Chapter 156 : Chapter 156

Chapter 156 “Are you ready, Chu Zu?”

The building was slow to refresh, Tong Qinzhen's leg wound was still bleeding continuously.

Chu Zu had him lie flat in the corridor to slow his blood circulation, and took off his belt to tighten it around the base of his thigh, pressing his palm over the wound through his clothes.

Whether to remove the bullet or not was a secondary concern; if he kept losing blood, this person would most likely die right here.

This brainless university student was still exclaiming while crying out in pain: “So when vampires bite people's thighs, it's not for eroticism, they can really drink their fill...”

“Talk less.”

After Chu Zu spoke, he asked Sidney in the sea of consciousness, “Did we buy a lot of healing props before?”

Sidney chose his words carefully so as not to worry the host: “They were confiscated.”

He said, “Host, our offensive power is invincible right now... but offense is all we have left.”

“I'm sorry, Host.”

“Why apologize? If anyone should apologize, it's me to you.”

Chu Zu checked Tong Qinzhen's vital signs, tightened the belt on his leg a bit more, tucked the detonator from the floor into his waistband, then wrapped one arm around his back, slid the other under the bend of his knees, and lifted him up.

“Wrap your arms tightly around my neck, and close your eyes.”

He said to Tong Qinzhen.

Tong Qinzhen could barely speak properly.

He wanted to say, he was a perfectly dignified big guy, how did he suddenly end up being princess-carried by a handsome man.

Ran brother had never even carried him!!

“I... I... I...”

Tong Qinzhen didn't get to finish his “I...”, as he saw Chu Zu move quickly through the corridor, walk to the nearest window, and with a stride of his long legs, step right onto it.

Tong Qinzhen couldn't get his “I” out anymore.

Chu Zu shattered the window with his elbow, kicked away the broken glass on the window's edge, and asked Sidney amid the howling wind: “You won't let anything happen to me, right?”

Sidney rapidly used code to enhance Chu Zu's 「Master Wang」.

Most of his props had been forcibly reclaimed, but as long as it was a prop Chu Zu still had, he could modify it into something amazing.

Sidney didn't ask the host why he wasn't taking the stairs; he already understood Chu Zu well.

Carrying Tong Qinzhen down the emergency exit would take at least ten minutes.

If the floor refreshed midway, the journey might become shorter, or it might become longer.

Besides... Chu Zu probably had other reasons.

So Sidney nodded: “Yes!”

Chu Zu: “Yeah, I trust you.”

He pulled Tong Qinzhen a little tighter against his chest, ensuring their center of gravity was concentrated, and leaped directly from the 43rd floor.

Chu Zu's body was instantly dragged down by gravity.

Tong Qinzhen didn't have much strength, but he was obedient, clinging tightly to his neck without letting go.

Chu Zu extended his right arm to slightly adjust their falling posture, while trying to minimize the pull on his left shoulder.

In the whistling wind, the asphalt ground before them magnified rapidly.

Combining weight, descent speed, collision risk, how to absorb impact, probability of injury... Sidney continuously updated the 「Master Wang」 parameters, Chu Zu stared at the protruding architectural gutter on the building's outer wall—that was his only option to borrow force.

Just as they were about to reach the gutter, Chu Zu relied on his core muscles to adjust their direction, his left foot precisely struck that section of gutter.

Following a loud “CLANG”, the steel gutter was stomped concave, and shattered concrete flew.

Using this “recoil force”, the angle of their descent changed slightly, and their speed slowed by a fraction.

But not everything went as planned.

A tearing pain shot through Chu Zu's ankle.

He was certain that the torn cross-section of the steel gutter had sliced through the skin of his ankle, and the impact had also broken the bone.

But Chu Zu ignored it.

After borrowing the force, they were still falling rapidly, still more than ten meters from the ground.

Another dull “THUD”—the two smashed onto the narrow platform in front of the building, and then tumbled violently onto the ground's pavement.

At the last moment before landing, Chu Zu twisted his waist backward to land first, taking the impact with his back and shoulder.

Although his arm's movement was limited, he could still provide minor support for Tong Qinzhen while rolling on the ground, maximizing the dispersion of the impact force.

After this series of coherent and swift movements, the two finally stopped after rolling twice on the ground.

The asphalt ground was left with a slight indentation from his impact , the kicked-up dust and gravel scattered in the wind.

