novel
| ← Ch.007 | Ch.009 → |
Zheng thought for a moment and asked, "And the fourth category? The first three seem to have included everything already."
Jie said with a mysterious smile, "The fourth category has the good stuff. You know everyone will break down when they've been here long enough. So the last category is entertainment items."
"There's tobacco, weed, heroin, these are cheap. One reward point can be separated into 1000 parts. A kilo of heroin only takes 5 parts of a point. How's that? God analysed that a normal person only needs about 300 points in cell vitality and 350 points in immunization to inject heroin without constraints."
"Other than these, you also exchange for time to live in a normal world through this category. There are also music albums, movies, and even women!"
Jie was laughing hysterically at this point. Zheng said, "I am not interested in silicon."
Jie patted Zheng's shoulder."What are you talking about, it's real women. God can create real women! They have intelligence, they have their personality, and even memories. When you buy a woman you can choose their face, body, age, race, every detail. You played that Artificial Girl game (by Illusion)? [1]This is much more detailed."
Xiaoyi's eyes were shining, while Lan snorted.
Jie stopped laughing and said in a serious tone, "No one knows if they can live through the next movie. So I want to have a woman that I like by my side. You will know once you tried it, she's not a doll. Even though she's a life created by God, she's more realistic than a lot of women in the real world. And she really loves you. You can share the terrors you experience with her. God said once you get enough points to go back, you can keep your enhancements, all the items you exchanged, and this woman can go with you. If I can go back I will marry her. She's the one that I will love with the rest of my life."
Lan touched her head."Stop this topic. Gentlemen, there's a lady here. Jie, tell us about God's lobby. What will happen after a mission?"
"Nothing special. You will go to God's lobby after the mission. God is a sphere of light floating in the centre. You can communicate with it just by thinking. There are twenty rooms to the side, though they were never all filled. You will have your own room. Only people you give permission to can enter your room. Other than this, you will have ten days in the lobby between every mission."
Lan was going to ask something else when Jie suddenly stood up. He ran to the door and looked out through the window. The rest of them was shocked and followed behind him. But they couldn't see anything in the corridor.
Jie turned around and shouted, "Red Queen, report what happened outside the room."
A little girl's voice sounded, "Two Lickers are attacking the outer door. It will last forty seconds."
"F*ck. I knew things won't be so easy. Those Lickers must've sensed our smell. The outer door couldn't block them. Good thing we hid here already." Then Jie looked at his watch.
Zheng and the others looked at their watches also. The countdown still had seventeen minutes remaining, there were three doors and a corridor between the Lickers. They couldn't fight the Lickers face to face with the weapons they had.
Zheng didn't want to die here, especially when there was still hope. He shouted, "Red Queen, how long can we last?"
That voice didn't respond. Then Zheng pointed his gun at the computer, "I know you're programmed to prevent the spread of T-virus. In other words you want to kill anything that has a possibility of spreading it. That includes us, right? Make your decision, either you protect us with the defence system or you let the Lickers come in here. But we will destroy your main circuit before they do. Once you lose control of the Hive, how much of the virus will get to the outside world?"
The girl's voice finally came back, "Can I ask why are you still struggling? You've decided to stay here, aren't you going to sacrifice yourself?"
Lan answered before Zheng could say a word, "Computers are not supposed to question humans. You have to be aware of being just a computer. Understand? Also since we are already here, we won't be able to spread the virus even if we live. Then why won't you protect us, Little Girl?"
"Understand. The Lickers won't be able to penetrate the defence system."
At this time, there were loud bangs on the door at the other side of the corridor. You could see the Lickers through the window and the metal door was losing its form.
"Impressive power, no wonder it's worth 100 points. If I had a RPG with unlimited grenades I could be earning points now, " Jie laughed.
Zheng asked without thinking, "How much does it cost?"
"Of course it's going to be expensive. A normal RPG costs 2000 points. I would rather enhance myself if I have that many. And it isn't effective in every movie."
The door had totally deformed, then the Lickers' claws ripped it apart and appeared in front of their eyes.Zheng looked at the two Lickers then at his gun. He didn't think this gun could even injure it, not to mention kill it.
The Lickers turned to them and one started to charge, the second followed. Bang! They could feel the door tremble.
"Red Queen!", Zheng and Jie yelled.
At the same time a laser formed inside the corridor and moved toward the Lickers. When the Lickers were about to charge again, the laser moved past them, then disappeared. The Lickers stopped moving, then their upper body slowly fell off.
The four exhaled. They felt so small in front of the Lickers. It would only take one claw to take a life. Even Jie was just a stronger normal person. He wouldn't be able to survive against these monsters.
Jie sat on the ground and took out a few cigarettes. He also threw one over to Xiaoyi this time."Know that fear and terror? I've experienced it many times already. I don't even know how I got myself through those three movies. Shit. This place is unbearable."
Zheng and Lan smiled bitterly. The moment the Lickers charged over, they reacted worse than Jie. They could barely keep themselves standing with the shivering. Thank god the defence system saved them. Otherwise they couldn't even run away.
"Keep waiting. This defence system is good enough. We could probably..."
Suddenly the whole room darkened. They ran to the door and looked out. The corridor was totally black. The power had went out.
"Shit. The plot. How did I forget about this? You still remember this plot?" Jie kicked at the door and started screaming.
Zheng tried to recall the plot. This movie was over ten years old already. Even though he'd seen it he had forgotten the details. After a while, he and Lan both said, "Kaplan shut down the Red Queen!"
When the main characters were locked in a laboratory and a Licker was attacking the door, Kaplan turned off the Red Queen to save them. So then the four of them lost their defence. The only thing they had left was the last door.
They gradually calmed down. They knew that any sound could catch the attention of Lickers. So they kept their mouths shut. Even then their breath sounds were still so noticeable in this darkness.
Time passed, then a heavy breathing sound came from the darkness, along with the abrasive sound between two metals. They didn't have to look to know what's outside.
Zheng remembered it only takes a few minutes for the main characters to go back to the ground after the power went out. That was about the same time their mission ended.
Zheng asked Lan in a low voice, "What's the time on the watch?"
"I don't know. Can't see in the dark. Maybe a few minutes."Zheng couldn't open his mouth again. The breathing had approached their last door. Everyone's heart clenched. Then they heard the sound of scratching on the door.
"How much longer? How much time left? Hurry!"
Zheng was staring at the door intensely. He held onto his gun, even though he knew this couldn't do anything against the Licker. That was the only form of support he had.
Bang! With a loud bang, a sharp object almost penetrated the door. Their heart skipped a beat then they ran to the back of the room. Even Jie was keeping his body close to the wall.
The door started to deform then finally a claw penetrated it and ripped this 10cm thick metallic door apart like butter. They could see that terrifying face of a Licker.
"Ahhh!", Zheng and Jie started screaming and shot at the Licker. They had lost their cool to the horror and along with the darkness, none of their bullets hit the Licker. The Licker threw away the piece of door on his hand and charged at the four.
[1] Artificial Girl is a Japanese hentai dating game where you can adjust the girl to your choosing.
| ← Ch. 007 | Ch. 009 → |