Milady, You Are Really a Heroine

The left panel of the glass door was already damaged. Only half of that panel remained with sharp, jutting edges that glimmered faintly in the darkness. This was the first time in her life that Lin Sanjiu was this happy to see a public security bureau. She quickly pushed opened the door with her body and called out to Hu Changzai: “Quick come in!” At the same time, she kicked away a duoluozhong who was rushing at her. Unfortunately, her leg was nicked. Hu Changzai struggled into the main hall, half stumbling, as sharp buzzing noises followed closely behind him.

“Go look for something to block the door, I will hold the fort for the moment,” Lin Sanjiu held her metal rod against her back as she said this, while she stood at the door. Hu Changzai knew that this was not the time for him to thank her. Dragging his injured leg, he rushed into one of the rooms and pulled out a meeting table. To be honest, facing that wave of duoluozhongs that seemed to approach like a tidal wave, Lin Sanjiu could feel her calves throbbing. When she saw that Hu Changzai had returned, she kicked away a duoluozhong heading toward the door before jumping through the half-broken door panel. Then, they blocked off the door with the meeting room table. However, even as they propped the table up, they quickly heard the banging noises as the duoluozhongs banged their mouthparts heavily against it.

“Oh no, this table is not going to hold… let’s go upstairs! Hurry!” Lin Sanjiu urged. Even though there was no way they could escape by going upstairs, that was the only route available to them. Hu Changzai wasted no time hobbling quickly behind her as she ran to the stairway.

Just when they reached the second floor, they heard a loud bang from the first floor; the table had been violently pushed aside. They both exchanged glances as they felt their chests tightening.

“Let’s hide in one of the room,” Hu Changzai suggested. After bleeding the whole journey, Hu Changzai’s face was now a ghastly white, and he could no longer run any further.

“We might be able to escape by scaling the facade of the building.”

[We’ll have to go with that.] Lin Sanjiu nodded and stepped into the corridor of the second floor. The first room was the pantry which didn’t have a door; the second room was the office of the census registration department, but its door was already destroyed by something unknown, so it was not usable; she looked around and found a third room with a slightly ajar door that was still intact. “Here!” she called over to Hu Changzai ecstatically before rushing over to open the door.

Unbeknownst to her, there were two gargantuan duoluozhongs in the room. They immediately turned their heads at the same time and stared at her when she walked in. For a brief moment, they both froze on the spot.

The two duoluozhongs were human men in their previous incarnation, and both were above 180cm. It was clear that they had absorbed countless people as they had supple skins, well-developed muscles, and mouthparts which looked monstrously strong. Compared to the crowd of duoluozhongs outside, they appeared even more dangerous.

At this distance, if they simply decided to attack with their mouthparts, the two humans would definitely die…

However, after just one second, the two duoluozhongs turned back and stared hard at each other without even bothering to look at Lin Sanjiu and Hu Changzai.

[Huh?]

In a blink of an eye, Lin Sanjiu’s back was already covered in cold sweat. She composed herself and noticed that both duoluozhongs were glaring at each other with intense malice, with no sign that they would even throw a sideway glance at the two humans. There was an overturned office table between the two duoluozhongs, the scattered files on the floor around them were covered in brown dried blood, and… there was also a sun-gold colored choker on the dirty floor. The choker radiated with a warm glowing light which made it glaringly out of place amidst the desolated, decrepit surroundings. Lin Sanjiu instantly knew what it was the moment she saw it and understood why the two duoluozhongs displayed such odd behaviors. A sudden flash of thought invaded her mind and what she did next shocked Hu Changzai to the core!

“Come in. Close the door,” Lin Sanjiu commanded without turning behind to look at Hu Changzai as she stepped into the room. He was just about to respond with the words “Are you crazy?” when he suddenly realized that the two duoluozhongs remained still. As the room was not large, once she stepped into the room, she found herself only a few steps away from the duoluozhong nearest to the door. Despite that, that particular duoluozhong only tensed up its muscles, its eyes maintained its focus on the other duoluozhong.

