The most computer-savvy mercenary among them was Kaplan. He immediately opened three laptops. From Zheng Zha and the others' perspective, his computer skills were top-notch. His hands flew across the keyboards, tapping away relentlessly on all three laptops, but after several minutes, the large door leading to the central computer remained tightly shut.
Another female mercenary couldn't help but ask, "Why is it taking so long?"
Kaplan, without turning his head, replied, "The Fire Queen is an intelligent computer with a highly secure defense system. If it were easy to bypass its firewall, they wouldn't be using it as the lab's main computer..."
As he spoke, a soft click was heard, and the large door slowly started to open. Matthew Edison nodded and said, "Pack it up!" He then turned and looked at Zheng Zha and the others.
"You stay here."
Beyond the door was a hallway about ten meters long, with glass walls on either side, a stark contrast to the steel walls outside the door.
After Matthew Edison's command, he moved ahead cautiously. Every step he took was measured and careful, but even so, when he reached the middle of the hallway, he suddenly froze. The glass walls around him suddenly lit up, the sudden brightness enough to shock anyone, even the most hardened person.
Kaplan's voice came through the communicator: "Don't worry, it's just an automatic sensor light, nothing to be concerned about."
(It's clearly the laser from the automatic defense system, not some automatic sensor light... Zheng Zha thought to himself, feeling skeptical.)
Just then, he was about to say something, but a small hand grabbed his arm. When he turned around, he saw the girl with glasses standing beside him, gently shaking her head.
Matthew Edison had already placed the transmitter—a device similar to a mobile phone—on the door's sensor device. Kaplan immediately started pressing keys on the keyboard. Not long after, a soft click was heard, and the door to the central computer slowly began to open.
Matthew Edison let out a sigh of relief and called to the others outside the hallway, "Alright, bring the stuff over."
Alice suddenly asked, "What stuff? What's that?"
Kaplan, who was closest to her, replied, "This is a device that can shut down the Fire Queen. It sends a strong current to disrupt the mainframe and force it to reboot..."
At this point, the mercenary holding the device was about to step into the hallway when Zheng Zha could no longer hold his tongue. He shouted, "Wait, wait! Don't you think something's off? This computer system seems a bit too weak to be true. You're just going to reboot it this easily? I don't think things are that simple. There's probably something unusual about this hallway."
The mercenaries immediately stopped, all of them giving him strange looks. The girl with glasses sighed, letting go of his arm and moving a few steps away, standing beside Alice.
Matthew Edison walked back from the hallway and silently looked at Zheng Zha. After a long pause, he finally said, "Fine, you, and you too, come with us." He pointed at Zheng Zha and the middle-aged man, Mou Gang.
Zheng Zha and Mou Gang felt a chill run through them. Anyone who had seen the movie knew that this hallway was a death trap. Anyone who entered would undoubtedly die. Even the most skilled mercenary captain had perished in the lasers, dying a gruesome death as he was sliced into countless small pieces by the beams.
Zheng Zha suddenly understood why Zhang Jie had looked at him that way earlier. Yes, he had wanted to change the plot, but the inertia of the plot itself couldn't be changed. Even if it was altered, the 'Master' would likely increase the difficulty exponentially, just like what was happening now.
Mou Gang suddenly screamed, "No! I don't want to go in!" As he shouted, he ran back toward the entrance. Before Zheng Zha and the others could react, the mercenaries had already pulled out their guns and shot him, sending him flying. When he hit the ground, his body was riddled with bullet holes.
"Ah!" Zheng Zha and Li Xiao Yi both vomited. A life was taken in front of their eyes, turned into a lifeless corpse. Zheng Zha especially felt a pang of guilt, as this person's death was essentially a result of his own interference.
Matthew Edison looked coldly at him and said, "I suspected you all from the beginning. Your identities are in the company's records, but you don't look like company security at all. Now you're trying to stop us from rebooting the Fire Queen? Fine, Zheng Zha, let's go. You're coming with us."
Zheng Zha, feeling cold all over, still nauseous from just vomiting, was dragged by Matthew Edison and the other mercenaries as they moved forward.
As they entered the hallway, just as in the movie's plot, the doors on either side slammed shut simultaneously. Matthew Edison ignored Zheng Zha for the moment and, along with the other mercenaries, carefully observed the surroundings with their weapons drawn. He also spoke into the communicator, "Kaplan?"
Kaplan's anxious voice came through: "Some kind of dormant defense measure. Once too many people pass through the door, it activates after they've entered."
Matthew Edison replied, "Then let it stay dormant!"
Kaplan, sweating profusely, frantically typed away on his keyboard, replying, "I'm trying my best!"
Matthew Edison helplessly told his subordinates, "Stay put, don't move."
Hearing those words, Zheng Zha felt a chill run through his body. He knew the plot had started to unfold, and now, he was a part of it. Indeed, just as expected, the lights on the opposite walls suddenly dimmed, and a thin laser line appeared between the glass walls. As soon as it formed, the laser line shot toward the mercenaries and Zheng Zha!
Matthew Edison reacted the fastest. He immediately threw himself onto the two people beside him, knocking them to the ground. Zheng Zha, having been paying attention to the walls, had already dropped to the ground the moment the laser line appeared, so it only grazed his shoulder. The sharp, burning sensation felt as though the laser was grazing his shoulder. Apart from that, his mind went completely blank.
"Medic! Medic!" Matthew Edison's voice shouted, snapping Zheng Zha out of his trance. He turned his head and saw the medic mercenary's head slowly moving. Then, her head suddenly fell off, landing right in front of him. Her eyes, wide open in death, seemed like a curse, almost mocking him.
