Chapter 171

"Sister Lin! Are you okay?!"

The dense gunfire outside told the players more than enough about who was causing it, and they frantically asked in the group chat.

"I'm fine."

Lin Tu, who had just arrived at her temporary hiding spot, checked the surrounding area. After confirming it was safe, she placed Anju here.

She opened the door and walked inside, finding herself in the familiar comfort of home. She let out a long sigh of relief.

The patrol suit she wore wouldn't get dirty, but the clothes underneath it would. Lin Tu stripped off the clothes and threw them into a bucket to soak, then changed into fresh ones before flopping comfortably into a rocking chair.

Whether it was because she believed her little cottage was sturdy enough that monsters couldn't break in easily, or because the sofa was simply too comfortable, or because she hadn't slept at all the night before—curled up in that rocking chair, Lin Tu felt a deep drowsiness wash over her.

"I'm safe, near the exit passage. You all be careful. Call me when the others arrive," Lin Tu said, then dragged herself to bed. Before closing her eyes, she handed the wake-up duty to the butler.

She hadn't slept a wink.

When she woke again, it was already noon the next day.

Lin Tu stretched and saw nothing important in the group chat. She pulled a large bucket of fried chicken from the time-frozen cabinet, kicked the recliner to face the projection screen, and turned on the projector to play a highly binge-worthy drama—

Well, after some deliberation, Lin Tu chose a bloody horror film.

After the past two days, she could watch these scenes and think, "Ha, that blood spraying from his neck looks so fake," or "Can a leg even fly off like that?"—and make cheerful comments.

After eating and drinking her fill, she felt sleepy again, probably because she was severely sleep-deprived over the past two days.

She had no choice but to crawl back into bed and sleep until the afternoon. When she got up, she ate another meal from the time-frozen cabinet and watched some TV.

Kou Lin's USB drive was exceptionally handy. Lin Tu found a sci-fi romance movie directed by a ship director in this world called *The Billionaire Fell in Love with Me*. From the title alone, it was clearly a story about a wealthy family and a high-ranking official's romance. Most of the scenes were shot in the Ring Building's first and second floors and the Main Ship, inadvertently showing many places Lin Tu had never been.

Lin Tu watched carefully, enjoying the melodrama while also memorizing the map. Who could say that wasn't a gain?

The players, Xiao Hang, and others were hiding in the dormitory, safe and sound. Lin Tu used her phone and communication watch to contact them, learning a lot about the outside world.

For example, due to insufficient power, the air conditioning in the entire third level had now stopped. The temperature on the ship had been dropping sharply, from the original 20°C or so down to about -20°C. The ship was always spring-like, so people had no winter clothes at all. Now they were huddled together to keep warm.

The water supply hadn't stopped, but it seemed the worker in charge had also been infected. The water coming from the taps hadn't been purified and gave off a foul stench. Who knew what the infected worker had added to it?

Although the people were safe, they were cold, hungry, and thirsty, and they constantly worried about the monsters outside. In just two days, they all looked haggard.

For them, the good news was that the higher-ups had finally dispatched troops, and they would reach the Ring Building's third level soon.

Unlike the others, Lin Tu had the air conditioning running every day. The indoor temperature was not only warmer than the ship's but even warmer than the chilly spring of the Back Mountain. Every day, Lin Tu went to the Back Mountain for a jog, walked her dog, cooked, and lay in the recliner watching shows.

Her mouth never stopped moving, and she never stood when she could lie down—she was living like royalty.

By the time Lin Tu had rested enough, Kou Lin sent word that the people from the fourth level had finally come up.

Lin Tu wore a thick down jacket over her patrol suit and stuck on two heat packs, then packed up Anju. Under the cover of night, she arrived at the meeting point agreed upon with the players.

"Where exactly was Sister Lin's temporary hiding spot?" Yi Ying asked with a strange look when she saw Lin Tu.

"The storage closet," Lin Tu said, tilting her head toward her.

"The storage closet." Yi Ying repeated the words. In her memory, that storage closet was so narrow it only had a meter or two of space, and it was dirty and messy. She had been worried Lin Tu was doing poorly, and had even messaged her to ask if she needed any supplies. But now...

