Tick-tock.

Action!

Blood dripped to the ground as Gu Ji slashed his hand. Chaojun swung the fire axe fiercely towards the crack, and with a "boom," the wall broke open, startling Old Liu.

Gu Ji and Pan Xinli almost simultaneously wielded their guns and stormed through the wall, firing wildly in a crisscross pattern.

Accompanied by a series of flashes.

Old Liu also shot at the lock, kicked open the broken door, and fired a cornering shot into the room.

"Confirm the target is dead!"

Old Liu shouted.

Only then did Pan Xinli put her gun down, but Gu Ji narrowed his eyes slightly, not lowering his gun; instead, he slowly turned it.

At that moment, Chaojun suddenly appeared beside him and shook his head.

"Mr. Bai! Qi Liran is dead!"

"Hahaha, well done!"

Bai Maoliang rushed over with a group of executives and, seeing Qi Liran and the supervising underlings riddled with bullets, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you see? This is the consequence of going against the Bai Family!"

Bai Maoliang fiercely glared at the other executives with his triangular eyes. After everyone lowered their heads, he came over to Gu Ji, "Good job! Don't worry, when I, Bai Maoliang, make a promise, I keep it. Once we get out and rebuild the Jinyuan Group, you'll be a hero to the Bai Family!"

"Thank you, Mr. Bai."

Gu Ji feigned agreement, his expression serious, "But... Mr. Bai, Qi Liran used plastic explosives to collapse the floors, causing further sinking of the building. We don't have much time, we should quickly gather everyone and head to the roof to find a way to escape!"

"After the earthquake, the roof is already buried. Do you think we wouldn't know to escape upwards?"

A senior executive immediately refuted.

Gu Ji glanced over.

Maybe it was the terrifying sight of him covered in blood, or perhaps after dealing with the warlord faction, he became the strongest remaining force in the building.

The executive stepped back in fear, awkwardly laughed, and said:

"Hehehe, Mr. Wa, you say it."

"I know the building is buried, but when I previously led people up through the elevator shaft, I could clearly feel the wind. As one of the passageways connecting the building vertically, the elevator shaft is like a chimney, with relatively large air circulation."

"As long as there's airflow, it means there's definitely an opening to the outside, not far from the ground. Even if it collapses again, as long as we find the right opening and direction, we might be rescued. Even if we can't climb out, we can find a way to send a signal from that location, with sound, smoke, etc., and seek government or military rescue!"

Just two simple sentences.

Yet it ignited everyone's will to survive.

Bai Maoliang looked at Gu Ji with delight, seemingly not expecting this guy to be not just good at killing and combat, but also proficient in crisis management. Such talent is hard to find even in Northern Myanmar!

"Mr. Wa, what do you suggest we do?"

"Yeah! As long as we can get out, I'll do whatever it takes!"

"Exactly, this damned place is dark and dreary, it's unbearable!"

...

Everyone chimed in one after another, clearly viewing Wa Xueming as their last lifeline.

Gu Ji pressed his lips together, "We still need to hear Mr. Bai's opinion!"

"Hmm..."

Bai Maoliang nodded with satisfaction, "Let's do as Wa Xueming said. Kai, you and Chaojun take people down and bring all the employees to the top floor. If anyone resists, just kill them. What else do you need?"

"Iron pipes, steel bars, wire, jacks, the more the better, and ropes, safety buckles, and other survival tools."

"Did you hear that? Chen Jianhe, take people to get those things!"

"Huh? Okay, I'm on it, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Yang..."

...

Soon, under Bai Maoliang's arrangement, everyone had their tasks.

Before leaving, Chaojun and Gu Ji exchanged glances.

The former clearly signaled him to be careful and cautious.

This old guy is sharp, by splitting up Chaojun, he's essentially weakening Gu Ji's strength, and pairing him with Old Liu for balance.

If Pan Xinli didn't appear so crazy and unthreatening, she might have been reassigned as well.

