Xiao Lou’s face turned pale upon hearing Ye Qi’s words.
He could feel that Shao Qingge hated Cheng Ziyang. Everyone knew that Shao Qingge didn’t have a good impression of Cheng Ziyang after he betrayed Ye Qi. However, with Shao Qingge’s character, he wouldn’t directly kill a person.
Yet just now, Shao Qingge used the hair dryer to throw Cheng Ziyang into the raging flames!
Cheng Ziyang would’ve definitely burned to ashes in the flames. Shao Qingge must’ve had a problem with Cheng Ziyang to act in this way. Combined with Xue Qing’s scream… it turned out that the four of them were attacked by the bugs when they were still above ground. Chief Shao was even infected!
At this time, the university students of the Distant Association were still following. They might do something to Shao Qingge if they knew he was infected. They absolutely couldn’t learn about it.
Xiao Lou immediately calmed down his emotions and told Yu Hanjiang the bad news through the heart channel. Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly and walked to Ye Qi, asking in a low voice. “What’s the situation?”
Ye Qi’s nose was tingly and he bowed his head to hold back his tears. “Just now, two bugs sneaked onto the roof and escaped Li Qingzhao’s control. They suddenly attacked from the rear. I didn’t notice and Chief Shao was scratched by the bugs to protect me…”
Yu Hanjiang wondered, “Cheng Ziyang was also infected so Chief Shao blew him into the fire?”
Ye Qi shook his head. “No, when Cheng Ziyang was attacked, he pulled Xue Qing in front of him and this caused Xue Qing to be infected.”
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged looks. Based on Ye Qi’s description, they could imagine the situation at the time. They were attacked by the bugs and Cheng Ziyang chose to use his teammate to block the knife while Shao Qingge chose to take the risk to protect his teammate.
These were two completely different approaches. A person’s subconscious response in a crisis was enough to show their character. They didn’t believe that Shao Qingge was wrong. Don’t look at how he was usually lazy. He slept all day in the main city, lay down to win in the Hearts secret room and always teased them…
However, Xiao Lou really admired his courage in a critical moment!
Seeing Ye Qi’s pale face, Xiao Lou gently held his shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself too much. Protecting you is his own choice. You can’t be blamed. If you are infected then everyone would still be sad.”
Ye Qi lowered his head and said nothing.
Xiao Lou continued, “Moreover, being infected isn’t hopeless. Didn’t Group Leader Yu analyze it before? The data will be reset after an A-grade secret room and the challengers’ injuries in the secret room will be automatically cleared. As long as we protect Chief Shao and don’t let him die, he will be able to recover after returning to the main city. He will become the former safe and sound Chief Shao.”
Ye Qi nodded slightly. “Um…”
Xiao Lou asked, “Do you still feel his signal now? You are connected with Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings right?”
Ye Qi tentatively asked Shao Qingge in his mind, “Chief Shao, can you hear me?”
Shao Qingge laughed in his mind. “I can hear you. I haven’t mutated yet and there are no special sensations in my body. Perhaps the bug is still adapting to my body?”
Ye Qi told Xiao Lou the result.
Xiao Lou sighed with relief. After being infected, it would take a while to completely mutate. It was the same for the patients who were previously seen in the hospital. They were normal at first but after mutating, they would uncontrollably attack humans. Of course, those who were out of control would be the lower level bugs. The smarter ones would pretend to be human for a sneak attack.
Qin Guan’s ‘Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings’ connected the inner worlds of two people, allowing two people to communicate through their spirits. Therefore, Chief Shao wasn’t a bug pretending right now. He still had his own consciousness.
It was unknown when he would mutate. Xiao Lou thought about it for a moment before telling Ye Qi softly, “You and Chief Shao have a spiritual channel and should keep communicating at all times. If this communication channel is broken, it means his consciousness is being controlled by the bug. At this time, immediately control him with the flute. Our underground tunnel will only take five minutes. There are still bugs outside and we can be caught by them. We will talk about it after leaving the secret tunnel.”
Yu Hanjiang also agreed with Xiao Lou’s opinion. “The bugs can burrow into the ground. We blocked the back and side roads but we will be surrounded if they dig above us. So we will leave the secret tunnel first before thinking about how to solve Chief Shao’s problem. He shouldn’t lose consciousness in five minutes.”
Ye Qi nodded vigorously.
The three of them spoke in a low voice as they walked. Shao Qingge was able to sense the conversation between Ye Qi, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang and he also added, “The overall situation is the most important thing. Let me go out of the secret passage first. I should be able to hold on for a few minutes.”
