Chapter 14: Success Rate

With the experience from the 11th floor under her belt, Xia Mi’s sweep of the 10th floor went even faster.

She was a person who strictly followed procedure, and she always made sure to loudly announce her intentions before taking action.

Police officers had to identify themselves before handling a case; it served as a warning, used their status to deter the opposition, and represented a form of procedural justice that protected the officers themselves.

Processes might seem tedious, but they were vital.

Xia Mi started shouting from the 11th-floor stairwell. “Fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of the 10th floor! I’m coming down to help you! Please do not resist! I, Xia Mi, guarantee that as long as you don’t resist, absolutely nothing will happen to you! Look, the residents of the 11th floor are all alive and well!”

After shouting, Xia Mi gave the Spider-man a kick. “Say something.”

The Spider-man shouted loudly, “Residents downstairs, listen up! We’re all doing great! Little Xia is here to help us! As long as you listen to Little Xia, she definitely won’t kill us!”

The words were positive enough, but why did they sound so awkward?

Xia Mi realized that if she replaced “Little Xia” in the Spider-man’s speech with “The Imperial Army¹,” it wouldn’t feel out of place at all.

The Spider-man was a middle-aged man in his forties, exactly the right age to be a fan of anti-Japanese war dramas. He had clearly been influenced too deeply by television.

Xia Mi shook her head. “Stop talking. Everyone, sound off!”

Following Xia Mi’s instructions, the people from the 11th floor shouted their numbers in sequence from one to thirty-two.

Then they shouted in unison: “We are all alive and well!”

Their collective roar was louder than Xia Mi’s megaphone. Forget the 10th floor, the three floors below them probably heard it too.

Having declared her purpose, Xia Mi added, “Next, I will be firing a machine gun into the stairwell and the 10th-floor corridor. Everyone stay in your rooms and do not come out. Do not try to attack me, or you will get hurt.”

After the warning, Xia Mi shouldered the machine gun and fired for a full minute, then walked into the 10th-floor corridor and fired for another minute.

The entire corridor was empty.

Xia Mi stepped into the 10th-floor hallway, machine gun hanging across her chest and an axe in one hand, her expression gentle and kind.

She reached the door of Room 1005 and suddenly leaped up, swinging her axe toward the ceiling. A Corrupted let out a miserable shriek as he tumbled down.

This was a Corrupted Chameleon that looked like a cross between a chameleon and a gecko.

He had been hiding on the ceiling in front of 1005, his body blending almost perfectly with the surface, making him nearly impossible to detect with the naked eye.

In the game, “Xiao Mi” had died once at the hands of this Corrupted Chameleon.

In that playthrough, a long tongue had suddenly dropped from the ceiling and hoisted “Xiao Mi” up.

The tongue secreted a powerful acid that dissolved the Protective Suit. Without its protection, “Xiao Mi” had been strangled to death by the tongue.

That had been the greatest crisis “Xiao Mi” faced on the 10th floor.

After reloading her save, “Xiao Mi” had immediately hacked the Corrupted Chameleon to death.

“Xiao Mi” could kill monsters in the game without restraint, but Xia Mi couldn’t do that here.

She was a gentle person.

Xia Mi stepped on the Corrupted Chameleon, stomping down hard several times. “Spit that tongue out! If you don’t, I’ll chop your head off!”

The Corrupted Chameleon had been an ordinary person just over ten hours ago. He couldn’t withstand this kind of interrogation. Before Xia Mi could even resort to other methods, the heavy blows forced him to cough out his long tongue.

Quick as a flash, Xia Mi swung her axe and severed the five-meter-long tongue.

Immediately after, she chopped off his tail.

All his weapons had been “confiscated” by Xia Mi, but he still had a thin layer of Corrupted skin that allowed him to camouflage with his surroundings.

An axe couldn’t scrape that skin off.

The severed tongue was still secreting concentrated acid, corroding the floor of the 10th-floor hallway.

Xia Mi was someone who deeply cherished state property.

She knew that the Disposal Bureau would have to bear the cost of any property damage she caused in this building. To minimize the loss to the state and the people, she had to deal with this tongue immediately.

Plus, she needed a scaling knife…

Xia Mi glanced at her axe and had a sudden stroke of brilliance. Why couldn’t she make a scaling knife the same way she had made the axe?

