Qin Xun didn't refuse to let Dazhuang carry him on his back.
He knew the state his body was in, and he wasn't the kind of person who cared about saving face at all costs.
If he insisted on running by himself now, he would only be a burden!
As before, Mengmeng led the way at the very front.
Using its special ability, it led the three men through a maze of turns in the alleys, avoiding encounters with the enemy several times.
Since they no longer had to slow down and wait for Qin Xun, Xu Chao and Dazhuang began running at full speed.
The two were far, far faster than ordinary people, covering more than ten meters in the blink of an eye.
Tonight.
The residential district was destined to have a sleepless night.
Hearing the trucks transporting the Guard Team along the streets outside, every household locked its doors and windows and reinforced them in multiple ways.
Older children with no adults at home could only seal the doors and windows themselves, then find somewhere in the house they thought was safe and hide.
Though they were young, they understood one thing.
If something really happened in the zone, the Guard Team would prioritize protecting the nobles!
Besides the Guard Team, several hundred patrolmen had also been reassigned to the noble district.
Though they weren't as strong in combat as the Guard Team,
the nobles, afraid of death, now wanted nothing more than to have more people protecting them.
The patrolmen weren't stupid either, and their families weren't in the noble district.
Now that something had happened, how could they abandon their own families and run off to protect those people in the noble district?
Almost all the patrolmen had silently come to the same understanding, rushing around the residential district to make themselves look busy, as though they were genuinely working hard.
Listening to the hurried, chaotic footsteps in the alley below, a boy of fifteen or sixteen clutched a cleaver and curled up on the bed with his eight-year-old younger brother.
"Go to sleep. I'll stand watch. If there's any danger, I'll protect you!"
Though he was only fifteen or sixteen, the boy's eyes were full of a man's sense of responsibility.
"Brother, when is Dad coming back?"
"Didn't I tell you? Dad went to Zone 109 with the merchant caravan. He'll come back once he's sold the goods. Don't worry. I'm here, so nothing will happen."
"Brother, why aren't we nobles?"
"I heard Dad say we had a chance to become nobles. Back then, Grandpa had a chance to be among the first people to submit to the Demon Clan, but he refused."
"Why did Grandpa refuse? Isn't it great being a noble? Not only do they never go hungry, they can eat whatever they want. I heard the people in the noble district get several new outfits every month!"
"You little brat, are you that hungry? Compared to other people, we already get our fill every day. Don't be ungrateful."
Of course, that was also because their father worked for a merchant caravan.
Every month, he traveled with the caravan to sell goods in other zones, then bought things that were expensive in Zone 108 at low prices to bring back and sell.
The money he earned was enough to keep them fed, with some left over.
But a good life also came with enormous risks.
To reach the other zones, they had to pass through the Misty Forest.
Although the caravan had bodyguards traveling with it,
if they encountered a monster that was truly too dangerous, those bodyguards wouldn't risk their lives to protect them.
While the two boys were talking, Qin Xun and his companions also passed through the alley below their building.
They didn't dare stop for a moment, running at full speed.
The three men and one dog finally made it through the residential district and reached the vicinity of the exit.
Even from a distance, they could see a wall dozens of meters high, its surface covered in electric fencing, towering above them!
The lofty city wall stretched out to either side like a giant dragon, guarding the living beings of Zone 108!
Atop the wall was another electric barrier over twenty meters high.
The wall and electric fencing completely separated Zone 108 from the Misty Forest.
At the foot of the wall was a gate several meters high, tightly shut.
This was Zone 108's backup exit. If an emergency occurred in the zone and the main gate couldn't be used, people could leave through here.
There were three more exits like this in Zone 108, one of them in the noble district.
Five or six armed guards stood behind a barricade, lighting one another's cigarettes.
"Those people will probably be caught before long. The past couple of days have worked me to death. I haven't even had time to go home and eat with my wife."
"Do you think those people have bumps on their heads? They actually tried to get out through the noble district!"
"There's no way they'll get out. I hope they jump the wall like cornered dogs and kill a few more nobles before they're caught."
"Hey, don't go saying things like that. If someone with ulterior motives hears you and reports it to the nobles, you'll never become a noble in your life. If things go badly, you might not even be allowed to stay in the Guard Team!"
The man knew he'd said too much and hurriedly shut his mouth, praying that none of his teammates beside him would betray him.
"Team leader, team leader, someone's coming!"
The men hurriedly threw away their freshly lit cigarettes and raised their rifles, aiming at Xu Chao and Dazhuang as they ran toward them.
"Team leader, something's not right. Aren't they our people?"
Since all three were dressed in Guard Team uniforms, the guards couldn't tell them apart at first.
"Move if you don't want to die!" Xu Chao roared.
"Team leader, what do we do?"
"Fuck! They look like the people the higher-ups want caught. Weren't they supposed to be in the noble district? What are they doing here? And they're wearing our uniforms!"
"Are we firing or not?"
"Can't you fucking see that guy's forehead glowing? He's a Psionic Power user!"
"But if we let them go and the higher-ups blame us, we're all finished!"
"Fuck it, let's do this! Fire, fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Six assault rifles opened fire at once.
As the bullets flew, stones glowing with golden light came flying toward them.
The stones were as powerful as bullets and unfailingly accurate. Every hit was a headshot!
In less than a moment, the six members of the Guard Team lay in pools of blood.
Dazhuang was the first to cross the barricade. He raised both hands, and golden light flashed as he hurled the boulder that appeared in his hands at the gate.
Bang!
The heavy iron gate was smashed out of shape, leaving an opening.
The zone administration building.
Inside the monitoring room.
Watching the three men and one dog smash open the gate and escape, Black Crow's mouth twitched, anger written across his face.
Zhong Tianshou, who had also seen the monitor, instead breathed a sigh of relief. "They got out? Then it looks like everything's fine."
"All you know how to do is worry about the nobles." Black Crow stood up, the urge to kill rising in his heart again and again.
"I'm only doing what I should. Besides, aren't you a noble too?"
"I already told you, this was their plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain."
"I know doing this might have let them escape, but what else could I do? If we'd really trapped them with no way out, what if they'd jumped the wall like cornered dogs and started killing nobles in the noble district?"
Zhong Tianshou wasn't flustered. On the contrary, he was pleased that he had ensured the nobles' safety.
He wasn't afraid of the higher-ups blaming him either, because he truly hadn't received any orders from them to cooperate with the operation.
If he had insisted on cooperating with them without regard for the nobles' safety just because they were from the Dark Pavilion,
then things would really have been bad if anything happened to those well-connected nobles.
After struggling his way through life for so many years, he could foresee that, when the time came, the people from the Dark Pavilion would simply dust off their backsides and leave, dumping the mess on him.
He slowly sat down and held out two fingers.
A youthful-looking boy behind him hurried forward and handed him a cigarette, then lit it with a solid gold lighter.
"Since they've escaped now, I can send out half the Guard Team to help you capture them outside!"
"If you didn't have the words 'District Chief' over your head, I'd kill you right now." Black Crow once again suppressed the urge to kill.
Zhong Tianshou smiled dismissively. "Don't be so arrogant. Offending me won't do you any good."
"Let's go!"
Black Crow glared fiercely at Zhong Tianshou, then quickly led his subordinate out of the monitoring room.