Chapter 28: Another Encounter

Alex and the others went down the emergency stairs again.

The only difference this time was that Alice was with them instead of Eddy and Lin.

She was tasked to stay close to Alex as he wasn’t sure if she was psychologically ready to deal with the mutated beasts.

It was the correct decision from him.

Being in the lab all this while, Alice wasn’t exposed much to all the gore and ghastly things that were happening outside of it.

She puked when she saw the rotting and bloated bodies of unfortunate souls that were in the emergency staircase.

"I’m sorry..." Alice wiped her lips and lowered her head at Alex.

Alex shook his head at her and said, "If you aren’t ready, it is better for you to be back at the lab."

It would be much more troublesome for him if she caused trouble instead of helping the team get to the backup generator.

"I... I will be fine." Alice composed herself and she glanced at him with a look of determination.

"Then, we better hurry." Alex said and they wasted no time to continue on their way getting to the ground floor as fast as they could.

Once they got out from the emergency staircase, Alice pointed to the left and said, "The underground car park is over this way."

They turned in the direction and went down the pathway.

"Rats!" Some rats appeared but before they could get to Alex and the others, their feet started to be submerged into the concrete ground that they were standing on.

Alice had used her ability and it trapped the rats in the liquefied concrete ground.

"I can only hold on for a few more moments." She said with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.

That was more than enough for Alex and the others to take care of the rats.

Bubbles appeared in front of Riley and they flew towards the rats, while Terry used his sharp metallic rods and Brian hurled his fireballs at the rats.

Alex also picked off a few of the rats with the fireball that he had stored inside his storage portal.

Boom!

Explosions ensued and the rats were blown into pieces by their abilities.

Alice’s eyes opened wide with her jaw slackened.

She never thought that they were so powerful.

When Terry saw her reaction, he thumped his chest at her and said, "We’ve taken care of much more powerful mutated beasts on our way here.

"Don’t worry, you are in safe company."

Riley rolled his eyes at him and said, "I think she is safer without you around."

While they bantered, Alex read the information panels that had appeared in his mind.

[Congratulations Host for killing off 8 mutated beasts.]

[Dispensing rewards now:]

[10x bottles of water.]

[10x MRE ration packs.]

[10x packs of batteries.]

[20x packs of salt.]

[20x packs of sugar.]

[10x packs of essential nutrients.]

[All items are stored in your storage space now.]

[Current status: 180/200]

[Day 2 of 3 for SSS Level Storage Ability.]

He was glad that the rewards were getting more varied now.

All of them would have need for salt, sugar and the essential nutrients to keep themselves alive.

"Stop bantering, we have to go now." Alex said and Alice deactivated her ability.

The liquefied concrete turned back into a hardened state.

They quickly continued on their way.

Alice guided them towards the underground car park along the maze of different corridors and when they reached the entrance of the car park, it was pitch black down under.

Only the hazard lights were on inside.

Alex and Riley had a flashlight on them, but for the rest of them, they might have to make use of Brian’s ability to light the way for them.

"Riley and I will take the lead while the three of you stay behind us." After some consideration, Alex changed their formation and they got into the darkness.

It was eerily quiet inside the car park and every movement they made could be heard clearly.

Even heavy breathing was being amplified by the underground car park.

And as they got deeper into the car park, the silence itself made them uneasy.

Thankfully, a comforting monotonous humming of a machine took over the silence when they got to where the backup generator was.

"Over there, the diesel is stored right there." Alice pointed to a room at the opposite end of the backup generator.

Alex turned over to where the diesel was with his flashlight.

The door of the room was intact but there were a few bodies lying on the ground nearby.

He raised his hand, gesturing to the others to be on alert and they did so.

Riley had his bubbles floating around him, Terry held two sharp metallic rods in his hands and Brian had fireballs ready in front of him.

Behind them, Alice was also ready to unleash her ability if anything happened.

They took a step forward towards the diesel storage room but when they did so, a woman’s voice could be heard from their right side where it was pitch black.

"Help us! We are trapped under the rubble."

Alex shined his flashlight in the direction where the voice came from and there was indeed a pile of rubble around fifty meters away.

But he frowned when he couldn’t sense anyone alive in there but sensed something huge that was underneath instead.

"What should we do?" Terry asked and Alex shook his head at him.

A slit appeared in front of him and a fireball shot out from it towards the rubble.

"What the hell?!" The others didn’t expect him to do so but it was too late for them to stop him.

However, when the fireball got near the rubble, a high pitched scream could be heard and the rubble moved.

A huge creature got out from it and it leaped away immediately.

Boom!

The fireball hit onto what was left of the rubble and the flames lit up the surroundings for a moment.

Under the bright amber light, Alex and the others saw what the huge creature was clearly.

It was a newt that was at least three meters long and stood at one meter tall.

But there were limbs jutting out and mouths on the body of the newt as if they had merged into it.

One of the mouths on the newt moved and the woman’s voice could be heard again.

"Help us! We are trapped under the rubble."