Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 260 - 15: Endless Corridor

Chapter 260: Chapter 15: Endless Corridor

The five students lying on the stone slab were all critically injured. In the real world, even if they were taken to a hospital for emergency treatment, their chances of survival wouldn’t exceed one percent, and they would likely be left disabled. However, this was the Trojan Horse Game. Tang Zheng had several vials of Nanobot Injection on him. A single injection and they wouldn’t die, they would even gradually recover.

"They’re all crippled. So what if we waste medicine? Can you give them time to recover?" Zhang Hao, unafraid of the other students hearing, tried to pull Tang Zheng away by his arm.

"Tang Zheng, no matter what decision you make, we all support you." Li Xinlan stood behind Tang Zheng. Qin Yan and Bai Guo nodded their heads. Lin Weiguo sighed without saying a word.

The Leopard Print Woman didn’t say anything, and Little Lu Fan clasped onto Tang Zheng’s hand.

"Uncle, Little Fan Fan also supports you."

Tang Zheng’s heart was shattered by their unconditional trust. He no longer wanted to place his friends in danger for irrelevant individuals, and so, he stepped out of the Coliseum.

"Save me." The five victims still harboring faint hope shrieked with all their strength upon seeing Tang Zheng depart, "I don’t want to die."

As the last person, Tang Zheng had barely set foot in the passageway when the iron gate slowly began to close with a creaking noise. The dim light reflecting from the Coliseum in the tunnel thinned out into a straight line, simultaneously blocking off the cries and pleas for help.

The torch crackled as it burned, casting an oppressive silence. The twenty-odd people present all remained silent. The five students would either be devoured by the demons or starve to death, their fate was sealed. As for themselves, the future was uncertain. Fifteen students stared at the endless dark tunnel, hesitating, unable to take their first step.

"Let’s go." Tang Zheng took the torch handed over by Qin Yan, took a deep breath, tossed away the messy emotions, and started to inspect the passageway.

This was a square passageway less than 2.5 meters wide. With Tang Zheng’s height and jumping strength, he could touch the ceiling with just a light hop. Besides, the narrow walls were covered with green moss, making it feel extraordinarily oppressive and confined, a sense of claustrophobia rushed in instantaneously.

The female students gathered together as much as possible, holding each other’s hands. They were very scared, their heavy breathing echoing through the passageway.

Action. Each individual consciously treaded lightly, deeply afraid of disturbing something. For the first time, Lu Fan’s face turned pale.

"Zhang Hao, Old Lin, you guys guard the rear." Tang Zheng, holding a torch in one hand and a rifle in the other, was the first to enter the passageway.

"Why can’t I lead the way?" Zhang Hao was dissatisfied. Although the rear was blocked and seemed unlikely to invite danger, what if an accident happened? If student was leading the way up front, it could be much safer.

"With your pitiful observation skills, what if you miss some details?" Lu Fan immediately criticized Zhang Hao, who was messing around. "You’re not satisfied with an easy job?"

"Alright, you guys go first." Zhang Hao thought about it and quickly gave up.

After ten minutes, the atmosphere gradually shifted from silence to soft whispers. Students discussed what might be at the end of the tunnel, some grew bolder and asked about Tang Zheng’s background. Zhang Hao tried to make conversation with the female students, but thirty minutes later, the atmosphere was back to being as oppressive as before, only the sounds of weak footsteps and the crackling of the torch remained. The tunnel was still endless, straight and utterly resorting to despair.

With their hopes dashed, the students felt the pains of hunger again. Some had started to fall behind Tang Zheng’s pace, the length of the crowd had visibly scattered and stretched. But every student bit their teeth and persisted, for they knew that once they fell out of line, they might not ever catch up with the others.

"Stop." Tang Zheng suddenly shouted softly, stopping. It felt like divine intervention to the students, who, disregarding cleanliness, slumped directly on the ground to rest.

"What’s happened?" Zhang Hao asked, standing on his tiptoes to take a look.

"Shut up, everyone keep quiet and stay here." Tang Zheng pulled the bolt of his AK74 and stealthily moved forward like a stealthy cat.

There was a faint glimmer of light several dozens of meters ahead in the tunnel. Tang Zheng guessed it was a student who had fallen behind, but he didn’t dare let his guard down.

As expected, a girl had fallen asleep against the stone wall, exhausted. She had taken off her shoes and socks, and a blister on the sole of her foot had popped.

"Get up." Tang Zheng, alert, kicked the girl’s leg. The girl muttered something and slightly moved her body before continuing to sleep, clear signs of extreme exhaustion.

Tang Zheng stepped on her shoulder and then exerted force. Her body tilted over, which finally made her wake up, her eyes half open in a daze. Upon seeing a blurry figure, she got a shock and started crawling away with her hands and feet.

"Don’t come over, don’t come over." The girl mistook Tang Zheng for a monster.

"Catch up, it’s safe now." Tang Zheng didn’t have the patience to comfort the frightened girl. He walked a few steps forward then yelled out loud. He didn’t want to waste energy backtracking.

