Ending the call, Jiang Baimian put away the intercom and nodded to Shang Jianyao and the others.

She didn't say anything else and took the lead in leaving the room, returning to the corridor.

Shang Jianyao, Bai Chen, and Long Yuehong filed out, resuming their previous tactical formation.

Without Jiang Baimian needing to give additional instructions, they all knew which direction to shoot next—this was one of the key points during training. They had already mastered it. In other words, under this tactical formation, there was a precedent to follow for how to form a crossfire network. They didn't need to discuss who should shoot where; different positions had corresponding areas of responsibility.

Under the yellowish beam of the flashlight, Qiao Chu, wearing a military exoskeleton device, walked into the corridor entrance.

Long Yuehong couldn't help but feel a little nervous, and his body trembled slightly.

This… Qiao Chu, with the help of the "Integrated Early Warning System," keenly noticed this.

He slowed down his pace with a slight frown.

Seeing this, Jiang Baimian didn't wait for the other party to enter the predetermined firing range. She decisively raised her right hand and shouted in a deep voice:

"Fire!"

At the same time, she aimed at Qiao Chu's head, which was covered by a metal helmet.

If the other party jumped upwards to avoid the shooting, the bullet from the "Icemoss" pistol would steadily penetrate the neck, which lacked sufficient protection.

That was the weak point, the vital area, of the exoskeleton device.

With a bang, Jiang Baimian pulled the trigger first.

Bai Chen and Shang Jianyao, who were beside her, had been waiting for the order. At this time, they each raised their weapons and fired at Qiao Chu's left arm and crotch, respectively.

They had also reserved space for the target to dodge in their direction. Once Qiao Chu dodged to the right of the "Old Tune Team," that is, to his left, Bai Chen's rifle bullet would very likely hit the area where his arm and shoulder met, which was not covered by armor, and might even graze his neck. If Qiao Chu chose to roll into a ball, Shang Jianyao's "Assault Rifle" short bursts would destroy his soft abdomen.

Although Long Yuehong was nervous, he had experienced quite a few things and had a conditioned reflex to the team leader's orders, completing his mission without delay.

Bang bang bang bang bang! He fired a long burst at Qiao Chu's right arm position.

And when Jiang Baimian raised her right hand, Qiao Chu reacted.

While raising his right arm, which was holding a silver rifle, letting the metal bone-covered side face outwards, blocking the front of his neck, he placed his left arm horizontally in front of his lower abdomen, also facing the black metal bone towards Shang Jianyao and the others.

In this process, he exerted force with his legs, driving the auxiliary joints, and jumped towards the right side passage.

Then, the sounds of clanging rang out amid the sparks, echoing in the extremely quiet underground floor.

Jiang Baimian's wrist moved slightly, as if she had been prepared for it, predicting Qiao Chu's dodging trajectory and drawing a line of fire.

At this moment, several holes under the energy backpack of the military exoskeleton device ejected multiple streams of white gas.

They pushed Qiao Chu diagonally upwards, allowing his speed to suddenly increase, avoiding the bullets fired by Jiang Baimian.

With a bang, Qiao Chu supported himself on the ceiling with one hand and bounced into the right corridor, disappearing from Shang Jianyao and the others' sight.

Bang!

The piece of ceiling he hit fell off, smashed on the ground, and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

"What a pity…" Jiang Baimian couldn't help but sigh.

If it weren't for the military exoskeleton device, they could have seriously injured Qiao Chu just now and done whatever they wanted.

…………

Inside the right corridor, Qiao Chu rolled twice in a row, leaning against the wall and stopped.

While using the "Integrated Early Warning System" to monitor the surrounding movements, he raised his left hand and wiped his chin.

The back of his hand was quickly stained red by a bloodstain.

"How could…" Qiao Chu used the exoskeleton device's own flashlight to look down.

His tone was filled with obvious incomprehension and doubt.

According to his experience, the goodwill brought by his charm would take at least a day to develop into distorted possessiveness and aggressive "adoration." Who knew that the four people opposite him would change so quickly.

This wasn't a wild beast or an animal, or a "Heartless" who only had instinct left, only thinking about mating and possession, and would go crazy in a short time.

As he muttered to himself, Qiao Chu reached out and took out a sky-blue mirror box and opened the lid with a snap.

He then looked into the mirror and saw a bloody wound on his beautifully curved chin.

This was the mark left by a ricochet.

"How dare…" Qiao Chu's pupils dilated, and his tone was filled with undisguised anger.

He took a breath, looked at himself in the mirror with pity, and put away the sky-blue box.

After sealing the wound with medical bandages, Qiao Chu looked coldly at the corridor where Jiang Baimian and others were.

He thought for two seconds, gave up on revenge for now, turned his body, and walked towards the end of the current corridor.

He hadn't forgotten that the goal of this trip was the underground machine room.

Moreover, his purpose in using Shang Jianyao and others had been initially achieved, testing that there was a "Higher Heartless" or distorted creature here that could make his charm ineffective.

