Chapter 242 - 241: Have We Finally Escaped the Killing Game?

Chapter 242: Chapter 241: Have We Finally Escaped the Killing Game?

My expression hardened, and I frowned at Claire Lawson.

She met my gaze, seeming completely unafraid of being discovered.

"Cece?" Asher called to me in a low voice.

I snapped out of it and straightened up. "Go look for an exit. See if you can find a way to call for help."

Asher gave me a deep look, nodded, then turned and dragged Lucas Grant and Felix Foster away, one in each hand.

Over on the other side, Zeke Shaw carried Madeline Quinn to a brighter spot, anxiously examining her wound.

"Zeke... if I die, would you be willing to have ’Wife of Zeke Shaw’ written on my tombstone?" Madeline Quinn’s voice was weak and hoarse, but even now, she didn’t forget to tease him.

Zeke nervously pressed down on her wound. "You’re not going to die... Absolutely not."

Madeline’s eyes reddened. "I don’t want to die! I haven’t even gotten married, I haven’t had a boyfriend, I’ve been single since birth! WAAAH..."

’...’ Seeing her like this, Zeke figured she probably wasn’t going to die.

"Don’t be scared, don’t..." Zeke lifted her clothes to take a look. The cut wasn’t deep, but it was still bleeding. She wouldn’t die for now, but they couldn’t afford to wait too long.

"Zeke, am I going to die?" Madeline wailed.

"For now... you won’t," Zeke said in a low voice.

I glanced at Madeline Quinn and Zeke Shaw, confirmed that Madeline was okay for the time being, and turned back to face Claire Lawson.

Claire Lawson was also looking at me, a smile playing on her lips.

’From the moment she saw the scratches on the back of her hand, she must have known that I’d figured it out...’

"Come with me." I grabbed Claire Lawson by the collar and dragged her under the staircase.

I slammed her against the wall. Her face paled in pain.

"Heh... You’re pretty ruthless when it comes to yourself, aren’t you?" I gripped her throat, slowly applying pressure.

Claire Lawson laughed, her smile defiant. "You won’t kill me..."

"You’re thinking too highly of yourself." My grip on her throat tightened, my eyes filled with cold killing intent. "Peach... you deliberately exposed her location and got her killed, didn’t you?"

In agony, Claire Lawson slapped at my hand.

I slowly loosened my grip and grabbed her by the hair. "For a victim of domestic abuse, you’re surprisingly strong. Strong enough to kill your own husband and hang him from the ceiling. How did you manage that?"

’I remembered back on the seventeenth floor, every time the power was cut and the lights went out, someone would die.’

’How did she do it?’

"I just set up some contraptions in advance," Claire Lawson said with a smile, as cold and detached as a heartless demon.

"Heh... So it really was you. What’s the purpose of all this?" ’I needed to know the truth.’

"We are awakening a ’god’—a ’god’ who can cleanse this world." Claire Lawson was being deliberately cryptic, laughing with wild abandon.

I grabbed her by the collar and drove my knee into her wound. "You’d better stop playing games with me."

Claire Lawson fell to the ground, still looking at me with a smile. "Cecilia... I’m not the mastermind of this game... I’m just an executor."

’Claire Lawson wasn’t the ultimate mastermind.’

"What is your goal? To kill people? To vent your anger? Or is this your so-called ’upholding justice’?" I asked in a low voice.

"No, no, no... All of this is just the beginning." Claire Lawson got up, smiling, and slowly walked over to a spot where sunlight streamed in.

She stood in the light, turning back to smile at me. "We... have a common goal."

I frowned, unsure of what she was planning.

"This is a miserable world. Misfortune preys on the suffering, and a rope always breaks at its thinnest point... The poor and the downtrodden can’t control their own fates. They can’t change their circumstances. All they can do is live miserably and painfully, while the elite... control their destinies." Claire Lawson spouted a series of seemingly unrelated platitudes.

"Cecilia, this world is far crazier than we can imagine." Claire Lawson laughed as she backed away. "Chase Carter deserved to die. He was an abuser, he raped minors, organized prostitution, solicited prostitutes, trafficked women and children—he was capable of every evil imaginable... He was a perfect pawn, an excellent stepping stone. How could we complete the slaughter without bringing all these people together?"

’Claire Lawson had married Chase Carter on purpose.’

’She deliberately let him abuse her to create a pitiful persona, all in anticipation of the day we would enter this game.’

"Cecilia, you’re interested in us now, aren’t you? You’re welcome to join us..." Claire Lawson raised her hand, touching the sunlight. "Chase Carter was one of Victor Quinn’s men. He was also the main culprit who supplied surrogates to The Genetics Organization. His death is no great loss."

Chase Carter trafficked women of childbearing age, handing them over to The Genetics Group behind Victor Quinn for human gene and embryo experiments.

’It was an incredibly cruel business.’

"Every single person who died here was guilty." Claire Lawson walked to the wall and flipped a switch on the breaker box. The bricked-up window shattered, and a flood of sunlight poured in.

Claire Lawson shot me a smile. "Cecilia, the game isn’t over yet... The mastermind is still among you, you know."

With that, Claire Lawson turned, jumped out the window, quickly got into a car, and vanished.

I stood at the window, looking outside.

’Where is this place...?’

"Cecilia!"

Behind me, Julian Fletcher, who had carried Erin Whittaker down, shouted my name.

I snapped back to reality and quickly ducked behind the wall, dodging the bullets that flew in from outside...

"Everyone get down! Get down!"

A group of mercenaries stormed in through the broken wall, guns in hand, and herded us all together.

"Squat down! Hands on your head!"

I glanced at Asher, then put my hands on my head and squatted down.

Soon, their leader walked in and looked at the barely conscious Erin Whittaker.

"It was... Claire Lawson," Erin Whittaker rasped.

"The one hiding among us was Claire Lawson. She ran away... I saw her run away..."

The leader looked back at his subordinate. "Go after her."

’They were mercenaries working for The Genetics Group. They all had that same tattoo behind their ears.’

"Take them all away!"

In the chaos, we were pushed out of the ruined building.

"Bring him, he’s not dead yet," Zeke Shaw and Lucas Grant said, struggling to carry Tim Zane.

His breathing and vital signs were extremely weak, but he was still alive.

As I exited the ruined building, I instinctively shut my eyes. The bright light made it hard to see...

"Where are we?" Lucas Grant muttered under his breath.

"A criminal paradise. Myarra, Laoria, or... Kamara?" Zeke Shaw sucked in a sharp breath.

’So the reason they needed IV drips while they were unconscious was because they’d been brought to this godforsaken place?’

Outside the ruined building was a bustling market.

The slaughter had been non-stop inside, yet the local people outside were still hawking their wares and laughing...

Standing in the noisy crowd, my ears began to ring.

My head started to hurt again.

The pain was intense.

’When Claire Lawson escaped, she said the mastermind was still among us.’

"Get in the car!" The mercenaries shoved us into a vehicle.

My breathing grew ragged as I looked at everyone who had made it out.

Madeline Quinn being carried, Lucas Grant, Felix Foster... Zeke Shaw, me, and Asher, as well as... the unconscious Tim Zane.

Then there was Julian Fletcher, and Erin Whittaker, who had already been taken away by the mercenaries for medical treatment.

’Heh... In the end, who is the real mastermind?’