Silence fell inside the elevator.

After a moment, A-Da gave a quiet, humorless laugh. His casual tone barely masked his simmering anger. “So what are we doing here? Waiting to die?”

Natasha’s brow furrowed. “Waiting for the mutants outside to disperse…”

“And once they disperse, we can just charge through?” A-Da squeezed his eyes shut in exasperation, slamming his fist against the elevator floor. “All the equipment we’ve spent on this run—nearly ten million points all told. If we can’t clear this instance, scraping together another haul like that will take at least a month.”

The reality in front of them was brutal.

With their current strength, breaking through several hundred mutants wasn’t impossible—but it would consume enormous quantities of ammunition, and ammunition wasn’t free. It was paid for with actual points.

To exchange for an equivalent supply again, they’d need time to earn those points—and for them right now, time was exactly what they didn’t have.

Nick’s squad could clear their remaining side instances at any moment and claim this year’s slot.

Time was running out.

……

The atmosphere in the elevator was suffocating. The live chat was equally despairing, each message bleaker than the last:

【We’re done. Mutants everywhere outside, ammunition more than half gone. This is really over.】

【My heart hurts…】

【Squad Unbelievably OP is ranked number one on the monthly leaderboard! Number one—reduced to this!】

【I can’t watch anymore… just hurry up and end it so they can restart…】

【Yeah, restart! Just restart already!】

【Next run, for the love of everything, don’t bring Cabbage!】

【Please, Captain, come to your senses! Stop bringing deadweight!】

【Deadweight, get out of the stream! Brother Crow, get out! OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!!!】

【Where’s the commentator? Say something! Did you go mute?!】

……

Shen Mo made some adjustments to his pack and spoke calmly. “As long as they’re not guards, we can handle the other mutants with blades. Add in whatever explosives we have left and it’s actually workable.”

Yuri nodded slowly. “To deal with a guard, we’d need to find the right terrain first—draw it somewhere like the screening room—then use grenades. The good news is, no casualties so far. This progress is still acceptable.”

Both men maintained a steady mindset, neither losing heart, already reworking their plan.

A-Da’s agitation eased slightly. He exhaled. “Fine. We’ll push through one more time.”

“I think we have a very good chance, actually~” Bai Youwei joined the discussion on her own initiative, speaking with absolute confidence. “The instance objective says all mutants must be eliminated, right? We already wiped out about half of them in the underground parking garage. The remaining half is now clustered on the eighth floor—that means the Queen’s location probably has no mutants guarding it. As long as we destroy the eggs too, we can clear the instance~”

Her tone was so relaxed.

Shen Mo felt that inexplicably familiar sensation again.

A-Da and Yuri were speechless.

Natasha hesitated, then couldn’t hold back. “The hatchery is on the 32nd floor. Getting there means breaking through the mutant encirclement outside, but right now we…”

“We’ll take the elevator up~” Bai Youwei leaned toward the floor buttons and stretched a finger to tap the “32” at the top. No response.

“The elevator has a password,” Natasha said, brows knitted. “See the electronic display? It needs a four-digit code to unlock. The clue could be anywhere in this building. There’s no way to go look for it now…”

“Why would a public elevator need a password? That’s such a strange design. What if the clue is right here inside the elevator?” Bai Youwei bent forward, leaning close to the electronic display, narrowing her eyes to examine it.

She looked for a moment, then let out a soft sound of surprise—as if she’d noticed something.

“What is it?” A-Da stared at her strangely. “Don’t you dare tell me you can see the password with the naked eye.”

Bai Youwei shifted her angle and looked again, her voice full of wonder. “I actually can see it—there are fingerprints on these four digits: 3, 5, 7, 8~”

“What?!” A-Da immediately crowded in to look. “…Holy—there really are fingerprints! They’re super clear when you look from the side! How did we not notice that before?!”

—