A mysterious realm descends, and I defy fate in comics.

Chapter 331 Death Hangs Overhead

The tremors around them intensified as they ran in Jiang Xingni's direction; Lu Ming nearly collapsed from his injuries.

He fell due to the swaying.

She staggered, her gaze fixed straight ahead, completely oblivious to her surroundings. She couldn't even see the swaying around her, let alone Lu Ming, who had almost fallen.

Xiao Jiming noticed Lu Ming's actions. His gaze lingered on her for a moment, but he didn't help her up. Instead, he quietly slowed his pace and followed behind Lu Ming.

Lu Ming was completely unaware of what his two temporary teammates were doing; being ignored suited Lu Ming's wishes perfectly.

She swayed slightly, then used her supernatural power to attach to the soles of her feet. The water flowed to support her weight, and the shaky floor beneath her feet transformed into a soft yet stable stream of water.

"Where are we going?" Lu Ming finally caught up with Jiang Xingni's footsteps.

Despite the constant shaking around her, Jiang Xingni's Eye of Truth pointed out every stable landing point in real time, so that in Jiang Xingni's view, every step she took was actually smooth and steady.

Lu Ming tried to follow Jiang Xingni's footsteps—unfortunately, each step was time-limited, allowing Jiang Xingni to walk smoothly for a short while before disappearing. Even though Lu Ming repeated Jiang Xingni's steps, he couldn't walk as smoothly as Jiang Xingni, and even swayed more than before.

So Lu Ming tried taking a few steps, then gave up following Jiang Xingni's pace and continued at his own rhythm.

【Stars?】The system looked at Jiang Xingni's condition and suddenly felt a little worried.

Jiang Xingni shook her head, indicating to the system that there was no need to worry about her: "Such a large base couldn't possibly have only this much defense. How could it be possible to use a group of special forces to protect these experimental results and these man-made test subjects?"

Is there anything else that hasn't come out yet?

The moment Jiang Xingni's thought crossed her mind, everything she had imagined became reality before her eyes.

Now that VOID has mastered the technology to grant superpowers to ordinary people, even though the only successful test subjects so far seem to be Xiao Jiming and Lu Ming, have those abandoned and failed test subjects really been destroyed?

Jiang Xingni didn't believe that VOID would leave such a useful tool unused and instead spend a lot of money hiring others to protect the base.

Lu Ming's eyes widened.

The shaking in the room grew stronger, not only because the base was trembling, but also because some monster suddenly crashed into the wall, trying to break through the barrier and enter directly.

Clang—Clang—Clang—

Cracks appeared one after another on the wall until the final thud caused a large hole to burst open. A monster resembling a bat but with human limbs emerged from the hole. First to crawl out was a bat's head, supported by human limbs, which spread its wings and flew towards the group of people.

There wasn't just one bat monster. For over a decade, all the monsters that had failed to be modified had been imprisoned in dark cells. Now, they were being driven here to kill or expel all the outsiders.

Swarms of monsters emerged from the breaches, from the cracks in the open doors, from every place that could lead into the corridor.

Jiang Xingni finally understood why he hadn't seen any lab technicians in white coats along the way; it turned out they had known they were coming and had quickly hidden themselves.

Lu Ming paused for a moment, and suddenly saw a familiar person amidst the horde of strange creatures.

She had once known a friend who was thought to have died in the chaos caused by these monsters. Lu Ming never expected that she would never find the body because it had been stolen, and that she could not find peace even in death.

Xiao Jiming was the same.

He felt that he couldn't remember those past events very clearly, but suddenly he saw the faces of many familiar children—Xiao Jiming himself was the only one among that batch of experimental subjects to survive. All the other acquaintances had failed the experiment and had long since died.

There were no acquaintances of Jiang Xingni here. How could someone who leaves early and returns late and basically doesn't stay in the lower city have any acquaintances?

It's only others who are familiar with her; it's not her who is familiar with others.

The two people behind them were blocked by a huge horde of monsters and got into a fight. Facing familiar people, they dared not kill them and thus fell into a disadvantageous position.

Jiang Xingni paid no attention to these strange creatures—she killed Shan Qing and Ji Shanqing without hesitation, so she didn't have much time to consider whether or not to kill them.

However, Jiang Xingni herself did not intend to enlighten them. This was a plot deliberately set up by the screenwriter to separate them from Jiang Xingni herself.

Jiang Xingni merely glanced back at them before turning around without hesitation and running towards the final destination indicated on the other side.

—The moment the door was pushed open, time seemed to stand still for the entire world.

[Jiang Xingni. I'm having a conversation with you.] A line of text appeared in mid-air in front of him. [I guess you should know who I am. I'm the screenwriter.]

"You are the screenwriter." The text revealing the truth appeared together with the voice Jiang Xingni had predicted.

Jiang Xingni's voice drifted alone in the air, without evoking an echo.

The room, which wasn't particularly large to begin with, suddenly seemed to lose its sense of boundaries. Even though she could see the walls and the door she had entered through, Jiang Xingni felt completely unable to reach those boundaries. The entire space suddenly expanded into an infinite concept.

So you knew all about this...

Why can't you be like everyone else...?

All your efforts are in vain...

The screenwriter suddenly became agitated, typing out different words and then quickly deleting them, leaving only her words that barely maintained her rationality and dignity.

"If you go to Costa, I'll let them live. Otherwise, I can't kill you, but I can kill them—the people who survived in the place where you grew up. I guess you don't want them to die like this, do you?"

"To me, they're just ink on paper. How much do you think I'd love them? But it's different for you, right? They're all people you've actually interacted with, and isn't that just your personality? You'll definitely save them. Will you agree?"

—Will you agree?

Jiang Xingni imagined what kind of path the screenwriter might choose to send him to Costa, to the path that he and Xie Yungui had seen leading to their deaths.

"If you go to that place, you'll kill me, right?"

Jiang Xingni understood.

She could see her fate; death hung high above her head, and the road ahead was already clear.