“Put the gun down,” a woman’s voice, tinged with amusement, came from above him.
Ma-Ge felt a chill down his spine and slowly released his grip. He wouldn’t be fooled into thinking she wouldn’t kill him just because her tone was casual. Besides matching the speed of a mutation beast, her control over her own strength was terrifyingly precise. Someone like her, who could stop a knife mid-strike just in front of his face, could just as easily pierce his skull in the blink of an eye. Even though those figures were just a short distance ahead, both the mysterious death of the man with a surname Zhou and the threat from this woman beside him warned him against making any rash moves.
As he lowered the gun, he mustered the courage to speak softly, “Please… don’t kill me… I’m just an ordinary Member, I… I won’t pose any threat to you…”
“Seems like you know how to cooperate well.”
A figure approached him, and Ma-Ge immediately noticed the hiking boots on this person, causing him to tense up and mutter, “You’re… Ling… Ling Mo…”
“Alright,” Ling Mo crouched down in front of him, with a half-smile on his face, and asked, “Do you know why you’re still alive?”
Ma-Ge blinked in surprise and quickly replied, “I… I know! Whatever you want to ask…”
“Good… being straightforward makes things easier… What I want to know is, how many people are in this building? How many traps like those in the corridor are there, and where are they located? That Glasses Man, where is he? And about his superpowers, how much do you know?… Basically, tell me everything you know.” Ling Mo glanced at him and said calmly.
Ma-Ge’s Adam’s apple bobbed a few times as he swallowed and replied, “I… I don’t know much… There are a total of twenty-four people in this building, and you just killed one… and three more died earlier on the Rooftop… In fact, only about half of them appeared in front of you back then, but they can all be considered elites. Among those remaining, most are superhumans or responsible for setting up traps…”
“Why are superhumans not considered elites?” Another girl’s voice sounded, carrying a hint of surprise. Ma-Ge only caught a glimpse of a Scythe but dared not look up at the girl’s face…Sweating profusely, he replied, “The captain said that sometimes firearms are more effective than superhumans… especially when dealing with people… Superpowers can counter each other, but bullets have no such restrictions… Also, there were several explosive points planted in advance on the Rooftop. If you had resisted directly, someone would have detonated them from afar… The amount of explosives was precisely calculated; it might not have killed you, but it would have ensured you couldn’t resist. As for the positions they took, there was a method to it, something those superhumans couldn’t manage…”
“That Glasses Man really knows how to plan,” Ling Mo snorted.
He had sensed something was off at that time, and now he realized just how meticulously plotted it had been! But all those preparations were rendered useless by his countermeasures, not only failing to be of any use but also failing to prevent their own casualties… As for the location of those explosives, they were most likely in front of the hatch door. If the amount was accurate enough, it could have confined the explosion to a very small area while inflicting enough damage on Ling Mo. The Rooftop was already full of pits and depressions, and he wouldn’t have focused his attention on his feet. This arrangement… was indeed vicious.
However, this tactic wasn’t something they could use recklessly; otherwise, they could have detonated the explosives as soon as Ling Mo landed.
“True… if they wanted to use me to threaten Yuwen Xuan, they’d at least need to ensure I was still breathing, you can’t take easy chances with explosives. But this limitation was only effective then; now it’s definitely gone…” Ling Mo thought to himself and then said, “Go on.”
“Those traps… I really don’t know much about them, except for the ones on the stairs… Just be careful not to step on the odd-numbered steps. And the captain… he should be on the top floor, but I don’t know which room exactly. As for his superpower… I can’t describe it, but I know he’s never been injured before, and there are rarely any casualties among the Team Members with him. However, he’s highly regarded by Chief of Staff Wang, so he must have some extraordinary abilities… Oh, and one more thing, he used to be a salesman…” Ma-Ge’s lips trembled slightly as he said, “I don’t know if that counts as information…”
Ling Mo pondered for a moment and then said, “Is that all?”
“That’s all I know…” Cold sweat broke out on Ma-Ge again.
“Who is Chief of Staff Wang? What about Chief of Staff Su? Isn’t she in charge?” Ling Mo thought for a bit and asked.
