"Then do it on the move!"
Just as the leader's voice fell, a scream rang out—the first they'd heard in a while.
Another man in a white coat clutched his chest and collapsed. A large amount of blood gushed from his back, and the generator in Xiang Yi's hand once again emitted black smoke.
The man in white was still struggling on the ground, but he was clearly breathing his last.
The leader decisively abandoned him, grabbing Xiang Yi and running toward the mine tunnel exit. The earlier incendiary grenade and Mind Pulse Generator had managed to clear a narrow path out.
The last remaining man in a white coat didn't dare to linger, scrambling to follow the leader.
They had started with ten people. Now, including Xiang Yi, only three were left fleeing for their lives.
Xiang Yi's hands were a blur of motion as he ran.
He used his Spiritual Energy to pull the wiring out of the device, then began deliberately misconnecting the circuits with his own hands.
Even while conserving his energy this way, he could feel his mind descending into chaos. It was becoming a struggle just to keep moving.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, memories of several previous major incidents echoing in his mind.
A fresh surge of strength welled up inside him, and he followed the leader to the four bodies blocking the exit.
The four prison guards' corpses had been mutilated beyond recognition, swarming with countless Blood Crystal Worms slaughtering each other atop the remains.
In a few more minutes, most of the Blood Crystal Worms would mature into adults by devouring each other. Then, the three of them would be the worms' next target.
Perhaps they wouldn't even have to wait that long. The walls near the corpses were already covered in adult Blood Crystal Worms scuttling rapidly toward them.
The entire mine tunnel had been completely overrun.
"Why in the world are there so many worms?" the leader couldn't help but ask again. His eyes were filled with confusion as he stared at the Blood Crystal Worms, which craved flesh so intensely.
The last man in white replied, "The worms' activity level is far beyond normal. Something unusual must have triggered this."
"Maybe too many people have died?"
The leader shook his head slightly, noncommittal about the man's theory, and turned his gaze to Xiang Yi.
"How's it coming along?"
Xiang Yi had just about finished cross-wiring the stun baton's internal battery.
Shielding his work with his hand, he used his Spiritual Energy to connect the final few wires. Then, he used his energy once more to repair the overload damage to the Mind Pulse Generator.
Just as Xiang Yi was about to respond, his vision suddenly went black, and he sank to one knee without a sound.
The leader's face filled with panic and tension, thinking Xiang Yi had finally collapsed.
Fortunately, however, Xiang Yi managed to struggle back to his feet.
"I'm fine."
'This should be the last time,'
He waved his hand and activated the Mind Pulse Generator.
The Psychic Pulse forced back the vast swarms of Blood Crystal Worms from all around the tunnel ahead, concentrating them near the four guards' corpses.
The skin-crawling sight of countless writhing, multi-limbed maggots rolling through flesh and blood relentlessly grated on Xiang Yi's nerves.
He took a breath, pressed the button on the stun baton, and hurled it forward the instant the delay mechanism activated.
There was no explosive roar of gunpowder, no searing wave of flames.
Instead, several arcs of electricity erupted from the modified stun baton's battery, forming a spiderweb of lightning that lit up the tunnel in a brilliant flash.
It only lasted for an instant, but in that moment, the writhing Blood Crystal Worms were blasted to pieces by the dancing arcs of electricity.
Nearly every Blood Crystal Worm within sight was utterly annihilated.
The stench of burnt flesh gradually filled Xiang Yi's nostrils.
"Go!"
"AHH!"
The leader's roar and the last white-coated man's scream rang out at the same time.
Xiang Yi glanced back and saw a Blood Crystal Worm desperately burrowing deep into the man's right leg.
The Mind Pulse Generator, which should have still been running, had entered an overloaded state sooner than expected. The electrical arcs had interfered with its operation.
The man in white reached a hand out to Xiang Yi, pleading for help.
But Xiang Yi ran without a second glance.
'You can only save people if you have the ability. If you don't, you can only look out for yourself.'
He followed close behind the leader, vaulting over the four corpses and the piles of dead Blood Crystal Worms, and rushed to the engineering elevator.
The elevator doors slowly opened. The two men charged inside and frantically mashed the 'close door' button.
When the elevator doors slammed shut with a THUD, Xiang Yi collapsed directly onto the floor.
At some point, his body had once again become stained red with blood. The wounds that had been stitched shut had torn open, and the intense pain...
Trembling, Xiang Yi reached out, holding the barrel of the old guard's pistol, and offered the gun to the leader.
The leader finally let out a long sigh of relief and reached out to take it.
But Xiang Yi suddenly aimed the muzzle at the leader.
The leader's heart leaped in shock, and he quickly raised his own gun.
But before he could make a move, a piercing pain shot through the sole of his right foot.
A Blood Crystal Worm, hidden in a gap in the elevator, had torn through the skin and flesh of his foot and already burrowed a third of its body inside him.
Xiang Yi pressed the muzzle directly against the leader's ankle and looked at him questioningly.
The leader clenched his jaw in agony, his voice growling from the depths of his throat. "Shoot."
Xiang Yi fired two shots in quick succession. The first blew the leader's foot apart, and the second completely obliterated the Blood Crystal Worm.
The leader didn't make a sound, but his face was frighteningly pale.
He endured the excruciating pain, clutching his shattered foot and gasping for breath as he stammered, "Now I get... how you... survived before..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he passed out completely.
Xiang Yi himself went limp again, collapsing onto his back in the slowly ascending elevator, gasping weakly.
His eyes blinked rapidly as a wave of fatigue, more ferocious than before, washed over his consciousness.
'I'm probably next. I'm almost completely spent.'
But in the end, he fought off the drowsiness, forced his body up, and began to crawl toward the corpse of the last Blood Crystal Worm he had killed.
When the worm's corpse was within arm's reach, he opened the pistol's interface panel.
["Iron Shell" 9mm Police Service Pistol]
[Firing Module: "Iron Shell" Semi-Automatic Trigger & Chamber Assembly]
[Feed Module: "Iron Shell" Internal Casing & Spring-Return Mechanism]
[Frame Type: "Iron Shell" Universal Unibody Police Pistol Frame]
[Additional Attachments: 13-Round 9mm Pistol Magazine]
Aside from its ability to collect spent casings and its unibody frame, this pistol had no advanced technology. Not that Xiang Yi needed any.
He just needed something that could open the panel.
As Xiang Yi struggled to focus his scattered attention,
the 3D projection below the pistol's panel enlarged, and the word "Modify" appeared beside the projection once more.
He selected the pistol's most crucial component, the Firing Module, and three options appeared: [Basic Modification], [Unique Modification], and [Spiritual Energy Status].
The [Unique Modification] option was confirmed.
This time, it didn't prompt him with a "missing materials" message. Instead, it displayed three new material options.
[Blood Crystal], [High-Quality Blood Crystals], and [Living Iron].