The Mysterious Resurrection at the Beginning of Infinite Terror

Chapter 22 Final Destination 2

The metallic twisting sound of the warehouse roof was like the grim laugh of death. Several load-bearing beams collapsed and deformed at a visible speed, and huge blocks of concrete mixed with steel bars crashed down on Zhang Jie, who was breathing heavily and entangled in eerie gray lines! Zhang Jie himself was also in some kind of internal conflict or backlash, his face contorted in pain and his movements sluggish. He was about to be buried under the ruins!

"Zhang Jie!" Zheng Zha's eyes widened in horror. His vampire energy and inner strength erupted recklessly, and he transformed into a red and white blur, smashing through the debris blocking his way as he tried to rush over to his rescue.

But the distance was too far, and the falling debris was moving too fast!

At this critical moment, Chu Xuan's calm, almost cold voice rang out, his words as fast as bullets: "Zero point, 11 o'clock position, the base of the second horizontal support rod that is about to break, armor-piercing round, now!"

Zero almost thoughtlessly adjusted the sniper rifle muzzle in an instant and pulled the trigger!

boom!

The bullet struck precisely the spot Chu Xuan had indicated. The horizontal support beam, already on the verge of breaking, had its trajectory subtly altered by this impact! Instead of striking Zhang Jie directly, it fell at an angle, colliding with several other falling concrete beams!

Boom! Crash!

After a series of teeth-grinding impacts and cracking sounds, an extremely unstable triangular space made of twisted metal and broken concrete narrowly formed above Zhang Jie's head, blocking most of the falling rocks. However, pieces of debris and dust still rained down on him, burying half of his body and temporarily blocking the eerie gray lines that were entangled around him.

"Save him! Clear the passage! Watch out for secondary collapse!" Wang Lin shouted as he shook the Soul-Suppressing Bell, trying to disrupt the remaining "gray lines" of death in the air and the lingering unknown power within Lu Renjia's body. At the same time, through the contract paper, he could clearly sense that Zhang Jie's life force, though weak and chaotic, had not disappeared, and the peculiar "shackles" fluctuations on his body seemed to have been temporarily suppressed after being buried in the rubble.

Zheng Zha, Ba Wang, and Li Shuaixi immediately rushed forward, frantically digging away the rubble covering Zhang Jie with their bare hands or tools. Zhan Lan, enduring a headache from mental exhaustion, began scanning to determine the structure of the ruins and Zhang Jie's precise location, preventing further injury during the rescue.

Chu Xuan rapidly operated the computer, calculating the stability of the remaining warehouse structure, while coldly stating, "The Grim Reaper's attack mode has changed. It has shifted from attacking based on 'coincidental' external environmental factors to exploiting 'hidden dangers' within the organization to trigger a chain reaction and attempt to eliminate the 'abnormal unit' (referring to Zhang Jie). The attack priority and targeting have significantly increased. Lu Renjia is the trigger, and Zhang Jie is the primary target. We must relocate immediately; this place is extremely unsafe."

A few minutes later, the group dragged the barely alive Zhang Jie from the rubble. He was covered in blood, with multiple fractures and a reopened wound on his left arm, but his most serious injuries were internal—his breathing was extremely erratic, and two completely different forces seemed to be fiercely clashing within him: one was violent and chaotic (similar to the mutated aura on Lu Renjia before, but more subtle and powerful), while the other was cold and lifeless (likely an extension of the Death Mark). His consciousness fluctuated between lucidity and confusion, and he murmured broken words: "Box...permissions...breeding...cannot..."

Wang Lin and Chu Xuan exchanged a glance. They had both heard the word "breeding," which vaguely matched some of their previous guesses.

"His internal energy is in severe conflict, and he's also being eroded by an external curse. We must stabilize his injuries and suppress the conflict immediately," Chu Xuan said after a quick examination. "He needs highly effective treatments and an energy stabilization device. We don't have enough medicine on hand."

Wang Lin glanced at the main god's watch, which displayed: "[Survived for fifteen days under the pursuit of Death, remaining time: 7 days and 18 hours]". Only half the time had passed, and Death was already so dangerous, clearly targeting Zhang Jie, whose condition was abnormal.

