Chapter 134: The Company You Can’t Leave (Part 12)

Chapter 134: The Company from Which One Cannot Leave (Part Twelve)

Bang!

Wang Qinxi quickly shut the door, and the sound of pounding echoed outside, shaking the walls. The logic of the contaminated area still held; this was the exclusive passage for outstanding employees, and both Zhu Ning and Wang Qinxi were among them.

But how long it would hold was uncertain. There must be other outstanding employees, and the contaminated area might eventually defy logic.

Wang Qinxi turned around to see a vast expanse of red.

Staring at the pool made her heart tremble. It was too red, the surging blood seemed to stretch out tentacles, as if after a while, the world would be nothing but red, those blood threads spreading to your eyes.

In the blood pool floated machine fragments and human heads, like one link in an assembly line, with a square exit on the far right.

Many of the people in the blood pool were her superiors, who had once warmly shaken her hand, taken photos with her, and said she was the hope of the future.

Now these leaders were trapped in the pool, as if they had fallen into a swamp composed of human bodies and machine fragments.

After Zhu Ning and Wang Qinxi entered, the bloody swamp suddenly came to life, rapidly expanding and growing, coalescing into the shape of a massive creature, fifty meters tall, reaching the ceiling of the factory workshop.

Its head was a giant goat's head, with black horns protruding from the top. Its body was made up of countless employees, the company itself constructed by its employees, now reassembling into a colossal goat-headed being.

Some employees formed the arms, others the torso.

Some faces Zhu Ning recognized, Hope, Light, Beauty, Mutual Benefit—judging only by their aliases, the enormous goat-headed being was composed of the most beautiful words in the world.

A crystal stone was embedded in its heart position, an ugly external heart that was now beating wildly.

"For the great cause."

"For the company's future."

People kept shouting, the chairman and other executives completely distorted, their faces unrecognizable, yet still shouting, "Future, future."

The employees merged into one, indistinguishable from each other, the new energy becoming their pulsating heart, completely united.

Before the fifty-meter-tall goat-headed giant, Zhu Ning and Wang Qinxi appeared extremely small.

Just getting close made one shudder, fear enveloping from all sides.

Contact with the new energy would corrode internal organs; this contaminated area trapped you and then corroded you, making you watch yourself melt into a blood person.

This was the price of resistance.

Wang Qinxi had never seen such a situation; she didn't know how to proceed after coming here.

Wang Qinxi was still in shock, feeling more concrete after seeing the giant goat-headed being, realizing she had betrayed it.

I betrayed the collective.

Wang Qinxi was supposed to belong to this contaminated area, with her own logic to follow. She had to die repeatedly but could not truly die, guiding every person entering the contaminated area to suicide.

That was her fate.

This time, she broke the pattern, following Zhu Ning, the antagonist, in rebellion, and the contaminated area began attacking her.

A sweet, metallic taste filled her mouth, a familiar sensation. First, she spat blood, then one day, chunks of flesh, and finally, her heart, liver, spleen, and lungs would dissolve. Wang Qinxi had experienced the process of corruption firsthand.

The contaminated area was threatening her, warning that this would be her fate if she resisted. If she returned to the collective, she would be safe.

She could stop thinking, become part of the collective, entrusting herself entirely.

But this time, Wang Qinxi wasn't afraid at all, nor did she feel much pain. She felt as if she had gone mad, and strangely, she felt liberated.

Zhu Ning had never been to such a contaminated area. Here, not only Wang Qinxi but countless employees had their mental strength collapse, forming a network. How could she break through?

The root of everything was the so-called core energy.

The source of the nightmare was this processing plant, where all employees were exposed to radiation, and the entire company went mad for the new energy.

Now the processing workshop revealed its true form, like the treasure everyone fought over in a novel, stirring the deepest desires of humanity.

Zhu Ning even suspected that the so-called new energy was a power source for the contaminated area, tightly connecting everyone in the company.

If there was a real source of contamination, it was this.

Zhu Ning's reason for coming here was simple: she wanted to destroy it, to cut off the company's source.

Zhu Ning looked at Wang Qinxi, "If I resolve this place, you might die."

If Zhu Ning cut off the energy, the connected employees should immediately disperse.

At that point, killing Wang Qinxi would mean she wouldn't be reset, or rather, she would face her true end, with repeated deaths leading to a final death.

Zhu Ning couldn't prevent this, and some things needed to be clarified.

