28: Chapter 28: The crocodile will drop a crocodile skin belt; no problem, it's perfectly reasonable.

The darkness in the inspection well was so thick it seemed tangible. The beam of the headlamp cut through, illuminating only the mottled water stains on the pipe walls and a few strands of damp moss. The three of them pressed against the wellhead, waiting for about two minutes. Aside from the echo of water droplets hitting the stagnant pool below, there was no sign of the restless scratching of Zombie Rats against the well wall.

"I'll go down first." Lin Rui leaned his tower shield against his side, braced his hands on the well rim, and lowered his legs into the pipe. The plates of his leather armor scraped against the concrete edge, making a teeth-grinding squeak. He descended slowly, the beam of his headlamp sweeping a shaky arc of light across the pipe wall until the water level submerged his calves and he found a firm footing in the sludge at the bottom.

"No movement." Lin Rui looked up, his voice sounding muffled as it traveled up the pipe.

Hu Jinsi was the second to go down. He put away his iron-clad long staff; in this pipe, which was barely two meters in diameter, a long weapon was impossible to wield. He only snapped the Licker's Ripping Knuckle Dusters onto his right fist, the bone blades protruding between his knuckles like five pale fangs. He climbed down the rusted iron ladder along the well wall, his fingertips touching metal that was greasy and cold, covered in a green film of unknown algae or mold. As soon as his feet touched the sewage, a foul stench mixed with rotting meat, chemicals, and the unique fishy sweetness of a sewer rushed into his nostrils.

"This smell…" Hu Jinsi grimaced, swallowing the second half of his complaint. Su Wan was still above; he had to give her some mental preparation so the young girl wouldn't vomit into her mask the moment she stepped in.

Su Wan was the third. She carried her lyre on her back, the practice round shield strapped to her left forearm, and her right hand gripping the iron ladder, taking each step cautiously. The headlamp's beam swayed on her chest, illuminating the two blurred figures below. When she finally let go and landed, the cold sensation of sewage submerging her ankles climbed up her calves—

Splash!

The stagnant water three meters ahead suddenly exploded! A massive gray-green figure burst out of the water, bringing with it a foul-smelling gust of wind, charging straight at the three of them!

"Crocodile!" Lin Rui's roar exploded in the pipe.

The beast was nearly two meters long, its back covered in keratinous scales brushing against the concrete top of the pipe, splashing mud and water. In its open bloody maw, jagged, sharp teeth gleamed with yellow-black tartar, its bite force sufficient to snap a normal person's calf directly. This wasn't an elite, but in this narrow underground space, its threat was magnified several times over.

Hu Jinsi instinctively wanted to spin and execute a Spinning Crane Kick, but as soon as his right leg lifted half an inch, his knee hit a concrete protrusion on the side wall. The pipe was only two meters wide; his two-meter radius rotation area couldn't be deployed at all, and forcing it wouldn't be effective. He cursed under his breath and had to give up, stepping his right leg back into the sewage, splashing up a cloud of turbid water.

"Don't Roll! The ground is too dirty!" Lin Rui roared while bracing his round shield in front of him. He also dared not use a Tactical Roll—the stagnant water at the bottom of the pipe was floating with bone fragments, rotten cloth, and the remains of unknown creatures; rolling once would be equivalent to soaking his whole body in a viral petri dish. Hu Jinsi's Roll was also locked out; who would dare perform ground techniques in this place? It would be equivalent to coating his whole body in biochemical paint.

The three were forced to choose the most primitive fighting style: Lin Rui tanked, Hu Jinsi flanked, and Su Wan supported from the rear.

The crocodile's upper jaw bit hard onto the round shield, emitting a hair-raising sound of metal tearing. Lin Rui's feet plowed two deep furrows in the sludge, the muscles on his arms instantly tightening like iron cables. He let out a muffled grunt; the impact from the shield face made his collarbone numb, but the beast was only a common monster after all, and its bite force hadn't reached a level he couldn't withstand.

