Chapter 56: Chapter 056 – Retreating into the Mall

The first two defense lines in front of the mall had fallen to the spiders’ wave tactics, and they were continuing to advance on the last defense line.

The line of police cars.

The lack of ammo meant that the sounds of gunfire became much more sporadic. The police chief hardened his face. The situation was urgent, and it was time to show his trump card.

A black police officer received the order and ran to the mall’s side door. A few moments later, he drove over on a truck. This was not an attempt to crush the spiders to death. Instead, ten-some barrels of gas had been loaded on the back of the truck, scrounged up from within the mall.

The police officer aimed the truck in the direction of the spiders, jammed the gas pedal down, and then jumped out of the truck. A jumping spider leaped out of the horde toward the man.

Dadada!

An M4A1 fired thrice, instantly shooting the jumping spider out of the air and splattering blood all over the police officer, who immediately took to his heels.

“Nice shooting!”

The police chief gave Luo Su a thumbs-up, but there was no time to chit-chat. He aimed his gun at the oil barrels. It was his time to shine.

The truck plowed into the spider horde, crushing several giant spiders and slowing down in doing so. The surging spider horde did not realize the danger and quickly engulfed it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

After firing several shots, the police chief awkwardly put down his assault rifle. The oil barrels had been punctured, and gas was flowing out, but the explosion he had expected had not taken place.

Luo Su took out his M9 handgun, his pupils constricting as he stared in the dim light. He fired a 9mm bullet, which scraped the edge of an oil barrel, causing a spark.

A single spark could result in a lethal catastrophe!

The flame ignited and traveled along with the trickling gas. A gust of wind blew past, causing the truck to instantly turn into a roaring beacon.

The ten barrels of gas was covered in flames, but…they still didn’t explode!

It took time to heat things up. The chance of a single gunshot causing a barrel of gas to explode was simply too low and only happened in movies. Those were camera shots that were meant to look cool, but in reality, the effect was hard to pull off without tracer bullets.

The blazing fire caused the spiders to momentarily paused. Several of the spiders that had crawled over the truck had soaked their bodies in gas, so they began to burn and run around in panic. Creatures instinctively feared fire, and many of the spiders began to click and shrieked as they fell back.

But for some reason, the chaos didn’t last for long. The spiders momentarily froze and then began to move around the truck to continue their assault on the last defense line.

Bang!!!

The mixing of gas and oxygen caused an oil barrel in the air to suddenly explode, showering the area in the fire.

The rest of the barrels were all damaged by the explosion and began to spill gas on the ground, which immediately ignited into an even greater fire.

The empty area in front of the mall was soon overrun by yellow-white flames, black plumes of smoke soaring into the sky while torrid waves of heat beat against the faces of the human defenders.

The spiders shrieked within the sea of fire, waving around their feet and fleeing in all directions. The air crackled and popped while the smell of burnt flesh began to travel across the area.

The shrill screams and burning flames made this place hell on earth!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As more gas mixed with air, more and more explosions could be heard. Plumes of flame rocketed to the skies, turning the place into an impassable sea of fire.

The number of spiders killed in this wave far surpassed those killed at the first two defense lines, and it succeeded in halting the advance of the spiders. Luo Su and the police chief shared a high-five, joy in their eyes. At least they were safe until the fire burned out.

But they had celebrated too early, as the inconceivable took place once more. The giant spiders at the front paused, but the spiders in the rear surged forward, advancing while suppressing the flames.

Like waves crashing against the rocks on the shore, the spiders used their own bodies to stop the gas from mingling with the air and began to extinguish the flames, bit by bit. Black smoke drifted into the sky as flame-covered spiders emerged from the sea of flames, and many more spiders followed right behind them.

“Shit!”

Luo Su cursed. This didn’t make any sense. Even if the spiders were obeying a leader, how could they possibly suppress their fear of flames?

“Shit! Retreat into the mall, hurry! Now! Immediately!”

The police chief shook himself out of his shocked stupor and called out to his dumbstruck men. Their firepower wasn’t enough to effectively hinder the spiders. Staying here would be suicidal.

Luo Su hugged the French bulldog and strode into the mall. The situation was bad, and he didn’t know when the army would arrive. He needed to do something.

Once the police and townspeople had retreated into the mall, the police chief brought the metal shutters down while the crowd pushed heavy objects to block the entrance.

The group went to the second floor and continued to shoot down from the windows. The mall’s windows were very narrow, about the width of a person’s shoulders. An ordinary person could get inside, but not these giant spiders.

If Luo Su hadn’t watched the movie, he would have even suspected that Wade had built the mall this way precisely to prepare for this possibility.

The metal shutters and heavy objects kept the spiders out, so they began to climb up the facade and reach into the windows with their legs.

Samantha pulled the trigger on her hunting shotgun and sent a spider flying. As she reloaded, Luo Su fired and forced back a giant orb-weaver spider. The spider shrieked as blood splattered out. It fell to the ground, carpeting the ground in the dark green liquid.

[Ding!]

[User has encountered plot character ‘Giant Orb-weaver Spider,’ triggering the lottery phase. Would you like to pull now?]

Luo Su couldn’t even remember how many times he had heard the system’s notification tonight. It was wonderful to farm so many pulls, but this was a little too exciting. His heart almost couldn’t take it.

He continued to fire down below. The spider’s heart was located in the upper part of its abdomen. Striking the thorax or the cephalothorax would either heavily wound or straight-up kill a spider.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud…

Slow and heavy steps began to approach a mall, and a massive and savage being was slowly revealed under the moonlight.

This was a massive wolf spider, or perhaps a tarantula. The exact species wasn’t important. What was important was that this thing was absurdly large.

A normal giant spider, whether orb-weaver or jumping spider, would not be larger than a bathtub, and with their legs, they were large enough to completely hug a person. But this giant wolf spider was as large as a truck. Its body was covered in bristles, and its feet were thick and powerful. This was truly a monster that could instill dread in others.

One could tell from its body that it was bursting with strength. The mall’s main doors couldn’t stop it. While it probably couldn’t come in, it could open a path for the other spiders.

It needed to be killed!

Two spiders from Eight Legged Freaks had left the deepest impression on Luo Su. The first was this giant wolf spider, and the second was the giant female orb-weaver spider in the caves.

The wolf spider was the largest of all the spiders that had appeared, and it was strong to easily flip over a bus. Considering that most of Prosperity’s buildings were made of wood, without the concrete structure of the mall, the wolf spider alone would have been enough to sweep over everything.

The massive female orb-weaver spider had a slender body that did not have as much of a visual impact as the wolf spider, but spiders were matrilineal, and the female orb-weaver spider had the authority to mate with whomever it wished. Its power was in breeding the next generation, a living soldier factory.

Moreover, from the red marks on the abdomen of the orb-weaver spider, it was easy to see that it was a famous black widow.

Wow…this world had a lot of Black Widows!