Apocalypse Villainess? Nah, I'm Nice

Chapter 349: Chapter 242: Impulse

Before Nora Lowell had even finished speaking, she felt an intense killing intent from behind!

She whipped to the side, blocking the dagger Paige Summers was thrusting at her neck with the sharp claws of her left hand. Her right hand, meanwhile, swung out, unleashing several black lightning patterns to block Marcus Monroe’s Energy Blade. At the same time, she let out a piercing shriek!

The shriek, combined with the clang of metal, echoed through the tunnel, deafeningly sharp.

In just a few seconds, the tunnel began to shake violently. Several Mutant Beasts rushed in from both sides. Despite their massive bodies, they were exceptionally agile, closing the distance in the blink of an eye and pouncing on Paige Summers and Marcus Monroe!

Nora Lowell, seizing the opportunity, forcefully shoved Paige Summers aside and scrambled backward.

The tunnel wasn’t wide to begin with; it was a struggle for two people to even walk side-by-side.

With the path blocked by these Mutant Beasts, getting close to Nora Lowell, let alone killing her, was now impossible.

Paige Summers gritted her teeth, whipped out her crossbow, and started firing!

From the darkness, Nora Lowell let out a cold snort.

"Marcus Monroe! Sooner or later, you will regret this! I’ll be waiting for that day!"

Other than the sounds of battle, no one answered her.

By the time Marcus Monroe and Paige Summers had eliminated the four Mutant Beasts, Nora Lowell... was gone without a trace.

Paige Summers let out a breath and turned, running deeper into the tunnel.

’Things have already come to this. Nora Lowell must have set up something at the exit. I might as well go to that laboratory and look for clues.’

With a cold expression, Marcus Monroe followed her.

However, when they returned, they discovered that the researchers who had just been working in an orderly fashion were all gone. So were the medicine, test tubes, and equipment. The only things left were the laboratory tables.

The area where the Zombies had been caged was now a field of severed heads and torsos.

Even Nora Lowell’s father and the others were gone... Aside from the lingering, foul stench of blood, it was as if they had never existed.

Aside from the Zombie corpses, it seemed only the two of them were left in the tunnel.

It was empty, eerie, and utterly terrifying!

Marcus Monroe shot Paige Summers a sidelong glance, an eyebrow cocked. "Obviously, someone’s helping her. And they’re very good."

Paige Summers silently lowered her gaze.

’I had already figured it out.’

’The blade used to kill those Zombies was extremely sharp and incredibly fast, and the force behind it was immense—not something an ordinary Superpower User could achieve.’

’And it wasn’t just one person.’

’This tunnel obviously had another entrance. The culprits must have come in through it while we were fighting and moved everything.’

’That must be why Nora Lowell was so bold and brazen about giving us a "tour"!’

"I’m sorry. I was reckless. I thought it was a good opportunity to kill her."

’She was alone, with no other Zombies to help her, and in such a narrow tunnel, a Zombie’s agility would clearly be at a disadvantage... All of that led me to make the wrong call. Or maybe it was because I didn’t want her to keep talking. I didn’t want him to keep listening. I thought he’d be swayed even more.’

Paige Summers closed her eyes, a wave of melancholy washing over her.

’That scene before we entered The Citadel, of him acting so freely, must have left too deep an impression on me. That’s why, subconsciously, I felt like every one of Nora Lowell’s proposals fit perfectly with what he was thinking.’

’And then there was that flicker of temptation in his eyes...’

’It all made it impossible for me to stay calm, impossible to remain composed.’

’Even now, it’s still a thorn in my heart.’

’But I don’t want to make excuses for myself.’

’This was my mistake.’

Marcus Monroe’s gaze flickered. He pulled her to her feet and began examining the tunnel as they walked. "Forget it," he said. "You didn’t do it on purpose. Honestly, I was just following a hunch, wanting to sound her out first. But even if you hadn’t snapped, I doubt I could have held back much longer. That... thing is disgusting, spouting all that nonsense..."

’She knew he was referring to Nora Lowell’s final confession, but what about everything before that? The army of Zombies that couldn’t age, die, or even be injured—did he find that disgusting, too?’

Paige Summers opened her mouth, but after a moment, she closed it again. Without a word, she pulled her hand from his grasp and began to gently feel along the wall.

A flash of anger crossed Marcus Monroe’s face, but it vanished so quickly she didn’t see it.

The two of them began searching for an exit in silence.

They had some experience with being trapped in a tunnel.

This time, however, it was clearly much more difficult to solve.

On the surface, there were no weaknesses.

The end of every fork in the path led to a room, and every room was a dead end.

The walls were solid earth; there was no chance they were hollow.

Unwilling to give up, they walked back toward the entrance, all the way to the spot where they had attacked Nora Lowell, but still came up empty-handed.

If they couldn’t find this entrance, the only other one was the one inside Norgate.

That was an even worse option.

They exchanged a look and decided to head back toward the laboratory to explore.

As Paige Summers walked, she tried to recall the location of the cavern she and Sheldon Reid had fallen into. ’It should... it really should be somewhere around here.’

Two maps swirled in her mind as she constantly measured and overlaid them. At some point, she had taken the lead. When she finally stopped in the room full of completely dead Zombies, the maps in her head at last clicked into place!

"Here! This is it!"

she said, confidently pointing to the wall behind the metal cages.

"We couldn’t find the other exit, but if we can just break through here, we should be able to get out!"

The stench in the room was unbearable. After a moment’s thought, she took out a face covering and a shovel, tossing a set to Marcus Monroe.

Marcus Monroe caught them. He looked at the shovel in his hand, then at the wall, and said slowly, enunciating each word, "I. Believe. In. You."

Paige Summers’s heart skipped a beat. ’His words... it feels like he’s hinting at something else...’

But the reverie only lasted a moment. Soon, she had no time to dwell on it.

The most important thing right now was getting out of here!

Both of them were quite strong, and the shovels were specially made by Paige Summers—extremely sharp. In just a few swings, they had dug through the surface layer of the earthen wall.

As they continued, Marcus Monroe paused. "It’s loose inside."

"Mhm," Paige Summers nodded. "This is it."

Once confirmed, the two of them worked even faster.

The dirt grew looser the deeper they dug. The person-high recess they’d carved into the wall gradually extended inward. Finally, after four or five meters, as Paige Summers pulled her shovel back from deep within the earth, a cascade of dirt clods came RUMBLING down from above.

She and Marcus Monroe dodged to the side.

When the collapse stopped, a small "mountain" of earth was piled in front of them. Peeking around the side, they could see that on the other side was not another wall of dirt, but a cavern with open space.

The two of them quickly cleared the remaining obstruction and stepped inside.

Paige Summers recognized the style of the cavern at once—it was the very same place she had fallen into before.

But after looking around, she discovered that the passage originally connected to the cavern was also buried, most likely a result of Ben’s superpower back then.

Looking at the mounds of dirt, she had no choice but to start digging again with Marcus Monroe.

After about two hours, just as the two of them were beginning to find it difficult to breathe, they finally broke through into a cavern that was slightly different.

Scattered on the ground were wooden utensils and moldy food. Besides those, there were snapped ropes and chafe marks on the walls, as if someone had been bound and hung there...

After scanning her surroundings several times, a sudden realization struck Paige Summers.