Free Web NovelChapter 18: Chapter 18: Withdrawal
"Ah!"
Before Gu Yi could even react, he tumbled down.
BANG! BANG!
Long Ming jumped straight down as a spray of bullets struck the edge of the sewer opening.
THUD~
After landing, Long Ming immediately helped the fallen Gu Yi to his feet, and they started escaping down the tunnel.
"Agh, it hurts! Brother, just run on your own! I’m not going to make it. I don’t want this stuff anymore. It’s all yours. Take it and get out of here!"
Gu Yi reached into his backpack and pulled out a double-barreled shotgun and a scepter, over thirty centimeters long, forged entirely from gold, its surface engraved with intricate lines and its top embedded with a red gemstone. He then shoved them all into Long Ming’s hands.
Long Ming stared, startled, at the scepter now in his hands. ’No wonder Zheng Bin and his men were hunting Gu Yi.’ The scepter might have been a work of art, but it clearly wasn’t some ordinary item. He felt a pang of desire just looking at it, but in the end, he still refused.
"I don’t want it. And don’t say such demoralizing things."
"Brother, I really can’t go on. I don’t want to drag you down."
Gu Yi said, forcing the words through his pain.
Just then, Zheng Bin and his men jumped down as well. Seeing Long Ming and Gu Yi running ahead in the tunnel, they all reloaded, raised their guns, and shouted viciously.
"Go to hell, kid!"
Seeing how bad the situation was, Gu Yi shoved Long Ming forward, then spread his arms to shield him.
BANG! BANG!
A volley of gunfire erupted.
Gu Yi became a human shield, taking one bullet after another. His eyes were wide as he mumbled.
"So... so painful."
Long Ming’s expression darkened instantly. He raised his single-shot rifle and returned fire.
BANG~
Zheng Bin and his men quickly ducked for cover.
But Long Ming’s shot wasn’t aimed at them. It was aimed at the lights on the tunnel ceiling!
The dim lights were instantly shattered, plunging the entire tunnel into pitch-black darkness.
Long Ming hastily shoved the items into his backpack and ran forward with all his might.
"Fuck! After him!"
Zheng Bin, furious and flustered, led his men in pursuit, reloading as they ran and firing blindly into the darkness ahead!
BANG! BANG~
Unfortunately, all their bullets missed.
In the blink of an eye, Long Ming burst through an open iron door and onto an outer platform.
He immediately ran toward the far end of the platform.
Just as he reached the edge of the platform, Zheng Bin and his men charged out of the iron door.
Seeing that Long Ming had nowhere left to run, they burst out laughing and shouted.
"Keep running!"
"Why’d you stop running?!"
...
Long Ming’s brow furrowed. With a cold snort, he jumped straight down.
"Holy shit! Brother Zheng, he jumped!"
Wu Kang and the others said, stunned.
"Damn it, does he have a death wish?!"
Zheng Bin immediately rushed forward with his men.
But when they reached the edge of the platform, they discovered that Long Ming hadn’t died from the fall. In fact, he was running in the opposite direction of the mobile fortress, and had already put one or two hundred meters between them.
"How is that possible? He jumped from that high and didn’t die?"
Zheng Bin’s face was a mask of disbelief. After all, it was a drop of more than ten meters.
"Brother Zheng, there’s an access ladder here."
Just then, Wu Kang noticed an access ladder on the outside of the platform, leading down.
"Dammit! Fire at will!"
Zheng Bin, feeling like he’d been played for a fool, raised his gun and fired at the fleeing Long Ming.
BANG! BANG!
But their shots were wild, and Long Ming soon vanished into the night.
"Bastard! Don’t you dare let me see you again!"
Zheng Bin stomped his foot and cursed, beside himself with anger.
...
Meanwhile, Long Ming glanced back at the mobile fortress, then raised his wristband to open the map. Finding no evacuation points nearby, he began walking toward one he had previously scouted.
WHOOSH~
A gust of wind blew past, and Long Ming couldn’t help but shiver. The temperature was dropping.
