Chapter 339: Chapter 339: Inescapable Trap
After walking for three minutes, Xiaoyun's army finally arrived at the destination.
It was the only hotel on the island, as the other buildings were either office or apartment buildings or various types of stores.
Xiaoyun could also see the harbor at the far side of the island, but he didn't send anyone over as another brigade was already assigned to it.
"Everyone split up and clear all surrounding buildings."
As several majors led their regiments to clear all the surrounding buildings one by one, Xiaoyun went inside the hotel with one of the regiments.
"So many plants..." Xiaoyun murmured as he stepped inside the main lobby.
The entire lobby floor was covered in grass, with the walls full of vines just like the outside.
However, the vines inside were much thicker and darker green, which made the barely lit room a bit creepy.
"You can lead your troops. I'm not going to order any issue." Xiaoyun stated as he noticed the major leading the regiment stood still.
"Thank you, sir."
After the major assigned one of the companies to clear the hotel, he sent the rest of the soldiers to clear all the surrounding buildings next to the hotel.
Xiaoyun sat at one of the seats and waited for the soldiers to go upstairs and clear the hotel room by room.
"Where do you think they can be hiding?" Kate curiously asked as she examined their surrounding, opening the drawers to check for information.
"I don't know. But they are definitely here from the looks of it."
As the two waited for the soldiers to come back down, a loud bang suddenly came from upstairs.
"What the hell was that?" Xiaoyun murmured as he pulled out his pistol.
All of the soldiers on the first floor immediately raised their weapons, aiming at the stairway as they waited for their comrades to come down.
But as they all waited, not a single soldier came back down.
"You squad, go upstairs and check." The major ordered.
The chosen squad hesitated for a second but eventually headed towards the stairs and headed up.
---
"Corporal Lin... are we really checking this?" One of the soldiers asked, looking a little nervous as he stood in the front.
"It's an order." The corporal replied, signaling the soldier to open the door.
The soldier slowly turned the doorknob, then swung it wide open as he raised his MP-40 and aimed it inside.
Unlike what they expected, the entire floor was empty, with not a single trace of the soldiers ever entering the room.
However, the footprints outside the door leading up to the floor and its being the only entrance meant there was no other way for their comrade to go inside.
All three of the soldiers in front slowly stepped forward one step, then another, until they were five steps inside the second floor.
Seeing the three soldiers looking fine, the rest of the squad followed them and entered the second floor.
"Where did they all go?" The corporal murmured as he couldn't find any trace of their comrades as the floor was covered in grass.
"Brother Lin... should we report this back to the commander first?" One of the soldiers asked as they examined the entirety of the second floor's hallway.
The corporal assigned one of the soldiers to head back as he prepares to enter one of the hotel rooms with the rest of the squad.
As everyone expected, the room was locked, so one of the soldiers turned around, away from the door, and positioned his foot on the door with his hand on the wall.
With a strong kick, the door busts open, allowing two soldiers on the side to enter. But after searching the entire room, the five soldiers inside the room couldn't find a single thing useful.
It was just a regular hotel room with nothing unique. So the corporal led the squad to the next room and kicked another one open.
"How the hell is all the room empty?" one of the soldiers complained as they broke into the next three rooms, only to find three regular hotel rooms.
"Maybe they headed upstairs?" one of the soldiers suggested, pointing to the staircase at the end of the hallway.
"We don't have enough people... Why the hell is it taking so long for them to get back?"
The corporal suddenly realized something was off, as it should have taken less than a minute for the soldier to head down and for Xiaoyun to send someone up to talk to him.
The entire squad soon realized it, and they all looked towards the staircase downstairs, hoping for someone to come up.
But with no one coming up, fear began to set in among the soldiers.
"Corporal Lin... What's happening?" One of the soldiers asked nervously.
"I don't know... But we just need to bid our time. There's no way our entire force is just gone like this."
As everyone sat down on the vegetation that somehow grew to the second floor and waited, the corporal took out his phone to check the time.
However, his phone doesn't turn on, no matter how many times he presses the restart buttons.
"Can someone check the time?" Corporal Lin asked.
All of the soldiers took out their phones and watches, only to find them either unable to turn on or frozen still.
"Fuck... We fell into a trap." Corporal Lin murmured as all he could do now was wait for someone from the outside.
---
"What's taking them so long?" Xiaoyun wondered as he began to get a little worried for the soldiers upstairs.
"Should I send another squad to check?" The major asked.
"That's not going do anything... If we lost an entire company and squad, what's the point of sending more troops?"
The major awkwardly scratches his head as he couldn't think of any other plan besides sending more people upstairs.
"I'll go myself. You all stay behind——"
"What! You're not going there yourself. That's way too risky." Kate instantly interrupts Xiaoyun before he can finish.
"Commander... She's right. Your safety is our number one priority, sir." The major pleaded in an assertive tone.
Seeing the two not willing to bend back against Xiaoyun's order, his face darkened a little.
"Am I the commander, or are you the commander?" Xiaoyun questioned.
The major immediately shook his head, backing down as he stepped aside from his path.
"Kate, are you going to disobey the order?" Xiaoyun asked as he looked over to her with a cold face.
"I promised them that I'm going to protect you... Fine, but I'm coming with you." Kate backed down as she moved back to follow behind him.
However, just as Xiaoyun was about to head up, the major tried to send more troops to accompany Xiaoyun.
But Xiaoyun quickly shuts it down by giving a personal order for all the soldiers to stay back.
As the two opened the staircase door and entered inside, Xiaoyun immediately could smell something weird about the air.
"How did all the vines get inside the building? And how is there grass on the floor when it's concrete?" Kate murmured as they walked up the stairs.
"I don't know... Maybe it's just the plant growing from the outside to the inside?" Xiaoyun suggested as the two finally arrived at the door to the second floor.
Just as Xiaoyun was about to open the stairway door, it opened by itself, revealing a room full of soldiers lying on the ground.
"What the fuck happened here?"
Xiaoyun worryingly ran over to the nearest soldiers, putting his hand over their necks to check for pulses.
"Still alive... But why are they all asleep here?" Xiaoyun murmured as he checked several other soldiers, only to find them in some sort of deep sleep.
"Xiaoyun... I-I feel a little lightheaded——"
Before Kate could finish talking, she suddenly fell right onto the floor, in the same condition as the soldiers.
Xiaoyun immediately covered his mouth with a piece of cloth as he realized that something in the air was causing them all to fall into deep sleep.
However, he couldn't tell exactly what was causing it as the hallway was extremely long and contained almost thirty different rooms.
"Is it these plants?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he noticed a patch of flowers in the grass.
As soon as he stepped on it with his shoes, he suddenly felt a little bit of dizziness and sleepiness.
"Fuck, I can't fall here."
Xiaoyun started biting his tongue to keep himself away as he continued searching for the possible cause.
Just as his tongue and mouth were practically full of blood from biting it so much, he finally noticed something that looked extremely suspicious.
"Why is there an air purifier running?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he walked closer to examine it.
Right on top of the air purifier was the same flower that he stomped on earlier. However, some sort of purple dust was directly above the flower.