Ye Li and Le Jun exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes!
It seemed they had still overestimated the sturdiness of those doors and underestimated the destructive power of the rotting corpses.
“Bang—bang, bang, bang—”
“Hrr—hrr—”
Chaotic, frenzied footsteps were practically upon them as a huge wave of monsters swarmed outside the door. They slammed, clawed, and shoved madly against it, letting out ravenous roars that craved the living flesh inside.
The battered, rotting door violently shuddered, shrieking under the strain. The lock, barely latched in the first place, was soon broken by the impacts, but fortunately, a mop handle was still wedged against the door handle, barely holding it shut for a little longer.
Several decaying arms, flesh split open down to the bone, forced their way through the widening gap, clawing aimlessly in all directions in an attempt to pry the door open.
“What do we do now?” Le Jun’s voice trembled.
“What else can we do? Nothing!” Ye Li spread her hands, her expression as nonchalant as ever.
It was less than half an hour until midnight. Normally, passing midnight counted as the start of the next day.
That meant they might be able to uncover more clues and solve the puzzle.
To fall short at the final hurdle when victory was just a step away—it would be a lie to say it wasn't a pity!
But there was no helping it; the rickety door clearly wouldn't hold out until the designated time.
Since they couldn't camp it out, waiting for death was all that remained. At worst, they would just restart the loop!
In retrospect, staying on the rooftop would have been better. At least jumping off the building was quick and clean, sparing them some suffering.
“Wait, I have an idea...”
Just as Ye Li was debating whether she should jump into the pool and drown herself first or wait to be chewed to death by the corpses, Le Jun suddenly pointed at the ceiling and called out.
“We can climb up onto the steel trusses above!”
Ye Li looked up.
The natatorium had a gabled roof supported by a suspended steel framework. The lowest point along the wall was about four to five meters off the ground, while the highest point in the center reached seven or eight meters. If they could climb up there, they could indeed hold out for a while.
The problem was, how could they get up there?
“There's a lifeguard chair over there!” Le Jun pointed toward a high chair placed against the wall at the far end of the walkway. “If I climb onto the lifeguard chair, I can boost you up!”
“What about you?” Ye Li asked.
The lifeguard chair was nearly two meters tall; combined with Le Jun's height, he could indeed boost her up.
But once she was up, she wouldn't be able to pull him up after her.
Though Le Jun looked lean, his height was undeniable, and he weighed at least 130 to 140 jin.
The rust-eaten steel trusses would probably struggle to support even her alone; there was no way they could bear both of their weights simultaneously.
Staying below meant certain death!
“I... I'll be fine.” Le Jun’s face was pale, yet his tone was resolute. “Better that one of us makes it than neither. We've worked so hard to survive this long—we can't let this chance go to waste.”
Ye Li looked at the determined youth before her, raising an eyebrow in slight surprise.
Anyone could grasp the logic, but not everyone was willing to hand the hope of survival to someone else while facing death alone.
Not to mention, what he would have to face was the very thing he dreaded most.
Still, Ye Li wasn't one to waste time being sentimental, and she immediately nodded in agreement.
After all, opportunities like this were rare, and they might not find a safer hiding spot next time.
Besides, this wasn't just her concern; the sooner the mystery was unraveled, the sooner he would be freed as well.
Wasting no time, Le Jun dragged over two chairs and wedged them against the left and right sides of the lifeguard chair to stabilize it. Then, he scrambled up and stood on the seat.
Between the chair's height and his own, the overhead steel framework was still about a meter above him.
“Come up.”
Bracing one hand against the wall, Le Jun leaned down and held out his hand to the girl.
This time, Ye Li did not refuse. She climbed up two rungs of the chair, grabbed his hand, and hoisted herself onto the seat in one swift motion.
The seat wasn't wide to begin with; accommodating two people was a stretch, and the chair began to wobble precariously.
Inevitably, the two were pressed close against each other.
This was the first time Le Jun had ever been so close to a girl—close enough to catch the faint scent of gardenia wafting from her hair.
It filled him with an inescapable sense of nervous awkwardness, along with an inexplicable, subtle flutter in his chest.
Ye Li kept her head down with furrowed brows, seemingly enduring something with great effort.
She disliked physical contact!
Yet now was hardly the time to be picky.
By now, the violent shoving had warped the door, widening the gap. The heads of two rotting corpses had already poked through, letting out guttural rasps toward the two people inside.
They had very little time.
Not daring to look at the doorway, Le Jun urged, “Get ready. I'm going to hoist you up now.”
“Okay!” Ye Li nodded.
Le Jun took a deep breath to steady himself, then placed both hands around the girl's slender waist. With a surge of effort, he lifted her steadily upward.
She was very light, requiring little effort to lift, and he stretched his arms as high as he could to push her up.
Ye Li reached up with both hands, catching hold of the overhead steel frame just in time.
“I've got it!”
“Climb, quick!”
Ye Li immediately braced her foot against him for leverage and pulled herself up.
The aging, loosened steel framework instantly shook with a groaning creak, rust flakes and dust raining down.
“Ah—!”
Yet just as Ye Li managed to scramble onto the steel truss, a bloodcurdling scream from Le Jun echoed from below.
Looking down, she saw that a small, emaciated rotting corpse had squeezed through the gap in the door and was stumbling toward them.
Seeing that grotesque monster covered in rotting flesh, Le Jun felt his entire body seize up, paralyzed as though frozen in place.
“Ningning...”
Watching the monster scramble to the base of the chair and grope its way up, Le Jun cried out to Ye Li in desperation, “I... I can't move...”
His fists were clenched tight, his face deathly pale, and the veins on his forehead bulged, yet he could not force his body to move an inch.
Under extreme terror, he had succumbed to an intense stress response.
If he didn't get down immediately, the corpse could climb up using the chair.
The door gap widened further under the pressure, and more monsters began squeezing through one after another.
The corpse below had already scrambled up and clamped a rotting claw around Le Jun's ankle.
“...Kick me down... I can't... Help me...” A sob broke through the youth's voice.
He was utterly terrified and utterly powerless.
Just as he spiraled into helpless panic, a barely audible sigh sounded, and he heard the girl's voice drifting down.
“Close your eyes!”
Le Jun obeyed reflexively.
In the next instant, he felt something clamp fiercely around his neck, followed by a violent twist...
“Crack!”
Feeling the body beneath her go limp, Ye Li retracted her legs, tightened her core, and hauled herself back onto the steel truss with a powerful pull of her arms.
Below, the youth collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut, tumbling along with the chair and the rotting corpse beneath him straight into the pool.
“Splash—crash!”
Water sprayed everywhere!
Rate on N.U.
