The Life-Saving Laser Corridor (Part 2)

Zheng Zha thought for a moment, then asked, "What about the fourth category? The first three seem to cover everything already, don't they?"

Zhang Jie suddenly revealed a mysterious smile. "The fourth category has some good stuff. You know, if you keep surviving in Horror Movies like these, sooner or later you'll break down, right? The fourth category is entertainment exchanges that let people vent their fear."

"There are cigarettes, marijuana, heroin—this stuff is dirt cheap. One Reward Point gets you a thousand cigarettes, and a kilogram of heroin only costs five Reward Points. How about that? Crazy cheap, right? The Main God analyzed it: with an ordinary human body, you need around three hundred points of Cell Vitality and over three hundred and fifty points of immunity. Then you can smoke heroin without limits. Your body can automatically eliminate the damage, hahaha."

"Besides that, you can also exchange for days of life in ordinary worlds under the entertainment category. You can get music CDs, movie discs, even women!"

Zhang Jie burst out laughing as he said this. Zheng Zha scratched his head. "I'm not interested in rubber products."

Zhang Jie patted Zheng Zha's shoulder. "What are you talking about? They're real women, real women created by the Main God! They have intelligence, individual personalities, memories, and thoughts. When you buy one, you can choose her appearance, figure, age, race, even physical details. Hahaha, have you played that game called Artificial Girl? The women made by the Main God are far more detailed than that. You could even create a Beauty with hair longer than a gorilla's, hahaha..."

Li Xiaoyi's eyes lit up again, while Zhan Lan gave a cold snort from the side.

Zhang Jie stopped laughing and said seriously, "No one knows whether they'll survive the next Horror Movie, so I want a woman I really like by my side. Once you try it, you'll understand. She isn't a doll. Even though she's a life created by the Main God, she's more real than many real women in the real world. And she truly loves you. You can share your fear and cowardice with her. The Main God also said that as long as you have enough Reward Points to return to the real world, your enhanced attributes won't change, and the things you exchanged for will go with you. That woman will return with you too... If I ever get back, I'll marry her. She's the woman I'll truly love for the rest of my life!"

There was sincerity and love in his words, and Zheng Zha's group of three all grew solemn. In this day and age, women had long been shouting that chastity was nothing more than a layer of membrane, while men only recognized lust and money. Deep down, Zheng Zha and the others truly envied and admired people who loved seriously.

Zhan Lan touched her forehead. "Let's stop this topic, gentlemen. There's a lady here, you know. No dirty talk! Zhang Jie, tell us about the Main God's space. What happens after we finish a Horror Movie?"

Zhang Jie thought for a moment. "There's nothing particularly special. After completing a Horror Movie, you return to the Main God. The Main God is a huge ball of light floating in the central area. If you want to exchange or look up anything, you can communicate with it directly through your thoughts. Around the central area are twenty separate rooms, though unfortunately no one has ever filled them all. You get a room of your own, and you can alter its size however you want. Only you and people you permit can enter it. Other than that, after every Horror Movie, you get ten days to rest in the Main God's space. That's basically it."

Zhan Lan smiled and was about to ask something else when Zhang Jie suddenly shot to his feet. He rushed to the window in the steel door and peered outside, startling the other three into following him. Yet when they looked through the glass, the corridor held nothing but bright lights.

Zhang Jie turned around and shouted, "Fire Queen, report what's happening outside the control room!"

A little girl's voice immediately rang out in the room. "Two Lickers are attacking the outermost door. The door can maintain the lockdown for another forty seconds."

Zhang Jie immediately turned back, cursing. "Damn it, I knew it wouldn't be that simple! Those Lickers must have smelled us. The outer door can't hold them back at all. Good thing we hid in here. I just don't know how long these two doors can last." As he spoke, he raised his watch and studied it carefully.