"No, no! I don't want to die!" Zheng Zha shouted in panic, but for some reason, the more he shouted, the calmer he became. He started recalling every scene from the Resident Evil movie that resembled this moment.
Matthew Edison was helping another mercenary whose finger had been severed by the laser, when another mercenary screamed, "Sir, another one's coming!"
This time, the laser line formed at knee-height. Zheng Zha recalled the details of this scene. He remembered that after the laser passed through the first mercenary, it would shoot upward as the second mercenary jumped, severing the second mercenary in half. He had only one chance to make the right move. If he failed, he would be killed by the laser line! He didn't know whether the plot would change here, so he could only trust the movie's narrative in his mind.
The laser line sped toward the four of them, and the mercenary lying on the ground was quickly killed. The remaining two mercenaries kept retreating, but Zheng Zha focused entirely on the movements of the mercenary. One second, two seconds. At this life-and-death moment, Zheng Zha felt as though time had slowed down. He could no longer hear any sound; everything around him seemed to move in slow motion.
"Critical mental threshold surpassed! Reward points: 500! Mental points increased by 20! Neural reaction speed increased by 30!"
A rigid but solemn voice echoed in Zheng Zha's ears, but he heard nothing. He could only focus on the mercenary's movements. Finally, the mercenary leaped into the air. In that instant, Zheng Zha quickly dropped to the ground, and the laser line passed right in front of him. The white light of the laser felt like the scythe of death. At that moment, Zheng Zha believed Zhang Jie's words—they were indeed in some kind of game, a creation of gods or demons. They... would die!
As expected, the laser shot upward as the mercenary jumped, completely dismembering him. After the laser passed, Zheng Zha quickly jumped back up. He looked back, and saw the girl with glasses standing outside near the steel door, tears in her eyes.
Zheng Zha managed a faint smile at her, then dragged Matthew Edison toward the door. Now, he could only pray that the plot wouldn't change. The laser would stop when it reached the door, and there was no way to dodge it. It would turn into a web and tear apart anyone who tried to escape. His only option was to stay close to the door and pray, hoping that the plot would follow the script and end this nightmare!
Matthew Edison struggled desperately, "Let go of me! We'll be sliced in half if we stay here! Let go!"
Zheng Zha clung to his collar tightly, "Trust me! Trust me! This time, we can't avoid it. Stay close to the door. This is our only chance! Please, trust me!"
The third laser line was forming and speeding toward the two of them. If it followed the path indicated, it would cut them in half. Matthew Edison desperately tried to drop to the ground, but Zheng Zha refused to let go. He pressed his body tight against the door, even slowly closing his eyes.
"Stay alive! I want to survive! Even if I have to struggle in a situation like this, I want to live!"
Maybe the gods had opened their eyes, or maybe Zheng Zha's prayers had worked. Just as the laser line neared them, it suddenly turned into a web. Matthew Edison could only let out a curse in desperation, but in the moment of his hopelessness, the laser web slowly faded, stopping just a few centimeters from his face. A faint, searing sensation still hit his face, but at that moment, he couldn't believe he was still alive.
Zheng Zha opened his eyes. He didn't see the laser web disappear, but he knew he had succeeded. The familiar plot propelled itself once again, and he had managed to survive from the jaws of death. In his twenty-plus years of life, he had never been so close to death. The trajectory of that laser had grazed his shoulder—so close!
"What's this?"
As Zheng Zha marveled at his good luck, he suddenly noticed a small light ball appearing on Matthew Edison's collar where he was holding him. Curious, he picked up the light ball. It was only a few centimeters in size, and as soon as he touched it, it disappeared from his fingers. A warm feeling seemed to enter his body, a strange and soothing sensation.
"B-level horror side plot completed. Reward points: 5000!"
The same rigid but solemn voice echoed again. Zheng Zha then remembered that, when the laser line had passed, he had heard something. Upon further reflection, it seemed that he had received 500 reward points, 20 mental points, and 30 neural reaction speed points, a total of 1000 points. According to Zhang Jie, these were the rewards for going through a horror movie scenario.
As for the 5000 points, it felt like a big reward falling from the sky, causing Zheng Zha to shudder. He wasn't sure if it was the joy of surviving or the surprise of the reward, but when the door opened and several people rushed toward him, he stood there, dazed.
Li Xiao Yi, the young man, rushed over and slapped Zheng Zha on the shoulder, saying, "You're amazing! You actually survived such a situation!"
Zheng Zha snapped out of it, shaking his head with a bitter smile. He didn't know how to feel at that moment. He didn't even know what to say. Having just escaped the brink of death, the shock was overwhelming for an ordinary person like him, who had just stepped into this extraordinary world.
The girl with glasses, Zhan Lan, also approached, saying, "You deserve this. I've always warned you not to change the plot, but you didn't listen. Zhang Jie was right. Our greatest reliance here isn't luck, but knowing the plot. Luck can't be with you forever. Don't be so reckless in the future. None of us want to die here."
Zheng Zha shook his head without saying anything. He didn't know if he should mention the reward, or what it even meant. Completing a B-level horror side plot—what did that mean? Did it refer to changing the plot's direction? Or saving characters who should have died? Or surviving an extremely dangerous scenario in the plot?
He wasn't sure, because everything that had just happened was incredibly dangerous. He had almost died there, and that middle-aged man, Mou Gang, had nearly died because of him. So, he didn't dare to keep trying to change the plot. Perhaps Zhang Jie and the others wouldn't let him anymore, because from here on out, no one knew what would happen. It was likely that everyone would die here... including them, the characters, and even the main characters in the film!
This was a horror movie—no one was absolutely safe. Everyone could die. They were all struggling, struggling to survive!