The intense gunfight in the corridor, the sudden emergence of giant spiders…

Dragging his injured body in his final moments, Ji Yushi, along with his teammates, rushed deep into Golden Crow Two, as far as they could go… The chaotic, shaking images flashed back repeatedly in Ji Yushi’s mind.

As Team 5, they paved a path with their flesh and blood for Team B, leaving enough information for them to avoid death at this moment. The instant Team B successfully closed the air valve, a paradox occurred—Team B, who should have died, survived, and their Team 5 simply vanished.

It was as if they had never existed. Their corpses, the blood, all traces disappeared without a trace.

They were a nonexistent loop.

Even after the Ouroboros mission was completed, Ji Yushi had no memory of Team 5, but this time, he vividly experienced everything that Team 5 went through.

Now, his capsule was on the rooftop of a skyscraper.

The time displayed on the communicator was [02:41:31], three hours earlier than when they first arrived at PU-31.

It was the darkest time of the night, just before dawn.

The building had 122 floors, and standing on such a high rooftop, the wind was strong enough that it seemed like a slight misstep could send one plummeting down.

There was no traffic, and only a few streetlights on the ground were still on. From this height, it was almost impossible to see the zombies wandering on the ground. But everyone knew that, attracted by the light, they had already moved to the brighter areas between the skyscrapers and wouldn’t emerge from their nests until the sun rose again.

The rooftop was adorned with large letters: Guangyuan Group.

The teammates’ capsules were hidden in the shadows of these large letters. They had all exited their capsules and were discussing the next steps.

It seemed this wasn’t the first time everyone had come to this big loop.

That’s right, Ji Yushi was in the big loop of the Ouroboros mission.

They needed to activate the first black wall that appeared at 5:30 in the morning at the park management office, to allow the versions of themselves who had just been dragged into this mission to see the black wall and be driven by it to proceed to Golden Crow One and Golden Crow Two.

Ji Yushi was somewhat confused.

From the disappearance of Team 5 to this big loop, his appearances seemed to lack any pattern.

He felt like he was playing a role-playing game where he couldn’t control the character, randomly inserted into a storyline. Fortunately, he happened to remember all the storylines, so he wasn’t completely lost or mistaken by his teammates for someone who had suddenly lost his mind.

“Consultant Ji,” Tang Qi approached him and said, “This time, Tang Le and I will go down to the 116th floor first. Once we’ve assessed the situation, the rest of you can follow.”

This scene had happened before.

In their previous explorations, they had already figured out that this skyscraper belonging to Guangyuan Group was the headquarters of the Golden Crow Group. Its existence facilitated the operation of the artificial sun. As the original research site, the building still housed several initial energy source controllers. Team Seven needed to shut down these energy controllers, just like in the Golden Crow bases, to close all the loops.

The building had 122 floors, the elevator system was damaged, and the staircases leading to the top floors were destroyed. There were traces of a helicopter on the rooftop, suggesting that someone had cut off their escape route in a desperate attempt to flee.

Therefore, to reach the lower floors, the team had to use grappling hooks and zip lines to check each floor.

Perhaps due to the height of the building and the ample exposure to the artificial sun, the zombies here were more mutated than those on the ground, with significantly increased speed and intelligence. They had already wiped out two waves in this big loop.

Overall, this big loop was relatively simpler than the previous ones, but it was a mission with no retreat.

“Any objections?”

Song Qinglan approached as well.

He looked at Ji Yushi and said, just as Ji Yushi remembered, “Consultant Ji, you need to rest. There will be a lot for you to do at the energy controllers later. This time, let Tang Le and Tang Qi go first. If they don’t make it, the next group will follow.”

The so-called “don’t make it” meant death.

Two or one person per group, and if the previous group died, the next group would immediately follow.

Song Qinglan spoke quickly, sounding somewhat ruthless.

But everyone knew their time was tight, with less than three hours until the first black wall appeared at 5:00 AM, and they had explored six floors without finding the energy control room.

But Ji Yushi knew the control room was on the 100th floor.

If they went straight to the 100th floor, perhaps they wouldn’t have to continue dying.

Amid these chaotic memories and the confusion between reality and illusion, Ji Yushi felt increasingly unwell. He had no choice but to take out his pillbox, chewing and swallowing the pills.

However, given the current situation, he didn’t want to keep it to himself any longer. He didn’t want to go through these loops again, and he was hesitating about whether to speak up when Song Qinglan was called away by another teammate.

The events unfolded step by step.

Tang Le and Tang Qi slid down the building’s atrium using ropes, reaching the 116th floor. They then swung like spiders, firing rounds that left body parts flying, before landing on the corridor.

Everyone stood on the 122nd floor, watching.

Each person’s expression was tense, holding their breath.

Amidst the gunfire, they didn’t hear the expected signal. At Song Qinglan’s command, everyone deployed their grappling hooks and began descending.

Having paved their own way in Golden Crow Base, this time, they feared death even less. Even knowing that the path ahead was a dead end, they charged forward without hesitation.

