Chapter 9 Two Choices
Chapter 9: Two Choices
Zhou Ming raised his flashlight directly at the other person's face. The person reached out to block the blinding light, but soon seemed to understand something and closed her eyes, pushing aside her messy black hair to reveal a face covered in blood.
The woman's face trembled slightly in the strong flashlight beam. Anyone could see that this face was different from the monster portrait in the archives.
Huang Tao and Zhang Qian gasped, suddenly realizing what this person locked here was: an ordinary person who had been captured.
"Open your eyes." Zhou Ming slightly shifted the light source, staring at the woman's face.
She opened her eyes. Around her pitch-black pupils were bloodshot whites. Perhaps due to a long period of poor sleep, the capillaries in her eyeballs were severely burst, making the whites almost pink, somewhat similar to the Experimental subject Zhou Ming had encountered before, but she was still relatively normal.
Zhou Ming observed her more closely and found that she was suffering from severe hair loss.
She should have had thick, beautiful hair originally, but now, several patches of pale scalp were exposed on her head, with only a few sparse black hairs hanging, like a deforested area.
The woman cautiously scrutinized the three people in front of her, trembling with excitement all over, her mouth open but unable to speak.
The woman's gaze felt familiar to Zhou Ming, carrying the same extreme lucidity as the Experimental subjects, which made him feel a chill.
"Can you speak?" Zhou Ming asked.
The woman nodded.
"Why aren't you speaking?" Huang Tao asked.
"They… they might hear," the woman whispered, lowering her voice. "They… they locked me here and then forgot about me."
Zhou Ming thought of the description in the archives and asked, "Why did they lock you here?"
The woman clenched her jaw, her teeth chattering, and her body began to tremble violently.
Zhou Ming understood. The archives' description revealed that the Experimental subjects had severe self-harming and cannibalistic tendencies. This explained why the woman was locked here.
He sighed and reached out to pat the woman's shoulder, wanting to comfort her. Before his palm could get close, the woman, who had been trembling violently, reacted as if stimulated, suddenly lunging to bite Zhou Ming's hand like a dog protecting its food!
Zhou Ming was quick, pulling his hand back sharply to dodge. The woman bit at empty air, her upper and lower teeth clashing with a crisp sound.
Zhou Ming stepped back and raised his knife, pointing it at the woman.
Behind him, Huang Tao and Zhang Qian both raised their knives, also entering a state of alert. They stared intently at the woman, swallowing hard. The relaxed feeling they had after easily dispatching the first Experimental subject was now completely gone.
Zhou Ming stared at the imprisoned woman. Clearly, she had mental issues.
She was very abnormal, but she didn't seem to belong to the hostile forces.
Dealing with this woman in front of him was simple, but the question was whether her condition met the standard for being dealt with.
But… if they didn't deal with her, taking her along would obviously be very dangerous.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the woman repeatedly apologized in a low voice, covering her front with her hands and shuffling backward, dragging her chains.
Zhou Ming stared at her, seemingly sensing something amiss. He took a step closer to her and slowly said, "Don't back away. Show me your hands."
The woman tremblingly extended her hands. A small piece of flesh was missing from the base of her right thumb. The wound was already slightly pale, devoid of blood.
After examining her hands, Zhou Ming's gaze returned to her face. There were clear traces of wiped blood around her mouth.
The situation was now clear. Zhou Ming felt goosebumps all over his body as new information entered his mind. He stood there, dazed.
Something's not right…
It's too wrong…
This mission isn't as simple as it seems…
Suddenly, Zhou Ming's expression changed drastically. He took a step to the doorway and looked out.
Seeing this, Huang Tao and Zhang Qian quickly walked to his side and asked in low voices, "What's wrong?"
"Didn't you hear anything?"
"No."
"Nothing."
Zhou Ming thought for a moment: "Follow me!"
"What about her?" Huang Tao looked at the imprisoned woman.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"
The woman seemed to sense that Zhou Ming was about to leave, and her mind once again plunged into panic and helplessness. She unconsciously raised her hand, putting the wound on her palm to her mouth, and began to suck on it with all her might, as if doing so could slightly curb her inner fear.
When Huang Tao and Zhang Qian saw this action, they felt an indescribable chill.
"Senior, are we abandoning her?" Huang Tao asked again.
"Do you have lock-picking tools? Can the knives in your hands cut through that chain?"
Zhou Ming's questions brought the two back to reality. Huang Tao and Zhang Qian immediately sobered up. Although their knives contained Curse Power, their sharpness was only slightly better than ordinary weapons. It would not be easy to cut through such a thick iron chain.
Zhou Ming glanced at the two, then, with his knife in hand, walked to the woman's side and slowly extended his hand again, reaching for her shoulder.
Huang Tao and Zhang Qian held their breath, watching the scene nervously, their hearts in their throats. They didn't understand why Zhou Ming was doing this.
Zhou Ming's hand landed on the woman's shoulder. At the moment of contact, she trembled, but did not make any dangerous moves.
Zhou Ming nodded slightly, having made a judgment in his heart.
Her sudden attempt to bite him just now was not out of subjective will, but an instinctive reaction made under extreme emotional tension. The act of biting her own body seemed to greatly alleviate her fear, and the partial loss of flesh on her hands was evidence of this.
Is she normal?
Probably, at least more normal than those guys outside.
"I heard movement outside just now. We have to leave! Those monsters have already roughly pinpointed our location."
"Why leave? We came here to eliminate them. With you, Senior, those monsters are no match for us!" Huang Tao asked, puzzled.
"No time to explain now, we'll talk outside. We need to find a way to save her and get her out." Zhou Ming raised his knife and brought it down on the wrist-thick iron chain. With a clang, a few sparks flew in the darkness, but the chain was completely unharmed.
Zhou Ming's gaze turned cold. He knew the time for a decision had come.
If they left the woman here, she would very likely die. The monsters wandering in the tunnel had already noticed this place; it was only a matter of time before they found her.
"Two choices," Zhou Ming said, looking into the woman's eyes with a serious expression. "You stay here quietly, and we will prepare and come back to save you after we leave; or I cut off your feet now and take you out of here immediately."
Huang Tao and Zhang Qian's expressions beneath their masks froze. Upon hearing the latter part of Zhou Ming's statement, they felt the temperature of the surrounding air drop several degrees, and a cold chill ran through their bodies.
Huang Tao's lips moved, but he ultimately couldn't speak, only tightening his grip on the knife hilt.
The woman was stunned by Zhou Ming's words. After only a second of hesitation, she grabbed Zhou Ming's arm and exclaimed, "Take me! Take me! I don't want to stay here anymore!"