Chapter 139: Human Courage

Minsheng Shopping Mall.

Having escaped the inflatable amusement park through a narrow brush with death, Qi Chen and Warm Guy fell into an eerie silence.

After this harrowing ordeal, apart from the two of them, only the squad leader remained among the survivors.

However, having been severely twisted and mutilated by the ocean of spiked balls and the grotesque children within the park, the squad leader was visibly slipping away. One of his arms had even been torn off by those bizarre entities.

Lying now in Warm Guy’s arms, his breaths grew progressively shallower. The eyes that had once been filled with resolute light were rapidly dimming.

"Officers... I'm sorry... Our Special Operations Team has held you back," the squad leader said, his face ashen, blood continually seeping from his lips. Because of the grotesque alienation of his body by supernatural forces, however, this blood had turned entirely black, emitting not the iron scent of normal blood, but a pungent, acrid stench resembling burning plastic.

"Don't speak, you can still be saved!" Warm Guy's voice was low as he activated his enthusiastic ability, attempting to restore the squad leader's plasticized body back to its original state.

Yet, enthusiasm could only alter the hardness of an object, not its fundamental material.

No matter how hard he tried, the squad leader's body continued its irreversible transformation into plastic.

A mouthful of black blood spewed forth, and the squad leader’s body began to tremble uncontrollably. His complexion grew increasingly ashen, yet those dimming eyes suddenly flared with a final, brilliant spark of crystalline light.

"Mask Officer... Thank you for coming to save me."

Experiencing a brief revival before death, the squad leader ushered in the last lucid moment of his life. He stared straight at Qi Chen, then raised his arm just as he had done back in the inflatable amusement park.

The sound of the White-Faced Mask still echoed in Qi Chen's mind. Hearing the squad leader's voice, which was lighter than a mosquito's hum, he rushed forward instantly. He opened his mouth, but words caught in his throat like a fishbone; for a long time, he could say nothing, and could only reach out his hand to grip that severed arm which was even now losing its last trace of warmth.

"I believe in you... both officers. You must survive... In City Number Three, there are still more people who need you—"

In the end, the squad leader failed to finish the words lingering in his heart. With his voice cutting off abruptly, his mouth hung open, and his head slowly tilted to one side. He slumped limply in Warm Guy’s arms, losing all remaining breath.

Upon joining the Special Operations Team, every member was fully aware of what they would face. Those who retired due to injuries were a tiny minority; the vast majority of the team members sacrificed their lives at their posts.

The squad leader had naturally prepared himself psychologically. The moment Minsheng Shopping Mall revealed its rule-based supernatural characteristics, he had already guessed the ending awaiting both himself and his subordinates.

As ordinary mortals, the probability of them walking out alive from a rule-based anomaly was pitifully slim.

And after that brutal, bloody clash with the pig-headed monsters on the first floor, the team members became even more certain that their chances of survival were practically zero.

Yet, they were still willing to hold fast to their final shred of sanity, continuing to fight alongside Qi Chen and Warm Guy.

"I thought they would lose control during the fight..." Qi Chen lowered his head, his voice exceptionally soft.

"I thought so too," Warm Guy murmured, looking down at the colleague in his arms whose life had completely faded, his eye sockets turning slightly red. "But they were all remarkable, fighting right up until the very last moment...

"Before being overwhelmed by supernatural terror, they pushed themselves to the absolute limit of what they could do."

Qi Chen nodded heavily. It was only through the squad leader and his team that he truly understood the meaning of the many admonitions Warm Guy had given him at the beginning: to always steadfastly believe in human courage and spirit...

These were the qualities that allowed mortal bodies to maintain their sense of self even when facing nearly unsolvable entities like rule-based anomalies, walking through their final moments true to their own convictions.

"What happened to you just now?" Seeing no lingering hope of escape from Minsheng Shopping Mall, Warm Guy quickly suppressed the sorrow in his heart. Remembering Qi Chen's unusual silence right after escaping the inflatable amusement park, he could not help but ask.

Qi Chen met Warm Guy’s eyes and saw the deep concern mirrored within them.

This veteran was worried that his psyche had also been eroded by the rule-based anomaly. After all, having ventured so deep into the inflatable amusement park without using supernatural possession or integration abilities, his physical body had made extensive contact with those anomalous objects, making the possibility of psychological contamination extremely high.

Offering a reassuring smile, Qi Chen slowly said, "I'm fine. Right now, the two of us cannot afford to stop here."

"Did you think of a way out?" Warm Guy caught the subtext in Qi Chen's words, a sudden spark of light flashing in his eyes.

"Not entirely relying on me..." Qi Chen looked toward the squad leader's cold corpse and continued, "It's because of the courage they displayed.

"Warm Guy, it's just the two of us left now. There's no need to hold back our hands and feet any longer. Both of us have suffered, to varying degrees, from this supernatural psychological invasion... Do you remember the sixth floor mentioned in the employee handbook?"

Warm Guy pondered for a moment before replying, "You mean that non-existent sixth floor? The sixth floor that can only be seen by those whose minds have been distorted?"

Not slow-witted by any measure, Warm Guy instantly grasped Qi Chen's implication. Because of their experiences in the inflatable amusement park just now, both of them now possessed the qualification to see that most mysterious sixth floor, as well as the qualification to enter it!

Without a doubt, the non-existent sixth floor explicitly written in the mall rules was the absolute core of this rule-based anomaly, and naturally, it would also be the most dangerous place!

Did Qi Chen mean to...

"You want to go to the sixth floor?" Warm Guy held his breath, his tone solemn. "That place might harbor the hope that allows us to leave Minsheng Shopping Mall, but the peril there will undoubtedly be maximized. That conceptual entity... will likely be lingering there for a long time. Do you really intend to go?"

Instead, Qi Chen shifted the conversation, saying:

"Of course we're going to the sixth floor, but my goal isn't to look for some rule that will let us leave this place. What I want to find is that entity itself!"

"You've lost your mind!" Before Qi Chen could finish, Warm Guy lost control of his emotions and let out a low roar. "Your mental fortitude is so much higher than mine, yet didn't you feel just how terrifying its spiritual presence was back on the first floor?!

"This is a rule-based anomaly! It's true that you managed to deal with the Joyful Candy Tree on your own, but the safest method within a rule-based anomaly is to follow its rules! That's the most secure way to escape!"

"Why must we follow its rules?" Qi Chen's expression grew increasingly relaxed. "Shouldn't humanity... operate within frameworks we forge ourselves?

"An anomaly's rules are, after all, an anomaly's rules."

"Trust me," the smile on Qi Chen's face gradually faded, replaced by deep earnestness and gravity.

"And trust what you told me back then. Human courage and spirit are our most precious treasures."