He forced himself to press on. ’I just have to make it to the evacuation point, and this will all be over.’
As the first hint of light appeared on the horizon, Long Ming dragged his exhausted body to the vicinity of the evacuation point.
However, he didn’t approach recklessly. Instead, he lay prone on a sand dune, warily observing his surroundings. freewebnøvel.com
’As the saying goes, the moments right before victory are often the most dangerous.’
’I can’t let myself get ambushed at the last second. All my efforts would be for nothing.’
After a while, having confirmed there was no ambush, Long Ming glanced at the time on his wristband. He had now survived in this world for over fifteen hours. He got to his feet and walked toward the mechanical evacuation platform.
Soon, Long Ming reached the mechanical platform. Exhausted, he collapsed onto it, gasping for breath.
HUFF~
Seconds ticked by.
Suddenly, Long Ming felt something was wrong. The platform hadn’t shown any reaction for a long time. He sat up, his expression clouding over as he muttered to himself.
"What’s going on? Is the platform broken?"
’No, it can’t be broken.’
Long Ming immediately dismissed the thought. He had personally seen someone evacuate from this spot; the platform couldn’t possibly be broken.
Just then, a notification popped up on his wristband interface.
"Notice: This evacuation point has already been used. Please proceed to another unused evacuation point."
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
Seeing this notice, the corner of Long Ming’s mouth twitched. ’I can’t believe I dug my own grave.’
However, he quickly composed himself and opened the map to check all the nearby evacuation points.
Next, Long Ming checked his own status.
He was now moderately dehydrated, and his Physical Strength had dropped to one-third.
Long Ming carefully calculated his remaining Physical Strength, looked over all the evacuation points, and chose one that was relatively far but still within the limits of what he could reach.
He didn’t choose a closer evacuation point because those near the ruins were likely to have already been used or to be guarded by an ambush.
After setting his destination, Long Ming immediately set off toward his new target.
「Midday.」
Long Ming trudged forward under the blazing sun, panting for breath. He was severely dehydrated, and his lips were cracked.
He glanced down at the map on his wristband. The chosen evacuation point was only two kilometers away. ’Just a little further,’ he thought.
Just then, however, a sound of something tearing through the air came from the sky.
Startled, Long Ming instinctively looked up. He then saw a streak of red light cutting across the distant sky, flying in his direction.
’You have to be kidding me. Am I really this unlucky?’
Seeing the red streak of light heading straight for him, Long Ming’s expression turned blacker than charcoal.
’Getting killed by a random falling object would be a truly pathetic way to go.’
Fortunately, the red streak of light eventually shot past him and crashed into the desert about three kilometers away.
BOOM!
A huge explosion sent a wave of sand and dust sweeping outwards. freёwebnovel.com
Long Ming was stunned by the sight. He never expected to encounter something like this while trying to evacuate.
’What in the world was that?’
A powerful curiosity welled up inside Long Ming. He desperately wanted to go take a look, but he had his reservations.
He raised his wristband and pulled up his status, only to see a series of red warnings pop up one after another.
"Warning: You are in a state of severe dehydration!"
"Warning: You are in a state of severe starvation!"
...
Long Ming’s expression flickered. The object hadn’t landed too far away, but his Physical Strength was nearly depleted, and he only had 2 hours and 16 minutes left. Moreover, the crash site was in a different direction from his evacuation route.
’If I take the risk to check it out, I might not have enough Physical Strength left to reach the evacuation point. Then it’s all over.’
But the thought of giving up left a bitter taste in his mouth.
’This world’s civilization seems fairly primitive, so normally, it shouldn’t produce anything of great value. But I have a gut feeling that the red streak of light might be something good.’
’Plus, this is a desert. There’s a high probability that no one else is nearby.’
’That means there’s basically no one to fight over it. The risk is very low.’
’It would be a real shame to pass up such a rare opportunity. And if I miss this chance, I might not be able to get it next time, even if I come across something similar.’
’But as they say, fortune favors the bold.’ Thinking this, Long Ming’s eyes became resolute. He steeled his resolve, changed direction, and headed toward the crash site.