"Pipe down, aren’t you afraid of attracting the demons?" Zhang Hao, being petty, was still putting down Tang Zheng.

"I wish they would hurry up and come, maybe we could capture a prisoner, and they may lead us to a shortcut out of here." Tang Zheng grunted coldly and carried on.

Zhang Hao was lost for words, as were the others, all taken aback by Tang Zheng’s audacity.

"If you fall behind again, no one will remind you this time." Li Xinlan gave the girl reluctantly putting on her shoes a warning glance.

"I heard you." The girl struggled to her feet, each step she took causing her blister to throb unbearably.

"Tang Zheng, we can’t keep going like this, we need a plan." After encountering the fifth lagging student, Li Xinlan, seeing the increasingly long line, advised Tang Zheng.

"Damn it, let’s just go ahead and do whatever they want." Pang Meiqin was utilitarian and had long wanted to leave these burdens behind.

"Let’s see, let them know, after another 5 kilometers, every five people will share a can of canned beef." Tang Zheng could only use this deception. Hearing Li Xinlan’s message, the dispirited students picked up their spirits, and seemed to move a little faster. At first, they would ask about the distance left, but gradually, they began to fade, resuming their silence as they no longer had the strength to speak.

More than an hour later, when the students were almost exhausted, Tang Zheng finally kept his promise. He stopped to rest, giving a can of canned food to every group of five students. Seven more stragglers were encountered during this time.

"Damn it, you’ve eaten a third of it in one bite. That’s too treacherous!" The complaining boy would have jumped up and started a fight if he had the energy. Not just him, some students ate so urgently that they choked.

"All of you watch it, if anyone is caught eating more, they’ll have nothing the next time." Lin Weiguo scolded, and then walked over to Tang Zheng, lowering his voice, "Heh, you boy, you’ve walked almost 7 kilometers, haven’t you?"

"My original plan was 10 kilometers. I wouldn’t have stopped if some people hadn’t been unable to continue," Tang Zheng shook his head with a serious look, "We’ve been walking for so long and still haven’t reached an end, have we made a mistake somewhere?"

"But there are no side roads, right?" Pang Meiqin was puzzled. "Don’t you tap the walls every once in a while? Did you find anything?"

"No." Tang Zheng turned to Lu Fan, who was sitting on the ground rubbing his legs. "Do you need me to carry you?"

"No need, Little Fan Fan can still hold on." Although Lu Fan was very tired, if not for the enhanced strength, the glowing suit, and well-rested and not hungry, he would have been fainted by now.

"All right, let’s move on." Exactly five minutes later, Tang Zheng stood up and beckoned everyone to move on. But the students at the rear seemed to have encountered an unexpected event. Suddenly, their faces were filled with terror as they surged forward.

Because the passageway was only 2.5 meters wide, it was extremely crowded when they scrambled to run by. He didn’t even have a chance to look back and investigate what was happening. All he could see was a thin human silhouette in black knocking over the last student.

The image of a blade being thrust into the student’s back by the human shadow appeared on the stony wall, illuminated by the torch light, and blood spattered.

"Run!" Tang Zheng made a snap decision, grabbed Lu Fan by the waist with one hand and rushed forward. The others did not dare to delay either, especially when they saw that a student had fallen and was being stepped on, unable to stand up. All of them maxed out their speed.

"We encountered a monster, didn’t we?" Qin Yan glanced back from time to time. The students could no longer keep up and lagged almost fifty meters behind.

"But where did the monster come from?" Bai Guo was puzzled. "Wasn’t the big iron gate closed?"

Tang Zheng wanted to stop but hesitated, "This could be an opportunity to find an exit."

"Don’t be stupid, how can you fight in this narrow space with that crowd of students?" Zhang Hao looked aggrieved, "Besides, the monster will surely follow us after killing them. You can fight it then."

The words were cruel, but no one refuted them.

"All right, Old Lin, and Yin Shangwu will lead, I will cover the rear with Zhang Hao." Tang Zheng waved his hand, no longer caring about the shouts from the dark tunnel behind him, and urged everyone to speed up.

"Why am I the last one again?" Zhang Hao wore a miserable expression, "That’s abuse."

"You’ll be the only one covering the rear if you keep babbling." Tang Zheng ignored him, put Lu Fan on his back. If there were no students, he would definitely throw a few hand grenades back.

After another twenty minutes of long-distance running, Tang Zheng encountered a fallen female staff member and the female head teacher, who didn’t know why there was danger behind them, and wanted to follow, but they were soon left behind. The Leopard-Print Woman also fell behind. Those who hadn’t strengthened their bodies couldn’t keep up with this high-intensity running.

Watching Tang Zheng’s party from afar, the Leopard-Print Woman was regretful, but then she thought of her son and housewife and felt relief.

"There’s light." Lin Weiguo’s abrupt shout brought a surge of energy to all. Pang Meiqin wanted to cheer up too, but she was breathing hard. As someone who counts on agility for survival with her key enhancement in neural response speed, Pang Meiqin’s stamina was too poor. Seeing Bai Guo still at ease and breathing normally, she felt envious. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on qidian(dot)com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)