STB Chapter 114: Hostage

Assistant Lin was blocked, scaring him senseless.

He thought that the two groups of people are part of the same group.

Seeing that his escape route is blocked, Assistant Lin suddenly found that his phone is still in his hand. He immediately tucked it into his jacket pocket, thinking that in case he died, at least Jian Hua heard the murder, and can tell the police. Maybe Jian Hua is already recording it.

He looked around in a panic, looking for a brick or a stick or something.

But there’s nothing on either side. The most lethal is probably his fist……

When he saw that stiff face, and the hideous smile of the perpetrator, Assistant Lin shook even more powerfully. He doesn’t understand how to use his fists or any martial arts at all, not to mention Geng Tian, even Li Fei can single-handedly put down Assistant Lin.

Not far on the road, those cars don’t even dare to stop as they stepped on the gas pedal.

There are figures at the intersection. Assistant Lin wants to shout, but those people stretched their strides and disappeared——with such a terrible sound, who dares look at the situation? As long as you have seen the online videos and news, they can’t wait to leave. Changed to Assistant Lin, he’s also sure that he’d escape to a safe place and then call the police.

The knife-wielding madmen chased the strangers that ran before him. Assistant Lin desperately shrank himself to the wall of the building.

Although the people wearing the black badge didn’t take out a weapon, they have superpowers. There’s no difference between having a knife or not having anything in hand.

What makes Assistant Lin feel uncomfortable is their eyes. It’s not filled with bloodthirsty madness, but with a weary numbness.

Assistant Lin once followed a program crew to view the mountains. He remembered a scene from a “left-behind village” where all young and middle-aged laborers go out to work: The people’s eyes are grey. From old people to children, it’s like seeing a black and white movie, like something that’s been forgotten for a long time. When they heard the honk from a car, they will cover their ears, and show ill-suited expressions.

The smell of blood in the air is obvious.

Someone wearing a black badge heaved a sigh. The others didn’t react much.

“It’s bad luck……Abandoned World just ended. If it’s ten minutes later, we’d have caught up with these guys and handed them over to Red Dragon. No one will probably die here.”

“This time Abandoned World lasted for a month, and you still want to stay inside?”

Among the crowd wearing black badges, a young man that looks like a university student smoothed things out, “Speak less, and quickly solve these group of guys. Here is the real world, the police will come soon.”

His companions raised objections, “No, we should leave immediately. Once we use our abilities, those devouring mushrooms will tie up everyone here. The police are not the same as the Red Dragon’s Ability Holders Organization. They don’t know anything! We may be taken away as suspects, and that’s nothing. If they’re in law enforcement, they’ll be too suspicious, think that we’re dangerous, and maybe even shoot us directly?”

“Can’t you hear the screams from here? There may be people still alive!” The young man argued.

His companion is gloomy, “Huo Wei, the cruelty of Abandoned World hadn’t made your brain grow? You have to understand; this isn’t the group you brought before, full of impulsive young people. Your people are dead. We met at Abandoned World and accepted you because we belong to the same Black Abyss. We are here to survive together. Helping the Red Dragon is to survive. Don’t put the cart before the horse! You are trying to keep yourself alive, but are you single-mindedly working for the Black Abyss or the country? Idiot, you’ve been brainwashed.”

The young man is angry at first, then put on a sarcastic smile, “I don’t sacrifice myself for anyone. I am trying to ‘keep myself’ since I don’t want to change! Look at your appearance! If you return home, can your wife or children recognize you? Your eyes are used to seeing corpses and murder. When you’re lying on your real bed at home, and covered with a soft quilt, that bloody and rancid smell will still linger at the tip of your nose. When your bed partner is sneaking behind your back to blindfold you and to tease you, you would instinctively grab her throat……we are all in this dilemma. Admit it! Because of this, I don’t want to put the only remaining bit of myself, the sympathy and feelings that ordinary people have to be lost!”

Their voices are not loud. Assistant Lin can’t hear what they’re saying and only thought that when the young man said something, everyone seemed affected as their expression changed.

This person is more “alive” than the others, and not too much like a murderer.

Hope rose in Assistant Lin’s eyes.

At this time, an unpleasant and hoarse voice screamed and laughed, “The lackeys have come!”

Assistant Lin panicked and turned. He saw the assailants come over with food and beer. Their faces are covered with blood, almost hiding their faces.

Both sides seem to be enemies as if it’s the most natural thing.

