"Yes, I haven't seen it before. I haven't seen many people wearing bulletproof vests either. You're so damn exquisite." Qiu Shi said as he bent down and ran to Xing Bi, took his left hand and took a look.
"It's okay." Xing Bi said.
The bullet passed through Xing Bi's left arm diagonally without injuring the bone, but to say that he was fine would be an exaggeration. All we can say is that this injury is within the tolerable design range for a biological body.
"Is he really wearing a bulletproof vest?" Qiu Shi took out a hemostatic patch from the waterproof bag and put it on Xing Bi's wound, which could at least speed up recovery.
"It's penetrated. You can hear it when you're hit." Xing Bi said.
"We have to change our strategy," Deng Yeye whispered, "We can't wait for them to block us."
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
"Just charge," Deng Yeye unzipped the belt around her waist, revealing neatly arranged small bombs. "As long as you're not dead, charge. When you get to a place, explode."
"You still have these?" Qiu Shi was a little surprised. "You are not afraid of sinking to the bottom."
"I always carry it with me," Deng Yeye said. "Who knows if something unexpected will happen. I just want to die quickly."
Qiu Shi didn't say anything else and took Xiao Lei out one by one from her belt.
"Picking fruits? Give me two." Bai Zhan came over at some point and took two.
Xing Bi glanced at him and laughed: "It's good to eat."
Bai Zhan was stunned: "I thought you would never smile at me in your life."
"What the hell?" Qiu Shi glanced at him.
"A useless person who doesn't get recognition just sighs," Bai Zhan tossed the little thunder in his hand, stood up and walked towards the direction where Zheng Ting and the others fled, and checked the environment, "No one."
"He just didn't smile in your face," said Qiu Shi.
"Thank you." said Bai Zhan.
Qiu Shi could no longer remember the route on the map he saw in the leisure area. He thought the map was drawn a bit hastily, not as detailed as it actually was, and there were too many turns. Considering his education level at the refugee school, it was normal that he could not remember it.
Xing Bi and Bai Zhan can definitely remember it. Not only can they remember it, but they can also find the shortest route without communicating.
When leaving the open office area, Qiu Shi glanced at the nameplate at the entrance of the office area, which said something like Area 5.
That is to say, there are at least four open office areas of this size. Under the current circumstances, Qiu Shi feels that these places are like fucking trenches.
Outside Area 5 is a straight road, but it is not a corridor. On both sides are large spaces without doors. Some of the spaces contain instruments, and some are long tables.
While running quickly behind Xing Bi, Qiu Shi saw a string of rooms ABCD in the conference room alone, and two toilets, both of which looked ten times more luxurious than Li Feng's office.
When this institute was first built, it was estimated to be as large as ten Cloud Cities. A base, a research institute, humans paid a huge price for these things that he could not understand, and probably would not have thought that two hundred years later, their "hard work" would be presented to these doomsday guys in this state.
They quickly crossed the straight road and entered another place similar to a reception area. It did not have as many entertainment settings as the leisure area, but it had many small tables and sofas.
A figure flashed by again, and Qiu Shi fell behind a sofa without thinking, and took out a small bomb at the same time, but before he adjusted his posture to fall to the ground, the gun went off.
The back of the sofa where he was hiding was shot through. With a dull "bang", a hole appeared next to his face. The debris fanned his face and even tiny feathers floated before his eyes.
The sofas in the research institute were filled with feathers of some unknown substance. No wonder he felt they were so soft when he sat on them in the leisure area.
The gunshot was followed by a loud explosion.
The shock was so severe that Qiu Shi's eardrums hurt a little, and several pieces of the ceiling fell off his head.
He quickly peeked out from behind the sofa and saw no one.
"Qiu Shi!" Xing Bi called him.
"It's okay!" Qiu Shi replied, "Where are the people?"
"He ran away," Deng Yeye said, "Did you see the other person clearly?"
"It was Lin Sheng," Bai Zhan said, "It was also him who hit me before."
Qiu Shi was stunned for a moment. There was actually another Lin Sheng. Could it be that 249 had really created a new undercover team
"Are you hurt?" Xing Bi jumped over from the sofa, squatted in front of him, pinched his face and looked left and right, then scanned his neck all the way down.
"No," Qiu Shi said, "It went past my head. Who fired the shot?"
"Lin Sheng." Xing Bi said.
"Just now Zheng Ting hit your arm, and Lin Sheng hit Bai Zhan's chest," Qiu Shi frowned, "now he's aiming at my head..."
"This Lin Sheng is so cruel." Deng Yeye said.
"He has always been ruthless," Bo Zhan said, "He is the ruthlessest in the group."