When the building’s staircase was destroyed, half of the building was blown open, and the internal lights flickered on and off.

Night winds poured in, blowing Ji Yushi’s black hair. He stood at the edge, his expression calm.

“Should I go first, or do you want to?”

A familiar voice asked.

Ji Yushi turned around to see Song Qinglan, carrying his gun and ready to go.

The blue energy rounds glowed, making his tall, upright figure look godlike.

Ji Yushi, following the order in his memory, said, “I’ll go first.”

Song Qinglan pushed open the capsule door and strode towards the center of the rooftop.

The pitch-black sky seemed to press down on them, the seven glowing capsules resembling lotus seeds.

Song Qinglan stopped in front of one capsule.

Everyone who had just exited the capsules was puzzled by his unusual behavior and turned to look at him: “Captain Song?”

The capsule door opened, and Ji Yushi stepped out, colliding with Song Qinglan.

Song Qinglan stared at him for a few seconds but said nothing, simply turning to the others and saying, “This time, we’ll go to the 119th floor, rotate forward. Lao Zhou, you take the lead.”

Zhou Mingxuan: “Yes!”

The teammates continued their exploration, one after another.

Everyone could see that Song Qinglan was in a very bad mood. He was trying hard to suppress his emotions, not letting them affect the mission.

Everyone assumed it was the frustrating mission that had put Song Qinglan in such a state. Even as the captain, they too were filled with a reluctant anger—after closing all the energy sources, there was still a bigger loop. This time hijack seemed to be toying with them.

Soon, only half the team was left on the rooftop.

Gunfire echoed from below, and Song Qinglan heard Ji Yushi ask him something.

“Hmm?” He didn’t hear clearly.

Ji Yushi’s expression remained indifferent as he repeated, “Captain Song, did I do something wrong?”

Song Qinglan was taken aback.

Hearing Ji Yushi’s question, Li Chun and Duan Wen also looked over.

“Since we arrived here, your behavior has been a bit different,” Ji Yushi said. “If I’ve done something wrong, you can tell me directly.”

From Ji Yushi’s perspective, they had a brief conversation when closing all the energy source controllers at Golden Crow Two. Song Qinglan had comforted Ji Yushi and expressed his wish for him to stay with Team Seven. But after two loops here, Song Qinglan’s mood had grown more and more sullen, making Ji Yushi feel targeted.

Ji Yushi appeared cold and detached, as if he didn’t care about anything. But in fact, beneath his cool exterior, he was extremely sensitive.

How could Song Qinglan not know that? Being asked like this, he felt a pang in his heart, his breath catching: “I—”

Ji Yushi, uninterested in the answer, had already leaped down smoothly, sliding down the grappling hook.

“Damn, is Consultant Ji angry?” Duan Wen exclaimed. “I thought he wouldn’t bring it up.”

“Boss, grudge warning. Be careful, Consultant Ji might just ‘snap’—” Li Chun joked, mimicking Ji Yushi snapping a zombie’s neck in Golden Crow Two. “Tsk, it was shockingly cool and violent.”

Song Qinglan: “…”

He asked with a stern face, “Have I been treating him badly?”

Both of them nodded vigorously like chickens pecking at rice.

“Terribly.”

“Completely different from before.”

“You’re not even yourself.”

Damn.

Even his teammates had noticed. It showed just how poorly he had been treating Ji Yushi, even if unconsciously.

Gritting his teeth, Song Qinglan followed down the rope.

The battle below was fierce. Sliding past the 121st and 120th floors, Song Qinglan saw the blood-soaked bodies of his teammates from the last loop. In this big loop, all the rules were the same as in the small loops—overlapping timelines, multiple teams existing simultaneously, several teams at the same time period.

As he descended, Song Qinglan saw Li Chun and Zhou Mingxuan being bitten by a group of crazed zombies on the 121st floor. On the 120th floor, he saw himself, Tang Qi, and Tang Le running down the corridor. On the other side, he caught sight of Duan Wen and Ji Yushi firing their weapons.

Like all the other teammates, Song Qinglan remained indifferent, smoothly landing on the 119th floor, searching for Ji Yushi.

The area had already been cleared by the teammates who landed earlier.

The ground was covered in corpses and blood.

After landing, Song Qinglan performed a forward roll to buffer, drawing his combat knife to swiftly kill an approaching zombie.

A slender figure of Ji Yushi stood ahead.

“Ji Yushi—”

Before he could finish, Ji Yushi’s expression suddenly changed, and he fired a shot with his Diamond Bird.

“Bang!”

Song Qinglan felt a warmth on his cheek as a zombie behind him was shot in the head, spraying foul-smelling blood all over his face: “…”

Even if he was still angry, even if they weren’t together yet, Ji Yushi was afraid he’d get bitten to death?

Song Qinglan, almost deafened by the gunshot, felt warmth in his heart.

He thought he might be a bit twisted at this moment.

“You’re welcome,” Ji Yushi said coldly, turning to leave.