The supplies that could be collected from the mall had basically already been scavenged clean. If they wanted to keep everyone in the camp alive, they had no choice but to open up a new “battlefield.”
The Harbor Hotel was the new battlefield Jun Shutong had chosen. As a hotel, it could almost satisfy both food and lodging needs at the same time.
But the Harbor Hotel was ultimately on the outer perimeter of the mall. To get there from the third floor, they still had to cross a skybridge. Though that place wasn’t completely exposed to the open air, it was basically no different from being under the sky.
Already beginning to worry, Lu Li asked, “How many people did Sister Jun take with her?”
“One squad, seven people,” Fatty Lei quickly replied.
“Wait another two hours. If Sister Jun still hasn’t returned by then, come tell me.” After saying that, Lu Li turned around and went back to his room.
At this moment, all he could do was silently pray that his worries were unfounded and that everything was fine on Jun Shutong’s side.
But most things in this world never developed in a good direction.
Two hours later.
Fatty Lei hurriedly found Lu Li.
“Brother Lu, something seems to have happened to Sister Jun and the others. They still haven’t come back. I also tried calling them over the walkie-talkie, but there was no response.”
There was a faint sobbing tone in Fatty Lei’s voice, and his face was filled with panic.
In Fatty Lei’s heart, Jun Shutong was both the “thigh” he could cling to and the pillar holding the entire camp together. If something really happened to Jun Shutong, then there was absolutely no way his life in the future would remain as comfortable as it was now.
When it came to worrying about Jun Shutong, Fatty Lei was absolutely sincere.
Lu Li, who had already prepared himself for the worst, said calmly, “Calm down first. Give me a walkie-talkie. I’ll go over there by myself and take a look.”
Hearing this, Fatty Lei hurriedly shoved the walkie-talkie in his hand into Lu Li’s and asked, “Do you need me to find a few people to go with you?”
“No. The more people there are, the more conspicuous we’ll be.” Lu Li shook his head and declined Fatty Lei’s offer.
With his understanding of Pokémon, as long as he didn’t suddenly come face-to-face with some kind of Pokémon, his chances of surviving were far higher than an ordinary person’s.
Following Fatty Lei’s directions, Lu Li reached the third floor through Emergency Exit No. 7.
There was a shoe store beside the emergency exit. After thinking for a moment, Lu Li deliberately went inside and changed into a pair of sneakers.
When a human faced a Pokémon alone, resisting was basically meaningless. If he really wanted to survive, what mattered was whether he could run fast enough.
Standing at the entrance to the skybridge, Lu Li quickly glanced at the sky on both sides. Only after confirming that there were no flying Pokémon did he bend low and run toward the Harbor Hotel across the bridge.
After reaching the hotel, Lu Li turned on the walkie-talkie.
“Sister Jun, this is Lu Li. Can you hear me?” Lu Li said into the walkie-talkie.
After Lu Li repeated himself three times, a burst of static finally came from the other side.
“This is Jun… now… sixth floor… danger…”
Whether it was because the signal was poor or the distance was too great, Jun Shutong’s words came through intermittently. Fortunately, she still provided the key information.
They were trapped on the sixth floor and had encountered danger.
In other words, there was danger on one of the floors below the sixth floor. They were trapped upstairs and couldn’t get back down, which was why they had been gone for so long.
“Sister Jun, which floor is dangerous?” Lu Li kept repeating the question.
Very soon, another burst of static came from the walkie-talkie.
“Fourth… floor… fourth…”
After getting confirmation from Jun Shutong, Lu Li turned off the walkie-talkie.
He didn’t ask what the Pokémon on the fourth floor looked like, because the quality of the walkie-talkie didn’t support that kind of conversation.
“Is there danger upstairs?” Lu Li stared at the staircase in front of him and fell into thought.
Should he go up and take a look? Or should he think of some safer method first?
Lu Li considered whether he could use a Pokémon to deal with another Pokémon instead of taking the risk himself.
But the only one he could think of right now was Mimikyu, and there was no way Mimikyu would agree to come save people. Communication itself was already difficult enough, let alone commanding it to rescue someone.
“I never thought there’d come a day when I, Lu Li, would risk my life for someone else.” Lu Li gave a self-mocking bitter smile.
After making his decision, Lu Li’s gaze became much firmer, and he resolutely went up the stairs.
A Pokémon that could remain inside the hotel all this time probably wasn’t carnivorous. After all, carnivorous Pokémon needed to hunt and had no reason to keep wandering around inside a hotel.
Of course.
It was also possible that there were enough people in the hotel that it didn’t need to go outside to hunt.
But based on what he had learned about Pokémon over the past few days, Lu Li felt that possibility was unlikely.
That was also why he dared to risk his life to investigate the Pokémon on the fourth floor.
The moment Lu Li climbed up to the fourth floor through the emergency passage, he heard a strange humming sound.
“Yiye~ yiye yiye…”
“That cry.” Lu Li stopped in his tracks.
His mind worked at high speed as he racked his brain, trying to remember what kind of Pokémon could make such a strange sound.
But because it had been far too long, Lu Li couldn’t be certain what Pokémon made that cry. What he could be sure of was that a Pokémon with that kind of cry probably wasn’t carnivorous.
With that thought, Lu Li poked his head out and cautiously looked down the hotel corridor.
A Pokémon around one meter tall, predominantly dark purple and white, was pushing a food cart while softly humming something.
“The horns on its head point downward. It’s a female Indeedee!” The moment Lu Li saw what the Pokémon looked like, he was overjoyed.
Indeedee was a very positive kind of Pokémon, because its prototype is based on aristocratic butlers and maids. Male Indeedee resembled butlers, while female Indeedee resembled maids.
Most importantly, Indeedee’s primary source of energy was the positive emotions of other living creatures.
That was the exact opposite of Mimikyu, which fed on fear.
And even more importantly, Indeedee was a Psychic- and Normal-type Pokémon, not a Ghost-type Pokémon.
Now the problem was this.
For the vast majority of Ghost-type Pokémon, an apocalypse like this was the paradise of their dreams.
But for a Pokémon like Indeedee, an apocalypse like this was a true apocalypse.
Because in an apocalypse, there simply couldn’t be that many positive emotions. Indeedee genuinely could starve to death.
Yet this Indeedee looked like it was in an excellent mood.
“Could it be that this Indeedee hasn’t gone hungry recently?” Lu Li wondered in confusion.
While Lu Li was puzzled, Indeedee pushed the food cart up to a door and lightly knocked on it.
A short while later, the door opened, and a long, slender hand reached out from inside.
The hand took the food Indeedee passed over.
“Thank you, Great Lord Demon Beast,” the guest inside the room said gratefully.
Lu Li: “???”
Lu Li suddenly felt that this world had become a little absurd.
Afraid that he had seen things wrong, Lu Li quickly poked his head out again, held his breath, and secretly watched Indeedee’s movements.
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