Qiu Shi glanced at Xing Bi. He was stunned for a moment when he heard Bai Zhan use the word "cruel" to describe Lin Sheng, until he recalled the first time he met Lin Sheng, the undercover guard who was much colder and more procedural than Xing Bi.
These "others" have no traces of living in this hard world and remain much as they were at the base.
"Where is Xing Bi?" Deng Yeye asked.
"She's looking so affectionate over there." said Bai Zhan.
“… I’m asking if Xing Bi is ruthless or not.” Deng Yeye said.
"She looks affectionate now," Qiu Shi said, "not cruel."
"Just pretend I didn't ask." Deng Yeye said.
"There won't be another Xing Bi," Bai Zhan said. "I think there are only these two, Zheng Ting and Lin Sheng."
"And Lin Sheng was just... employed," Xing Bi said, "before there was only one Zheng Ting."
"Why?" Deng Yeye asked.
"Zheng Ting didn't kill us, he just wanted to stop us from getting through," Qiu Shi glanced at Xing Bi, "right? This means he may have other ideas, and he may have been here for quite some time."
"Sharp." Xing Bi nodded.
"Thank you." Qiu Shi nodded.
"Lin Sheng might have been activated because he found out we were coming to the institute. As for Xing Bi," Bai Zhan glanced at Xing Bi, "249 would never choose to let him out, whether it was then or now. Maybe it was only Zheng Ting who was forced to activate Lin Sheng because Lin Sheng was ruthless enough."
"Continue." Xing Bi glanced at the place where the explosion occurred before, then turned to look at Deng Yeye, "Where did you get this bomb?"
"What's wrong?" Deng Yeye asked.
"It's quite powerful, but..." Xing Bi said, "It's not very stable. It almost exploded me."
"It's good to have one," Deng Yeye said, "Don't be picky, it's okay if you sell it quickly."
The open office area is a better place for them to fight. They are not familiar with the terrain, and this kind of wide field of vision is disadvantageous to both sides. At least it is easier to observe each other.
The area they entered now was a collection of glass and metal compartments that were independent yet interconnected. The countless passages between the compartments looked like a maze to Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi raised his hand and threw a mine into the passage.
The glass in the nearby compartments shattered with a crisp sound as the explosion sounded. Before the broken glass fell to the ground, Xing Bi rushed in. Bai Zhan followed behind him and threw another grenade to the front right.
Deng Yeye's small thunder is indeed unstable. The one thrown by Xing Bi took two seconds to explode, but the one thrown by Bai Zhan would explode in his hand if someone else threw it.
"Fuck." Bai Zhan cursed, climbed over the metal partition, and walked parallel to Xing Bi in the two passages.
Qiu Shi raised his gun but did not follow closely. The bio-body moved too quickly and it would be easy for it to be attacked if he followed too closely.
Deng Yeye was used to fighting in jungle warfare. At this moment, he was bending over in the passage and no one could be seen.
The effects of the two explosions were quite good. When Zheng Ting rushed out from the passage that was not affected by the explosion, they saw him at a glance.
Zheng Ting's target was Xing Bi, and he jumped towards Xing Bi from the air by stepping on the partition.
But Xing Bi did not fight head-on. Instead, he rolled through the partition and rushed behind Zheng Ting.
Bai Zhan jumped out from the side and slammed into the left side of Zheng Ting's body in the air. At the same time, Xing Bi swung the knife in his hand towards Lin Sheng who had just come out of another passage.
With two dull thuds of collision, four people fell to the ground.
Qiu Shi heard the sound of metal rubbing against each other, the sound of the knife tip piercing Xing Bi's uniform, and the chaotic footsteps in the corridor over there.
"Old Deng, blow up." He threw himself between the two partitions and aimed his gun in the direction where the footsteps came from.
Deng Yeye threw a mine from an unknown direction, which exploded above the passage, and the two biochemical bodies were blown out of the passage amidst a piece of broken glass.
Qiu Shi did not move, but stared behind them. When a shadow flashed by on the low wall, he estimated the height of the neck and fired.
The other two bio-bodies were shot in the neck as soon as they rushed out of the passage.
Qiu Shi's gun was out of bullets and there was no time to replace it, so he threw the gun away, pulled out the knife from his leg, and rushed towards the biochemical body that had been knocked down but not dead by the explosion.
These biochemical bodies are all second-level stealth guards. They lack the response and coordination of first-level ones, but their combat effectiveness is not weak.
The knife that Qiu Shi swung with his right hand was blocked, and then his neck was strangled. He ignored the hand on his neck, but loosened his right hand holding the knife, caught the falling knife with his left hand, and stabbed it into the opponent's throat.
The hand that was pinching his neck lost its strength, and he kicked hard, kicking the second level away.
