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In the dark and deep corridor, only the sound of their two footsteps echoed.
One in front of the other.
Noah walked ahead with steady steps.
Manuela followed behind, her steps messy and timid.
Silence surrounded them, save for the distant roar of the rushing flood, a reminder of the terrifying moment they had just experienced.
The air was thick with a cold scent of rust mixed with damp moss.
Water droplets constantly seeped from the walls, gathering into small streams that meandered across the floor.
Noah suddenly stopped.
Manuela, following behind him, stiffened like a startled deer and stopped as well.
She subconsciously took half a step back, pressing her body tightly against the cold concrete wall, holding her breath.
In the entire corridor, only her uncontrollable, drum-like heartbeat remained.
Noah remained silent for a moment.
Glancing back out of the corner of his eye, he could see the petite, shivering silhouette pressed against the wall.
His voice was calm, devoid of any emotional ups and downs, sounding exceptionally clear in the empty corridor.
"Hmm..."
He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts.
"Can you tell me... why are you so afraid of me?"
The question was finally asked.
Breaking the eerie balance between them.
Manuela's body shook even more violently.
She buried her head even lower, her long hair hanging down and obscuring most of her face, making her expression unreadable.
She didn't dare look at Noah.
A fear originating from the depths of her Soul, indescribable in any words, permeated her entire body.
She shook her head vigorously.
"I..."
A stifled sob escaped her throat.
"I... I don't know why either..."
Her voice was broken, heavy with a sob.
She truly didn't know.
This feeling defied all logic.
The man before her had just saved her from the flood.
He had even kicked a terrifying creature to death to protect her.
Reason told her he was a trustworthy protector.
But every cell and every nerve in her body was screaming shrilly, urging her to flee quickly.
The farther from him, the better.
This contradictory feeling almost tore her mind apart.
Noah shrugged helplessly.
He turned around, looking directly at the girl for the first time.
She huddled in the corner like a fledgling soaked by a rainstorm, unable to find its nest—fragile, helpless, and full of wariness.
In her eyes, he saw no hatred or disgust.
Only the purest, most primal fear, as if it were etched into her genes.
"..."
Noah opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.
Just then.
"Zzz... crackle..."
A faint static sound came from the tactical communicator on Noah's waist, breaking the suffocating silence.
Immediately after, Leon's voice came through, accompanied by heavy breathing and the noisy sound of water in the background.
"Noah... are you okay?"
"How is Manuela?"
Noah quickly raised his hand and pressed the talk button.
"We're fine."
"Manuela is with me."
"Are you and Krauser okay?"
Leon's voice on the other end sounded a bit tired but full of energy, clearly not injured.
"We're fine."
"Damn it, this cursed flood... we were washed to the edge of a Reservoir."
"This looks like some kind of Filtration System for the dam."
Noah's tense nerves relaxed slightly.
As long as they were safe, it was fine.
"Then let's meet at the top of the dam."
He gave the most direct plan.
"Okay..."
Leon had just responded when a strange noise suddenly came from the communicator.
It was a dull thud, like a heavy object falling into water.
Immediately, Leon's voice became urgent and sharp.
"Holy shit...!"
"Got it!"
"Bang! Bang bang!"
The crisp and dense sound of gunfire, mixed with Krauser's angry roar, came through the transmission.
Clearly, they had run into trouble as well.
The communication cut off.
Noah put down the communicator, his brow furrowing slightly.
He turned to Manuela, who was still huddled in the corner.
"Take me to the top of the dam."
Manuela was startled by the gunfire from the communicator, her body trembling again.
She looked up, her blue eyes brimming with tears, giving Noah a timid glance before quickly looking down again.
She nodded cautiously.
Faced with the instinct for survival, her fear of Noah was temporarily suppressed.
She stood up from the corner, still keeping her head down and not daring to look at Noah, then turned and walked deeper into the corridor.
Noah followed behind her, maintaining a distance of several meters.
Looking at the thin and panicked figure ahead, Noah gave a bitter smile.
This was truly the first time he had been avoided like some kind of Peerless Vicious Beast.
Manuela led him through many twists and turns, eventually arriving at a maintenance staircase leading upward.
