Besides heavy weapons, they had no food or water, either. The other things could wait, but without those two, if they were trapped inside a horror movie, they might well starve or die of thirst.
"We really are still rookies. We thought surviving one horror movie made us veterans, but we haven't prepared nearly enough. Coming into a horror movie so casually, as if we were here to have fun... sigh."
Zheng Zha sighed helplessly. Zhan Lan silently nodded, searching the walls around the room for something.
Zheng Zha asked curiously, "What are you looking for?"
Without turning around, Zhan Lan said, "This is a super-modern spaceship. I refuse to believe it doesn't have some high-tech communication device. Do the characters in the movie have to walk right up to each other every time they want to say something?"
As she spoke, Zhan Lan found a keypad device mounted on the wall. She pressed one of the buttons at random, and sure enough, a faint sound came through. It sounded just like a call connecting, with no one speaking at the other end.
Zhan Lan rubbed her forehead. "There are over forty buttons. If we assume each one represents a room with a communication device, then we're in the middle of the merchant ship, and not too far from the control room."
Zheng Zha leaned closer. There were forty-six buttons on the device. The one in front of them was marked twenty-one, and of all forty-six buttons, only number twenty-seven had been colored red.
He thought carefully about how Zhan Lan had arrived at her conclusion. She meant that the merchant ship was divided into forty-six sections, matching the number of buttons on the communication device. Sections one and forty-six would be near opposite ends of the ship, while their room, number twenty-one, should be near the middle. Likewise, the special red button, number twenty-seven, was very likely the merchant ship's control room.
Zheng Zha hesitated. "What if the numbers on the communicator have nothing to do with the rooms' locations? What if all the room numbers are jumbled, and that red number twenty-seven isn't the control room at all, but the security room or something else? Isn't it a bit rash to decide where we are based on this alone?"
Zhan Lan gave a soft snort. "So what if it's rash? Isn't that better than sitting here until an Alien finds us? Do you want to go through another Licker attack on the door? Watch it get broken down while we can't do a thing? Even if room twenty-seven isn't the control room but the security room, there should be some useful weapons in there, right?"
Zheng Zha felt a headache coming on. Sure enough, you shouldn't provoke a young woman. When they got anxious, they could go on and on; their nagging alone was enough to make your head spin. He quickly nodded. "Yes, good, no problem. I agree we should go out and look around. No matter what, it's better than staying here trapped. I'm with you on this."
Zhan Lan immediately giggled. "Mm-hmm, I knew Zheng Zha was a good man, always ready to listen to a lady's opinion. Hehe, then I'm counting on you. Be sure to protect me, okay?"
Zheng Zha strapped three steel rods to his back and held the thickest, longest one in his hand. He didn't want to say much. Watching as Zhan Lan changed the light at the room's entrance to green, he took a deep breath and dashed out...
"Yes, my deduction was right. Every important room has a communication device and a number. We just passed room twenty-five, which means the merchant ship's control room is nearby."
Chu Xuan came out of a room and briefly explained to the other four. They were all watching their surroundings tensely. Zhang Jie suddenly asked, "What good will it do to find the merchant ship's control room? I still say we should find Zheng Zha and the others first. He's our most important fighter."
Chu Xuan said calmly, "Whether they're dead or not, we have to find the merchant ship's control room first if we want to locate them. We don't know the layout of the ship or where anything is. We don't even know where the Aliens are likely to gather, where the weapons are, or where the food and water are. And... do any of you know where the toilets are? So we have to find the control room and get a map of the ship. Only then will we be able to fight."
Zhang Jie started to say something, but in the end he fell silent. Zero Point suddenly said coldly, "Whatever we're doing, hurry up. I feel like something's been following us. It's still a long way off, but the sense of danger is unmistakable."
Overlord nodded and said in halting Chinese, "Yes, dangerous. I'm sure it's an Alien."
Chu Xuan frowned. "All right, then we'll take the passage on the left. Everyone, run. We have to find the control room as quickly as possible. If my deduction is right... finding the control room will greatly increase our chances of survival!"
At that moment, not far from Chu Xuan and the others, Zheng Zha and Zhan Lan were cautiously hurrying along the corridor. They hadn't gone far when Zhan Lan called out, "Stop, stop! I'm going to check that room. If anything happens outside... if anything happens, just use your own judgment." With that, she went into the room without even looking at Zheng Zha.
Zheng Zha smiled bitterly and muttered, "That's easy for you to say. Use my own judgment? No matter how I judge it, I'll still end up dead..."
Even so, Zheng Zha kept a close watch on his surroundings. His muscles were all tensed, and he held the thick steel rod in a reverse grip. For some reason, he felt uneasy, as though some danger was drawing closer. It made him even more nervous.
Several dozen seconds later, Zhan Lan cheerfully sprang out of the room. "Great! My deduction was right. This is room twenty-three. One of the passages we just passed must have been room twenty-two. If we keep going down this corridor, we'll definitely reach the merchant ship's control room... Huh, you look so pale. Are you scared?"
Zheng Zha forced a smile. "I don't know why, but I can't shake this feeling of unease. Maybe we should find somewhere to hide for a while..."
Zhan Lan hurriedly shook her head, then composed herself. "We were already in danger the moment we left the others, and now the control room is just around the corner. We should find it before doing anything else... I know you might not be feeling well, but can you hold on a little longer?"
Zheng Zha smiled bitterly. "Then let's keep going. I'm feeling fine physically; I'm just worried. Heh, I've never met a girl like you. It's one thing to be so thick-skinned, but you're incredibly tough, too. Most girls would probably have been scared into hiding under a bed by now, right?"
Zhan Lan turned back with a giggle. "Hehe, I've been tough since I was little. My parents died on my twelfth birthday... They were buying me a birthday cake when they got into a car accident. I wouldn't have made it this far if I hadn't been strong, so you'd better take good care of a wonderful girl like me..."
"Bang!"
As Zhan Lan turned into the corridor, she was still looking back at Zheng Zha with a smile. Suddenly, a long, tooth-covered tongue shot out from the other end of the corridor and pierced her shoulder in an instant. The spraying blood splashed across Zheng Zha's face and eyes. For a moment, her clear laughter still seemed to echo in his ears, along with the words, "You'd better take good care of me..."
"No!"
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