After getting the address, Masked Rider gestured to the two people at his forehead and then rushed into the building surrounded by flames without looking back.
Feeling the scorching heat that seemed to char people, Masked Rider dodged the falling ceiling and dashed towards the stairwell, quickly ascending.
All over the Watson District, there are families trapped in the fire unable to escape. What’s the use of saving just one?
That woman obviously can’t offer any reward; forget saving her, I might get trapped inside myself. Sword Saint and the others wouldn’t even be able to retrieve my body to shorten the resurrection cooldown, wasting three days of game time without any reward.
This mission doesn’t have a point system; regardless of how many people I save, the rewards are the same. I could get that limited title and all mission rewards just by symbolically evacuating the crowd outside without taking any risks.
Besides, they’re just a bunch of NPCs. I wouldn’t feel bad even if I died many times in games before.
They’re just a pile of data, is it worth it?
Masked Rider doesn’t know.
He only knows that his body dashed into the fire before his brain could weigh the benefits.
I’m playing the game to have fun!
Fortunately, the custom-made mask has a breath-filtering function. Although the hot air entering the lungs feels like it’s roasting his artificial lungs like skewers, at least it hasn’t mixed in the toxic gases that can render a person unconscious in a short time.
And although he’s a couch potato in reality, panting after climbing four floors, here his modified prosthetics let him rush up to the sixth floor in no time, following the woman’s description to find her residence.
Though the door number was burnt and deformed, beyond recognition, 607 couldn’t be seen, but the sound of a child’s crying was coming from only this apartment on the entire floor.
The mantis knife equipped with his gear tore through the clothes, and the sharp blade stabbed into the door lock.
This is how you use body augmentations!
Masked Rider exerted all his strength, kicked open the door, and rushed into the room.
This dorm is narrower and shabbier than those in super skyscrapers, with only a bed and a bathroom less than 2 square meters. Smoke had already blackened the entire ceiling through the door cracks, and the crying came from the bathroom.
Masked Rider pulled open the bathroom door and saw the girl, about six or seven years old, curled in the bathtub, her face full of tears and snot bubbles.
Upon seeing the insect-like monster open the door, she let out a terrified scream.
The scream was loud enough for Nishikawa Meishu downstairs to hear, scaring her to the point of almost collapsing.
"Alright, it’s Masked Rider here to save you, don’t worry, I’ll take you to find your mom."
Masked Rider found that this little one was pretty smart, having filled the bathtub with water.
However, he probably didn’t realize that he was speaking Chinese, and the child didn’t have any body augmentations installed, let alone a translation pack, so she couldn’t understand what he was saying and could only back away in terror, fearing the insect monster might throw her into the fire to roast and eat.
But fortunately, Masked Rider didn’t have time to worry about these things either; he glanced around, tore some sheets from the bed, tossed them into the bathtub to soak, then held the little carrot who was nearly scared unconscious in his arms, wrapping both together with the soaked sheets.
He didn’t forget to leave a palm-sized wet handkerchief for the little girl.
"Ling Mei, right? Hold this over your nose, I’ll take you out."
At this moment, he realized why the other’s eyes were blank and had to use gestures to show what to do.
Nishikawa Lingmei understood that this insect-faced monster didn’t seem to be a bad guy, nervously accepting the handkerchief and holding it over her nose.
Masked Rider held Ling Mei, first looking out the window.
There was an explosion on the fourth floor, flames erupted from the windows, a large amount of wall coating fell down, directly scaring the two on the sixth floor back into the room.
Jumping down from here was definitely impossible, even with prosthetics, they’d likely fall to their deaths. Using the mantis knife to crawl down the wall wouldn’t work either, the insulation layer was falling off massively, they might get crushed.
"Alright, seems we have to use the stairs and pray to Xiao Yu."
At this moment, Masked Rider could only pray to the god of staircases, praying that this staircase that leads anywhere could take the two of them out of here. The source of this content ɪs NoveI-Fire.ɴet
The door was already surrounded by flames, flames crackling against the door frame. Still holding the girl tightly, Masked Rider dashed out without hesitation.
The stair rails were starting to melt and deform, explosions happened occasionally in the rooms. Even wrapped in damp blankets, in this short span of over ten seconds, Masked Rider’s skin had turned red and was entering a severe burn state, holding the child, who hadn’t moved at all, unclear whether fainted or scared senseless.
The two guarding near the doorway were horrified to discover the first floor was collapsing, large chunks of ceiling falling down, the supporting steel beams losing strength under the high temperature, bending and deforming, emitting the groaning sounds of unbearable load.
The door was going to collapse, yet that insect-like monster was nowhere to be seen amidst the flames.
There was an explosion on the first floor, the distorted air obscured the stairwell.
Nishikawa Meishu felt like her world was being burned to ashes along with the flames, even ignoring her neighbor trying to drag her away from the apartment.
A series of sounds that no one had heard before echoed on the street, accompanied by dense footsteps.
The environment suddenly turned silent, time seemed to stand still.
A dark figure rushed past Nishikawa Meishu, who was kneeling, ran into the building before her neighbor’s stunned eyes.
Two mechanical legs extended, explosion pins drove into the ground, upper beams braced against the collapsing doorway.
Tons of weight suddenly pressed on this iron door frame that rushed in, seemingly wanting to completely crush this oblivious outsider.
The hydraulic pump in the mechanical joints boosted to maximum power, forcibly bracing the collapsing doorway, creating an opening.
And from within the fire scene, a figure holding a child suddenly dashed out from the encirclement of flames through the doorway.