She would use this tongue!

She grabbed the Corrupted Chameleon by the hair and asked kindly, “Does your home have a knife suitable for scaling?”

“My home has a newly bought fish-belly knife. I’ll give it to you, just please don’t kill me,” the Corrupted Chameleon said, trembling.

Xia Mi felt she was being deeply misunderstood. She said painedly, “What are you talking about? We’re all good neighbors. How could I possibly kill anyone? Come on, take me to get the fish-belly knife.”

The Corrupted Chameleon lived in Room 1005. He did his own cooking and was quite skilled at it; his kitchen was fully stocked with tools. He had a whole rack of knives: cleavers, choppers, boning knives, fruit knives, and Fish-Belly Knives.

Xia Mi looked them over carefully and chose the fish-belly knife.

It was a versatile tool.

One side was curved like a sickle with a V-hook design, allowing it to unzip a fish’s belly quickly and easily. The other side was double-serrated for rapid descaling.

Its only drawback was that it was awkward to store, but fortunately, there was a metal box on the right thigh of the Protective Suit that was just the right size for it.

“This is the one,” Xia Mi nodded with satisfaction.

“Don’t, please don’t kill him,” a frail voice said. Inside 1005, a White Lizard spoke softly to Xia Mi.

She had been hiding behind the curtains at first, only finding the courage to run out when she saw Xia Mi pick up the fish-belly knife.

Xia Mi looked at her. Even though she had Corrupted to this extent, she was still beautiful.

White scales covered her body, shimmering under the lights.

“Don’t touch her!” the Corrupted Chameleon growled.

“And this is…?” Xia Mi asked.

“I’m his wife. I have albinism, I can’t stand the light or do physical labor. He’s always been the one working to support the family. I was afraid the condition would be hereditary, so we never dared to have children. He’s always been very protective of me. He only planned to ambush you because he was worried you would hurt me,” the White Lizard explained.

The Corrupted Chameleon’s only wish was to protect his sickly wife, which was why he displayed such terrifying aggression.

Without the game’s warnings, Xia Mi wouldn’t have been the only one in trouble; even if Liao Tianhua’s team had encountered this couple, they likely would have ended up in a violent confrontation.

The squad would have lost several members in a surprise attack, and the couple would have died in the ensuing retaliation.

Xia Mi sighed. These were just ordinary civilians.

Releasing the Corrupted Chameleon, Xia Mi asked, “You were lurking on the ceiling by the door for more than just me, weren’t you?”

The Chameleon nodded. “A fight broke out outside just now. A lot of people were hurt. My wife is weak, if they hit her, she’d be seriously injured. I have to protect her. I was lying in ambush outside the door. Anyone who dares come near my home, I’ll kill them!”

The residents on the 10th floor were severely traumatized and suffering from acute stress reactions. To protect themselves, they would attack any Intruder.

Xia Mi said kindly, “I understand how you feel. It’s not your fault. It’s our fault for not doing our jobs and failing to protect you.”

The Corrupted Chameleon looked at her, bewildered. “But wasn’t it you who hurt me?”

None of the other neighbors had the strength to beat him into this state!

Xia Mi: “…”

She decided she would have to find time to learn from Captain Liao how to soothe the public; her skills in that area were clearly lacking.

“It seems I can only prove myself through action,” Xia Mi said.

She stepped out of the room carrying the fish-belly knife and roughly tossed it onto the severed tongue.

This time, she watched the birth of a Zhuo weapon clearly.

The tongue, which was still secreting strong acid, suddenly curled up and wrapped around the fish-belly knife. The Zhuo-contaminated area slowly shrank as it was gradually absorbed by the blade.

It seemed this would take some time.

Xia Mi couldn’t afford to waste it.

She spoke to the Lizardman couple in 1005: “I’m going to prove to you that I’m here to help. Next, I’m going to stop the fighting on the 10th floor and confiscate everyone’s weapons so that everyone is harmless and safe. Once I’ve finished all that, please let me scrape your scales voluntarily.”

The Lizardman couple: “…”

Even if you take everyone else’s weapons, how does that mean we should let you skin us?

Xia Mi didn’t have time to explain further. She picked up the bundle of tongue that had stopped releasing acid, preventing the couple from getting their hands on it once it finished turning into a weapon.

