Rescue

What should he do!?

When Lu Yuanming saw two large and four small figures rush into the building, two thoughts came to him at once.

His first thought was to run upstairs as fast as he could, but he dismissed the instinctive idea as soon as it occurred to him.

There were still more than thirty hours until he returned. He couldn't keep surviving by crawling through dog holes, and these monsters were much faster than he was. Their eyesight and sense of smell were sharp, too. He couldn't evade them!

His second thought was to aim straight at the monsters and pull the trigger, testing from a distance whether bullets made from Colorless Light Particles could actually be fired. But Lu Yuanming dismissed that idea as well. For one thing, he had only made a single bullet. And aside from firing one shot during University Military Training, he had never handled a firearm. He didn't trust his aim.

Lu Yuanming immediately pinched two Colorless Light Particles in each hand and condensed four translucent bullets at once. Only four Colorless Light Particles remained floating around him now, and it pained him to see them go. But this wasn't the time to worry about that. He ran toward the first floor while pulling out his pistol and loading the translucent bullets. By the time the magazine clicked back into place, he had reached the first floor. He saw the two adults and four children frantically running toward different rooms.

Just then, two Man-faced Dogs that had rushed inside each knocked down a child. Children couldn't outrun adults. The monsters' vicious jaws tore at them, and the two children died screaming. One had his neck bitten through; the other had his stomach ripped open, with his liver, kidneys, and intestines torn apart.

Lu Yuanming's pupils twitched at the sight. Summoning his courage, he shouted, "Run this way, to the stairwell! Hurry! Get to the stairs!"

The two adults were white men wearing light blue clothes that looked like Work Uniforms. Each had an insignia on his chest, suggesting they worked as janitors or something similar at a school. The two remaining children wore School Uniforms. One was a girl who looked about ten, and the other was a little boy, only six or seven.

As Lu Yuanming stood at the stairwell entrance shouting, the two white men immediately turned and ran toward him. The first was a Tall Thin Man who charged ahead without a care. The other was a slightly overweight man. He hesitated, then turned back and tucked the little boy and girl under his arms, one on each side.

The two monsters had found food, so they stopped chasing the others. That gave the man in front time to reach the stairs. When the Tall Thin Man saw the pistol in Lu Yuanming's hand, he immediately shouted, "Buddy, run! None of the guns work!"

As he spoke, the Tall Thin Man rushed past Lu Yuanming and ran upstairs.

The slightly overweight man was still carrying the two children under his arms, panting as he ran toward the stairwell. One of the two monsters that had entered the building abandoned the mangled flesh it had been eating and turned to chase after him. The man heard it behind him and screamed, tears and snot streaming down his face, but even now, he didn't let go of the children.

Lu Yuanming was incredibly tense, too. He aimed his pistol at the Man-faced Dog charging toward him. The monster was less than ten meters away, while the overweight man was about seven or eight meters from him. The monster could knock the man down at any moment. Lu Yuanming pulled the trigger.

He had already prepared himself for the bullet to be useless. But the moment he pulled the trigger, he saw that what emerged from the muzzle wasn't a flash or a spark. It was a mass of white light. It wasn't like a laser, and it wasn't quite that fast. It was something like a Light Orb. Though it moved at incredible speed, the naked eye could still make out a faint trace of its path.

The orb shot straight out of the pistol and struck the Man-faced Dog in the chest with lightning speed. A sharp crack rang out, like thunder. When Lu Yuanming looked again, a basketball-sized hole had been blasted through the monster's chest, so large he could see straight through it.

The overweight man was stunned. He stared dumbly at Lu Yuanming, then looked back at the Man-faced Dog.

It wasn't just him. The Tall Thin Man, who had already run up the stairs, was stunned too. Even Lu Yuanming himself was dumbfounded. The pistol's power was absurd, like holding a cannon in his hands. This was no bullet. Anyone would believe it was Spherical Lightning.

But Lu Yuanming quickly recovered and shouted to the overweight man, "Get over here, now!"

The overweight man came to his senses and staggered over behind Lu Yuanming. He set the two children down and began panting hard. Just then, the Tall Thin Man stopped running upstairs. He didn't come back down, but called out from the middle of the stairwell, "That's a pistol!? Is that really a pistol? Do you have any more bullets? Buddy, do you have any more?"

Lu Yuanming didn't answer. He stared fixedly at the other monster in the distance. He saw the dead monster's body begin to release White Light Particles. Most of them—at least nine-tenths—disappeared into the air. About one-tenth drifted toward Lu Yuanming, landed on his skin, and seemed to merge into his body.

