Chapter 36

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Chapter 36: Star Death Reality Show (XIX)

{cw: gore}

After being preached to about gods, Lara was silent and did not dare to talk to Qi Leren as they walked.

Qi Leren’s heart was still thinking about Dr. Lu and Du Yue, and at that time he was silent. After cutting off the power supply in the underground laboratory, he had returned to the laser corridor. Although the door to the corridor was open, Dr. Lu and Du Yue were gone. Outside this door was Jing Siyu’s basement, where there were traces of fighting. Qi Leren guessed that someone had entered the basement whom Dr. Lu had judged to be a threat. It was not clear which side won, but both sides had left the scene, and it was indistinguishable whether they had returned to the surface or entered the underground research institute.

Earlier, he had entered the underground research institute, but Dr. Lu and Du Yue had been locked out. These two people must have been looking for ways to enter the underground research institute everywhere, and they also met Lara and the others. Later, Dr. Lu had used his talent of “treasure hunting expert” and found another ID card, so he opened the door.

It was already 11 o'clock on the fourth night. According to the amphioctopus’s parasitic tendencies, except Xue Jiahui who was killed by Qi Leren, the remaining three amphioctopuses may or may not have finished one round of parasitism. Now, the total number of amphioctopuses should be between three to six.

The larval body had no fighting power, and could even be eaten by other octopuses in a competitive state, so the enemies he needed to face at present were only three mature octopuses.

Qi Leren quietly caught a glimpse of Lara. On the way to Lara’s house, he had been ready to face two octopuses at the same time, because Xue Jiahui had been infected the previous night. After one day, the octopus in her body had matured. On the third night, she should have infected one person. Qi Leren felt that Lara, who had been taking care of her, was the most suspect.

However, when he sneaked into Laura’s house and overheard her and Xue Jiahui’s speech, he temporarily ruled out Laura’s suspicion and just killed Xue Jiahui on the spot. But if Laura wasn’t parasitic, who would it be?

“Who has seen Xue Jiahui in the last day?” Qi Leren asked.

“Jing Siyu, Jing Sixue, and Francis,” Lara said, her face turned white. “Do you mean…”

“Were any of them in your room between 8:00 and midnight last night?” Qi Leren asked, roughly calculating when the octopus would have become parasitic.

“…Francis. He had come many times, mainly to see me… I… I asked him to take care of Xue Jiahui…” Lara’s face became pale and almost ghostly.

The two walked in the snow, and only their footsteps and breathing were left in the quiet space between heaven and earth. Lara swallowed saliva hard and asked in a hoarse voice: “Has he already…”

Qi Leren nodded his head.

The cold wind blew and froze the tears that had just flowed out of her eyes. Lara covered her face and breathed hard, and the exhaled hot air was frozen into a white mist amidst the snow and ice. She was shaking, and even a temperature-regulating suit could not warm her frozen heart at the moment.

Qi Leren was taken by Lara’s emotional state, and he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. But her strength is beyond Qi Leren’s imagination. In less than a few minutes, she calmed down, and only her reddish eyes exposed her heart.

“I see, if he really becomes a monster, I… I… I will… I will,” Lara resolutely said.

Qi Leren thought, and thought, and thought.

What if it was him? Could he make a decision like Lara’s?

“You don’t have to make a decision now. You’ll never know your choice until that moment,” Qi Leren said to Lara, as if he were talking to himself.

No one could easily make such a difficult choice. No matter how many plans there are before things happen, it’s not necessarily rationality that makes people decide. Maybe the righteous would become deserters, but the cowardly would become heroes, who knows?

In the extremely bright night, two people who didn’t need additional lighting arrived at Annie’s house smoothly. The lights inside were off, but Qi Leren didn’t dare to take it lightly. Mark was the first person to be parasitized, and the second was Xue Jiahui. On the third day, one of the two victims was Francis and the other was Annie. Aware of the terrible amphioctopus, she had still cooperated with Mark, the parasitized person. Her position was not innocent.

Whether she was parasitized or not, breaking into Annie’s house was bound to be a great risk. If the octopus in her body had matured, Qi Leren couldn’t think of a good way to catch her by surprise.

“Take this, you hide. If you hear me call your name from inside, throw this into the window and then run away.” Qi Leren gave Lara a hand grenade, which had been taken from the institute, and instructed her on how to use it.

Lara was uneasy: “Can you handle it?”

Qi Leren showed that kind of sage-like smile again, paving the way for his “miracle”: “Don’t worry, God will bless me.”

Although Qi Leren’s expression and tone at this time was very confident, it still couldn’t completely reassure Lara. After all, she had witnessed the “Apostle of God” being hit on the back by an exploded door not long ago, which seriously damaged his credibility. Laura looked at Qi Leren full of worries, hoping that the injury wouldn’t affect his combat effectiveness.

Qi Leren was stressed by Lara’s gaze, so he had to jolt himself into taking action. He turned to look for the window he had used to sneak into Annie’s house last time. The last time, they had a hard time climbing up, but after his near-death breakthrough in the laser corridor, Qi Leren felt that he could climb in by himself without help.

