“Young Lady!”
Breathing heavily, he rushed to the door.
Hasty footsteps came from the stairwell, and several bodyguards in sunglasses rushed up.
The lead bodyguard spoke urgently but respectfully.
“Strange Persons have been spotted in this area. Please come with us to take shelter.”
Sitiao Shizhi looked back at Lin Du.
Lin Du nodded slightly to reassure her.
“I understand.”
Sitiao Shizhi turned back and bowed slightly to Lin Du.
“It’s just a shame you prepared so much… It was a waste of your kindness.”
Before she finished speaking, two bodyguards stepped forward from either side and, before Sitiao Shizhi could react, hoisted her onto their shoulders.
“It’s okay.”
Lin Du waved his hand.
“Go take shelter quickly.”
Sitiao Shizhi was carried down the stairs like a gust of wind.
White Li stood to the side, her mouth wide open, watching the bodyguards carry Sitiao Shizhi away.
Her eyelid twitched.
‘Can they really evacuate like this?’
Lin Du patted her shoulder.
“Don’t just stand here dumbfounded. Hurry up and take shelter.”
“Oh.”
White Li responded, slowly walked out the door, then looked back.
“What about you? Come with me.”
“You go down first. I’ll be there soon.”
Lin Du glanced at her.
“I’ll give you a five-second head start. Let’s race to see who gets to the bottom first?”
White Li’s eyes lit up, and a competitive urge surged.
“Alright!”
She puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips.
“I’ll have you know, you’re the challenger.”
“Hmph, all talk. Outrun me first.”
Lin Du’s tone carried a hint of amusement.
“I’m going first! Hurry up and come down after you finish cleaning up!”
White Li waved, then turned and dashed downstairs.
“Okay.”
Lin Du stood at the door, watching White Li disappear into the stairwell.
He let out a sigh of relief, slowly closed the door, and the lock clicked shut with a click.
Lin Du took off his apron, folded it, and placed it over the back of a chair.
Then he put on the wristband that was on the table, walked to the window, and pulled open the curtains.
“Sorry, but I win.”
“Transform!”
The red gem on his right wristband suddenly glowed brightly.
Lin Du gripped the windowsill and flipped out.
The wind howled in his ears, and the ground rapidly grew larger in his view.
He twisted his body midair, and brilliant flames burst forth in the sky.
The silver Knight stepped on the vertical wall surface, racing like a silver-gray lightning bolt toward the direction of the alarm.
Ju Zhang’s urgent voice came through the communicator.
“Lin Du, a large number of small Strange Persons have appeared not far from you.”
“Small Strange Persons?”
Lin Du leaped high, looking down at the streets below.
“Yes, they’re like… slimes from an RPG.”
“Round, sticky, and blue in color.”
Ju Zhang’s tone carried a hint of helplessness.
“There are a lot of them.”
“I don’t know who released them.”
“They melt anything they touch—concrete pillars, lampposts… nothing can withstand them.”
The Knight frowned.
“What about the Containment Team?”
“We can’t handle them.”
Ju Zhang let out a long sigh.
“Bullets just pass through them—no effect.”
“Stun guns are useless too; they don’t seem to have a nervous system.”
“Flamethrowers work, but we only have two, and they’re nowhere near enough.”
“I understand.”
Lin Du cut the communication, gathered strength in his legs, and leaped toward the nearest Strange Person gathering point.
He landed on the roof of a shopping mall and looked down.
The street was in chaos.
Ninety basketball-sized creatures were bouncing all over the place.
Their bodies were translucent and shimmering with a wet sheen.
With each bounce, their landing spot left a smoking crater.
A parked shared bike got bounced on by a slime; the seat instantly melted, and the frame corroded into several large holes.
Nine Containment Team members were struggling to advance down the street with flamethrowers, but the slimes were too numerous.
For every one they burned, three more bounced out from the alleys.
