Chapter 40.2 Code G（4）
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“Boss!” Lin Zhaohe screamed in horror. The sensation of weightlessness made him feel as if he were about to fly. He could only tightly grip the railing inside the elevator, overwhelmed by the fear of imminent death. He couldn’t control himself and exclaimed, “Are we going to die?!”
Zhuang Lao’s voice seemed to be right beside him, as gentle as always. “Close your eyes.”
Lin Zhaohe screamed in despair, “Time to close my eyes and go to sleep—” The descent was so sudden that he couldn’t even open his eyes.
In the next moment, Lin Zhaohe heard a crisp sound, as if someone had torn open a light snack packaging. The sensation of weightlessness instantly left his body, and he heard a grating noise coming from above— their elevator car seemed to have been forcibly secured by something, putting an end to the dreadful freefall.
Lin Zhaohe opened his eyes and saw a series of colorful bubbles. He was being lifted by the bubbles, suspended in mid-air as light as a feather. Zhuang Lao was by his side, holding a delicate little box. When he saw Lin Zhaohe looking at him, he winked.
Multicolored bubbles gushed out from the box, covering Lin Zhaohe’s cheeks and hair tips, creating a dreamlike scene.
Lin Zhaohe was stunned. “Boss, how did the elevator stop? Was it the bubbles?”
“No,” Zhuang Lao replied, “Someone helped us secure the elevator car.”
“Who?” Lin Zhaohe asked in wonder.
Before he could get an answer, he felt the elevator car he was in slowly ascending.
“Huh? The elevator is working now??” Lin Zhaohe exclaimed in surprise.
“No,” Zhuang Lao said.
Indeed, it wasn’t. The elevator was completely broken. The display screen was pitch black, but the elevator continued to ascend until it reached the tenth floor and came to a steady stop.
The elevator doors showed no signs of opening, so Zhuang Lao glanced at the ceiling and decided to pry the doors open with a tool. Just as he and Lin Zhaohe stepped out, the elevator car lost its traction and plummeted straight down. Within seconds, they heard a loud crash from below.
“Holy crap,” Lin Zhaohe exclaimed in astonishment, “What on earth was that…”
A figure floated out from behind the elevator doors, and upon closer look, Lin Zhaohe realized it was none other than A’Yan, the rescuer from another team. He still had the same appearance, albeit looking quite disheveled, with dried blood stains on his face. He spotted Lin Zhaohe and asked in a hushed voice, “Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine,” Lin Zhaohe replied in surprise, “How did you end up here? Were you the one helping us pull the elevator car?” Lin Yan had miraculously managed to bring the elevator back from the first floor.
“Yeah,” Lin Yan said, “I just arrived here and rushed over when I heard the commotion.”
“Thank you,” Lin Zhaohe expressed his gratitude.
“No need,” Lin Yan whispered, “It was just a small gesture.”
Lin Zhaohe stared at his face, unable to look away for some reason. He couldn’t help but ask, “A’Yan, what happened to your face?” He remembered from the original story that Lin Yan didn’t have any injuries.
Lin Yan trembled slightly at the mention of his name and replied in a low voice, “Just an accident.”
His dismissive response made it clear that he didn’t want to address Lin Zhaohe’s question directly.
Lin Zhaohe continued to stare at him for a while before finally shifting his gaze away.
“Where are Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi?” Lin Zhaohe asked.
“They’re downstairs,” Zhuang Lao replied.
Lin Zhaohe said, “Why haven’t they come up yet…”
Just as he wondered, he heard a series of pounding footsteps nearby. However, the sound was peculiar, as if a group of people were running.
“What’s that?” Lin Zhaohe looked in the direction of the sound with confusion.
“Run! Damn it!” Qin Xu’s scream echoed from a distance. Lin Zhaohe focused his gaze and saw Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi rushing towards them.
Behind the two of them, there was a swarm of densely packed zombies. These zombies were different from the ordinary ones—they had glowing green eyes and moved at a fast pace, chasing after Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi.
Yu Zhuqi held a small flamethrower in his hand, spraying flames to repel the zombies while backing away. He shouted, “Run quickly!” Then he threw a small bomb into the crowd of zombies, causing a loud explosion. Limbs scattered in all directions, momentarily slowing down their pursuit.
Lin Zhaohe was dumbfounded. There were so many zombies inside the building!
“Clear the way!” Lin Yan roared and swiftly approached the group. He grabbed a nearby heavy marble conference table and leaped behind Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi, sending the front line of zombies flying with a forceful smack.
Qin Xu was exhilarated and temporarily set aside his grudges. He exclaimed, “Impressive!”
Ignoring him, Lin Yan wielded the table as a weapon and effortlessly smashed all the zombies that pursued them into a pulp.
In the face of absolute combat prowess, quantity became irrelevant.
Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi gasped for breath, finally getting a moment to rest. They explained that the zombies had rushed out from the elevator shaft. It was their bodies that had fallen onto the top of the elevator, causing it to plummet. Just as Qin Xu and Yu Zhuqi squeezed out of the elevator doors, narrowly escaping the clutches of the zombies, they were fortunate enough to run fast.
