Chapter 58: Stop Looking at the Little Butterfly

He didn’t stop, instead shooting a mischievous glance at the wide-eyed faces before him, letting out a satisfied smile before taking off at full speed.

The little pup bolted away, leaving only a tiny figure in the distance within moments.

Yes! He successfully shook them off!

Now, even if they wanted to chase him, they wouldn’t be able to catch up.

Ji Laili was feeling quite pleased with himself when he suddenly sensed movement behind him. Without hesitation, he raised his hand and fired a shot.

The quantum gun emitted a faint glow, blurring the familiar face before him.

His pupils shrank. “Zhai-ge?!”

The other party clearly hadn’t expected this turn of events either. He froze for a moment, his expression shifting slightly, and at the last second, managed to dodge to the side.

His right shoulder was pierced through, and the quantum bullet shattered the glass behind him.

Shards exploded, raining down onto the floor.

“There’s someone over there!”

No time to dwell on it, Zhai Yifei’s face paled as he pressed against his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Ji Laili snapped out of his daze and quickly moved to support him, hurrying to escape.

Worried that too much movement would worsen Zhai Yifei’s injury, Ji Laili glanced around and pulled him into a dark corner beneath the stairwell.

Moments later, dust billowed as several pairs of black military boots stomped past, their owners rushing away.

For now, they were safe. Ji Laili exhaled in relief and turned to look at Zhai Yifei with concern.

“Zhai-ge, are you okay?”

He pulled out a vial of medicine from his waist and handed it over. “It’s for stopping the bleeding.”

Zhai Yifei’s forehead was damp with cold sweat, but he didn’t hesitate to take it, his voice carrying a hint of amusement.

“Looks like you’ve got quite the stash of supplies.”

His gaze drifted down to the quantum gun in Ji Laili’s hands. Ji Laili blinked guiltily and forced a grin. “Uh… sorry, ge.”

“What’s there to apologize for?”

Zhai Yifei downed the medicine. His lips were a little pale from blood loss, but he still smiled faintly, even taking the time to comfort Ji Laili.

“Don’t forget, we’re opponents.”

“Ge… can you stop talking? Anything you say right now just makes me feel guilty.”

Ji Laili’s face scrunched up, his little pup-like demeanor wilting. He ruffled his soft curls in frustration, turning his perfectly styled hair into a bird’s nest.

Zhai Yifei sighed, about to console him further.

But then, Ji Laili let out a deep sigh and muttered regretfully, “If I knew this would happen, I should’ve just shot you dead on the spot.”

Zhai Yifei, who was about to offer words of comfort: ???

Ji Laili rested his chin on his hand, looking troubled. “If I had aimed better and hit the red marker, you could’ve been taken out painlessly.”

Zhai Yifei: “……”

For a moment, Young Master Zhai couldn’t even manage a polite smile.

As expected, after spending too much time with that annoying Alpha, Lei Po, Ji Laili had inevitably been corrupted.

With an eerie smile, Zhai Yifei slowly raised the quantum gun in his hand.

“As compensation, how about I send you on your way instead?”

Ji Laili immediately raised his hands in surrender, looking obedient and remorseful. “Sorry, ge! I misspoke!”

“Zhai-ge, you’re amazing! You even managed to grab a quantum gun! If we fought, it’d be a fifty-fifty match!”

Zhai Yifei squinted at him but eventually lowered the gun.

As the saying goes, flattery will get you anywhere—and Ji Laili had clearly mastered this skill effortlessly.

Seeing that Zhai Yifei’s attention had been successfully diverted, Ji Laili peeked at his wound.

The bleeding had stopped.

His tense nerves finally relaxed, and he internally let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he heard his companion’s composed yet slightly puzzled voice.

“What do you mean by ‘grabbed’ a quantum gun?”

“Huh?” Ji Laili slowly looked up.

Zhai Yifei raised an eyebrow. “It came with the standard-issue backpack. Didn’t you have one?”