This time, Lu Yuanming clearly saw the White Light Particles entering his body. He was even more certain that his Soul Body had grown stronger because of them.

But why had he absorbed only one-tenth? Was it because he was too far away and hadn't gathered them? Or was there some strange rule that meant he could absorb only one-tenth?

And also...

Lu Yuanming looked at the overweight man behind him, the two terrified children, and the Tall Thin Man peering down from the stairwell. They seemed completely blind to the White Light Particles. Could those be something only he could see and absorb?

Lu Yuanming had too many questions, but this clearly wasn't the time to think them through. He had shot one monster dead, and that had enraged the other. The monster abandoned the flesh it had been gnawing and charged furiously at Lu Yuanming.

Lu Yuanming aimed down the pistol's sights. He was a man from a peaceful world, after all. He pulled the trigger when the monster was still at least twenty meters away. Another white orb shot out, but it struck the wall beside the monster, blasting a huge hole through it. Dust billowed up, and the monster charged straight through the cloud. It was fast and powerful, and with debris flying everywhere, it was already only about ten meters away.

"Hit!"

Lu Yuanming grew even more frantic. In his panic, he pulled the trigger twice in quick succession. Two white orbs shot out, one after the other. One hit the monster's left arm; the other struck beside its head. At last, he managed to hit it. Its shoulder was blown apart, and most of its head was sheared off. The monster finally crashed onto the floor and slid several meters, coming to a stop almost at Lu Yuanming's feet.

Only then did Lu Yuanming feel his heart pounding violently. In his field of vision, the monster's corpse continued to release large amounts of White Light Particles. Again, only one-tenth drifted toward him and entered his body; the rest vanished.

(So it has nothing to do with distance. If I get the chance, I should try catching the White Light Particles with my hands... But I need to work on my nerve. If possible, I should practice with firearms too. I could've killed the monster with one shot, but I ended up using three...)

There was still one bullet made from Colorless Light Particles in Lu Yuanming's pistol, but one monster remained outside the building. He had to kill it with this last shot. Otherwise, he was the one who would die.

By then, the Tall Thin Man had come back down the stairs. He shouted in amazement, "Oh my god, oh my god! Buddy, are you a secret government agent? Or someone from Area 51? Or the Freemasons? Is that an Energy Weapon?"

Lu Yuanming said nothing. The Tall Thin Man kept chattering, while the overweight man comforted the two crying children. Just then, everyone heard the monster outside let out a shrill howl. It wasn't the same sound the monsters had made while hunting earlier. A bad feeling flashed through Lu Yuanming's mind. He immediately ran to the building's front entrance, but he didn't see the monster outside. There was only a heap of flesh and blood, too mangled to make out as human.

The Tall Thin Man followed Lu Yuanming and looked out the entrance. He cried out happily, "The monster ran away! Great, it ran away!"

"No..."

Lu Yuanming's expression darkened. He had thought of a possibility. The overweight man hurried over too and said, "That's not it. The monster went to call for its companions. I used to hunt with my father. Wolves do that too: if there's a pack, the wolves scouting ahead go and call the others!"

Lu Yuanming had the same suspicion. He remembered that when he had encountered the Man-faced Dogs the last time he died, there had been more than ten of them. Only three had appeared here. That monster had probably howled as it fled because it was going to call the main group!

"Go, now! Do any of you know somewhere we can go? Somewhere easy to defend and hard to attack, or somewhere secluded, or a place with an Iron Door or other sturdy barriers!" Lu Yuanming shouted urgently to the Tall Thin Man and the overweight man.

The two men looked at each other. The Tall Thin Man immediately said, "The Subway Station!"

The overweight man said, "A bank!"

They looked at each other again, then fell silent. Lu Yuanming picked up the little boy and said to the overweight man, "You carry one. Hey, skinny guy, you lead the way. Whether it's the Subway Station or the bank, take us to whichever is closer. Hurry, hurry!"

The two men didn't dare hesitate. Lu Yuanming was giving the orders, but he had just killed two monsters, and he had an incredible high-tech weapon. They both instinctively did what he said. The overweight man picked up the little girl, while the Tall Thin Man led the way at a run.

Lu Yuanming followed them out of the building.

The five of them—three adults and two children—had barely rushed out of the building when they heard more than ten howls rising and falling in the distance. They were all the roars of Man-faced Dogs. The three adults turned deathly pale, while the two children began to cry.

A horde of monsters...

Was closing in to surround them!