The bloody kitchen knife was thrown out. The distance between the two parties is not that far. The people wearing black badges only stepped back a few steps, then raised their hands together——

The few kitchen knives hovered in the air. It seems that the two forces are deadlocked against each other.

Assistant Lin trembles against the wall, he’s unlucky enough to be in the middle of the two sides, and even more, he found that some of the superpowers on either side, looked his way with the corner of their eyes.

“……”

Assistant Lin is scared. After half a minute, he found that everyone is not watching him but at the manhole cover a few small steps from the sidewalk and not far from him.

He noticed this because the utility hole cover slightly shook, and something seemed to be coming out.

“Retreat!” Many people yelled at the same time.

The knives lost strength, fell to the ground, and the movement of the manhole cover also stopped.

A siren can be heard from a distance.

The murderers immediately cursed and turned to the direction of the parking lot.

Assistant Lin wants to relax. His whole person suddenly fell back uncontrollably, and it seems that something grabbed his body, like a rope——

“What are you doing?”

Assistant Lin heard the anger of the young man. That strange pulling force disappeared as an arm tightly reined in his neck. His legs were kicking the ground in vain, trying to struggle, but he was forcefully dragged away. The assailant is very strong.

“Taking a hostage, just in case.”

Assistant Lin can’t breathe. He struggled to make some space for his neck, and his eyes rested on the ground. He found that the manhole cover has been opened, and many fine white silks came out.

But the next moment, when Assistant Lin looked again, the roadside manhole cover was strangely pushed aside, and no people are standing near it.

The young man tried to chase but was blocked by his companions.

“Let’s go too. It’s already too late!”

“But he……” The young man anxiously looked over here.

He does not know why, Assistant Lin saw that he should be an excellent young man, but he felt that there’s something wrong with his expression. He was scared and afraid, his brain was chaotic and seems to see an illusion.

Because the last sound he heard before he suffocated and went unconscious is the curse of the assailants, the distant siren, and some strange talk.

“Quickly run, the mushrooms are out.”

Mushroom? Is it the same mushroom he’s thinking?

When Assistant Lin woke up again, he has a severe headache. Black spots are in front of his eyes, he can’t tell where he is for a while, and what happened in the end.

Someone is crying. The voice is very depressed and full of fear.

Assistant Lin’s ears are ringing. After a few minutes, he found that someone is speaking through a loudspeaker.

Where is this?

Memory returns to his brain. Assistant Lin looked around in horror. It seems to be a burger fast food restaurant he often saw next to the supermarket. He saw the broken glass on the ground, the table that fell over, and several women wearing waiter uniforms shivering beside the counter.

There is also a cold body lying beside Assistant Lin with a hideous wound on the neck.

Not far behind is a foot sticking out of a plant, and should also be dead. However, the foot is not big and its wearing small shoes that will shine when stepped on the ground.

“Stop pretending!”

Assistant Lin was kicked while lying down. He gasped in pain, and only then did he see a few people lazily sitting at a table. A few knives are on the table. The product labels weren’t torn off, and it looks like they just grabbed it from the supermarket.

Looking around at the situation, Assistant Lin just felt that these villains were too stupid, choosing this kind of fast food restaurant without any cover, exits or anything else. Then he thought that these people have superpowers.

“Do we have to wait here?” The man who almost strangled Assistant Lin was dissatisfied as he angrily banged the table.

“I’ve burned the two shops below. If they dare to force a breakthrough, I’ll put the flame in the gas pipeline of the restaurant, and let these guys die with us!”

The speaker’s nose flared. His eyes are fierce, and the waiters were so scared that even their cries have stopped.

“Here is where I entered the Abandoned World! One month ago……oh no, at noon today! We can wait here and wait for Abandoned World to appear, then we can still escape!”

The murderers all showed strange smiles.

“What police, what army, ordinary people can’t come in! We can leave with a swagger!”

After laughing for a while, their brains lost some heat and discovered what they omitted from the plan.

“What if that group of hunting dogs is still outside?”

“What are you afraid of, there are no decent high-order ability holders in that group.”

“……Red Dragon has it?”

“Shut up!”

The atmosphere is instantly stiff. Assistant Lin was picked up by a man, and a knife was placed around his neck. The man screamed wildly, “Laozi’s life is pulled from a monster’s mouth. Killing one of you to break even, and kill two to make a profit. If I can’t live, then I have to die with a bang!”