Wang Qinxi leaned against the door, which continued to bang behind her.

Her hair was disheveled, and blood dripped from the corners of her mouth. Her glasses were lost somewhere, and the world was blurry to her. The underground factory appeared as a bloody mess in her eyes.

She could barely make out Zhu Ning's face, only seeing a vague smile.

When Wang Qinxi heard this, she didn't show despair but smiled at Zhu Ning, the most genuine smile Zhu Ning had ever seen from her. When she smiled, she looked very gentle.

Zhu Ning suspected that the contaminated area hadn't truly attacked her because Wang Qinxi was still resisting.

Wang Qinxi said, "I resist to claim the right to die."

She was just pursuing the basic rights of a human being.

Submit to death, let what should have happened long ago come to pass, without being swayed by any authority.

Human technology has advanced to such a degree that it no longer understands the respect for nature and life; as long as they have money, they can transcend life and death, creating all sorts of experimental subjects and artificial beings.

They create new life haphazardly, yet cannot comprehend the demise of individual lives.

So arrogant, they easily deprive and lightly bestow.

Wang Qinxi didn't want to continue anymore.

After Wang Qinxi spoke, she seemed a bit uncertain, "Would this, would this be considered weakness?"

Zhu Ning did not answer immediately. The plan might fail, and if it did, Wang Qinxi's worries would be in vain. She wanted to say that if she died inside, she might turn into a puddle of blood and remain here forever.

But Zhu Ning was not prepared to share this information with Wang Qinxi.

Today, she had cast herself as a madwoman in the contaminated zone. A madwoman wouldn't entertain the thought of failure; her eyes were so extreme that she only saw success.

So Zhu Ning said to Wang Qinxi, "No, it won't."

Wang Qinxi was taken aback. For some reason, though she couldn't see Zhu Ning's face, only the smile on the helmet, now, without her glasses, she felt that the smile wasn't a mocking grin of a clown.

It was a gentle smile.

Zhu Ning embraced everything, never mocking anyone's weakness.

Wang Qinxi wanted to laugh, but she quickly couldn't. Her chest hurt terribly, and she knew she couldn't resist much longer on her own.

The giant ram-headed monster formed from blood was leaning down, ready to devour Zhu Ning and Wang Qinxi, as if to teach two disobedient anomalies a lesson, forcing them to join the collective.

Wang Qinxi trembled all over, suppressing her urge to flee, pushing against the door with all her strength. She could not retreat.

"Zhu, Zhu Ning..."

She didn't know what calling out to Zhu Ning would achieve, just as she hadn't known why she brought Zhu Ning here in the first place.

Zhu Ning had been sitting in a wheelchair, like a half-paralyzed patient needing care, and in fact, her strength hadn't fully recovered.

Moreover, her internal organs ached, her mouth filled with blood, and time was running out. At this rate of contamination, she might dissolve into blood within twenty minutes.

As the massive ram-headed creature pressed down, a shadow loomed overhead. Only when it was close could you see the details: employees fused together, even on a single finger, there were many bodies.

But Zhu Ning remained still.

After the last abandoned village, Zhu Ning's mindset had become more stable, that of a hunter.

At the moment the black mountain sheep approached, Zhu Ning began to move. She opened her eyes, which glowed blue, filled with scrolling data.

She was an experimental subject, and once she activated data mode, it was like turning on a computer, making her actions more precise. This was the first time she used this mode in combat.

She fired a shot first, the bullet embedding itself in the ram-headed creature's finger, which was composed of an employee's head.

The bullet only pierced his forehead, and the employee closed his eyes, but it caused little damage to the hand.

System: "Use the pigman's guillotine?"

"Yes."

A guillotine blade descended from the sky, slicing through the monster's arm like a rolling blade, leaving a trail of blood.

The severed arm hit the ground, scattering into fragments of ram-headed creatures. Zhu Ning had only wounded one hand, the contamination level of the guillotine was too low to sever an entire arm.

"Use the rotten fish head? It will cost 12 health points."

"Yes."

Zhu Ning's speed suddenly increased, influenced by the core energy, her body was somewhat numb, and the acceleration from the rotten fish head was less effective than before.

The giant ram-headed creature was made up of countless employees, with numerous hands on just one arm.

After accelerating, Zhu Ning jumped onto the ram-headed creature's arm, using it as a springboard. She kicked off hard, and countless hands extended from the arm, trying to grab her ankles.

But they missed.

