Hell's Handbook

Chapter 135: Help Arrives

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Reggie’s decision shocked everyone. Kano Mai knew that this man was insane, but she didn’t expect him to be so out of his mind that he didn’t even care about his own life. Instead of trying to think of a way to turn the situation in his favor, he asked to be shot dead.

Thankfully, Reggie’s subordinates were not as crazy as him. Even though their commander had given orders, they were still hesitant. They weren’t concerned over Reggie’s life. They were concerned with their own.

Reggie’s face fell when he saw their hesitation and started yelling, “I told you to shoot! You bastards, have you forgotten who saved you when you were in trouble? Have you forgotten who was the one who made sure you had food to eat and a roof over your heads in these uncertain and dangerous times?”

The inner turmoil in the two men’s eyes slowly faded and Reggie’s expression darkened as he watched his two subordinates put their guns down.

“Reggie, you’re a very intelligent man, but you’ve also regarded yourself a little too highly. You only get to live once, so no matter how well you’ve treated them in the past, it’s impossible to expect them to give up their lives like that. It’s foolish to think they would,” said Kano Mai with a frown.

Reggie nodded slightly and scoffed. “You’re right. That’s why, sometimes you can only rely on yourself.”

Immediately after he said that, he kicked a leg backwards, making it curl up like a scorpion’s stinger and striking Kano Mai from behind.

She was caught by surprise and loosened her grip enough to let one hand slip out. Reggie pressed a button on his chest and the timer on the explosives tied to his body started counting down.

“HAHA!” Reggie laughed maniacally and stopped struggling. Since all of them were going to die, there was no point in wasting so much energy.

“Open the door!” Kano Mai yelled at the two subordinates.

To her dismay, both of them had a look of despair on their faces as they said, “We can’t! Only the boss knows the combination code to the door, so we can’t open it even though we want to!”

“What about a secret passage out of here? There must be something like that in this room, right?” asked Kano Mai. This room was clearly built to be a hiding place in times of emergency, so whoever designed it couldn’t possibly have built it without a way out of the building itself.

“There’s no point in asking them. I’m the only person who knows where the secret passage is! Just calm down and wait to die with me!” Reggie was really completely insane. The way he dealt with a threat to his life was to just throw his own life away.

Kano Mai felt like a deflated balloon as her heart sank and her shoulders drooped. The countdown timer on Reggie was only for three minutes, which wasn’t enough time for her to locate a secret passage. In other words, she was going to die here.

Reggie stood up and leisurely patted himself off. He poured himself a glass of wine and chuckled. “I didn’t expect a woman to be the one to force me into such a situation. But that doesn’t matter. A woman of your caliber is definitely more than qualified to do such a thing.”

“Boss! Please! Let us out!”

“Boss, please, let us off! We’ve been loyal to you all this time!”

Reggie’s two subordinates broke down and started pleading desperately with him. The feeling of waiting for death to arrive was no better than being surrounded by zombies, so it wasn’t hard to see why they broke so quickly.

He glanced at them frostily and smashed the wine glass in his hand on the floor as he said hatefully, “Loyal to me? And what did you do just now? I really don’t see why you’re so afraid. Instead of waiting until you’re too old and become enslaved by someone else, or get eaten alive by a zombie, don’t you think this is a much more dignified way of dying?”

“You’re nuts!” Kano Mai shook her head helplessly. Their plan had gone pretty well so far, but unfortunately she had run into a twisted and paranoid madman. Otherwise, she should have been able to get out safely.

The countdown timer was left with only 30 seconds. Reggie sat down leisurely on a chair. He looked at his subordinates trembling in fear because they were about to die soon, then looked at the much calmer Kano Mai. He started to admire Kano Mai more and more, and felt that it was wonderful for someone like her to die together with him. Truly, truly wonderful.

Just then, a blast could be heard from above the room. Someone burst through the ceiling and waved away the dust in front of him.

“Mai! Are you alright?” It was Su Jin.

She didn’t expect Su Jin to literally fall from the sky, but she didn’t have the time to hug him and cry either. She quickly explained the situation, “Jin, he’s got explosives around his body and it’s going to blow in 20 seconds.”

Su Jin immediately grabbed hold of Reggie, who was way too stunned and confused by how someone could just smash through a ceiling and failed to react to the situation.

Su Jin leaped back through the ceiling and ran out as quickly as he could. It didn’t take long for them to hear a terrible blast in the distance.

A few seconds later, Su Jin reappeared in the room. He took away the two subordinates’ weapons easily, since the two men were so frightened by Su Jin’s destructive power that they dared not fight back at all.

