Ten minutes later, inside the industrial park.
As soon as the driver had brought the car to a stable stop, Zhang Xiaoman hurriedly opened the door and dashed into the company building at a swift pace.
The first floor lobby was already empty, with only two dim lights on the ceiling casting a dismal glow.
Zhang Xiaoman took out two water guns loaded with Holy Water Bullet magazines from his pocket, and slowly moved towards the safe door leading to the underground parking garage.
"Gulp..."
He swallowed hard, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face, but then he shook his head and put on a determined expression again.
"To hell with it!"
Zhang Xiaoman muttered fiercely to himself.
He pressed his head against the safe door and listened intently with his ear, hoping to pinpoint the location of the monster below.
Unfortunately, he heard nothing. It was very quiet below; the monster did not seem to be near the staircase.
Touching the Swift Stone in his pocket, Zhang Xiaoman's gaze grew slightly tense. It was his escape route, and the reason he dared to take the risk of coming here.
He turned on his cell phone to the music interface and selected the high-pitched song "The diva dance."
For reasons unknown, but based on the last encounter, the monster in the company might be frightened by high-pitch music.
If things turned south and Holy Water proved ineffective, Zhang Xiaoman would have to apologize to Brother Hero.
He would play the music immediately and then rapidly use the hearthstone to teleport away.
Wiping the sweat from his hands, Zhang Xiaoman took a deep breath and then inch by inch, he cautiously pushed open the safe door to the underground parking garage.
His movements were slow and light, as if afraid that even the slightest sound would be made.
As the door slowly opened, the eerie green light from the corridor gradually filled his field of view.
The silence around him was profound, quiet enough to instill fear.
Zhang Xiaoman first glanced upstairs before focusing on the passageway below the stairs, gingerly stepping forward.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, each step taken with utmost care and precision.
"This corridor is very narrow. If possible, I'll try to lure it here, which would also help me aim and shoot," Zhang Xiaoman thought to himself, but then he shook his head:
"No, no, that won't do. If the Holy Water fails here, I might not have enough time to use the hearthstone... There's nowhere to take cover, it's too open..."
While Zhang Xiaoman was still analyzing, he had reached the end of the passage.
There, the safe door stood open, and a corner of the underground garage came into view.
"Wasn't it here that I almost got caught by it last time?"
Upon remembering this, Zhang Xiaoman couldn't help but look back.
That look nearly scared him to death!
At the end of the corridor, a terrifying monster was standing silently!
The creature was humanoid, its wrinkled skin exposed as if it were a hairless big dog.
It appeared to be over two meters tall, squatting on its long hind legs, its forelimbs drooping, and on its horrifying face were no eyes or nose, only a giant mouth full of sharp teeth.
And on both sides of its head, there were two hollows resembling what seemed to be ears.
Zhang Xiaoman suddenly saw such an ugly monster standing behind him and nearly screamed out in fright.
His entire body bristled with sweat, and he staggered back three steps with a "thud thud thud," gripping his pistols tightly in his hands. In his nervousness, he immediately raised his hands and fired, with three crisp shots of "bang bang bang" ringing out as a string of bullets was shot forth.
The monster, originally facing Zhang Xiaoman's direction and probing around, might have suddenly heard the footsteps coming from that direction. The skin near its ear holes wrinkled slightly, followed by a hoarse cry, and then it propped its hands on the ground and charged on all fours towards him.
Zhang Xiaoman had already fired his gun by this time, and although it was his nerves that caused him to "misfire," this misfire played a critically important role.
With three shots fired, he came back to his senses, subconsciously wanting to use the infrared to aim and shoot again.
However, his luck was clearly on his side this time, perhaps due to the narrowness of the passage. The three Holy Water Bullets that Zhang Xiaoman had hastily fired all hit the monster accurately.
The intense forward momentum of the monster was suddenly arrested. One of the bullets Zhang Xiaoman had fired struck it right on its bald head, causing it to fall to the ground after running only a few steps.
"Roar Roar!!"
The monster let out a series of hoarse roars, and its body slid on the ground for a few meters due to inertia before it finally stopped.
Zhang Xiaoman was scared into a cold sweat, with the monster now being less than three meters away from him—and this was under the circumstance where he had fired early. If he had hesitated any longer, the outcome would have been unimaginable.
"Such fast speed..."
Zhang Xiaoman didn't bother to wipe his sweat; his hands trembled slightly as he held up the gun, aiming at the struggling monster on the ground, not daring to relax in the slightest.
"Roar... roar... gurgle... gurgle..."
The Faceless Monster twisted on the ground, the injuries from the Holy Water Bullets seeming to be far more severe than they appeared on the surface.
Zhang Xiaoman saw plumes of white smoke rising intermittently from its body, and the horrific wounds continued to spread.
The struggling intensity of the creature lessened until the corroded areas spread like flames across its body. In not much time, it ceased moving altogether, leaving behind only a twisted, charred, and corroded carcass on the ground.
"It was actually right behind me..."
Zhang Xiaoman's heart pounded wildly. Just thinking back to the scene he saw when he turned around made his scalp tingle uncontrollably.
Fortunately, the monster seemed already dead. Zhang Xiaoman was inwardly amazed at the power of the Holy Water and extremely relieved that he had decided to use the Water Gun.
Had he still been using bottled Holy Water, with the monster's speed, he would have been unlikely to attack in time before sustaining serious injuries.
Looking at the monster's sharp claws and dense sharp teeth, Zhang Xiaoman couldn't help but feel a chill of fear.
He glanced at the terrifying corpse lying at his feet and then at the pattern in his palm, starting to consider whether or not to touch his hand to it to extract the Essence.
"Who would have thought that Holy Water was so powerful!"
In the end, Zhang Xiaoman squatted down and slowly extended his right hand, placing the faintly glowing Seven-pointed Star Array in his palm over the monster's carcass.
"Ah! Help!!!"
A piercing scream suddenly erupted, coming from the underground parking garage!
Zhang Xiaoman sharply turned his head, his face filled with surprise as he looked towards that direction.
"That voice, it's Brother Hero!"
He immediately retracted his hand, stood up, and strode quickly toward the source of the noise.
Monsters, not just one!