Tragedy in the Bathroom

"The Pay-to-Win Queen?" Tom looked at Lin Meiqi. This quirky rich girl, who claimed to have an IQ of 183, liked to play those mobile games and became the Pay-to-Win Queen?

Lin Meiqi waved her hand dismissively. "You mean that game? It's not that interesting. The drop rate algorithm is too crude. I only spent 3,000 rounds of gold crystal cards to complete it."

"3,000?" Tom knew that spending money on mobile games was a pitfall. Although he didn't understand what the gold crystal card she mentioned was, it should be some kind of voucher in the game. It seemed like this girl hadn't spent much money after all, just smartly figured out the game's patterns.

But then Prince Xiong exclaimed, "Indeed the Pay-to-Win Queen! Only 3,000 rounds of gold crystal cards?"

Taking a look around, Tom said, "She seems to be from a wealthy family, so 3,000 isn't that much. I think we should find something to eat since you've all been vomiting."

Prince Xiong was devastated. "Boss... It's not possible to recharge gold crystal cards. In that game, you only get one gold crystal card for every 1,000 yuan recharge... She must have recharged 3 million."

Tom had just picked up his helmet to put it on, but he was so shocked by this revelation that he dropped it to the ground with a clatter.

"This... extravagant girl..."

Well, let's focus on the present situation.

He heard there was a box of high-quality biscuits in the bedroom, so they went there. Tom tossed Prince Xiong onto the bed to grab it and solve everyone's food problem. Then he was ready to head to the fourth floor. He remembered there were several survivors up there.

This house had already been invaded by ants, and the pheromones they left behind would soon guide other ants here, so it wasn't suitable to stay any longer. After everyone had exited, Tom pushed aside the cardboard blocking the door and closed it, preventing the ants from following them.

On the way, Tom learned about Prince Xiong's situation through conversation. This guy, with martial arts skills, was from Xiafu. He had loved martial arts since he was young, and with his family's good conditions and connections, he found a master to teach him, starting from a young age, building a good foundation of physical fitness.

After graduating from Xiafu University, he became a civil servant and came to work in Senchuan City. He knew the man named Zhang from 203 because he rented the place. Realizing that the remote control door's battery was running out, he ran to 203 for shelter. As for Xu Wenqian and Liu Yue, they climbed up from 102.

The owner of 203, Boss Zhang, was a big businessman, and the woman whose brain was melted by acid was his kept mistress. When the mini-crisis occurred, he happened to be staying here overnight and got trapped.

This mistress was quite a glutton, usually not fond of going out, spending all day playing mobile games at home with four or five phones. So, they had a lot of snacks stored at home, indirectly providing them with plenty of food and water, which helped them survive these two months.

A few days ago, the typhoon blew some branches to smash the kitchen window, and today the ants came in. Among so many people, Prince Xiong was the best at fighting. He killed several small ants, and they retreated to the balcony.

Back then, Tom struggled even against mutated worker ants, but Prince Xiong, with just a steel needle, was adept. However, the unreasonable appearance of mutated soldier ants at the end made him lose his advantage. If Tom hadn't arrived in time, they would all have become ant lunch.

Halfway up to the third floor, Xu Wenqian and Liu Yue were already panting, but Tom didn't blame them. After all, climbing stairs was a physical activity, requiring a jump and climb for each step. With two floors, each with 12 steps per section, they had to jump and climb 48 times in total, which was quite exhausting.

But after the thrilling attack just now, the two dared not leave Tom, their protector, so Tom slowed down to take care of them.

Finally, they reached the fourth floor, and the two were panting heavily. Tom left Prince Xiong and Lin Meiqi to accompany them and went ahead to explore.

The watch vibrated more and more intensely, indicating that they were getting closer.

On the way, he saw that the door of 402 was also wedged with a cardboard box, but there was no survivor vibration signal in that direction, so he skipped it and continued forward. It wasn't until he reached 405, where the door was wedged with slippers, that he smelled the scent of blood emanating from the door crack, which was not a good sign.

Tom hurriedly picked up his pace and rushed in. Along the way, he saw ants of all sizes, including two mutated worker ants.

Screams echoed from the bathroom, and blood flowed everywhere. Several severed limbs lay scattered at the door, and under the bathtub, a mutated worker ant led dozens of medium and small-sized ants in an attack on seven men and women.

The survivors helplessly fought off the ants with iron nails and plastic strips. However, facing the numerical difference, many people were bitten by small ants, crying out in pain as they rolled on the ground.

One woman was directly knocked down by a mutated worker ant, and no matter how she struggled, she couldn't break free. Her body was fiercely bitten by the worker ant.

Seeing this, Tom quickly took out a ruby from his waist and shouted, throwing it over. For the ants, the temptation of the gem was greater than human flesh. Many medium-sized and small-sized ants immediately turned their heads towards the gem and left. As for the large mutated worker ants, their need for gems was far less than the allure of human flesh. In no time, they had bitten open the victim's abdomen and started devouring the entrails.

Tom's fine needle missed the first strike, so he had to run over and knock it away.

Once in position, Tom stopped the speed mode and switched to strength mode, which took three seconds to transition. During this time, the mutated worker ant climbed up and grabbed his head to bite, but how could it break through the helmet? Tom completed the transition to strength mode and immediately grabbed the mutated worker ant's head, smashing it to the ground with six times the force, instantly shattering it.

