Han Ling nodded in agreement with Wu Cheng.
Wei Leyang tilted his head back slightly, gently rubbing his chin with his bandaged hand.
"No, this is an open scheme, a perfectly aboveboard open scheme!"
Shen Heng: "..."
That doesn't really count as an open scheme. An open scheme is when the other side knows exactly what you're going to do but can't stop you. With this plan, the Calamity Beast won't notice until we're halfway through... Shen Heng thought.
Wang Hai ignored them. "All right, does everyone understand?"
"Understood!" Han Ling and Wu Cheng replied.
"What about you, Wei Leyang?" Wang Hai looked at Wei Leyang, who hadn't answered.
"I understand, sure, but..."
"But what?" Wang Hai looked straight at Wei Leyang.
"This building has thirty-six floors. Going by the layout of this floor, I might not have enough Origin Power to seal off the walls on that many floors!"
Wei Leyang looked around, then raised his hand and pointed to two areas on either side.
"It's mainly these two areas. There's nothing there except the ceiling and floor, and they're really long, twenty or thirty meters!"
"Stretching threads across those two areas strong enough to stop a Second Tier Calamity Beast would use too much Origin Power!"
Shen Heng nodded and asked, "Then how many floors can you seal off?"
"About seven. Any more than that, and I won't have enough Origin Power!"
Seven floors... Shen Heng thought silently.
36 - 7 = 29. With this Calamity Beast's perception, it'll definitely notice if we start stringing threads on the twenty-ninth floor. Then it'll definitely try to escape. But if we don't start sealing the walls from the twenty-ninth floor, we won't be able to cover everything. The more room we leave it, the more trouble we'll have later...
Wang Hai glanced at Shen Heng. Seeing him frowning, seemingly still racking his brains for another solution, he said:
"There's no need to insist on perfection. Considering the perceptive abilities this Calamity Beast showed earlier, have Wei Leyang start stringing threads to seal the walls from the twenty-fifth floor. For every three floors, seal two consecutive floors with threads, then leave one empty!"
"That way, the Calamity Beast can hide on the unsealed floors in between, but two floors' worth of space should be enough for you to attack it, right?" Wang Hai looked at Han Ling and Wu Cheng.
"That's enough!" Han Ling and Wu Cheng nodded.
"Any other questions?" Wang Hai looked at Shen Heng.
Starting on twenty-five, seal two consecutive floors, then leave one empty. That means sealing twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-two, and thirty-four... Shen Heng quickly calculated in his head.
"Then there are still three levels left: thirty-five, thirty-six, and the rooftop..."
"You'll all have done everything you can. Those three levels are my job as captain!" Wang Hai folded his arms, his expression serious.
Looking at the earnest expression on Wang Hai's face, Shen Heng nodded.
"Let's do that, then!"
Seeing that Shen Heng had no further questions, Wang Hai looked around at everyone and announced:
"Move out!"
As his words fell, everyone moved in unison according to the plan.
Shen Heng stayed where he was, quietly watching the others head toward their respective destinations. All he needed to do was provide the necessary intelligence support.
Actually, now that I think about it, this kind of life isn't bad. Plenty of money, little work, and safe, too. Hmm... provided we don't run into a Calamity Beast of too high a tier! Shen Heng thought silently.
Suddenly, he froze and listened closely to the sounds reaching his ears.
Thump, thump, thump...
Fleshy paws struck the ground. The Calamity Beast, which had been quietly staying beside the stairwell all this time, suddenly moved.
There was no time to consider why it had suddenly moved. Listening to the increasingly loud footsteps, Shen Heng quickly looked toward Han Ling and shouted:
"Han Ling, the Calamity Beast's moving! Quick, to your left!"
Han Ling, who had been strolling leisurely toward the opposite corner with her gun raised, froze. With no time to think, she immediately followed Shen Heng's instructions and ran toward the wall on her left.
Thump, tap, tap, tap, thump-tap, tap...
All sorts of footsteps rang in Shen Heng's ears.
The instant Shen Heng shouted, everyone realized something had changed and quickened their pace.
Tap, tap-tap...
Han Ling hurried to the wall and leaned halfway out of a window.
She raised her gun and aimed at the figure retreating into the floor.
"Roar!"
That piercing, shrill roar rang out again.
Unlike last time, however, they were some distance apart. Han Ling's vision didn't go black as it had before; she only felt a slight stabbing pain in her eardrums.
She frowned slightly, enduring the stabbing pain as her finger pressed the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet shot out, but it didn't hit the Calamity Beast. He had already retreated inside.
"Thirtieth floor!" Shen Heng promptly updated the Calamity Beast's current floor over the headset.
"Why did he suddenly start moving?" Wei Leyang's voice echoed through their headsets.
"I'm afraid it's not just strong perception. Like Shen Heng, he might have strong hearing. He heard us upstairs discussing how to deal with him, so he charged down!" Wang Hai explained.
Shen Heng frowned at that. Strong hearing and sonic attacks? Why does he sound like an upgraded version of me?
"Hiss... then what do we do now?" Wu Cheng drew in a small breath of cold air.
"Stick to the original plan. There's just one extra step: force him back up!" Wang Hai said decisively.
Everyone nodded.
As though matching their expectations, the Calamity Beast quickened his pace once more.
Shen Heng abruptly pointed. "Wu Cheng, your side this time! The side without a wall!"
Wu Cheng understood and immediately ran to the right.
Soon, the shriveled, wrinkled Calamity Beast appeared in Wu Cheng's view. Where his back joined his tail, there was still a bloody hole from Han Ling's earlier shot.
He's really as ugly as Han Ling said. I wonder if the females of their species look any better!
As Wu Cheng thought, his hands didn't slow. He swiftly hurled a fireball straight into the Calamity Beast's roar.
Boom!
An explosion rang out.
It missed. The moment Wu Cheng appeared, the Calamity Beast had ducked inside.
"Wu Cheng, still your side! The same side you're on now!"
"Huh? Why's it me again?"
Without time to think, Wu Cheng conjured another fireball.
"Twenty-seventh floor!"
"Twenty-sixth floor!"
"Twenty-fifth floor!"
"Twenty-fourth floor!"
The Calamity Beast kept advancing down floor after floor on Wu Cheng's side.
Wu Cheng's face flushed bright red. "Damn it, this bastard! Does he think I'm a soft persimmon he can squeeze?"
Shen Heng said nothing. The Calamity Beast was indeed treating Wu Cheng as a soft persimmon.
Although Wu Cheng could continuously stack his ability to increase his fireballs' speed, at this stage, their attack speed was clearly nowhere near that of Han Ling's bullets.
Moreover, the Calamity Beast was practically climbing straight from one floor's floor to the next floor's ceiling.
That left very little time to react-extremely little, barely even a second!
With the interference from the Calamity Beast's sonic attacks added in, it was only natural that Wu Cheng couldn't hit him.
"Still your side, still the same face of the building!" Shen Heng said again.
"That beast!"
Furious, Wu Cheng jerked his hand up.
"Flame Falcon!"
Spark flowed over Wu Cheng's fingers, gradually taking the shape of a red peregrine falcon.
The peregrine falcon waited on Wu Cheng's fingertips, like a patient hunter waiting for his prey.