Just then, Gao Xiaoyi from the Distant Association walked over with a pale face. “This gentleman, what happened just now? Why did you throw our captain into the fire with a hair dryer?”
The boy with glasses also spoke. “The fire was so big and Cheng Ziyang will definitely be burned to ashes if thrown in. What hatred do you have with him? Why do you want to hurt him so much? In addition, what about Xue Qing? She was screaming just now. Why didn’t she come down?”
After all, the bug army was behind them. Now wasn’t the time to stop and argue.
Gao Xiaoyi also nodded. She motioned to her teammates to follow and they talked as they walked.
Shao Qingge told them, “It started as early as 3 of Spades. Our Ye Qi was breaking through alone and it was the same for your captain Cheng Ziyang. The two of them happened to be matched up and became temporary teammates. As a result, after most of their supplies were stolen, your Captain Cheng actually left Xiao Ye and ran away.”
Shao Qingge’s eyes narrowed slightly and his gaze became extremely sharp. “Due to his betrayal, Ye Qi was eliminated in 3 of Spades. He entered the Nightmare Room, eating leaves to survive for 14 days. You can imagine for yourself what difficulties he went through to come back from the Nightmare Room.”
The team of university students heard this and exchanged looks.
Everyone had experienced 3 of Spades. In retrospect, the Financial Crisis room wasn’t very difficult but it also wasn’t simple. It would be very troublesome once their materials were stolen, let alone having a teammate who ran off with the supplies. This approach was simply cutting off a person’s food source, harming a person and eliminating them!
Gao Xiaoyi and the others obviously couldn’t believe it. How could their usually sunny and handsome captain be such a person? Was it true that people truly didn’t know the hearts of others?
Gao Xiaoyi frowned slightly. “This is your subjective statement and we can’t fully believe it… Besides, even if what you said is true, we are sorry for Xiao Ye but you can use other methods to make him compensate. Did you have to kill him?”
Shao Qingge wondered, “What if he killed someone too?”
Gao Xiaoyi slightly hesitated. She thought of Xue Qing’s scream and a chill filled her heart. “Do you mean… Xue Qing?”
Shao Qingge smiled coldly. “Selling out teammates, there will only be zero times or countless times. Do you understand what I mean?”
Everyone naturally understood. A person who could sell out their teammate once would naturally do it a second and third time. It was because their survival instincts would make them only think about themselves. What was their teammate compared to life?
Meanwhile, those who didn’t sell out their teammates would bear the burden with their teammate even in the face of life or death. They would live and die together.
It was like how domestic violence occurred zero times or countless times. A man who didn’t know domestic violence would never beat his wife. Meanwhile, a person who committed domestic violence would do it a second time, even if he kneeled down and admitted his mistake the first time.
Shao Qingge’s meaning was obvious. Cheng Ziyang previously sold out Ye Qi in 3 of Spades and just now he sold out Xue Qing, killing Xue Qing… the blood debt should be paid with his life! Ye Qi saw Chief Shao clearly explain the reason to everyone and felt even more uncomfortable. He didn’t know how long Chief Shao could maintain this state.
Ye Qi took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. Then he stepped forward and explained softly, “The four of us were attacked by the bugs just now. After your captain Cheng Ziyang noticed he was going to be attacked, he immediately pulled Xue Qing in front of him and this caused Xue Qing to be infected. Xue Qing said she didn’t want to be a puppet of the bugs, nor did she want to hurt you after being infected. Therefore, she rushed into the fire on her scooter and killed herself.”
Ye Qi really admired this girl’s courage and the other teammates were shocked after hearing it.
The people of the Distant Association heard this and their faces were ugly. The boy pushed his glasses up his nose and mused in a low voice, “No wonder why we heard Xue Qing’s scream. Cheng Ziyang, how could he do this…”
A girl who had a close relationship with Xue Qing was full of anger. She clenched her fists as she muttered, “Cheng Ziyang doesn’t have too many self-defense cards. It must be that at a critical moment, he only thought about his own life and ended up hurting Xue Qing! If he didn’t do that, if he had told me, I might’ve had time to go up and rescue them. But Xue Qing…” The girl’s voice choked up at the end.
Ye Qi handed a card pack to Gao Xiaoyi. “This is Xue Qing’s card pack. She asked me to pass it onto you.”
The girl took the card pack with trembling fingers.
At this moment, Gao Xiaoyi’s expression suddenly changed. “Cheng Ziyang, he…”
The group looked at her. Gao Xiaoyi was silent for three seconds before stating in a low voice, “He is dead.”
