Chapter 660: United in Conflict
While the enhancement from the crystal core still lingered, An Ran took advantage of the moment to search for Yun Tao. But she didn’t find him—what she did find was that the people on the fourth floor had begun killing each other again.
“Humans… sigh.”
Zhao Ru shook her head helplessly. Those trapped inside the Grand Fortune Hotel had already gone through one massacre on the first floor. When they gathered on the fourth floor, it was supposed to be to work together and find a way out. But somehow, new conflicts had arisen, and the killing had started again.
Outside the hotel, Jiang Peng began throwing supplies inside. He didn’t intend to exterminate everyone in the building; he simply couldn’t allow Chen Chaofa to escape. So he continued to send in food and water to keep the survivors alive.
Someone stood atop the snow wall outside, shouting through a megaphone into the stormy night, urging the people inside to stop fighting and unite against their common enemy—to find Chen Chaofa instead of giving in to paranoia and slaughtering one another.
But the people on the fourth floor wouldn’t listen. No one would lay down their weapons. Everyone was convinced they were right, and the only resolution left was to fight until none remained standing.
There had been thousands of people in the Grand Fortune Hotel at first. After all the killing, aside from the children and those hiding in corners, there might not even be a few hundred left.
By the time the wood-type enhancement within An Ran’s body faded, the massacre on the fourth floor was nearly over. The last few dozen survivors, drenched in blood and gasping for breath, finally stopped fighting.
Slowly, they descended to the first-floor lobby—gathering in front of the tearoom.
Apparently, someone had told them that the people inside the tearoom were Jiang Peng’s close allies—the “core team.” And so, after uniting under one cause, they had chosen a new enemy: Zhan Lian and An Ran.
The first-floor lobby was a sea of corpses. Severed limbs lay scattered across the high-end marble flooring, and the blood had pooled so thick it squelched underfoot.
Zhan Lian still sat on the steps at the tearoom entrance, one knee raised, his elbows resting on it. He looked up at the group of men and women now standing before him—feral, blood-soaked, and wild-eyed. His brows furrowed slightly.
“Done killing each other?” he asked coolly. “So now you’re coming for us?”
“Cut the crap,” growled the man in front—a hulking brute, covered in gore from head to toe. He looked as if he had crawled straight out of a river of blood, and the ferocity radiating off him was almost tangible.
Behind him, the survivors who had followed his lead stood in absolute obedience.
“You people,” the man said coldly, “you’re the ones who can leave this place, aren’t you?”
Zhan Lian tilted his head lazily, stretching out his legs in front of him as if unconcerned. “And what if we can? What if we can’t?”
“The fat man outside listens to you, doesn’t he?” the leader continued. “Then tell him to let us out.”
“So many people have died in here because you sealed the Grand Fortune Hotel. What the hell were you thinking? Did you want us to kill each other for your amusement?”
“If you’d let us out sooner, none of this would’ve happened!”
“You watched all these people die—where’s your conscience?”
“So it was you, wasn’t it? You’re the ones who ordered the lockdown. Just to catch one Chen Chaofa, you let us slaughter each other like animals!”