Ji Lin'an and An Xin hid by the door, and immediately heard a deafening gunshot pierce through it. Rays of light shone through the gunshot holes as bullets whizzed through the water. The door was riddled with holes. The next second, with a loud bang, a sharp corner appeared on the door, seemingly the edge of an axe. The man outside groaned, "Damn it, we can't pull it out."
The man beside them complained in a low voice. Ji Lin'an and An Xin exchanged a glance, slid the storage box, and slowly reached the doorway. They raised their guns and aimed them at the door. Ji Lin'an raised three fingers, then lowered one finger. When both fingers were down, the two of them suddenly fired at the door. Countless gunshots rang out before there was no more movement outside.
I slowly paddled to their side and whispered, "Come back first, stay away from the door, in case they retaliate."
Ji Lin'an and An Xin stepped aside, and sure enough, the man in the deep voice said again, "Break in, smash the lock."
I nervously looked at the door lock. The small hole that An Xin had torn open was gone. Perhaps Ji Lin'an noticed me entering the space and stuffed the piece of wood along with the doorknob back into place. I couldn't see what it was secured with. Then I heard several gunshots. The piece of wood that had been torn off fell into the water. We all stared nervously at the doorway. The next second, half a face appeared in the doorway. My heart jumped into my throat. Ji Lin'an raised his gun and opened fire. If I wasn't mistaken, the man looking inside was dead. I heard the sound of the man falling into the water.
A minute of silence followed outside. The water level continued to rise, almost reaching the door lock. The tallest person, Wufeng, was just a head away from hitting the ceiling. Then, a splash came from outside—the sound of someone jumping into the water. Two splashes, three splashes. Qianliyan and I joined the fray, firing at the door along with Ji Lin'an and the others. After a burst of fire, we didn't hear any sounds of people falling. Instead, the axe on the door was pulled out and started pounding on it. We all huddled together, each pulling on the other's storage box.
I tried shooting at the door again. This time, I was the only one firing when I heard a familiar sound. My voice was a little uneasy: "They have a protective shield. I heard the sound of the gun hitting the shield and bouncing off."
Ji Lin'an said, "Everyone, hold onto the people next to you."
The next second, the door was blasted open with two holes the size of basketballs. We couldn't see the people outside. It was already dark, and we could only see three blinding lights. Ji Lin'an activated the protective shield and covered us. I knew the protective shield all too well. When we had the shield, we were invulnerable to swords and bullets, and so were they.
We are in a disadvantageous position, unable to attack or defend without our protective shield. The only option now is to wait for their shield to fall off, but we will only have less than three minutes to attack. We need to reach the stairwell and go up. We don't know how many people are outside, and we are not confident that we can defeat them within that time. Perhaps if we can recreate my shield, it might be possible.
We waited silently for them to break down the door completely. The group looked down at us from their high position. Although we couldn't see their expressions, it wasn't hard to guess that they were looking at us as if we were food on a plate.
Time ticked by, and the water level rose faster. In just a few minutes, my head was touching the ceiling, even without wind. I knew we couldn't wait that long. My mind raced. I took out my phone, opened a portal, and entered random numbers at the coordinates. This might be our only way out.
1 time... 2 times... 5 times... 10 times... 20 times... The system frantically prompted: Please enter the correct location. I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. At this moment, Wufeng was huddled in the storage box with his head down. All the men's heads were touching the ceiling. One of the men outside the door picked up an axe and chopped at the right angle where the pit met the ground, turning all the right angles into bevels. The water flow accelerated, and the water level rose rapidly. I didn't dare to delay for a moment and desperately changed the numbers I entered as coordinates.
Wufeng curled up and buried his head between his legs. Everyone else followed suit and curled up in the storage box. Soon the water would reach the top, and the storage box would fill up with water until it sank. Then we would all be doomed. Thinking of this, my hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably, and tears welled up in my eyes.
Wufeng's storage box was the first to fill with water. A few seconds later, the storage box tilted and sank into the water. Wufeng reached out and grabbed the soil on the ceiling tightly. Zhu Dachang and Li Song were on either side of Wufeng, but neither of them dared to reach out and pull him, for fear that their own storage boxes would also fill with water.
I kept typing, watching as the protective shields of the men outside the door had already failed, but we were completely unable to fire our guns. We remained motionless in the storage box. An Xin and Wei Bin's storage boxes were submerged in water one after the other. The two of them also followed Wu Feng's example and reached out to grab the earthen wall on the ceiling. The wall was a bit loose due to the moisture, and we could easily insert our fingers with a little force, but they were also easy to fall off. The three of us could only keep switching hands.
Just as I was about to abandon the Anywhere Door and switch to using the shield, the next second we all suddenly fell into the water. I struggled to get my head above water. This was still the safe house, but it wasn't the safe house we had just been in. The door to the safe house was now tightly closed, and the storage box beneath us was gone.
Ji Lin'an was the first to react and swam towards the door. The water level here only submerged two-thirds of the safe house. Ji Lin'an swam to the stairs, found a step, stood firm, and reached out to open the door. The water inside blocked the door, but Ji Lin'an held onto the wall and pulled hard a few times to open it.
Seeing that it was pitch black outside, we all swam towards the door without thinking twice. Ji Lin'an was the first to go out and knocked away the obstruction above the pit. Song Yi was the second to reach the door. Ji Lin'an squatted down and let Song Yi step on his shoulders. Ji Lin'an held onto the wall and slowly stood up. Song Yi successfully climbed to the ground. Wei Bin was the second. Ji Lin'an helped Wei Bin to the ground in the same way. Zhu Dachang was the third. Wei Bin reached out to pull Zhu Dachang up, but Zhu Dachang stepped on Ji Lin'an and climbed to the ground without any hesitation. When it was my turn, Ji Lin'an lifted my waist and helped me climb up.
Once everyone was on the ground, we all sat down on the rain-soaked ground without a care in the world. Suddenly, Song Yi burst into laughter, falling backward. Rain lashed her face, but she kept laughing. Everyone else laughed too. I knew it was the joy of surviving a disaster...
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