Indeed, Qi Leren was as agile as a cat, climbing the notches on the outer wall, and the strength in his arms easily supported his body, pulling himself up the wall to climb to the window sill on the second floor and sneak into this quiet house.

The room was dark, and the light outside the window wasn’t enough to illuminate it. However, after the shell was broken, Qi Leren’s eyesight was significantly enhanced, and he could see the environment clearly. There was no one in the room, so he quietly opened the door, holding the revolver in both hands, and walked forward against the wall.

Annie seldom left her house, but at this time she was most likely looking for the next parasitic prey. Whether she was here or not, she would surely come back.

Qi Leren quickly searched the second floor of the house. Annie wasn’t here, so he came to the first floor again and still found nothing.

Now there were only two possibilities. She was out foraging, or she was in the basement.

But if he wanted to enter the basement, it was too dangerous to crawl down the pipe. He didn’t forget how he had ambushed Annie when she had climbed down the pipe before.

Qi Leren was caught in a dilemma. Although waiting could give him an answer, he didn’t have much time to delay here. He would continue to look for Dr. Lu and Du Yue.

Let’s go to the attic, Qi Leren thought. He found the hidden ladder on the second floor’s ceiling and entered the attic.

That special floor panel in the attic was there, just lift it up…

With a “click” sound, the floor was suddenly pushed and lifted from the inside. Annie suddenly was crouched there. Qi Leren’s mind raced—should he throw a bomb immediately or test the waters first?

Panic broke out in two very different creatures at the same time. Annie screamed, and Qi Leren dove to the ground, but didn’t forget to pull out his gun and pull the trigger to shoot—Bang! Bang!

Three consecutive shots hit the nearby target. Annie’s beautiful head had been blown into a broken watermelon. Without the command of her brain, she failed to support her body. She immediately fell into the pipe and fell back down to the basement. However, Qi Leren knew that it was not dead, its brain was only broken. For it, this is just like a hermit crab that has lost its temporary residence. Its vitality was tenacious enough and its fighting capacity was amazing.

Qi Leren almost held his breath. He took out a grenade and threw it into the pipe, and then ran away, squatting in the corner with his head in his hands.

After an earth-shattering noise, the whole house shook a few times, and then everything was silent again.

You must be dead now, right? Qi Leren guessed that this hand grenade should be enough to kill the octopus. If Mark was down there, it would be a perfect double kill.

Qi Leren waited on it for ten minutes before returning to the pipe’s opening that led to the basement, looking down. It was dark and silent below. He hesitated for a moment, making sure he didn’t have the tracking camera on, then he took out a long rope from the item bar and tied it, and stepped on the iron ladder that had become fragile after the explosion.

It was dark in the basement, and in this unlit environment, you couldn’t see anything without turning on the lights. Qi Leren smelled the hot and smoky air after the explosion, and reached out and touched the handgun in his pocket…

The Rain-Day Laundry skill hadn’t cooled down after the laser corridor, and it was impossible for it to give him an early warning. But in this deep-sea darkness, Qi Leren’s intuition screamed in his mind, danger! Danger! Danger!

At this moment, the reaction forced on him by Chen Baiqi torture made Qi Leren fall to the ground, and something heavy flew over his head and slammed against the wall.

It wasn’t dead yet! Qi Leren’s mind screamed. S/L hadn’t cooled down yet. In this case, he had only one life!

Darkness was obviously not an obstacle to the amphioctopus. It started to attack relentlessly in the darkness. Even if his intuition was sensitive again, being passive right now would make him lose. Qi Leren turned on his flashlight and threw it out. Only by this light did he see around.

Needless to say, the octopus that had broken free from its human shell was waving its tentacles freely, grabbing up the rubble on the ground and throwing it at Qi Leren. It didn’t rush up to attack because it was kind, but because after the explosion, a huge rock was pressing down more than half of its body, making it unable to move.

Looking at the immobile enemy in front of him, Qi Leren was greatly relieved. He got up from the ground and easily avoided the stones it threw. After the light came on, its crazy attack with only two tentacles seemed to be like a child’s unreasonable protest.

It seems that my luck is really good this time, Qi Leren thought, aiming the revolver at the monster that had once lived in Annie’s body, and he fired three shots. The monster was dying, and dark brown mucus flowed all over the floor, but its vitality was still tenacious, almost like an immortal monster.

When the bullet chamber was empty, Qi Leren had to stop and load the revolver while walking around and dodging the stones thrown at him. He even had the leisure to think about where Mark had gone.

Did it go out to find a new host? Originally, he had thought that Mark would continue to dig out the stones here and aim to quickly clear the passage so it could enter the underground research institute.

…..So this was already done.

Qi Leren stepped forward, circumvented the obstacles, and looked deep into the basement. The channel that had been blocked by collapsed stones had been pried open, revealing a hole more than one meter wide. Qi Leren was frightened, and he suddenly understood why He Yi hadn’t turned off the power in time when he left the laser corridor—because he had met a difficult opponent.

And at this moment, the opponent was standing at the end of the hole, holding a single rocket launcher powerful enough to blow the basement to ruins!

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