Chapter 580 Dusk has arrived
**……**
The 28th hour since the black fog invaded.
In the sealed metal cage, time has lost its meaning, leaving only the monotonous and stubborn hum of the air conditioner, like the final countdown of life.
Xiao Jin still maintained the cross-legged sitting posture, like a cold sculpture.
The tablet was sent back into the space at some point. Even with the air conditioner on, sweat continued to seep out, gather, and flow inside Xiao Jin's protective suit, bringing a sticky discomfort.
At this moment, Xiao Jin opened his eyes and looked at the blue light screen in front of him through the helmet.
[Player's current erosion degree: 8.7%]
Yes, the degree of erosion on Xiao Jin's body has changed.
It started out growing at an excruciatingly slow rate, jumping up by 0.01% every few minutes.
After all, the protective suit was unable to completely isolate the toxins from the black fog.
It is being penetrated, like the strongest dam being eroded by the all-pervasive tide of death, creating tiny cracks bit by bit.
But this slow rise was the limit of what she could achieve at all costs and by arming herself to the teeth.
The air in the room had already been determined to be highly toxic, and Xiao Jin had already connected the hose of the oxygen cylinder.
The erosion level was less than 10%, which was far from the threshold that required the use of purification serum for her, but the rest of the players were not so lucky.
They don't have the cheating methods that Xiao Jin has.
From the scarred-faced burly man's room came a dull growl, like that of a wounded wild animal.
His huge body was huddled in the corner, and his thick protective suit was torn into several pieces by his own brute force, revealing the black lines on the skin underneath that were wriggling like a living thing.
An empty syringe of purified serum was inserted into his thick arm. The dark blue liquid was fighting frantically against the erosion of the black fog in his blood vessels, causing tearing pain, but temporarily curbing the surge in the degree of erosion.
At this moment, the erosion level panel of the strong man player showed a glaring [27.3%].
"Fuck, something's wrong!" The burly player breathed rapidly, his head covered in sweat.
His erosion level had risen to higher values before, but it was far less unbearable than this time. Could it be because of the black fog?
At the same time, the strong player was not the only one who thought of this.
The Black-Armored Man, Yu Liu, the Mage, the Bandaged Boy, Shadow Mouse and other players also realized that something was wrong and their faces looked very grim.
On the other side, the fox girl's room was filled with a strange, sweet fragrance with a purifying scent. It was the smoke produced by the burning of her special props, barely fighting against the pervasive poisonous gas.
But her charming face was now pale, her delicate makeup was smudged by sweat, the veins on her forehead were throbbing slightly, and her fingertips were shaking uncontrollably.
She had just injected herself with the second serum, and the degree of erosion had stabilized at [15.8%] with difficulty. The cost was that the serum stored in the space was decreasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"No, it's only been a day." The fox girl bit her lip and said, "It will get harder and harder as time goes by. I'm afraid the serum won't be enough. I have to think of a way."
Shadow Mouse's room was dead silent, as if no one was there.
But if there is a person with high perception, he will be able to sense that in the deepest shadow in the corner, there is a disordered and rapid breath, like a wounded poisonous snake.
Shadow Rat has almost no physical protection. He relies on his strange body movements and some shadow-friendly props.
At this moment, the light of the prop dimmed to the extreme, and the erosion degree number [22.1%] was like a will-o'-the-wisp in the darkness.
that's all.
Despair is like a tangible black fog, which not only permeates the public areas of the base, but also penetrates into the small space where every player relies on for survival.
They used every possible means and consumed precious serum just to survive a little longer in this ultimate black tide that would annihilate everything.
---
The 36th hour since the black fog descended.
The players' erosion level was controlled at 50% with difficulty, and Xiao Jin also reached 30%.
The other players didn't have much serum left, but Xiao Jin still had a lot. The atmosphere around them started to get restless, and someone finally couldn't help but plan to go out and look for serum.
As for whether the target is a player or an NPC, it is of course an NPC.
If there is no other way, players will not start a war at such a critical moment.
Deep inside the base, the air was as stagnant as solidified corpse oil.
The passage that was once filled with cries, curses, and desperate prayers is now filled with only one sound - a slowly fermenting, sticky silence.
The NPCs that are still "alive" huddled in their own dirty corners, like skin bags with their bones removed.
They covered their mouths tightly, dug their nails into the festering flesh of their cheeks, and used the last bit of their strength to suppress the bloody itch that was surging in their throats.
cough?
No.
To be discovered meant being dragged away, just like those who never returned.
In the previous 36 hours, seriously ill patients were taken away from time to time.
At first they thought they were taking people away for treatment, but as more and more people were taken away, the others realized what was happening.
They huddled in the corner in fear, trying hard to suppress the coughing sounds in their throats.
It’s not that they don’t want to resist, but they don’t even have the strength to resist.
Some people started to have fevers and felt dizzy. The isolation room in the warehouse gradually became full.
The quarantine area, or rather, the huge warehouse with a strong stench, has long been overloaded.
The smell seeping out from the crack in the door was no longer disinfectant, but a nauseating sweet and fishy mixture of decayed internal organs, excrement, pus, and despair.
The living, the half-dead, and the recently dead were crammed in like a torn sack, stacked up and squeezed together.
Warm corpses were pressed against the feverish and scalding living people, and festering wounds were stuck to the clothes of others. It was no longer the human world, but the sewage outlet of hell on earth.
In the end, there was no choice but for the base commander to order it to be disinfected and incinerated.
The flames roared in the incinerator, and the thick chimney spewed out thick smoke carrying gray ashes and the smell of burnt meat, like a dying python, trying in vain to devour this endless death.
Every time the furnace door opens heavily, it means another truckload of "garbage" is shoveled in.
The soldiers in charge of the transport had numb eyes and mechanical movements, and the skin exposed under the gas masks was faintly an ominous blue-gray color.
But just now, something even more despairing happened.
Inside the command room, the air was filled with the smell of illness and the heat of a high fever. The base commander was lying on the bed, his once sharp eyes now cloudy and sunken in his dark blue eye sockets.
Every breath she took was accompanied by a sound like a broken bellows, her cheeks were covered with spider-web-like black and purple blood vessels, and it seemed as if there were living things wriggling under her skin.
She didn't even have the strength to lift a finger, let alone control the huge ship that was sinking into the quagmire of corpses.
The power vacuum breeds the most poisonous mold.