Game: Civilization Paradise

"Great! The door isn’t closed,"

Jing Chuan exclaimed with delight.

"Hurry."

Luoxue glanced at the time on her wristband and charged out with Jing Chuan.

A flurry of thick snow blasted them in the face.

"So cold."

Before they could even celebrate, a violent shiver ran through them.

CLANK!

The next second, all the blast doors in the corridor behind them slammed shut again.

The entire base lost power and entered protection mode.

"The base is completely sealed! Long Ming is still inside!"

Cloud Fish and the others said helplessly, staring at the sealed-off shelter.

Luoxue fell into silence.

"It can’t be helped. He’s trapped in there. The only thing he can do is kill himself to exit the game."

Zhihan shook her head helplessly.

Luoxue let out a soft sigh, then said to the group,

"Let’s go. To the evacuation point."

"Yes."

Zhihan and the others replied.

Luoxue then led the group away.

...

「Floor B12, Central Control Room.」

All the main lights were out, leaving the central control room pitch-black. Fortunately, emergency fluorescent strips lined the bottom of the walls. They emitted a faint glow, providing just enough light to make out the barest of outlines.

Long Ming let out a long breath, then took out a high-explosive grenade.

He gripped the metal pin, preparing to blow himself up to exit the instance.

Long Ming let out another long breath, then pulled the pin.

CLICK~

BOOM~

A violent explosion erupted.

Long Ming was thrown through the air, landing hard on the ground.

"Ow, holy shit."

His face contorted in pain, Long Ming pushed himself up with his right hand and slowly climbed to his feet.

"That hurt like hell. What’s going on? How am I not dead?"

Long Ming looked down at his body.

He watched as his wounds rapidly iced over and began to heal.

"Holy crap, that works too? Does this mean I’ll have to use a bunch of grenades?"

Stunned, Long Ming stared at the grenades on his belt and muttered to himself in disbelief.

’No, that would be agonizing. I need to think of something else.’

He immediately rejected the idea. Although he wasn’t afraid of pain, it didn’t mean he had masochistic tendencies.

Just then, a thought flashed through Long Ming’s mind.

An idea suddenly took root. He then felt his way through the dark toward the core of the control room.

「A few minutes later.」

Long Ming made his way to the nuclear reactor and found the jammed fuel rod.

He tried pushing the fuel rod back in.

But the fuel rod didn’t budge.

"Hnngh."

Long Ming took a deep breath, then pushed back with all his might.

CRACK!

The nuclear fuel rod slid back a little.

Seeing a glimmer of hope, Long Ming pushed with all his might, the veins on his forehead bulging.

THUNK!

With a final, sharp sound,

the nuclear fuel rod slid all the way in.

Long Ming gasped violently for air.

But the reactor didn’t restart.

Long Ming froze for a second. He thought back for a moment, then immediately felt his way over to the emergency breaker and flipped the switch.

Instantly, the entire nuclear reactor started running again.

In the central control room, the console screens lit up again.

"Rebooting lighting system."

"Rebooting life support system."

"Charging backup power supply."

...

The entire base’s lighting system instantly lit up.

A brilliant smile spread across Long Ming’s face. His gamble had paid off. He turned and sprinted back toward the main console.

A moment later, Long Ming was back at the console.

He immediately got to work. First, he sealed the passageway from Floor B13, trapping the remaining monsters inside. Then, he opened the exit corridors to let out the monsters that had already gotten through. Finally, he reactivated all the elevators.

Next, Long Ming checked the interface for the nuclear fuel rod and found it had a safety lock.

He immediately entered a command to disengage the safety lock.

After finishing his tasks, Long Ming glanced at the charging time for the backup power supply. It displayed a full charge would take three hours.

He then left the central control room and headed to Floor B6 to find Ailo’s body.

Soon, Long Ming arrived in front of Ailo’s corpse. He crouched down to check its body for anything valuable. He had been in too much of a hurry earlier and didn’t have time to search it.

He discovered that the blue blood flowing from Ailo’s heart had automatically coalesced into a blue crystal.

Long Ming scanned it with his wristband, and the wristband immediately displayed a message.

Extreme-Ice Blood Crystal.

Grade: Red.

Remarks: Formed from the blood of Ailo’s heart. Appears to contain special genetic material.

Long Ming hesitated for a moment, then picked it up and stuffed it into his pocket.

’If I’m not mistaken, this should be some kind of biological material. It ought to be quite valuable.’

Long Ming then searched Ailo’s body again, but unfortunately found nothing.

He let out a slight sigh, then ran towards the armory.

Soon he arrived at the armory. The whole place was a mess. It was obvious that the most valuable items had been taken by the Rat Group.

With a look of resignation, Long Ming could only return to the central control room and watch the backup power’s charging progress.

When the backup power supply was one-third charged,

Long Ming didn’t hesitate. He ran back to the reactor room and skillfully cut the power switch.

The entire base went dark again, but the emergency power quickly kicked in, and everything returned to normal operation.

Long Ming then rushed forward, grabbed the handle of the nuclear fuel rod, and pulled with all his might.

The entire nuclear fuel rod was pulled out bit by bit, but it quickly got stuck again.

"Come on, get out!"

Long Ming planted his feet on the machinery, putting every ounce of his strength into it, and pulled for all he was worth!

CLANK!

With a crisp sound,

Long Ming yanked the XT-01 nuclear fuel rod free, the force sending him stumbling backward and falling hard on the ground.

Hiss.

Long Ming sucked in a sharp breath and climbed to his feet.

He looked at the nuclear fuel rod in his hands, feeling a little exasperated.

’This thing might not look big, but it must weigh well over a hundred pounds. No wonder it was so hard to pull out.’

BZZT~

At that moment, his wristband popped up a notification.

He glanced down.

"Notification: XT-01 Nuclear Fuel Rod."

"Warning: You are being exposed to radiation."

...

Long Ming read the notifications, exasperated. But he couldn’t worry about that now. He hoisted the nuclear fuel rod onto his shoulder and sprinted for the exit.

’Originally, I was thinking that if this thing wasn’t so heavy, I’d swing by the armory and grab some rifles to sell.’

Now, he dismissed the idea entirely. He’d be lucky just to get this thing out of here.

「Seven minutes later.」

DING~

With a crisp chime, the elevator on Floor B1 opened.

Long Ming immediately shouldered the nuclear fuel rod and sprinted towards the exit corridor.

Soon, he successfully rushed out of the shelter.

A blizzard of snow blasted him in the face.

Long Ming looked around. All he could see was a vast expanse of white. There was no sign of anyone, and even their footprints had been erased by the snow. It was clear Luoxue and the others had already left.

Long Ming raised his wristband to check the time. There were only a little over three hours left. If he couldn’t evacuate by then, he would be declared dead.

"I’m screwed. They took the evacuation transport!"

Long Ming slapped his forehead in frustration.