Chapter 147 We Are Dead

Inside the "Predator" aircraft, Ji Cheng sat bare-chested on the spacious pilot's seat.

Chen Qian sat cross-legged with her knees together in the rear cabin, spreading out a brand-new combat uniform she had prepared in advance.

She was dressed in standard professional woman's attire, with a very short tight skirt that accentuated her shapely legs even more in that posture.

Pity that Ji Cheng had other things on his mind, and only occasionally couldn't help stealing a glance.

"Boss, the new combat uniform is ready. Let me help you put it on," she said in a melodious voice.

The previous combat uniform had been stripped off and discarded after emerging from the water because it was stained with too much filth. Now, as the Speaker of South Harbor, with vast wealth and resources, he didn't care about such trivial expenses at all.

"Are we heading back to South Harbor City now?" Chen Qian asked while using her soft hands to change Ji Cheng's clothes.

"No, we're going to the New City now," Ji Cheng replied without hesitation.

The little imperial princess had given her solemn guarantee, and the empire had been duly notified. His task now was to find a way to lift the space route blockade as soon as possible, allowing the people from the Eye of Order to arrive at Mount White Star and take away that terrifying artifact.

He wouldn't dare to touch anything like that even slightly; one misstep, and he wouldn't even know how he died.

"Ascend, let's go to South Harbor New City."

This peculiarly shaped aircraft, with its extremely sharp edges, rapidly lifted off from the banks of the Salt River, pivoted its nose, and transformed into a dark streak of light heading towards the New City.

The "Predator" soon arrived over the airspace of the New City's territory, flying southward all the way past the destroyed northern routes, the desolate and ruined gray zone, before the once-prosperous silver zone came into Ji Cheng's view.

"What on earth happened to the silver zone?" Ji Cheng looked at the scarlet scene below and clicked his tongue in amazement, "Old Zhang sure knows how to have a wild time..."

From the southwest side, starting around the Council Building and stretching across the majority of the silver zone, the entire area was covered in ominous red and black intertwined blood vessels. Countless monsters populated the streets, and shrill, piercing roars echoed one after another.

"I just hope those people from the Black Island Organization aren't killed. I still have a lot of use for them."

Actually, even if Zhang Sheng had infected many citizens of South Harbor New City, it wouldn't impact Ji Cheng too much personally.

Those civilians should be rescued as much as possible if feasible, but if they couldn't be saved, it could only be blamed on their bad luck.

Yet the situation was completely different now. South Harbor had spent so many years trying to catch a glimpse of the Black Island Organization's trail; if this batch of people died, trying to find their headquarters again would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

With this in mind, Ji Cheng couldn't afford to care about other matters and quickly had the aircraft fly toward Fifth Avenue.

He looked around, found the tallest nearby building, and had Shana land the aircraft there. As the hatch opened, he was already on the rooftop platform.

"I just hope the underground safe house built by the Black Island Organization is solid enough."

Ji Cheng's expression was unsightly, his blade-like brows furrowed tightly, looking rather distressed. Looking down from the rooftop of this building, not far away in his field of vision, all kinds of structures were covered in pustules and blood vessels. As for the former location of the Xinliu Building, only a base of three or four stories remained, broken and desolate, surrounded by utter silence.

"This neighborhood was ravaged not long ago, and the footprints pressed into the road are very fresh. Those monsters should have moved on to wreak havoc elsewhere."

Ji Cheng walked to the outermost edge of the rooftop, with half his foot almost suspended in the air, then pulled down his tactical goggles to scan below using thermal infrared.

At the same time, he pulled the classical-style Black Island communicator from his pocket and sent a message to Bramble.

...

Beneath the building, inside the Black Island Organization's branch.

Because there was a medium-sized generator, the lights were still brightly lit. Bramble, completely naked, stared fixedly at the red mucous membrane gradually spreading across the wall; that writhing, bizarre sense of evil made her heart tremble.

Ever since the safe house shook violently dozens of minutes ago, these terrifying mucous membranes had appeared on the walls. As the flaking debris peeled off the wall surface, some ominous and strange blood vessels also emerged on the membrane.

Earlier, someone had curiously touched the wall, only to be instantly wrapped by countless tiny membranes, dragged into the wall, and vanished without a trace.

That person's gushing plasma flowed within the blood vessels just meters away. The world of steel and concrete had turned into a place full of blood and terror everywhere.

It felt as if this were not some safe house, but the amniotic cavity of some terrifying creature.

On the other side of the safe house, the organization members had just cleared the passage blocked by the violent shaking and were scrambling towards the elevators.

"Don't panic, one at a time!" the nominal leader of the branch, that chubby middle-aged man, roared as he directed the evacuation.

"Don't panic your ass," someone glanced at the red mucous membrane spreading on the wall and the terrifying blood vessels gushing like a geyser, spitting onto the ground. "How can you say don't panic when it's like this? When are we supposed to panic, after we're dead?"

The crowd had long been scared out of their wits.

Bramble took one last glance and also walked toward the elevator.

Beep, beep—

A crisp prompt suddenly sounded, and she perplexedly took out a wet communicator.

[Where are you? Are you still under the Xinliu Building?]

"Is someone still looking for you at a time like this?" Su Yi asked beside her, as only the two of them remained behind.

"An experimental subject that used to have value."

Bramble briefly glanced at the message on the communicator, which she had annotated as 'Experimental Specimen No. 279', and casually replied, "I didn't expect him to still be alive."

"Who has the energy to deal with him right now, though."

Bang!

A loud crash ahead startled everyone.

"Damn it! The elevator switch won't open; it must be the vibration from earlier that damaged some equipment inside!" A man wearing a hat frantically pounded on the elevator buttons.

However, the screen on the button panel was pitch black. This electrical repair method, which worked a hundred times out of a hundred in daily life, failed to come in handy at this moment.

We're dead.

The hat-wearing man slumped onto the ground, but the icy sensation brought him no calmness whatsoever, only thick despair.

He looked back and saw that the faces of everyone else were similarly filled with despair and ashen defeat.

No matter how much one put on a front on ordinary days or how fierce and ruthless one acted, when death finally arrived, the fragile side was inevitably exposed.

Those mucous membranes and blood vessels were constantly expanding; it was foreseeable that before long, they would swallow everything here without leaving a trace.

Bramble fell silent too. She wasn't particularly afraid of dying, but she didn't want to be trapped and die here like this; she wanted to die with a bit of dignity. Of course, surviving would be the best outcome.

Beside her, Su Yi had already begun to sob quietly.

"It smells so foul, so disgusting..."

Many people had lost control of their bowels due to intense panic. Coupled with the blood vessels constantly closing in and converging, the smell of blood mixed with excrement made the entire passage resemble the rectum of a patient with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Beep, beep—

Bramble's communicator rang again.

[My thermal infrared has detected you. Step back a few paces, get away from the elevator entrance.]

What does he mean?

Boom!

A violent explosion came from overhead.

Rumble!

A second explosion sounded, and soil and lime dust fell in rustling showers. Bramble yanked Su Yi and retreated backward, her heart filled with mounting uncertainty and suspicion.