Chapter 75: The Well
After ten minutes of full-speed running, Su Xiao came to a halt.
Behind him was utter silence. The fact that the Blood Eye hadn't pursued was undoubtedly good news. However, the reinforcement team had dwindled from the initial twenty-seven to just three.
Su Xiao, Akira Mado, and Juuzou Suzuya.
Su Xiao leaned against the wall, gasping for air. Beside him, Akira Mado collapsed to the ground, occasionally spitting out a mouthful of bile. This girl had run herself to the point of exhaustion.
"That... what was that thing? A ghoul? Is there really a ghoul that terrifying in this world? Even the One-Eyed Owl would probably be swallowed in one bite by that thing."
Akira Mado's blonde hair was loose, plastered to her face by sweat. Her chest heaved violently, looking like she'd been through some kind of ordeal.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Suzuya leaned against the wall with one hand, coughing incessantly, as if trying to cough up his lungs.
"Clatter."
Su Xiao lit a cigarette, leaning back against the fleshy wall.
"I finally understand why that guy Arima ran away before."
Exhaling a puff of smoke, a smile appeared on Su Xiao's face. The thrill of being on the brink of life and death was too intense. Just now, when the Blood Eye was devouring people, he had nearly lost his head to a single bite.
Akira Mado beside him was speechless. Was this a normal reaction? Her gaze shifted to Suzuya.
Suzuya's upturned lips made Akira Mado question her own sanity. Was it her who was abnormal, or were both her teammates abnormal?
After resting for a while, Su Xiao got up and led Akira Mado and Suzuya forward.
The reinforcement team sent by CCG headquarters had thirty members, but only three had actual combat capability: Su Xiao, Juuzou Suzuya, and Kuroiwa Iwao.
Now Kuroiwa Iwao was dead, leaving only Su Xiao and Juuzou Suzuya.
Su Xiao had long anticipated this level of casualties. The appearance of the Blood Eye only accelerated the rate of death and injury.
After advancing for over an hour, the three arrived at a dead end.
Su Xiao took out his micro-computer to check. Kishou Arima was very close to him now, at most half an hour away.
He had already penetrated deep into District 24. Tokyo's area wasn't large, and he was now at the central point beneath Tokyo.
"Xiao, can you still distinguish the route?"
Akira Mado was currently acting as a living map. This girl had an exceptional memory, almost completely memorizing the paths they had taken. Even without making marks in the tunnels, she could determine whether they had been there before.
"Probably this one, or maybe this one."
Akira Mado bit a pen in her mouth, frowning in distress.
"You choose."
Su Xiao would no longer lead the way. The lesson from the last deep incursion into District 24 was still fresh in his mind.
"Then this one."
After Akira Mado chose the route, the three continued forward. Su Xiao soon noticed that this passage was getting narrower and narrower.
In other parts of District 24, the narrowest passages were about two meters wide and at least four meters high.
But the passage he was in now was only one meter wide and two meters high. Ahead was pitch black, requiring a high-powered flashlight to illuminate.
If someone timid were dozens of meters underground, they would absolutely not dare to enter such a passage.
Su Xiao and Suzuya were both very calm. Akira Mado, walking in the middle, was a bit nervous.
After advancing several dozen meters, a faint light source appeared ahead. The light wasn't strong, not like sunlight, but more like lamplight.
Su Xiao reached the end of the passage. The scene that came into view made his pupils contract sharply.
"Provisional Special Class Bai Ye, what's ahead? Is this some kind of joke?!"
Akira Mado leaned her head over. After seeing everything before her, her expression went blank.
"I finally understand why District 24 has so many ghouls. This is an underground city of ghouls." Akira Mado murmured.
What came into Su Xiao's view was a vast city.
A layer of soil underground had been hollowed out, forming a large city.
The buildings in the city were somewhat dilapidated, mostly metal structures, standing unevenly within the underground space.
Su Xiao's location was one of the entrances to the underground city. Looking down, he was about ten meters above the city's ground level.
There were dozens of entrances to the city, like dozens of holes punched into an iron plate, with that iron plate standing in front of the underground city.
"This place is incredible. With a place like this existing, ghouls can never be wiped out."
Just as Akira Mado was surveying the underground city, Su Xiao pulled her back into the passage and made a silencing gesture.
Looking closely at the buildings in the underground city, one could see primitive ghouls moving between them. Not only primitive ghouls, but also eyeless ghouls.
The two types of ghouls roamed the underground city like guards.
That was precisely why the ordinary ghouls of District 24 were desperately fleeing outward with little will to fight. Their home had been occupied; those ghouls were refugees.
Inside the underground city, the corpses of ordinary ghouls could be seen here and there, mostly the elderly and children, with few adults.
Ghouls also had emotions. If most of the casualties were the old and young, it meant the primitive ghouls' attack must have been very sudden.
The mystery of District 24 was gradually being unraveled. The intelligence Su Xiao now understood was:
Primitive ghouls and ordinary ghouls were hostile to each other. Or rather, primitive ghouls had little rationality and would attack all living things except their own kind.
Those eyeless ghouls and primitive ghouls seemed to share the same origin. There was no sign of mutual aggression between them. Su Xiao even saw both of them feeding on the same corpse simultaneously.
Mindless "beasts" sharing food indicated an unusual relationship between the two.
"Is that over there?"
Akira Mado pointed to the top of a steel building. A figure was lying prone on it.
Su Xiao focused his gaze. White hair, a somewhat disheveled white combat uniform, a blood-stained quinque case. Kishou Arima!
After several hours deep in District 24, with the reinforcement team nearly wiped out, Su Xiao had found the target he was sent to reinforce.
Kishou Arima's current situation wasn't good. Although no obvious injuries were visible, he was trapped on the rooftop.
Su Xiao took a wrench from his storage space. This was obtained from opening the Queen's Scarlet Card.
Bracing his waist and stepping forward, he threw the wrench far away.
"Clang."
The wrench struck a distant metal building, alerting some primitive ghouls and eyeless ghouls, who quickly ran toward the source of the sound.
Kishou Arima, lying on the rooftop, raised his head and looked toward the source of the sound.
Immediately, Kishou Arima turned his head to look at Su Xiao's location.
Beasts only pay attention to the direction of sound, but humans subconsciously look for what caused the noise.
Their eyes met. Su Xiao made a gesture, signaling for Kishou Arima to come near the passage.
Kishou Arima shook his head, pointing toward the center of the underground city, then at Su Xiao.
"What does Special Class Arima mean?"
Akira Mado didn't understand Kishou Arima's meaning, but Su Xiao did. After all, the two had been through life and death together; there was some tacit understanding.
"You two wait here. If there's danger, escape first."
Having said that, Su Xiao climbed out of the passage, using the dozens of entrance holes to climb downward.
His movements were very light, making no sound at all. He soon reached the bottom and jumped onto the roof of a steel building.
Su Xiao lay prone on the rooftop. Nearby were a few primitive ghouls.
Like a nimble monkey, he crouched and leaped between the rooftops of the steel buildings, completely silent.
After nearly ten minutes, Su Xiao arrived at the rooftop where Kishou Arima was, without incident.
"Give me some food and fresh water. I'm about to collapse from dehydration."
After Su Xiao provided food and water, Kishou Arima wolfed down the food in a few bites and chugged an entire bottle of water.
"What's the situation now?"
Kishou Arima looked around at the surroundings and spoke in a low voice.
"Now we need to lure these 'primitive species' to the city center, then get them into the 'Well' and seal the 'Well's' mouth."
"The Well?"
Su Xiao looked at Kishou Arima in bewilderment. What the hell was this "Well"?