Brushing Past Death (Part 2)

Among the mercenaries, the one most skilled with computers was Kaplan. He immediately opened three laptops. From Zheng Zha and the others' perspective, his computer skills were absolutely first-rate. His hands clattered nonstop over all three keyboards, but several minutes passed and the tightly sealed door leading directly to the central computer remained shut.

Another female mercenary could not help asking, "Why is this taking so long?"

Without turning his head, Kaplan replied, "The Fire Queen is an intelligent computer. Its defensive system is extremely comprehensive. If its firewall could be breached so easily, they wouldn't have used it as the laboratory's main computer..."

As he spoke, there was a soft click, and the tightly sealed door finally began to open slowly. Matthew Addison nodded. "Pack up the equipment!" After saying that, he turned back to look at Zheng Zha and the others.

"You stay here."

Beyond the door was a passageway over ten meters long. Both sides of the passage were glass walls, completely unlike the steel walls outside the door.

After speaking, Matthew Addison walked inside on his own. He moved with extreme caution, every step careful enough, yet when he reached the middle of the passage, his entire body still jolted in shock. The glass walls around him suddenly lit up. The abruptness of it was enough to make an ordinary person's legs go weak.

Kaplan's voice came through the communicator. "Relax. They're just automatic sensor lights. Nothing to worry about."

Those are obviously lasers from an automatic defense system. What automatic sensor lights? Nothing to worry about, my ass...

Zheng Zha thought darkly. He suddenly wanted to say something, but a small hand grabbed him. When he turned around, he saw the glasses-wearing girl beside him gently shaking her head.

Matthew Addison had already placed the transmitter. It was a device resembling a cellphone; all he had to do was set it on the door's sensor. Kaplan immediately began tapping away at the keyboard again. Before long, there was another soft click, and the door leading to the central computer finally began opening slowly.

Matthew Addison let out a breath and called to the people outside the passage, "All right, bring the equipment over."

Alice suddenly asked, "What equipment? What is that?"

Kaplan was closest to her. He said, "It's a device that can shut down the Fire Queen. It releases a powerful electric current, disrupting the mainframe and forcing it to reboot..."

At that moment, the mercenary carrying the device was about to enter the passage. Zheng Zha finally could not hold back any longer and shouted, "W-Wait! Don't you think this is strange? This intelligent computer is far too useless. You're just rebooting it that easily? I don't think things are that simple. There could be something unusual in this passage."

The mercenaries all stopped at once, and everyone looked at him strangely. The glasses-wearing girl sighed, released his hand, and moved far away from him to stand beside Alice, the female lead.

Matthew Addison walked out of the passage and silently stared at Zheng Zha. After a long while, he finally said, "Fine. You, and you, come in with us." He pointed at Zheng Zha and the middle-aged man, Mou Gang.

Zheng Zha and Mou Gang's limbs immediately turned cold. Anyone who had seen this movie knew that this passage was a death trap. Anyone who entered would certainly die. Even the mercenary captain, the most skilled among them, had died beneath the lasers—and in an extremely gruesome manner. He had been sliced into countless tiny chunks of flesh.

Zheng Zha finally understood why Zhang Jie had looked at him that way. Yes, he could not stop himself from wanting to change the plot, but the plot itself had an inertia that could not be altered. Even if it was altered because of that, the Main God might increase the difficulty severalfold—just like now.

Mou Gang suddenly clutched his head and screamed, "No! I don't want to! I don't want to go in!" As he spoke, he screamed and ran back the way they had come. Before Zheng Zha and the others could react, the mercenaries had already drawn their guns and shot him flying. By the time he hit the ground, he was a corpse riddled with bullet holes.

"Bleurgh!"

Zheng Zha and Li Xiaoyi both vomited violently. A living person had been turned into a corpse right before their eyes. Zheng Zha felt especially awful, because this man had basically died due to his meddling.