"Honorary Counterattack!" Lin Rui used the recoil from the Block, and the short spear in his right hand stabbed out like lightning from under the shield's edge, piercing the crocodile's lower jaw soft tissue and bringing out a spray of dark red blood. [-11]

Hu Jinsi closed in from the side. The pipe was narrow, and he couldn't get behind the crocodile, so he could only wedge himself into the gap beside Lin Rui, slamming the bone blades of his knuckle duster on his right fist into the crocodile's eye socket. The armor-piercing effect of the bone blades came into play at this moment; the hard layer of keratinous scales was torn open by the pale bone blades, [-13], and black-red blood mixed with tissue fluid seeped out.

The crocodile felt the pain and jerked its head, its long jaw detaching from the round shield and turning to bite at Hu Jinsi. Hu Jinsi retreated rapidly, his back hitting the pipe wall with nowhere to run. At the critical moment, the sound of Su Wan's lyre exploded from behind—not Thunderwave, but [Faerie Fire]! The ghostly blue flame instantly attached to the crocodile's snout, illuminating its silhouette clearly, and its attack trajectory became sluggish and identifiable.

"Duck!" Su Wan screamed.

Hu Jinsi ducked, and the crocodile's upper jaw grazed his scalp, slamming into the concrete pipe wall and sending debris flying. He took the opportunity to punch again, the bone blades of the knuckle duster stabbing into the side of the crocodile's neck along the gaps in the scales, [-9].

Lin Rui didn't waste this precious output window. He abandoned the short spear, gripped the edge of the round shield with both hands, and swung the shield face like a door panel, slamming it hard into the crocodile's bridge of the nose. With a muffled "Bang!", the crocodile's head was knocked to the side, and two lines of blood sprayed from its nostrils. It twisted its body angrily, its thick tail sweeping out through the stagnant water like a steel whip wrapped in mud and water, lashing at Lin Rui's waist.

Lin Rui couldn't fully Block in time, so he could only press the round shield diagonally downward.

"Clang—Crunch!"

The force of that tail sweep far exceeded expectations. The lower half of the round shield was visibly dented inward, and the screeching sound of iron sheet and wood core tearing echoed through the pipe. Lin Rui was knocked sideways half a step, the sewage splashing loudly, and the scratch marks and dents on the shield face were layered on top of each other. Nearly half of the entire shield was ruined, the deformed metal edges twisted like a pile of scrap metal.

"The shield is about to break!" Lin Rui gritted his teeth, his arm almost numb from the shock.

Hu Jinsi seized the stiffness after the crocodile's tail sweep and activated Flurry of Blows, his right fist landing three consecutive heavy blows on the same spot on the crocodile's eye socket. The first punch broke through the cuticle, the second smashed the orbital bone, and the third—the bone blades of the knuckle duster stabbed deep into the eye socket, shredding the nerve plexus behind it. [-14] [-10] [-12]

The crocodile let out a shrill hiss, its massive body twisting crazily in the pipe, its tail slapping against the pipe wall, sending mud and water splashing everywhere. But its struggle weakened rapidly, and it finally went limp in the stagnant water, dissipating into a mass of rising light spots.

After the battle, only heavy panting remained in the pipe.

Lin Rui put down the semi-ruined round shield; the shield face was twisted out of shape, like a biscuit crushed by a giant. "Can't fix it." He sighed and put the round shield back into his backpack; it would only be treated as scrap metal when they got out.

Where the light spots dissipated, a belt floated quietly above the sewage, miraculously not dirtied.

[Crocodile Skin Belt]

[Item Type: Belt / Wonder]

[Effect 1: Tough Storage: Your belt buckle is actually a micro storage buckle. You can hang 3 "light" miscellaneous items (such as lockpicks, tourniquets, lighters, small bottles of poison) on your waist without occupying hand or backpack space. You gain Advantage when grabbing these items in a panic.]