Assistant Lin is scared. He listened to other people swearing and saying that if not because of their fear of mushrooms, they won’t just cut with a knife when they come in. At that time, there were a lot of people in the supermarket.

“I heard that the mushrooms are from Black Abyss……”

“You also believe this stupid thing? I also heard that they have S-class ability holders. They dare say such a big lie, *pei*! If they’re so powerful, then why are they Red Dragon’s lackeys? Damn their mothers. It’s been a long time since I’ve had some girls, afraid I have no money. Oh shit, we don’t even have to grab a hostage, wherever we go, wouldn’t people kneel?”

These people have not joined Black Abyss, and not book transmigrators. Red Dragon has not even discovered some of them. With their limited knowledge, they don’t even know that they can’t enter the Abandoned World within 24 hours at the same location.

There is no sneak attack from monsters in the real world, so they look very relaxed, can’t wait to become high-order ability holder right away, where a slap can destroy a tank.

“……the foreigner who attacked with tree vines or something is very powerful ah. He’s surely a high-order ability holder. Can I go to him?”

“Just a foreign devil, what powerful?” The person spoke through his teeth, but you can hear a lack of self-confidence in his voice.

The loudspeaker outside rang again.

Assistant Lin and several waiters were forced into the toilet by the murderers.

“Kill a person every four hours to prevent them from messing with our minds……”

As the only male hostage, Assistant Lin was unlucky enough to be dragged out.

“This is the guy brought from the parking lot. Don’t know if he got hurt……there are not enough hostages, do you want to cut a few fingers first?”

“What cut fingers, just cut the neck and drop the body downstairs!”

“The corpse on the floor can also be used, why waste it?”

Assistant Lin felt that he was lucky to have escaped again. Suddenly, blood burst out and sprinkled on his face.

Followed by a white gas. His eyes became spicy, and Assistant Lin coughed out a lung.

In the blur, he felt that someone forced him out of the fast food restaurant, and then there were a few gunshots.

“Nightingale calling Command. Hostage has been saved successfully. I repeat, the criminals are all killed, and hostage rescue is successful.”

Assistant Lin’s head was buckled into a simple gas mask. He finally breathed, and then he saw the murderer’s body wrapped in a mushroom-like white object.

Special Forces are arranging for snipers to sneak in. The fast-food restaurant air condition strengthened the tear gas and also drew the mycelium from the sealed tank. After discovering that the situation is terrible, all ability holders became violent and wanted to self-destruct, but the hyphae swarmed.

The ordinary people are not entangled with it, so the difference is noticeable.

Assistant Lin’s eyes are dull after surviving. He thought that these things are like the white silk that appeared on New Year’s Eve.

The rescued hostages were taken away and sent out on a stretcher.

At the death of the assailants, the discrete energy gradually fades away. After eating, the hyphae without food were very dissatisfied.

The person assisting Assistant Lin found that several thin white soft filaments were coming around, and sticking to Assistant Lin’s clothes not tightly nor loosely. Assistant Lin immediately changed from hostage to a suspicious person.

Outside, the commander of the rescue operation immediately ordered to subdue the suspicious target quickly and don’t let the target get close to the healthcare staff.

So the unlucky Assistant Lin was still in the dark when the person next to him received the order. An anesthesia needle solved the problem. Assistant Lin doesn’t even know what happened.

“Wait!”

Assistant Lin felt like he heard Li Fei’s voice but then lost consciousness.

When Li Fei arrived, the crisis has ended. He found Assistant Lin being sent out.

“This is not a criminal. He seems to be my assistant.”

“Seems to?”

“……got to wipe his face clean.” Li Fei calmly said. This kind of face with blood pasted on it, even acquaintances can only assume.

After a little fuss, Li Fei nodded, “That’s him. He’s my assistant, Lin Xiao, an ordinary person, and no ability.”

“But the mushrooms……” The Red Dragon member pointed to the hyphae on the back of Assistant Lin’s clothes.

“He often goes to my house once in a while to sort things out.”

Li Fei’s villa is initially full of mushrooms. Jian Hua lived there but didn’t control the hyphae, so when food is scarce, the hyphae must have slipped away a lot.

“Maybe it’s there before today, and he was tainted with the breath of mycelium……simply put, he is an acquaintance of the mushrooms.” When they want to hitch a ride, they’ll naturally climb up.

Red Dragon member: ……

Is it that easy?