Matthew Addison looked at him coldly. "I suspected you from the start. Your identities are registered in the company files, but you don't look like company security at all. Are you still trying to stop us from rebooting the Fire Queen? All right, Zheng Zha. Come in with us."

Zheng Zha's entire body was icy. Having just vomited, his stomach still felt unsettled. Matthew Addison did not stand on ceremony at all, grabbing him and dragging him inside with the other mercenaries.

The moment everyone entered the passage, just as in the movie, the doors at both ends closed simultaneously. Matthew Addison no longer had time to care about Zheng Zha. He and the other mercenaries held their guns and watched their surroundings cautiously. At the same time, he asked into the communicator, "Kaplan?"

Kaplan said urgently, "It's some kind of dormant defensive measure. Once too many people pass through the door, it activates after they enter."

Matthew Addison said, "Then put it back to sleep!"

Kaplan was already sweating profusely. His hands kept striking the keyboard as he answered, "I'm trying!"

Helplessly, Matthew Addison told his men, "Stay where you are. Don't move."

The moment Zheng Zha heard those words, his entire body turned cold. He knew the plot had begun, and he had become part of it. Sure enough, the lights on the walls directly opposite them suddenly dimmed, and a thin laser line appeared between the glass walls. The instant it formed, it swept toward the mercenaries and Zheng Zha!

Matthew Addison reacted the fastest, throwing the two people beside him to the floor. Zheng Zha had been watching that direction the entire time, so the instant the laser line appeared, he dropped flat as well. The laser only grazed his shoulder. The sharp, scorching sensation felt as if it had slid right across his shoulder, and apart from that, his mind had gone completely blank.

"Medic! Medic!"

Matthew Addison shouted, and the sound jolted Zheng Zha out of his blank state. He turned his head and looked. The female mercenary serving as their medic had her head slowly sliding away. Then it fell straight down in front of him. Her wide, lifeless eyes looked like a curse—and even more like mockery.

"No, don't! I don't want to die!" Zheng Zha screamed madly. For some reason, the louder he screamed, the calmer he became inside. He began recalling every detail of this scene from Resident Evil 1.

Matthew Addison was supporting a mercenary whose fingers had been severed by the laser. At that moment, another mercenary shouted, "Officer, another one is coming!"

This time, the laser line formed at leg height. Zheng Zha recalled the details of this scene. He remembered that after this laser passed through the first mercenary, it would rise when the second mercenary jumped, then cut the second mercenary into pieces. He had only one chance to choose. If he failed, the laser would kill him! He did not know whether the plot would change here, so he could only choose to trust the movie plot he knew.

The laser line began sweeping rapidly toward the four of them. The mercenary on the ground could not move and was quickly killed. The remaining two mercenaries kept backing away. Zheng Zha widened his eyes and stared at that mercenary's movements with complete focus. One second, two seconds... at this moment of life and death, Zheng Zha felt as though time had frozen. He could no longer hear any sound, and everything around him seemed to have slowed down.

Mental Threshold exceeded! 500 Reward Points awarded. Mental Power increased by 20 points. Nerve Reaction Speed increased by 30 points!

A rigid yet solemn voice passed by Zheng Zha's ear, but he could not hear anything anymore. He could only focus completely on the mercenary's movements. Finally, at the instant the man jumped, Zheng Zha dropped flat to the floor. The laser line swept past before his eyes. Its white light was like Death's scythe. In that instant, Zheng Zha believed Zhang Jie's words. They had truly entered this so-called game with their physical bodies. This was the work of gods—or perhaps the game of demons. They... could die!

Sure enough, the laser shot upward when the mercenary jumped. The mercenary who had jumped was completely dismembered. Once the laser had passed, Zheng Zha sprang up from the ground again. Looking behind him, he saw the glasses-wearing girl standing outside at the glass panel in the steel door, her eyes full of tears.

Zheng Zha only had time to give her a faint smile before he dragged Matthew Addison against the door at the entrance they had come through. Now he could only pray that the plot had not changed in the slightest. This laser would stop when it neared the door. There was no point trying to dodge it; it would turn into a grid and tear apart anyone in its path. The only thing he could do was press himself against the door and pray to heaven. Just as the plot had shown, let this all end!

