Deadly Crisis

Chapter 24: Deadly Crisis

The sudden weightlessness made Luo Meiyue scream. Her body swayed as she fell toward Hong Mo. Hong Mo was in no mood to be gentle with women. His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped around Luo Meiyue's neck. In his haste, Hong Mo assumed that Luo Meiyue was behind all of this.

Hong Mo realized what was happening. The elevator had gone weightless—it was falling. An accident? An accident? Or a trap?

This was a heavily secured research institute. An accident should not have happened so easily. So, a trap? Hong Mo had never expected a trap to be waiting for him here. But if Luo Meiyue was the bait, was she willing to throw away her life too? Hong Mo did not believe that Luo Meiyue had any way of escaping at a time like this. She was just an ordinary person.

Forget it, this was not the time to investigate. The elevator was falling faster and faster. A drop of one thousand meters—Hong Mo could hardly imagine what would happen.

Under that enormous impact, the elevator would surely be crushed into a lump. He and Luo Meiyue would be the meat filling caught in the middle.

They would die!

At the thought of that outcome, Hong Mo's mind went numb. An uncontrollable terror rose from the depths of his heart. This was the second time Hong Mo had felt the threat of death so clearly.

Fuck!

The surroundings seemed to fall silent all at once, and Hong Mo could clearly hear his heart pounding violently. It felt as if all the blood had been drained from his body, leaving his hands and feet ice-cold.

He really was going to die!

"What are you doing?" Luo Meiyue steadied herself against Hong Mo and complained in an annoyed, coquettish voice. Apparently hurt by his large hand squeezing her, she uneasily slapped at his hand a few times.

Luo Meiyue's interruption jolted Hong Mo awake. He had actually been scared so badly that he did not know what to do.

The blood throughout his body suddenly began to boil. Hong Mo glanced at Luo Meiyue. It was not her—at the very least, she knew nothing about this trap. In fact, Luo Meiyue had not even reacted yet and had no idea what was happening.

The shaft was one thousand meters high, but they had not reached the very top. They were still a little short of it, probably around nine hundred meters up. The displacement formula for free fall was h=1/2gt². That meant it would take a little over thirteen seconds to hit the ground, less than fourteen.

There was no time to carefully think of a way to escape in such a short span. Acting purely on instinct, electricity lit up in Hong Mo's hand.

"What are you trying to do?" Ever since Hong Mo had grabbed her, Luo Meiyue's mind had been in a daze.

"The elevator is in free fall. In thirteen seconds—no, probably ten seconds—we'll be crushed into a sandwich. If you don't want to die, shut the hell up." Hong Mo was in no mood to patiently comfort Luo Meiyue.

A buzzing sound rose from the edge of his palm as the electricity began to vibrate.

Vibrating Electromagnetic Blade!

Hong Mo slashed fiercely at the elevator's alloy with his right hand, producing a shrill screech. Electricity and sparks leaped continuously as beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead. It had been a long time since he had sweated like this. This time, it was both from pushing his ability to its limits and from the undisguised anxiety in his heart.

Luo Meiyue had become the deputy director of this research institute before the age of thirty. While her father had played a role, it was mostly due to her own abilities. After her initial panic, she gradually calmed down as well.

"What are you trying to do? Cut a passage out from here?" Luo Meiyue asked.

"Of course. Do you have another idea?" Hong Mo replied without turning around.

"That won't work. The acceleration due to gravity is s. By the time you cut open a door, our falling speed will have reached at least 100 m/s. At that speed, once we get out, brushing against anything will shatter our bones and tear our muscles. We'll die." Having regained her composure, Luo Meiyue began helping analyze the situation.

"You will die. I might not." Hong Mo slashed again with his right hand, carving a deep groove into the alloy elevator door.

Luo Meiyue froze, then smiled. "You said it yourself—you only might not die. That means you aren't certain you can survive either. Even if you do, you'll probably be injured. And if I'm not mistaken, there are still people waiting for you up there."

"Tell me your idea." There was no time for nonsense. Hong Mo turned to look at Luo Meiyue.

"Up there—so long as we shoot out at a speed of 100 m/s, then we'll basically be stationary relative to the elevator shaft."

Relative velocity! Hong Mo glanced at Luo Meiyue and smiled indifferently. This woman was smart. It was actually a simple idea, but probably not many people could stay calm enough to think of it under these circumstances.

Clang! A palm-sized piece of metal was cut free by Hong Mo.

Ignoring the blood on his right hand from using too much force, Hong Mo picked up the metal plate.

"Move aside a little." Hong Mo gripped the metal plate in his right hand, his arm slightly bent and drawn taut like a great bow.

Boom! The metal plate shot from Hong Mo's hand, trailing a dazzling white light as it struck the elevator ceiling. Under the violent impact, a hole the size of a manhole cover instantly opened in the ceiling.

The electromagnetic cannon's force continued beyond the elevator, carving a streak of light through the pitch-black shaft.

Hong Mo took several deep breaths before grabbing the already dumbfounded Luo Meiyue. "Hold on tight to me. There isn't much time left." Nearly ten seconds had passed since the beginning. Hong Mo could not calculate the exact time so precisely, but one thing was certain: time was critically short.

Holding Luo Meiyue in his arms, Hong Mo bent his legs slightly and channeled all his strength into them before pushing off fiercely. The tremendous force of his stomp left a dent in the alloy floor. Hong Mo and Luo Meiyue shot rapidly out through the hole above them.

After rushing out of the elevator, Hong Mo grimaced and hissed. Only then did he realize the hole had been a little too small. The right arm holding Luo Meiyue was scraped against the opening, tearing off a large chunk of flesh.

What a loss, Hong Mo thought, only to discover that Luo Meiyue had already fainted.

Tch. Ordinary people were still ordinary people. Her physical condition was terrible.

Going from a falling speed of over one hundred meters per second to a sudden stop—only ability users with enhanced bodies could probably withstand that immense pressure. An ordinary person surviving at all was already impressive. Even so, Luo Meiyue was not in good shape. Her internal organs had been injured by the enormous pressure, and thin streams of blood slowly flowed from her nose, ears, and small mouth.

After leaving the elevator, electromagnetic force surged through Hong Mo's left hand. He magnetically attached himself to the alloy framework of the shaft, hanging within it.

A tremendous crash rang out. Hong Mo looked down at the elevator, roughly a hundred meters below, crushed flat into an iron pancake, and finally let out a breath of relief.

That had been close!

A little closer, and they would have become sandwich filling.

Only after escaping danger did the anger in Hong Mo's heart surge forth. His black eyes stared into the dark space above as threads of electricity flickered through his hair.