With the mutated worker ant taken care of, dealing with the medium-sized and small-sized ants was a piece of cake. The remaining survivors, seeing Tom's appearance, all moved closer to him, some with broken legs, crawling with their hands just to get close to Tom.

After clearing out the ants, Lin Meiqi and the others also rushed to the bathroom. With their assistance, Tom began to perform simple first aid on the injured.

All six survivors were injured, three with minor injuries, mostly bitten by small ants on their hands and feet. The other two had one leg and one arm severed. The remaining one was in a worse condition, having been attacked by the mutated worker ant.

This woman's abdomen was torn open, her intestines pulled out by the worker ants, with a piece of intestine hanging outside, and her stomach reduced to a small piece. The immense pain distorted her originally delicate face, and due to her lungs being torn, she could only shed tears and nasal mucus, emitting silent cries of pain.

This was probably the most tragic survivor Tom had ever seen. He had already removed his Old Street No. 0 armor long ago, ignoring the blood all over him, and tightly embraced this almost naked girl. He held her hand while softly comforting her, "Don't cry, don't cry, sleep now, sleep for a while, and the nightmare will be over. Sleep now!"

A green light emerged on Tom's other hand. With Tom's soft murmur, the distorted face of the unfortunate girl became serene. She slowly looked at Tom with gentle eyes, silently forming the word "Dad" with her mouth, then leaned on Tom's chest, closed her eyes with a sweet smile, and passed away.

Tom sighed, released the girl, and let Lin Meiqi cover her with a piece of cloth. By now, the other people had already retreated to a distance, as the girl's death was too tragic to witness.

"Wasn't it said that telepathy only works on creatures with low intelligence?" Lin Meiqi, increasingly immune to such bloody scenes, now had time to ask about Tom's superpower.

Tom wiped his blood-stained hands and found a large piece of cloth still stuck to his body, so he had to reluctantly give up. "Extreme weakness in a person also works. I tried it on Seventh Uncle before. Well... this is all I can do."

Lin Meiqi, abandoning her previous playful attitude, became serious in the face of the lives lost. "Yes, what else can we do?"

Lin Meiqi used compression bandages on the two amputees, temporarily stopping the blood flow to the severed limbs to prevent them from bleeding to death. But this was not a long-term solution; blocking the blood flow for too long would lead to limb necrosis, and without amputation, it could even spread to the whole body.

After comforting the deceased woman, Tom asked Prince Xiong to be on guard while he fetched some items with the others. Using plastic boards and two medicine bottle caps, he made a makeshift cart and placed the two injured people on it before tying them to the back of the Old Street No. 0 armor.

Putting on the armor and activating speed mode, Tom switched to the enhanced speed of the normal red crystal, which was only 4.8 times, but it was enough to move with the armor and pull the cart.

He remembered that there was still a Level 2 mutant creature in this building. Now that the survivors had been saved by him and witnessed the power of his armor, they naturally clung to him tightly, eager to leave this earthly hell as soon as possible.

A few men pushed open the stuck bathroom door, and Tom gently let go, sealing the hellish scene of the eight doomed survivors behind the door. The team began their return journey in silence.

This suite 405 had gathered 15 survivors, all from the fourth and fifth floors. Over the past two months, they had moved due to food consumption and eventually gathered in 405. Originally intending to hold out for one more day and then descend if the national rescue team did not arrive, they were attacked by ants this morning.

At first, it was only a few small ants the size of half a palm, which they didn't take seriously. But soon after noon, mutant ants the size of a bulldog, along with large mutated worker ants, attacked them again, this time with small ants.

This time, the valiant owner of 405 was bitten to death first. They killed several ants of different sizes, leaving behind the bodies of two companions before retreating to the bathroom.

The bodies of the two survivors could not satisfy dozens of ants of all sizes. After they were devoured, the ants followed the scent and found the other survivors hiding in the bathroom.

The mutated large worker ants were as large as a pastoral dog (relative to humans), and their thinking seemed to have improved. Under the drive of four large mutated worker ants, the other medium-sized and small-sized ants killed the survivors without rushing to eat. Their goal was clear: not to let any prey escape, and to kill them all before eating.

In the end, only these few remained of the 13 survivors when Tom arrived. The ants couldn't judge when a human was truly dead, so according to their logic, tearing their prey apart meant they didn't have to worry about whether they were alive or not. Therefore, none of the six dead bodies were intact, each torn into pieces by many ants of all sizes, and some even had their heads torn off, which was extremely brutal.

Listening to the survivors recounting the situation just now in a tearful voice, Prince Xiong, Xu Wenqian, and Liu Yue were filled with lingering fear.

Compared to the people in 405, the three of them were much luckier. The tragic scene they had just witnessed in the bathroom would be unforgettable for the rest of their lives.

To comfort them, Liu Yue also recounted the plight of her group and Tom's contributions.

However, as she spoke, one of the women couldn't help but complain, "Why didn't you... come earlier? If you had come earlier, Xiaojing and the others wouldn't have died so tragically. All of us..."

Another man quickly covered her mouth and looked at the Old Street No. 0 armor, which was pulling the cart forward with fear.

The Old Street armor stopped, and Tom, who was at the front, coldly said, "Go back immediately!"

The survivors were shocked, and someone quickly begged, "Master, she doesn't know what she's talking about, please..."

"Go back now, quickly!" Tom said, and the Old Street No. 0 armor immediately tore open the rope of the cart and rushed forward with the biscuit shield in hand.