Trembling At A High Altitude

At the mission point, there was a closed iron gate guarded by two mutated corpses.

After Li Teng charged over, he expertly dispatched the two mutated corpses with an iron crowbar.

In the setting of the mission world, this was a light rail that had just been completed; the workers had already evacuated, but it was still in a closed testing phase.

Thus, the light rail was still operational and had not yet been flooded with a large number of mutated corpses.

Of course, the most likely reason was the plot necessity, and as for logic... many scripts in Film and Television City didn't care about that.

The iron gate had a chain lock, and Li Teng hammered and pried fiercely with the iron crowbar, nearly breaking it before he finally managed to open the lock.

As everyone was about to rush through the opened gate, they were stopped by Li Teng.

This train was clearly modified, with a triangular plough attached to the front and all windows covered, making it impossible to see inside.

A moment later, the train door nearest to the gate opened, and two fully armed soldiers came out.

"Is anyone there? If not, we're leaving!"

After disembarking, the two soldiers quietly called out a few times around them.

A new mission was released on their wristwatches, instructing them to protect NPC hostages and get them onto the train.

Only then did Li Teng lead the others from near the iron gate.

It always felt as though the rescue point was a trap, but now that the plot required it, there was no choice— they had to enter the train and see.

"Who will go over and negotiate with raised hands? I can't handle everything personally, can I?" Li Teng asked the others.

His daughter had woken up from a coma, and her rib injury seemed to have healed, but she was still clinging to Li Teng's arms. Hearing what Li Teng said, she jumped down ready to go, but Li Teng held her back.

She had already proven her bravery and gained Li Teng's recognition; it was someone else's turn now.

"I'll go."

Yuki Noto tugged at the only two pieces of cloth on her body and responded to Li Teng.

Although this woman was attractive, her entire body was green and smelled foul at the moment; unlikely anyone would be interested in her.

"Go ahead, just raise your hands and make sure they don't mistake you for a mutated corpse," Li Teng nodded.

Just as the two soldiers were about to return to the carriage, Yuki Noto walked over with her hands raised.

Both soldiers aimed their guns at Yuki Noto.

"I'm human, not a monster; what's on me is just camouflage," Yuki Noto quickly clarified.

"Don't be so loud!" one of the soldiers reprimanded Yuki Noto. He did not seem intent on shooting and appeared unsurprised by her appearance.

"I have companions," Yuki Noto added quietly.

"Have them come over quickly!"

"Okay," Yuki Noto waved to the others behind her.

As the group approached, the two soldiers once again raised their guns at them, intending to perform a check. Moreover, they had to relinquish their weapons; otherwise, they wouldn't be allowed on the train.

Having no choice, Li Teng handed over the iron crowbar.

Of course, the crowbar was already severely damaged and basically useless by then.

After entering the train carriage, Li Teng realized that it was almost full of people.

Moreover, there were some familiar faces.

Just generally familiar...

Because some of these people were prisoners from the prison, of various skin colors, who had come with him to execute the task.

The majority were of the same "green" race as Li Teng and the others.

Initially believing it was a task for a group of four, he hadn't expected it to be a task for everyone, with all the prisoners in the same task world, just at different execution locations.

It seemed that these prisoners, like Li Teng and the others, were on a protection mission.

Each group was accompanied by a few NPCs.

Yang Shunli and Dong Qi, upon seeing this scene, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

In their view, it was like coming across someone of their own kind, much like college students encountering their schoolmates while out on internships, very cordial.

But Li Teng became more vigilant.

If it had just been a task for their group of four, everything would have been simple.

Now that it had turned into a mission for all the prisoners in the prison, this meant that the difficulty of the task could likely double!

Because the upcoming task could be more than just escorting hostages.

Instead, it would involve competition between the groups, ambushing and killing each other.

This was much harder than just dealing with NPCs in the task world.

The increase in difficulty was akin to the difference between a single-player game and an online game on a computer.

No matter how high the difficulty of a single-player game, as long as one found the NPCs' weaknesses, it wasn't hard to complete.

