Chapter 45: I'll Bless and Protect You Even If I Become a Ghost
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
Ever since the New World descended, this was the first time Lin Sanjiu had seen so many duoluozhongs. Griselda had just blurted out that warning when her voice was drowned by the intense buzzing sounds of delight from the duoluozhongs. Numerous duoluozhongs climbed out from the windows of the buildings along the two sides of the road, waving their mouthparts in mid-air. Their saliva flew everywhere, falling like viscous raindrops on the group. To Lin Sanjiu, this scene was like a swarm of bees moving in and out of their hive.
It was impossible to count the number of duoluozhongs around, and neither did they have the time to do so. But the only thing that was certain was that even if the six of them died, there would not be enough blood to go around.
“This is bulls*it! This is considered a ‘small group’?” Gao Fei was appalled as he cursed softly. He was not the only one, in fact, the six of them were stupefied and were at a loss for a moment.
Under the cacophony of buzzing noises, the duoluozhong nearest to them started climbing down nimbly from the window. Just as they saw it scale down two stories easily, Septimus reacted first, shouting, “Shouldn’t we start running?” Subsequently, he turned and started to run. Unexpectedly, he had only taken a few steps before he nearly collided into Griselda who had rushed over and blocked his path. She gave him an icy stare and showed no sign of giving way.
“None of you are allowed to run back to Oasis!” Xu Xiaoyang yelled from behind him.
“If so many duoluozhongs follow behind us, no one in Oasis will survive!” Xu Xiaoyang turned pale as she said this. No one could tell if she was anxious or angry, but she commanded, “I want you all to get in there and lead those duoluozhongs away from here!”
Other than Griselda, the remaining four people couldn’t believe what they heard. Gao Fei looked at the road ahead of them and stammered, “Team… Team Leader, you must be joking, right? The buildings are all filled with duoluozhongs!”
Lin Sanjiu could feel her heart pounding furiously, her eyes swept the surrounding— on their left, just 50 meters ahead, a few duoluozhongs have already reached the first floor of the building they were at. Xu Xiaoyang snorted, and Griselda immediately threatened all of them, “If anyone tries to run in the opposite direction, you’ll have to go through me!”
After she said that, her slender white arm visibly swelled up like a balloon. Her enlarged arm muscles burst open her sleeves, as thick green veins appeared on them, creating a stark contrast with her slender build. Even when she was teaching Tie Dao a lesson, Griselda did not display this strange transformation—she appeared to be very serious about her words. Gao Fei gulped with a face of dismay. For a moment, nobody spoke. Just then, they heard a “thud” and noticed that a duoluozhong had jumped down to the ground.
“It doesn’t matter which direction we run, let’s just go!” Lin Sanjiu finally shouted, unable to hold back any longer, she dragged Septimus along with her and continued, “I’ll make sure that he doesn’t run back to Oasis, okay? The duoluozhongs over there are coming!”
Seeing that they could not drag this out any longer, Xu Xiaoyang looked to Griselda and said, “Go!” With that, the latter drove her leg to the ground and sprinted toward Xu Xiaoyang. Griselda carried Xu Xiaoyang in her arms and dashed forward. The rest of them wasted no time following behind them, exerting all the strength they could muster.
Griselda maintained her left arm in that outrageously muscular form. As she ran, she swung her arm at the duoluozhongs who reached the ground, sending one by one flying into the air. With her opening the path, the rest only had to concentrate on running. They did not know which direction they were running toward, but they ran out of that street with Griselda leading the way. Unfortunately, there were more and more duoluozhongs in front of them, and gradually, Griselda could no longer manage them herself. Finally, even the duoluozhongs from behind chased up to them. It was as if they were trapped in a swamp, their progress became slower and slower.
A duoluozhong suddenly jumped off from the awning of a small convenience store, and right into the middle of their group. They heard an explosive cry from Hu Changzai as he leaped forward and rolled to Lin Sanjiu. Since he did not have an enhanced body, he could be considered the weakest among them. Lin Sanjiu took a quick glance and noticed that the duoluozhong had scraped off a piece of flesh from his calf, leaving a deep bloody wound. Without a second thought, she released her grip on Septimus and threw out a card. The card turned into a police baton in mid-air and fell heavily on the duoluozhong. It backed off and fell to the ground. After that, she hauled Hu Changzai up by his collar. “Place your arm on my shoulder! Try to bear with the pain and keep up!” she shouted. Hu Changzai’s face was drained of color as he tried his best to reposition his weight on his uninjured leg. Stumbling and staggering, he managed to run for a while with Lin Sanjiu’s help. However, he was heavier than Lin Sanjiu, so she realized, while panting heavily, that both were now a long distance away from the group. At this point, they couldn’t even see Griselda who was leading ahead.
Seeming to notice this, a duoluozhong slowed down and suddenly made a creepy hair-raising sound. It turned back and headed toward the two little “lambs” who had fallen behind.
“I can’t… can’t go on. You should just run without me. Thank… thank you,” Hu Changzai said in a hoarse voice, putting a brave face, he uttered, “I'll bless and protect you even if I become a ghost…”
“Don’t spout nonsense if you don’t know how to talk!” Lin Sanjiu rebuked with a gruff voice. A large drop of sweat rolled down her forehead, passing through her eyebrow and right into her eye—she felt a sudden burning sensation in her eye. Resisting the urge to clean it away, she looked around her nervously.
Under the darkness of the night, the numerous shadows vaguely merged together to form a “sea” of duoluozhongs. She could see that the number of duoluozhongs surrounding them both was gradually increasing and a heavy putrid stench now hung in the scorching air around them. She could see that they were not totally surrounded yet, but they did not have much time left.
“We have no choice! Let’s head to that building!” Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth as she dragged Hu Changzai and ran toward the gray building not far from them. It looked as if there weren’t many duoluozhongs in that building, so she made a decision to just try her luck.
[Since the duoluozhongs have all climbed down from the buildings, it should be safe, right?]
In desperate times, even a small glimmer of hope would grant a person extraordinary strength to fight for their survival. Looking up at the short building, Hu Changzai bore with the intense pain and blood loss and scrambled after Lin Sanjiu. The two of them rushed forward, almost in a frenzy. Lin Sanjiu turned two cards back into two metal rods and handed one of them to Hu Changzai. They swung their weapons and attacked continuously as they made their way forward.
Almost losing sense of their rationality, the two of them who were surrounded by the “sea” of duoluozhongs seemed to be driven only by their primitive survival instincts. They were not guided by their numbed brains but instead by the pure instinctive movements of their muscles. Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to believe that they would never reach the building, the two of them found themselves right in front of the large door of the building, all covered in blood.
The glass door that confronted them slowly cleared Lin Sanjiu’s blurry mind. She wiped off the blood on her face and saw that there was a dusty, almost illegible sign beside the door: Shenghai Municipal Public Security Bureau (Long Hua Subdivision).