Eliminated?

Hearing Rain's report, the mercenary captain nodded to the others, then glanced at Ye Siyu, who had arrived late. He led everyone toward the door. "Click!"

Under the computer expert Kaplan's control, the shut door slowly rose. Beyond it was complete darkness, without a trace of light, like a gaping maw ready to swallow people whole, inspiring fear.

Looking into the darkness, the mercenary captain said something to his subordinate J.D. Salinas, who stood beside him.

J.D. Salinas nodded, lowered the night-vision goggles on his head, and cautiously walked inside.

But just after J.D. entered, Ye Siyu, who had just come up beside the group, strode straight in without a care, completely ignoring the darkness.

"Don't go in! It's dangerous! Be careful!" Seeing what Ye Siyu was doing, the mercenary captain frowned and shouted a warning. Although he didn't know who Ye Siyu was, he didn't want to see him rush in without knowing what was inside.

The only answer the mercenary captain received was the sound of Ye Siyu's footsteps on the floor, coming from the darkness.

Inside the Hive, Ye Siyu found the light switch before J.D. did. Gradually, the fluorescent lights in the passage and rooms came on.

The windows on the walls revealed a view among the city's skyscrapers. Outside, sunlight streamed down from a deep blue sky dotted with drifting white clouds. If they hadn't known they were on the ground, they might really have thought they were in an office building dozens of stories high.

When the mercenaries and Zheng Zha's group entered the room, the mercenary medic accompanying them spent some time checking a detector before saying, "The poison gas has dispersed. It's safe here now."

As the lights came on, the white-collar young man, the girl with glasses, and the others walked curiously over to the bright windows and leaned against them to look outside. The sunshine outside looked so real. They weren't worried in the least about being attacked, because they all knew it was very safe here.

As everyone gazed curiously at the view, Matt, who had come to the Hive looking for his sister, said from the side, "This installation is meant to improve the underground working environment. Nobody wants to stare at dreary steel walls all day. If they can see sunlight, they'll probably think they're living aboveground."

Hearing Matt's words, the white-collar young man hesitated, then extended his hand. "Zheng Zha... uh, probably a security guard here."

He was the protagonist of Terror Infinity, Zheng Zha. He had been a white-collar worker living in a drunken stupor, unaware of what made life worth living. Only after entering the horror movie reincarnation world and reviving his first love did he feel he had found meaning in life again. He valued his teammates immensely.

Matt wasn't as monstrous as Ye Siyu, who had frightened all the mercenaries by himself. The mercenaries had cuffed Matt's hands before they entered the Hive. He turned around with a wry smile and said, "I'm cuffed, so I can't shake your hand... and I've forgotten my name too."

Elsewhere, the mercenaries opened the elevator doors, but the shaft was pitch-black and bottomless.

Seeing this, Kaplan activated a flare and tossed it down the shaft. As its green light gradually descended, everyone finally saw the elevator at the very bottom. It had evidently fallen to the deepest point when the Hive lost power, and there was no need to think twice to know that everyone inside was definitely dead.

"Looks like we'll have to take the stairs," Kaplan said to the mercenary captain beside him, looking down the elevator shaft that was dozens of meters deep.

"Everyone, listen up. We're going down the stairs!" the mercenary captain told the group after learning they couldn't take the elevator down.

"Crash!"

Just then, glass shattered, startling everyone into turning around. Ye Siyu had wrapped his fist in his clothes and smashed the glass of a fire equipment cabinet. He pulled out a fire axe.

"What are you doing?!" Seeing Ye Siyu take a dangerous weapon,

the mercenaries immediately grew tense and raised their guns, aiming them at Ye Siyu. If he made any suspicious move, they would certainly shoot him dead. "Nothing. I'm just finding a weapon to defend myself. You can ignore me," Ye Siyu said with a shrug, holding the axe in one hand and dragging it along.

"Captain!" Hearing Ye Siyu's answer, dead-eyed Rain didn't understand why her decisive, ruthless captain still hadn't ordered them to shoot the strange fellow in front of them.

"There might be a bomb in the bag on his back," the Black mercenary captain said quietly, sharing his analysis. As he saw it, the reason Ye Siyu dared act so brazenly was the bag on his back.

The bag most likely contained a bomb Ye Siyu had prepared. Otherwise, he couldn't understand why Ye Siyu was so confident.

"Bingo, but unfortunately there's no prize. If any one of you pulls the trigger, this bag of C4 will be my parting gift to you," Ye Siyu's voice came just as the Black mercenary captain finished speaking.

Hearing Ye Siyu's words, the Black mercenary captain wore an expression that said he had been right. He gave Ye Siyu a long look, then lowered his rifle and told everyone, "Let's keep moving."

With that, he led everyone toward the stairs. The mercenaries moved very quickly, evidently without regard for whether Zheng Zha and the others behind them could keep up.

Seeing this, Zheng Zha, Zhang Jie, and the other reincarnators exchanged glances, then hurried after them. The group immediately fell into three echelons.

The first consisted of Zheng Zha, Zhang Jie, and Zhan Lan.

The second consisted of the middle-aged Mou Gang and the young Li Xiaoyi.

The third consisted of the remaining chubby young man, the middle-aged woman, and Ye Siyu with the bag on his back.

Although Zheng Zha was an office worker, he had always liked exercising and spent at least one full day at the gym every week, so he wasn't left behind.

The girl with glasses, Zhan Lan, had no advantage in stamina because of her sex and was far behind the men in that respect. She was much smarter than the others, however. As soon as they started running down the stairs, she grabbed the hem of Zhang Jie's clothes, letting him take some of her weight. Zhang Jie merely glanced at her and, without saying much, ran ahead with her.

Although Mou Gang and Li Xiaoyi were inferior to the three in the first echelon in both stamina and intelligence, they followed closely behind.

The chubby young man in the third echelon, whose body was covered in fat that seemed to jiggle all over, and the middle-aged woman were not doing so well. They had barely run for long before they started panting nonstop. They grew slower and slower, falling farther and farther behind the first echelon.

By the time they had gone down roughly two or three flights of stairs, Zheng Zha and Zhan Lan, running beside Zhang Jie, heard an indifferent, emotionless voice: "Three eliminated..."