Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight: The Voice

The eerie scene made Gwen hesitant to act rashly.

The entire elevator platform creaked and groaned as its bearings engaged, steadily rising upward. Gwen lowered her center of gravity, standing atop the piled corpses, muscles taut, ready to react instantly to any sudden threat.

Her gaze flicked between the motionless rhinoceros-man and the combatants below, who fired their guns relentlessly. Emerging from the cramped confines earlier, Gwen’s heightened hearing now came fully into play.

Amid the gunfire, she could clearly discern the curses spat out by the desperate crowd pressing toward the elevator.

"I’ve been trapped in this godforsaken, sunless hellhole for eight whole years… eight years! Do you know how I survived those eight years?"

"...Damn you, lickspittles! Get out of the way, or else!"

"I want to go back to the surface! I want to go back! I want to go back!"

If spit could kill, these soldiers would have fallen countless times over. Unfortunately, it could not perform such a miraculous feat.

No matter how fierce their curses, the only answer was the constant rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire.

Up front, people fell like ripe wheat being harvested—one by one, row by row—but those behind kept surging forward, trampling over the fallen, never halting even for a moment.

Those at the front surely feared death as much as anyone.

They wanted to retreat.

But with the relentless pressure from behind, they were forced forward, pushed relentlessly onward—until they were crushed beneath others’ feet or pierced by bullets and collapsed to be trampled.

There was no other fate for them.

At times, it was impossible to discern whether this was blind herd mentality or a calculated scheme.

The soldiers stationed around the elevator were clearly lightly armed, carrying only limited ammunition. Their sole tactic against the firearms was to use human lives as shields.

They relied on the frontline to absorb fire, draining their ammo reserves. Once those ran dry, the situation would become a one-sided slaughter: the crowd vastly outnumbered the soldiers by tens of times. Without guns, the soldiers would be helpless lambs to the slaughter.

Understanding this, one could view the frantic, coordinated surge from behind with a sense of suspicion.

As wave after wave of people fell, finally—

A soldier’s gun jammed suddenly. He fumbled expertly at his combat pack for more rounds—but it was empty.

One by one, the bullets were gone.

Undeterred, the soldiers grabbed their remaining grenades and explosives and charged into the frenzied crowd.

Boom—

Limbs and debris flew amid sparks, and the soldiers themselves became nothing but bloodied flesh.

Life ended here.

It was hard to fathom why these men treated enemies with such cold cruelty—especially when those enemies had once been comrades.

Perhaps... they had gone mad from the start.

The soldiers’ near-suicidal explosions bought precious time, slowing the crowd’s advance.

In the end, the few survivors retreated, only to be torn apart by the now bloodthirsty masses.

Yet—

Only after these grim acts did the crowd, long waiting in the East Plaza, realize—

In those brief moments lost—

The elevator platform had already risen to a height beyond their reach.

The soldiers had succeeded in buying time.

But the crowd remained doomed to be abandoned.

Everyone stared blankly upward at the base of the platform, perhaps imagining what would become of them if they boarded it.

Or perhaps they simply lingered in memories of the deep blue sky they’d only glimpsed years ago.

Gwen caught the envious looks from below.

She cursed inwardly: the base’s leader was a despicable wretch—abandoning their own comrades as if they were nothing.

But because of this—

Now, during the entire ascent of the elevator to the surface, Gwen’s enemies had shrunk from countless hordes plus soldiers plus the rhinoceros-man—

To just the rhinoceros-man alone.

The difficulty dropped by an unimaginable degree.

Naturally, Gwen chose to seize this rare opportunity.

...

“Four other secret passages!”

Suddenly, a voice broke through the crowd—people who’d been like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand.

Those words fell like a gospel bathed in holy light, instantly stirring a flicker of hope in nearly every numbed heart.

“That’s the route they took when they marched out—unknown to ordinary people! I only recently spotted their main force leaving the base and found out. We have to hurry, or this last route will be sealed off too.”

At once, the crowd scattered, driven by this newfound hope to keep moving.

Yet many still remained rooted in place, exchanging bitter smiles.

Unlike those who lacked rank or status, they understood:

The secret passages had long since been destroyed by the soldiers guarding their exits.

They hadn’t said so before, unwilling to extinguish the fragile flame of hope.

They had none left.

No—wait!

One person remaining still looked toward the ventilation shaft from which Gwen had emerged.

One glance sparked others to look as well.

It was too soon to draw conclusions...