But an online game was different, all the opponents were intelligent beings like oneself, and the plots and schemes, deceit, and deadly struggles were almost impossible to guard against.

If it were just Li Teng alone, he wouldn't worry much.

Fighting and killing had always been his strong suit.

But now he also had to protect these NPC hostages, which was quite problematic.

Not only was he protecting the NPC hostages; these three teammates really weren't much help, but Li Teng couldn't just abandon them. With so many hostages to protect, at least these three teammates were united with him. Even just helping watch the hostages was enough, so Li Teng had to protect not only the hostages but also ensure the safety of the three teammates.

The NPC hostages, obviously unaware of all this, voluntarily greeted the other NPCs and even some of the prisoners after they entered the train.

The NPC hostages in the train were quite friendly, but those prisoners on the mission like Li Teng and others had colder expressions, especially those prisoners of different skin colors, who mostly had grim faces and even showed a hint of murderous intent in their eyes.

Li Teng and the others had no seats, so they stood together in a relatively empty area of the carriage.

"FUCK! It stinks! Don't stand here! Get away from me!" a black woman cursed at Li Teng and the others.

This black woman was neatly dressed, and so were the people around her; it seemed that their earlier tasks had not involved much danger, no real combat, and thus they had easily ventured into the light rail battle, which is why they could maintain such neatness.

"I still want to stand right here! So it stinks—what are you going to do about it? Bite me?" Confronted by the provocation, the little girl unhappily walked over and faced off against the black woman, both glaring angrily at each other.

"Yani! Don't do this!" the restaurant owner reached out to pull the little girl back but she shrugged him off.

The restaurant owner's surname was Jiang, named Jiang Chunsheng, and the little girl was named Jiang Yani.

"Believe it or not, I'll slap you dead?" the black woman threatened the little girl Jiang Yani.

"You dare to slap, just try!" Jiang Yani was not intimidated in the slightest.

The black woman was obviously taller by a head and also had a robust physique. Additionally, with the support of a muscular black man and two sturdy white men behind her, seeing that Li Teng's group was composed of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, she didn't take them seriously at all.

She became furious when she realized that Jiang Yani actually dared to talk back to her. She swung her chubby palm and really tried to slap Jiang Yani.

But as her hand reached mid-air, her wrist was grabbed by a strong and powerful hand.

She was about to shout angrily, but due to the severe pain in her wrist, her shout turned into a scream of agony and she bent down to kneel on the ground.

It was Li Teng who had grabbed her wrist, and with just a little force, he twisted her down to the ground.

Jiang Yani turned around, her face filled with an admiring expression as she looked at Li Teng.

"Save me!" the black woman shouted to her companions.

"Let her go!" The black man accompanying the black woman, who was originally chuckling at the side, suddenly realized that his companion was at a disadvantage and stepped forward to intimidate Li Teng.

The two white men also stood behind the black man and twisted their shoulders, clearly there to boost their presence.

"What's going on?" Two armed soldiers in the carriage heard the commotion and came over, quickly separating the two groups.

The black woman, having suffered a disadvantage, still cursed at Jiang Yani and even made a throat-slitting gesture.

Jiang Yani mouthed "nigga" and then raised her middle finger.

The black woman exploded with rage, wanting to charge over but was blocked by her companions and the two soldiers.

"You are just trouble! How can we afford to offend these people? Ah, why are you so rebellious? I really don't understand, both your mother and I are honest people, how did we give birth to such a rebellious child?" The restaurant owner worriedly sighed.

"Young lady, society is complicated, it's better to keep a low profile when you're outside to avoid trouble," Yang Shunli also helped the restaurant owner in advising Jiang Yani, now that they were all in it together, Yang Shunli was worried about the repercussions of Jiang Yani's impulsiveness for everyone.

"Yes, don't be so rebellious, stop causing trouble everywhere, we all mean well for you."

Dong Qi, the wife of the restaurant owner Jiang Chunsheng, and others also persuaded Jiang Yani together.

"Brother Li, did I cause trouble?" Jiang Yani asked Li Teng with a sorrowful look.

"No worries, I've got you covered," Li Teng smiled at her.