Matthew Addison struggled desperately. "Let go of me! We'll both be cut in half standing here! Let go!"

But Zheng Zha gripped his collar tightly. "Trust me! Trust me! We can't dodge this one. Stay pressed against the door—this is our only chance! Trust me!"

The third laser line was gradually forming. The instant it took shape, it swept rapidly toward them. Judging by its position, it would cut both men in half at the waist. Matthew Addison desperately tried to drop to the floor, but Zheng Zha held on to him and refused to let go even in death. Zheng Zha himself pressed his entire body tightly against the door, even slowly closing his eyes.

"I want to live. I want to live. Even if I have to struggle in a situation like this, I still want to live!"

Perhaps the gods had opened their eyes, or perhaps Zheng Zha's prayer had worked. As the laser neared them, it suddenly turned into a grid. Matthew Addison only had time to curse, and in that instant of despair, the laser grid gradually dimmed. Then it vanished mere centimeters in front of him. A faint scorching sensation rushed toward his face with the air. In that moment, he seemed unable to believe he had survived.

Zheng Zha opened his eyes. He had not seen the laser grid disappear, but he knew he had succeeded. The familiar plot had once again moved forward by inertia, and he had finally struggled free from death. In more than twenty years of life, he had never come so close to death. Its path had swept across his shoulder—so close!

"What's this?"

As Zheng Zha marveled at his own luck, he suddenly noticed a small ball of light appear on the collar of Matthew Addison, whom he was still holding. He curiously picked up the ball. The several-centimeter-wide orb vanished between his fingers, and a warm current seemed to enter his body through them. It was an unusually comfortable and strange sensation.

B-grade Horror Side Story completed. 5,000 Reward Points awarded!

That rigid yet solemn voice sounded again. Only then did Zheng Zha recall that he seemed to have heard something when the laser swept past earlier. Thinking carefully, it appeared he had received 500 Reward Points, along with 20 points of Mental Power and 30 points of Nerve Reaction Speed. Converted together, that was already worth 1,000 Reward Points. According to Zhang Jie, that was the reward one could receive for surviving a Horror Movie.

As for the 5,000 Reward Points, it felt like a huge pie had fallen from the sky, leaving Zheng Zha stunned. Whether it was the joy of surviving or the surprise of the reward, he did not know. In any case, even when the doors opened and several people rushed toward him, he remained standing there in a daze.

The young Li Xiaoyi rushed to Zheng Zha's side and slapped his shoulder hard. "You're incredible! You actually survived something like that!"

The slap brought Zheng Zha back to his senses. He gave a bitter smile and shook his head, not knowing what he was feeling. He did not even know what he should say at that moment. Having just survived a brush with death, the shock was simply too great for an ordinary person who had only just stepped out of a normal world.

The glasses-wearing girl, Zhan Lan, also came over and said, "You deserved that. I kept warning you not to change the plot, but you refused to listen. What Zhang Jie said earlier was right. Our greatest reliance here isn't luck, but our familiarity with the plot. Your luck can't stay with you forever. Don't be so impulsive in the future. None of us wants to die here."

Zheng Zha shook his head without speaking. He did not know whether he should tell them about the rewards. B-grade Horror Side Story... what exactly did that mean? Did it refer to changing the direction of the plot? Or saving someone who was supposed to die in the story? Or surviving an especially dangerous scene in the plot?

He did not know. What had just happened had truly been extremely dangerous. He had nearly died in there, and that middle-aged man, Mou Gang, had practically died because of him. So he did not dare keep trying to change the plot. Perhaps Zhang Jie and the others would not let him change it again either. Once no one could predict what would happen next, everyone might die here... including them, including the characters, even including the protagonists of the movie!

This was a Horror Movie. No one in it was absolutely safe. Anyone could die. They were all merely struggling insects, struggling to survive!