The boy next to her was surprised and asked, “The contract was handed over?”
Gao Xiaoyi nodded. “Yes, we signed Cheng Ziyang’s contract. According to the rules of the contract, if the team leader dies in the secret room then it will be passed on to the second person who signed the contract. I have known him the longest and was the second person to sign the contract. Now I have become the captain. I just saw the notice about the transfer on my floating box.”
She took out her senior contract book and showed her teammates. It was true that Cheng Ziyang and Xue Qing’s names had disappeared from it. The death of their two teammates was obviously a heavy blow to their team and they were silent.
Xiao Lou sighed and comforted them. “The most insecure thing is to have a person like Cheng Ziyang by your side. If you go to the S-grade secret rooms, what if he sells you out for his own survival? It isn’t a pity that he died. It is just a pity that the innocent Xue Qing was implicated.”
Gao Xiaoyi quickly calmed down and looked back at her teammates. “We don’t have time to be sad. Xue Qing’s cards will be kept by me for the time being. Since I have become the captain, I am responsible for leading everyone through this secret room. Cheer up and go quickly! There are still many bugs waiting outside. Do you want to go out and feed the bugs together?”
Her team regained some of their spirit after hearing her words and walked forward.
Gao Xiaoyi walked beside Ye Qi and said, “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
Gao Xiaoyi was silent for a moment. “Cheng Ziyang’s betrayal of you… I was just his teammate and I’m not qualified to apologize for him. However, if you managed to leave the Nightmare Room then it shows your ability is very strong. You will definitely have good luck in the future.”
Ye Qi, “……”
What good luck? He was the one who caused Chief Shao to be infected by the bug.
Ye Qi reluctantly smiled at her and continued to move forward while communicating with Shao Qingge in his mind. Suddenly, Shao Qingge told him, “I will also give you my card pack for safekeeping. There aren’t many useful cards but it can give me more peace of mind.”
Ye Qi nodded. “Okay, I will help…”
Shao Qingge’s cards really weren’t useful. ATM Machine, Stock Curve, Rich and Willfull etc. all had no attack power or control skills. It was best to use Rich and Willfull to copy a card but it cost 5 million gold coins. Shao Qingge himself hadn’t drawn any attack cards. It was why he used his body to protect Ye Qi instead of a card in the critical moment.
Ye Qi couldn’t help saying, “I will give you all my chances to draw a card in the future. I will never draw it again.”
Shao Qingge chucked. “Don’t do that. What if I get Bank or Funds etc. It is too flashy.”
“You are still in the mood to joke…”
Shao Qingge patted Ye Qi’s shoulder. “Don’t be nervous. I am just parasitized, not dead. I will be fine as long as we clear this secret room.”
Ye Qi had to give a dull reply.
The two men chatted as they talked. Five minutes passed quickly and everyone soon reached the exit of the passage.
Due to repeated surveys of this underground path and blocking off the surrounding fork roads with the marble walls, everyone had a smooth journey. Xiao Lou had already activated the function of the drone and monitored the movements at the exit. Currently, the exit was extremely calm. Not even the sound of small animals could be heard.
Xiao Lou nodded at Yu Hanjiang to indicate it was safe outside. Yu Hanjiang immediately flew up, his arms slamming upwards as he lifted the snow-covered manhole cover. “Everyone come up!”
Everyone had flying and jumping cards and went up quickly. Then Ye Qi and Chief Shao were pulled up by Yu Hanjiang using the white silk. Yu Hanjiang covered the manhole and looked around.
It was late at night and the surroundings were pitch black. All the buildings in the distance had no lights and the streets lamps were turned off. They could only observe the surroundings using the light of the lantern in Xiao Lou’s hand.
Yu Hanjiang remembered that the street lights were still on the last time he came to explore this road. He frowned and warned them, “The bugs have probably destroyed the city’s electrical system. In the future, there will be no street lights and it will be even more difficult when moving.”
Xiao Lou agreed. “They are very agile at night and their night vision ability should be strong.”
He glanced at Gao Xiaoyi’s group and told them, “We can only help you up to here.”
Gao Xiaoyi was taken aback but soon understood what he meant.
The underground passage was dug by his party and the gasoline barrels were also prepared by them. Gao Xiaoyi’s group only eliminated some of the bugs that emerged from the ground. It could be said that they took advantage of this team to escape smoothly.