Protected by her Protective Suit, she wasn’t afraid of direct contact with the Zhuo-contaminated parts. She pulled a plastic bag from her backpack, wrapped the tongue bundle in it, and tucked it away.

The bag had originally held bread and chocolate. Xia Mi hadn’t been able to bring herself to throw it away after eating on the Rooftop, thinking she might use it as a trash bag later. Now, it had come in handy.

With the tongue bundle secured, Xia Mi prepared to move.

Sister Li stood in the hallway, waiting quietly for Xia Mi’s instructions.

Her hair had grown even more, covering the entire 10th-floor corridor.

Looking at her state, Xia Mi realized Sister Li was on the verge of a total mental collapse.

But it didn’t matter; the game had already told her that Sister Li could hold on until the 7th floor.

When “Xiao Mi” and Sister Li returned to the 7th floor, Sister Li had suddenly snapped and killed “Xiao Mi” once.

“Xiao Mi” had reloaded her save and shot Sister Li dead in the stairwell between the 8th and 7th floors.

“Xiao Mi” could kill the Sister Li in the game, but Xia Mi couldn’t. She couldn’t let Sister Li’s hair keep growing. On the way from the 10th floor to the 7th, she had to find a way to cut it.

Xia Mi walked up to Sister Li and said, “Sister Li, let’s go room by room.”

Sister Li glanced at Xia Mi and suddenly asked, “Are you really going to find a lot of people to sign up for cards?”

Xia Mi replied, “Of course. We college students don’t lie.”

Sister Li spoke again. “But I suddenly feel like signing people up is pointless. What do I need all those cards for?”

“More cards means a bigger paycheck,” Xia Mi reminded her.

Sister Li said, “But I’m so powerful now. Why don’t I just take the money directly from the boss?”

Xia Mi clapped. “Sister Li, you’re absolutely right! Tell you what, once the situation in this building is resolved, I’ll go with you to find the boss and make him pay you back for all those years of hard work.”

“A college student, would help rob someone?” Sister Li looked at Xia Mi skeptically.

Without missing a beat, Xia Mi said, “I’ve graduated and I don’t have a job. I’m unemployed right now.”

Sister Li nodded. “Unemployed, yeah, that sounds like something you’d do.”

Sister Li drifted between confusion and clarity, but Xia Mi managed to keep her stable for the time being with her nonsense.

The two made a powerful team. One bound the targets while the other struck. Combined with Xia Mi’s warnings from her game experience, they subdued the residents of the 10th floor with almost no resistance.

Xia Mi collected another large bag of Zhuo-contaminated parts.

She shouted toward the stairwell, “People of the 11th floor! The 10th floor is safe now. You can come down. Remember to bring bedsheets!”

The Spider-man led the crowd from the 11th floor down in a rush. Some had thoughtfully prepared large bedsheets to wrap the Zhuo-contaminated parts.

With the help of the residents, Xia Mi was able to efficiently gather all the parts confiscated from the 10th floor.

Once the work was done, she returned to the couple in 1005 and said, “The 10th floor is safe now. Is it time to scrape those scales?”

Xia Mi pulled the tongue bundle from her backpack. The tongue had been completely absorbed by the fish-belly knife, and even the plastic bag had absorbed a bit of the Zhuo-contamination. It had transformed into a mass of white, moldable putty that functioned as a sheath, perfectly encasing the sharp scaling knife.

“What luck,” Xia Mi remarked.

Just then, Shield’s handwriting appeared on her visor: [Is it really just luck?]

Xia Mi whispered, “Can’t Zhuo-contaminated parts fuse with objects to become weapons?”

Shield wrote: [The stability is very low. Most Zhuo weapons find it difficult to maintain a stable form and will gradually decompose after an hour. The success rate for a stable, controllable Zhuo weapon is less than one in a thousand. Liao Tianhua only wanted you to use temporary weapons as a stopgap, but you have already successfully created two.]

Shield added another line: [Three, if you count the plastic bag.]

The dialogue of the mastermind from the game flashed through Xia Mi’s mind, and she immediately forced herself to forget it.

She said firmly, “That was just my good luck. I happened to hit those one-in-a-thousand odds three times in a row.”

Shield would never be able to wake her when she was so determined to play the fool²!

Translator’s Notes