If there had been one more person, he had no doubt that he would have been the first one to be "invited" out into the acid rain.
Cheng Shuili broke the silence. Her voice remained calm, as if that provocative prompt did not exist at all: "The peak is almost over. Next, according to our original plan, we are going to the research institute."
Her gaze swept over Qian Xun and his team members: "You can come with us, or you can act on your own. There are one or two shelters left anyway, so no matter what, we can definitely pass this dungeon safely this time."
This statement was rather interesting.
A shelter could only hold ten people. If the team that had the shootout with them at the warehouse was really still alive...
Who would be the one pushed out?
Cheng Shuili seemed to have absolute confidence.
Master of Slacking hugged himself tightly again. He had sworn to himself several times in his heart that he would never act as a human ticket again, really!
He truly realized the importance of teammates this time. Could someone please grant him a teammate, boo-hoo!
Qian Xun nodded silently, turned around to discuss with his team members in a low voice, and finally decided not to go: "If you are going, we won't take that risk."
After saying this, he did not forget to sell Cheng Shuili a favor: "With your map, the locations of the remaining shelters are easier to find. We can see our position on the map provided by the system. After you have finished exploring, just come to the shelter where we are located."
Cheng Shuili nodded. Not wanting to owe them a favor, she said decisively: "I will give you a discount of 2000 game coins. Just pay 18,000 each after we get out."
Qian Xun paused, recalling this not-so-pleasant memory again.
The three team members behind him also looked at each other, but they could not say anything, as they had agreed to the transaction themselves.
Fine, a discount of two thousand is still a discount.
The sound of acid rain hitting the shelter's shell gradually weakened, signaling that the third peak was about to pass.
Master of Slacking was of no use now, and Cheng Shuili did not want him to keep following. He was self-aware enough to just follow Qian Xun and his group.
Qian Xun and the others were not clear about the truth and thought Master of Slacking was also one of Cheng Shuili's people, and that she had asked him to follow them because she did not trust them. Although they were a bit unhappy, they barely agreed.
And thinking about it carefully, they had nothing to be unhappy about.
It was originally a favor, but with the Crow giving such a discount, it turned directly into a transaction.
A transaction, after all.
The other party was not at ease and sent a subordinate to follow, which seemed understandable.
It was just that the subject of this transaction always felt a bit like getting something for nothing.
Without any worries, Cheng Shuili and her group headed straight for the ruins of the research institute.
The closer they got to the central area, the more eerie the surrounding scene became.
The architectural debris eroded by the acid rain presented a strange form of melting and then solidifying. On the ground, one could see deep purple, seemingly active slime puddles from time to time, and the air was filled with a pungent chemical smell and an indescribable fishy sweetness.
It was like the smell of highly rotten flesh and blood.
The patter of the acid rain gradually blurred behind them, and the five of them stepped into the broken shadows of the research institute.
The silence here was more suffocating than the rain outside. The air was mixed with the smell of pungent chemical reagents, and the broken walls and ruins in the shadows twisted into strange postures, like the bones of a dying behemoth.
Ginger Candy subconsciously moved closer to Xinxue, her voice suppressed to an extremely low level: "I'm a little scared. This place makes my skin crawl."
Xinxue did not speak, only tightened her grip on the weapon in her hand, her fingertips turning slightly white.
Qi Wanyi squatted down and swept her gloved fingertips over a dark purple, viscous stain on the ground that almost seemed to be alive.
As soon as she touched it, a wisp of white smoke rose quietly.
Qi Wanyi immediately straightened up and simply took off her gloves.
Cheng Shuili was silent. This person was a bit too reckless.
"The entrance is ahead," Ailin's voice broke the unsettling silence, "Are we going in, Boss?"
That entrance was more like a torn wound. Twisted metal and broken concrete barely formed a low passage, and the pitch-black hole inside exuded an ominous aura.
It looked a bit terrifying, but they were already here.
Qi Wanyi shook her head, "Isn't the point of coming here to go inside?"
"Right." Cheng Shuili responded casually and was the first to side-step into it. A moment later, her voice came from inside: "Come in, there's no movement for now."
The others followed one after another, and inside was almost another world.
The range illuminated by the flashlight beam was limited, and outside the light was an impenetrable darkness.
The corridor walls were covered with splashed, blackened, and dried stains, as well as deep claw marks that looked like they had been torn by some great force. Broken glass and instrument parts were scattered all over the floor, and every footstep sounded particularly harsh.
"Split up and look around to see if there are any good things. Pair up. Wanyi and Xinxue, Ailin and Ginger Candy. I'll take this side. If you find anything, call out immediately. No unauthorized actions."
Her gaze swept over the team members seriously one by one. At times like this, they were all obedient.
The team members nodded silently and quickly split into two groups, disappearing into different forks in the road.
Cheng Shuili walked deep along the central main corridor alone. There were countless doors on both sides here, but unfortunately, the cracks between the doors and the walls were filled with purple slime, blocking the doors tightly so they could not be moved at all.
Cheng Shuili was silent for a moment, then raised her foot and kicked a door hard!
A loud bang suddenly came, and the entire ruin suddenly trembled, followed by the purple slime scattered on the ground as if it had come to life.
Those dark purple stains on the ground that were originally just slowly creeping and disgusting seemed to be injected with violent vitality in an instant. They were no longer satisfied with sticking to the ground, but like being pulled by an invisible giant hand, they rushed wildly toward the depths of the corridor!
The speed of the slime's flow was astonishing, making a skin-crawling, sticky sound of "guji guji."
They gathered and merged with each other, their volume expanding wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Back up! Retreat quickly!"
Cheng Shuili shouted sharply, but she herself took a step forward, her flashlight beam locked tightly on the terrifying thing taking shape at the end of the corridor.
Ginger Candy let out a short scream, Ailin pulled her behind herself, and raised her weapon with a pale face.
Qi Wanyi and Xinxue also retreated from the room quickly, and their pupils contracted sharply when they saw the scene before them.
Under the trembling beam of the flashlight, the gathered slime had formed a huge, indescribable outline.
It had no fixed shape, like a cluster of dark purple flesh tumors constantly rolling and expanding, its surface covered in viscous, stringy mucus, reflecting a wet, uncomfortable luster.
Rate on N.U.
