The squad behind was closely following the mine cart.
Fatty could hear the people behind them speaking. He vaguely caught phrases like ’provide satisfying footage for the viewers,’ which made his buttocks hurt even more.
"Doctor," Fatty glanced at the overhead follow-up device, "are a lot of people watching and laughing at us right now?"
Gu Mian pushed his head back. "To correct you, they are not laughing at us; they are laughing at you."
After all, Fatty was the only one with two arrows in his buttocks.
Hearing this, Fatty’s face soured. "The cart’s tracks end at the tunnel mouth, right? We’ll have to stop the cart then."
Although they had the Spirit Car, which Gu Mian could board and speed away in, getting off the mine cart would take time. That brief pause might allow the pursuers to riddle them with bullets.
At this moment, they heard some strange noises from the squad behind them again.
Fatty lifted his head, startled. "Are they getting closer to us?"
Gu Mian also listened intently to the sounds from behind. "I’m afraid so. It looks like we’ll have to speed up."
In the live broadcasting room, Mr. Slaughter started to laugh. "It seems these participants have realized the danger they’re in. They still want to struggle futilely, but it won’t do them any good."
He was still connected with the Order Guard in the mines.
The captain’s somewhat sharp voice came through the communicator: "We are closing in on the three participants ahead. We predict we can kill them directly within the mine."
Mr. Slaughter glanced at the screen. "Kill them in the mine? You’re not far from the mine exit now; it should only be about three to four more minutes..."
"Yes, within these few minutes, we can directly kill the three participants ahead," the captain’s voice came again.
Mr. Slaughter laughed. "Now, viewers all around the world are glued to their screens. I hope you can put on an interesting hunt... Of course, don’t make it too bloody. Some underage audience members might not be able to handle it."
Fatty lay prone in the cart, eyes wide. The squad behind was constantly closing in, and he had, of course, heard the captain’s voice from behind.
"Doctor, did you hear that? What kind of talk is that? They said they’re going to kill us in a few minutes!"
At this point, Fatty couldn’t care less about the pain from his wounds. He just stared wide-eyed at the rear, terrified someone might climb up from behind.
Gu Mian heard it too. He turned to look towards the front of the cart. "Can we speed up?"
This was, of course, directed at Chu Changge.
Chu Changge didn’t hesitate and answered directly, "We’re already at maximum speed, but we can unhitch the wagons. Reducing the weight will make us go faster."
Fatty was a bit confused. "What do you mean by ’unhitch’?"
Gu Mian explained, "In layman’s terms, it means ditching the wagons and just running with the engine car. If it’s only the engine car, the weight will be greatly reduced, and the speed will increase."
Fatty’s face turned pale. "But we’re still in one of the wagons."
So, of course, they couldn’t just unhitch.
Gu Mian glanced towards the rear of the wagon. The sounds from behind were getting closer and closer; he even thought he heard someone climbing a ladder.
At this point, no more arrows were shot from behind, likely out of concern for those climbing the ladder.
It seemed this group wanted to climb directly into the wagon for close combat.
"What do we do?" Hearing this, Fatty almost jumped up, clutching his buttocks.
Gu Mian reacted quickly, pressing him down, then turned towards the front of the cart and shouted, "Someone’s trying to climb up!"
As soon as his voice fell, Chu Changge’s voice came through: "Hold onto the side walls!"
Hearing this, Gu Mian immediately grabbed the side wall of the wagon and, in the same motion, pulled Fatty, who hadn’t yet reacted.
Then, an extremely loud ROAR came from behind.
He turned his head to look and saw the rear wall of the wagon unexpectedly begin to tilt outward like a door, then CRASH onto the ground with a bang.
This mine cart was originally designed to haul out and unload coal; its rear wall could be raised and lowered freely like a door, controlled from the cab. Chu Changge had just opened it from the cab.
Whether the person climbing the ladder was killed by the impact, Gu Mian didn’t know, but he definitely heard a scream.
As the rear wall fell, the hooks that had been attached to it could no longer hold and snapped off one by one.
Simultaneously, a large amount of coal, with a RUMBLE RUMBLE, rolled towards the rear of the wagon. Because that end was now open, the coal poured out like a tide, rolling down the now-lowered rear wall.
With the rear wall of the wagon open, the barrier between the two of them and the pursuing squad vanished, and they came face-to-face.
Gu Mian hadn’t expected to meet them so soon and could only manage an awkward smile. "Hello there..."
The squad leader, dressed in a hazmat suit, wasn’t buying it.
In fact, the squad leader seemed quite furious—Gu Mian deduced this from his body language, as his face was completely obscured by a gas mask.
Apparently, having seen the tragic fate of the person on the ladder, the captain angrily yanked the rifle from his back and quickly loaded it.
"Holy shit!" Fatty yelled. "Are you fucking trying to take us all down with you?!"
Aren’t they afraid that firing a gun down in the mineshaft will cause an explosion?
But the members of the Order Guard seemed completely unconcerned, each pulling the rifles from their backs and loading them.
At that moment, the captain was already raising his rifle to aim at them.
Chu Changge acted quickly. The fallen rear wall of the wagon suddenly began to rise again, but before it could fully ascend, someone from behind had already opened fire.
Gu Mian abruptly let go of Fatty’s hand and quickly ducked. A bullet whizzed over their heads and slammed into the front wall of the wagon, creating a large crater.
Fatty turned his head in astonishment, looking at the large crater. "These guns are that powerful?"
This mine cart was clearly quite advanced; the steel of its walls was a good ten centimeters thick. For it to be blasted with a bowl-sized crater showed just how powerful the guns were.
"Do you think this is some war movie?" Gu Mian also looked at the crater. "These aren’t the kind of bullets you see in movies, where someone gets shot and can just dig the bullet out themselves. I reckon one of their bullets could blow your arm clean off."
At this moment, the sound of continuous gunfire came from behind.
They watched as more impacts created bulges on the wagon walls; it probably wouldn’t hold out much longer.
Fatty was still panicking when Chu Changge’s voice suddenly came from the front: "We just dumped a good portion of the coal, so our speed has increased. We should be able to leave this mine and put some distance between us and them before the rear wall is breached."
That’s great! Fatty’s expression brightened.
But just then, Chu Changge’s voice, now lowered, came again: "I said, *if* nothing unexpected happens—after all, Gu Mian is still on this cart."
Considering Gu Mian was still on the cart, it was hard to say what accidents might occur along the way—that was Chu Changge’s subtext.
Although it was subtext, the two in the wagon understood it perfectly.
Gu Mian, however, calmly began to list possible accidents:
"For example, the mine cart could derail..."
"Or the mineshaft could collapse..."
Fatty clenched his jaw tightly.
"Or, for instance, that bomb in our wagon that was supposed to be scrapped suddenly becomes active, starts emitting wisps of white smoke, but we can’t throw it out because it’s stuck amongst the coal and we can’t get to it."
Fatty roared, "Why can you describe it so vividly?!"
Gu Mian stared at a corner of the wagon. "Because I see it."