Did. You. Not. Have. One?

Ji Laili fell silent.

He looked at the quantum gun in his hand—the one he had stolen—and then thought about that box of obliterated bear-shaped biscuits.

The little pup had learned to force a smile today. “Of course I had one! How could I not?”

“It’s just a quantum gun, right?”

He huffed indignantly. “They’re practically wholesale items! Of course, I have one!”

Zhai Yifei: “……” Why is he suddenly so defensive?

After grumbling for a while about his bad luck, Ji Laili decided to console himself. A person shouldn’t dwell too much on their own misfortunes—

They should look at other people’s misfortunes instead!

Surely, someone out there had even worse luck than him.

With that thought, Ji Laili bounced back to life, grinning from ear to ear.

“Zhai-ge, let’s go find the antidote. This medical building is packed with mutants.”

Zhai Yifei looked a little surprised. “I thought you wouldn’t want to work with me at this point.”

Ji Laili didn’t understand what he meant. He had already grabbed him and taken him along in the heat of the moment—he had physically touched him.

Now that neither of them had turned into mutants, that meant neither of them were infected.

So why wouldn’t they work together?

Meeting Ji Laili’s confused gaze, Zhai Yifei simply chuckled and didn’t explain.

“Sure. Maybe we can eliminate Lei Po first.”

Ji Laili paused for a second before muttering under his breath, “You two are the ones in cahoots. Even now, you can’t forget about each other.”

“Senior Eugene should be keeping an eye on you both.”

Stop looking at the little butterfly.

He was genuinely worried that if they kept playing with fire like this, one day they’d actually get themselves killed.

“What are you mumbling about?” Zhai Yifei glanced at him in confusion.

“Hahaha, nothing at all!” Ji Laili scratched the back of his head with a bright smile. “Shall we get going?”

Zhai Yifei nodded. “I already checked the first floor—there’s nothing there. Let’s head to the second floor.”

This medical building had three floors.

Right now, the only thing they could do was search one floor at a time.

Ji Laili immediately agreed. “Alright.”

The plan sounded good.

But once they stepped out, they found themselves in a full-blown chase.

Ji Laili and Zhai Yifei were discovered multiple times. It wasn’t because they were incompetent—

It was because there were too many people.

The medical building was practically overflowing. The fact that they managed to hide in that stairwell earlier without being found was sheer luck.

Out of the 421 new students participating in the competition, Ji Laili had no idea how many had already mutated.

But considering how desperately the mutants had chased just him earlier—

And the distant, agonized screams of some Alpha—

The number was definitely not small.

The worst part?

They had no idea how many seniors had slipped into the crowd.

Compared to the freshmen, these guys were much more agile, much harder to deal with.

There definitely weren’t this many people before…

Ji Laili felt a headache coming on.

Even as he grumbled, he silently aimed his quantum gun and took down an Alpha with a red marker on his chest.

He returned to his sneaky, dog-like behavior from the sealed room.

Secretly taking shots, racking up a few points here and there.

The Alphas who were hiding from the mutants, only to suddenly get shot in the chest: ???!!!

“Which heartless bastard did this?!”

“Let me find out who it was! I won’t let you off!”

Zhai Yifei gave him a meaningful glance. “Nice shooting.”

Seeing that he had no intention of exposing him, Ji Laili cleared his throat and blinked adorably, his face full of innocence. “No big deal, thanks for the compliment, bro.”

At last, they made it to the second floor. The moment they arrived, Ji Laili bolted excitedly into a laboratory.

The lab had a cold and sterile atmosphere. Glassware and various vials of medicine were neatly arranged on the counters.

He leaned in closer, his crescent-moon-shaped eyes widening as he carefully sifted through the labeled bottles.

“Antidote… doesn’t look like there’s any here.”

A drawling, lazy voice scoffed coldly in dissatisfaction.

“Of course not. I bet those old geezers stuffed the antidotes onto the mutants, thinking we wouldn’t dare search them.”