Chapter 12: A Race Against Time

The reason for Chen Chong’s shifting expression was very simple. It was because on this map, the area near their current location was actually marked with the blood-red words “Extremely Dangerous”! And the specific location these words pointed to was unmistakably the Mist Zone just tens of meters ahead of them!

He lifted his head and scanned the towering rock walls on both sides of the riverbank, his expression growing increasingly grim.

An unexpected variable had once again entered the situation, one he could not control. He had never imagined that an extremely dangerous Mist Zone would block the exit of the underground river, cutting off their escape route.

What was inside? Why was it marked as extremely dangerous?

Chen Chong looked towards the Mist Zone not far away, a hazy, blurred area that seemed eerily tranquil, and his brows furrowed deeply.

He didn’t know if it was his imagination or something else, but as he stared at the Mist Zone that almost sealed off the entire river valley, it seemed as if something indistinct within the Mist was attracting him, luring him, giving rise to an incredibly strong urge to enter.

Why would such a thought appear?

Chen Chong felt a slight shock in his heart, finding this sudden thought strange and bizarre in the extreme. He swept his gaze around, only to find the captives surrounding him, each filled with hopeful expressions, appearing perfectly normal.

Was it my imagination?

Still not out of danger and pressed for time, Chen Chong forcefully drove the strange thought from his mind. Lin Kun, equally sharp, detected Chen Chong’s unease and immediately came to his side to look closer. His expression changed slightly:

“Extremely Dangerous… you mean the Mist Zone right in front of us?”

Chen Chong’s gaze became calm again. He handed the map to Lin Kun and said in a deep voice, “There are no fresh alterations on the map, so it isn’t a forgery.”

Lin Kun took the map and examined it, looked towards the Mist Zone not far ahead, then turned his head to look at the rock walls on both sides. Seeming to realize something, cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead:

“No wonder I felt something was off here. There’s a clean water source, yet we haven’t seen any Radiation Species! For a base with someone as power ful as Diris to have marked this place as extremely dangerous, what’s inside that Mist might be even more dangerous than we imagine. It seems this path is unworkable. Then we can only…”

At this moment, the other captives also realized that something unexpected seemed to have happened, and they began looking at each other in dismay.

Chen Chong swept his eyes over the map again and again. Although the situation was extremely urgent, his mind grew increasingly calm, his thoughts racing rapidly.

He knew very well that while they could certainly try to climb the rock walls and take a detour, there was one major problem. The rock walls on both sides were high and steep. Due to years of moisture, the surface of most rocks seemed covered in slippery moss, undoubtedly increasing the difficulty of climbing. Moreover, all the captives present were gaunt and haggard, without any tools in hand. No one knew how long it would take to safely climb over these steep, nearly twenty-meter-high rock walls! Especially for Chen Chong himself, with one arm half-crippled and two broken ribs, he was holding on purely by willpower. Under these conditions, climbing these nearly twenty-meter steep rock walls would undoubtedly be even harder for him than for the other captives!

But what was even more fatal was that behind them, Johnson, who bore a deep hatred for him, and a group of guards were hurrying in pursuit! Even with the rugged paths in the underground caves, they would only need ten or twenty minutes at most to cover the two to three kilometers and reach this place!

“Climb up first!”

Having barely recovered some of his physical strength, Chen Chong abruptly stood up, put away the map, raised his head to look at the nearly twenty-meter-high steep rock wall, and said firmly and decisively:

“Everyone, listen up! The Mist Zone ahead is extremely dangerous and impassable! Johnson and his men are following the river channel to chase us! We must, right now, immediately, right this instant, climb up this rock wall!”

He had little confidence in being able to climb over this rock wall with one arm half-crippled during this time. But facing the current situation, he couldn’t afford to consider so much anymore.

He absolutely would not resign himself to death. Faced with two dangers, he chose the lesser one. Compared to the Mist Zone that even the base had marked with “Extremely Dangerous,” the chance of survival was clearly greater if he used this ten-plus-minute window to climb over the rock wall.

The surrounding captives were still processing this information when Chen Chong was already the first to stand before the rock wall. He said coldly:

“What are you waiting for? Waiting for those White-skinned Ghosts to catch up so you can shake hands and say goodbye? Climb! We only have at most ten-plus minutes left! Climb up and you live! Fail to climb, and you die!”

Chen Chong’s harsh words echoed in the air. The captives present all trembled collectively, realizing that this was now the critical moment of life and death, a complete race against time and Death itself. They let out a frantic cry and immediately threw themselves at the rock wall, choosing a spot to start climbing desperately.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Chong also stepped onto a protruding part of the cliff face and began climbing using his intact right arm.

“Huff… huff…”

The sounds of panting were clearly audible. The captives climbed with difficulty. Every time they found a protruding foothold, they first had to clean off the slippery moss attached to it, otherwise, they risked slipping and falling. Due to long-term malnutrition, the captives were mostly weak and lacked endurance. Combined with the steepness of the rock wall, they had to gasp for breath violently after climbing every short distance. Some even found that halfway up their chosen climbing route, there were no further handholds to be found anywhere, and they could only come back down and start over, full of frustration and unwillingness.

A few minutes passed. The fastest climbers were Lin Kun and two other captives, who had already climbed nearly ten meters high and were at the middle section of the rock wall. In comparison, Chen Chong at this moment had only just managed to climb to a height of five or six meters, trailing not only the leaders like Lin Kun but even behind most of the other captives.

“Huff… huff…”

The breath he exhaled carried a strong scent of blood. Veins bulged on Chen Chong’s forehead, and large beads of sweat rolled down.

With one arm half-crippled, almost unusable for strength, coupled with broken ribs, the situation was unfavorable to him in the extreme. For an ordinary person, let alone attempting a difficult maneuver like climbing a rock wall, even maintaining a standing posture would be a luxury.

Yet Chen Chong was like an iron man who knew no fatigue or pain. His intact right arm reached out again and again, still silent and soundless, but slowly and powerfully grabbed onto the protruding parts of the rock wall, one after another, pulling himself upward.

During this process, Chen Chong’s originally sharpened fingernails had all broken off, and every rock wall surface his palms touched was left with spots of blood. But he seemed completely unaware of it, gradually climbing higher.

“Ah!”

Just then, a sudden scream came from the rock wall. A thin, weak captive who had climbed to a height of eight or nine meters slipped. Screaming in terror, he plummeted down, landing on the back of his head. With a bang, he slammed heavily onto the hard ground!

The fallen captive curled up on the ground, motionless, utterly silent. Crimson blood spread beneath him, staining the ground red.

The captives, struggling through their difficult climb, felt their hearts tremble upon seeing this scene.

They knew that regardless of whether this unnamed captive still had a breath left, he would never leave this place alive.