Shen Mo smiled but said nothing, hoisting her onto his back and hurrying forward at a brisk pace.

There were still more than twenty floors to the top, and they needed to get there as quickly as possible to avoid missing the optimal window.

He carried her without stopping, without resting, turning again and again through the narrow fire stairwell, when gradually a strange feeling welled up inside him… as if, long, long ago, he had carried her just like this, crossing every hardship and danger.

He unconsciously asked, “Did I used to carry you on my back a lot?”

Bai Youwei’s lips curved upward. “Yes, and not only did you carry me on your back all the time, you also held me in your arms all the time, kissed me all the time, and you also…”

She stopped herself, caught a glimpse of A’Da up ahead, and pressed her lips together with a proud little smile. “Hmph, anyway… you’ll remember eventually.”

A’Da turned his head and glanced at her with a grin. “Well, I thank you for your consideration of my feelings as a lonely bachelor.”

— BOOM!!!

A tremendous explosion suddenly rang out from below, as if something had detonated, and the entire building shuddered.

The three of them instantly recognized it as Yuri’s signal and wiped the smiles from their faces.

A’Da said seriously, “Yuri said he’d use the screening room’s unique terrain to pin down the guards. That must have been him blowing up the passage. Without her guards, the Queen won’t be able to stay in her nest and will move out soon.”

Shen Mo gave a calm nod. “Let’s go.”

He then hoisted Bai Youwei a little higher on his back and picked up the pace.

…

When they reached the top floor, the thick stench of rot hung so heavy in the air it was almost suffocating.

A’Da carefully pushed the door open a crack.

Outside, nothing remained of the building’s interior as it once was. Instead, it resembled an insect colony cast from black slime — that reeking, foul mucus surrounded row upon row of flesh-pink eggs that trembled from time to time as though pulsing with life.

Bai Youwei nearly retched.

“Do you see the Queen?” A’Da pointed it out to her. “…That one, right there in the center of the hall.”

Bai Youwei pinched her nose and lowered her voice. “Which one? That heap of purplish-red stuff?”

“That’s only part of its body…” A’Da said quietly. “The Queen is twenty times the size of an ordinary variant, so she doesn’t move around much. Laying eggs drains her enormously, so she needs the guards to bring food to her almost constantly. Sometimes after eating her fill, she’ll even mate with the guard variants…”

In the distance, that mass of purple-balloon-like flesh finally stirred. Just as A’Da had said, she could not stray far from her guards — right now she was using her grotesquely slender forelegs to haul herself laboriously downward, dragging that purple, glistening, trembling lower half from which she continuously laid eggs… the outer skin had been stretched so thin by the eggs that it seemed like a single squeeze would cause them to burst…

Bai Youwei finally got a clear look at it, and felt even more like vomiting. Her complexion alternated between pale and green, her expression a picture of pure misery.

“Don’t look.” Shen Mo raised his hand and blocked her line of sight.

Bai Youwei closed her eyes and simply buried her face against Shen Mo’s chest, keeping it there until the Queen had completely moved away. Only then did she lift her head and, wasting no time, began hauling canisters of gasoline out of her backpack one by one.

“Burn it, quick…”

The commentator’s voice rang out again:

【Ah, I see! By using the guards to draw the Queen away, then taking advantage of her absence to burn all the eggs with gasoline — what a clever plan! Even if Yuri and Natasha can only keep the guards occupied for a few minutes, a Queen of this size would have enormous difficulty even descending one floor to get back to her nest, let alone making it back in time to save her own eggs! Captain Yuri continues to control the entire rhythm of the assault with pinpoint precision! And the Rookie King’s exceptional execution ability ensures this plan goes off without a hitch! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!】

The flames roared!

Down below, the Queen sensed something had gone wrong in her nest and let out a piercing shriek! That sound agitated every variant in the entire building, and they all cried out in response — every wail layering upon the last, deafening and unrelenting!

The whole building was trembling! Shaking!

Bai Youwei could feel it — the monsters were converging on the Queen’s position like a tide! Even the fire stairwell, ordinarily quiet, was now filled with the dense, frantic sound of movement!

“What do we do now?” She looked at Shen Mo and A’Da, her face drained of color.

Shen Mo swept her up into his arms and sprinted toward the stairwell in the other direction. “Find somewhere to hide!”

—