Good Luck

"Redemption Sanctuary?" Tom blinked, exchanging puzzled glances with Liu Lian.

Others climbed up to listen, and Li Zexin was curious, "What is that place? Sanctuary? What does it mean?"

Xiao Gao hesitated for a moment. "Is it for people to go there when they see it?"

Cheng Fuhua shouted, "Look, the words have changed."

Everyone saw that the words on the dark clouds had turned into a countdown: "04:32".

"Is this the time? It's changed to 04:31!"

Tom turned around and looked out the window, then spotted an alarm clock on Xiao Bao's bed and climbed down immediately.

Using enhanced strength, Tom and the others quickly built a staircase with building blocks that barely reached Xiao Bao's bed.

He led the way onto the bed, hurried to the clock at the head of the bed, and saw the time: "20:21".

From seeing the countdown just now to building the staircase and climbing onto the bed, several minutes had passed. Tom estimated the time and then pushed the clock to the edge of the bed with the help of others.

"This is indeed a countdown. Once the countdown from the light pillar reaches zero, it will be midnight," Tom said somewhat puzzled. "What does this mean?"

Liu Lian pondered, "The words from the light pillar are for everyone around to see, right? Redemption Sanctuary, countdown. Does it mean the opening time of that sanctuary? Allowing people around to take refuge there?"

Li Qiang nodded, "Hey, that's possible!"

Li Zexin disagreed, "Why is it the opening time? Can't it be the closing time? Rush to the sanctuary before the countdown completes, and it closes after the time's up."

Tom shook his head, "If it were before, the sanctuary shouldn't be far away, but people have shrunk. It's difficult to reach there in four hours at night."

Li Zexin sighed, "Yeah, you're right. So, what should we do?"

Tom thought about the mice downstairs, "Let's wait and see. At least we know where it's safer to go. If the mice come in, we'll parachute out! The light pillar illuminates the surroundings, so our visibility should be higher when driving."

If it weren't for the lack of parts, Tom would have installed lights on the electric cars already. Now they had to wait and see how things played out.

Zheng Shiyi's face turned ashen under the constraints, but his breathing stabilized, and the tremors stopped. Zhao Yingying felt sorry for him and thought he should be untied to avoid further suffering.

Tom considered it. Untying him could be an option since the cable ties were a bit tight, possibly obstructing his blood circulation and causing irreparable harm over time. But for safety's sake, he decided to bind his ankles to the bedpost. Even if he woke up wanting to harm someone, it would limit his range.

In the tense atmosphere, everyone felt oppressed. Although Tom told them to rest, none could sleep.

Time passed second by second until it was 11:56 at midnight.

Due to the long wait, some people, especially the three women, couldn't resist and fell asleep deeply. Surprisingly, Xiao Bao didn't sleep and kept whispering to the orange cat, not sharing his secrets with Tom.

Tom had slept for two hours and now woke up to take on the alert duty.

He climbed to the window ledge with Liu Lian and Li Qiang, watching the countdown from the light pillar on the clouds. Yet, he couldn't shake off an inexplicable sense of tension, as if something significant was about to happen.

"Maybe... the sanctuary opens at midnight for a reason!" Tom suggested.

"What reason?" Liu Lian asked.

Tom looked around at the pitch-dark surroundings, occasionally seeing the faint outlines of lights in the distance, probably from rooms in some buildings.

He looked down, observing the orange cat still peacefully asleep.

"Xiao Bao said Ah Huang is about to wake up!"

"Yeah," Liu Lian quipped, "but this 'about to' is taking forever!"

"We haven't heard the dogs in the neighborhood barking for the past two days."

"Yeah, maybe they're all busy playing together and have no time to sing!"

"Asleep... waking up!" The more Tom thought about it, the colder he felt, even the hairs on his body stood up. "Asleep! I got it!"

"Got what?"

Tom turned around, seeing the countdown turn into the final 30 seconds.

"Waking up! Mutated creatures will wake up! Exactly at midnight!"

Liu Lian tilted his head, "But wait, isn't it that not every animal falls into a deep sleep at the same time, nor do animals of different sizes sleep for the same duration? Who can calculate their unified waking time, precisely at midnight on April 12th?"

Tom thought for a moment, "What about hunger? What if they all smell the scent of human flesh at this time and become hungry? They wake up hungry! I know why the rats are circling us but not coming in!"

"Why? Don't tell me it's because..." The three looked up at the sky, only to see the countdown entering single digits.

"6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!"

The bell suddenly rang, heavy and resonant, accompanied by the chime of the bell, the countdown reached 0, turning into a sentence: "Good luck to you."

The light pillar still illuminated the night sky, and Tom looked down to see several dark figures rushing towards the supermarket windows.

"The rats are coming in!" Tom said, turning around and starting to climb down. As he descended, he shouted, "Get up, get up! The rats are coming in!"

The people were startled awake, initially confused but quickly understanding Tom's words, and then they began to panic.

Tom maintained order, but suddenly heard Xiaomei scream. Following her gaze, he saw Xiaomei pointing fearfully at Zheng Shiyi.

At this moment, Zheng Shiyi, with his head tilted, climbed unsteadily to his feet. He sniffed the air a few times, sensing the presence of the others, and immediately let out an inhuman scream, lunging towards them.

