Chapter 159: The Enraged Pink Ball

Chu had previously locked the metal door from the outside and damaged it to prevent Fatty Bi from escaping.

This measure should have trapped Fatty Bi inside, but unexpectedly, Fatty Bi still managed to find a way out.

Or rather, Li Tianque was more inclined to believe that Fatty Bi had encountered the so-called "Him".

"He" entered their current room through the underground entrance, placed a glass box over Tatar Brother, and carried Fatty Bi away.

While deep in thought, Li Tianque suddenly felt a heavy object flying toward him at a speed so fast it caught him completely off guard.

Instinctively, Li Tianque raised his hands to block it and curled his body to minimize the impact. Unfortunately, he was still struck and sent flying like a pendulum by the heavy object, followed by a series of clattering crashes.

The next moment, the narrow room instantly filled with the hissing sounds of corrosion, thick like the steam inside a sweat lodge.

This chain of impacts left Li Tianque dizzy and disoriented, and his curled-up posture during the fall was knocked completely out of shape.

Just like that, Li Tianque slammed heavily onto the ground face up. He clearly heard a sharp crack from the bones within his body, followed by a ringing in his ears that left him completely deaf to the world, and his flashlight went flying.

The tumbling flashlight came to rest against the surface of a machine, casting a faint, refracted beam of light.

For several seconds after hitting the ground, Li Tianque was completely dazed. He had no idea what had happened, nor even whether he was dead or alive.

He felt a pungent liquid surge up from his throat and flow back into his windpipe. Li Tianque broke into a violent fit of coughing as blood sprayed from his nose, streaming down to his chin.

What finally brought Li Tianque back to his senses was a sharp, itchy sensation on top of his head.

With a filthy hand, Li Tianque managed to reach up and scratch his head, and he was jolted with fright.

As it turned out, the top of Li Tianque's head had accidentally come into contact with the slime from the pink ball, and the beret fixed on his head had a small portion of it corroded away.

Leaping to his feet, Li Tianque looked back toward the spot where he had been standing just moments ago and saw that a heavy metal object was still swinging back and forth, though it was slowly coming to a stop.

It was precisely this object that had knocked him flying a moment ago.

The heavy metal object that had flown toward him was originally a part of the machine used for casting glass boxes.

It appeared that a specific joint had been corroded by the slime of the pink ball, causing it to suddenly snap and launch Li Tianque away with a single blow.

Yet this was simply too absurd—an iron frame that sturdy corroded just like that. The corrosiveness of this pink ball was practically more terrifying than aqua regia.

With such a high level of corrosiveness, why were the woodlice inside completely fine?

Li Tianque slowly propped himself up and looked toward the direction of the corrosive corpse. He saw Chu desperately pulling on something with a metal wire, and upon looking closer, he realized that what Chu was pulling was actually a broken half of a ladder.

Half of this ladder had already crashed onto the body of the pink ball. The yellowish flesh, pierced by a large hole, began to bubble continuously, while the splashing liquid all around unsparingly corroded whatever environment it touched.

The iron cage holding the mice on another machine was also melted by the liquid, and the mice scrambled out excitedly, squeaking frantically.

The blow Li Tianque had taken earlier was clearly caused by these splashing bodily fluids melting the machine's mountings, triggering a series of chain reactions.

In that case, Chu's initial placement of metal wires to block the ladder opening was never meant to stop the pink ball, but rather to make it linger at the opening a little longer, allowing the ladder to be exposed to corrosion for a longer time and become loose.

That way, Chu only needed to pull the ladder to smash it down onto the pink ball.

Although this strategy was viable, Chu surely could not have anticipated that the pink ball would splatter corrosive fluid in all directions upon receiving a heavy blow, throwing the entire room into chaos.

Still, given the urgency of the situation at the time, devising a better strategy did not seem easy.

"How are you?" Chu asked, panting heavily. Clearly, the previous bout of pulling had consumed a tremendous amount of strength.

"Not so good... gasp, gasp..." Li Tianque replied with difficulty.

"If you can move, don't just stand there! Hurry up and find the entrance going down!" Chu shouted angrily.

Before her voice had even faded, Li Tianque heard a sharp whistling sound, and Chu's body was suddenly yanked forward by the pink ball.

Though severely injured after being struck by the half-ladder, the pink ball was still capable of movement.

In the dim light, the pink mass of flesh could be vaguely seen writhing frantically, and the corrosive slime on its body splattered in all directions with its movements.

The half-ladder embedded within it began to bubble. The bubbles continuously spread, causing the iron ladder to sink deeper and deeper into its body.

The metal wire wrapped around Chu's hand was also dragged along by this force, continuously being pulled toward the interior of the pink ball.

The fat, gelatinous mass spun violently like a pink tornado.

Only the portion of the broken ladder wrapped with the metal wire remained exposed, while the rest had entirely vanished into the body of the pink ball.

The pink ball continued to spin, and Chu was dragged closer and closer, pulled inward by this immense force.

Li Tianque sensed that something was wrong with the metal wire in Chu's hand; she might have been unable to cut it or it had become tightly tangled around her hand.

Under such circumstances, if she did not cut the metal wire, she would inevitably be dragged into the pink ball.

Chu struggled desperately, but she was still drawn closer to the pink ball by this relentless force.

Li Tianque had no time to keep watching her and hurriedly got to his feet to continue searching for the entrance to the first underground level.

His body had not yet fully recovered from the earlier impact. Although his consciousness was still urging him forward, his hands and legs could not yet fully keep up with his thoughts.

Just as he took a step forward, Li Tianque felt an abnormal tightness and congestion in his chest, and he stumbled, dropping onto one knee.

Immediately afterward, Li Tianque felt an unbearable numbness and itching in his arm. The mice that had escaped after the machine broke crawled past his hand; seemingly catching the scent of corpse rot on his hand, they circled around it and squeaked strangely.

"Get out of here..." Li Tianque flicked his hand, swatting the mouse away. The furry sensation made him extremely uncomfortable.

He shook his still-dazed head, scanned his surroundings, and continued searching for the entrance leading to the basement.

This time, the furnishings in the room were simply too sparse. There were only a few items, and most of them were stained with the corrosive slime of the pink ball, hissing and bubbling away.

He searched back and forth, yet still found nothing.

However, Li Tianque did notice one strange thing: when the two of them first arrived here, they had actually found no signs of a struggle in the room, nor any indication that the objects here had been moved.

In other words, his hypothesis lacked supporting evidence.

Perhaps Fatty Bi hadn't fled because he encountered danger, but rather had discovered the basement entrance on his own, just as Chu had guessed.

Judging by the condition of the room, Fatty Bi must have left very calmly, or rather, very routinely, without painstakingly searching for any hidden entrance at all.

Doing it as a matter of course, following ordinary habitual thinking...

Li Tianque secretly put himself in Fatty Bi's shoes, thinking: If he wanted to leave this enclosed room, what would be the most ordinary thought, the most common idea?

Li Tianque's gaze suddenly sharpened, and the answer immediately formed in his mind!