System: "Use gravity defiance? It will cost 30 health points."

"Yes."

Just as the monster's hands were about to touch her, she became as light as a feather. The range of the gravity defiance function was 30 meters, and the ram-headed creature was roughly 50 meters tall. She was estimating the distance.

This was Zhu Ning's first time using this function, and she experienced weightlessness for the first time. At thirty meters high, you could go anywhere.

Gigantic monsters were less agile, and before the ram-headed creature could react, she had already leaped to its heart position. Zhu Ning threw a knife, something she had just found in her cleaning backpack.

Prometheus had gifted her a new weapon, very similar to Xu Meng's, which instantly extended to two meters when opened.

With a thud, the long knife pierced the ram-headed creature's chest, where dozens of faces were visible.

Zhu Ning stabbed into one person's forehead, just one step away from the final goal.

The pulsating core energy was right in front of her, and the ram-headed creature's reaction speed was slower than hers. As long as she completed this strike, everything would end.

She could leave the contaminated area and free Wang Qinxi.

System: "Use the dentist's drill? It will cost 20 health points."

Zhu Ning held a drill in her hand, plunging it into the black crystal. The drill hummed as it turned, and Zhu Ning felt immense resistance.

It was as if she were splitting a rock with sheer force.

Zhu Ning was like a fly on the sheep-headed man, having no advantage except for her heightened sensitivity; she had only three minutes.

The sheep-headed man had already reacted, letting out a cry of pain as Zhu Ning plunged into its heart. It stretched out its hand, the massive palm about to engulf Zhu Ning.

Once it pressed down, it would be like a mountain, and Zhu Ning would be instantly crushed to pulp.

Buzz, buzz, buzz—

The dentist's drill was not as strong as Zhu Ning had imagined; it only managed to bore a hole before encountering some resistance that prevented it from going further.

"The dentist's drill has been depleted," the system announced in a cold voice.

The drill in Zhu Ning's hand stopped spinning, having penetrated halfway. It was just one step away.

In that moment, Zhu Ning even understood the company's madness; it was so easy to get trapped in such emotions and unable to extricate oneself.

The giant sheep-headed man's hand came down, its severed wound being patched up by new employees. Here, employees were an inexhaustible resource for it, and Zhu Ning had no means to engage in a war of attrition.

At this point, using the skin hardening function would be too costly; to cover her entire body, she needed 100 health points, which she didn't have, and even if she did, it would only last five minutes at most.

Using the three-dimensional defensive space could only buy her thirty minutes of respite.

Should she run? Give herself some time to catch her breath and continue?

Or should she take a chance?

Zhu Ning held the drill in one hand, hanging in mid-air as the sheep-headed man's hand descended.

Wang Qinxi had been struggling fiercely, watching helplessly as Zhu Ning made a series of moves in a short time. Zhu Ning wore a helmet with a bloody smile, wielding tools Wang Qinxi had never seen before.

She seemed to have stepped out of a comic, racing across the giant sheep-headed man like a true villain, with only one goal in mind.

Wang Qinxi's heart raced.

When Zhu Ning finally reached the "heart," Wang Qinxi even smiled, feeling closer to success than ever before. Zhu Ning had accomplished what she could never do.

But now her smile froze.

The sheep-headed man had noticed her, its massive hand covering its chest. From Wang Qinxi's perspective, Zhu Ning's body looked so tiny compared to that enormous hand.

She would be crushed.

It was like the difference between an ant and an elephant; when I want to crush you, it is so effortless, and all your resistance is futile.

Wang Qinxi stood there in shock, forgetting about the danger behind her. She lowered her hands, wondering if Zhu Ning... was dead?

Was this the outcome of resistance?

Wang Qinxi felt a chill run through her body, despair enveloping her once again. She dared not look at Zhu Ning's body.

Soon, she expected to hear a squelch, the sound of Zhu Ning being crushed to pieces. Wang Qinxi felt powerless to resist, just as she had been powerless against Lin Fen years ago.

But the expected sound of flesh and blood exploding did not come.

Suddenly, Wang Qinxi's pupils contracted sharply. She saw a burst of firelight emanating from the gaps in the giant sheep-headed man's clenched hand, blindingly bright.

As the sheep-headed man's hand closed in, Zhu Ning opened the system panel.

The system asked its final question: "Do you want to use the K003 explosive? It can blow up a thirty-story building within fifteen seconds."

"Use it."

She was going to blow up the company.