"Then it's settled, big sister! Big brother! From now on, I'm one of you!"
Jiang Huai was speechless. Just a moment ago, the guy was wailing like he was about to die, but as soon as he heard that he could shrink back to safety, he got all energized.
"Let's not talk about that for now."
Jiang Huai gently lowered Lu Wanyin's hand, which was still suspended in mid-air, and closed her mouth, then turned to Chu He.
"My name is Jiang Huai. She is my partner, Lu Wanyin. The urgent matter now is to find your team leader. You need treatment for your injury. Can you contact them?"
As soon as Chu He heard about his wound, he began wailing again.
"I can't reach them... Not to mention that my communication terminal was destroyed by those monsters, but even before that, this place had already been blocked by some mysterious signal."
Jiang Huai took out his phone and tried calling Yue Qinshan.
But once he pulled out his phone, all he saw on the screen was no signal.
At this moment, Lu Wanyin, who had been stunned earlier, had recovered.
She shrugged and gave a helpless look.
"I tried it earlier. All the communication devices here don't work."
"Then we'll have to leave this cinema. Maybe we'll encounter some of the Unafraid team's other members on the way."
Saying this, Jiang Huai looked at Chu He.
"Let's go. We'll take you out of here first."
"My... leg hurts. Big brother, I can't really move."
Jiang Huai's mind was filled with a thousand curses.
He had already seen Chu He's wound. The injury to his leg was the least serious, and yet here he was acting all helpless.
"Fine. You stay here and wait. We'll go first. If we're lucky and run into any members of the Unafraid team, we'll let them know you're here."
After saying this, Jiang Huai stood up.
Scared, Chu He quickly followed suit.
"Big brother! Big brother, wait! I'll go! I'll go, is that alright?!"
"Just call me Jiang Huai. I'm not much older than you."
Jiang Huai sighed, and Lu Wanyin stretched her legs before standing up from her seat. She stretched lazily and then whispered to Jiang Huai.
"Are we really taking him with us? Feels like such a hassle."
"At a critical moment, he can be our meat shield."
"Hmm, good idea."
Although Jiang Huai said it jokingly, Lu Wanyin didn't seem to treat it as a joke. She slightly tilted her head, giving Chu He a wicked smile.
It made Chu He shudder.
Lu Wanyin's personality was truly unpredictable. At school, she was like the sunshine for everyone.
But before people she didn't like, she could be as sharp-tongued as a little devil.
And in front of him, she was quieter, but like a mischievous little cat.
At that moment, Lu Wanyin was at the front of the group, as she was the strongest of the three on paper.
They had just passed a screening room, which was the same one where Jiang Huai and Lu Wanyin had watched a movie earlier.
Lu Wanyin just peeked her head in, then quickly pulled back.
"They're all dead." She shrugged.
"That's too much... Even though the team leader wanted to treat everyone here as suspected infected, killing them all seems too..."
"This is the most effective way to prevent the spread of infected. Although Captain Mo Yu's style is harsh, her orders and actions are not a problem."
Jiang Huai said indifferently.
"But what if some of them weren't infected?" Chu He still seemed unconvinced.
Lu Wanyin sighed sarcastically and said, "Young master, if they threw you inside, even if there were only ten infected, how long could you last?"
"Ah? I'd probably collapse in seconds."
"Exactly. Even if there are humans who aren't infected, what good would that do? While they were all engrossed in the movie, those tentacles would have silently pierced their throats."
Lu Wanyin rested her hands behind her head, walking backward while speaking to Chu He.
"Your team leader is an elite among elites. Many people risked their lives to join her team, but you, on the other hand, seem to be trying to get out of it."
Chu He clenched his fists, as if he wanted to argue, but eventually lowered his head and weakly said,
"Not everyone is as strong as you... I'm an awakened one, but I'm just a strengthening type. I can only provide support for others' weapons."
"That's not bad. Strengthening-type awakeners are in demand."
Lu Wanyin said.
"My rank is too low, and the weapons I strengthen are basically just scrap metal. Sigh, I now suspect that my family wants me dead on a mission because I'm too much of a disgrace. That would at least count as a heroic sacrifice."
Chu He lowered his head even further.
Lu Wanyin furrowed her brow, about to say something, when Jiang Huai suddenly felt something.