He had always been very clear that there were many dangerous creatures in this building. He had encountered the Nightmare Horse here before.

…………

"Military exoskeleton devices are really hard to deal with…" Long Yuehong was quite disappointed that he couldn't kill Qiao Chu to prevent others from getting him.

This was the countless time he had lamented the power of military exoskeleton devices.

Bai Chen also sighed softly, seemingly regretful.

Jiang Baimian nodded and looked at the current corner:

"Let's go that way."

This was diagonally opposite the location of Qiao Chu.

"Aren't we going to chase him?" Long Yuehong asked in surprise.

Shang Jianyao smiled at him:

"Do you want to try how strange his Awakened ability is?"

Chasing him like this in a building with many walls would make it difficult to maintain a good distance and avoid entering the influence range of the Awakened ability.

—Even Jiang Baimian's ability to sense electrical signals was greatly reduced in such an environment.

"That's true." Long Yuehong gave up the idea of chasing Qiao Chu without hesitation when he thought of Shang Jianyao's "Reasoning Clown."

Jiang Baimian said "Mm" and:

"Our goal is to get around to the stairwell as soon as possible and return to the first floor."

She explained quickly:

"Qiao Chu's purpose is to find the underground machine room, restore power to this building, and then go to the power grid center to power the entire city ruins.

"This also means that he will inevitably leave the underground floor in a short time, and then leave this building to go to that laboratory.

"Since we understand this, then we should be able to think that Qiao Chu can be sniped well, whether in the elevator hall on the first floor, the stairwell, or a high point that can monitor the surrounding area.

"There's no need for us to stay in this complex terrain with many obstacles and strange 'Heartless'."

Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong had no objection to this and immediately turned towards the right side passage with their weapons.

"Team Leader, what are Qiao Chu's Awakened abilities?" In the dark environment where only the flashlight's light was shaking, Long Yuehong asked while guarding the surroundings and cautiously moving forward.

"I was just about to say this." Jiang Baimian nodded slightly.

Quickly figuring out this aspect of the problem could effectively avoid half the danger when encountering Qiao Chu later.

"Charm?" Bai Chen suggested the most obvious possibility.

Shang Jianyao added:

"Make others crazily like to draw?"

He remembered that when he was about to get it on with Qiao Chu in the jeep, he was sent away by the other party with a piece of paper, a pen, and a rhetorical question.

"No." Shang Jianyao immediately denied his statement, "It should be, creating hobbies or igniting fanaticism…"

"You have experience in this area, so you have the final say." Jiang Baimian didn't argue and instead said, "When he wanted to kill Long Yuehong before, we seemed to have become exceptionally depressed and didn't want to do anything."

"Make people depressed? This is the third Awakened ability… What is the price he paid? That charm is simply terrifying." Long Yuehong suddenly realized after saying this, "Why can we discuss Qiao Chu's charm so naturally? Wait, why do I want to kill him and make him a specimen collection?"

"You're so perverted." Shang Jianyao glanced at Long Yuehong.

"Isn't it because of you…" Long Yuehong suddenly stopped, "Has your 'Reasoning Clown' ability failed?"

Jiang Baimian nodded thoughtfully:

"It seems that we have left Qiao Chu's charm range and are no longer affected by him.

"And the premise of the previous 'reasoning' was that we liked Qiao Chu. Once this condition is gone, the conclusion will of course be invalid."

Bai Chen thought for a while and said:

"Then are we still going to block Qiao Chu?"

"Of course!" Jiang Baimian answered decisively, "I have always been a very petty person. He put us in such a dangerous situation, and he ate our energy bars, our compressed biscuits, and our military canned food. We must take revenge!"

Why does this sound so familiar… Long Yuehong subconsciously responded:

"But…"

Although he also hated Qiao Chu, he felt that there was no need to stay here and take risks. It would be better to leave as soon as possible.

Jiang Baimian looked at him and Shang Jianyao, "Mm" and said:

"The main thing is that we ourselves have to stay here for a while to see what changes will occur after the entire city ruins are restored to power, hehe, or prevent the power from being restored.

"We can't rashly return along the original route.

"Since that's the case, it's better to guard Qiao Chu by the way and not waste time."

After saying that, she suddenly asked:

"Have you ever seen wriggling flesh, an extremely terrifying aura, an old woman wearing a wool hat, or the bones of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes?"

"No." Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Shang Jianyao shook their heads at the same time.

"Neither have I." Jiang Baimian nodded, "So, where did the illusion created by that 'Higher Heartless' come from? There must be a root, based on their low level of intelligence."

Shang Jianyao immediately replied:

"Maybe that 'Higher Heartless' has seen wriggling flesh, seen an old woman wearing a wool hat, seen the bones of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and sensed an extremely terrifying aura."

Speaking of this, he paused, and his voice instantly became quite sinister:

"She may have even heard that old woman say:

"You… are disturbing… Xiao Chong…"

Under the illumination of the flashlight, Shang Jianyao's face was lit and shadowed.

ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~