However, with his feet bound by cable ties, his lunge was halted, and he was pulled down heavily. Despite this, he paid no attention and, stretching out his hand, he screamed menacingly at the others, blood flowing down his forehead, a terrifying sight.

"A zombie! It's a zombie!" Liu Lian was the first to shout, and the others only then noticed Zheng Shiyi's appearance, which resembled a zombie from the movies.

"Wow! Zheng Shiyi has turned into a zombie!" Li Zexin exclaimed in horror, realizing that if he had swallowed the gemstone like Zheng Shiyi, he might have ended up the same way.

Zheng Shiyi had lost his sanity, unable to advance due to the bound legs, nor did he understand how to untie the ropes. He simply followed his instincts, lunging and clawing at the others.

Many people screamed in fear, especially when they considered that if they had swallowed the gemstone, they might end up like him, which made them even more terrified.

Tom approached him cautiously, observing Zheng Shiyi's pale complexion, which resembled that of a movie zombie. Saliva kept dripping from his mouth to the floor.

At this moment, Xiaobao shouted, "Uncle An, Ah Huang isn't responding!"

All the sleeping animals had awakened, including the mutated Zheng Shiyi, but Ah Huang still showed no sign of movement.

Tom sighed and drew out the large knife from his back, using the blade to knock out the berserk zombie Zheng Shiyi. "Let's not worry about him for now!"

Now the rats had rushed in downstairs, and they would soon climb up. If they were to leave, it might still be possible now, but if they could wake up Ah Huang...

Tom approached Ah Huang with the large green crystal in his arms. "Xiaobao, let's wake up Ah Huang together."

Xiaobao, tears and snot streaming down his face, nodded immediately.

Both of them placed their hands on Ah Huang, but Tom quickly felt the deathly silence emanating from Ah Huang. It was different from his reaction when he was asleep earlier, which explained Xiaobao's urgency.

Tom's mind raced as he tried to wake up Ah Huang, but there was still no response.

"We should give up... or else we'll be eaten by the rats."

As soon as this thought occurred to him, Tom suddenly felt dizzy and then saw a short man standing in front of him.

Tom heard a childish voice: "Daddy is so annoying, always hitting Mommy, so annoying!"

He recognized it as Xiaobao's voice.

Then he felt himself opening his mouth wide and swallowing the man whole.

The woman next to him, covering her face, screamed in horror, trying to pull Xiaobao away.

As a result, he opened his mouth again, swallowing half of the woman's body.

"Delicious!"

This was the thought Tom felt, then he began to vomit violently and collapsed to the ground. Xiaobao, who had communicated with Ah Huang alongside Tom, must have seen the record too, and was now stunned in place.

Li Qiang rushed up to support Tom, as this was the second time Tom had become nauseous enough to vomit.

"Ah Huang... Ah Huang has eaten people..." Tom said, stunning everyone, and then the next moment someone exploded.

"The rats, the rats are coming in!"

Tom saw a larger rat rush in first.

"Back off!" Tom, despite his weakened state, picked up the large knife and charged forward.

The rat bared its teeth and collided with Tom. Although its teeth were sharp, Tom's knife was sharper. The two collided, and the result was the knife plunging into the rat's mouth, stabbing into its throat.

A large amount of blood gushed from the rat's mouth, but Tom clenched his teeth and kept pushing the knife in, causing the rat to struggle as it fell to the ground. Only then did he pull out the knife, roaring angrily, and with triple strength, he raised his hand and chopped open the rat's throat.

Blood flowed profusely, but Tom stepped back, relieved that this was not a mutated rat.

Another rat rushed up. Soon there would be a second, a third, so Tom turned around and waved his hand: "Everyone grab your makeshift parachutes and cover the windows. Li Qiang, break the glass. Wait for my command before parachuting."

Mutant rats might not rush up. If the big boss was still downstairs, each person landing would fall into its clutches. So the best situation would be to wait for all of them to come up before jumping.

"Xiaobao... Xiaobao is not right!" Zhao Yingying shouted.

"Li Qiang, take care of him!" Tom couldn't care about Xiaobao now. Another rat rushed up, smaller in size and faster in speed.

Tom confronted it with the big knife, and this little guy actually stood up and grinned at him.

Tom retreated cautiously, narrowing the distance for the escape, and the rat, seeing this, thought Tom was afraid and immediately jumped up, pouncing on Tom.

Tom didn't expect this move, and was immediately knocked down by it.

Fortunately, he was wearing protective gear, and the sharp teeth bit into the helmet, not reaching his head.

"Tom!" Liu Lian and Li Qiang shouted frantically, Li Qiang picked up the big knife and rushed over.

The rat clamped Tom's head in its mouth, chewing relentlessly, trying to crush it. Tom struggled and pushed hard, pushing its head away from his own, and soon pushed it away from his head, but the helmet was torn open, and the upper part fell off.

At this moment, Li Qiang arrived, and the big knife stabbed into the rat's eye.

Tom shouted, "Let go!" Li Qiang immediately let go of the big knife, and Tom grabbed it, activating triple strength, fiercely piercing the rat's eye and stabbing deeper.

The rat died, Li Qiang pulled Tom up, and then they saw more rats surging in.