Chapter 373: Circular Corridor
The footsteps were still approaching, now less than ten meters away from the burly man.
The burly man retreated step by step, his eyes fixed tightly on the spot where the footsteps originated. He wanted to turn and run, but he tripped over some debris on the ground and fell heavily.
The old man had already run away long ago. He passed Lin Ye and ran into the passageway without looking back.
Lin Ye stood at the entrance of the passageway. He wanted to see what would happen if the footsteps got close.
The burly man scrambled up and ran toward the passageway, but the footsteps suddenly accelerated, rapidly closing the distance to less than a meter from him.
At that moment, the footsteps suddenly vanished.
The burly man seemed to see something. He stared at that spot with a look of utter terror on his face. Then, a massive amount of blood gushed out from every orifice on his head. His head became like a fountain, spraying out all the fluid in his body. After the fluid was exhausted, his head began to spew out flowing solid matter.
Only after everything inside his body had been sprayed out did the burly man's remains collapse to the ground. Then, the footsteps sounded again.
Lin Ye hurriedly ran into the passageway. He certainly didn't have a hobby of becoming a human fountain.
Due to the extremely low spiritual energy in the environment and this ordinary human body, Lin Ye's mental energy could only perceive an area less than half a meter outside his body. So, he didn't know what was there either. Inside the passageway, there was a dim overhead light at regular intervals. Between two lights, there was a section of pitch-black darkness with no illumination at all.
This didn't pose a significant obstacle to Lin Ye's movement. The problem was the footsteps behind him, which never disappeared.
The footsteps kept following behind Lin Ye. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't shake off the footsteps behind him.
Moreover, if Lin Ye slowed down even slightly, the footsteps would quickly close in on him.
Lin Ye could only maintain a relatively fast speed while running through the passageway. Only this way would the footsteps not shorten the distance between them.
'Damn! What the hell is this thing? I shouldn't have stopped to watch!'
Lin Ye ran for ten minutes without encountering the old man who had run into the passageway earlier. He had no idea where the other man had gone.
If he could catch up to the old man, Lin Ye could have him cover the rear. That way, he might have been able to put some distance between himself and the footsteps.
With the plan of relying on a teammate failing, Lin Ye could only try to increase his speed to lose the footsteps. However, no matter how fast he ran, the footsteps remained right behind him. He couldn't lower his speed either, or else the footsteps would catch up.
Lin Ye's stamina rapidly declined, and he soon reached a point where he had to slow down.
'Looks like this is the end...'
Lin Ye stopped running, turned around, and faced the direction of the footsteps.
'Let me see what you really are.'
Lin Ye focused his mind, sensing the area in front of him. As long as the footsteps entered that area, he would be able to perceive what was there.
The footsteps quickly approached to a position less than a meter away from Lin Ye. Lin Ye strained to use his mental energy to sense that spot. With a *bang*, his head exploded.
…………………………………………
*Buzz... Buzz...*
Lin Ye opened his eyes. He was back in the moving prison transport vehicle. Four D-Class personnel who were still alive sat inside.
It had been a long time since he died so quickly.
[Remaining Simulation Attempts: 9]
'Right before I died, I seemed to see something... but because I used mental energy to sense it, my head suddenly exploded...'
At the instant his head exploded, Lin Ye faintly perceived the source of the footsteps. That was... Thinking of this, Lin Ye suddenly clutched his head. He felt like his head was about to explode again.
"What's wrong? Scared? Crying won't help at a time like this."
The old man spoke in a mocking tone.
"Yeah, I'm pretty scared."
Lin Ye didn't mind at all. He might need to use the old man later.
Just like last time, Lin Ye entered the sports stadium again. However, this time, as soon as he entered, he loudly said:
"Why is there a corridor outside? What's going on?"
Then, Lin Ye forcefully opened the large door.
"How is this possible?! We definitely came in from here!"
The burly man kept trying to open and close the door, as if doing so would allow him to return to the organization's base.
"What do we do now? Are we trapped?"
The old man retreated in terror, moving away from the burly man and the entrance.
Lin Ye and the other D-Class personnel went to the stands again to gather supplies. After a while, the old man joined them.
Only the burly man remained at the entrance.
That D-Class personnel once again broke away from the group and headed toward that passageway. This time, Lin Ye followed him. The old man hesitated for a second, then followed behind Lin Ye.
However, before leaving, he still shouted to the burly man:
"Hey! We're leaving. Are you going to stay here alone?"
"I'm not leaving! Only this place is connected to the outside world. If we leave here, we'll never get back!"
The burly man didn't even turn his head, still opening and closing the door.
This time, before hearing the footsteps, Lin Ye entered the passageway and left the sports stadium.
Only the burly man, endlessly opening and closing the door, remained in the stadium. Soon, he heard the strange footsteps.
The three of them moved quickly through the corridor. They could faintly hear the burly man's screams from behind, which made them quicken their pace.
"Where are we going?"
Although he was following at the back of the group, the old man had no idea what they were trying to do.
"Survive, and look for a way to escape this place."
Lin Ye hoped he could survive longer this time.
"Are you really a newcomer? Why do I feel you're more reliable than veterans?"
The old man followed behind Lin Ye. He definitely didn't want to be alone in a place like this.
'Huh? Isn't this the Intersection? Why did it become two branching paths, left and right?'
Lin Ye recalled the corridor structure from the last simulation. He couldn't possibly remember wrong. The terrain here was absolutely different from last time.
'What's going on? Does entering the passageway at different times change the terrain?'
Due to insufficient information, Lin Ye couldn't yet deduce what the terrain change represented.
The three of them moved swiftly through the passageway. Twenty minutes later, they still hadn't exited it. On both sides of the passageway were monotonous, unchanging brown wallpapers. Continuing like this felt like they were running in place.
When passing a fork in the path, Lin Ye suddenly stopped and spoke:
"Something's wrong. This is the second time we've passed here."
"Impossible. We've been moving in one direction the whole time. We never turned back."
The other D-Class personnel denied it.
"You're right, we didn't turn back. But that bottle is one I threw there earlier."
Lin Ye pointed at an empty bottle on the ground at the corner.
"I saw him throw the bottle... So you mean we've been circling here the whole time?"
The old man had been following behind Lin Ye, so of course he had noticed Lin Ye's little action.
At that moment, strange footsteps suddenly sounded from one side of the corridor. Those footsteps were approaching them.
"Don't run!"
Lin Ye immediately warned.