“That thing on the floor is a unique ‘special item’ that only appears because of the New World. Both duoluozhongs are trying to grab it, but they are waiting for an opening so they probably couldn’t care about us being here.” Under normal circumstances, Lin Sanjiu wasn’t all that smart. However, during critical situations, she could get exceptionally quick-witted. At that precise moment, she did not try to speak softly; instead, she laughed confidently, “Hi, we just came in to hide. We won’t do anything. Don’t worry! Just go ahead and continue with what you’re doing!”

Even though she phrased her words in such a harmless manner, her body tensed with caution. She gripped her metal rod tightly as she held a grim expression. She pressed her body against the wall and slowly made her way toward a metal file cabinet. The duoluozhong opposite her, with a tattoo of a tiger climbing down his arm, scoffed coldly but did not move. As Lin Sanjiu looked at its back, she explained neutrally, “I think both of you should have figured by now that we only came in here because we really have no choice. If we don’t hide here, we’ll die outside. Please continue with your confrontation. I totally understand. If any one of you lose focus for just one second, the item might be snatched by the other party. If we get what we want, I promise I will not interfere.”

Witnessing that courage, Hu Changzai almost wanted to call her a heroine and praise her on the spot, but this was not the appropriate situation. When Lin Sanjiu pricked up her ears and listened, she heard the chaotic footsteps which had already reached the corridors and the distinctive gelatinous sound that the duoluozhongs’ sticky, mucous skin made when they walked. The eyebrows of both duoluozhongs in the room bunched up.

“Our enemies are reaching here soon. You wouldn’t want that group of duoluozhongs to just flood in here, right? What should we do now? Since you both are also duoluozhongs, why don’t you just inform them that there is nobody else in here?” she said shrewdly with a rather unreasonable tone. After that, she gestured to Hu Changzai with her chin, “Hey, you should get your leg bandaged.”

She was certain that the two duoluozhongs would not allow that large group to barge into the room. As she expected, just as she said those words, the door was struck by multiple mouthparts from outside the room. This was immediately followed by a sharp reverberating buzz produced, almost at the same time, by both duoluozhongs in the room. They immediately heard a few vague responding calls from out the door. The two duoluozhongs continued buzzing for a few long minutes. When the room was finally silent again, they could no longer hear any noise outside. Apparently, just like posthumans had diverse levels of combative capabilities, duoluozhongs seemed to also be segregated by their own classes.

“Get out now!” Even though the duoluozhong did not turn to look at them, it sounded a lot more agitated. “Sure, sure! I’ll just wait for my companion to get his leg bandaged, and we will leave…” Lin Sanjiu said as she crouched down to observe Hu Changzai’s wound. Hu Changzai looked at her with some gratitude and said, “I am fine. Let’s just go. We shouldn’t stay here… for too long,” he immediately slowed down his words when he realized that Lin Sanjiu was mouthing some words to him: “Go ahead of me. Go downstairs,” she repeated this a few times before he finally nodded his head, bewildered.

“Okay, your leg is properly bandaged,” she said as she supported Hu Changzai. “Thank you both for your help. We will be leaving now.”

Naturally, the two duoluozhongs did not reply but continued glaring at each other. Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips and forcefully suppressed the nervousness she felt as she was about to walk on a tightrope. Hu Changzai, who was just beside her, noticed the hidden anxiety on her face, and his heart immediately raced with adrenaline.

When she opened the door, there wasn’t a single duoluozhong in the corridor. Lin Sanjiu nudged Hu Changzai forward gently. He instantly understood and rushed downstairs without a moment of hesitation.

“Well, I am just curious.” She turned to look behind her as she felt her palms turn sweaty. “What did you both do just now? Why did all the other duoluozhongs leave so quickly?”

One of the duoluozhong gave her an impatient hiss. Even though it did not move, Lin Sanjiu was not waiting for an answer, she was just waiting for the fraction of a second where they were distracted...

She threw out a card into mid-air. When it was hovering above the choker, the card flew upward and then fell sharply. Once it came in contact with the card, the choker turned into multiple golden-orange spots of light and integrated into the card. Before the duoluozhongs could react, the card flew back to Lin Sanjiu. With the card in her hand, she immediately ran. She had rehearsed the entire scenario multiple times in her head, but she couldn’t believe that she actually managed to get the choker!