Just then, Long Ming suddenly appeared in a window and pulled the trigger again!

"Argh!"

One of Tank’s men, who was right beside him, collapsed.

"Dammit! He’s still not dead? Old Tu, with me! Let’s storm the building and finish this guy off!"

Tank was furious. He took his last remaining team member and charged toward the building.

Inside the building, Long Ming’s sharp ears picked up the sound of footsteps from downstairs. ’They’re going to storm the building.’

He didn’t try to block the stairwell. He was afraid they might still have grenades.

Instead, he decisively climbed out the window and jumped.

Meanwhile, Tank urged Old Tu to head upstairs.

"Go on!"

Old Tu could only brace himself and start climbing.

Tank, meanwhile, hung back, moving up slowly behind him.

As Tank made it halfway up the stairs,

Long Ming suddenly popped out, raised his single-shot rifle, and fired.

BANG!

Tank realized something was wrong. Just as he started to turn, a bullet struck him squarely in the back of the head. Blood instantly splattered everywhere.

Old Tu, who was still on his way up, instantly realized what had happened and scrambled back downstairs.

Long Ming ducked by the doorway, quickly worked the bolt to chamber a new round, then darted out and pulled the trigger!

BANG!

Tu Ke had just made it back downstairs but hadn’t reached the main entrance when he was shot in the head.

Long Ming immediately ran to Tank’s corpse, snatched the automatic pistol and its magazines, and quickly looted the backpack.

He then bolted from the building, running toward Johnny and the others.

The spot where Johnny had been hiding was a charred mess.

When Long Ming saw this, he thought Johnny and the others were all dead.

But then Johnny, gasping, shoved Doken’s body off of him and took deep, ragged breaths.

"You’re not dead?"

Long Ming was a little surprised.

"Almost!"

Johnny struggled to his feet.

"Quick, let’s go!"

Long Ming quickly led Johnny to give chase.

...

「Elsewhere.」

Ferenc was still leading his subordinates, relentlessly pursuing Xiaoqi and her group without letting up, firing at them constantly.

One by one, members of the Rat Group were shot and killed.

"This is bad, Sister Qi! If this keeps up, we’re all going to die here!" Cloud Fish said anxiously to Xiaoqi.

Xiaoqi was frantic as well. Just then, they reached the end of the street and froze.

A long, crumbling wall blocked their path.

Behind the wall sat a colossal, dome-shaped experimental building forged from steel.

"It’s a dead end!"

Tang Ye cried out in panic.

Just then, Xiaoqi spotted a breach in the wall not far away and quickly yelled to the others.

"Over there! Quick, everyone inside!"

Everyone snapped to their senses and scrambled through the breach in the wall, making a break for the dome-shaped laboratory.

Seeing Xiaoqi’s group cornered and fleeing toward the laboratory, Ferenc gave his subordinates a savage grin.

"They’re running to their own deaths. After them! Don’t let a single one get away!"

"Yes, sir!"

His men responded with excitement.

Soon, Xiaoqi and her group burst into the laboratory.

The ground-floor lobby of the laboratory was incredibly spacious. The building’s core was hollowed out, with a massive steel pillar rising through the center.

This pillar stretched all the way to the ceiling, with aerial walkways branching off to connect the surrounding rooms and circular corridors.

"Sister Qi, where do we go?" the group asked in terror.

"Upstairs! Scatter and find places to hide!"

Xiaoqi was out of options. All they could do now was stall for time and pray Sister Mira’s group would arrive soon.

"Right!"

Hearing Xiaoqi’s command, the group instantly scattered, rushing for the various stairwells.

Xiaoqi led Cloud Fish and a few others toward the main staircase directly ahead.

Just then, Ferenc and his men charged in. They were met with the sight of Xiaoqi’s group splitting up and disappearing into the stairwells.

"Rats will be rats. They really think hide-and-seek will work," Ferren sneered. "Raimon, you and a few others guard all the lobby exits. The rest of you, with me! We’ll ferret every last one of these rats out!"

After giving his orders, Ferren led his men in pursuit.

Seeing the enemy charge after them, the members of the Rat Group scattered in terror, fleeing into different rooms and hallways.

