Chapter 123: Not Wanting to Waste Supplies (Revised)

Amid Qi Hengyu's furious, ragged shouts mixed with violent coughing, the two figures gradually blurred.

Luo Jinyou only felt himself being pulled by a force, desperately running forward; his legs almost flung out afterimages, wind whooshing past his ears.

He considered his stamina not bad, but being dragged by Ying Duo to run, he could barely keep up, his steps chaotic, several times almost tripping himself.

Ying Duo's speed was astonishing; he moved through the winding secret passage with ease, and was extremely familiar with the route.

But conversely, Ying Duo's strength did not match his speed.

Luo Jinyou could feel that the force Ying Duo exerted pulling his arm was not great; he even thought that if he weren't struggling to keep up but instead tried to pull Ying Duo, Ying Duo wouldn't be able to drag him.

Finally, after feeling they had put enough distance between them, Ying Duo stopped at a fork.

This was no longer an artificially dug passage, but they had entered a naturally formed cave area; the walls were rough rock, and the air carried a damp, earthy smell.

"Huff...... huff......"

Luo Jinyou immediately braced his hand against the wet, cold rock wall, preventing his legs from giving out and sitting directly on the ground.

He gasped heavily, feeling his lungs burn, his legs as heavy as if filled with lead, sore and weak; it took a while before he gradually recovered.

He raised his head to look at Ying Duo beside him, whose complexion was normal and utterly unaffected by the recent mad dash, and couldn't help asking.

"Why didn't you just take down Qi Hengyu earlier? If we two teamed up, we should be able to deal with this formidable opponent."

Upon hearing this, Ying Duo shifted his gaze from the light screen and calmly glanced at Luo Jinyou.

In the recent battle, he found that defeating those Assault Team members gave him no experience at all.

Clearly, the last time he killed Undercurrent members in the Slum, eliminating enemies did grant experience.

Ying Duo speculated that perhaps because this is the Academy's evaluation, which doesn't allow truly lethal blows, the judgment mechanism differs, so no 'kill experience' is awarded.

Since fighting Qi Hengyu to the death yields no experience either, it's purely a waste of his ammunition and supplies.

He had only test-fired at the beginning, snagging a few kills along the way; upon discovering there was no experience, he moved on to other things.

With that time, he might as well tidy his inventory slots and plan the upcoming mission route.

Still, watching NPC teammates suppress the enemy with firepower was indeed satisfying.

At this moment, facing Luo Jinyou's question, he answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I don't want to waste my supplies and time."

Luo Jinyou: "......"

His mouth twitched involuntarily.

Forget it; their original intention in staying there was to buy evacuation time for the Manufacturing Department and other classmates.

Oh, right, Ying Duo is also from the Manufacturing Department...

No, Ying Duo simply can't be lumped together with the others.

While other Manufacturing Department members were still panicking and fleeing, Ying Duo had already pulled out a bunch of gear and jumped into the fray.

Recalling the time they had just delayed, Luo Jinyou estimated the main force had probably already withdrawn mostly.

Thinking of this, he no longer dwelled on it and said to Ying Duo.

"Then let's hurry along the secret passage out of here to meet up with the main force."

After Luo Jinyou took a brief rest, the two continued forward one after the other along the secret passage formed by the natural cavern.

Ying Duo isn't the type to initiate conversation, and Luo Jinyou felt the atmosphere between them was a bit awkward.

As they walked, Luo Jinyou recalled the earlier smoke that had been so irritating it made one doubt life, and asked curiously.

"Hey Ying Duo, what did you put in that smoke bomb just now? The taste is too...... unique."

Ying Duo didn't look back, truthfully reporting the formula.

"I used some expired chili powder scavenged from the Slum, and after my tweaks, the cost-performance ratio is super high."

Since discovering he could design his own blueprints and adjust some materials to produce weird and wonderful things, he spends any free time researching bizarre oddities.

It also boosts proficiency and is fun.

Luo Jinyou's mouth twitched again upon hearing this, and he inwardly lit a stick of incense for Qi Hengyu.

This formula is not just unique; it's downright insane.

"The stuff scavenged from the Slum...... surely wasn't pulled from a trash heap, right?"

And never mind the chili powder—it's even expired; if accidentally ingested, would it cause diarrhea?

Luo Jinyou began to doubt life, and his thoughts gradually drifted off under Ying Duo's influence.

After walking another stretch, a faint light appeared ahead; the two finally emerged from the opposite end of the cave, returning to the forest.

Luo Jinyou warily surveyed the surroundings and soon spotted some chaotic footprints in the mud, broken shrub branches from a hasty retreat, and nearby lay several motionless corpses.

Among them were several Manufacturing Department students, as well as corpses from the Security Team and Assault Team students, the latter making up the majority.

Obviously, after emerging from the secret passage, they too fell victim to an enemy ambush.

"It looks like they came this way; they might have run into Assault Team members on the road, retreated in a hurry, and didn't have time to fully clean up the traces."

Luo Jinyou analyzed, a hint of worry on his face: "We need to hurry and catch up with them..."

He hadn't finished speaking when he glanced aside and saw Ying Duo paying no attention to those traces, instead pulling out from somewhere a device about the size of a palm, bearing only a conspicuous red button.

Ying Duo just stood there, holding the device, silently gazing back at the cave mouth they had just exited.

"What are you spacing out for? We need to hurry and catch up with them," Luo Jinyou urged.

Ying Duo's eyes were hollow; upon hearing Luo Jinyou's words, he slowly lifted his head and pushed the device with the red button toward Luo Jinyou.

"What is this?" Luo Jinyou was a bit dazed by Ying Duo's sudden action.

Ying Duo looked at the device in his hand and introduced it in a flat tone.

"A gift left for Qi Hengyu and his group."

He again nudged the device toward Luo Jinyou, his dull eyes fixed on him, issuing an invitation that sounded utterly sincere.

"Want to give it a press?"

Luo Jinyou: "???"

He looked at that bright red button, a familiar feeling surged into his heart; whenever he had this premonition, basically nothing good happened.

Luo Jinyou instinctively stepped back half a pace, waving his hands repeatedly.

"No, no need! Thank you!"

Ying Duo tilted his head, his expression unchanged, merely questioning in a tone as if he had discovered a new continent.

"Who would face a button placed before them and not want to press it?"

Luo Jinyou: "......"

He felt three black lines might have slid down his forehead.

Faced with a puzzling button that looks odd at a glance, isn't choosing to stay away normal?