The safety door inexplicably moved slightly, creaking audibly, as the pack of dogs turned their attention to the two humans.
The ones pacing suddenly stood still, those lying down abruptly rose—these dogs had different faces, old women, children, young people, middle-aged men... Together, they directed a bone-chilling laughter toward the two humans.
"Hmm hmm hmm hmm~~~~"
"Hmm hmm~~~~"
"Hmm hmm hmm~~~~"
"Hmm hmm hmm hmm~~~~"
"Heh heh~~~~"
"Ha ha ha ha~~~~~"
Eerie laughter echoed through the silent hall, making Chen Ke's scalp tingle, the sensation exactly like that time at the elevator entrance.
"Using lifespan to replace lost sanity."
"-10 minutes"
"-10 minutes"
"-10 minutes"
…
Chen Ke, clutching his head, slowly squatted to the ground. Even as he consumed his lifespan, he still felt an excruciating headache.
In just a few seconds, Chen Ke lost at least three hours of life. He had less than an hour left to live.
Meanwhile, Parker, who seemed to pull out headphones from nowhere and put them on his head, blared music loudly; it was evident that he was listening to Lincoln Park's "In The End." It appeared he was using the music to drown out the dogs' laughter in a defensive maneuver.
"Bang bang!"
With bloodshot eyes, Chen Ke raised his gun and furiously fired at the pack of dogs, while Parker fired non-stop with his large caliber handgun.
If he allowed these dogs to keep laughing, he would truly be done for, and to add insult to injury, his tombstone might even end up engraved with "Died from an Erha's taunt"—how embarrassing that would be.
9mm bullets drilled into the floorboards and wall tiles, and naturally, several lodged firmly into the flesh of the human-faced dogs, causing them to howl in pain.
The laughter stopped, and the dogs displayed a biting posture, their expressions furious as they ceaselessly howled at the two men.
Though hearing barking from human mouths seemed humorous, Chen Ke was in no mood to laugh. He could feel the overwhelming killing intent of the pack, and judging by the duration of lifespan absorption, these dogs were incredibly strong!
"+40 minutes"
"+40 minutes"
"+40 minutes"
…
The dogs' killing intent was absorbed by Chen Ke and converted into his lifespan. His remaining hour rapidly increased until a few seconds later when the countdown hit five hours, its growth suddenly halted; a line of text appeared in the top right corner of Chen Ke's vision:
"Lifespan has reached its limit."
Chen Ke felt a tingle on his scalp. Was there an error? I can only live for five hours?!
At the same time, a malevolent presence behind Chen Ke made his heart skip a beat—the safety doors across the way emitted an ominous noise.
He spun around, just in time to see a large white dog with a human head grinning sinisterly at him. He recognized that human face—it was the Black man he had killed with his own hands.
The dog, with its mouth wide open and rows upon rows of spike-like teeth dripping with flesh, lunged at Chen Ke's face.
Chen Ke was startled but quickly recovered.
He aggressively pushed Parker aside and with a swift sidestep, he avoided the dog's snapping jaws, nearly straining his own back in the process.
Parker, with his headphones on, hadn't heard the dog pounce; it missed Chen Ke and instead landed on Parker, immediately biting towards his neck.
Parker jolted and frantically spun in place, trying to grab and toss the dog off his back. However, the dog was quite heavy, and soon Parker was knocked to the ground.
"Shoot it! Shoot it!"
Parker shouted as he made a forward roll, attempting to distance himself from the dog, but just as he was about to reach for his gun to fire, the dog pounced again, interrupting his motion.
"Don't move around; when you move, the dog moves with you, how am I supposed to shoot!"
While speaking, Chen Ke aimed and fired two shots at the dog.
"Bang bang!"
The Glock's crisp gunshots echoed in the hall, two orange casings ejected into the air and fell to the floor a second later, clinking as they landed.
One bullet grazed the dog's fur into the floor, while another buried itself in the dog's flank, opening a bloody hole.
"Ow!! Man!!"
The dog howled in pain and when it turned to look at Chen Ke, its eyes were full of spite.
Chen Ke's lifespan could no longer increase; the excess killing intent meant the countdown was forever jumping at 4 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.
The dog shot towards Chen Ke at high speed, leaping into the air, its sharp teeth almost touching Chen Ke's face.
"Bang!"
Parker fired at the dog, and its body jerked mid-air, forcefully changing its trajectory and crashing into a pillar in the hall. It let out a pitiful whine like a beaten dog, fell to the ground, and died in a puddle of blood.
Dozens of dogs at the far end of the hall charged at the two men. Parker's marksmanship was terrible; several shots hit the floor, kicking up clouds of dust, but even Chen Ke's accurate shots couldn't kill them.
