“Hold on!” Officer Li shouted loudly. “The harpoons are limited in number. Hold on a bit longer and we’ll survive!”

Before everyone could respond, they heard another scream.

Turning their heads, they saw it was Tiantian.

She wasn’t as lucky as Xiao Ran—the penetrating harpoon had pierced through her palm.

Tiantian momentarily lost her strength, and the tabletop in front of her was knocked askew by the whistling harpoons.

“Watch out!”

Qiao Jiajin gritted his teeth and reached out to grab the tabletop in front of Tiantian.

In that gap, a harpoon flew in through the opening with deadly accuracy, penetrating Han Yimo’s shoulder.

Han Yimo screamed in pain, but his hands still gripped the tabletop tightly.

“Don’t panic!”

Officer Li reached out to support Han Yimo, then separated his hands to hold up half of the tabletop for him.

Qiao Jiajin also acted decisively, reaching out to help Tiantian hold her tabletop.

Fortunately, these two had tremendous strength, and the entire formation began to stabilize again.

As the sounds of impact gradually diminished, everyone finally understood just how reasonable this formation was.

If they had followed Officer Li and Doctor Zhao’s idea of staggering the tabletops with everyone holding them, the tabletops would have been perpendicular to the harpoons and extremely easy to penetrate.

Now, the “bamboo shoot after rain” shape meant that the contact surface between the harpoons from five directions and the tabletops all became slanted, greatly reducing the harpoons’ penetrating power.

Especially for the harpoons shooting down from directly above—at this moment, they all changed their trajectory due to the cone’s characteristics.

After a while longer, there was complete silence outside the tabletops.

“Is it over?” Han Yimo asked through gritted teeth.

“Wait another minute,” Qi Xia answered.

Everyone held up the tabletops and quietly waited another minute, discovering that there really was no more movement outside.

Qiao Jiajin carefully shifted aside a gap and peered out.

“Holy shit…” He was instantly stunned by the scene before him.

Everyone slowly moved the tabletops aside and discovered that the floor and tabletops were almost completely filled with harpoons.

The two corpses on the ground were even more gruesome to behold—at this moment they looked like two hedgehogs, densely covered with spikes.

Each harpoon had a rope attached, with the other end of the rope connected to the holes in the walls. The room was now in complete disarray.

Doctor Zhao acted decisively, rolling up his sleeves and coming to Han Yimo’s side.

His condition was not optimistic—the harpoon had penetrated his shoulder and needed immediate treatment.

Han Yimo slowly sat down and smiled bitterly. “Just now I was thinking about whether I’d be that unlucky. I didn’t expect to actually get hit…”

Tiantian’s expression was very guilty. She hurriedly apologized to Han Yimo.

However, everyone knew this wasn’t really Tiantian’s fault either—she had also been pierced through the palm by a harpoon.

“Hey, pretty girl, come here,” Qiao Jiajin beckoned. “I can bandage that for you.”

“Huh?” Tiantian was startled. “You know how to bandage?”

“Just a little bit.”

Qiao Jiajin tore a strip of suit fabric from the dead Goat Head’s body, then tore the fabric into two strips.

One he tied tightly around Tiantian’s arm to stop the bleeding, and the other he carefully wrapped around the wound.

“I used to get injured a lot when I was on the streets, so I learned some bandaging on my own,” Qiao Jiajin said.

Tiantian nodded slightly without speaking.

After arriving here, everyone enjoyed a rare moment of peace, as if temporarily escaping death’s shadow.

However, there was still no door appearing around them. This damned room still had them trapped here.

What exactly was this place?

And what was outside the room?

In less than a minute, a sigh came from Doctor Zhao’s direction.

Qi Xia turned to look and saw that Doctor Zhao, who was treating Han Yimo’s wound, now had a troubled expression.

“What’s wrong?” Officer Li asked. “Is the injury severe?”

“The injury isn’t severe,” Doctor Zhao shook his head. “It’s just that I can’t remove the harpoon.”

Everyone crowded forward and discovered the problem was indeed tricky.

The harpoon’s tip had a barb—pulling it out would cause even greater harm to the injured person.

And the tail end of the harpoon was connected to a rope.

At this moment, Han Yimo was like a fish that had been shot—no matter where he went, he would be tightly held by this rope.

“We can only cut the rope and then pull the harpoon out from the front,” Doctor Zhao looked up and said. “But I don’t have any sharp tools on hand.”

Han Yimo’s lips were somewhat pale now. The harpoon penetrating his shoulder blade caused him unbearable pain.

“Just use another harpoon,” Officer Li said decisively. “Although harpoons are pointed, they still count as sharp tools.”

“That’s the only option,” Doctor Zhao nodded as well. “Writer, I need you to choose the most relaxed position to lie down. We need to cut the rope on your back. Don’t rush, take it slowly. Pay attention to the harpoon in front—be careful not to get injured a second time.”

Han Yimo nodded and began to move his body with difficulty.

Watching this scene, Qi Xia felt there was something off about it.

Take it slowly?

Did they really have time to do this in the current situation?

He looked at the ropes covering the floor, and an ominous premonition surfaced in his mind.

If his guess was correct, they were still racing against time.

“We can’t take it slow!” Qi Xia suddenly spoke up. “Remove the harpoon from him right away!”

He quickly walked to the doctor’s side and said to Han Yimo with a serious expression, “Endure it. I’m going to pull the harpoon out for you right now!”

Han Yimo was somewhat confused but didn’t refuse.

“What are you doing?!” Doctor Zhao pushed Qi Xia irritably. “You’ll make his injury worse like this!”

“There’s no time! If we delay any longer, he’ll really die!” Qi Xia also pushed Doctor Zhao aside and grabbed the harpoon on Han Yimo’s back from behind.

A scream rang out.

The barbed harpoon was easy to penetrate but extremely difficult to remove.

“Hey!” Officer Li also ran over at this moment, pulling Qi Xia away and roaring angrily, “Are you trying to kill someone, kid?”

Having been stopped twice, Qi Xia’s expression also turned ugly.

“I understand you want to save him, but if we don’t hurry, the harpoons will…”

Before Qi Xia could finish speaking, the sound of chains from all around started up again, as if some massive mechanism had been activated once more.

Accompanying this was Han Yimo’s heart-wrenching scream.

Only then did everyone come to their senses, discovering that all the harpoons were actually being slowly retracted under the pull of the ropes.

And Han Yimo on the ground was now being dragged by the tremendous force.

Qi Xia had discovered this point long ago—the ropes on the harpoons weren’t just for show. Sooner or later, they would retract all the harpoons.

Everyone frantically ran after Han Yimo. During this, Officer Li tried to hold onto the rope to resist the enormous force from the black holes, but ultimately it was all futile.

The tabletops on the ground that were filled with harpoons were now gradually being torn to pieces by the harpoons and also began to slowly retreat.

This kind of force that could tear apart wooden boards definitely couldn’t be resisted with bare hands.

Although Han Yimo was in unbearable pain, he quickly discovered another problem.

If he was pulled to the wall but still hadn’t freed himself from the harpoon, his entire body would be firmly nailed to the wall, waiting to die.

Thinking of this, he painfully stood up and grabbed Qi Xia again, saying word by word, “Help me remove the harpoon! Remove it right now!”