“I… I don’t know…” Before he could finish speaking, Ma-Ge’s eyes suddenly went blank, and a sharp pain shot through his Hindbrain, plunging him into darkness.
Li Yalin watched him collapse to the ground, then looked up and asked, “What should we do next?”
Ye Lian, beside her, took a deep breath and said quietly, “The scent here is very mixed… but… once we get closer, we should be able to find it…”
“It should be the scent of gunpowder he’s talking about, right? I feel like my sense of smell is being interfered with, so it seems they’ve prepared quite a lot…” Xia Na glanced at Ma-Ge and then picked up the gun beside him. Given Li Yalin’s strength, it looked like he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon…
“The situation with Falcon is more complicated than I expected…” Ling Mo frowned, stood up, and said, “Since that Glasses Man is hiding on the top floor, let’s head there directly. I believe he’d be more than happy to see us…”
Inside the insurance company, three additional Members were hidden, each tucked away in different corners, completely unaware of what was happening near the lobby. Over the next two minutes, they too would follow in Ma-Ge’s footsteps, one after another. Like Ma-Ge, they didn’t see who attacked them, nor did they have a chance to react. Usually, they would just see a blur before losing consciousness…
After ascending the stairs once more, Ling Mo inspected the stairs based on the intelligence provided by Ma-Ge. He pressed down on the odd-numbered steps and brushed his hand over the even-numbered ones, murmuring thoughtfully, “On the surface, there’s nothing wrong, but the trap was triggered suddenly as we were going up. That member clearly wasn’t lying, but we can’t follow his instructions blindly…”
Previously, the traps could be handled by Ye Lian and the others in time, but the path ahead was crucial. The closer they got to the top floor, the more traps there would likely be, and their potency would also increase. Any slight oversight could lead to a complete failure, a scenario Ling Mo was keen to avoid.
“Could it be a hallucination?” Ling Mo scanned the area with a Tentacle, ruling out that possibility.
Xia Na also focused on the steps and said, “The traps we’ve encountered so far have mostly been sudden noises, but here, they most likely aren’t set up just as an alarm, right? At least before, they left some traces, but here…”
She gently traced her finger along the steps, saying, “No covering, no transparent threads… It’s odd. If they’re using the odd-even setup for convenient passage, why is there nothing unusual on the even-numbered steps?”
“That guy said these traps were set by a superhuman…” Ling Mo suddenly remarked.
“What?” Ye Lian bent down, curiously asking.
“I get it…” Ling Mo said as he stepped onto an even-numbered step.
“Ah!” Ye Lian immediately covered her mouth.
However, to their surprise, the surroundings remained silent, with nothing happening at all…
“What’s going on?” Xia Na asked curiously, her lips parting slightly.
Ling Mo chuckled and replied, “That statement itself was a trap. Regular people wouldn’t pay attention to whether steps are odd or even when going upstairs, so they would step on both. But asking someone in a fight to focus on odd and even steps is quite absurd. The real answer should be – just skip a step. If that’s all we need to focus on, it becomes simple.”
“So that person lied to us?” A hint of anger flashed in Li Yalin’s eyes.
“Not exactly, but they were stationed there as part of the trap itself. I think there’s something unusual about this staircase, that it triggers when both adjacent steps are stepped on simultaneously. The real trap lies in every step, with a unique triggering method. But since these traps were set by a superhuman, they aren’t easy to spot. Anyway, once we find the right method, we can move through quickly,” Ling Mo explained.
This is the underlying strength of a Camp. They have a large number of people and resources, allowing them to set all sorts of traps to capture someone. And Ling Mo? He isn’t fighting alone either…
“Have they not been found yet?” asked a man in a reception room on the top floor. Standing behind him was another Young Man in Yellow. This young man was standing behind a curtain, occasionally peeking out to check the situation.
“No… and I haven’t heard any traps being triggered,” the Young Man in Yellow replied. He straightened his collar and turned back, saying, “The traps beyond this point are created by my superpower. Once triggered, I’ll naturally know. Outsiders can’t possibly make it up here…” His tone was filled with confidence.
The man he was speaking to was none other than Zhang Xi, with dark skin. Holding a pistol, he looked gloomily at Luo Ming, who wasn’t far away. “Didn’t you say he would definitely come?”
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