Embers Ad Infinitum

Translator: CKtalon 

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen led their parents to the nearest elevator lobby in Zone C.

As it was office hours, there was basically nobody in the residential area other than children, students, teachers, and retired employees. After a few batches of people running away, it was quiet everywhere. It was so empty that it was like the scene outside the Rec Center during a year-end performance.

When she passed by the Rec Center, Bai Chen glanced at the Order Supervisory Office beside her and turned to Long Yuehong. "Let's go in and see if there are any weapons."

Other than their mechanical arms and biological prosthetic limbs, the two of them didn't have a single gun or bullet on them.

In a situation where the mechanical arm couldn't be removed, Pangu Biology requested Long Yuehong to hand over bullets, poison, hypnotizing gas, and other items to minimize the might of his mechanical arm.

Of course, as the high-performance batteries involved the normal operation of the mechanical arm, Long Yuehong could still use functions like condensing energy to fire lasers.

"Alright." Considering that he didn't know what he would encounter next and that a slight delay shouldn't affect them much, Long Yuehong didn't hesitate to respond to Bai Chen's suggestion.

They brought Long Dayong and Gu Hong into the Order Supervisory Office on this floor.

The Order Supervisory here had fled, and the spare weapons were left in the room.

A locked cabinet was ripped open by Long Yuehong, and inside were a few Ice Moss pistols and many boxes of 9mm bullets.

Bai Chen and Long Yuehong each took one and gave one each to Long Dayong and Gu Hong.

"We don't know how to use it…" Gu Hong was in a difficult position.

They had learned how to fire live bullets in school, but it had been so many years.

"At least it can deter others," Bai Chen replied as she stuffed the bullets into her pocket.

Long Dayong also comforted his wife. "I still have some impression on how to use it."

The family of four equipped their weapons and ran to the nearest elevator lobby without any further delay.

At this moment, several employees were waiting there with anxious expressions.

Long Yuehong looked around and heaved a sigh of relief when he realized that there were no children or students.

In their plan, the students from the various schools and the children who were still being taken care of by their elders at home were the ones who received the second and third rounds of special attention. Their sequence was second only to Long Yuehong, Jiang Baimian's family, relatives, friends, and the few relatives survived by Shang Jianyao's parents.

Of course, Shang Jianyao couldn't tell who was young and who was still studying through his senses. He could only blanket everyone in the corresponding area. This way, minors could receive the care of teachers and elders while fleeing.

From the looks of it, the Old Task Force's plan had gone quite smoothly.

The elevator lobby was extremely quiet; nobody spoke.

The elevators quickly went up and over without stopping. This was a special design for Pangu Biology's morning and evening peak hours—when the elevator was full, it wouldn't open midway.

Gulp… Someone gulped, appearing nervous and anxious.

"Why aren't there any elevators?" A male employee from the Supplies Allocation Market on this floor lost control and growled.

He hadn't been affected physically during the five rounds of broadcast, but he had heard what Shang Jianyao had said clearly. Now that the students, Order Supervisory, and the children-carrying elderly had fled, he finally couldn't hold back his suspicion and fear. He rushed to the nearest elevator lobby with a few colleagues.

However, the elevators were filled with people as they skipped their floor. They didn't stop for them at all.

With this growl, the silence was broken. Some people clamored about going to the other elevator lobbies to try their luck, while others relied on their youth and planned on taking the safe passage to the tenth or twentieth floor to take a look at the situation.

At this moment, a female employee from the Supplies Allocation Market said with a trembling voice, "Why don't we press the 'down' button? Nobody should be taking the elevator down at this time."

From the jump in the floor numbers, she discovered that when an elevator went up, it stopped at the Factory Zone and the Indoor Ecosystem Zone. As for those that went downward, it reached places like the Research Zone. After all, almost everyone was thinking of escaping the underground building.

The others were stunned at first, but after pondering for a few seconds, they realized that this method was feasible. To them, the delay was only the time needed to take the elevator to the Research Zone, the Factory Zone, and pick up any people until the elevator was full on the way up. This was probably better than bitterly waiting here.

One choice was waiting in torment for an unknown hope, while the other choice allowed them to see a viable path to the surface, so they didn't need to think too much about which to choose.

But at this moment, an elevator stopped on the 495th floor.

Everyone present revealed looks of surprise as they rushed over.

With a soft clang, the carriage door opened, and the four passengers inside were revealed to Long Yuehong and the others.

Their bodies were slightly hunched, and their eyes were turbid and bloodshot—they were all Heartless.

The moment they saw normal humans, these Heartless immediately attacked.

Several employees from the Supplies Allocation Market couldn't react in time and stood there, stunned.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out four times and accurately hit every Heartless in the head, causing their brains to splatter.

The one who lunged the most ferociously collapsed on the female employee who had just spoken, scaring her into letting out a scream. Thankfully, she didn't suffer any substantial damage.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen had shot twice each.