IWOL Chapter 130: Escape

The surrounding was abnormally quiet. From the moment Victor walked into the parking lot until now, there were no bugs in sight.

Soft pink pads stepped on the cold concrete floor, moving step by step towards the depths.

Come closer… come closer… come here… 

Stay here… 

Someone’s whisper seemed to be echoing from a distance, but if he listened carefully, there was no sound at all.

The black snake hid perfectly in the darkness. It was wrapped around a load-bearing column, staring at the white cat with scarlet eyes as it spit out a forked tongue.

Victor stopped abruptly.

The dangerous breath was so familiar.

Victor turned on the light without hesitation.

The sudden beam of light illuminated everything in front of him. A huge creature was lying in the corner of the parking lot. It had no exoskeleton and was like rotten meat that had been randomly combined into a lump. It was as large as ten parking spaces, and it’s whole body was covered with dark green pustules, rising and falling with every breath.

Come… come here… 

Underneath it was a thick sap that spread to a distance of about two meters in front of Victor.

If Victor took a few more steps forward, he would be firmly stuck.

Not good!

Victor’s pupils suddenly shrank, and he turned to run. The moment he turned around, a cold light came towards him with a sound that was loud enough to break the sky!

The white cat rolled and dexterously avoided it on the spot. The nine-section whip hit the place where he had just been. The fierce force of the blow directly cracked the thin layer of ice on the ground, causing a cold fog to drift up.

Like lightning, the snake threw itself out from behind the load-bearing pillar. The two slightly curved fangs in its wide open mouth were extended and ready to pierce Victor’s neck!

At this moment, Victor finally saw what the person blocking his retreat looked like.

It was a small, stubborn-looking old woman with her hands behind her back and her vicious 1.5-meter whip hanging down. She watched him intently, the corners of her lips curved in the crazy smile that had been deeply imprinted in Victor’s soul eight years ago.

Linhai!

In the split second before the black snake’s fang was about to reach him, Victor’s figure disappeared out of thin air in front of Tang Ji.

The snake crashed into the ground, nearly knocking out its fangs.

A summoning beast?

Surprised flashed across Tang Ji’s face. The old woman’s wrinkled face began to twist and slowly morphed into the face of a young man.

As the snake sobbed pitifully at the pain, Tang Ji narrowed his eyes and grinned with an evil and sinister grin.

It must be the clown.

Once the subordinate of the Red Queen, the clown was the strongest existence in the Pure White Realm.

This allowed him to circumvent some of the rules of the Pure White Realm, and so he was able to turn Cui Zuojing into a prisoner and Victor into a summoning beast without the Queen’s knowledge. The culprit could only be him.

A long time ago, Tang Ji had a head-on confrontation with the clown. He’d suffered a miserable defeat. If Chang Hui hadn’t rescued him in time, he, who’d screamed “cut off her head!” to the Red Queen, would have been executed by the clown.

The mere recollection made him tremble, and the screaming fear from the bottom of his heart made Tang Ji completely excited. It was the clown, his ideal enemy!

Tang Ji touched the snake’s cold head in comfort, his hands shaking with excitement. Once he killed Cui Zuojing, his master, Victor, and all these people, the clown would be quite angry. Then, at that time, he could kill him too!

***********

“Run!”

In the moment when Victor was summoned back, Dong Linhai shouted these words. Although he didn’t know what Victor had seen below, he knew they needed to run!

Dong Zheng struggled for a long time but was still unable to wake Wang Que up. Hear this, he immediately withdrew his thought data and put her on Allen’s back. “Go!”

Cui Zuojing was the first to jump down the entrance to the sewer. Dong Zheng was about to follow, but the young man called up in a panicked shout, “Don’t come down! There are bugs here!”

Half of Dong Zheng’s body had already entered the manhole. When he heard this, he immediately propped himself against the ground and climbed back up with Dong Linhai’s help. He immediately stretched out his hand into the manhole, ready to pull Cui Zuojing back out.

Countless black bugs crawled into the warehouse through the manholes and climbed up their feet and legs. Although the bugs could n’t burrow underneath the sturdy, protective clothing they wore, the visual effects were absolutely shocking.

Cui Zuojing hurried up on the vertical ladder and grabbed Dong Zheng’s outstretched hand. The insects had almost completely covered him, turning him into a black human form. When they were waiting for Victor’s news, he had gone down the manhole to inspect the pipes and had confirmed that there were no bugs in it.

But how can so many bugs emerge in a blink of an eye?!

“Run! Run! Hurry!”

Lin Hangzhi was nearest to the door, and he immediately ran away. Just as he was rushing out of the warehouse door, he saw a large group of insects also pouring in from the end of the corridor, covering the floor, walls, and ceiling.

“Fuck!” he cursed.

