Chapter 376: Escape the Building
Across the large door was indeed a sports stadium, but this stadium was clearly not right.
The top of the stadium flickered with a dark red light, the ground was covered in red stagnant water, the air was thick with the scent of blood, and the stands were densely packed with corpses—these corpses all lacked heads and calves.
The footsteps from behind had vanished, as if even that sound didn't dare approach this place.
"...We have to pass through here?"
The burly man took a step back. Anyone with eyes could see this place was seriously problematic.
"I've never been here. Going in might mean death, but going back only means being killed by those footsteps. You can choose your own way to die."
Lin Ye entered the stadium. He lowered his footsteps, carefully skirted the stagnant water, and walked step by step towards the large door on the opposite side.
The old man cautiously followed behind Lin Ye;
he had no desire to stay in a place like this.
Only the burly man hesitated, standing outside the stadium, unable to bring himself to step forward.
Lin Ye smoothly reached the large door opposite. A heavy metal padlock hung on the door;
without opening it, there was no way to leave this place. "Mmph..."
The burly man across the way covered his mouth, making muffled sobbing sounds. Though not loud, they were clearly audible in this deathly silent environment.
The two men turned back to find that the corpses sitting in the stands had all stood up. Without feet, they seemed to float in mid-air. Some corpses had already closed to within less than ten meters of them, and with each flicker of the light, they drew closer.
Even more terrifying, a monster covered in heads stood behind the burly man. All its heads were smiling, watching the two men on the other side of the stadium.
At this moment, the burly man still didn't know what was happening.
No one had ever said that not entering the stadium meant you wouldn't be attacked by monsters.
Lin Ye forcibly outlined the Molding rune and opened the padlock. Before pushing the door open, he looked at the burly man and pointed behind himself.
This was his final warning.
Lin Ye pushed open the large door and left the stadium with the old man. Seeing the two men open the door, the multi-headed monster let out a furious roar and instantly teleported near the door.
But it was already too late. The two men had already left the building. Outside the building was a place this monster could never reach. It could only stand at the doorway, watching the two men depart in anger.
Those heads emitted mocking laughter, blessing the two who had escaped—something they themselves had never managed to do.
Prompted by Lin Ye's warning, the burly man fled into the passageway like a madman. This was his only path to survival, but he soon stopped in his tracks because deep within the passageway, strange footsteps were approaching him.
With the multi-headed monster right behind him, in the last moments of his life, the burly man could only let out a howl of bitter resentment. But in the end, this was the outcome he had chosen for himself.
Outside the large door was a stretch of dark gray coastline. Under a gloomy sky, gray flakes drifted down. Blue-black seawater stretched as far as the eye could see.
Lin Ye looked back and found the large door behind them had already closed. The stadium and the discontinuous passageway were just a small part of some enormous building. The building's exterior walls were over a hundred meters high. They were isolated on this beach by the high walls;
the only way to leave seemed to be by sea.
"...What the hell is this place?"
The old man looked around, a bad premonition rising in his heart.
"I don't know either."
Lin Ye caught some of the gray flakes in his hand. They didn't feel particularly special to the touch.
"Then what do we do now? Can we go back?"
The old man asked in a low voice.
"It seems we only have one path to take."
Lin Ye walked towards the beach. On one side of the beach was a black stone seawall, dozens of meters long, extending into the deeper water.
"This place feels a bit dangerous..."
The old man followed behind Lin Ye. The seawall was less than two meters wide with no guardrails. Watching the turbulent waves crash against it, it almost seemed like the seawall was shifting and moving within the water.
"You're afraid of the sea?"
The sea wind was bitterly cold. Lin Ye felt the heat within his body being carried away by it.
"Afraid? I'm an excellent swimmer, the kind who can sleep floating in water."
The old man boasted.
"I'm afraid of the sea because, just like the universe, no one knows what might emerge from it."
Reaching the end of the seawall, Lin Ye looked at the pitch-black water and felt an impulse to run back to the shore.
"I'm afraid of this sea too. It's too dark, like a bottomless abyss."
The old man hurriedly added, somewhat afraid Lin Ye might ask him to scout the sea.
"Can you pilot a boat?"
Lin Ye suddenly asked.
"If you mean that wooden boat down there, then I probably can. But I absolutely will not row that little broken wooden boat to leave this place."
The old man looked at the small wooden boat tied up below the seawall. Not even the most experienced captain could take a boat like that out to sea.
"Then forget it. Rowing shouldn't be too hard to learn. You can stay here by yourself."
With that, Lin Ye jumped off the seawall and landed in the wooden boat.
"...Wait! Take me with you! I'm an expert rower!"
The old man hurriedly jumped into the boat. Just imagining himself alone in a place like this, an intense sense of panic seized his mind.
"First, row along the coastline for a loop. Remember to conserve your strength. When you're tired, we'll switch positions."
Lin Ye disliked this kind of place with no leads. He couldn't just go searching for a way back in the depths of the sea, could he?
"Okay."
The old man rowed the boat, moving along the coast. He truly was skilled at rowing;
he hadn't lied about that.
Lin Ye observed the coastline and the building, but after completing a full circuit, he hadn't discovered anything useful.
"I can't go on."
The old man put down the oars. After all, he was getting on in years and couldn't keep up such physically demanding work.
"Then we'll swap. I've pretty much learned it too."
Lin Ye picked up the oars, skillfully maneuvering the small wooden boat, rowing it with the waves towards the deeper sea.
"Uh, where are we going?"
The old man looked at the gradually receding coastline and asked with some alarm.
"I don't know. But staying here is pointless now. We finally escaped the building;
we can't just run back in ourselves."
Lin Ye intended to go out to sea for a look. If it really didn't work out, they could always enter the building again next time to search for a way to leave.
"I hope you know what you're doing. Taking a small boat like this out to sea is hardly different from suicide."
Though he said this, the old man actually didn't want to return to that building either.
"It's fine. I'm a Veteran Driver, very skilled at operating vehicles."
Lin Ye suddenly noticed that after moving away from the coast, the Spiritual Energy Concentration in the environment had increased slightly. And the farther from the coast, the higher the concentration.
As long as there was sufficient spiritual energy, even in the depths of this sea, he had means to survive.