Chu Zu knelt on one knee: “Where are the others?”

Sidney: “Only Yang Mangshu and Jiang Ran are left. They listened to you and have been hiding in the grass outside. They saw the commotion and are running this way.”

Chu Zu didn't let go of the pale and grimacing Tong Qinzhen, continuing to carry him away from the building: “How long until this building refreshes?”

Sidney looked at the wound on the host's foot, his face in the sea of consciousness wrinkling up.

Chu Zu was very good at enduring pain, his expression showing no discomfort, but his walking was still affected.

Every time he put his weight on the injured leg, his speed would slow a little.

“Two minutes and thirty-five seconds... Host, are you okay?”

“I'm fine.”

Chu Zu moved as far away from the building as possible, once again placing the grimacing Tong Qinzhen flat on the ground, applying pressure to his wound, waiting for the two figures sprinting toward him to get closer.

He counted down in his mind.

When there were only about ten seconds left, Chu Zu shouted at Yang Mangshu and Jiang Ran, who were still three or four meters away: “Get down—”

Countdown five seconds, Chu Zu pressed the detonator.

First, a dull impact sound spread close to the ground, like a distant great drum being struck heavily.

Immediately after, a bright light far exceeding the previous high-rise explosion flashed at the base of the building.

Jiang Ran immediately realized something was wrong, tackled Yang Mangshu, who was beside him, to the ground, and pressed his body firmly on top of her.

In the next instant, blinding sparks and scattering debris shot out in all directions.

Only then did the sound roar out.

The killing power of the bomb Chu Shiju had buried in the pit far exceeded the previous one.

Chu Zu's ears first filled with a brief roar, and then the world seemed to be plugged, as a buzzing tinnitus appeared.

The earth trembled along with the building, as if the asphalt road underfoot had been stirred into a ripple.

The building was already a dangerous building; after its precarious foundation was completely blown up, it utterly lost its support.

At first, it just tilted slightly, emitting the terrible sound of twisting metal and tearing rebar.

Immediately after, “Kacha” “Kacha” sounds of cracking came one after another, and the entire building began to accelerate its collapse in the direction opposite to Chu Zu.

Other than the tinnitus, Chu Zu couldn't hear any sound.

He could only feel the vibration in his chest, like a tremor pressed between his organs.

His heart was affected, beating violently beneath his ribs.

Chu Zu looked up at the building.

About ten seconds had passed since the refresh time Sidney mentioned, but the building did not continue to change.

The external glass curtain wall shattered under the immense pressure.

The rebar and concrete gradually disintegrated, weaving into a massive flow of debris.

As the collapse intensified, dust and debris were thrown into the air by the huge impact force.

Billowing dust rose, forming a thick wall of smoke and dust in just a dozen seconds.

Half a minute later, the building finally lost all support and collapsed thunderously to the ground.

The kicked-up dust swept the surroundings like a sandstorm.

The thunderous wave of sound lasted for a few seconds, then gradually faded into a low echo, and then gradually returned to silence.

When the dust slowly dispersed, the destroyed structures had all vanished into thin air.

There was no rubble on the spot.

The originally standing high-rise... had become an abrupt patch of pitch black—as if a piece had been forcibly torn from a canvas.

Chu Zu couldn't free his hands, so he shook his head to shake the dust out of his hair.

Jiang Ran supported Yang Mangshu as they staggered over from the pile of ruins emitting dust and heat.

Before he could ask what was going on, he first saw Tong Qinzhen on the ground, covered in dust and with a leg full of blood.

“Zhenzhen—”

The young couple pounced together on their mutual cheating partner.

Chu Zu was originally helping to apply pressure to the wound.

Now, two more people swarmed over, and the four of them were squeezed together.

Especially Jiang Ran and Yang Mangshu, who inexplicably developed a competitive mindset.

At the slightest disagreement, they pushed and shoved each other, starting to fight for the best hugging position.

Chu Zu couldn't watch anymore: “Yang Mangshu, he'll suffocate immediately if you hug him like that... Jiang Ran, don't be in a hurry to snatch him from Yang Mangshu, come and put pressure on his leg. He was shot in the leg, probably hit the main artery, the bleeding won't stop.”

Sidney: “……”

Sidney: “Although I knew the three of them were a bit weird, seeing it with my own eyes, it's not a bit, it's extremely weird.”