Cui Zuojing rolled on the ground twice and managed to roll off most of the bugs. Afterward, he forced himself to stand motionless and scanned their surroundings. Finally, he casted his eyes on the window in the corridor.

At this moment, Wang Que quietly woke up.

She seemed to have slept and had a dream. In the dream, she was sitting in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by countless translucent bugs. The clusters of tentacles that protruded from their breathing holes waved, as if silently cheering her on.

In her dream, she was very peaceful. These insects were obviously lower lifeforms that she had never seen before in reality, but they didn’t make her feel the slightest bit panicked.

As consciousness gradually returned, Wang Que realized that she was lying on someone’s back, and it was bumping up and down, as if the person was running.

She opened her eyes and saw a swarm of insects stretching out as far as the eyes could see.

Her pupils dilated, and she jerked up from Allen’s back. Her voice still had the slight confusion from having just awakened, and although it wasn’t too loud, it rang in everyone’s ears.

“Go away!”

The wave of insects raging towards the group visibly paused and then fell into chaos.

Some insects insisted on moving forward, while others changed directions, hesitating to return to their original path.

There seemed to be an invisible bell jingling, sounding out waves loud enough to confuse these low-intellect creatures.

Now! 

Cui Zuojing picked up the flamethrower and aimed wildly at the window. The high temperature quickly melted the ice and heated the glass covering the window, while Dong Linhai struggled to lift the empty container on the side. The moment Cui Zuojing stopped, he let out a loud shout and heaved it at the window.

Bang!

The container completely smashed through the window. Lin Hangzhi took off the string of balls hanging around his waist and threw them to everyone in a hurry.

Cui Zuojing jumped out of the window. The moment his feet touched the ground, he stepped on a group of fluorescent bugs that didn’t have time to escape.

He slammed Lin Hangzhi’s ball at his feet. With a muffled sound, the protective shield that belonged to the year 2472’s technological advancement opened up into a ball, enveloping him.

Dong Zheng, Dong Linhai, and Lin Hangzhi came out one after another. Wang Que got down from Allen’s back and also escaped through the window. Allen, who had the largest body, inevitably couldn’t get out without knocking into the window frame. The frame still had residual heat from the flamethrower, and despite the layer of protective clothing, Allen still got burned.

Everyone smashed open their own protective shield and was soon enveloped in it. The insects that Wang Que had temporarily controlled finally managed to break away from her command. They crawl out of the window and rush at the group. Soon, the six protective shields were engulfed in a mass of wriggling darkness.

The six black balls bounced a few times and rolled along the snow-covered street. The people inside were being shaken about, but they were unable to stop at all.

“Follow me!” Cui Zuojing yelled. He threw himself sideways on the protective ball, thinking that it was just like playing water polo in a park playground when he was a child. No matter how much he rolled over, his posture wouldn’t change too much.

Dong Zheng stumbled through several somersaults and ended up going in a direction that was different from Cui Zuojing’s. He quickly got up and tilted his whole body towards Cui Zuojing, using his weight and momentum to control the ball’s direction.

Six balls with a diameter of three meters each rolled rapidly on the street covered with thick ice. For a time, the sounds coming through their headset were that of people crying out and cursing in pain. The rolling balls alarmed the fluorescent bugs and they scrambled away, taking off from the ground and looking like little glimmers flying in the air. The scene was oddly beautiful, just like something out of this world.

Due to the continuous rolling, the bugs that had attacked the protective ball gradually fell away. After ten minutes, there were almost none left. Cui Zuojing had no idea where to go, and he shouted to Dong Zheng, “Where to?!”

Dong Zheng was still able to recognize with some difficulties the direction they’d tumbled through. Although he didn’t know where he was in the city, he knew where the downtown area was.

Since there was no human pollution for thousands of years, the night sky was incredibly clear. Venus shone brightly, allowing Dong Zheng to determine where southwest was. He gradually slowed down and turned at the sharp corner. “Follow me!”

They had rolled for ten or more minutes. By this point, everyone had basically figured out how to run in the ball like a hamster, and one after another, they followed Dong Zheng.

The ball was a high-tech defensive shield used for protection. As long as the insect wasn’t too large, they could persist for a short time. Because of this, the insects were unable to reach them. They rolled passed a giant centipede several meters long, under the worms clinging to the upper floor of a residential building, and through numerous insects, sending them flying in the air. It was unknown how many fluorescent insects they’d crushed along the way as they rolled aggressively southwest.

This was worse than a roller coaster ride and many times more stimulating. After about 30 minutes of running, everyone was starting to feel weak and dizzy. The surrounding bugs gradually became more and more scarce, indicating that they’d left the gathering of Zergs.

Finally, Lin Hangzhi couldn’t bear it anymore and opened his mouth to vomit.

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