Chapter 827: Spiral Staircase

827. Spiral Staircase

Moving through the spiral force field was even easier than Lin Ye had imagined. As long as he went with the flow of the force field, he could fly through the sky effortlessly.

But this also carried great risk. If he entered the wrong force field, he could be hurled downward and smashed into a pulp.

"Stay close to me. The force fields up above keep shifting, and I'll leave a window for you to pass through."

Lin Ye looked down and spoke to Margaret below.

"Okay, don't worry about me."

Margaret moved with the force field, looking quite experienced.

Lin Ye looked up. He needed to chart a safe route forward.

"Wait, something's coming from the upper left!"

Margaret suddenly shouted a warning.

Lin Ye looked to the upper left. Several black dots were approaching them.

The black dots quickly closed the distance. They were small spiral creatures shaped like birds.

Those birds shrieked as they charged in. They had sharp claws and beaks, and they looked extremely aggressive.

"Get over here!"

Margaret pulled a hand cannon with a caliber of a full twenty centimeters from her backpack and fired a shot at those birds.

Boom!

Flames mixed with metal shrapnel blanketed the entire area, blasting those spiral creatures into charred chunks of meat.

Lin Ye quickly grabbed Margaret and used the spiral force field to alter her trajectory, guiding her into another upward force field.

"Thanks."

Margaret loaded a thick, oversized special bullet into her hand cannon, ready to fire another shot.

But the surviving spiral creatures had already fled. They didn't even dare linger in the distance.

"No need for thanks. If you hadn't fired, I'd have had to fight those spiral creatures in close quarters."

In a place like this, Lin Ye didn't have many good options either.

With the sudden crisis resolved, the two continued moving upward. After that, they didn't encounter any more spiral creatures and reached the next area without trouble.

"I've been here before, but back then I was deep in the city, and there were lots of spiral creatures nearby."

Margaret looked around. The area was very quiet. Those spiral creatures were all gone.

"There's a hospital over there."

The hospital's main building was the tallest structure here. They could use the rooftop to reach the next area.

"Can't we just fly straight up?"

Margaret remembered that the hospital had been full of dangerous things before. They hadn't dared get too close.

"No. These buildings are affecting the spiral force field somehow, making the nearby fields extremely chaotic. We should find a place with fewer buildings to leave the ground."

Lin Ye thought the hospital rooftop would be perfect. The spiral force field around it was fairly stable, and it would cut down the distance they'd need to travel through the air.

"Then let's go up. Keep an eye on our surroundings and let me know if anything happens."

Margaret walked ahead of Lin Ye. She usually didn't like wearing those glasses because they picked up all kinds of scattered information.

"Got it."

Lin Ye followed behind Margaret. They quickly entered the hospital's main lobby. Even though spiral force fields were everywhere, the hospital's facilities were still functioning normally.

"Wait, there's a spiral creature over there."

Lin Ye pointed at a vending machine in the corner of the lobby.

"It doesn't seem aggressive."

Margaret gripped her hand cannon but didn't fire.

"Let me take a look."

Lin Ye approached the vending machine. He discovered it was a spiral creature that sold various items.

The screen showed several rows of product listings. At the very bottom of the list was a cartoon avatar that looked somewhat like Little Spiral, who had been captured earlier.

"One point? That expensive?"

Lin Ye couldn't resist tapping it.

He was deducted one trade point.

A gap opened at the bottom of the vending machine, and a box wrapped in red ribbons slid out from inside.

The box began to shake, and Little Spiral burst out from within.

"I can't breathe! This box is completely sealed!"

Little Spiral collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. That spiral creature was also taking deep breaths of air.

"It actually came out intact. I thought this was some kind of intimidation tactic."

Lin Ye picked up the box and took a look inside. There was nothing else in it.

"Can't you think positively for once?"

Little Spiral climbed up from the ground. After being taken by that spiral creature, she'd thought she was done for.

"Can't help it. I'm a pessimist."

Lin Ye did his best to suppress the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, then tapped the screen again.

A small box slid out of the delivery slot. Lin Ye tore open the packaging, and inside was a large-caliber pistol.

This pistol was worth five trade points. Five times as much as Little Spiral.

The magazine held ten spiral bullets, and they looked incredibly powerful.

"You don't need to buy that thing. I have plenty of self-defense items on me. If that room hadn't been completely sealed with no gaps at all, I'd have escaped on my own long ago."

Little Spiral straightened out her backpack. After being sucked in, that spiral creature had just locked her in a room. Not long after, she'd been packaged up and shipped here.

"It's just a little self-defense purchase. It's only a few points anyway."

The list also had food and drinks, along with all sorts of miscellaneous items, but Lin Ye had no use for any of that.

"Let's keep heading up. I don't like this hospital."

Margaret cut off the two's rather pointless conversation.

"You two still want to continue? Something seems to have changed here. It might get dangerous later."

Lin Ye had thought they would just leave directly through the exit.

"I don't think this change is a bad thing."

That spiral creature hadn't killed Little Spiral. It had only destroyed her flight device.

Margaret felt this might be what Spiral City truly looked like.

"That's right. Today is the day we clear Spiral City."

Even after being packaged up as merchandise, Little Spiral wasn't backing down.

"Then let's go."

Lin Ye stowed the pistol and headed toward the emergency stairwell nearby.

Little Spiral, on the other hand, walked toward the elevator across the way.

Both of them stopped at the same time.

"Bro, there are over thirty floors here. Aren't we taking the elevator?"

Little Spiral didn't want to burn through too much stamina.

"We can't use spiritual energy right now. That kind of sealed space is too dangerous."

Lin Ye didn't like taking risks.

Margaret also thought taking the stairs up was safer.

"Fine, whatever you two say."

The minority yields to the majority. Little Spiral could only turn back.

The three quickly climbed flight after flight of spiral stairs. After a while, Lin Ye suddenly stopped.

"This is already the thirty-fourth floor."

He looked up. Above them were still endless layers of spiral stairs stretching into infinity.

"Something's wrong here. Let's split up. I'll go down, and you two go up."

Margaret spoke up immediately.

"Alright."

Lin Ye didn't hesitate and continued moving upward.

Not long after, he ran into Margaret coming back down.

"...It really is a spiral staircase."

Lin Ye found it strange. How was this possible without spiritual energy?

He'd thought the most they'd encounter here was dangerous spiral creatures. He never expected to run into something this troublesome.

"We can find a window in the building and escape through it."

Little Spiral pushed open the large door leading to the floor.