[Effect 2: Waterproof Coating: You gain resistance to "Corrosion" damage (such as acid, sewer sewage disease). This layer of natural grease protects your skin.]

[Item Description: This belt is made of several pieces of roughly stitched crocodile belly skin, with the natural texture of the scales still remaining on the edges. The buckle is a heavily worn metal button, on which a logo of an unknown brand is faintly visible.]

Hu Jinsi picked up the belt, shook off the water droplets, and his mouth twitched: "A crocodile dropping a crocodile skin belt… This logic is seamless; I actually cannot refute it. Why on earth is this? There was no part in the intel we received that crocodiles would drop equipment?"

Su Wan rolled her eyes at him, her voice carrying the unique exhaustion of the sewer: "In a normal team, who goes poking around in the sewers for no reason? Even that classmate who transferred to Witch Doctor wouldn't want to come to the sewers to fight monsters. We only chose to take the sewer because we had no other choice."

"True." Hu Jinsi handed the belt to Lin Rui, "You take it. Molotov cocktails, grenades, ropes, tourniquets—you have the most odds and ends on you. This thing can hang three items on the waist for quick access. Besides, you're tanking monsters in the front; if there's anything more disgusting behind us, the waterproof coating can also come in handy."

Lin Rui didn't decline and took the belt, tying it around his waist. The roughly stitched belly skin stuck to his body, paired with the deformed round shield and the leather armor covered in mud and water, making him look like a bounty hunter who had just crawled out of a swamp.

The three of them conveniently cleaned up the drops from the previous Zombie Rats. Rotten rat meat and hardened rat teeth piled up in a small heap, emitting a stench even more pungent than the sewer itself.

"This stuff…" Su Wan picked up a hardened rat tooth with two fingers, looking disgusted, "Who do we sell this to? Alchemist? Chef?"

"Li Hao will probably want it." Hu Jinsi swept the materials into his backpack grid, "But forget about the rotten rat meat. If the smell is brought back to school, the whole classroom would be turned into a morgue."

"Just throw it away." Lin Rui made the final decision.

After cleaning up, the three of them sensed the direction of the sewage flow. The moss on the pipe walls grew thicker on one side, and the floating objects on the water surface drifted slowly in the same direction. Downstream meant lower elevation, which also meant closer to the city's main drainage system, where there were ladders leading to the surface.

"Let's go." Hu Jinsi pointed to the darkness ahead, "Downstream."

The journey ahead was a long torture.

The sewer pipe diameter was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow. The ground under their feet was no longer smooth concrete but covered with a layer of greasy biofilm. Stepping on it felt like stepping into the stomach of some giant creature, and every step required extra effort to pull their boots out. Occasionally stepping on loose bone fragments or metal shards, the risk of slipping forced the three to keep their marching speed to a minimum. Even more disgusting were the sticky areas—black, gelatinous substances seeped out from cracks in the pipe walls, pulling out stringy mucus, as if the entire pipe was breathing slowly.

The three dared not speak. It wasn't that they were afraid the sound would attract monsters, but they were afraid that the spray or suspended particles in the air would get into their mouths when they opened them. Hu Jinsi even took out his [Red Linen Mask] again and gave one to Lin Rui and Su Wan, revealing only a pair of eyes turning in the headlamp's beam. Su Wan's face was pale, her lips pressed into a line, and her lyre had been put back into her backpack early, leaving only the round shield and hand crossbow in her hands.

The zombie attacks along the way were intermittent. Some were incomplete corpses washed down along the drainage channel, half-submerged in the water, awakened by the movement of the three passing by, struggling and lunging from the stagnant water. Hu Jinsi used his knuckle dusters to solve them, Lin Rui used the short spear to finish them off, and Su Wan used the hand crossbow to snipe at those floating targets they couldn't reach. No battle was worth recording in detail. In the sewer, these sporadic zombies were just a part of the environment, like mold, everywhere.