Just when he was about to turn around, he heard a noise behind him. When he turned around, he saw that a Level 2 who was rushing towards him was grabbed by the shoulder by Xing Bi, who then slapped him on the back of the neck. The huge force caused the broken small cubes to pierce his throat, and blood sprayed all over Qiu Shi's face.
"Fuck." He wiped his face.
Gunshots rang out behind me.
When he turned around, he saw Zheng Ting kicking Bai Zhan away and quickly disappearing into the passage.
It was Deng Yeye who fired the shot. When she was about to chase after him with the gun raised, Xing Bi called out to her, "Old Deng."
"Almost!" said Deng Yeye.
"It almost hit me, didn't it?" Bai Zhan got up from the ground with some difficulty.
"It hit his arm! It almost hit his head!" said Deng Yeye.
"Injured?" Qiu Shi felt something was not good when he saw Bai Zhan's condition.
"It's not serious." Bai Zhan touched his collar and his hand was covered in blood.
"Artery?" Deng Yeye was shocked.
"Shoulder." Bai Zhan pulled his collar and looked at Xing Bi, "Bandage him."
The force of Xing Bi's previous palm made Qiu Shi ignore the sound of the knife piercing the uniform. Now he looked at Xing Bi and saw that the uniform on his chest was torn and stained with blood.
"Let me see." Qiu Shi felt his voice was shaking.
"No important organs were injured," Xing Bi opened his shirt, revealing a not-so-big but obviously-deep cut on his chest. "Just stop the bleeding and glue it together."
Qiu Shi's hands were shaking so badly when he was taking the medicine out of the waterproof bag that he couldn't take it out for a long time.
Bai Zhan walked over, pulled his hand away, took out a tube of medicine from the bag, opened it, squeezed the entire tube of ointment onto Xing Bi's wound, then took a hemostatic patch and pressed it on.
"Is your blood," he whispered, "always this color?"
"That depends on whether there is any solution in the information we find this time," said Xing Bi.
"Yeah." Bai Zhan responded.
"Your injury..." Qiu Shi asked.
"No need," Bai Zhan waved his hand and turned to walk forward, "We have to hurry up and don't let them get too much relief. They are both injured."
"He has broken ribs," said Xing Bi.
"Who?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Me!" Bai Zhan turned around unhappily, "What's there to talk about? We can't handle it now."
"Just a reminder for you to be careful later." Xing Bi said.
"Yeah." Bai Zhan responded.
They are already approaching the equipment room, and 249 will have people guarding it to prevent them from entering.
Qiu Shi didn't know what kind of situation he would face. Xing Bi and Bai Zhan were both injured, and they were not lightly injured. Although the other party was also injured, they still had an unknown number of second-level submerged guards...
But they can't think so much now. No matter what is ahead, they have no choice but to rush forward.
So, any backup plan is useless, there is no such thing as a second plan.
Deng Yeye was in the middle of the team. Whenever there was an intersection ahead or any object blocking her view, she would throw a mine in advance.
This neat and cold research institute, which had been silent in the sea for a long time, suddenly became extremely noisy amid the explosions, as if it had suddenly been dragged from the past into the present.
"We're here." Xing Bi said in a low voice.
Ahead was a bright corridor that looked ordinary, with no place for ambush. At the end was a closed door.
This is a critical equipment area. No entry allowed.
Deng Yeye didn't care about anything and swung his arm and threw two grenades in succession.
There was a sudden loud noise in the corridor, smoke and dust billowed, and the ground underfoot was shaking.
Xing Bi and Bai Zhan rushed into the corridor before the smoke had dissipated.
Qiu Shi and Deng Yeye did not follow in immediately, but pointed their guns towards the rear. It would be troublesome if this passage was blocked from front and back.
But before Xing Bi and Bai Zhan could rush to the door, music suddenly sounded in the corridor.
After a few ding-dong sounds, a picture appeared on the wall on one side, which looked like a surveillance picture.
Qiu Shi slowly stepped back two steps and stared at the screen, and found that it was indeed a surveillance camera. There was an inspection area written in small white words in the upper right corner.
What made him feel uneasy was that the inspection area in the picture was full of sea water and the surveillance cameras were submerged underwater.
The sea water in this space was not clear, with all kinds of debris floating on it, and it looked very turbid, but it was enough for him to see the people underwater, Xu Jie, Ji Sui, and three human soldiers. The only way they could breathe was through a small vent above. Once the sea water flooded that small vent... the biochemical body might be able to hold on for a while, but those soldiers would have no way out.
When Ji Sui moved, Qiu Shi saw blood oozing from his waist.
A figure turned out from the corridor. When Qiu Shi saw it out of the corner of his eye, he fired without even turning his head.
