"I..."
Jun Ci's mouth opened slightly, showing a hint of impatience.
If one looked closely, they would have seen his eyes had turned red.
Duan Chen hadn't managed to stop him in time.
Even though he covered Jun Ci's mouth the very next second, and Jun Ci's eyes returned to their normal color, that single syllable had still been heard by the staff member in the blue uniform.
The staff member in the blue uniform grinned.
An evil, wild smile spread across his lips.
Foul-smelling saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.
His two front teeth had elongated, resembling those of a snake.
"You spoke just now?"
"Did you just respond to me?"
"You must have responded to me!!"
"Answer me!"
Duan Chen swore directly.
"Shit!"
He moved faster than anyone else, drawing the Qian Huan Pandora.
He first blasted a hole in the head of the staff member in the blue uniform.
But it was useless.
Even with a gaping hole in his head, with thick blood pouring out, the staff member in the blue uniform did not falter.
He lunged forward like a maddened beast, roaring.
Duan Chen fired shot after shot to fend him off.
Jun Ci also realized what he had done, his expression turning grim, and he fired back at the blue-uniformed staff member.
"You two, find a staff member in a red uniform."
"And bring back those two from earlier."
Duan Chen made a swift decision, instructing Yuan Qingqing.
Although Yuan Qingqing was worried about the current situation, she wasn't confused.
She hardened her heart, leaving her brother behind, and immediately turned to sprint back towards the lion enclosure.
She prayed silently.
Hoping those two staff members were still there.
"Why can't we kill this thing?"
Jun Ci fired shot after shot, his internal spiritual energy depleted by half, yet the blue-uniformed staff member was still chasing them erratically in front of the python enclosure.
"This is seriously sanity-draining!"
Yuan Yuan gagged with disgust. Although one of his arms was useless, his talent allowed him to aim and shoot from a distance without using it.
The three of them defended together.
Hill watched thoughtfully, holding a glass bottle and darting around, attempting to collect the liquid dripping from the blue-uniformed staff member's mouth.
Finally.
After a long wait.
Duan Chen's heart sank.
He suddenly realized he had overlooked a problem.
The zoo's rules had mentioned that if you could stay together, you shouldn't let your teammates leave your side.
Otherwise, there was a high chance of teammates being replaced.
And earlier, due to his extreme nervousness and worry, the current situation might have undergone an irreversible change.
Therefore, he had instructed Yuan Qingqing to find those two staff members in the lion enclosure they had visited before, which meant Yuan Qingqing had now separated from them.
"We can't wait any longer."
Duan Chen quickly checked his internal spiritual energy and hardened his resolve.
[Sequence 030: Void Domain]
"Void Domain! Activate!"
This was the first time he had used the Void Domain after his evolution.
A world as vast as the ocean and sky spread out around him, obscuring the heavens.
Countless ghost-faced monsters struggled to emerge from the darkness.
Everything was pure black, an extreme blue-black that should have felt eerie and terrifying, but here, it only felt slightly warm, not cold.
Even when the ghost-faced monsters appeared, that trace of warmth remained.
And there was no sense of seawater.
Duan Chen clenched his fist tightly, his nails digging into his flesh.
He had depleted his internal spiritual energy to cast this technique.
The outcome was undeniable.
The blue-uniformed staff member was directly enveloped by the Void Domain.
He disappeared from his spot.
But the consequences were also considerable.
Duan Chen spat out a mouthful of blood.
The excessive draining and extraction of spiritual energy had damaged his own physical condition.
Jun Ci immediately reached out to support Duan Chen.
He patted his head in regret.
"How could I..."
"Don't say it."
Duan Chen raised his hand to stop him.
He shook his head.
"There's nothing to say."
Yuan Qingqing was gone.
Yuan Yuan gathered his talent and, staggering, came to their side.
Duan Chen took a deep breath and warned.
"You all need to be prepared."
"Prepared for what?"
As Jun Ci asked, he heard a cheerful shout by his ear.
"I'm here!"
Yuan Qingqing, her face filled with relief, was running from a distance.
She waved and shouted towards them.
"I brought those two staff members in red uniforms!"
"See?"
The moment Duan Chen saw Yuan Qingqing in the distance, his heart sank.
He spoke softly, as if to himself.
"The zoo's rules didn't seem to prohibit killing."
After saying this, he raised his hand and fired.
Yuan Qingqing, completely unsuspecting, was shot directly in the head.
She fell to the ground with a thud.
"Yuan Qingqing!"
Jun Ci's pupils widened in shock. He looked at Duan Chen beside him, and then quickly turned his gaze to Yuan Yuan.
However, to his surprise, Yuan Yuan didn't move at all, as if the person who had just died in front of him wasn't his sister.
Yuan Yuan looked melancholic, then a bit sad, and finally pouted.
"I'm not so incompetent that I can't recognize my own sister. A fake is still a fake. No matter how well they imitate, I'll know at a glance it's not my sister."
Duan Chen offered no explanation. He looked at the two staff members who had arrived, a smile on his face, and said.
"The lions in the lion enclosure have been fed. Where have you two been?"
The expressions of the two staff members were contorted.
They were supposed to feed the lions in the enclosure with the feed in the buckets, not have the lions eat something inexplicable.
But they hadn't specifically marked these areas from the beginning.
The two could only hold their noses and accept it.
They took out a handful of badges from their pockets, didn't count them, and shoved them into Duan Chen's hand.
"Here, take it. That's all there is. You want it or not."
After saying that, the two of them fled, not even staying for a moment. Duan Chen looked at the badges in his hand with a wry smile and counted them.
"Oh..."
"There are only nine."