“Is he dead?”

“As long as he didn’t eat Chop-Chop Fruit, he should be dead,” said Su Jin with a straight face. Then he burst out laughing and said, “Also, how did you guys end up here? After I was done with all those zombies, I went back to find all of you missing. I was so worried.”

Kano Mai rolled her eyes at him and snapped, “You don’t say. We were nearly surrounded and killed by a whole army of mutants. Speaking of which…actually, that fellow saved us from those mutants, so he’s our benefactor.”

Su Jin blinked in surprise and said in disbelief, “You mean…you mean…I let your benefactor blast himself dead?”

“It has nothing to do with you. I’d consider it suicide more than anything else,” she said with a laugh. She turned to look at the two subordinates and said, “Get out now, or…you’ll end up just like Reggie.”

The two men were too terrified to put up a fight. Both Su Jin and Kano Mai were much more formidable than they were. Reggie was happy to die, but they weren’t.

They immediately climbed out the same way Su Jin had come in and decided to run far away from this place and never return.

“Let’s leave this place first,” said Kano Mai. They couldn’t open the door either, so they, too, went out by the ceiling and quickly found Chu Yi and the rest.

“I’m so glad you made it in time!” Chu Yi breathed a big sigh of relief. Su Jin had found them because he had heard the gunshots, and Chu Yi had told him about their plan to escape. Su Jin’s first plan was to try and ram the metal door down, but it was way too big and too solid for even someone with Su Jin’s strength to knock down.

Since that wasn’t working out, he had to find another way in. The only wall that wasn’t fortified was the ceiling, so he smashed that right in. Violence did work sometimes, after all.

Chu Yi also told Su Jin about the hidden mission to escort Professor Charlemagne to the Safe Zone. Su Jin was of the same opinion as them. Since they were headed that way, they could just bring him along.

During this time, Ju Xinlan remained silent and hung her head. She was wearing clothes that Chen Duo had found for her. If someone could see the look in her eyes now, they would see nothing but hate and fury in them.

They got back to the living quarters and Chu Yi went to fetch Professor Charlemagne. The old man was extremely shocked to hear that Chu Yi’s group had taken control of the library and killed Reggie, which annoyed Chu Yi greatly. It was as if the old man never thought they would be able to do it. If that were the case, why did the old man even ask them to try?

“Since your group was able to overthrow Reggie, it means that you really have what it takes. Please send me to the safe zone, because I’m the real messiah of mankind.” Professor Charlemagne sounded like some pyramid scheme salesman, and his shameless proclamation that he was mankind’s messiah really made him sound like a swindler. However, the mission inside their Handbooks proved that regardless of whether he was a swindler or not, Su Jin was happy to bring him along with them.

The library was just a place they happened to pass by while trying to complete their Challenge, but they were unable to just leave these people behind to die. Su Jin eventually left most of the ammunition and weapons behind here. They couldn’t stay here and protect these people forever, so the residents had to learn to protect themselves.

Learning how to use these weapons wasn’t too difficult, and there was enough food and water for them to take this time to get used to using weapons.

The group rested in the library for the night and left first thing the next morning. Su Jin approached the professor to find out more from him. Since the old man knew about the Safe Zone, it meant that he would know where it was.

“The exact location of the Safe Zone? Of course I know where it is. It’s in a field in the middle of the African continent. The population density there is low and they face fewer zombies, that’s why they’ve been able to remain a safe zone until now,” explained Professor Charlemagne.

Su Jin nodded and asked, “Which part of the African continent are we in right now? How far are we from the safe zone?”

“Good heavens, has the apocalypse turned your brains to mush? We’re in North America right now, so we’re miles from Africa!” Professor Charlemagne stared at Su Jin as if Su Jin were an idiot.

Su Jin was stunned for a moment before nearly cursing out loud. What was the Handbook trying to do? Why did it place them in North America if the Challenge had to be completed in Africa?

Getting to Africa from here needed him to cross an ocean and the European continent. Su Jin felt terribly depressed now. How were they going to travel so far? They couldn’t possibly swim there, right? He figured that he might make it, but the rest probably wouldn’t.

Team Boning Knife was a team that had completed a Level A Challenge with a perfect score and now, they were all going to die during a Level D Challenge from trying to travel from one continent to another? That would be terribly embarrassing, thought Su Jin.

“Mr. Su, what are you worried about?” asked Professor Charlemagne curiously. He could see the exasperated look on Su Jin’s face.

Su Jin raised an eyebrow, then suddenly said, “Prof, is there an airport or an airbase nearby?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I need to hijack a plane.”