Zheng Zha and the others looked at their watches as well. The countdown showed seventeen minutes remaining. They had no idea whether the three doors plus the Laser Defense System could stop the Lickers. With the weapons in their hands, they had no chance of harming such powerful mutated creatures.

Zheng Zha did not want to die here. Especially now that there was hope of survival, he wanted to die even less. He hurriedly shouted, "Fire Queen, calculate how much longer we can hold out!"

The little girl's voice did not answer again. After waiting a moment, Zheng Zha suddenly aimed his pistol at the mainframe. "Fire Queen, I know your programming is meant to prevent the T-virus from spreading. In other words, you have to kill any life-form that might cause the virus to spread, including us, right? Then make your choice now. Activate the defense system and protect us, or let the Lickers outside rush in. But before they get in, I'll smash your motherboard first. Once The Hive loses your control, think about how many virus carriers will rush outside."

The childlike voice paused before finally replying, "May I ask something? Since you have all chosen to remain here, why continue struggling? Haven't you already decided to sacrifice yourselves?"

Before Zheng Zha could speak, Zhan Lan shouted from behind him, "Computers aren't allowed to question humans whenever they please. You need to understand your place as a computer, got it? Besides, we're already staying here. Whether we live or die, we won't let the virus spread, right? So why don't you protect us, little Fire Queen?"

The childlike voice paused again before saying, "Understood. The Lickers cannot pass through the final defensive installation."

During that brief exchange, the steel door at the end of the corridor had already begun to boom violently. The Lickers' enormous bodies could faintly be seen through the glass window in the opposing steel door. After several thunderous impacts, sharp protrusions began to appear on the steel door.

"What terrifying strength. No wonder those monsters cost one hundred Reward Points each... If we had an infinite-ammo rocket launcher, we could throw open the doors and farm Reward Points here. Hahaha." Zhang Jie laughed loudly.

Zheng Zha casually asked, "An infinite-ammo Desert Eagle costs one hundred Reward Points. Do they have infinite-ammo rocket launchers too?"

"Of course, but they're incredibly expensive," Zhang Jie said. "The most basic individual rocket launcher costs two thousand Reward Points. If I had that many Reward Points, I'd rather enhance my own attributes. Besides, you can't safely get through every Horror Movie with weapons."

As they spoke, the steel door opposite them had completely deformed. The Lickers' massive, sharp claws were terrifyingly powerful, forcibly tearing apart more than ten centimeters of steel plating. With a thunderous crash, the two Lickers appeared before them.

Their bodies were several meters long, covered in red, exposed muscle. They had no eyes and seemed to locate living creatures through heat detection and smell. Their tongues could extend over a meter, and their enormous front claws had evolved to the extreme, becoming a pair of gigantic talons beyond description. They were as hard as steel, perhaps even harder!

Zheng Zha looked at the two Lickers, then at the pistol in his hand. He could not believe a pistol alone could kill such terrifying creatures. Forget killing them; he would be lucky if it could even injure them.

The two Lickers looked toward the corridor. Then one of them suddenly pounced forward, with the other close behind. A loud bang shook the steel door before them. This was their final line of defense against the Lickers, yet that creature had leaped all the way onto the steel door in a single jump.

"Fire Queen!"

Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie roared at the same time. Almost simultaneously, a flash of light appeared somewhere in the corridor. A thin laser beam formed instantly and shot toward the two Lickers. Just as the creatures were about to leap at the steel door again, the laser swept across them. Two soft sounds followed, and the laser vanished. The Lickers fell completely still. Slowly, their enormous bodies split open down the middle, their upper and lower halves separating into two pieces.

"Whew!"

All four of them let out a breath at once. The Lickers' pressure had been overwhelming. Ordinary people seemed incredibly small before them; a single swipe of a Licker's claw could end a life instantly. Even Zhang Jie, the strongest among them, was only somewhat stronger than an ordinary person. He had no chance at all against a Licker. If that door had been breached, they would have certainly died!

