From the very beginning, that rich bastard had made it clear—the entire Rhine Manor was a "gift" for them. Only, it was the kind of gift meant to accompany them on their way to the afterlife. He'd planned to kill everyone from the start, including his own "corpse." After all, how could he risk someone discovering the truth if the body wasn't destroyed? The best way to erase all evidence was to blow everything to hell.
A man who'd gone so far as to fake his own death, terrified that people might not believe it, had to be in deep trouble himself.
But right now, the problem facing Jing Shu and her group was that the robot had announced the Rhine Manor was entering self-destruct mode. Just how powerful would that explosion be?
Monkey shouted anxiously, "Run! Get Snake Spirit to bring the car, now!"
"Locking all floors, sealing all passages, closing all exits," the robot's cold voice declared.
"What do we do? We can't get down!"
While they panicked, Jing Shu had already swept every bit of material in the secret room into her packs. There was no time to check anything now. When she heard that all exits were sealed, she punched the robot straight into the wall.
Sure enough, they were trapped on the eighth floor. The tower had sealed itself off completely. No way up, no way down. And there weren't even any windows to jump from. Once the exits were shut, they could only wait to die.
"What do we do? What do we do!"
Yang Yang quickly sent a message in the group chat, updating everyone on their situation. He told the others to retreat, had Snake Spirit stand by for pickup, and told Ling Ling to request backup right away. The formula was already in their hands, but what good would that do if they couldn't make it out alive?
Even with a rescue call sent, they still had to think of a way to escape. The faster the beeping countdown got, the more they all felt like their lives were roasting over open fire.
Jing Shu frowned. If she used explosives through one of the weapon ports, she could blast a hole in the wall. That way, they could parachute down from the eighth floor. It was high, sure, but she had the gear for it.
The only question was, how long did they have before the place actually blew?
"The longer the countdown before detonation, the stronger the explosive force," Yang Yang explained. "It's like a demolition charge. If he's planning to blow up the whole manor, we still have some time. It's been nearly a minute already and nothing's gone off, which means he isn't just trying to kill us 'murderers.' There's got to be a lot of dirty secrets hidden in this place. If it were me, I'd pack enough charges to reduce the entire manor to rubble. Whether we make it out or not... who cares?"
"But if we don't get out of this tower soon, we're screwed!"
Monkey snapped, shaking the damaged robot violently. "Mirror, you've got a weapon chip, right? Can't you control this thing? Rewrite its program or something?"
Jing Shu shook her head. Just as she stepped forward to try blowing out the wall herself, Hao Yunlai suddenly dropped to one knee, clutching his head in agony.
"Danger... so dangerous..."
Then he screamed.
"What's happening?" Jing Shu stared, wide-eyed. "Don't tell me—"
No way, right? She'd seen Hao Yunlai's insane luck before in the underwater world, but his ability usually worked by twisting the fortune of everything around him—making everyone else's luck turn to shit so he could survive.
But this? They were trapped on the eighth floor, with a bomb that could blow the entire Rhine Manor sky-high. There were no outside factors this time. Could his luck actually stop the manor from exploding? Rhine Manor was massive. There was no way his "good luck" reached that far... right?
Still, trusting luck wasn't an option. Keeping control in her own hands was the only thing that made Jing Shu feel safe.
"I've got an idea!" she said quickly. She didn't have time to hold anything back—they needed to get out now. But before she could explain, the ground began to tremble.
An earthquake.
The entire tower shook violently. Jing Shu was slammed into the wall, stars bursting before her eyes. Luckily, she was wearing thick gear and a helmet, so she wasn't seriously hurt.
"Quake! It's a damn quake!"
"Hold onto something, the tower's coming down!"
Jing Shu quickly threw on more layers and tried to grab anything solid, but the whole structure gave way before she could.
The tower collapsed.
Amid the chaos, she heard Hao Yunlai's faint, dazed voice. "Mom... this time, it's you. Guess I really am coming down to see you."
Huh? Was he... talking in his sleep?
A deafening boom followed. Jing Shu's whole body ached, her head splitting from the impact. Falling from an eight-story tower without protection should've killed them outright.
But miraculously, she was alive.
The tower had snapped in the middle, and the upper and lower halves had cushioned the fall, trapping the eighth floor right between them. It absorbed most of the impact. She, Yang Yang, and Hao Yunlai were all still breathing.
Monkey wasn't so lucky. Half his body was buried under rubble, both legs crushed. Jing Shu hauled him out by force, his screams ringing in her ears.
Looking up at the broken tower, Jing Shu realized how insane it was—they'd survived something that should've been impossible. If this was Hao Yunlai's twisted luck at work, it was downright terrifying.
He'd passed out cold, while Yang Yang coughed and looked up toward the rumbling sky. Helicopters. National rescue teams were here!
A rope ladder dropped down. If they climbed fast, they could make it out before the manor exploded.
"Beep... beep... beep..."
From a pile of rubble nearby, the half-crushed robot flickered weakly.
While the others were distracted, Jing Shu quietly stored the robot inside her Rubik's Cube Space. If it blew up in there, fine. But once it was inside, it froze completely, like it'd glitched out.
"Maybe this robot's the only link left to that rich bastard," she thought. If that was the case, then she had to keep it safe.
After all, the man had given her such a "grand gift." It'd only be fair for her to return the favor someday—with something even grander.