Journey to Hell - Part 5

Zhuang Yijian ignored them, breaking free from Wang Dong and Xiong Baobao. He yanked off the watch from his wrist and hurled it at one of the monsters, infuriating it. The monster turned its head and glared at him.

Wang Dong's hair stood on end as he clenched his teeth. If he wanted to be a hero, he had to do it himself. He grabbed Xiong Baobao's hand and turned to run. Xiong Baobao looked back at Zhuang Yijian with two eyes, but stumbled and followed Wang Dong.

Hai Baihe saw the situation and rushed forward, fiercely gripping the monster's neck with her arm. Thankfully, although the monster looked bizarre, its basic structure was similar to that of a human. As soon as its neck was gripped, it struggled. She didn't care if its groin was as vulnerable as a human's. She raised her knee and struck with all her might.

The other two monsters didn't fare any better. Di Ya took a few steps, jumped onto a protective wall for leverage, and landed on the back of one of the monsters. She tightly clamped her legs around its neck and pulled out a hairpin from her bun. It was clearly not an ordinary hairpin, as its sharp tip pierced the monster's eye. Despite its severely degraded vision, it was still its weak point, causing it to howl in pain.

As for Liang Xiao? He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, took it off, and ignited it with a lighter. Flames seemed to be their natural enemy. The other monster, with its tongue ripped out, was about to flee. Liang Xiao swiftly stuffed the ignited shirt into its mouth. The monster let out a sharp scream and charged into the strange tunnel.

"Ah!" The monster subdued by Di Ya suddenly burst forth with unprecedented strength. It thrashed its body, trying to throw Di Ya off. Di Ya gradually couldn't hold on and was overturned, but Liang Xiao stepped forward and caught her. The monster's strength was too great, and he had to take several steps back to stabilize himself. Without him as a buffer, Di Ya would have been in a terrible state if she had fallen to the ground.

The monster that had thrown off Di Ya also fled into the tunnel.

Now, the only one left was the giant monster held by Hai Baihe. Liang Xiao said, "Move aside, it's afraid of fire."

"No!" Hai Baihe sneered, "You guys move aside." She knew she should be able to easily crush its throat. This thought came from nowhere, but it settled deep in her heart, as if she knew that something was imprisoned within the human body. In such a life-or-death situation, this mysterious power suddenly burst forth.

She could feel her strength increasing bit by bit. The most obvious evidence was the monster's increasingly fierce struggles and its growing helplessness.

As they faced off, there was a loud rumble from the tunnel. The pressure from underground demonstrated its power, and the soil started to fall. Within half a minute, the tunnel was completely buried.

The monster let out a desperate cry.

Hai Baihe held her breath and fiercely slammed it against the protective wall. Despite the scales providing protection, its body underneath was vulnerable flesh and blood. The monster was battered and eventually completely collapsed. Hai Baihe felt it no longer breathing and finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Can someone help me? I can't hold it anymore."

Others: "..."

Zhuang Yijian still seemed to be sleepwalking. "Did... did you strangle it?" Is the girl he likes a tough girl who can single-handedly fight monsters? No, even a

tough guy doesn't have this kind of strength. Is she a superhero?

Even Di Ya couldn't help but look at her with a sideways glance. While she was trained as a spy rather than a combatant, her professional skills leaned towards disguise, counterintelligence, and code-breaking. But she could tell that this ability was not inferior to that of a professionally trained person.

Truly hiding her capabilities.

Liang Xiao's expression was subtle. Here it comes again. He felt that he should be surprised on a rational level, but he actually wasn't surprised at all. It was as if he had known this for a long time.

Hai Baihe, seeing no one coming to help, had no choice but to release her grip on the monster's arm. She used her hands to rub her stiff right arm.

She had actually strangled a monster with her bare hands. This was no longer just an ordinary arm. It was definitely a mythical arm!

"Cough." She cleared her throat. "Shouldn't we run?"