She looked at Lin Tu's radiant face and her expression grew even stranger.

—No, the person who should have slept in a storage closet for two days was her, right?

Meanwhile.

In the Main Ship.

A doctor lightly took the scalpel from the nurse beside her.

"Let me go... I beg you, let me go... What did I do to offend you? It's impossible, I don't even know you. Is someone paying you to kill me? I can pay you double, no, triple. Please, let me go!"

The patient on the bed, who had not been given any anesthesia, kept begging for mercy, but his limbs were strapped down tightly. Even if he wanted to kneel and plead, it was useless.

"That's right, you don't know me. And no, no one is paying me to kill you," the doctor said with a smile. "It's just that you happened to be on the operating table when I needed..."

She traced the scalpel along the lines she had just drawn on the patient's body. Judging by the lines and the items on the nearby table, it was clear she intended to cut off both his arms, attach gorilla arms in their place, and sew iron plates onto his chest, turning him into—

"A monster with the strength of a gorilla, the intelligence of a human, and the defense of steel." The more the doctor spoke, the more excited she became. "You will be an unprecedented masterpiece. You will be a magnificent work of art."

As she spoke, her smile widened, stretching her lips beyond what a human should be able to do.

If Lin Tu were here, she would recognize that expression—it was exactly the same as the infected people she had seen.

"Don't worry. If the surgery fails, I'll cut off your head and sew it onto a gorilla. I'll make a warrior with a gorilla's strength and a human's head. This time, I hope you can still hold a knife."

The patient on the bed felt the cold scalpel slice across his skin, and he couldn't take it anymore—he fainted.

"Wake him up!" the doctor said excitedly. "I want to feel more of his pain. This isn't enough yet!"

Just then, the operating room door was knocked on. A nurse whose head had been cut in half, with a screen mounted on top, walked in.

"Reporting, Miss Chris. The military has already set out to rescue the Ring Building's third level. We've also discovered that the human who killed many of our kin seems to be trying to enter the passage to the Main Ship. We don't know where they intend to go for now." On the screen, images of the soldiers and Lin Tu appeared in turn.

"The military hasn't been infected yet? I have a good idea," Doctor Chris said with a smile. "How about we give them a human fountain? As for that human, hmm, let my little darlings go meet her."

"Can you do it?" Doctor Chris stepped forward, pulled open a curtain beside her, and crouched next to several cages. In these cages were all sorts of grotesque humanoid creatures, clearly modified by Chris like the man on the bed.

"I promised you that I'd let you kill people. Now the chance has come, hasn't it? You can kill anyone, but if you can't kill them, then infect them! Tell them where I am, especially this one," Chris said, pointing at Lin Tu on the screen on the nurse's head. To the monsters, she said, "Her power is interesting. I think I can get a lot of inspiration from her body. Of course, maybe I'll reward you with one of her arms. Once installed on you, it will make you even stronger. Don't you want to know what it feels like to tear a person apart with your hands?"

At that moment, their expressions were ferocious, but upon hearing Chris's words, they nodded immediately.

The cages were opened, and the monsters poured out in a swarm, running madly toward the scent of blood.

Also in the Main Ship.

"Your opinion is the same as mine, so we absolutely cannot let the military be infected." Yu Liu, wearing a military uniform, sent a message to Lin Tu, then turned off his phone.

In this disaster, his identity was an officer, specifically the deputy commander—the second in command of the military, right after the commander.

His teammates were from the same organization as him. When they landed, they all managed to get military identities, though their abilities weren't as strong as their captain Yu Liu's; they were just ordinary soldiers.

Actually, long before Lin Tu's warning, Yu Liu had already noticed something was off.

Some people seemed to be deliberately approaching him, trying to shove strange things into his mouth.

As the deputy commander, he knew more information than Lin Tu. He knew about the other cases besides the child abuse murders, and even knew that the very first case involved a cancer patient who suddenly went berserk, ran out of the hospital, and killed five people at a nearby fast-food restaurant.

After investigating, Yu Liu found that all these criminals had been to the ship's central hospital shortly before their crimes. Even the cancer patient had run out of the hospital.