"Let's get out of here first!" Zheng Zha carried the unconscious Zhang Jie on his back. "Chu Xuan, next temporary base!"

Chu Xuan had already chosen a backup location: "Three kilometers to the southeast, there is a semi-abandoned sewage treatment plant with a sturdy underground structure and multiple exits, making it easy to conceal and relocate. The downside is the harsh environment and the potential for other risks (methane, toxic substances)."

"Let's go there!" Wang Lin said decisively. "Environmental risks can be avoided, but we can't escape death. Let's hurry!"

The group, carrying essential supplies and the unconscious Lu Renjia (whom Chu Xuan believed still had research value and might retain the mark of death), quickly evacuated the crumbling freight station. Less than ten minutes after their departure, a "coincidentally" occurring natural gas pipeline leak and explosion turned the entire freight station area into an inferno.

The new base—the underground control room of the sewage treatment plant—was in worse condition than the freight station, filled with a faint odor, but its structure was indeed sturdy. The group quickly cleared out an area and settled Zhang Jie and Lu Renjia down.

Chu Xuan used a simple medical device to inject Zhang Jie with a highly effective treatment (from the team's reserves) and attempted to use an energy stabilizer (a gadget he had made earlier) to regulate the chaotic energy within his body. The effect was limited, but it at least temporarily halted the worsening of his injuries. Lu Renjia was injected with a strong sedative, bound tightly, and guarded by Zhao Yingkong and Ming Yanwei in shifts.

"What exactly happened to Zhang Jie?" Zheng Zha finally couldn't help but ask, his gaze sweeping over Wang Lin and Chu Xuan. "The 'breeding' he mentioned earlier... and the skills he displayed before, are simply beyond the reach of ordinary veterans! And what is that chaotic power within him?"

Zhan Lan, Ling Dian, and the others also looked at Wang Lin and Chu Xuan, clearly having the same question.

Wang Lin paused for a moment, then slowly said, "I don't know the specifics either. But based on some vague information from the Main God Space and my perception, Zhang Jie's identity... might be very special. He seems to have some kind of 'restriction' or 'shackle' within him, while at the same time he has been granted some special permissions or powers by the Main God. This contradictory state causes him to be powerful at times and restricted at others, and he is very likely to become a key target for the Main God... or certain rules to 'pay attention to' or even 'eliminate'. The Grim Reaper's concentrated attack just now was likely because it sensed his unstable state and treated him as an 'abnormality' to be eliminated first."

He didn't directly state his guess that the person was both a "guide and the leader of the breeding team," as that was too shocking and lacked evidence. However, the points of "special status," "conflict between constraints and authority," and "being under the scrutiny of the rules" were enough to warrant attention.

Chu Xuan added, "Judging from the change in attack patterns just now, Death has identified Zhang Jie as a high-threat or highly abnormal unit. The attack logic has shifted from 'using environmental coincidences to eliminate all survivors' to 'prioritizing the elimination of specific unstable factors.' This means that as long as Zhang Jie's condition remains unstable, he will act like a lighthouse in the night, continuously attracting Death's 'focus' and more targeted killing schemes. And being with him will only drag us into an even more dangerous vortex."

"Then what should we do? Abandon him?" Ba Wang frowned.

"Of course not," Wang Lin said firmly. "He's our teammate, and we've signed a contract. Abandoning a teammate would not only violate the contract and incur consequences, but it would also destroy our moral foundation and team cohesion. Moreover, Zhang Jie knows many secrets about the Main God Space that we don't know; his value is immense."

"So how do we solve this?" Li Shuaixi asked. "We can't keep carrying around a 'death attractor' all the time, can we?"

"The key to solving this problem lies in stabilizing Zhang Jie's condition, eliminating or suppressing the 'abnormal' and 'shackle' fluctuations within him, and transforming him from a 'highly monitored abnormal unit' back into a 'relatively normal reincarnation team member'," Chu Xuan pushed up his glasses. "This requires understanding the nature of the power conflict within him and finding a way to calm or suppress it."