Everyone suddenly snapped out of their daze.

On their way out, they encountered Xiong Baobao and Wang Dong arguing. Xiong Baobao said she wanted to go back and save Zhuang Yijian, while Wang Dong was angry. "He wants to be a hero and save the beauty. What are you doing butting in?"

"Dongzi, we can't just abandon Zhuang Ge," Xiong Baobao cried with tears streaming down her face. "I beg you, go save him."

Hai Baihe couldn't help but sneer. She disliked this kind of behavior. It was understandable to leave others behind in a critical situation. Every man for himself. There was no reason for someone else to risk their lives to save you. Whose life wasn't valuable?

But if you wanted to save someone you loved, you had to do it yourself. Sacrificing your life for love was noble, but it wasn't right to use someone else's feelings for you to save the person you liked.

Seeing them return unharmed, both Xiong Baobao and Wang Dong felt a bit embarrassed. Wang Dong turned his head and remained silent, while Xiong Baobao felt guilty but quickly ran to Zhuang Yijian's side, grabbing his arm. "Are you okay?"

Zhuang Yijian remained silent for a moment before saying, "I'm fine."

Di Ya glanced at them, then looked at Liang Xiao. He averted his gaze. Now, there were only six of them left, but their complicated emotional relationships could make for an idol drama. This was no ordinary coincidence.

Di Ya lowered her eyelids slightly, finding it quite interesting. As her gaze shifted, she was attracted by something in front of her. "Isn't that Li Hao?"

It was indeed Li Hao, with half of his arm bitten off. When he saw them, he pleaded for help. "Save me! Help me!"

See, when it came to thick skin, young people couldn't compare to experienced individuals. He had just abandoned others to save himself, and now he was asking others for help as if nothing had happened. When one is about to die, what does one's face matter?

Before anyone could react, the monster holding his arm flung him aside, and Li Hao crashed into the wall. Miraculously, he... shattered the wall, revealing a small passage.

Di Ya exclaimed, "Hey, this is a subway station!"

If you looked closely, you would notice that the walls here were different from the other protective walls. The real walls of the subway tunnel were encased in pipes, but here, they were built with mud. It was more of a disguise than a protective wall.

When Li Hao crashed into it, the subway station was revealed.

The monster seemed to sense the unfavorable situation and circled in place before decisively retreating.

Hai Baihe kicked it a few times, widening the small passage enough for people to pass through, and then she lifted her skirt and went in.

This action was quite bold, to the point that Liang Xiao was startled. He quickly turned his head, blocking the view. Hai Baihe didn't even realize it herself as she crawled through. After taking a look, she exclaimed, "It really is a subway station, and it's Park Road Station. We've gone three stations too far."

"It seems that these monsters are intelligent creatures," Di Ya followed her into the subway station. The sturdy and smooth ground beneath their feet provided a great sense of safety.

Xiong Baobao was the third person to enter. She looked at the dark subway station and felt like crying. "Is there no one here?"

"It's already past one o'clock," Li Hao said as he bandaged his wound, his tone devoid of emotion. "They probably just closed the station."

"Right, right," Xiong Baobao nodded vigorously. "That must be it."

Everyone was eager to leave this place. They hurried up the stairs, with Hai Baihe trailing behind, still uncertain if they could escape.

The result, of course, was... they couldn't get out!

All the exits were locked.

Li Hao, frustrated, kicked the rolling shutter door a couple of times. Hai Baihe took out her phone and glanced at it. The battery was at 20%, and there was no signal.

She calmly went to the women's restroom to take care of her physiological needs—she had been drinking quite a bit tonight and couldn't hold it any longer. She washed her hands, and the faucet only spurted a short burst of water before stopping. But at least she cleaned her hands.