Further investigation revealed that the people trying to feed him things all seemed connected to the hospital.

For example, hospital nurses, cleaners, and even soldiers who had recently visited the hospital for treatment.

So Yu Liu suspected the hospital. He suspected that the pathogen was inside that hospital.

This pathogen was extremely smart. What it wanted to do was clear: infect the military.

Once it controlled the military, it could do whatever it wanted on the entire ship.

The enemy was in the open while we were in the dark. It just so happened that the higher-ups had ordered someone to lead troops to the Ring Building's third level to clean up the monsters. Yu Liu's immediate superior didn't want to do such dirty, tiring work, so the task naturally fell to Yu Liu.

Therefore, Yu Liu decided to lead his troops to clear the monsters in the third level of the Ring Building, but after the cleanup, he would occupy part of the third level and then consider taking down the hospital.

The military advanced triumphantly downward.

Here's an interesting thing that Lin Tu discovered while watching *The Billionaire Fell in Love with Me*: the first, second, and third levels of the Ring Building were not all connected. To get from the first level to the fourth, you had to pass through the second and third levels in sequence. The same was true going down from the fourth to the first.

What truly connected to the Main Ship was the first level of the Ring Building.

So Yu Liu led his troops down to the first level first, then headed to the second. As they reached the third, he saw several people waiting for him up ahead.

These people were wearing firefighter uniforms, but at this time and place, standing at the intersection—how could they be real firefighters?

"Who are you!" Yu Liu shouted from afar. "Get out of the way, or we'll open fire!"

The moment he finished speaking, he heard a sizzling sound from above.

Yu Liu suddenly had a bad feeling. He looked up and saw a drop of thick, red blood fall from the fire sprinkler above with a drip.

Instantly, goosebumps rose all over Yu Liu's body.

He swiftly activated his item and shouted to his teammates, "Shield!"

Just as the shield rose from the ground, the sprinklers sprayed out a large amount of blood-red liquid, like a hearty rain of blood. The entire army was bathed in a sea of blood.

"Damn it... We're done for..." a young man beside Yu Liu muttered. "Our plan is ruined."

He didn't need to say it. Yu Liu could see that the soldiers bathed in the blood rain were rapidly shifting from vigilance to confusion to frenzy—a transformation that took only a few seconds.

"This is an S-class disaster. It's normal to mess up. After all, this monster is too smart and it went all out." Yu Liu tried to comfort him, but this wasn't the time for comfort.

This army had thirty thousand soldiers, all fully armed. With such a large number of people turning into monsters, the first thing Yu Liu and his companions had to do—

Run!

Some soldiers standing further back who hadn't been hit by the blood rain watched in confusion as their comrades suddenly grinned savagely and lunged at them. Before they could even open their mouths, their faces were torn apart.

Others, gripped by fear, fired at their former comrades, but shooting wasn't their exclusive privilege. The former comrades raised their guns in unison and shot through their arms and legs.

Some, who knew the inside story, looked at the scene in despair and confusion, then raised their guns to their own heads and pulled the trigger.

Several soldiers rushed at Yu Liu, who narrowly dodged with the help of his items.

"Run!"

Not long before, Lin Tu had also received a message from Yu Liu.

"The pathogen is in the hospital?" Everyone exchanged glances, but ultimately, it had little to do with them.

Because they were different from Yu Liu. The more people Yu Liu's organization saved, the more points they earned. As ordinary players, what they had to do was very simple—find a place and hide for three months.

So after exchanging information with Yu Liu, Lin Tu turned off her phone and discussed with her teammates, deciding to continue heading toward the Ring Building's fourth level. The plan was to play it safe.

The person swiping the card at the front of the group was the employee from the fourth level.

In the [Famous Team] achievement, Luo Yongzhi had also chosen [Trust Candy]. After force-feeding it to the employee, they quickly became "friends."

There were already contaminated people on the fourth level, which was why this person had fled to the third. But that wasn't a big deal for Lin Tu and the others. Compared to ordinary employees, those patrol officers and armed soldiers were the real trouble!

"Is Yu Liu really the one who tried to kill you, Sister Lin?" Guan Suixing asked.