Chu Zu said in the sea of consciousness: “Kids shouldn't watch.”

Sidney obediently covered his eyes, two slits showing between his fingertips, his azure eyes blinking.

“Host, the door has appeared.”

Chu Zu turned his head to look.

In that pitch-black void, a white door stood.

The Gentleman, who had always stayed about two meters away from him and had remained quiet after entering the building on the Second Playthrough, was standing by the white door.

Sidney: “I'm a bit confused. Didn't we need to find the door? After blowing up the building, how did the door just come out on its own...?”

Chu Zu slowly walked towards the door, saying in the sea of consciousness: “I jumped from the 43rd floor and only broke a leg. Does that fit the setting?”

Sidney: “...It doesn't.”

“But nothing happened to me, because the current setting doesn't say I can't do unreasonable things.”

Chu Zu asked again, “Chu Shiju messed up the plot countless times, the word count accumulated to the ten-million-word level, and readers still paid for it. Is that normal?”

Sidney thought for a moment: “Maybe?”

“No.”

Chu Zu said, “Readers aren't that patient, especially with a serialized novel. There are so many web novels; as long as a reader puts it down for a day, it's very hard to pick it back up again.”

Sidney: “I still don't understand.”

“Is it impossible to see new reader reviews for 《The Fifth Door》?”

Sidney was stunned: “Yes...”

Sidney briefly relayed what the Superior had said to Chu Zu.

Searching for 《The Fifth Door》 involves a violation.

Sidney also quickly informed the host about Chu Shiju's situation, including the fact that the Superior was his former system.

After speaking, Sidney sensed something was wrong.

When the Superior was explaining, Sidney still didn't know Chu Shiju's background.

Later, after receiving the email from the Long Aotian Superior, he learned of his relationship with the Superior.

Chu Shiju didn't have that high of a permission level.

He only had the part that the Superior had transferred to him, relying on props and the code from the Superior to create the targeted firewall.

Chu Shiju couldn't even stop specialists from other departments from being deployed into his body.

—Then why would searching for 《The Fifth Door》 involve a violation?

Chu Zu didn't care at all what condition his ankle was in.

That door was right in front of him, and behind it should be the truth of everything.

If Chu Shiju had told his system everything about himself from the start, he might have arrived at this door long ago.

Even if he didn't have that ability, his system would most likely have helped him.

The little chickens of Character Correction each had their own personalities, whether it was Guanfu's gentle and easygoing Dazed Feather Little chicken, Big Mango's boisterous Long Aotian Little Chicken, or Chu Zu's Sidney.

Their personalities were vastly different, but they all had one thing in common—if you were good to them, they would be wholeheartedly devoted to you.

Only specialists like the previous non-compliant specialist, who took shortcuts for performance, would be treated impersonally.

If only Chu Shiju had been open and honest, if only he had chosen correctly just once, he wouldn't have been trapped in the fire to die by Yang Jing.

“Because 《The Fifth Door》 has no readers at all. This book was never published.”

Chu Zu said, “This book's original direction was very strange.”

“One building, four tragic cases, four groups of people from different worlds come here, die, die, die, die, until they are all dead—so what was the author's purpose in designing these four, one could say, typical tragedies?”

The four tragic cases covered: encountering terrible parents after birth, an accident occurring at school during university, a desperate situation difficult to escape due to gender, and the arrival of death after entering the workforce.

Not a single one was used.

The setting truly became just background.

Other than getting people killed, not even one discussable point was ever truly discussed.

If the author truly wanted to write pulp horror, he could have chosen more exaggerated, more physiologically stimulating methods, rather than cases set against a realistic background that were very likely to appear in the news.

Readers wouldn't buy it; they would also be angry, this was capitalizing on tragedy.

Sidney was convinced: “...That seems to make sense.”

He was also confused, “Then what on earth is going on with 《The Fifth Door》!!”

Chu Zu suppressed the unverified guess in his heart.

He had already walked to the front of the white door.

The Gentleman faced him, a faint smile appearing on his old but spirited face: “Are you ready, Chu Zu?”

Chu Zu replied: “Ready for what?”

As he spoke, the white door opened for him, and a warm, daylight-like light filled the entire doorway.

In that light, the Gentleman said: “Ready to choose the ending where you save yourself.”