An hour later, the pipe suddenly opened up.

The volume of the main drainage channel far exceeded the previous pipes. The widest part was about five meters, and the highest point was nearly four meters, with mottled brick arch walls on both sides, and the vaulted ceiling casting heavy shadows. The water flow at the bottom of the channel was deeper and faster, forming a turbid river in the center, while the edges were narrow brick walkways, extremely slippery.

"Finally can straighten my back." Hu Jinsi stretched his neck, and his cervical spine made a crisp crack.

Lin Rui's headlamp swept toward the top of the arch wall, the beam freezing on a shadow: "Ladder."

The metal ladder was embedded in the brick wall, extending upward and disappearing into the darkness at the top. That was the road to the surface.

But the bad news followed.

In the deep water area below the ladder, the water surface rippled abnormally. The diameter of the ripples was ridiculously large, as if a small submarine was slowly surfacing from underwater. Then, two orange-yellow vertical pupils, as big as fists, broke the turbid water surface.

It was a crocodile. But compared to the previous one, this one was suffocatingly huge, with a shoulder height of nearly 1.5 meters and a body length of over 4 meters. The bone spurs on its back were like a row of rusty daggers, and its tail was submerged in the water; just the part exposed above the water was enough to rival the entire body of the previous crocodile. Its scales were dark gray-black, with sickly pale edges, clearly a mutant deeply eroded by the virus.

Elite monster.

The headlamp beams of the three hit it at the same time, and the beast turned its head slowly, its orange-yellow vertical pupils locking onto the source of the light. A low hiss, as if squeezed from the depths of its abdomen, echoed in the drainage channel, and the water surface vibrated slightly with the sound waves.

"Discovered." Lin Rui's voice was as heavy as iron.

"Retreat?" Su Wan held her lyre, her fingers already pressed on the strings.

"Crawl through the pipe for another hour, and then face that group of Zombie Rats and other possible crocodiles?" Hu Jinsi twitched the corner of his mouth, the bone blades of the knuckle duster on his right hand gleaming pale in the headlamp, "Let's go. Strike first, remember the tactics."

He didn't give his teammates time to hesitate and directly activated [Parkour]!

A bit of warm airflow was drawn from the Qi pool, and explosive power beyond the norm was instantly injected into his leg muscles. Hu Jinsi's figure turned into an afterimage, rushing out on the slippery brick walkway, and jumped violently when he was three meters away from the giant crocodile—

The jump distance doubling effect of [Parkour] took effect at this moment. His body rose to an unprecedented height, directly crossing the giant crocodile's blood-red maw capable of swallowing an adult, the rixats elegy (magic short sword) in his right hand drawing a cold blue light in the gloom, while the bone blades of his left-hand knuckle duster locked tightly onto the bone spurs on the crocodile's back.

"Puff!"

The short sword stabbed into the gap between the scales on the crocodile's back, [-12], and green blood gushed out. But Hu Jinsi's target wasn't here—he tried to climb forward, handing the short sword toward the crocodile's eye socket!

The giant crocodile twisted its body crazily, the bone spurs on its back like a row of wild plow knives, almost throwing Hu Jinsi into the water. He locked onto the bone spurs tightly, the bone blades of the knuckle duster scraping a harsh sound on the scales, his legs clamping the crocodile's flank like a tenacious leech.

"Lin Rui!" He roared.

Lin Rui didn't hesitate. He had already activated [Charge] the moment Hu Jinsi jumped, the short spear hung behind his back, his left hand clutching a bundle of water-soaked rope, and his right hand holding the still-intact tower shield. The ten-meter Charge distance was crossed by him in a straight line, and mud and sewage exploded under his feet.