"Heh heh!"

The players from the Sinful City chuckled, raised their guns, and opened fire from a distance.

Several members of the Rat Group were gunned down.

Xiaoqi’s heart bled at the sight, but there was nothing she could do except run for her life.

Ferren’s eyes immediately locked onto Xiaoqi at the head of the group. A predatory grin spread across his face as he led a few of his men after her.

The fleeing members of the Rat Group dashed into the various laboratory rooms to hide.

Of course, not all the fleeing Rat Group members were simply waiting to be slaughtered.

Some decided to risk it all, hiding in the corners of rooms with knives and axes, preparing to ambush their pursuers.

BANG! BANG!

Gunshots immediately echoed from every corner of the laboratory.

The Rat Group members attempting to set ambushes were taken out one by one. Only a very small number of players succeeded.

In truth, the players chosen for the combat squads were almost all highly trained, far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people.

「In a long corridor...」

A woman with a delicate, oval-shaped face, her expression one of pure terror, burst into a spacious room.

The room was filled with various pieces of lab equipment and metal cabinets.

Hearing footsteps approaching from outside, the woman quickly pulled open a cabinet and hid inside.

「A few seconds later.」

A man holding a gun walked in.

He scanned the room, his gaze locking onto a metal cabinet whose door was slightly ajar. A delighted grin spread across his face.

"Little mouse, where are you hiding!"

The woman inside the cabinet was overcome with terror, her hand instinctively flying to her mouth.

The man walked up to the metal cabinet and excitedly reached out to pull the door open.

"Found you..."

Suddenly, a monster was revealed. It had a deformed head with two grayish-white eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Its body was vaguely humanoid, with gray skin like molten asphalt clinging to its bones, and its hands were as sharp as claws.

The smile vanished from the man’s face, replaced by absolute terror.

"AHH—"

He was about to open fire but was instantly tackled to the ground. A bloodcurdling scream rang out.

The woman hiding in her own cabinet heard the scream and began to tremble uncontrollably.

But the scream quickly died out, and everything fell silent.

Suppressing her fear, she crept to the crack in the cabinet door and peeked outside.

She saw no one, human or monster. It seemed the danger had passed.

’Phew...’

The woman let out a sigh of relief and reached out to gently push the cabinet door open.

But the very next second, a hideous head peeked down from the top of her cabinet.

"AHHH!"

A piercing scream instantly echoed through the halls.

...

「Meanwhile.」

Xiaoqi and her group ran all the way to the top floor of the laboratory, with Ferren and his men in hot pursuit.

"Sister Qi, they’re catching up to us!"

Cloud Fish glanced back, her face a mask of terror.

"Over there!"

Xiaoqi scanned her surroundings, spotted a hallway up ahead, and immediately led them into it.

Soon, Ferren and his men followed them in.

No one noticed the sign hanging at the entrance to the hallway.

"DANGER: RESTRICTED AREA. DO NOT ENTER."

"Run! Run as much as you like!"

Ferren was in no hurry to kill Xiaoqi’s group. He was thoroughly enjoying this wonderful hunt.

Xiaoqi’s group ran deeper and deeper into the hallway until they reached the end.

A damaged black metal door came into view, with an icy chill leaking out from its shattered sections.

"It’s so cold!"

Cloud Fish couldn’t help but shiver.

"Is this a cryo-chamber?" Tang Ye said, his face grim.

"Inside!"

Xiaoqi didn’t have time to hesitate. She led Tang Ye and the others straight through the shattered door.

They found themselves in a dimly lit laboratory.

The lab was filled with all sorts of instruments and equipment. The indicator lights on some of the devices were still lit, suggesting they were still operational.

Under normal circumstances, Xiaoqi and her group would have stopped to investigate.

But now, Xiaoqi could only press deeper, searching for another way out.

But when they reached the far end of the room, a solid metal wall extinguished their last hope.

In front of the metal wall, however, sat a massive piece of machinery. Embedded within it was a transparent glass pod, filled with a dense white fog.

A dark figure could be seen lying faintly within the glass pod.

"It’s over. There’s no way out."

Tang Ye and the others felt their hearts sink.