Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 993: Survivors of Another Team
As Soap ran, he grabbed all the furniture within reach and threw it into the aisle between the reception room and the store, artificially creating a simple roadblock.
The coffee table in the reception room was very heavy, and it also had a steel plate sandwich inside. Although it was not a bulletproof armor plate containing Nino alloy like the cashier counter, its thickness alone was more than enough to block rifle bullets. Soap took a lot of effort to overturn the coffee table and placed it horizontally in front of him.
He had just placed his gun on the edge of the coffee table when the second group of men in black rushed into the store. A burst of intensive gunfire rang out in the store, and the sofas, tables and chairs that blocked the aisle were smashed to pieces - the strength of the wood-like polymer material was actually not much different from that of a piece of paper in the face of a 10mm caliber full-power bullet.
The shooting of the men in black never stopped - they were divided into two groups, advancing towards the corridor while taking turns to suppress the enemy with firepower. Not only that, the guns they used were not magazines, but large-capacity drums, which made the firepower more sustained.
The bullet hit the coffee table, causing the ceramic rock shards to fly wildly, and the steel plate interlayer inside was hit with a lot of dents.
Soap still couldn't stick his head out to aim, so he could only fight back by "shooting with faith" like the black African uncles in the old era - he would hide his body and head behind the coffee table, raise the gun above his head, leaving only the muzzle outside the bunker, and fire in the general direction of the enemy.
Of course, there was no chance of accuracy in shooting like this, and Soap didn't expect to kill a few men in black with this volley of bullets. His only goal was to slightly hinder the opponent's advance... For him, it would be meaningful if he could slow down the opponent for even a second.
"As long as the Joker can successfully send the message, I won't lose even if I die here!" Soap thought while gritting his teeth, "Haha, I didn't expect that I could be a hero before dying... It's a pity that I'm just an unknown hero..."
The makeshift roadblock made of furniture was quickly destroyed, and there was no longer any obstruction in the aisle. Soap could even hear the sound of the men in black's boots stepping on the furniture fragments amid the deafening and intense gunfire.
"Damn it, I can't retreat..." Soap cried out in his heart that something was wrong - the coffee table he was using as a cover was four meters away from the entrance to the living room. There was no cover within this four-meter distance. If he just rushed over like this, he would definitely be swept into a sieve by those men in black.
Staying where he was was undoubtedly tantamount to waiting to die - although those men in black still looked like humans, their body structures were actually no different from monsters. The guns in Soap's hands could not kill them at all. They could easily outflank the room from both sides under the hail of bullets... In this case, even if you gave Soap a gun with unlimited bullets, a gun that would never jam, and a barrel that would never overheat, it would not change his inevitable defeat.
"It's over... There's really no other way now... Damn it, what should I do... Cough cough!!" Soap was gasping for breath. The air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder and lime, choking him and making him cough continuously.
Soap's mind was running at high speed, and his brain's CPU was on the verge of overload...but he couldn't think of a feasible solution.
All the explosives on him had been used up. He still had three bullets in the full magazine, but the bullets had no killing effect on the men in black... There was nothing useful in the surrounding environment, and the two temporary teammates were either killed or escaped... There were only nine minutes left before the time limit required by the Joker...
Let alone nine minutes, Soap felt that he wouldn't even have nine seconds to live.
When death approached, that feeling of fear - to be precise, he couldn't even feel fear, his brain was blank, only his hands were still mechanically changing magazines and pulling the trigger.
The men in black had already rushed into the living room. For some reason, they only needed one grenade to kill Soap, but they didn't do that. Even their fire suppression was slightly slowed down.
Soap suddenly realized that the other party wanted to capture him alive... But thinking about the tentacles and alien limbs growing out of the bodies of the men in black in the previous encounters, Soap couldn't help but shudder - if he fell into the hands of this group of people, it would be better to be beaten to death swiftly.
Soap subconsciously reached for the secondary weapon hanging on his waist... Just as he was hesitating whether to pull out his pistol and shoot himself in the temple, the wall between the living room and the reception room collapsed, and hundreds of black tentacles surged out from behind him!
However, these tentacles did not attack Soap. Instead, they bypassed him and attacked the approaching men in black!
From the tentacles breaking through the wall to the last man in black being sucked dry, the whole process took less than five seconds... Soap turned his head to look at the place where the wall was broken, but the clown did not appear, and the tentacles all retracted after helping Soap out.
"Has the message been sent?" Soap sat there in a daze for two seconds before he suddenly reacted and grabbed the internal communicator and asked, "If another wave of enemies comes, I will definitely not be able to hold on!"
"Completed ahead of schedule." The clown's voice came from the receiver. It was not known whether it was because of the poor signal quality or some other reason, but his voice sounded a little fuzzy and distorted.
"Done?!" Soap was delighted, "Should we withdraw then? There's no point in staying here and fighting those guys to death!"
"Well...but you'll have to find a way to retreat on your own." The clown's voice became increasingly weird, as if his throat was filled with phlegm. The sticky, squirming sound mixed in with his voice made the hairs on the back of Soap stand up.
"What's going on? What's wrong with you?" Even if Soap was not very smart at this time, he knew that there was something wrong with the Clown.
"After absorbing... those men in black, my degree of erosion is already approaching a dangerous threshold... I may die at any time..." The Joker spoke intermittently, seeming to be in a very painful state.
"Will he die? Or...will he become a monster like those men in black?" Soap's heart couldn't help but skip a beat when he heard what the Joker said .
"I don't know..." the clown said, "You should leave quickly. If you don't leave now, it will be too late."