From the beginning, Chen Ke had noticed that his Glock 17 couldn't kill these dogs; at most, it could make them yelp in pain, while Parker's M1911A1 truly killed a dog with every shot.
Chen Ke didn't think it was a matter of caliber or power because he noticed that Parker's gun didn't just emit a normal muzzle flash when fired but a white glow instead.
That gun was out of the ordinary.
The two kept firing while retreating. When the gun chamber clicked empty, Chen Ke realized he had run out of bullets.
"I'm out of ammo! Do you have any 9mm spare cartridges?!" Chen Ke shouted.
"My gun is .45 caliber. How could I possibly carry 9mm spares!"
The dogs seemed to understand human speech and turned to pounce on Chen Ke. Cursing under his breath, Chen Ke turned and bolted for the safety exit.
Suddenly, his eyes swept over the wall and he spotted a fire axe in a glass case next to the opposite door.
Chen Ke's eyes narrowed; he quickly approached, smashed the glass with his elbow, grabbed the red axe, and swung it at the face of the nearest dog. He put all his strength into the blow, confident it would decapitate the dog.
However, the toughness of the dog's flesh far exceeded Chen Ke's expectations. The axe blade lodged in the dog's face, spilling blood, but it didn't sink any deeper and the dog quickly wriggled free, escaping from his attack range.
This startled Chen Ke; although he hadn't inflicted serious damage, the hit had clearly pained the dog, and the remaining dogs immediately halted, surrounding Chen Ke.
Parker was also in a bad spot. Even though Chen Ke had drawn some of the dogs' attention, he was troubled by several that he couldn't shake off. Worse still, his gun could only hold seven bullets and, after firing a whole magazine, he simply jumped on top of the service counter.
"Cover me! I need to reload!" Parker yelled.
Chen Ke, brandishing his axe to ward off the pack, leaped out of the encirclement towards Parker.
Parker unzipped his waist bag, fished out a white magazine, and jammed it into the grip of his gun. Just as he was about to pull back the slide to chamber a round, a human-faced dog leapt up from behind him, bit into his neck, and dragged him down from the service counter.
"Ah ah ah!!!" Chen Ke heard Parker scream. Ten steps away, Parker lay on the ground, his left arm, back, and legs were fiercely bitten by the human-faced dog.
The dog on his back had already struck; Parker's neck was bleeding, his right hand clutching the gun tightly, his left hand and arm being bitten by two dogs, unable to reload. His whole appearance was utterly pitiful.
"Throw me your gun!" Chen Ke roared.
"It's no use; you can't use my gun! Ugh!!!" As Parker struggled in agony, he tried to reload his pistol, but he was completely overwhelmed by the dogs.
Finally, with no other option, he tossed the gun away.
"Help me! Load it! Quick…!" Parker's voice grew more and more pained.
Chen Ke took a flying leap, skidding several steps on the floor, reached out with his right hand, grabbed Parker's pistol, swiftly reloaded, and pulled the trigger at the pack attacking him.
"Click, click, click…"
No response.
What the hell?!
Chen Ke reloaded again, a white bullet ejecting from the chamber, pulling the trigger once more with no effect.
"Give me the gun… ah ah!!! Uh uh…" Parker's voice dwindled; at least five dogs were gnawing at him, beneath which a pool of blood had formed.
Chen Ke turned back; the dogs that had surrounded him were slowly closing in again. He counted four, one with a deep gash on its face.
"Damn it, what's going on?! Fire, damn you!" Chen Ke's rage surged as he continuously pulled the trigger at the dogs on Parker.
"Sacrifice lifespan to use Spiritual Gun."
"Bang!"
"-5 minutes"
"Bang!"
"-5 minutes"
"Bang!"
"-5 minutes"
One shot cost him five minutes of his life!
But Chen Ke's lifespan was at its limit and couldn't increase, so there was no harm in using it! He kept pulling the trigger, the gun barrel emitting a white, sacred light.
Terrifying gunshots rang out, and the bullets, like silver meteors at such close range, tore the dogs on Parker apart, scatting their heads, paws, and guts from their bellies all over the place.
"Holy shit, that kills!" Chen Ke exclaimed in awe as he fired. His aim was much more precise than Parker's; five bullets, five dogs instantly annihilated. He immediately got up and picked up two white magazines that had fallen out from Parker's waist bag, turned back, and shot at the other four dogs.
After two shots, Chen Ke flicked the empty magazine out of the gun with a quick motion and was inserting a new one when the dog he had axed in the face came at him with a leaping bound towards his face.
"Ha!"
With a loud shout, Chen Ke executed a spinning kick, striking the dog so hard it spat foam and flew to the side of the room, yelping pitifully.
He quickly reloaded and took down the last few dogs.