Barnum was walking through a pitch-dark corridor.
At this moment, the electricity in the corridor had been completely cut off following the previous explosion, and the entire hallway become pitch-black, as if one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face.
Barnum’s eyes narrowed slightly, relying solely on his ears to listen, inching forward step by step.
Right when he turned a corner of the hallway, the sound of something cutting through the air suddenly arrived.
Barnum cracked a grin.
With his robust body, he agilely shifted his footing, and the enormous Crooked Blade in his hand lashed upward in a smooth motion.
Acidic liquid sprayed everywhere as a complete mouthpart along with its head was split in two.
As Barnum thought this, he held the Crooked Blade in one hand and reached for his lower back with the other, swinging forward swiftly.
An explosion erupted, and a flash of fire burst forth.
Several spiders that had rushed over, squeezed into a corridor that was quite narrow for them, were instantly covered by the shrapnel of the grenade.
Listening to the spiders’ shrieking, Barnum laughed coldly.
Through the screen, he had not only seen the spiders’ way of fighting but also knew that the spiders’ bodies would attract more spiders.
Barnum leaned in to listen sharply, and then, another grenade was thrown.
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In the blast of the grenade, several more spiders were killed.
And Barnum began to retreat.
He came here to temporarily block the spiders’ advance, allowing the civilians from Block 4-12 to enter safely.
Now that he had accomplished his mission, it was naturally time to return.
Barnum faced the direction from which the spiders were coming, and began to step back cautiously.
After retreating a few steps, he would stop and listen carefully.
Only after confirming there was no sound would he continue his retreat.
After moving back a hundred meters or so, and with less than a hundred meters left to the shelter behind him, Barnum let out a faint sigh of relief.
But at that moment, a strand of spider silk silently wound around his calf; before Barnum could react, the silk suddenly pulled back.
The sudden spider silk and the immense force it carried gave Barnum no time to react, and he was dragged to the ground then pulled into the darkness.
Panic flashed by in an instant.
The next moment, Barnum took the gun from his back and, facing the direction the silk had come from, pulled the trigger.
Gunfire flickered, bringing light to the dark corridor.
With the aid of this light, Barnum could see the spider that had shot the silk.
If the spiders the size of cars could be considered giant, then the one in front of him, still occupying the entire corridor despite its coiled body and relatively smaller head resembling the front of a train, could only be called colossal in comparison.
Bullets sparked as they hit the head of the massive spider, igniting a shower of sparks.
Especially around the mouth and compound eyes, Barnum focused his fire, but to no avail.
This made Barnum’s heart sink.
When the bullets in the submachine gun ran out, Barnum didn’t reload, but instead gripped the Crooked Blade tightly, and held a grenade in his other hand, his eyes squinting into the darkness ahead as his muscles tensed up.
The distance was closing!
Barnum waited for the perfect opportunity!
After another breath, Barnum swung the Crooked Blade at the spider silk and threw the grenade forward.
The spider silk was cut into two.
The grenade exploded once again.
Barnum rolled backwards; he did not look at the results of the explosion but threw out two more grenades from his hands.
These were his last two grenades.
In the moment of the explosions, he got up and ran backward.
In the middle of the rush of air, a spider web descended from above.
He was bound to the spot just like that.
It wasn’t just a strand of silk binding a part of his body this time, the entire body was immobilized, leaving only his head exposed. He barely managed to twist his head to look back, only to see a massive spider still glowing with residual firelight slowly approaching him.
Because the corridor was narrow, its movements were slow.
With every step forward, the creature had to forcibly squeeze through the corridor.
This was not an easy feat for it; the shelter built by ’Hydra’ was sturdy enough, and this gave Barnum one last chance—
"Everyone into the shelter!"
He yelled out, then, facing the looming giant spider, he gripped the Crooked Blade tightly.