It was a spiral metal staircase, winding upward and disappearing into the deep darkness above.
The staircase's structure was old, with large patches of paint peeling off to reveal the rusted metal body beneath.
In the air, the damp smell of mold and rust grew even stronger.
"Drip... drop..."
Water dripped from an unknown place above, hitting the metal steps below with a crisp, rhythmic sound that created an eerie, empty echo in the silent stairwell.
Manuela stepped onto the first stair.
The metal step let out a tooth-grinding groan under her feet.
She turned back, seemingly wanting to say something to Noah, but swallowed her words when she saw his calm face.
She quickly turned back, gripped the cold and slippery handrail beside her, picked up her pace, and climbed upward with her head down.
The staircase was long, as if it had no end.
It was pitch black all around, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing.
Manuela's breathing became increasingly rapid.
It wasn't just from physical exertion.
It was more from the immense psychological pressure.
She could clearly feel that the man she feared was right behind her.
His footsteps were neither fast nor slow, each step feeling as if it were landing on her heartbeat.
She didn't dare look back, nor did she dare slow down.
She could only climb desperately, as if doing so could help her escape the source of fear that followed her like a shadow.
Noah noticed her state.
He slowed his pace, deliberately widening the distance between them.
He looked up toward the bottomless darkness above.
His brain was working rapidly.
veronica virus.
Javier.
A terminally ill daughter treated as a test subject by her father.
What else was hidden behind all this?
And why was Manuela's extraordinary fear of him occurring?
Was it because of the virus?
Could an infected person of the veronica virus sense the presence of the g-virus inside him?
Mysteries shrouded him one after another like a spiderweb.
He didn't know how long they had been climbing.
Finally, a sliver of light appeared before them.
It was a half-open iron door. Through the crack, greyish-white daylight peeked in, accompanied by the howling of the wind.
Manuela, as if seeing hope, used the last of her strength to rush up in a few strides and pushed the heavy iron door open.
"Whoosh—!!!"
A gale mixed with heavy water vapor instantly poured in from outside, making her long hair and white dress flutter wildly.
The blinding light caused both of them, who had been in darkness for a long time, to instinctively squint.
A deafening roar surged toward them from all sides.
They had finally reached the top of the dam.
Beneath their feet was a wide concrete platform, covered in slippery moss due to years of erosion by water vapor.
Beyond the railing was a bottomless abyss.
Massive torrents of water were gushing out from the nearby Spillway Gates, turning into white Dragons that roared as they crashed into the River Valley below, kicking up a mist that filled the air.
The sky was gloomy, with heavy dark clouds hanging low as if they might collapse at any moment.
"Bang!"
A gunshot abruptly cut through the massive roar.
The sound came from not far away on the platform.
Noah dashed out of the stairwell, his sharp gaze sweeping toward the direction of the gunshot.
Dozens of meters away, at the entrance of the Control Tower on the other side of the dam, two familiar figures were leaning against the wall, engaged in a fierce firefight with several monsters rushing out of the tower.
It was Leon and Krauser.
They were soaked through and looked a bit disheveled, but their movements were still agile.
Their enemies included the slender red monsters they had seen in the tunnels, as well as a new, even more terrifying creature.
It was a massive monster that looked like a giant toad. (Stalker Subspecies)
Its skin was a sickly grayish-green, covered in nauseating pustules.
They stood on thick hind limbs, their lantern-sized eyes flashing with greedy and bloodthirsty glints.
Most terrifying were their giant mouths that could split open to their ears; every time they opened, one could see dense, needle-like teeth and a tongue several meters long that could snap out like a whip.
Leon and Krauser's firepower was being suppressed by these thick-skinned Toad Monsters.
Bullets hitting them only caused bursts of green slime, failing to inflict any fatal damage.
Seeing a Toad Monster approaching Leon and opening its bloody maw.
Noah quickened his pace.
His figure left an afterimage in place.
Standing behind him, Manuela watched the back of the figure rushing toward the battlefield with a complex gaze.
She subconsciously raised her hand and clutched her chest.
There, her heart rate seemed even more intense than before.
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