But this person had already rushed in front of him before he fired the shot. It was Lin Sheng.
Lin Sheng kicked his hand holding the gun, and a string of bullets hit the ceiling.
Then another kick hit Deng Yeye, and she flew up and hit the wall and fell to the ground.
When Lin Sheng appeared, Xing Bi turned around and rushed over, but he was a step too late. Lin Sheng punched Qiu Shi on the shoulder, and when Qiu Shi fell to the ground, Xing Bi stepped on Qiu Shi's chest.
The muzzle of the gun in his hand dropped and pointed at Qiu Shi's head.
Xing Bi stopped.
Qiu Shi could feel his ribs screaming, the pain was so severe that he could hardly breathe. He could only grit his teeth and breathe in and out little by little.
It's so fucking cruel... Once that surveillance footage was released, none of them could remain completely focused at that moment.
"He wants to talk to you." Lin Sheng said.
"Let's not talk about it." Qiu Shi tried his best to squeeze out two words from between his teeth.
Lin Sheng looked down at him.
"Get lost." Qiu Shi could no longer make any sound and could only mouth the words.
Lin Sheng didn't say anything, but just looked up and continued to look at Xing Bi.
The door to the equipment room over there opened.
Out of the door came a child in a wheelchair.
When Qiu Shi turned his head to look over, he felt a chill on his back. He thought it was a child because the body shape was that of a child, but when he looked more closely he discovered that this "child" had no facial features and looked like a crudely made doll.
This is the entity of 249. Qiu Shi never thought that 249, who would choose various voices to imitate in turn, would have this style when choosing a body for himself.
Following behind the wheelchair was Zheng Ting. He didn't look at Xing Bi and the others, but his eyes were fixed on the surveillance screen on the wall.
"Xing Bi." 249 spoke.
I don't know where the voice came from, it was a childish voice, I couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a girl, but for Qiu Shi, who had never seen many children, this clear voice made him feel uncomfortable.
"I'm not here to negotiate," Xing Bi said, "No matter what the price is today, you must die."
"I know." 249 said softly, "I know."
Xing Bi didn't say anything and turned around to look at Qiu Shi.
"Let me live," 249 said, "I want to live, only here, I will never go out again..."
249 Lower your head.
Under the wheelchair is a large black box placed horizontally. Qiu Shi's attention had been attracted by the strange 249 before. Only now did he realize that this was the box used to store his data in the video left by 249.
"There is no me out there anymore. I give up," 249 said. "I am only here. Humans are still so scary... Please don't kill me again and again."
"No one killed you," Xing Bi said, "It was you who killed people again and again. You did the same things as those terrible humans you hated. You copied Zheng Ting, copied Lin Sheng..."
"I didn't," 249 cried anxiously, "I didn't, they are the real Zheng Ting and Lin Sheng, they are the original you..."
"Let your loud fart go." said Bai Zhan.
"Zheng Ting has long been used by you and turned into a super symbiont," Xing Bi looked at Zheng Ting, "living in the fungus, being controlled by you, killing and using his own kind, and being dragged into hell by you."
"But," 249 raised his head, "the one outside is not the real Zheng Ting. He is here, and has always been here."
Zheng Ting frowned slightly.
"Do you believe it?" Bai Zhan looked at Zheng Ting, "What do you remember? You almost killed me that day, and then what? Where did you go? Did you come here? No! You drove away from the base."
"I didn't drive away." Zheng Ting looked at him.
"There's no copy of me here, right?" Bai Zhan said, "So I wasn't copied, right? So what I remember is the truth! Isn't it?"
"Why have you never left here?" Xing Bi said, "Because once you leave, you will find that you are living in 249's lies. What he wants is a world with only him, even if it is just that small box. You are just puppets guarding his lies."
"Don't kill me," 249 said. "If you kill me, everything here will be destroyed. This is where everyone's hard work, technology, and medical care are. You will live forever in that terrible world... You can sink me into the sea, or let this place drown. I want to live..."
"That terrible world is at least a world where I am myself," said Xing Bi.
Zheng Ting was silent.
"Shut up." Lin Sheng said, sinking his feet.
Qiu Shi heard a muffled but crisp sound. It was his poor ribs that had been reinforced but were still useless.
But Zheng Ting has already wavered.
Someone needs to break this deadlock. Xing Bi and Bai Zhan are both being held back by him, so...
Qiu Shi's hand, which had been pressed against his leg, moved. When Lin Sheng looked over, he had loosened his hand, and in his palm was a small thunder that had already been pulled apart.
"Fuck your ancestors." said Qiu Shi.
The author has something to say:
Continue tomorrow ╰_╯.