Down

It was only three seconds late.

Forty-one shots rang out. Since the M16 Automatic Rifle only held thirty rounds, Ba Di had changed magazines once more.

All forty-one bullets struck the kneecaps of the kneeling soldiers, making them howl in agony. Some had even begun to cry.

There was no pity, no expression.

Ba Di's impassive gaze swept over the soldiers before him. At last, his eyes inadvertently passed over the half-open gate and the red figure curled up on the ground inside the warehouse.

If Ba Di wanted Jenny to receive treatment, he needed more wounded soldiers to draw people from the Ground Base to the Negative First Floor to rescue their soldiers and scientists. Then they would see Jenny and rescue her as well.

Otherwise, these soldiers would not have had a chance to survive either.

Before long, under Ba Di's terrifying actions, the forty-one soldiers selected ten whom they believed should die.

The first was an outstanding soldier. Judging from his dying howls, his achievements and appearance were far superior to the others. He should not have died; someone as exceptional as him should not have died. Perhaps that was exactly why the soldiers chose him to die. Even before death, he howled in indignation, blaming and cursing the comrades who had pushed him out to die.

The second was a soldier they all hated, a somewhat lecherous and repulsive man. Crying, he tried to crawl to Ba Di's feet, willing to lick his shoes and do anything at all, so long as he would not die.

After that, one outstanding soldier after another was singled out by the ordinary soldiers and killed by Ba Di.

The scene was ugly and revolting. That was simply what human nature was.

With a clang, Ba Di threw the M16 Automatic Rifle before them. His eyes looked down from above at the thirty-one soldiers weeping in pain.

They had already lost something essential to being human, personally pushing their comrades out to die. This would become their nightmare forever.

For the sake of survival.

"You... live."

After saying that coldly, Ba Di turned and left with his tall frame.

The M16 Automatic Rifle lay before them, while Ba Di's powerful back gradually receded into the distance. The soldiers no longer had the courage to pick up the gun and shoot at that retreating figure.

Whether from guilt or pain, they cried louder and more desperately.

Ba Di walked over to Major Atherton. He had been riddled with bullets, blood flowing across the floor. Fortunately, one of his hands was not badly damaged, and its palm print could still be read clearly.

Ba Di grabbed his hand and dragged his corpse along, leaving a trail of blood as he brought him to the elevator and pressed his hand against the elevator door that could only be opened by a palm print.

"Beep beep. Major Atherton, approved."

The electronic voice sounded.

Ba Di tossed aside Major Atherton's corpse. The elevator rose from the Negative Fourth Floor until it reached the Negative First Floor, its heavy frame giving a steady jolt as it stopped.

From that solid pause alone, Ba Di knew the elevator weighed close to twenty tons and was reinforced with thick steel plating.

The elevator doors slowly opened. The attendant stared wide-eyed at Ba Di in shock. He carried the presence of a killer who had walked out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood; behind him, the path was stained with the blood and bodies of distant soldiers.

The attendant soldier moved quickly. He immediately disengaged the safety on the weapon slung across his chest. With a click, the gun was aimed at Ba Di, his finger curled around the trigger, ready to fire.

Yet all he could do was clutch the trigger in place, staring at Ba Di in shock.

With incredible speed, Ba Di thrust one hand into the trigger guard, pinning the soldier's finger. With a squeeze of overwhelming force, he crushed the entire automatic rifle. Rifle parts and unfired bullets clattered onto the ground, their crisp sounds frightening the soldier senseless.

"Ah!!"

The soldier's hand twisted under Ba Di's immense strength. His face turned deathly pale as he screamed in pain.

Ba Di chopped at the soldier's neck with his hand. The attendant soldier's cervical vertebrae snapped, and his twisted body collapsed to one side.

Ba Di took his hand and pressed it against the palm-print floor selector, choosing the Negative Fourth Floor.

The elevator doors slowly closed, like the closing jaws of an incomparably savage beast in the darkness.

"Colonel, Ba Di has taken the elevator and is about to descend to the Negative Fourth Floor."

A soldier reported.

Colonel Slade's gaze was sharp and severe, yet filled with deep confusion as he looked toward the elevator surveillance feed.

On the monitor, Ba Di stood inside the elevator with his head raised and chest out, straight as a pine tree, standing like a pillar that held up the sky, unafraid of anything.

A fierce glint flashed through Slade's eyes as he pondered. Ba Di's actions deeply baffled him.

Taking the elevator down to the Negative Fourth Floor was absolutely not a good idea. There were too many ways the elevator could be used against him. Ba Di could not possibly have failed to realize that.

But why would Ba Di do this? The more Slade thought about it, the more Ba Di felt like a mystery, and the more he thought, the deeper he sank into anger.

He was angry that he had allowed Ba Di to go up to the Negative First Floor, that he had allowed him to see the sunlight.

'Colonel Slade, you are too green. Every thought you have is in my mind. Your will is not firm enough. You could not completely carry through with guarding against me and imprisoning me on the Negative Fourth Floor.'

Ba Di's words made him feel even more suffocated.

Ba Di had clearly done nothing to him yet, but Slade felt as though Ba Di were slowly tightening a noose around his neck, leaving him unable to breathe.

"Colonel Slade!"

The major beside Slade called out to him.

Slade abruptly came back to his senses. He knew that the doubts about Ba Di forming in his mind were putting pressure on himself, because if he was not careful, Ba Di really could kill his way down to the Negative Fourth Floor. By then, perhaps no one on the entire Negative Fourth Floor would survive.

A fierce light flashed in Slade's eyes as he ordered, "Shut down the elevator. Release poison gas. Deploy the steel barriers. Sever the elevator passage at the Negative Second Floor."

"Notify the Ground Base to enter the Negative First Floor and rescue the soldiers and scientists. At the same time, begin sealing off the floors."

"All personnel on the Negative Fourth Floor are to evacuate via the stairs. Trap him here until he dies."

The soldiers swiftly and orderly carried out Slade's commands.

But before long, something unexpected happened.

"Colonel, the elevator has not reached the interval where poison gas can be released. Ba Di opened the elevator ceiling and entered the shaft. He has vanished from the surveillance feed."

"No trace on the Negative Second Floor surveillance."

"No trace on the Negative Third Floor surveillance."

"No trace on the Negative Fourth Floor surveillance."

"The system center has detected an elevator malfunction. Operations have stopped."

At the moment the soldier reported this, a rumbling vibration seemed to come from afar, as though someone were destroying something.

Ba Di was destroying the elevator.

Bloodshot veins surfaced in Slade's eyes. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.

This time, he still had not guessed what Ba Di intended to do.

"Colonel, Ba Di has appeared at the elevator entrance on the Negative Third Floor."

A soldier reported nervously. Seeing Ba Di tear open the steel at the elevator entrance by brute force alone made his mouth go dry.

Slade sucked in a sharp breath. This time, he knew what Ba Di was planning!

There were only two passages through this Underground Base: the elevator and the stairs.

If he destroyed the elevator, then came down from the Negative Third Floor to the Negative Fourth Floor by the stairs, there would no longer be any way out of the Negative Fourth Floor.

No one on the Negative Fourth Floor could escape.

Everyone on the Negative Fourth Floor had become turtles in his jar.

Slade took a deep breath, murderous light appearing in his eyes.

"Prepare for battle."