Xiao Lou didn’t have the obligation to take them during the evacuation but he still did so. In addition, there was Cheng Ziyang’s betrayal and Gao Xiaoyi wasn’t shameless enough to keep following Xiao Lou. She nodded. “Okay, we will leave immediately. However…”
She took out Xue Qing’s card pack and handed the Ethanol card to Xiao Lou. “This card will be given to you as thanks. Thank you for taking everyone with you when evacuating and thank you for helping to avenge Xue Qing. I think that Xue Qing will be very happy to give this card to you.”
Xiao Lou took it and saw that it was the S-grade pharmaceutical card Ethanol. It could continuously produce ethanol for 30 minutes every time and a maximum of 100 bottles could be produced. The concentration of the ethanol was higher than that of alcohol sold on the market and it was more likely to cause fires.
In the secret room containing bugs that feared fire, this card that could continuously produce ethanol was definitely a super useful card. She was actually giving it to them?
Xiao Lou wondered, “You are giving us this card. What about you?”
The boy wearing glasses replied, “I can use a circuit to create a fire and block an area, so the Ethanol card doesn’t have a great impact on us. Since Sister Gao is giving it to you, please accept it. Thank you for taking us out of there alive.”
He was a high-achieving student in the Department of Physics. The cards he drew were related to electricity, optics and magnetic fields. Among them was a circuit card that could instantly release wires to form a close circuit. This allowed him to control the currents in the air and short-circuiting the wires could cause a fire. People who were paralyzed by his electricity couldn’t run away from the fire so it was actually better than pouring alcohol.
Gao Xiaoyi added, “Don’t worry, we still have some cards in our hands. We will hide from the bugs. We were too careless tonight. We shouldn’t have killed the vanguard so early. We didn’t expect the vanguard team to actually be a death squad reporting to the rear army.”
Xiao Lou also hadn’t expected it. If the vanguard hadn’t been dealt with so quickly, perhaps the bug army wouldn’t have been so quick to come to the door.
He looked at Gao Xiaoyi with appreciation. “Good luck to you.”
Gao Xiaoyi also thanked Xiao Lou and took her team away.
She obviously gave the Ethanol card to Xiao Lou because she didn’t want to owe Xiao Lou’s team a favour. After all, the captain Cheng Ziyang had harmed Xiao Ye yet everyone was still willing to take their team while escaping. This was really rare. If Xiao Lou hadn’t taken them along, they would’ve been submerged in the ocean of bugs.
Xiao Lou watched Gao Xiaoyi’s back and thought that compared to Cheng Ziyang, this female captain was more courageous. Now that they didn’t have Cheng Ziyang to stab them in the back at any time, a strong team like the Distant Association team should find it easier to pass the instance. Xiao Lou really didn’t dare keep them by his side. After all, Chief Shao was infected and he didn’t know the people of the Distant Association. He couldn’t take the risk.
It wasn’t until the group went far away that Xiao Lou turned to everyone. “There is some bad news.”
Liu Qiao, Old Mo and the others immediately paid attention.
Xiao Lou spoke in a low voice. “Chief Shao was infected.”
The expressions of the group changed as they stared at Shao Qingge.
Shao Qingge told them, “Don’t be afraid. I don’t want to bite you now.”
No one was afraid. They were all worried and there was no disgust in their eyes. This made Shao Qingge’s heart warm. At this moment, he was absolutely sure that he wouldn’t be abandoned by his teammates even if he was infected.
Xiao Lou told them, “Chief Shao hasn’t lost consciousness but we have to prepare for it in advance. We must prevent Chief Shao from attacking us after he becomes a bug. At the same time, we must protect Chief Shao from being called away by other bugs or merging with them.”
Shao Qingge heard this and couldn’t help joking, “You can take me as a test product to study the bugs. You can take a closer look at the process of the mutation and there might be new discoveries. This will be helpful when dealing with the bugs in the future.”
Everyone was a bit uncomfortable hearing his relaxed tone.
No one wanted to be infected but Shao Qingge’s personality was truly optimistic. He wasn’t panicked or afraid at all…
Xiao Lou stared at Shao Qingge and spoke seriously, “Chief Shao, rest assured, we will try our best to take you through this instance.”
Shao Qingge nodded. “Yes, I believe in everyone’s strength. You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”
Xiao Lou continued, “The problem is that we can’t tie Chief Shao up all the time and we don’t know when he will mutate. So… I’ve thought of an idea. I don’t know if Chief Shao is willing to cooperate?”
Shao Qingge smiled. “I will listen to Professor Xiao. What is your good idea?”
Xiao Lou coughed and touched his nose. “Make you smaller.”
