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A real gun!?
Li Chengyi and Meng Dongdong both felt a chill in their hearts—they never imagined encountering someone with a gun in their daily lives.
In Yi Country, gun control is very strict. To carry a gun, one must be a professional with a gun permit, such as a police officer, high-level bodyguard, soldier, etc.
The fact that this man could bring a gun in here indicated that his background and profession might not be ordinary.
"Where's the monster?" the man's gaze turned to Li Chengyi. "You were the one who said it earlier, right? That there's a monster?"
"....." Li Chengyi didn't make a sound, clearly noting the man's unfriendly attitude toward him.
The man's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression stern, and the look he gave him carried an indefinable meaning.
"Answer me, were you the one who said it?" the man stepped forward, "Where's the monster? Can you provide any evidence?"
Li Chengyi was speechless—all traces had disappeared on their own.
So, where could he find any trace??
Whoosh.
The man suddenly lowered the gun, aiming it at Li Chengyi.
Bang.
The gunshot sounded.
Li Chengyi shuddered all over, as a shallow pit appeared in the ground by his feet.
"Now, you should leave," the man said coldly, staring at him.
"....." Li Chengyi's face was extremely ugly, feeling his heart pounding wildly. That moment just now, he thought he was really going to be shot.
But fortunately, the man didn't really intend to kill him.
"I don't know why you're treating me this way, but I've said my piece. These small doors are very dangerous, you best...."
"Leave!" Before Li Chengyi could finish, the man interrupted him in a louder voice.
"That lady, you should keep your distance from him. I strongly suspect this man might have a mental problem," the man said, still aiming at Li Chengyi and nodding his chin toward Meng Dongdong, an intense look in his eyes.
Meng Dongdong didn't say a word and quickly walked behind the man. This robust man seemed much more reliable than Li Chengyi.
Not just because of his calm and steady demeanor, but also because of that gun that could actually fire bullets at any moment.
Unaware of Meng Dongdong's decisive action, Li Chengyi's entire attention was focused on the gun aimed at him.
He didn't understand why the man was treating him this way, but the best course of action at the moment was to leave first.
After a pause, he slowly retreated, then reached out to pick up his own bag of food and drinks.
"Put it down!"
The man suddenly spoke.
"That's my stuff," Li Chengyi began to argue.
"I told you to put it down!" the man said again, his finger already pressing on the trigger.
Li Chengyi's face tensed as he set the large bag he'd picked up back down, raised his hands, and continued to back away.
Only after retreating nearly twenty meters did his heart not relax; on the contrary, it tightened even more.
If things were really as he guessed, then...
Li Chengyi stared hard at the gun the man was aiming at him.
At this moment, his life and death were completely at the mercy of the man's whim. The absolute feeling of powerlessness and sheer terror made his hair stand on end and his body stiffen.
Thankfully, the man didn't mean to kill him on the spot, only forcing him to keep moving back until he reached the corner, then slowly lowered the gun.
Li Chengyi retreated to the slope, not completely relaxing until he could no longer see the man and Meng Dongdong.
The rigidity in his body also gradually eased.
During his retreat, he had considered rolling to the side several times to avoid the gun.
But he held back.
He hadn't practiced how to dodge gunfire or how to roll, and under these conditions, his unprofessional rolling might not only fail to avoid the bullets but also agitate the man, leading to more troublesome consequences.
Moreover, judging by the man's behavior, he came prepared and, unlike Meng Dongdong, this third person definitely knew about the trouble with blind spots.
So... he stole his food...
Li Chengyi leaned against the wall, letting the cool touch temper the emotions in his heart.
In such an absolutely enclosed space, without the threat of monsters, food and drink are undoubtedly very important.
But now, that guy had taken the stuff he'd prepared...
In that bag, there wasn't just food and drink, but also a simple first aid kit.
In a crucial moment, these were all life-saving treasures.
But now, they had been taken by the man.
'If I still had the Floral Dress...' The thought passed through Li Chengyi's mind, but it was fleeting.
How strong exactly was the Floral Dress, could it stop a bullet?
He didn't know.
All he knew was that wearing the Floral Dress improved his physical condition significantly.
Coupled with the Flower Language Ability, facing firearms would be much easier than now!
'Once I get out, I must thoroughly explore all the abilities of the Evil Flower! This time was just too rushed!' Li Chengyi decided firmly, his eyes clouded with shadows.
He never wanted to—absolutely never wanted to—be threatened with a gun again.
Such an incident must never happen a second time!
He exhaled and, not daring to stay on this floor any longer, immediately turned and headed towards the upper levels.
Without food supplies, he had to find a way out as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, he hadn't put all his eggs in one basket. The key cassette player and headphones were on him.
It was the complete set of music tapes that played in a loop when the blind spot warning occurred just after he arrived in this world.