Zhang Jie dropped heavily to the floor and pulled out several cigarettes. He tossed one to Zheng Zha and another to Li Xiaoyi, making the young man feel flattered beyond belief. Zhang Jie lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. "Now you know what fright and terror really mean, right? I've gone through situations like that many times already. Three Horror Movies... I don't even know how I struggled through them... Damn it! What kind of bullshit is this? This really isn't a place for people!"

Zheng Zha and Zhan Lan exchanged bitter smiles. At the instant the Licker had jumped toward them, their reactions had been even worse than Zhang Jie's. Sweat had poured from them, and their bodies had trembled so badly they could barely stand. Fortunately, the Laser Defense System had saved their lives. Otherwise, they probably would not have even had the desire to run.

"Let's keep waiting. This Laser Defense System is pretty good. We should be able to..."

Before Zhang Jie could finish, the entire control room suddenly went dark. The four of them froze for a moment, then hurriedly sprang up and rushed to the glass window in the door. Sure enough, the laser corridor outside had gone pitch-black too. The entire control room had lost power.

"Damn it! The plot! How did I forget this part of the plot? Do you all remember? This part of the plot!" Zhang Jie kicked the steel door hard and roared in near madness.

Zheng Zha desperately searched his memories of Resident Evil 1. It had been a Horror Movie from a long time ago. Though he had watched it, he had forgotten many details. After thinking for a long time, he and Zhan Lan finally cried out together, "Kaplan shut down the Fire Queen!"

Zheng Zha remembered this part. At the time, the male and female leads had been trapped in a laboratory by an electronic lock, while a Licker was attacking one of the laboratory doors. In order to save them, Kaplan used a remote device to shut down the central computer, the Fire Queen. As a result, the place where the four of them were had lost its defenses. Apart from the door itself, the most powerful Laser Defense System had instantly failed!

Gradually, the four of them calmed down. They knew that even the slightest sound could draw the Lickers over, so aside from their breathing and heartbeats, none of them dared say another word. Even so, in the absolute silence and darkness, the sound of their breathing remained clearly audible.

No one knew how long passed before heavy panting gradually drifted through the darkness, accompanied by the sound of steel scraping against steel. Zheng Zha did not need to look to know that a Licker was outside.

He remembered that only a few minutes passed after the power was shut off before the female lead and the others returned to the surface from the train car. At that point, the lockdown doors would close completely, and the time on their watches should run out at almost the same time.

Zheng Zha whispered to Zhan Lan beside him, "How much time is left? How much is left on the watch?"

Zhan Lan replied, "I don't know. It's pitch-black; no one can see... Maybe a few minutes."

A few minutes. Just how many minutes?

Zheng Zha did not dare speak again, because the heavy panting had reached the other side of the door. It continued through the steel door, making everyone more and more tense. Then they heard the sound of steel scraping. The Licker was clearly dragging its claws across the door.

How much longer? How much time is left? Hurry up!

Zheng Zha stared fixedly at the steel door, gripping the pistol with its few remaining bullets in both hands. Even though he knew it could not possibly hurt a Licker, it was his only source of psychological comfort.

Bang!

A violent crash rang out, and a sharp bulge immediately appeared on the steel door. The four of them felt as if their hearts had leaped from their chests. They scrambled backward, and everyone, including Zhang Jie, pressed tightly into the corners against the walls. All they could do was stare helplessly at the steel door.

The crashes continued without pause, and more sharp bulges appeared on the steel door. Finally, the tips of the claws pierced through it. As though cutting butter, they tore through the steel plate more than ten centimeters thick. The Licker's horrifying face appeared beyond the steel door.

"Ah!"

Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie roared at once, firing their guns wildly at the Licker. But in the darkness, with both of them nearly mad with fear, not a single bullet struck it. The Licker tossed aside the fragment of door in its claws, let out a howl, and suddenly leaped toward the four of them...