A round-faced, plump chicken walking upright pulled its sharp talons from a man's abdominal cavity.
It then caught Geng Xingshu's exoskeleton armor with one hand and flung Geng Xingshu away.
Luan Xing stared blankly at everything happening before him, making no attempt to stop it.
He knew that venturing out would entail danger, but he hadn't expected that with their abilities, they wouldn't even have the strength to resist.
The plump chicken cast a dismissive glance at Luan Xing, then swaggered away, its tail feathers swaying seductively. These humans were all weaklings with a combat power of five; fighting them offered no sense of accomplishment.
...
Last night's draw determined Geng Xingshu and two other men and one woman for the expedition. Luan Xing himself did not participate in the draw because he was to personally lead the team.
He knew very well that by continuing to stay in the safe camp, they were like frogs being slowly boiled in warm water, destined to be cooked to death eventually. Only the outside world offered their only hope.
Although the tunnel was deep and dark, as long as they mustered the courage to walk out, they would discover that it wasn't as daunting as it seemed.
The murals on the wall told Luan Xing that this might be a place where some kind of ritual was being performed, a blood sacrifice of their lives to some entity.
They also encountered some ancient traps along the way, but most of these traps were in disrepair. Even the few that were functional could be disarmed by Geng Xingshu.
Everything was going smoothly until they saw four corpses, all gruesomely dead.
These people had not died long ago; they should have been exploring the outside like them. Judging by their appearance, they were utterly incapable of resisting.
This sight sent a shiver down Luan Xing's spine. He wanted to alert everyone to retreat the way they came, but little did he know that an upright, round-faced, plump chicken was already standing behind them...
...
Geng Xingshu got up from the ground, his bones feeling as if they had fallen apart. He looked at Luan Xing with anger: "Why didn't you help?"
After the plump chicken appeared, it quickly killed three members of the exploration team. Geng Xingshu, relying on his exoskeleton gauntlets, managed to exchange a couple of blows with it, but he was no match for it.
What angered him the most was that Luan Xing had watched the entire process with cold indifference, not even moving a step.
Luan Xing seemed to awaken from a dream and said dejectedly to Geng Xingshu:
"Help? Heh heh... Hahaha."
"How could I help?"
"To resist that thing, we would need at least a fully armed special combat team of ten or more people. I only have a small handgun, what could I possibly do to help?"
"We've only explored this far from the entrance, and we've already encountered a monster of that caliber. We can't get out... From the moment we entered, our fate was sealed."
"Let's go back... At least we can live a few more days in the camp."
Luan Xing walked woodenly in the direction they had come from, the determination he had when they set out gone, replaced by the mannerisms of the walking dead.
Geng Xingshu sighed and followed Luan Xing back, the only one unable to continue the exploration.
The two encountered no danger on their return journey, but upon reaching the entrance of the safe camp, they froze. The sharpened stakes and other defenses at the entrance had all been violently destroyed, and only deathly silence filled the camp. Su Dan Novel Network
Their already grief-stricken faces turned even more grim.
Their wooden hut had been completely destroyed. A wooden stake lay outside the hut, and Li Wei sat on it, his face bruised and covered in blood. The man with the gold-rimmed glasses sat on the ground, trembling.
"Where are the others?" Geng Xingshu asked urgently.
Li Wei shook his head: "After you left, a curly-haired orangutan came here and killed everyone else."
Geng Xingshu's expression became solemn, and he sat on the ground, his face filled with despair.
Luan Xing silently raised his gun, pulled the trigger, and shot the gold-rimmed glasses man in the forehead.
"What are you doing!"
Geng Xingshu, his blood running cold, quickly turned and ran several steps away, but he was still shot in the leg by Luan Xing.
Luan Xing said in a flat tone: "Old Geng, you saw the murals. This is a sacrifice. Perhaps someone is drinking fine wine right now, watching our pathetic state."
"Staying in the camp is a dead end, and venturing out is also a dead end. Since that's the case, we might as well end ourselves. At least this way, we'll die by human hands!"
Geng Xingshu cursed: "Are you insane? If you want to die, go die alone, don't drag us with you."
"Don't worry, after you die, I will commit suicide. From the day we entered, we have been at the mercy of that entity. At least I want to choose the manner of my death myself."
Luan Xing's eyes were lifeless, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
No matter what difficulties he had encountered before, he had never been afraid. He had always believed he could lead others out of here, but that hope was shattered unreasonably by the monsters today.
When he saw only two survivors left in the camp, Luan Xing's heart died.
"You can't kill me," Li Wei said coldly, drawing a dagger.
Luan Xing shook his head: "I know you're a good fighter, but your gun is out of bullets. With only a dagger, can you be faster than me?"
Li Wei stood up, assumed a starting position, and said, "Fourteen paces away, the gun is faster. Within fourteen paces... I am faster!"
The turf beneath his feet flew up as Li Wei, like a black rabbit, lunged towards Luan Xing with a blur of motion. Luan Xing fired several shots, but none stopped Li Wei's advance.
Then Li Wei grabbed Luan Xing's hand, directly removed the magazine, and slashed Luan Xing's neck.
After discarding the knife, Li Wei knelt on the ground after a few steps. He had ultimately been shot. He had been punched a few times by the curly-haired orangutan earlier, and what he could do then, he could no longer do now.
Li Wei lay on the ground and chuckled twice at Geng Xingshu: "Now it's just the two of us left. Whatever comes next, we probably can't resist, so let's just chat..."
As soon as Li Wei finished speaking, his body turned into a mirror, then the mirror shattered, and he vanished into thin air.
Geng Xingshu's mouth hung open. Before he could utter a word, he realized he had also disappeared.
Opening his eyes, Geng Xingshu found himself sitting in a completely white room. Beside him sat Li Wei, Luan Xing, the security captain, and the man with the gold-rimmed glasses.
Besides the five of them, there were over twenty other people.
"Is this... heaven?" Geng Xingshu was stunned. "No, there's no such thing as heaven... These are all Foundation employees all around!"
In this white room, the memories that had been suppressed were restored to their original state, while the memories of the survival game had become somewhat blurred.
Geng Xingshu immediately guessed that everything they had experienced was likely some kind of test.
Now that the test was over, it was time to explain the results. Geng Xingshu felt an inexplicable nervousness.