He quickly raised his hand, intending to grab Lu Wanyin's wrist, but at the last second, he grabbed her collar and pulled her into his chest.
Lu Wanyin froze, and Chu He was also stunned.
"This, this is not really the time for this, big brother."
Just as Chu He finished speaking, the ceiling above Lu Wanyin's previous position suddenly collapsed, and a group of infected people, dressed as staff, fell from the debris.
These infected were twisted into a mess, their arms flailing around like disgusting tentacles.
"Gross! This is disgusting..."
Chu He started dry-heaving at the sight.
Lu Wanyin was also shaken.
If she had been hit by those things earlier, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
She secretly glanced at Jiang Huai's face.
She hadn't noticed the presence of the infected earlier, but Jiang Huai had sensed the danger first.
But wasn't Jiang Huai a regeneration-type awakened?
"Don't be careless."
Jiang Huai slowly backed away with the others, keeping a safe distance from the creatures.
"They all have wounds, and most of their limbs are damaged. They were probably attacked by your team earlier, but they didn't fully die."
Upon hearing Jiang Huai's analysis, Chu He turned pale.
"So... So they're now entangled, replacing their missing limbs... Can infected do that...?"
Chu He covered his mouth, suppressing the urge to vomit.
The massive creature, made up of over ten infected, noticed the three of them and began crawling toward them with several arms.
Jiang Huai understood that he had to do something now.
But just as he was about to act, a flash of blinding light appeared.
The creature that had been formed by the infected stopped moving and started to disintegrate, ultimately becoming countless severed limbs.
After the blood-curdling stench, a tall girl in a black combat uniform appeared in front of them, quickly sheathing a knife.
Upon seeing her, Chu He seemed to have found his savior.
"Captain!"
"Look at you. You were just complaining about how cold-hearted the team leader was, but now that she's here, you're acting all excited like a chick seeing its mother."
Lu Wanyin chuckled as she shrank into Jiang Huai's arms.
Mo Yu glanced at Chu He, then her gaze fell on Jiang Huai and Lu Wanyin.
At this moment, the two of them realized that maybe continuing to maintain this embrace wasn't the best idea.
So they immediately pulled apart.
Mo Yu's black boots stepped on the blood spilled from the monster's remains. Her eyes were cold as she stared at the three of them.
She then nodded slightly to Jiang Huai and Lu Wanyin.
"Thanks for helping my team member."
"Just a small thing." Jiang Huai replied with a smile.
"Captain Mo Yu, what's the situation now?"
Lu Wanyin asked.
Mo Yu glanced at her coldly and replied, "I'll take care of the rest. You all go back to the storage room and stay there."
Lu Wanyin was slightly taken aback, not understanding. "Captain Mo Yu, we Night Demon Patrols could help you too. Let us join in."
"We are in charge of this scene. Obey the orders."
Mo Yu only left these words before swiftly passing by the three of them.
However, as she brushed past Jiang Huai, she subtly shifted her gaze, seemingly observing him carefully in that fleeting moment.
Jiang Huai, with his sharp perception, naturally noticed this.
It felt like being watched by a deadly snake, and his spine chilled.
This gaze may have seemed like an instant to Lu Wanyin and Chu He, but to Jiang Huai, it felt like a long eternity.
Jiang Huai remained calm, pretending not to notice. Finally, Mo Yu didn't say anything further and disappeared around the corner of the hallway.
"Seriously, that woman is so annoying."
Lu Wanyin pouted.
"Lu Wanyin."
Jiang Huai walked over to her and pointed to the pile of twisted infected that Mo Yu had just cut apart.
"Can you see that?"
"See what?" Lu Wanyin followed his gaze but didn't understand what he was pointing at.
Jiang Huai frowned.
Lu Wanyin couldn't see it, and it seemed Mo Yu hadn't noticed either.
The tangled mass of infected all had a thin blue thread connecting their heads.
And that thread stretched all the way up to the collapsed ceiling.
Jiang Huai slowly closed his eyes and tried to use his perception to follow the thread, delving deeper and deeper.
What shocked him was that he could indeed treat the thread as some kind of connection point.
His perception stretched further toward the ceiling, and soon he felt a crack in the infinite darkness and chaos. From the other side of the crack came a chilling creak.
Jiang Huai opened his eyes.
He understood what the creature in the crack was trying to say.
"This is my nest. Get out."