She had recovered her sanity and dyed her hair back to black, but she was now quiet and rarely spoke.

Lin Tu shook her head. "I don't know. Earlier I had Sister Huadan look into him. He's not from the Temple, and his organization has no connection to them either. I suspect he might know someone from the Temple."

—And his relationship with that person must have been extraordinary. That was why Lin Tu hadn't directly asked Yu Liu.

She didn't understand Yu Liu, and she wasn't sure he would tell her the truth. So Lin Tu was looking for an opportunity, like a hunter who was always willing to wait.

"The Temple people are more disgusting than the last," Luo Yongzhi said in a deep voice. Realizing his words weren't quite right, he stammered "uh, uh" a few times—Guan Suixing's sister had once been in the Temple.

He hadn't meant to imply anything, but since the incident with Guan Suiyue, their relationship with Guan Suixing had been strained. In fact, they didn't even know why Lin Tu had brought Guan Suixing along for this disaster.

Even Yi Ying, who was best at smoothing things over, remained silent, opening her mouth but not knowing what to say.

Guan Suixing fell silent. Kou Lin sighed. But then, after a moment of thought, Lin Tu spoke up, "The Temple people are disgusting. You... I don't know what you know, but I suspect you joined the Temple to help her find out the truth, didn't you?"

Guan Suixing looked up in shock.

Just as she was about to say something, everyone's expressions suddenly turned serious.

A sound of something cutting through the air rushed toward Yi Ying, who was swaying from side to side. Yi Ying instinctively ducked, but she didn't dodge the sharp attack. She felt her scalp tingle and goosebumps burst out all over her body.

Just then, Guan Suixing, who was closest to her, pushed her away from the spot of the attack.

But the attack wasn't so simple. The flying object actually curved and continued toward Yi Ying.

Lin Tu raised her gun and fired at it, but to her utter surprise, its speed was even faster than the bullet.

At the critical moment, Guan Suixing pulled out a book-like item from her backpack and held it up in front of the object.

With a "shwoosh," Lin Tu's sharp eyes caught sight of a pitch-black bird with a human head, hair disheveled, charging into the book. As it felt the book's pull, it struggled desperately, and in the moment it was sucked in, it grabbed hold of Guan Suixing's clothes.

A faint flash of light, and the bird-headed human and Guan Suixing vanished from everyone's sight.

With a "thud," the only thing left on the ground was the book, with the words "Fairy Tale Book" written on it.

"Guan Suixing!" Yi Ying witnessed the scene with her own eyes, but it happened so fast that even Lin Tu's bullet couldn't catch up to the bird-headed human, and her item had only just been taken out.

Yi Ying quickly fell to the ground and picked up the fairy tale book.

"Finally found you, you delicious... lambs."

At the same time, Lin Tu stared at the exit. Five or six grotesque creatures came into view. Each was terrifying in its own way, and where they came from was anyone's guess. Looking at them too long would make anyone lose sanity points.

Besides the bird-human that had been sucked into the book, there was a "snake-person" like Medusa, covered in snakes crawling all over it, with its head replaced by a mass of snakes; a "metal-person" with its mouth replaced by a huge flamethrower, legs modified into metal wheels, and arms modified into laser guns; and an "insect-person" walking on all fours, its back sewn with metal scales, like a pangolin...

"Whoa!" Luo Yongzhi couldn't help but exclaim, and after feeling the goosebumps all over his body, he unhesitatingly activated his battle armor.

"This isn't right. Isn't this a zombie disaster?" Kou Lin frowned, unable to connect the terrifying zombies they'd seen earlier with these sanity-draining monsters in front of them.

Only Liu Sheng was abnormally excited. With a single glance, he could identify dozens or even hundreds of diseases in these completely unhealthy "humans." Facing these monsters, his combat power would be unprecedented.

"Yi Ying, take good care of Guan Suixing. Let's deal with what's in front of us first," Lin Tu said coldly, looking at the monsters.

"Did you come looking for us on purpose?"

"No, no, no, delicious lambs. We came specifically to eat you." The snake-person, the leader of the monsters, shook its head and charged at Lin Tu first.