Soap held the communicator in his hand, feeling a little hesitant - he was not sure whether the "too late" mentioned by the Joker meant the second group of men in black were about to arrive, or another situation that he did not want to say.
Perhaps, running away is the best option at this time.
But without the clown's help, can he escape by himself?
Does he really have any other options?
Soap looked down at the corpses scattered all over the ground. The flesh and blood of these men in black had been sucked dry by the clown's tentacles, leaving only a skinny body. The weapons they carried were scattered all over the ground, and the smell of gunpowder in the air was mixed with a disgusting smell of blood.
"Just pretend I was dead just now."
Soap touched the pistol on his waist again, and said to the Joker with determination: "Didn't you say before that you kept me and Noir by your side so that you could use us as 'emergency rations' in a critical moment? Although I don't quite understand the degree of erosion, if you eat me, it should be able to relieve your symptoms, right?"
"Damn it, am I crazy and wanting to die?" As soon as he said this, Soap felt a little regretful, but he changed his mind and felt that there seemed to be nothing to worry about... Most of the reconnaissance team that set out from Mukach Fortress have died so far. Giraffe is dead, Noir is also dead, and only himself and the Clown are left. The latter is still in a very "dangerous" state... It is only a matter of time before the whole army is wiped out.
Even if he escapes now, it is difficult to guarantee that he can escape from the Ark alive... Even if he can escape from the Ark alive, where can he hide?
When those roots penetrate the earth, the entire planet will be sacrificed by that madman named "Zeus"... Compared with the life on an entire planet, a person is too small and insignificant.
As long as the Joker can avenge me, kill "Zeus", and ruin his plan... I should have earned enough with my life...
Moreover, according to the Joker, after he absorbs himself, his consciousness will not disappear, but will merge with the Joker's main consciousness. From a certain perspective, he did not die, but just changed his body.
If you are lucky, you might even be able to witness with your own eyes "yourself" killing that bastard called "Zeus".
Soap took a deep breath, waiting for the clown's tentacles to penetrate his body - but at this moment, the clown rejected his proposal: "You run away. This level of erosion cannot be distributed below the safety line with only your soul. Even if Noir is still alive, it is far from enough. But I have a backup plan... Now you are of no use to me."
"Huh?" Soap was stunned for a moment. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
Not having to be eaten as "food" is certainly a good thing, but after a brief moment of relief comes endless confusion.
"The second group of enemies will arrive here in five minutes at most." The Joker added, "This time, there will be more than just the men in black."
"What about you? What are you going to do next?" Soap asked quickly, "Don't you even need help?"
"Before the erosion problem is resolved, I cannot guarantee that I will be sane all the time. It will be far more dangerous for you to follow me than to act alone... I will help you lead those guys away. From now on, it will all depend on you."
The clown paused and added, "By the way, the other reconnaissance team that split from you was not completely wiped out. There is still a survivor. She is currently in East District 8. Judging from the direction of her movement, she will enter East District 7 in about two hours... You can find a way to meet up with her."
"There are survivors from the other team?" Soap was slightly startled. He had always thought that the team was wiped out before they even entered the Ark. "How did you know? If you know the location of that person, then Zeus must know it too. If I go over to meet up with that person now, wouldn't that be a trap for me?"
However, the Joker did not give an answer this time.
Next, no matter what Soap asked, there was no response from the other end of the communicator, as if the Joker had turned off or discarded the communicator.
"Eastern District 8... another survivor." Soap glanced in the direction of the warehouse and muttered, "It's too far from here. It almost spans half of the Ark... If I go in a straight line, I even have to go through the core area. I'd have to be crazy to go find that person, right?"
He climbed over the collapsed wall, walked through the messy living room, and walked into the warehouse again.
The priceless communication equipment of the Alpha civilization had completed its mission and was smashed into a pile of scrap metal by an unimaginable force. As for the Joker, he had disappeared without a trace.
"Do we really want to go to East District 8?" Just as Feizao was hesitating, a strange noise came from behind a half-open iron door next to him.
"Who's there?!" Soap was startled and raised the gun in his hand, pointing it at the door.
This is the back street of the shops. It is called a street, but it is actually a narrow corridor between the shops and warehouses facing the street. Behind the doors of several shops are their own warehouses. The iron door that makes a noise is the warehouse of a store next door that specializes in selling second-hand audio and video products. However, according to the clown's original words, the real money of this store is actually reselling rubbings and copies of documentary relics - some rich people who admire Alpha civilization especially like to buy some Alpha civilization stone tablets or other relics with inscriptions to put at home as decorations... just like the literati in ancient times liked to hang some calligraphy and paintings on the wall, even if they couldn't understand any of the words of Alpha civilization.
Soap took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the iron gate - he didn't think that the men in black were hiding behind the door. If it were them, they would just rush out and pin him down. There was no need to be mysterious.
Just as Soap raised his foot to kick the door, the iron door automatically opened inwards, and a skull-like head half poked out, saying urgently: "Don't kick the door! The noise is too loud, it will attract those things!"
"Ulrich? Why is it you?" Soap put away his gun and asked with a frown, "Didn't you run away?"
"There are... those things all around..." Ulrich shook his head, "It's too dangerous. I can only hide here, and have been hiding until now."
"Can you sense the men in black nearby...those guys?" Soap asked.
He originally thought that Ulrich's ability to sense danger could only be used in the underground maze, but he didn't expect that after reaching the ground, he could still sense the dangerous factors around him.
If we bring him along, wouldn't we be able to avoid a lot of dangers in advance?