Bai Maoliang called his secretary.

The five of them moved upwards along the stairs. After the last two tremors, the building's collapse worsened, but fortunately, the upper areas were less damaged.

After much effort, they reached the 29th floor.

Just as Gu Ji was pondering a reason to get to the 30th floor, it seemed fate was on his side—the staircase from the 30th to the 31st floor had collapsed.

The group could only turn into the building.

Upon stepping inside the 30th floor, the system prompt finally came:

[Objective: Successfully reached the 30th floor!]

[Choose your reward.]

[Portable Fire Air Breathing Apparatus 6.8L*1] or [Shooting Mastery (Small)]

The battle was over, so the second option wasn't useful anymore.

So Gu Ji chose the first option.

A flash of white light, and it dropped into the firefighter backpack on his back, clearly increasing the weight inside.

[Secondary Objective: Find the secret room on the 30th floor!]

[Ultimate Objective: Escape from the Jinyuan Building and rescue at least 50 civilians!]

After the text faded, Gu Ji noticed the progress indicator at the bottom left.

[Current Secret Room Location: None.]

[Current Number of Rescued Civilians: 0/174]

He didn't expect so many people were still alive inside the building.

Also, apart from those who died in the internal faction fights, there were still many employees living in hiding, like those on the telecom fraud floor, those trapped in sealed spaces, and numerous injured people with crushed limbs or feet, which together roughly matched the number.

But when he looked at the word "civilians," he found it somewhat ironic.

Given Bai Maoliang and these company executives' actions—deception and exploitation of their fellow citizens—could they really be considered civilians?

Their methods were no lighter than those of the warlords!

Originally, he intended to, after eliminating Qi Li, disarm Old Liu and completely control the Jinyuan Building, but he was stopped by Chaojun.

He suspected the latter had very important leads he needed to continue investigating.

Gu Ji sympathized with the difficulties of Chaojun working undercover and, after some thought, realized if he acted underground, then surfaced, and if the warlords no longer targeted the Bai Family, Bai Maoliang, with reliance on his son's Border Defense Camp, could quickly regain power.

This might be unfavorable for the subsequent development of "Wa Xueming."

Although he didn't understand why the game system had chosen people like "Jiang Songyuan" and "Jian Na," nor did he know the connection between the game and Volut Company, logically, these people were destined to die even without his intervention.

Yet, for each possessor, he arranged a relatively better conclusion.

Jiang Songyuan could rely on the US FBI;

Jian Na could rely on the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

But the former courted death by openly taunting the PM Company online, inviting disaster.

And now, it's "Wa Xueming's" turn.

Gu Ji had helped transform him from a miner to a senior member of the group.

Moreover, by latching onto Chaojun's lead, even if the Jinyuan Group was eventually captured by the police, Wa Xueming could still end up decently.

Shaking his head.

Gu Ji started carefully examining the layout of the 30th floor. On the surface, it seemed there was nothing special—just some broken glass instruments, operating tables, and surgical areas.

The time passing by was too brief.

He couldn't yet deal with Old Liu and Bai Maoliang.

He had no choice but to let it go for now and find an opportunity to return for a closer look.

Finally, they reached the 32nd floor.

This was Bai Maoliang's office. Although it had experienced the subsidence, Gu Ji could still discern the Bai Family's extravagance from the layout and the array of scattered artworks, ivories, jades, and other precious items.

Despite the destruction from the two subsidence events, the ceiling's insulation and the internal steel and brick-concrete structure broke open into a huge gap, with soil occasionally falling from the cracks.

"Mr. Bai, is there a signal here?"

"I've tried already, there isn't."

Bai Maoliang replied.

Gu Ji approached the base of the crack, pinched a piece of fallen soil, and found it somewhat damp.

His eyelid twitched, vaguely feeling like he missed something.

The next second.

The civilian progress bar at the bottom left suddenly dropped from "174" to "170"!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.