The giant crocodile's attention was completely attracted by Hu Jinsi on its back, its head raised high, trying to shake off this annoying little bug. Just at this moment, Lin Rui rushed to its front, the tower shield not used for blocking, but held upside down with both hands, like a giant racket, slamming hard into the crocodile's upper jaw!

"Bang!"

The metal edge of the tower shield hit the crocodile's maxilla, making a dull, loud noise. The crocodile's upper jaw was slammed shut by this brute force, and the clatter of teeth colliding was deafening. Lin Rui didn't give it a chance to open its mouth again, his left-hand rope darting out like a spirit snake, winding around the crocodile's closed snout, and tightening it hard!

The crocodile flew into a rage, its forelimbs gouging deep furrows into the masonry walkway as it tried to break free with brute force.

Lin Rui was dragged, his feet slipping on the slick ground, but his 18 Strength displayed terrifying suppression at this moment—his legs were like stakes driven into the ground, and though the rope left purple-red welts in his palms, he never let go.

"Keep tying!" Lin Rui roared.

Hu Jinsi, on the crocodile's back, understood. He gave up attacking the eyes and, using the momentum of the crocodile's thrashing head, released the bone spikes and was thrown into the air.

He adjusted his posture mid-air, plunged his right-hand dagger into the crocodile's shoulder blade as a pivot point, grabbed the end of the rope with his left hand, and vaulted over the crocodile's head using inertia—

[Roll]!

His body curled in the air, rolling toward the other side of the crocodile's snout, the rope wrapping another half-turn around the crocodile's mouth as he rolled.

The moment he landed, Hu Jinsi didn't pause; he hooked his brass knuckles into a gap in the masonry to steady himself, pulled the rope tight with both hands, and rolled again!

Another half-turn.

Two and a half turns of rope bound the crocodile's upper and lower jaws tightly, like a zongzi with its mouth sewn shut.

Lin Rui pressed the end of the rope against his tower shield, putting his full weight into it, his muscles bulging with 18 Strength, completely sealing the crocodile's ability to open its mouth.

The giant crocodile let out an angry whimper, the sound trapped within its closed mouth, turning into a dull, rumbling noise.

It couldn't bite, but that didn't mean it had lost all its means of attack—its thick tail whipped high out of the water, whistling as it tore through the air, sweeping toward Lin Rui's flank!

However, although the main drainage channel was five meters wide, the crocodile itself was nearly four meters long.

The range of its tail swipe was restricted by the masonry arch walls on both sides, forcing the trajectory of its swing to be cut short.

Lin Rui had anticipated this; the moment the tail swipe was about to reach him, he executed a side Roll to avoid the brunt of it, keeping the tower shield firmly against the rope without letting the seal loosen in the slightest.

"Death Roll!" Su Wan screamed from behind.

The crocodile's body had begun to tilt; that was its signature killer move in the water—after biting down on prey, it would spin at high speed like a top, tearing limbs directly off.

Although its mouth was bound and it couldn't truly "bite," the impact and twisting force generated by its four-meter-long body rolling in the drainage channel were enough to shatter Lin Rui's bones.

Su Wan's fingers plucked a melody of extreme mockery on her lyre.

[Tasha's Hideous Laughter]!

Invisible sound waves were precisely injected into the crocodile's nervous system.

The massive body had only tilted halfway when its muscles suddenly went rigid, and the corners of its mouth—if that closed snout could be called a mouth—twitched uncontrollably upward.

It fell into a state of uncontrollable laughter; within four seconds, its muscular coordination was completely disrupted, and the force of its Roll dissipated entirely, like a punctured balloon.

"Now!" Lin Rui roared.

Hu Jinsi leaped from the masonry walkway, and the rixats elegy in his right hand erupted with unprecedented eerie blue light.

He stepped on the crocodile's flank to climb onto its head, the tip of his dagger aimed at the weak point behind the eye socket at the base of the skull—the fatal bullseye from the anti-crocodile tactics learned in class.

The first strike pierced the soft tissue at the edge of the eye socket, [-14].

