Chapter 128: I Can’t Hold On Any Longer

Ten minutes.

To an ordinary person, ten minutes is nothing more than the time it takes to sip a cup of tea or scroll through a short video.

But here in the warehouse, this might very well be the final ten minutes of their lives.

Chen Yu’s right leg had begun to tremble uncontrollably, the muscles strained under the weight of two people, screaming in agony. Sweat trickled down his temple, stinging his eyes as it seeped in. Yet, he dared not move, nor even blink. He had to focus every ounce of his remaining energy on maintaining this cursed balance.

Li Qing clung to him docilely, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, her arms looped around his neck. She was clever, positioning her weight as close to Chen Yu's center of gravity as possible to relieve him of even the slightest bit of pressure. The girl’s warm breath brushed against his ear, sending waves of tingling numbness through him.

Under any other circumstances, this would be the kind of romantic sanctuary any man would dream of. But right now, for Chen Yu, it was the sweetest form of torture.

...

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away at the Jiangcheng City Criminal Investigation Branch.

The interrogation room was bathed in stark, pale light.

"Bang!"

Su Qingzhu’s fair palm slammed heavily against the metal table. This was the fifth time she had struck the table. The man sitting opposite her was the very person who had handed Chen Yu water on the cruise ship, the one who claimed to be a waiter. At this moment, his face was ashen, his eyes hollow, like a puppet whose soul had been ripped away.

"I’ll ask you one last time: where exactly is that island!"

Su Qingzhu’s voice was heavy with suppressed, volcanic rage. Her beautiful, expressive eyes were wide with fury; if looks could kill, the man opposite her would have died a hundred times over.

However, the waiter only shivered neurotically, muttering the same sentence over and over.

"It’s useless... it’s too late... everything is too late..."

"Today is the seventh day... the seventh day... I’m going to die soon... I’m going to die..."

"Damn you!" Su Qingzhu finally snapped, unable to hold back a curse. "Before you die, tell me clearly—where is that island!"

She longed to crack open his skull and see what secrets were hidden inside. But the waiter only giggled, a shrill, piercing sound.

"The seventh day... Judgment Day... no one can escape... hehehe..."

Su Qingzhu’s chest heaved violently, her teeth clenched so hard they nearly shattered. She knew that conventional interrogation methods were utterly useless on this man, whose mind had completely collapsed.

...

At this very moment, in the online livestream room, the atmosphere had shifted to another bizarre extreme.

Hundreds of millions of viewers across the globe were watching this bloody yet erotic "sweet game" through the hijacked screen.

The comment section had gone completely insane.

[Holy sh*t! Is this really something I can watch for free? This position is just too intense!]

[That guy Chen Yu is impressive! Carrying such a beautiful woman and still lasting this long!]

[Look at "Zombie Brother" and the girl on him—there’s definitely something going on between them! This rapport, this position... *cough*, this pose, I don't believe they haven't practiced this a hundred times!]

[I ship them! A romance on the edge of life and death is just too good! Please, let them both survive!]

[Don't dream, guys. Only one can live in this game; they’ll have to kill each other sooner or later.]

[Tsk, tsk, those muscles, that sweat, those tense bodies... the streamer knows exactly what we want to see.]

Countless taunts, speculations, and malicious guesses scrolled across the screen like snowflakes. They treated this life-and-death ordeal as an exciting reality show. No one knew that every person on that screen was paying for their entertainment with their lives.

...

Inside the warehouse.

Li Qing hugged Chen Yu’s neck obediently, not daring to move. She could clearly feel the body of the man beneath her trembling secretly. Her fingertips brushed against his back.

What she touched was searingly hot and damp. Through the thin fabric, she could feel that his back was already completely soaked through with sweat.

Was he... reaching his limit?

Li Qing’s heart tightened in her chest.

The timer on the wall ruthlessly ticked past the three-minute mark.

At the exact moment the digits flipped:

"Ahhh!"

Not far away, a shrill, miserable scream pierced the air. A pair consisting of a man and a woman had collapsed; the man had run out of stamina, his foot slipped, and they tumbled out like rolling gourds.

They didn't even have time to scramble back up.

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots, clean and crisp.

The bullets pierced their skulls with precision, splattering red and white matter across the floor.

Immediately afterward, two more gunshots rang out. The two muscular men in pink who had fired the shots expressionlessly ended their own lives.

The bloody scene caused the nerves of the remaining survivors to tighten even further. Two more pairs failed to hold on and followed in their footsteps.

Three minutes, nine lives lost.

Chen Yu had only one thought in his mind right now.

"Damn it, if anyone ever makes fun of a man for lasting only three minutes again, I’ll make sure they experience for themselves just how long those three minutes actually are!"

As he railed internally, he felt the excruciating pain shooting through his right leg.

The muscles in his calf had gone completely numb, leaving only spasmodic twitches. The tendons in his thigh felt as if they were being twisted by pliers; every second was an agony.

He began to panic.

He was truly panicking.

After transmigrating and obtaining the system, he had believed he was the child of destiny, the protagonist of the world. Retrospection, the Eye of Insight, crisis warnings... these god-like skills had made him invincible, leading him to believe he was omnipotent.

But now, in the face of this most primitive and pure test of strength and endurance, all his skills had become useless ornaments.

However, when he felt Li Qing’s body stiffen slightly from nervousness, he knew he couldn't fall.

Absolutely not.

If he fell, this silly girl who had run into this death game would be doomed.

"Don't be afraid."

Chen Yu gritted his teeth, forcing the words out through his clenched jaw.

"Hold onto me, don't let go."

Li Qing didn't speak; she only tightened her arms around his neck. This simple action gave Chen Yu a tremendous sense of comfort.

Time ticked away, second by second. Each second felt as long as a century.

The timer on the wall finally clicked to [00:05:00].

Five minutes!

The final five minutes!

In these short two minutes, five more pairs had collapsed in despair before the finish line, becoming nothing more than corpses. Along with their pink-clad executioners, fifteen more lives had vanished in an instant.

Now, in the vast, empty warehouse, only ten pairs remained standing.

Twenty survivors.

They were all gritting their teeth, using their last reserves of strength to engage in a final tug-of-war with death.

Chen Yu felt his vision beginning to blur, the lights on the ceiling splintering into countless halos before his eyes. His right knee was emitting an unbearable, grinding creak.

He knew he was almost at his limit.

Strength had never been his forte.

He was already at the end of his rope.