The corridor was cold, empty, and filled with the mixed smells of disinfectant and rusty metal.
Xiao Jin pushed open the door, and the pale emergency lights in the corridor cut across the indifferent contours of her face.
Afterwards, the remaining players also returned to the base, each retreating into the tranquility of their rooms.
Shortly after, the base commander sent a young soldier with a bag of precious transmutation metal as a sincere thank you for their assistance to the base.
Xiao Jin naturally had no reason to refuse and readily accepted this generous gift.
In the following days, the Mist Demon seemed to be driven away by some mysterious force, and never set foot on this land again.
The NPCs in the base breathed a sigh of relief, their tension and worry gradually dissipating, replaced by a rare sense of ease and relief.
However, beneath this tranquility, the players became increasingly silent, their eyes concealing unspoken thoughts and anxieties.
Finally, one day, the players gritted their teeth, came out, and called out to the patrol personnel inside the base.
The fox woman's voice was deliberately hoarse as she said to the other party, "Tell your base commander that from today onwards, you don't need to send us any more food, and don't bother me."
Behind her, the doors to the other rooms assigned to players opened almost simultaneously.
"Me too."
"Hmm, it's best not to go near this floor either..."
The patrolman was taken aback and looked up blankly: "But..."
A burly player, clutching his massive, almost man-sized chainsaw, leaned against the doorframe and interrupted the patrolman in a muffled voice.
His voice was like sandpaper scraping: "Yeah, don't knock on the door. Unless the base collapses, don't bother me."
His words were merely symbolic.
If the base really collapses, I'll definitely know before the NPCs do, and by then they'll have already run far away.
At this moment, Yu Liu, on the other side, stroked his chin and said, "Why don't we just seal off this corridor? It would save us a lot of trouble."
"Agreed." The others exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.
The soundproofing in the rooms inside the base wasn't good, and Xiao Jin, who was doing push-ups, could hear the players outside very clearly. She also preferred to stay inside, so she didn't show herself.
In the corridor, the player codenamed Shadow Mouse let out a sinister laugh.
Then, as if melting away, his figure shrank back into the doorway, leaving only a light, fleeting sentence echoing in the corridor: "Whether you seal it off or not is up to you."
However, if anyone approaches my door again... they will face the consequences.
"Tsk!" Yu Liu tilted his head. "Forget it, sealing it up won't do any good anyway." With that, he turned and left.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of doors slamming shut echoed repeatedly, heavy and resolute.
The players disappeared one by one behind the door, leaving only the patrolman standing there, his face pale, his hand holding the gun trembling slightly.
That's terrifying!
The patrolmen even had a premonition.
If I had asked even one more question, these people would have skinned me alive.
Moreover, he would have better report this matter to the base commander as soon as possible.
Thinking of this, the patrolmen hurriedly ran away...
The corridor fell silent again, as if the conversation had just been an illusion.
The base commander, who was in the operations room, was also quickly informed.
She stood in front of the huge monitor in the command center, her brows furrowed into a deep frown.
"Shut down completely? Refuse food?" The base commander's fingers unconsciously tapped on the cold metal control panel, making a soft, clear "tap, tap, tap" sound that was particularly distinct in the empty room.
Her usual composure was gone, replaced by confusion and unease. "What's going on? Didn't you do well when you fought off the Mist Demons?"
The guard next to him hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "Sir, could it be that they... sensed something? After all, they're not ordinary people."
The base commander waved his hand irritably: "A premonition? The Fog Ghosts have all been driven away! The infected outside have also been cleared out! Serum is being distributed, and the wounded are being treated."
The atmosphere in the base had finally eased! But these guys, they're all cowering like they've seen a ghost! They won't even let you near them?
She recalled the surveillance report mentioning the lights still on in the players' rooms late at night, and the occasional faint, anxious pacing sounds, like those of a trapped animal.
The guard standing nearby noticed the anxiety in the base commander's words and dared not say anything more.
Immediately afterwards, the base commander walked to the huge bulletproof observation window and looked down at the somewhat chaotic but gradually recovering scene inside the air-raid shelter.
Some of the less seriously injured survivors received meager rations under the supervision of soldiers, talking in hushed tones. Although their faces still showed fear, they were much better off than in the previous few days when the atmosphere was deathly still.
In the corridor, medics hurried by pushing carts filled with purified serum. Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.
"A bunch of bastards!" the base commander muttered under his breath, but the doubts and unease in his heart, like vines, quietly tightened their grip.
They were working together quite well before, but now they're all pretending to be mute.
What, are you having fun being a riddle solver?
Regardless, the base commander always had a vague feeling that the players' unusual silence and vigilance were like a huge, ominous shadow looming over the fortress where he had just seen a glimmer of hope.
…………
Time crawled slowly, like a dull knife cutting flesh, on the players' highly tense nerves.
One day, two days, three days...
The poisonous fog around the base continued to churn, but no more large-scale attacks occurred.
Occasionally, small groups of mist ghosts would approach, but they were quickly and easily dealt with by the soldiers on the perimeter.
The base commander was initially very nervous, but nothing happened in the end. Frustrated, the base commander simply thought the players were acting strangely, making everyone so anxious.
The atmosphere inside the base visibly relaxed, and the fear on the survivors' faces was gradually replaced by a numb, cautious sense of relief.
The soldiers took turns resting, and their tense nerves were given a moment to breathe.
Only the area where the players lived remained deathly silent. The heavy alloy doors, like the sealing stones of a tomb, separated the inside from the outside, making the people inside seem completely isolated from the world.
Xiao Jin sat on the cold metal floor, her eyes closed.
She didn't sleep, or rather, she dared not fall into a deep sleep.
Consciousness, like the most sophisticated radar, maintains a strange semi-conscious state, monitoring every breath of air in the room and capturing the slightest vibration transmitted from the floor.
The shattered shadow never left his palm and was always in a state of slight accumulation, ready to unleash a deadly cutting storm at any moment.
Like the other players, she clearly sensed the unnatural "calm" in the air.
They are also waiting for the final 'celebration'.
Xiao Jin knew very well that the more critical the situation, the less she could afford to relax...
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