The second strike went deeper along the wound of the first, the screeching sound of the blade scraping against the inner wall of the skull setting one's teeth on edge, [-15].

The third strike, rixats elegy's special effect triggered!

The eerie blue light flared, and 12.5% of the crocodile's current HP was forcibly shaved off, [Special Effect Triggered: -37]!

The beast let out a miserable wail muffled by the rope, blood gushing simultaneously from its nostrils and the corners of its eyes.

But this elite monster had nearly 300 HP; three strikes were far from fatal.

Hu Jinsi gritted his teeth, hooked his left brass knuckle into the edge of the crocodile's eye socket to steady himself, and hammered his right-hand dagger into the same spot like a pile driver, strike after strike.

The fourth strike, [-13].

The fifth strike, [-16].

The sixth strike, [-14], special effect triggered again, [-28]!

Lin Rui kept the rope suppressed from below, his tower shield banging loudly as the crocodile's struggling forelimbs struck it, adding new scratches to the armor plates.

Su Wan's music didn't stop; after the four seconds of [Tasha's Hideous Laughter] ended, she immediately followed up with a second casting, keeping the crocodile in a state of laughter and continuing to deprive it of control over its body.

The seventh strike, the eighth, the ninth...

Hu Jinsi's arm muscles began to spasm from the high-frequency stabbing, and the bone blades of his brass knuckles embedded themselves into the bone seams of the crocodile's eye socket from excessive force.

The blade of the short sword had sunk nearly halfway into the cranial cavity, the eerie blue light shining out from inside the wound, illuminating the surrounding foul-smelling flesh.

The tenth strike, [-15].

The eleventh strike, [Special Effect Triggered: -19].

The twelfth strike; the tip of the blade finally pierced through the weak layer at the base of the skull, stabbing into the intersection of the central nervous system.

The giant crocodile's body stiffened abruptly, then, like a collapsing mountain of flesh, it crashed onto the masonry walkway, splashing a huge spray of water.

Its tail twitched twice more, slapping the water, before finally falling still.

Points of light slowly rose from the corpse, appearing exceptionally bright in the dim drainage channel.

After the battle, the three of them slumped on the slick masonry, gasping for air.

Hu Jinsi's right arm was shaking uncontrollably, and bits of crocodile flesh and bone fragments still hung from his brass knuckles.

He looked down at himself; his new school uniform was completely ruined, the front soaked with blood, his back worn full of holes from the masonry, and his trouser legs covered in black oil and green crocodile blood.

Lin Rui was in even worse shape; the leather armor he had changed into just last week was ruined by the mixture of sewage, bloodstains, and crocodile stomach acid, with tiny scales even stuck in the gaps of the armor plates, emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

"This leather armor..." Lin Rui looked down, then expressionlessly began to unfasten the straps of the armor plates, "can be thrown away."

The armor plates were removed one by one and tossed onto the masonry walkway with a dull clatter.

Without the leather armor, Lin Rui was left in only a set of base-layer clothing dyed dark brown, his muscle definition visible beneath the wet fabric.

Hu Jinsi wasn't doing much better. His beloved "Bloody Mercy" lab coat had been stowed in his backpack before entering the sewer, and what he was wearing now was this week's new school uniform (Last week's? That one had been shredded by Hogger's claws, front and back, and was already scrapped).

His left shoulder had been grazed by the crocodile's claws, tearing four long gashes, his chest was worn through, his pant legs were frayed, and he looked like a refugee who had just crawled out of a trash incinerator.

"At least I earned 220," Su Wan muttered, hugging her lyre.

She had been standing in the back, and aside from a few mud splatters on her boots, she hadn't really gotten much filth on her.

After the light faded, a pair of shoes floated where the crocodile corpse had once lain.