Tears instantly welled up in Jiang Yani's eyes.

Next, she pushed Li Teng to the side of the carriage with lightning speed, slammed him against the compartment wall with a "wall thump," and then tiptoed...

"Ah..." Jiang Chunsheng sighed and quickly turned his head away.

"In my memory, someone is a family man, responsible, not promiscuous, virtuous...," Yuki Noto stared intently at the scene and licked her lips, murmuring softly.

Li Teng, busy at the moment, glared slightly at Yuki Noto and frowned.

This woman knew him well! What exactly was her identity?

He needed to be cautious.

"Do I look too old? I'm only thirty, seems a bit much, right?" Yuki Noto, confused.

...

The train stopped several times during the journey.

Some stops were to pick up passengers, and there was a stop to deal with a dangerous situation in front of the locomotive, with even gunfire heard.

The soldiers did not allow those on the train to disembark, so the people on the train were unaware of what exactly happened.

About forty minutes later, the train came to a stop at a station.

The soldiers directed everyone to get off and follow them to a rescue shelter.

New tasks were also issued in the wristwatches, instructing Li Teng and others to escort NPC hostages to the rescue shelter.

The task allowed plenty of time; a short distance walk was allotted a two-hour completion window.

A squad of armed soldiers scouted ahead while some unarmed soldiers, armed with iron clubs and other weapons, surrounded the hundreds of civilians marching towards the rescue center.

Li Teng felt something was off about such a large group moving together. They were an easy target, likely to attract the attention of zombie hordes, and once the zombies arrived, the squad of armed soldiers would certainly be ineffective.

The two-hour task duration also led Li Teng to suspect that the journey would not be easy; otherwise, they wouldn't have been given so much time.

Typically, the tasks were tightly timed and didn't allow them to complete the mission easily.

Despite various ominous guesses, there was no choice due to the task assignment, and Li Teng could only lead his squad to follow the large group.

The black woman held a grudge, following Li Teng and others at a deliberate distance.

Moreover, she continuously chatted nonstop with her three companions. Since they were not speaking directly to Li Teng, the Film and Television City system did not automatically translate. It was unclear what slang they were using, but judging by their fierce expressions, their conversation was obviously related to Jiang Yani and Li Teng.

Jiang Yani was sandwiched between the restaurant owner Jiang Chunsheng and her mother, both of whom were quietly lecturing her.

"In public, behaving that way toward a man you've only known for a day, is it not shameful? Who taught you that?"

"Why are you becoming more disobedient? You initially didn't want to go to school, and we agreed to let you drop out on the condition that you listen to us. Why have you become so stubborn?"

"You also promised that if you disobeyed, we could spank you. Are you itching for that now?"

"Do you think we enjoy lecturing you, or spanking you? We do this for your good, otherwise, who would bother with you? Besides your parents, do you see anyone else on the street who would care for you?"

"..."

Just as Jiang Chunsheng and his wife's mixed lecture was about to escalate into physical correction, sudden bursts of gunfire, screams, and the sound of the ground trembling erupted from ahead.

Minutes later, the gunfire ceased.

The trembling of the ground and the screams also stopped.

The unarmed soldiers accompanying the main group ordered a halt and sent a few individuals forward to scout the situation. Those scouts quickly returned in a panicked rush.

The others wanted to ask about the conditions ahead, but he didn't stop long enough to discuss, instead shouting loudly a few times.

"Run! Run as fast as you can!"

No sooner had he spoken than the ground began to tremble again, heading in the direction of the large group!

"The rescue center is just ahead; where can we run now?"

"Exactly! Everywhere outside is dangerous! After we painfully walked all this way trusting your words, where can we run now?"

"Can't the rescue center send someone to meet us?"

"How can we, the old, weak, sick, and disabled, outrun those monsters?"

"..."

Some NPCs voiced their protests.

Yuki Noto, Yang Shunli, Dong Qi, and the Jiang family stood still, seemingly uncertain about where to run.

"Stop standing there like fools! If you don't know where to run, follow me!" Li Teng shouted to his teammates and the Jiang family.