Behind it, the metal-person charged at Kou Lin, who also had metal arms. Luo Yongzhi was about to charge at the insect-person, leaving the remaining monster for the weaker Yi Ying and Liu Sheng, when Liu Sheng stopped him—

"Brother Luo, let me!" Liu Sheng said seriously, looking into Luo Yongzhi's eyes. "You go handle the last one, then go help Sister Lin. I can hold this one off."

"Alright." Luo Yongzhi nodded, then looked toward Lin Tu with a grave expression. "You take care."

Back to Lin Tu, the snake-person in front of her wasn't that simple.

It had at least a hundred different venomous snake species on its body, and the number of snakes was even more staggering. These venomous snakes could spit poison darts, making them extremely dangerous.

"Little Black!" Lin Tu didn't dare engage in close combat with the snake-person. She quickly retreated while summoning Little Black, firing seven bullets in a row at the snake-person.

These seven bullets: three aimed at the snake-person's head, four at its heart.

But to Lin Tu's surprise, all seven bullets hit, yet none of them really hit.

She saw the snake-person twist its body, the venomous snakes coiling and rotating, quickly dodging the bullets. And the body underneath the snakes was already pale; even if it was hit and a bullet hole appeared, it just made a hole—

This damn person was already dead long ago. It was clearly the snakes controlling its movements!

Worse, several snakes crawled down from the snake-person's body and slithered toward the floor, walls, and ceiling, as if trying to surround Lin Tu from all directions.

Lin Tu retreated again, reloading her revolver and firing all at the venomous snakes on the wall.

As skilled as she was with a gun, one bullet per snake, there were just too many snakes. How could she kill them all?

At the critical moment, Lin Tu thought of fire.

She pretended to continue loading Little Black into the gun, but actually took out her explosive rounds and loaded them into the revolver.

Lin Tu didn't know if she was imagining it, but she thought she saw a mocking look in the snake-person's head, which was full of snakes.

After loading, Lin Tu aimed the gun at the snake-person and fired.

Because the previous shots had been ineffective, this time the snake-person didn't even dodge. It watched as the flaming bullet sped toward it, and when it entered the head, the bullet exploded, shattering the skull. Pale flesh and brains splattered onto the ceiling, utterly disgusting.

The snake-person paused for a moment, and the venomous snakes burrowed into its brain. Then it continued charging at Lin Tu.

"No." Lin Tu quickly realized her mistake.

The snakes were controlling its consciousness, so shooting the head was useless.

Lin Tu changed direction and aimed at its arms and legs.

With a few more "bang, bang" sounds, the snake-person twisted its body in a bizarre posture, and only one of Lin Tu's bullets hit.

That bullet struck the snake-person's arm, and with a "boom," the explosive round detonated from within, blowing the arm off and onto the ground. No matter how the venomous snakes burrowed into the wound, it was useless, because that part of the limb was gone completely.

Encouraged by this success, Lin Tu fired a few more shots, retreating while aiming at the snake-person's limbs. Soon, it collapsed to the ground, turning into a pool of venomous snakes.

"Yi Ying, oil!"

Lin Tu shouted to Yi Ying, who raised her flashlight and shone it on the pool of snakes in front of Lin Tu.

Lin Tu struck a match and threw it at the snakes. With a pounce, the fire ignited.

At the same time, Kou Lin's laser gun at her waist had successfully dismantled the metal-person. Liu Sheng's side was even more exaggerated—he kept muttering about the insect-person's diseases, and his scalpel and scissors flying in the air never stopped, almost shredding the insect-person into pieces.

Was it over?

Lin Tu panted slightly, looking at the pile of monster remains in front of her, feeling that things weren't that simple.

"You're going to the medical center... hehe," suddenly, the pool of snakes on the ground began to writhe, somehow producing human speech, "If you don't go, your friend will die... hehe..."

It was only then, after the fierce battle, that Lin Tu remembered Guan Suixing, who had been sucked into the book.

The others quickly gathered.

Guan Suixing had told Lin Tu how to use the book, so she opened it and quickly found the line in the story:

"Today, an infected girl came to the town."