They didn’t attack people, just bounced everywhere.
But their bodies themselves were weapons; anything they touched would be corroded.
The Knight leaped down from the roof and landed in the middle of the street.
Several slimes noticed him and bounced toward him.
He raised his hand, and a pillar of fire shot from his palm.
The flames, like a roaring dragon, engulfed the few slimes in front.
They twisted and deformed in the flames, making a sizzling sound before turning to ash and scattering in the wind.
More slimes surged from all directions like a blue tide.
Lin Du shot out several streams of flame, burning some, but the rest seemed enraged and launched themselves at him.
Squish…
A slime bounced onto his calf.
The instant the slime’s slime touched his armor, a wha sound came out, and white smoke rose from the contact point.
Lin Du looked down and saw slight discoloration on the armor surface.
Then came the second, third, fourth…
The slimes bounced onto him recklessly.
Some stuck to his calves, some to his arms, and some even bounced onto his helmet.
Lin Du was covered in blue slime.
The slime was sticky and slippery, clinging to his armor like glue and slowly corroding it.
The corrosion was slow, but there was too much of it.
He felt his movements grow sluggish, as if something were pulling at his limbs.
“Tch.”
Lin Du gritted his teeth, and flames burst from his entire body.
A massive pillar of fire shot up from him, burning all the slimes stuck to him to ash.
The slime evaporated under the high heat, giving off a pungent smell.
He glanced down at his armor, now covered with patches of paint loss both large and small.
It was only surface damage; the base layer was unharmed.
This kind of corrosiveness was nothing to the special alloy.
But if an ordinary Containment Team member were covered in this stuff, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Squish… squish…
The remaining slimes stopped bouncing chaotically.
They began to gather in the center, their blue bodies merging and growing larger.
Nine seconds later, a giant slime appeared in the middle of the street.
Its body was bigger than a bus, and its translucent form glowed in the sunlight.
Lin Du looked up at the behemoth several times taller than him, took a deep breath.
The flames grew increasingly hotter, shifting from orange-red to gold-white.
He crouched slightly and pulled his right foot back half a step.
Flames shot up from his feet, wrapping around his entire right leg.
“Perfect, I’ll use this move.”
“ROAR–!!”
The giant slime lunged at him.
Its body spread out in the air like a huge net, trying to engulf him.
“Ha!”
The Knight leaped up.
His silver-gray figure shot like a meteor, trailing a long tail of fire, and crashed straight into the slime’s body.
[Blazing Strike]
The moment the flames touched the slime, steam and smoke burst forth.
“BOOM–!”
The giant slime couldn’t withstand it and exploded.
Blue fragments scattered everywhere, burned to ash in the air by the remaining flames.
The Knight leaped out of the blast radius, landing steadily on the awning of a shop, and looked down at the devastated street.
The air was thick with the acrid smell of burning, mixed with the fishy-sweet scent of the blue ash, making one want to sneeze.
Lin Du let out a breath and pressed his communicator.
“Ju Zhang, clean-up’s done.”
“Don’t relax just yet.”
Ju Zhang’s voice grew even more urgent.
“The same slimes have appeared in other places.”
“West of the city, south, north… everywhere.”
“There are far more than here—at least ninety.”
On hearing this, Lin Du took a deep breath.
“I understand.”
Earlier.
“Huff… huff… Looks like I win after all.”
At the entrance of the apartment building, White Li stood at the doorway, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
She waited for a long while, but Lin Du still didn’t come down.
She pulled out her phone, about to message him to hurry up, when the screen lit up.
Incoming call: Madam.
White Li’s heart skipped a beat.
She quickly walked to a corner, pressed the phone to her ear, and lowered her voice.
“Hello, Madam?”
Madam’s voice came from the other end.
White Li listened, then straightened up and replied:
“Okay, I understand.”
“I’ll do it right away.”
She hung up, sent a message to Lin Du, then turned and ran toward the apartment gate.