novelraw Chapter 260 - 251: Bad Luck
Chapter 260 - 251: Bad Luck
Over half an hour later.
"Damn it, we’re finally out." Zhuo Xing, being small, was the first to crawl out of the crevice. After checking the surrounding terrain and confirming it was temporarily safe, he turned and lay down by the crevice’s edge. Just as he reached out to give his companion behind him a hand, a sharp pain made his shoulder twitch uncontrollably.
During the firefight underground, Zhuo Xing had been hit by a Superpower Bullet from a Gold Element user while covering the retreat of the mobility-impaired Lin Yuan, whose legs were injured. Although he had summoned a Water Shield in time to block it, the immense impact still damaged his ligaments.
But Zhuo Xing didn’t say a word about it.
Compared to his other teammates, his injury was the lightest.
’At least both my hands are still barely usable.’
Once the entire group was back on the surface, Zhuo Xing looked at his teammates, gritted his teeth, and was about to walk to the driver’s seat when he saw his captain take the spot himself.
"Captain..."
Ye Junhan looked up at him. "Get in the car."
In truth, Ye Junhan was also injured. He had internal injuries, but they weren’t visible to others.
Compared to visible, external wounds, invisible internal injuries were far more troublesome.
"Captain, we’ve contacted everyone else, except..." In the passenger seat, Zhao Qingxiao, his superpowers depleted, glanced back at Lin Yuan before turning sideways to report to Ye Junhan. "We still can’t get in touch with Lin’s vehicle."
Lin Yuan’s face was pale from the pain, his lips trembling. He didn’t make a sound.
Just now, to avoid slowing down his teammates, he had forced a tactical roll, and the wounds on his legs had split open again.
Zhuo Xing, who was re-dressing his wounds, patted him on the shoulder. "Don’t worry, Lin is definitely fine. Didn’t Mr. Wei send us the rendezvous point? If we just drive in that direction, we might run into them on the way."
A comrade nearby with a mangled shoulder cradled his gun and nodded in agreement. "That’s right. When I was driving back to support Mr. Ye, I saw Lin’s vehicle on the road. The car took a heavy hit and looked a bit rough, but everyone was okay..."
As long as the people were fine, with the strength of Lin, Zhao Li, and the other two, they should have no problem protecting themselves even if they encountered danger.
Lin Yuan looked down at the two very perfunctory bows that had reappeared on his legs, hesitated for a moment, and said, "...But my brother and I have never had very good luck."
In reality, the brothers’ luck wasn’t *that* bad. They had never suffered any major misfortune growing up, but... they often ran into minor accidents, like finding no seasoning packet in their instant noodles or choking on water.
Everyone on the team knew about this.
Take today, for example. He was the only one seriously injured, and while contact was re-established with so many other vehicles, the one Lin was in had gone silent...
Hearing this, the other few people in the car fell silent. "..." It was hard to say anything when it came to something as metaphysical as luck.
After a long moment, Zhuo Xing forced a dry laugh, but the pain made him grimace.
He quickly covered his mouth and mumbled, "Well, it’s just a loss of contact, not a huge deal. Isn’t Miss Qi still with our convoy? If it really comes to it, we can just..."
He didn’t dare finish the sentence, only stealing a glance at Ye Junhan driving in the front. ’As long as the captain asks, Miss Qi will definitely agree to help,’ he thought.
Ye Junhan: "..."
...
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Jin and his group’s luck was truly not good either.
First, the signal device in their car was destroyed, causing them to lose contact with the main group. Then, they got lost and were pursued by a swarm of mutated rats. Finally, after much difficulty, they shook off the rats, only to run into Gu Xi, who happened to be passing by.
Originally, at that point, they only needed to drive another twenty-some li to meet up with Wei Heng’s team and successfully rendezvous with the main force.
But as fate would have it...
—Seeing Gu Xi flit past them like a phantom, Zhang Wen didn’t think twice before slamming his foot on the gas and giving chase.
