Chapter 352 - 314: Why Not Go In Together
Chapter 352: Chapter 314: Why Not Go In Together
Outside the train’s lavatory.
Several soldiers from the Military Department, disguised as passengers, formed a long line outside the lavatory. When other travelers saw how many people were waiting for the toilet in this car, the patient ones queued up behind them, while the impatient ones turned and went to other cars to find a less crowded lavatory.
Alex stood at the end of the line, in the connecting area between cars, his eyes scanning the Beastmen coming and going through the carriage, not missing a single suspicious figure.
"When you’re done, don’t flush right away. Pour some of this dissolving agent in first." Barto pressed a palm-sized glass bottle filled with a blue liquid into Gu Ning’s hand. "Just a third of it will do."
He then gave her a bottle of special odor eliminator. "Spray some of this, too."
Gu Ning looked at the small blue and green bottles in her hand and nodded.
Leighton leaned against the lavatory door, watching them with a lazy, tired expression. "Quite the thorough preparation. If you ask me, it’d be safer to go in together."
As he spoke, he placed a hand on Gu Ning’s shoulder, making a show of pushing her into the lavatory with him.
Barto immediately grabbed Leighton. "You wish!"
Gu Ning ducked her head to avoid his hand, and while Barto was pulling him away, she quickly shut the lavatory door.
Even when she was in the wild, no one had ever watched her use the toilet. She couldn’t possibly relieve herself properly while being stared at in such a small space.
However... Gu Ning looked around the lavatory. Perhaps because the train itself was wider than the trains and high-speed rails she remembered, the lavatory was also much more spacious than she had imagined. It was clean and bright.
Gu Ning’s gaze fell on the window that took up half a wall. ’They even put the same kind of windows in the lavatory as by the seats,’ she thought. ’You can do some sightseeing while you’re on the toilet.’
Good thing the toilet was lower than the bottom of the window, or else it really would have been a sightseeing tour for everyone, inside and out.
With a mix of appreciation for the lavatory’s cleanliness and an internal jab at how overly bright it was, Gu Ning quickly finished her business. Then, following Barto’s instructions, she first poured in the dissolving agent, then flushed repeatedly, carefully spraying the odor eliminator as the water swirled.
Just as she was diligently eliminating her scent, a tapping sound reached her ears.
The sound was very faint, almost drowned out by the flushing of the toilet. Gu Ning’s head snapped up, her senses sharp as she looked toward the source of the sound.
Outside the window, two slender arms reached in from the left and right edges. The visible palms of these arms had a metallic, silver sheen, as if they were covered by a layer of Silver Armor, yet the fingers moved with the flexibility of real human fingers, without any stiffness.
The two hands bent their fingers and tapped lightly on the glass, as if greeting her, or perhaps testing something.
As Gu Ning stared, dumbfounded, two heads peeked down from above the window.
They were two exquisitely handsome, delicate faces—so beautiful they didn’t seem real. Their skin was a stark white, paler even than the snow outside.
They stared at Gu Ning for a moment, then simultaneously balled their hands into fists and struck the glass with force.
After a heavy, muffled THUD, the entire train car shuddered from the immense force of their blow. Gu Ning was thrown off balance, stumbling and falling to the floor. Before she could even react, the thick window in front of her shattered instantly, and a powerful, cold wind blasted in from outside.
Outside, Barto and the others heard the commotion. Their expressions shifted, and without a second thought, they kicked down the lavatory door.
A cold wind carrying snowflakes rushed in. Shattered glass littered the lavatory floor. Gu Ning was nowhere to be seen.
Barto’s breath caught in his throat at the sight, and his heart began to pound wildly. But in an instant, he forced himself to calm down. He lunged to the window, grabbing the edge and leaning halfway out to search for Gu Ning.
Just then, Leighton, who was behind him, yelled, "She’s on the roof!"
Barto also heard the THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of hurried, chaotic footsteps from the roof of the train. It sounded like people were fighting up there.
His ears twitched, and he vaulted straight out of the window.
「On the roof of the train.」
Just as Gu Ning was being carried away from the train by an unfamiliar Beastman with black feathered wings, about to fly off, a blue light flashed from somewhere behind them.
The Black-winged Beastman held her as he deftly dodged the attack, but within moments, the fierce, swift glint of a blade forced him back down.
Then, five or six Beastmen with wings of various colors landed beside the Black-winged Beastman, staring impassively at the larger group of Bird Clan Orcs ahead of them.
Gu Ning struggled violently in the strange Beastman’s arms, but his grip was like cold, hard iron, and he remained unmoved no matter how much she thrashed.
She opened her palm and fiercely swiped at the Beastman’s arm with the claw weapon Vine had given her. The sharp claws ripped through his outer clothes and scraped against the Silver Armor underneath, producing a sharp, grating sound that set her teeth on edge, but it didn’t even leave a scratch.
"Let her go."
Gu Ning followed the voice and saw Philinos standing ahead, his expression grim as he aimed his long blade in her direction.
Her gaze swept over the group of Beastmen who had abducted her. She studied them, full of shock and uncertainty, trying to guess who they were.
’Who are they? The same people who tried to grab me back in Zone 15, or some other faction?’
Gu Ning knew her team served Admiral Andrew, and Andrew seemed to have many enemies. Her own identity could also attract all sorts of malevolent Beastmen, so for the moment, she couldn’t determine who they were.
But she had been captured by a winged Beastman before, which triggered a panicked response. Her mind was in chaos, and her palms grew sweaty with anxiety.
Kuinan from the Underground Arena had left a deep psychological scar on her; she sometimes had nightmares that he was coming to get her.
Soon, however, she noticed that their appearance and demeanor were quite different from the Beastmen she had seen before. Their skin was as pale as snow and their features were delicate, lacking the characteristic ruggedness of Beastmen. They looked to be about the same height as other Beastmen, but their builds were much more slender and lean.
Their faces were expressionless, and the Silver Armor they wore under their clothes extended up to their necks, shimmering with a faint luster.
As if sensing Gu Ning’s scrutinizing gaze, the Black-winged Beastman holding her lowered his eyes to look at the female in his arms, who had stopped struggling.
Gu Ning met a pair of cold, emotionless eyes.
In that moment, she felt as if she were being targeted by some lethal weapon. Her body froze involuntarily, overcome by a suffocating feeling of having nowhere to run.
After holding the Black-winged Beastman’s gaze for a moment, Gu Ning saw him part his lips and speak. "&%#^Y*..."
Gu Ning: "...?" She couldn’t understand a word.
Only then did she realize that her translation earpiece had fallen out somewhere during the struggle.
She could already understand simple, everyday conversations among Beastmen, but this Beastman’s language seemed different from the common Beastman tongue she was used to hearing.
For example, she could understand a little of what Philinos was saying right now.
Gu Ning looked at Philinos. He was holding his blade, his face cold, as he said something to these Beastmen.
From the few familiar words she could pick out, she pieced together that Philinos was probably warning them that this wasn’t their territory and that they had violated the laws of the Beast Alliance or something similar.
The Beastman holding Gu Ning remained unmoved. He glanced down at her, then tilted his head slightly, surveying their surroundings as he waited for the right moment.
Seeing the look Philinos gave her, Gu Ning calmed down as well. She knew he was probably stalling for time; Alex and the others must know she was gone by now.
The two sides faced off like this for several seconds until a gunshot shattered the tense atmosphere.
A blue bullet, flying from an unknown location, pierced the Black-winged Beastman’s wing. Before anyone could react, another bullet flew past, grazing Gu Ning’s ear and hitting the Black-winged Beastman’s shoulder.