[Crocodile Skin Loafers]

[Item Type: Footwear / Wonder]

[Effect 1: Silent Gait: When you make a Stealth check, you gain advantage on wetlands, swamps, and slippery tiles. The tread on the soles of these shoes perfectly displaces sewage, making your walk almost silent.]

[Effect 2: Water Walking: You do not consume additional movement points when moving on difficult terrain, specifically shallow water, mud, and greasy floors. You will never slip or slow down from stepping into a mixture of excrement and urine again.]

[Item Description: These shoes look like they were left in a locker room by some unlucky Wall Street elite. The uppers are shiny crocodile skin, but the soles have been worn down unevenly, clearly hastily modified by a survivor while on the run.]

Hu Jinsi picked up the shoes, weighed them in his hand, and pursed his lips: "If we'd gotten these an hour ago, the three of us would probably have fought tooth and nail for them. Now? We're almost out; let's just keep them to sell for money."

"List them on the exchange, title it 'Raccoon City Sewer Limited Edition'," Lin Rui replied expressionlessly, "After our promotion, these sewers might get lively. There will always be professionals willing to come down and try their luck. And when that time comes, these shoes will be a lifesaver."

"Crocodile skin belt, crocodile skin shoes..." Su Wan rolled her eyes, "Next time, will it drop a crocodile skin briefcase? Collect the whole set and cosplay a financial elite directly."

"Maybe there really is one," Hu Jinsi stuffed the shoes into his backpack and grinned, "The malice of a dungeon is always something you can't imagine."

The three rested for a moment, restoring their condition to an actionable level. Their Qi pools slowly recovered during the short rest, and Su Wan's spell slots were replenished. They walked toward the metal ladder embedded in the brick wall and climbed up one by one.

The manhole cover at the top was incredibly heavy; Lin Rui braced it with his shoulder, put strength into his arms, and the rusty metal cover let out a harsh screeching sound as it was slowly pushed open to reveal a gap.

The afternoon sunlight was like a sharp sword, piercing the darkness of the sewer. Fresh air, carrying the scent of gasoline and grass, flooded their lungs, giving the three of them the almost illusory feeling of being reborn.

Lin Rui was the first to climb out of the manhole, followed by Su Wan, and finally Hu Jinsi. They stood on the edge of an asphalt road, the opened manhole behind them.

Before them were three black-and-white patrol cars, parked askew on the roadside, with a shield-shaped emblem in blue and white printed on the bodies. Even if they didn't recognize the abbreviation "RPD," the classic black-and-white color scheme and the eye-catching "POLICE" lettering on the doors were enough for any high school student from Water Blue Star to realize what kind of hellish place they had landed in.

"Raccoon City Police Department..." Su Wan's voice was dry, "We dropped straight into one of the worst possible outcomes."

There was no time for reflection. The metallic screech of the manhole cover opening echoed through the deathly silent street, like a dinner bell. At the street corner, a few zombies wearing police uniforms and casual clothes slowly turned their heads, their turbid eyes locking onto the three of them, throats emitting a chorus of groans.

"Take them out quietly." Lin Rui didn't pull out his chainsaw but instead took the rixats elegy back from Hu Jinsi. He held the short sword in his right hand and buckled the still-intact tower shield onto his left, "Don't make a big noise; God knows how many there are around here."

The three spread out in a wedge formation, creeping toward the zombies along the wall. Hu Jinsi used his brass knuckles in his right hand and his left hand as a blade; the moment a police-uniformed zombie opened its mouth, he chopped the edge of his hand into its throat, [-11], the sound of the larynx shattering suppressed to an extremely small range.

Lin Rui's short sword thrust out from under the edge of the shield, precisely stabbing into another zombie's temple, [-14], blue light flickered, the corpse dissipated into points of light, and even the sound of it falling was cushioned by the tower shield.

Su Wan stood in the back, firing her light crossbow in rapid succession, the bolt pinning into the third zombie's eye socket, [-6], it swayed, and when it fell, it hit a trash can, making a dull thud.

