Nightmare Difficulty

The three toy robots marched in unison. They weren't very fast, but they filled the mercenaries with fear and pressure.

"Open fire!" A Ping shouted at once.

It didn't matter whether someone was controlling the toys. The safest thing was to destroy them first.

"Rat-a-tat-tat!" A dense barrage of gunfire rang out.

"Clang, clang!" Bullets struck the zombie robots, making a crisp metallic clatter. The concentrated fire sent them staggering, and before long they were smoking and sprawled motionless on the ground.

"Phew..." All the mercenaries breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness—they weren't ghosts or anything like that. People feared the unknown, the things they couldn't defeat, but toys like these didn't count!

But just then, faint footsteps pattered through the darkness in the distance. Under the terrified gaze of the group, row after row of zombie robots marched toward them in perfect formation.

Each row of zombie robots was two or three meters apart, with three to a row. Even their design was exactly the same as before.

The zombie walk, which had originally been utterly ridiculous, now seemed filled with an eerie quality that struck fear into their hearts.

"Q-quick... open fire!" A Ping cried in terror.

Another fierce barrage rang out. Some mercenaries even pulled out grenades and threw them, blasting a large number of zombie robots off their feet.

But it was no use. The zombie robots seemed endless. One batch fell, then another appeared, coming on without pause.

"Click, click!" Some mercenaries ran out of bullets, yet kept pulling the triggers in terror.

Ammunition was limited, and at last there was a lull in the mercenaries' fire. The zombie robots closed to within three meters.

One mercenary was slightly ahead of the others and became the first to be reached by a zombie robot. With a "BOOM!" the mercenary was blown apart, flesh and blood flying everywhere.

The robots had been carrying shells on their backs.

"Fall back! Slowly! Keep up the fire!" A Ping shouted in terror. He remembered Lao Liu mentioning the little ghosts that exploded. Could these be those things? Was there really a ghost ship?

The mercenaries fought as they retreated. Fortunately, the zombie robots weren't fast and kept to the same steady pace, giving them time to adjust their formation.

"A Ping! What's happening?" Captain Ruan's voice came through the walkie-talkie. Clearly, the people at the rear had heard the gunfire from this side.

"C-Captain, there are so many zombie robots! That... that ghost ship is playing Plants vs. Zombies with us!"

A Ping was barely coherent by now. He had clearly bought into the ghost-ship theory and identified the enemy as that ship.

On the other end, Captain Ruan's veins bulged on his forehead. What Plants vs. Zombies? Why was everyone saying such strange things? Just speak plainly!

Unfortunately, the noise on A Ping's end was too loud. He had no time to give Captain Ruan a more detailed report.

Captain Ruan set down the walkie-talkie with a dark expression. The gunfire was getting closer. A Ping and the others were clearly falling back as they fought, and soon the enemy would force them all the way here.

Who exactly were the enemy? Why were they attacking them? What did they want from them?

He didn't rush to the battlefield ahead. Instead, he calmed down and thought for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at the door at the end of the corridor.

Could it be... they had come to rescue the prisoner?

Otherwise, there was no reason to go to such lengths. The supernatural theatrics were probably meant to hide their real purpose and keep us off guard! That had to be it!

Only the police or the military could bring in this much heavy firepower! They must be here to rescue the prisoner!

So there was no chance of breaking out—but if they took the person inside hostage, they might still have a chance to survive!

Captain Ruan gave a smug smile, as if he had seen through everything.

"You two, go secure the person inside!" Captain Ruan ordered two of his men.

"Yes, Captain!" Though they didn't understand why their captain was complicating things with the enemy at their doorstep, they immediately followed his orders.

The two men reached the door and exchanged a glance before nodding. One of them stepped forward and prepared to kick open the large hole cut into it.

"Uh..." As soon as he reached the doorway, the man suddenly froze, standing there motionless.

"What are you doing? Hurry up!" Captain Ruan snapped, displeased by his subordinate's dawdling.

"N-no, Captain. This door, it... it..." The man pointed at the door, his face full of disbelief.

Everyone froze and looked toward the door. They were all stunned. The door, which had just had a person-sized section cut out of it, showed no sign of ever having been cut. It was smooth as new—so much so that anyone could believe it had just come off the assembly line.

The corridor fell silent again. Everyone stared blankly at the door, the hairs all over their bodies standing on end.

"T-this is... a g-ghost wall!" Feng Ge had already been trembling nearby. Seeing this eerie sight, he was so terrified that his legs gave way and he slumped to the floor.

Everyone had seen it when they came through just now. The cut marks were so obvious that you'd have to be blind to miss them.

Yet now the door had been restored! This was beyond anything a normal person could understand.

Even Captain Ruan couldn't stay calm now. He had plenty of combat experience and sharp judgment, but in a situation like this, even Sherlock Holmes probably couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Everyone was gripped by extreme terror. Lao Liu, in particular, kept muttering, "Ghost ship! The ghost ship! It has to be!"

Naturally, it wasn't a ghost wall. Nie Yun had sent a small batch of Mechanical Insects inside in advance. While everyone was distracted by the gunfire outside, they had quietly repaired the door, in case the people here became desperate and did something to hurt Chu Xiaoxiao.

The zombie Xiaolangs weren't there because Nie Yun was so bored that he wanted to toy with the mercenaries, either. They were there to buy time while drawing the mercenaries' attention away.

Now that the hostage's safety was assured, there was no need to keep the "Mercenaries vs. Zombies" game going.

Under Nie Yun's control, the zombie robots that had been advancing suddenly came to a stop.

Seeing this, the mercenaries couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief. They stopped firing and stared at the robots in confusion.

Had they run out of power?

"All right, you've met the requirements to level up the game. Next up: Nightmare Difficulty!"

A boy's voice suddenly came from inside the lead zombie robot, tinged with a hint of mockery.

A Ping's heart lurched at the words, but before they could react, a flash of silver light crossed the faces of all the zombie robots. Their expressions suddenly changed.

Their big, adorable eyes now had two tears hanging from them!

It was like going from a terrifying horror-movie set, thick with ghostly menace, straight to an adorable children's theater. The sudden shift left everyone feeling deeply uncomfortable, with nowhere to vent it.

Was the world changing too fast, or was the director completely shameless?