...

Gwen cautiously shifted her stance.

Finding no immediate interference, she focused all her attention on the rhinoceros-man.

Yet despite her movements, he remained perfectly still. Were it not for her keen senses detecting his breathing and the way his eyes slid mechanically to track her steps, she might have thought him a wax figure.

A wax figure worthy of the finest museum—uncannily lifelike.

But no, he was alive. So why did he not move?

A question that puzzled Gwen.

After tentative probing and noting his lack of reaction despite her movements, she grew bolder.

Slowly, she stepped toward him.

Her approach was deliberate and cautious—like a kitten gingerly testing boundaries.

Her focus razor-sharp, ready to respond instantly to any sudden aggression.

Step by step.

Still, no response.

His eyes, faintly reddened, locked onto her like electronic cameras.

His body, however, remained frozen in place, the same unchanging posture he had held since she arrived on the platform.

This discovery emboldened Gwen further.

She shifted her gaze to the sack at his feet.

From the start, this had been her true target.

She intended to snatch the sack from beside the rhinoceros-man and see who—or what—was inside.

If it were her father, joy would abound. If someone else, Gwen would judge accordingly.

A villain—some mad scientist—she would hand them over to the police.

An innocent captive—she would free them.

As for good or evil, she trusted her instincts—the female intuition that had seldom erred.

Five steps remain.

She calculated the distance silently.

If she could get five steps closer, then with her explosive strength, even if the rhinoceros-man suddenly attacked, she was confident she could snatch the sack in an instant.

Four steps.

Three.

Still no movement from him, his eyes fixed unwaveringly.

Two.

Gwen drew a deep breath, the countdown heightening her tension.

The rush of oxygen calmed her racing heart.

One.

Her entire focus sharpened.

Her gaze flicked between the rhinoceros-man and the sack.

Prepared for sudden attack, she rehearsed the move in her mind:

Right leg thrusting powerfully off the ground, she’d dash to the sack.

He’d react.

She’d spin aside, dodge his strike, bend low, and seize the sack, pulling it away.

Like bullet time in a movie, the world slowed to a crawl as her foot lifted and descended.

Her anxiety peaked.

Never before had she felt such concentration—almost transcending human limits.

She could see the rhinoceros-man’s thick eyelashes clinging together, hear the thudding beat of his heart.

An indescribable state—as if her superhuman mind shattered time’s bonds.

Though her body remained bound by flesh, her consciousness raced at unimaginable speed.

Perhaps this was the pinnacle of her mutation?

The thought passed in an instant.

She snapped her attention back to the rhinoceros-man and the sack.

The final step.

Her right foot hovered above the ground.

The moment it touched, she’d unleash all her power, speeding toward the sack.

But—

The foot never landed.

It remained suspended in the air.

Because—

The rhinoceros-man spoke: “If I were you, I wouldn’t make that choice.”

His deep voice rumbled like distant thunder in her ear—the first words he had uttered since she arrived on the platform.

Her intentions had been read!

A chill ran down her spine.

After a moment’s agonized hesitation, she withdrew her leg.

Looking up, she retorted: “So you can talk! I thought you were mute.”

Though diminutive compared to the towering rhinoceros-man, Gwen’s spirit did not waver.

She held her head high, radiating courage, betraying no hint of embarrassment.

The rhinoceros-man let out a surprised “Hmm,” then said, “You’re surprisingly young. Ten years old? I’ve never met such a young superpowered before. Still in elementary school, perhaps? Let me think—what elementary schools are in New York...

“Maybe we even graduated from the same one.”

His tone was casual, even cheeky.

But to Gwen, it felt like a bolt from the blue.

He recognized her voice?

Unbelievable.

Her voice had been specially altered—her own parents couldn’t have traced it back to Gwen Stacy.

Yet this burly rhinoceros-man had.

Though he hadn’t revealed her identity outright, his accurate guess at her age sent a shiver down her spine.

It felt as if it were only a matter of time before he uncovered who she really was.

Fighting down the urge to retreat, Gwen feigned calm and said, “What, my voice sounds that childish?”

He smiled, “Not at all. At least, not the way you sound now...”

His words struck her like a drumbeat on her heart.

She dared not continue the topic, fearing he might soon unmask her.

“I’ve been wondering why you haven’t moved all this time.

“Now that you’ve spoken, I understand—you’re stalling for time, aren’t you? You can’t move, can you?”

Gwen chose offense as defense, launching the counterattack first.