Hai Baihe took out a mop and found a lighter in the duty room. She stuffed the lighter into her bag, which contained lipstick, perfume, condoms, and a wallet. Clearly, it wasn't a practical arrangement. From now on, she had to remember to bring a power bank, energy bars, and self-defense weapons when going out.

She had already taken refuge in the duty room to rest, but the others weren't willing to give up on the chance to leave, especially Li Hao. His arm had been bitten off a piece of flesh, and he needed to go to the hospital to get it bandaged.

In theory, there shouldn't be anything particularly valuable in the subway station, excluding the subway itself. But who would want to steal a subway? This door was just an ordinary rolling shutter door. In theory, they should have knelt down after using a fire axe to break it, even if it was sturdy.

However, the problem was that this rolling shutter door was either a hidden high-level item or some mysterious force had started to trap them in this map. In any case, Hai Baihe listened to the banging on the door for a long time, but it didn't yield any results.

She began rummaging through drawers for something to eat. Miraculously, there were two energy bars in one of the drawers, with the plastic packaging untouched by mice. It was truly a blessing from the goddess of luck.

She nonchalantly stuffed the food into her bag, which was already quite small. After much hesitation, she reluctantly made a sacrifice and removed the perfume to make space.

While she was at it, she also looked for a newspaper. Unfortunately, in this era of declining print media, news was primarily consumed through apps or websites. There wasn't a single newspaper to be found, leaving no

clues to search for.

However, there was a desk calendar on the table.

August 2018.

Hai Baihe covered her chest, feeling like she was about to faint. Last time, she traveled to the strange time and space of Huyang Village in 1997. And now, she had crossed over to the future.

2018, which was no different from 2016.

But at least one thing could be determined: this was no ordinary accident. She had once again arrived in an unfamiliar timeline that wasn't part of the original world.

How could she go back? She pondered, her head throbbing. Last time, they left Huyang Village because she and Liang Xiao were about to die, or was it because they had discovered the source of the mutation? Then, why did she feel dizzy? She felt dizzy during the car accident and while underwater. Every time she entered and exited, was it because the timeline had already changed?

In other words, to leave this place, did she have to experience another bout of dizziness? If dizziness was the solution, she could just run headfirst into a wall!

But the problem was, this seemed more like a hint than the key to leaving this place.

After thinking for a long time, she felt like her head was going to explode.

Next time they randomly assigned teammates, could she request a god-tier assistant with an IQ of 198? This multi-romantic group was even more complicated than the student group from last time.

While she was lost in thought, the person banging on the door finally gave up. They squeezed into the duty room in groups of two or three, using a cabinet to block the door. The duty room had no windows, only one door. The floor was made of reinforced concrete, giving everyone a great sense of security. Once all seven people were inside, they blocked the door with a cabinet.

Hai Baihe found a blanket and a few uniforms in the cabinet. She unceremoniously claimed the blanket and draped it over herself, preparing to sleep.

The others clearly didn't have such a good mentality. Xiong Baobao curled up in a corner, her eyes swollen like walnuts. She looked at Zhuang Yijian and asked, "Will they come in?"

"They won't," Zhuang Yijian answered succinctly. "The door has been blocked, so we're safe."

"But what if they crawl through the passage?" Xiong Baobao said, her eyes turning red as she spoke. "Isn't that how Mao Mao was dragged down?"

Mentioning Mao Xiao caused everyone's mood to plummet again.

Liang Xiao glanced at the sleeping Hai Baihe and felt that this scene was very familiar. He had lost count of how many times they had been through this. There was something strange about it, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. For now, he could only temporarily shift his focus. "The monsters are afraid of fire. If they come again, we can deal with them that way."

"These creatures are very cunning. They not only understand teamwork, but they can even set traps," Di Ya recalled the tunnel, and goosebumps appeared on her arm. "They hid the subway station and dug a false tunnel to lure us in. It's a trap."

It was imaginable that if they had rashly entered that tunnel, the result would have been being buried alive. What awaited them next would likely be the fate of being devoured.