"Perhaps I can try my contract ability." Wang Lin took out the contract paper. "A contract can restrain behavior and stabilize a state and balance conflicts under certain conditions. But it requires him to be conscious and willing to cooperate, and I need to understand the nature of the conflict within him better."

"My energy analysis and control abilities can attempt to analyze and guide the chaotic energy flow within his body, at least temporarily suppressing it," Chu Xuan said. "But it still requires his cooperation, and the risks are considerable, potentially triggering a more severe backlash."

Zheng Zha looked at Zhang Jie, who was unconscious, with a furrowed brow and irregular breathing, and gritted his teeth: "When he wakes up, we'll confront him. No matter who he is, after everything we've been through, I believe he's not our enemy. If he's willing to cooperate, we'll do everything we can to help him. If he... has ulterior motives, then we'll make other plans."

Wang Lin nodded: "That's what I mean too. But before that, we must prepare for the worst—death won't give us much time. Zhang Jie's condition is like a ticking time bomb; we must find a way before he attracts an even more deadly attack next time."

He looked at Chu Xuan: "Chu Xuan, we need a plan, a plan that can, in a short time, utilize our existing resources to stabilize Zhang Jie's condition to the greatest extent possible, and deal with the potentially more intense attacks from the Grim Reaper that this may result in. At the same time, our own survival mission must continue."

Chu Xuan's eyes flashed rapidly with data: "There are several directions for the plan, but they all require Zhang Jie's cooperation, as well as a certain amount of preparation time and a safe environment. And Death obviously won't give us that time. So, we may need to... actively create a 'safe period'."

"Safe period?" Zhan Lan asked, puzzled.

"The Grim Reaper's attack is based on 'logic chains' and 'probability,'" Chu Xuan explained. "If we can create an environment or state that is logically 'extremely low in probability' or even 'temporarily interrupted in causality,' we might be able to fool the Grim Reaper's 'judgment' and gain a brief respite. For example, could we use Wang Lin's contract to construct a temporary domain that is 'absolutely static' or 'causally isolated'? Or, could we use Zhang Jie's special 'authority' to trigger some kind of 'protection mechanism' of the main god space? Or, could we deliberately trigger a huge but controllable 'accident' to disrupt the Grim Reaper's death ordering and logical calculations, causing it to temporarily 'shut down' or reassess?"

These ideas are bold, even crazy.

Wang Lin pondered Chu Xuan's words, his gaze falling on the contract paper. Constructing a "causal isolation" domain? With his current mastery of contracts and understanding of the rules, it was almost impossible. But… what if it combined Zhang Jie's own "special state," along with the team's "consensus" and the power of the "contract," to create a "blind spot" that temporarily shielded Death's perception?

"Perhaps... we can give it a try," Wang Lin said thoughtfully. "But we need Zhang Jie to be alert, we need everyone to work together closely, and the success rate is unknown, and the cost could be very high."

"It's better than sitting and waiting to die," Zheng Zha said in a deep voice. "We'll wait for Zhang Jie to wake up, ask him what's going on, and then decide what to do."

Just then, Zero, who was in charge of monitoring, suddenly whispered, "There's something wrong. The monitoring at the ground entrance of the sewage treatment plant shows that a large number of rats and insects are gathering abnormally and swarming towards our area. Moreover, the airflow speed in the ventilation ducts is increasing abnormally, and the concentration of methane and hydrogen sulfide in the air is slowly rising."

Death's attack did not stop with their relocation; instead, it shifted to a more covert and vicious method—biological agitation and the accumulation of poisonous gas! It seemed to want to trap them underground, or induce suffocation or an explosion!

"Instantly check all vents and ducts! Zhan Lan, scan for the source of biological accumulation and gas leaks! Ba Wang, Li Shuaixi, prepare to clear out the rat and insect swarms! Wang Lin, Chu Xuan, find a way to stabilize the air composition! Everyone else, prepare for possible structural damage or explosions!" Zheng Zha immediately gave the orders.

A crisis loomed once again, and Zhang Jie, the core of this "trouble," remained unconscious. Wang Lin and Chu Xuan exchanged a glance, both seeing the gravity in each other's eyes.

Time is running out. They must wake Zhang Jie and get him to make a decision before the Grim Reaper's next complex trap arrives.