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The tape, tape recorder, and headphones were all in the inner lining zip pocket of his coat.
He planned to find a place to try to replicate the scene of the first premonition to see if he could find a way out.
Lifting his foot, he walked up the sloping bend, but didn't make it three steps.
Click.
Suddenly, a faint noise drifted from behind.
The sound was clear, and in such a closed and empty environment, Li Chengyi could distinctly make out that it was the sound of the maintenance room's door handle being twisted!
He got goosebumps, his body tensed abruptly, and he was about to run for his life.
Without the Floral Dress, he stood no chance against that monster with a human face.
But just as he was about to flee, the muscles in his calves relaxed forcibly.
'If they are being chased by the monster, then maybe I could....'
This thought flashed through Li Chengyi's mind.
With the effect of Drunken Hand, he might try to take the chance to retrieve the stuff stolen from him, and with someone else holding off the monster, using the Flower Language Ability would be much safer.
He stopped in his tracks, tiptoed, turned around, and quietly walked to the corner of the wall, peeking out with half an eye towards Meng Dongdong and the man with the gun.
The bend was over a hundred meters away from the two, and little could be seen clearly. He could barely make out that both of them were facing the maintenance room's small door, seemingly talking.
Li Chengyi thought for a moment, quickly took out his phone, turned on the camera function, and then zoomed in.
Suddenly, the distant scene became clear on the phone's display.
Compared to sneaking peeks with his eyes, the mobile phone camera was much safer.
In the phone screen, he zoomed in with both hands and then tapped to focus on the people, and the image became much clearer.
In the screen, the man with the gun stared at the maintenance room warily, his gun raised and aimed at the door.
Meng Dongdong stood beside him, looking somewhat puzzled, apparently dubious.
Clearly, she had just opened the small door to find nothing inside, but now there was suddenly some noise coming from it, making her cautious.
Li Chengyi tapped the screen, focusing on the door handle.
On the red maintenance room door, the white handle was slowly turning downward.
At that moment, Meng Dongdong said something to the man with the gun.
The man's lips moved, replying with a few words, but he kept his gun aimed at the maintenance room door, his expression cold.
He seemed very confident in the gun he held.
At this point, Li Chengyi was already thinking of running, but he still insisted on staying where he was. He also wanted to see what effect the gunfire would have on that human-faced monster.
Click-click.
The small door finally opened.
It opened a crack.
As Meng Dongdong and the armed man's expressions turned to one of growing horror, from the gap in the door, slowly floated out a black and white head over two meters tall and one meter wide.
Ah!!!
Meng Dongdong's scream burst forth, followed by the man's panicked cursing and a series of gunshots.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!
The continuous gunfire, all hitting the giant face precisely — such a large target, the man could have hit it even shaking badly.
But the bullets only made a few holes in the center of the face, which quickly healed and disappeared.
The black and white face moved woodenly towards them, and compared to Li Chengyi's previous encounter, it was significantly faster.
Li Chengyi also reacted, put away his phone, and turned to sprint upstairs.
Originally, he had hoped to stealthily retrieve his belongings, but seeing the increased speed of the face, he knew that he wouldn't stand a chance.
So he decisively put away his phone and ran.
Panting.
Panting.
Panting.
Li Chengyi ran to the upper level gasping heavily, without stopping, he continued to sprint up.
After going up another level, his vision started blurring with numerous white spots, his head filled with a wave of fatigue and a desire to sleep, while his chest struggled to breathe, yet always felt short of oxygen.
His legs were so weak that they could hardly support his body and felt like they might collapse at any moment.
His heart thumped violently, along with his temples and forehead, as if they were throbbing in unison.
His ears started to block out external sounds, everything started to recede except for the beating of his heart, covered by a thick membrane.
This was a premonition of physical exhaustion.
'Can't go on! I must find a place to hide. If I'm not wrong, that monster has a time limit before it must stop, so as long as I wait for it to time out, I can get through this!'
Having realized this, Li Chengyi resisted the urge to collapse as he scanned the garage level.
Suddenly, enduring the snowflakes in his eyes, he found a corner and hurriedly dashed towards it.
But he'd only covered half the distance when he suddenly felt something flicker past him on the side.
'!?' He stopped swiftly and looked back.
But what he saw was a shadowy crevice that appeared on a white wall he had just passed by, one he didn't notice before.
The crevice, located on the side of a load-bearing column, was just right within the shadow of the light, easy to overlook if not observed carefully.
The gap was narrow, just wide enough for one person to slip through sideways, and there was a small black mark on the edge of the opening.
Li Chengyi could only see darkness and depth from outside to inside, uncertain of how deep the crevice was. The exterior light illuminated only about a meter deep.
'I've been here before, and there definitely was no such crevice!' He was certain in his mind.
To find an exit, he had meticulously scanned every inch of wall earlier; there was no way he could have missed such a large gap.
But now....