But Gu Xi’s speed was simply too fast. As they pursued her, they lost her trail and once again found themselves lost in the wilderness.
In fact, Gu Xi had noticed them early on, but she hadn’t given it much thought at the time. She just assumed their vehicle was also heading to the rendezvous point up ahead, so she didn’t stop to greet them and instead continued her pursuit of the "big fish."
—She had smelled Yun Ye’s scent on that "fish."
Who would have thought things would be so coincidental? Upon seeing her, Zhang Wen’s group had actually followed her the entire way...
"What do we do now?" In the passenger seat, Zhao Li also felt that he and his buddies had been running on a streak of bad luck lately. Not only had they lost the person they were chasing, but the car’s energy was also about to run out.
"How much backup energy is left?" asked Lin Jin, who was lying on the roof of the pickup, holding his gun and keeping watch.
"Not much," Zhang Wen said as he parked the truck on the side of a hill and bent over to replace the Energy Block.
Just then, with a soft SQUELCH— the entire truck suddenly sank a few inches.
Lying on the roof, Lin Jin saw the countless, densely packed, blood-red, bean-sized eyes hiding in the tall grass in the distance and couldn’t help but curse.
’Shit!’
’Did we just fall into a rat’s nest?!’
The three team members inside the vehicle also realized something was wrong and jumped out.
"Lin, you’ve been pretty unlucky lately," Zhao Li said, moving to Lin Jin’s side while launching ice blades.
"Piss off," Lin Jin said without even looking up. He was cradling his sniper rifle, searching for the Mouse King hidden within the swarm of mutated rats.
You have to cut off the head of the snake. In this situation, if they wanted to break out, their only option was to take down the Mouse King first.
Otherwise, the thousands upon thousands of rats could wear them down and kill them through sheer attrition.
In front of the two, Zhang Wen and Liou He had already laid down the first line of fire.
The group worked together seamlessly, and for the time being, no rats could get close to them. But there were just too many rats here...
He hadn’t found the Mutated Rat King yet, so Lin Jin didn’t dare make a reckless move.
He lay on the roof of the truck, the scorching sun blazing overhead and the blistering hot metal beneath him.
A heavy downpour had just passed through last night, leaving the air damp. Now, baked by the intense sun, it felt like being in a sauna—hot and suffocating. Soon, beads of sweat were constantly rolling down his forehead, silently evaporating into the air.
It wasn’t just Lin Jin on the roof; even Zhao Li, an Ice Ability User, was sweating profusely.
’Ammunition is low. We have to conserve our superpowers.’
Half an hour later, Lin Jin still hadn’t found the Mutated Rat King, but Zhang Wen and the other two had run out of ammunition. Even their superpowers were nearly depleted.
Meanwhile, the swarm of mutated rats was already closing in on the truck...
Zhang Wen and the other two drew the daggers from their waists.
At that moment, the Mutated Rat King finally couldn’t hold back any longer. It strutted out smugly, its small, scarlet eyes looking down with contempt at the two-legged beasts before it.
This was the moment. Lin Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and pulled the trigger.
"BANG—"
The specially-made Superpower Bullet hit its mark. Wounded, the Mouse King shot underground, and the entire swarm of mutated rats began to grow agitated and scatter.
Lin Jin let out a sigh of relief as a large bead of sweat dripped from the tip of his nose.
Only then did he realize that his usually boisterous comrades had been silent for a long time. If it weren’t for the sound of their breathing...
Lin Jin slowly raised his head and looked at his three comrades, who were too weak to stand and could only lean against the side of the pickup truck. His heart tightened.
’I’m the only one left who can fight.’
Mutated rats were extremely vengeful, and the wounded Mouse King was clearly quite intelligent. Once that thing realized what had happened...
Lin Jin tightened his grip on his gun, his heart sinking like a stone. Two words surfaced in his mind.
...Game over.