While they were eliminating the mutants, Yuri had slipped out of the supply room.

A few mutants had originally been lurking outside, but when the newly hatched young mutants started screaming in rapid succession, those creatures were drawn away. So Yuri made it safely through the fire escape stairwell to the 31st floor and rejoined Bai Youwei and Shen Mo.

The three of them swept through the 31st floor, dealing with mutants as they found them. The occasional ordinary mutant only needed a spray of toilet cleaner followed by a few bullets — all handled with ease.

Before long, Ada and Natasha came downstairs as well.

They were reunited.

By now, floors 32 and 31 showed no sign of any living mutants or eggs.

But no dungeon-clear notification had come through, which meant the mutants hadn’t been fully wiped out. Wherever the remainder had hidden, the team could only search floor by floor, working their way down.

The building had 32 floors. Setting aside the two they had already swept, there were still thirty floors left to search — an enormous undertaking. To save time, everyone split up and fanned out across every corner of the building hunting for mutants.

Running out of toilet cleaner wasn’t a concern either, since cleaning supplies were stored in or near the restrooms on nearly every floor.

……

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo made their way steadily downward, picking off mutants along the route, and without quite realizing it they arrived at the cinema level.

Bai Youwei spotted the claw machine — the very one she had messed with when they first arrived.

Inside the claw machine were many plush rabbits: white ones, pink ones, gray ones, purple ones… all rather adorable.

She took Shen Mo’s hand, her dewy eyes fixed on him, the picture of pure innocence. “Honey, I want…”

Shen Mo paused, his throat moving as he slowly replied, “…Want what?”

“Mm~” She nodded vigorously and dragged him over in front of the claw machine. “I want the rabbit inside. Help me get one, okay~”

Shen Mo fell silent.

After a moment he said, “That requires coins.”

Bai Youwei actually fished several coins out of her bag and, smiling brightly, dropped them into his palm. “Here you go. You work on the claw machine while I go take a look inside the screening room. Good luck, honey~”

Shen Mo: “……”

He watched Bai Youwei’s light-footed figure retreat, then lowered his gaze to the coins in his hand.

Fine……

It didn’t look that hard.

He fed two coins into the machine. Cheerful music immediately chimed to life, colored lights flashed, and the metal claw inside the glass case began to move according to his controls, slowly shifting into position —

Line it up, drop, grab!

The claw trembled. The plush rabbit fell back down.

Shen Mo: “……”

……He fed in two more coins.

……

When Ada came downstairs, he found Shen Mo firing repeatedly at the claw machine at close range, then driving his elbow through the glass and pulling out several stuffed animals by hand.

Ada stared. “What are you doing? That’s brutal.”

“Nothing,” Shen Mo said evenly.

Ada thought about it, then understood and laughed. “Oh~ You’re trying to make your wife happy, aren’t you?”

Shen Mo said nothing. He held the plush rabbits by their ears and silently shook off the broken glass.

“I noticed she’s already got a similar rabbit in her bag — girls like fluffy, soft things.” Ada glanced around and asked, “Where’s Youwei?”

Shen Mo’s brow furrowed slightly — only for a moment — but the time Bai Youwei had been gone seemed somehow too long……

“Ah!——”

A woman’s startled scream rang out!

Both Shen Mo and Ada’s expressions changed instantly!

Something had happened!

They sprinted toward the sound. Still far away, they caught a flash of blue light blazing through the darkened screening room — there and gone like a lightning strike!

Then came the crash of something heavy hitting the floor.

“Youwei!” Shen Mo burst into the screening room and scooped Bai Youwei up from the ground. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

Bai Youwei was still shaking, her face drained pale as though she had received quite a bad fright.

“I’m fine…” She paused for a moment, then said, “There was a Guard that wasn’t fully dead. But it’s over now… It, it seems like it electrocuted itself on a power source.”

Electrocuted itself? Shen Mo was about to ask for clarification when the dungeon-clear chime sounded in his ear —

【Congratulations to the Thieves NB Squad for breaking the new record in the Queen’s Nest!】

【This run’s score: 999 points】

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