Five zombies, taken care of in thirty seconds, with no noise exceeding the volume of normal conversation throughout the entire process.

"Let's go." Lin Rui sheathed his sword, his gaze sweeping over a shop across the street.

It was a street-facing store, the shop window half-shattered, but the door frame was still intact. The English letters on the sign were faintly discernible under the dust: Kendo Gun Shop.

The three slipped into the store. In the shadows behind the counter, a figure in a plaid shirt slowly stood up—half of its face was rotten, exposing grayish-white cheekbones, and it was still clutching a shotgun that hadn't been loaded in time. Lin Rui lunged forward, stabbing the short sword into its jaw, [-16], and the points of light dissipated.

"Kendo Gun Shop..." Hu Jinsi looked around; the shelves were knocked over, the display cases smashed, and there were bullet holes and scorch marks on the walls, "It's been thoroughly looted."

Behind the counter, several boxes of ammunition were scattered on the dusty surface. Lin Rui picked them up to check, and the panel popped up a prompt: [9mm Pistol Ammo], [Cannot be taken out of the dungeon]. Next to them were two boxes of [12-Gauge Shotgun Shells], also marked with the gray text indicating they could not be taken out.

"Usable within the dungeon." Lin Rui put the ammo into his backpack, "It'll be useless once we leave, but it can save us a lot of money while we're inside."

After confirming the store was safe, the three found a city map stained with coffee grounds from behind the counter. The markings on the map were very clear: their current position was at the intersection of a main road, and across a narrow street to their right was the main entrance of the Raccoon City Police Department—the gray, colonnaded building loomed in the haze. Not far to the north were the train station and gas station, to the southwest was the outline of a stadium, and to the immediate south was a blank space, as if it were an area the mapmaker hadn't dared to venture into.

"We can't stay in open areas," Su Wan pointed out the window, "In case a flock of zombie crows is drawn here, we'll have nowhere to hide."

"Closed spaces like school buildings are better," Hu Jinsi added, "The police station... the building structure is complex, there are many rooms, at least we can find a place to barricade the door."

"We can't give up on the gun shop either," Lin Rui folded the map, "Search the back warehouse; if there are no problems, we'll use it as our resting point for tonight."

The three passed through the curtain at the back of the shop and entered the warehouse. The space wasn't large, piled with empty cardboard boxes and damaged shelves, with thick dust accumulated in the corners, but the doors and windows were intact, with no signs of zombie intrusion. While rummaging through a collapsed shelf, Su Wan dragged a crossbow out from a pile of boxes.

It was a compound crossbow, the limbs wrapped in carbon fiber sheets, the body equipped with a simple red-dot sight, and twelve aluminum bolts scattered nearby, with fine blood grooves carved into the arrowheads.

[Police Light Crossbow]

[Type: Simple Weapon / Ranged Weapon]

[Damage: 12-17]

[Note: Cannot be taken out of the dungeon. Backup equipment from the Raccoon City Police Department, with a slightly longer range than standard light crossbows, but slightly more laborious to cock, requiring an extra half-second to pull the string.]

Su Wan's eyes lit up; she slung her lyre onto her back, raised the crossbow, and tested the feel: "Finally, I don't have to use that hand crossbow as my main weapon. This thing is much more powerful than the hand crossbow."

"Twelve bolts, use them sparingly." Lin Rui finished checking every corner of the warehouse, confirming there were no hidden doors or hazards in the ventilation ducts, "Tidy up; after all, we plan to spend the night here."

Hu Jinsi leaned against the wall, looking through the broken front window at the silhouette of the police station across the street. The gray building looked like a dormant behemoth in the twilight, its windows pitch black, as if countless eyes were peering out from within at the street.

He looked down at the dungeon countdown on his panel: [Remaining Time: 24:00:00].

"A full day left," he muttered, "I hope that place is more bearable than the sewers."