Chapter 65: Madness! Everyone's Gone Mad!

Lu Xuechuan had just finished his meal when Xiong Hui pulled him out of the dining hall.

"Zhao Xue says we need to leave quickly and hide," Xiong Hui said.

Just as Lu Xuechuan was about to ask what was going on, his body trembled. Especially when Xiong Hui, as if performing a magic trick, produced an empty test tube, Lu Xuechuan’s eyes widened.

"How did you do that?" he whispered, his voice laden with fear.

"Zhao Xue helped. Even when we were testing the poison, without Zhao Xue, we would have died. Now, all these demons are going to hell," Xiong Hui replied calmly.

As he spoke, he glanced to the side, as though listening to something and talking to someone invisible.

"Zhao Xue says we need to hurry. If we don’t leave now, it’ll be too late." With that, he dragged Lu Xuechuan into a run.

Lu Xuechuan’s face was ashen, unsure if he himself had lost his mind or if Xiong Hui had gone mad. But the events of the past few days defied all logic.

Almost as soon as they left the dining hall, they saw members of the combat team who had just eaten crawling in the rain, croaking intermittently, as if imagining themselves to be amphibious frogs.

A few steps further, they came upon someone performing an exorcism on a corpse.

"I saw the boss naked! Will she kill me?"
"Boss, I can’t hold back anymore!"
"The dragon is coming, the dragon is coming, run! Don’t eat me!" cried one member, sprinting wildly.
"Hahaha, I’ve become immortal! Wind, come! Rain, come! I wish to ride the wind and ascend!" Another member stood atop a building, took a step forward as if to soar—and with a thud, became yet another corpse.

...

Madness!
Everyone had gone mad!

Lu Xuechuan and Xiong Hui ran faster and faster.

"Didn’t the Murderous Witch say the poison would take effect in two hours?" Lu Xuechuan asked.

"Zhao Xue said to add all five vials of the reagent, so I did," Xiong Hui replied calmly.

After fleeing for a while, Xiong Hui suddenly stopped, as if listening to someone speak. He nodded and said, "Zhao Xue says we should hide here and wait until all the demons are dead."

Again, Zhao Xue...
Lu Xuechuan felt as if he were losing his mind. In truth, half the reason his nerves had frayed so badly lately was due to his classmate’s sudden change in character and his constant references to "Zhao Xue says."

They had always been just two people. Zhao Xue had long since died!
But he dared not speak the truth.

Following Zhao Xue’s directions, the two hid on the third floor of a ruined villa. Not a single piece of furniture remained intact in the place; the windows were shattered, the floor stained everywhere with congealed blood, and the villa completely abandoned.

From here, one could barely see outside.

Lu Xuechuan and Xiong Hui moved broken cabinets to create a chaotic barricade that conveniently concealed their presence.

"Why arrange it like this?"
"Zhao Xue said to," came the reply.

...

Villa No. 36.

Xia Xiaoan glanced out the window, eyes wide. "Sister, look! Isn’t that the group from the company? They’re coming out."

What?
The company people are outside?

Su Miao immediately grabbed her sniper rifle, set it up at the window, and aimed toward the parking lot. The torrential rain had finally stopped, providing excellent visibility.

In her scope, the company’s combat team behaved bizarrely, clearly suffering from mushroom poisoning.

Though these people would die in their hallucinations, Su Miao felt she ought to grant them some dignity.

Aim!
Bang!

At 1200 meters, a seemingly normal, obviously unpoisoned combat team member took a bullet to the head.

Everyone else was poisoned—only he wasn’t. That was unreasonable. And he looked terrified, so Su Miao decided to help him. Death would end his fear.

If he started shouting, what if he disturbed those still eating inside?

They had come to the resort together; it was only right to leave together.

Bang!

Su Miao fired again and again, killing six in succession. Each had escaped without being poisoned; she spared those who were raving mad for the moment.

Inside the dining hall, Xu Heng, who had not touched the soup or meat, and Bai Rui, who had just prepared to eat, stared at the combat team members lost in hallucinations.

At first, one or two began to act deranged, then more and more, until whole groups descended into madness—even "networking" to explore a miniature kingdom.

That was nothing. The real horror began when one hallucinating member shouted, "The Murderous Witch is here! The Murderous Witch is here!"

Those words plunged the rest into a shared, networked hallucination.

"What’s there to fear?! Kill her!"
Fu Yongpeng went further: he grabbed his gun and shot a new recruit from the Defense Division nearby. "See? I killed the Murderous Witch. She’s nothing after all!"

The hall fell silent, poised to slip into another collective hallucination.

Suddenly, bang!
The sound of a sniper rifle outside triggered utter chaos.

"No, the Murderous Witch isn’t dead. She’s resurrected! She never died! Ahhhh!"
"Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!"

Fear and panic seized them, terrified that the witch would blow their brains out at any moment.

One even flipped the safety on his weapon and fired at those nearby. "Witch, I killed you!"

Unfortunately, Fu Yongpeng became this lunatic’s primary target. He didn’t even have time to shout before being riddled with bullets, dying beyond any hope.

The dining hall plunged into total disorder.

Those still lucid rushed to escape outside.

Bai Rui and Xu Heng were among them, but outside proved no safer. No sooner had they fled than they saw someone sniped to death nearby.

"What the hell is going on?"
Xu Heng seized Bai Rui by the collar, demanding loudly.

"I—I don’t know! They just went crazy all of a sudden," Bai Rui stammered, panic-stricken.

"Crazy my ass! It’s mushroom poisoning!" Xu Heng wanted to punch Bai Rui, but now wasn’t the time. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouted, "All lucid combat team members, hide where you are! Hide immediately!"

"If you can’t hide, act crazy and wait for a chance!"

...

Villa No. 36.

Su Miao had sniped fifteen company villains in her field of view—all unpoisoned.

Next, she targeted the company villains clearly suffering from poisoning. She cared not whether they would die in two hours; it was better to kill them all now.

Bang!