathed a sigh of relief, held a steel bar above his head with his hands, leaned his head back against the wall, looked at Xing Bi and Lin Sheng beside him, and a feeling of fatigue quickly came over him.
Both of them didn't look very good and were seriously injured, but it wasn't entirely because of the injuries. It was difficult for others to truly understand the pressure and pain they endured, from Lin Sheng's decisiveness in killing No. 2 to the moment when Xing Bi shot Zheng Ting at the end.
Qiu Shi just hoped that all this would end quickly, so that he could return to the shore, back to the car, and back to that broken world.
The body soaking in the water felt the chaotic water flow. Qiu Shi lowered his head and saw several white lights passing under the water, followed by a burst of splashes on the water surface.
Sang Fan poked his face out of the sea: "We are here! How is it?"
"Everything is fine." Xing Bi replied.
The next person to appear on the water was Feng Zhi. He threw a large waterproof bag over and said, "I have medicine. Do you need it now?"
"Not for now." Lin Sheng replied.
"Yes." Feng Zhi took out the respirator and thruster, "Get out now and swim out along the ropes laid by the homeless. The outer shell has begun to break. If you are any later, you will be dragged down and trapped on the seabed."
Qiu Shi took the respirator and put it on.
"It's so advanced." Deng Yeye put on the respirator.
"These are all for you," said Sang Fan.
"Brother Shi!" Li Rui's voice came over the sound of water, "Xing Bi! Lin Sheng! Is everyone here? Is everything okay?"
Li Rui grew up by the river and could swim, but the water temperature was too low at the moment, and coupled with his excitement, he was shivering all over. It was obvious that he was very anxious, and he even omitted the word "big brother".
"Why is Mr. Li San here?" Xing Bi asked.
"He sneaked into the team," Feng Zhi said, "He definitely wouldn't do it if he wasn't allowed to."
"We found all the people underwater," Chen Dang said behind Li Feng, "They were all injured, but they are not in serious condition. They are on their way back."
"Where is 249?" Li Feng asked.
"It has been destroyed. We can only know the details after they come up," Chen Dang whispered, "Do the people over there want to evacuate?"
"Don't worry about it," Li Feng said, "wait until I talk to Xing Bi and the others."
"Xing must know my people," Chen Dang said, "If he finds out, he will know..."
"Know what?" Li Feng said, "Do you know that I sent people to keep an eye on them? It's not the first day they have known me. It would be strange if I didn't send a team of people to monitor them just in case."
Chen Dang didn't say anything else. The mission of the team of undercover guards he sent over was to monitor the people coming out of the water. If they were found to have any connection with 249, or if 249 showed any suspicion, this team of undercover guards would immediately control Xing Bi and the others.
Normally it is almost impossible to control these people, but it is still possible today because they are all injured and it is a bit like taking advantage of others' misfortune.
"I'll take a break," Li Feng patted Chen Dang on the shoulder, "Please connect me to the lounge next door when we talk."
"Okay." Chen Dang nodded.
Li Feng entered the lounge, closed the door, locked it, sat on the sofa and let out a long sigh.
When he picked up the cup of water, he noticed that his hands were shaking violently, probably because he was too nervous.
These people in the water were their only hope for final victory and all their hope for peaceful days to come. While he was looking forward to these people returning safely, he also had to face the consequences of any accidents, or even the consequences of having to kill these people.
Li Feng took a sip of water and put his hands on the table.
A few minutes later, the call came through, and Qiu Shi's somewhat tired voice came out: "Report now or let us take a break before reporting?"
"Now, if you are not dead, please report first." Li Feng said, "your condition and the extent of your injuries."
“… I thought you would ask 249 first,” Qiu Shi said, “We are all fine, but we have to go back to Cloud City to fully recover.”
"Thank you for your hard work." Li Feng said, looking at his hands in silence for a while and then said, "Thank you."
The author has something to say:
To be continued tomorrow⊙▽⊙.
Ah, it’s almost over T_T.