The three of them chatted as they headed downstairs.
"A hundred pounds of water... That's enough for the three of us to drink for a good while. If we're feeling fancy, we could even take a shower. Speaking of which, I haven't bathed in over ten days. My junk is starting to reek." Lin Tianhe scratched his itchy scalp, his eyes fixed on the clear, pure water in the bucket on Han Ning's back.
A couple of days ago, the students from the biology department had collected a lot of rainwater, but no one knew if the rain from the wasteland was safe to drink or wash with. It was still being tested.
Chen Linyu rubbed his smooth, bald head and chuckled. "Now that's what I call luxury. Just use a little to wipe yourself down and wash your hair. Or you could just get a buzz cut like me and save yourself the trouble of washing it at all."
As the two were chatting idly, Han Ning, who was a few steps ahead, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Then, a voice, trembling slightly, echoed in the quiet hallway. "Quick! Go back! Now!"
"What's wrong?"
"Go!"
Han Ning barked, his voice urgent. He spun around, grabbed them by the shoulders of their shirts, and sprinted back toward the third floor.
The two behind him were confused but trusted Han Ning unconditionally. They glanced back as they ran.
Through the gaps in the stairwell, they could vaguely see...
The small plaza in front of the academic building's first floor was now swarming with a dense horde of ugly, black-furred Monster Rats.
The Monster Rats sat in perfect unison, utterly silent, their cold, scarlet eyes locked onto the three figures moving above.
At the head of the swarm sat five enormous, snow-white rats.
The one in the center was already larger than a full-grown house cat.
"SKREEE!!"
The three sprinting figures reflected in the white rat leader's scarlet pupils. It let out a piercing shriek!
"SKREEE! SKREEE! SKREEE!!"
In an instant, five white blurs and a dense mass of black shadows surged up the stairs like a tide, rushing toward Han Ning's floor.
"Holy shit! I think we just kicked the rat's nest," Lin Tianhe cursed under his breath, slamming the iron gate that led from the second floor to the third.
In the brief moment before the Monster Rat swarm reached them, Han Ning's eyes darted across the classrooms, finally locking onto a laboratory with a specially reinforced door and windows.
He pointed to the lab door and said urgently, "In there! We'll hide in there."
Just the three of them and their three Silver Lotus Woods stood no chance of making it back to the dorms. Their only option was to hide for now and figure something out.
Without a moment's hesitation, the three of them, along with Yin Yi, ducked into a laboratory and slammed the heavy door shut with a BANG.
Unlike the other classrooms, the lab didn't have large glass windows along its sides. Instead, there was just a row of transom windows high up on the wall, which would be good for keeping the Monster Rats out.
They quickly dropped their heavy packs and shoved the lab tables against the iron door to barricade it, hoping to stop the Monster Rats from breaking through.
"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF... What do we do? What do we do? Aren't we just digging our own graves by hiding in here?" Lin Tianhe's voice trembled. He leaned uneasily against the lab table, gasping for breath as he tried to calm his frantic heart.
The words had barely left his mouth when a surge of Giant Power slammed into the iron door, the force traveling through the lab table and into Lin Tianhe.
THUD!
The powerful recoil sent him flying, and he crashed to the floor.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The iron door erupted with a deafening series of bangs as round dents bulged from its dark green surface.
It felt like the stainless steel could be smashed through by the rampaging Monster Rats at any second!
In this life-or-death crisis, adrenaline surged through Han Ning's body. He took one deep breath after another, forcing himself to calm down.
Han Ning said nothing. His eyes wide, he carefully scanned the lab's interior.
And then... high up on the wall on the far side of the lab, he saw the row of connected transom windows.
The moment he saw the transoms, his eyes lit up. "Don't panic! Listen to me," he said. "We're going to break through that row of exhaust fans. This is the third floor, and the other side is the back of the building. We can climb out through the fan openings, then use the Silver Lotus Wood's vines to get down the back wall."
He felt his thoughts become exceptionally clear and continued:
"We drew the Monster Rats here, so most of them must be packed at the door. There should be very few at the back. We have to use this chance to escape!"
Hearing Han Ning's plan, the anxious tension on his two roommates' faces eased slightly. Even as the furious banging of the Monster Rat swarm echoed in their ears, they tried to steady themselves. "But... what about the supplies?" they asked in unison.
"Fuck, who gives a damn about supplies when we're about to die?! Just grab some seeds and stuff them in your pockets. Staying alive is what matters."
Han Ning swore and immediately commanded Yin Yi to use its Body to brace the lab table. At the same time, he had it fire Silver Thorns to blast through the exhaust fans high on the opposite wall.
FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Under the assault of Yin Yi's Silver Thorns, the relatively fragile exhaust fans exploded into plastic fragments that rained down onto the floor.
Faint light streamed in, revealing the pale white mist outside.
"Yin Yi, I'm leaving this to you for now. Hold them off with everything you've got," Han Ning said softly, patting Yin Yi's Body.
"VRRR!!" Yin Yi's emerald-green Body trembled slightly from the impacts outside. It projected a feeling of 'determination' to Han Ning and put all its strength into holding the barricade.
"We'll go first. Let Yin Yi hold them off," Han Ning said, moving to the spot beneath the broken-out vents. He looked at Lin Tianhe and Chen Linyu. "Have your Silver Lotus Woods fire their Vine Whips. You two climb up first. I'll bring up the rear."
"Okay!"
Wasting no time, the two immediately commanded their Silver Lotus Woods to shoot out Vine Whips, which wrapped around the window ledge, forming makeshift ropes.
Lin Tianhe swallowed hard, dropped his backpack, and jumped. Grabbing the Vine Whip with both hands, he used every ounce of his strength to haul himself up to the windowsill, which was over two meters high.
The exhaust fan opening wasn't large, but thankfully, none of them were very big. One person could just barely squeeze through.
Lin Tianhe clung to the windowsill and poked his head out to look. "It's clear for now!" he said. "No Monster Rats down below."
Then, bracing himself on the ledge with one hand, he caught the Silver Lotus Wood that Chen Linyu tossed up to him.
The branches on one side of the Silver Lotus Wood's Body entangled with the building's exterior, while from its other side, it shot a Vine Whip downward.
FWOOSH~
The Vine Whip, several meters long, dropped down until its end was about two meters from the grass. Lin Tianhe squeezed through the opening, grabbed the Vine Whip, and quickly slid down to the end before jumping to the ground.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Han Ning kept glancing back at the stainless steel security door, which looked ready to give way at any moment, and urged them on.
With Lin Tianhe having shown the way, Chen Linyu followed his example and, in just a few dozen seconds, also disappeared over the windowsill.