Lin Zhaohe noticed from their clothing that they were employees of this building, but they hadn’t been able to survive the virus outbreak.
Despite being smashed to pieces by Lin Yan, the zombie remained partially alive. Its scattered limbs twitched, attempting to inch closer to them. Qin Xu stomped on one of the severed heads, crushing it and releasing a green liquid. He said, “You scared me. I thought both of you were gone…” He wanted to say more, but upon seeing Lin Yan, the words caught in his throat.
Lin Yan remained expressionless, seemingly unaware of Qin Xu’s strangeness.
Zhuang Lao asked Lin Yan, “Are there any survivors among the team you rescued?”
“Yes, there are two. One of them is still unconscious,” Lin Yan replied. “They’re waiting for us on the tenth floor. We need to get out quickly and bring them for medical treatment. Otherwise, it’s extremely dangerous.”
“Let’s go, then,” Zhuang Lao said.
The group climbed up to the tenth floor through the stairwell, taking care of the remaining scattered zombies along the way.
After navigating several corridors, they arrived at the entrance to the high-rise elevators and saw the two people that Lin Yan had rescued. The members of that team looked at Lin Yan, but their faces showed little gratitude. They spoke rapidly in a foreign language, which Lin Zhaohe couldn’t understand. However, judging by the expressions of the surrounding people, it was clear that the conversation was far from pleasant.
As expected, Yu Zhuqi, known for having a bad temper, grinned savagely and chambered a round in his gun. He forcefully tapped the barrel against the person’s forehead, leaving a bloodstain. “Lin Yan may be easy-going, but I’m not. Killing you here and blaming it on the zombies would be nobody’s business.”
Caught off guard by Yu Zhuqi’s explosive temperament, the person hesitated for a moment before turning to Zhuang Lao and angrily shouted something. Lin Zhaohe guessed that he was probably blaming Zhuang Lao for not properly managing his subordinates.
To their surprise, Zhuang Lao remained expressionless as he raised his hand to check his watch. “Don’t use the gun. We can’t afford to waste bullets.”
The person’s expression turned utterly shocked, clearly not expecting the story to unfold this way.
When Lin Yan came to rescue them earlier, she was incredibly accommodating, leading the person to mistakenly believe that Zhuang Lao and the others who accompanied Lin Yan would also have good temperaments. So the person suggested that they should prioritize escorting themselves and their companions out. Little did they expect that Yu Zhuqi would almost smash their head in response.
“Here’s a choice for you,” Yu Zhuqi exuded a strong sense of gunpowder. “Either wait here obediently for us to finish our mission and come to fetch you, or I’ll send you to heaven for treatment right now.”
The person fell silent, mumbling in broken Chinese, probably expressing their disappointment at the lack of friendliness from the group.
Unwilling to waste any more time on him, Yu Zhuqi delivered another blow to the person’s head. This time, they became completely submissive, saying they would wait right there for them to come back and urging them to stay safe. The tone and expression were so friendly that it brought tears to one’s eyes.
“Lin Yan, you’re just too easygoing,” Yu Zhuqi spat. “Look at this bunch of bastards, acting all high and mighty. We haven’t arrived at the lab yet, and our own people have already died. Are they here for a mission? I think they’re clearly on vacation.”
Lin Yan lowered her gaze and whispered, “There’s no need to argue with them.”
“Ignore them, let’s go,” Zhuang Lao said. “Xiao He, take the elevator.” The elevator to the upper floors was not far from their location.
“Why isn’t this elevator working?” Lin Zhaohe pressed the elevator door button nearby but found no response. The numbers indicating the floors remained unchanged for the elevator heading to the sixtieth floor.
“Let me take a look,” Yu Zhuqi took out his portable computer and studied it for a moment. “I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that this elevator is broken.”
Everyone was momentarily stunned.
“The good news is that the upper floors are still intact,” Yu Zhuqi said. “We have to walk to at least the thirteenth floor and then take the elevator to the sixtieth floor… Let me examine the structure above the thirteenth floor.” As he looked, he suddenly gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Zhaohe asked.
“The thirteenth floor is the company’s biological laboratory,” Yu Zhuqi said.
Hearing this, the expressions on everyone’s faces subtly changed.
In order to successfully complete their mission inside, they reviewed the movie’s plot and, naturally, had seen how the protagonist encountered the laboratory on the thirteenth floor.
However, their situation was somewhat different. In the movie, the protagonist smoothly took the elevator to the upper floors on the tenth floor but was forced to proceed on foot after encountering an accident on the thirteenth floor. This portion of the film became the most thrilling and exciting segment.
Judging by the current circumstances, it seemed that their predicament was even more dire than the protagonist’s. The zombies were evolving at an accelerated rate, and nobody knew what those creatures in the laboratory had evolved into.
Nevertheless, there was no other choice at this point.
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