Editor: Elanor
In the arena, the stars were unaware that they were attracting widespread attention and had ventured into everything from gaming to the porn industry.
They came to an unfamiliar underground area. Here the sewers system had completely ceased to exist. The place was full of underground buildings of heterogeneous styles. The broken parts of the stones had been repaired. Traces of human activities could be seen everywhere, indicating that they were approaching the site of the disaster.
On the way, they bumped into a snake… probably a snake; they weren’t able to see it clearly in the dark. It crawled out of a dark pool of water from under one of the steps, curled around Qiao An, and dragged him into the water. The network logistician was able to only let out half a scream before disappearing without a trace.
It had actually wanted to take Bai Jingan with it. Fortunately, the latter had reacted quick enough to dodge it. Then, Xia Tian had stabbed it hard with his bone spear, and it reluctantly shrank back into the water.
However, Bai Jingan was still hit in the head by its tail. He was dizzy for a while and vomited once. It could be a concussion.
Several people chased it a few steps in the direction where it disappeared, but quickly gave up. Faced with death, their judgment was very cold and efficient—Qiao An couldn’t be saved, the underground river was deep, and only the planning team knew what was inside.
There was no luck here; everything was planned, so when there was danger, it was definitely a dead end. There might be even a creative death planned.
Looking back now, they didn’t know much about Qiao An. They only remembered that he had entered the competition to replace his father. The man was disabled in an accident and had no money to treat himself. He would definitely die if he entered the Killing Show.
This was Qiao An’s first time participating in the competition, and he was only familiar with the network, so he had entered as a network logistician.
Xia Tian wondered if Qiao Ann’s family was watching. If so, what would they think when they saw that scene?
He thought of Didi, his sister, but fortunately she didn’t have money to watch this.
He tried his best not to think about how she would feel when she knew he was dead, or what would happen to her in the darkness of the Lower City. He had cold shivers down his spine just thinking about it.
Xia Tian grabbed his bone spear—they still hadn’t found any new weapons—and continued on with his two remaining companions.
After leaving a corridor, he realized that the place he was in looked familiar.
They looked around, and it took them a moment for them to realize that it looked a lot like the previous dungeon, with its high, round ceiling, but the fences on either side were rotting, and the inside smelled of rot and blood.
This was another dungeon, another altar, but it had been abandoned.
Bai Jingan touched his arm, and Xia Tian followed his line of sight and saw the thing.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It was cooped up in a dark, dilapidated cell. He would bet that it had occupied the cell for thousands of years, for there was nowhere else to go. It was crouching, and was more human than the one before, with a frighteningly white complexion, layers of folds, rat-like pointed mouth, but with human-like ears, and its hands… were almost human, with five fingers, just a little too long, and they looked very deft.
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The three men stared at the creature, not knowing for a moment what reaction they should make.
It was so human-like that it made people wonder what was going on in its head. What did it think when eating a human being? What does it feel like when a person’s way of thinking is trapped forever with a rat?
These thoughts flashed by as the creature looked at them from the darkness, its eyes having a creepy chill and its thoughts incomprehensible to humans.
Bai Jingan found the scene very familiar, and for a moment, he felt as if he had been standing in front of such a monster for decades, and had never left.
Bai Jingan didn’t know if it was the result of the concussion, or a brain injury from long-ago, deep in his skull, a distant pain rose far up, and he realized it was about to start attacking—
The rat rushed over without warning; it was extremely fast, like a ghost.
Bai Jingan looked clearly into its eyes, which was tainted with pain and killing intent, as if it wanted nothing more than to torture and destroy all living things!
That thing instantly grabbed him, and he seemed to return to that dark place again when the creature existed forever, and the whole world was left with nothing else but its eyes that were tainted by hunger and hatred.
In that instant when the face of the mutant rat had rushed forward, a bone spear stabbed into its eye socket from the side with such force that it pierced its head right through.
It didn’t make a sound, but its body twisted violently. It lost its bearings and slammed past Bai Jingan, carrying a fishy, strong wind.
Bai Jingan felt a huge and foul force brush past the tip of his nose. He knew that if was a few centimeters ahead, his face would have already disappeared.
In the midst of the chaos, he felt that someone next to him yanked him. Just after he fell to the ground, a whip-like tail swept over his head.
Xia Tian’s jaw hit the top of his head, and the monster slammed into the fence behind, making a heavy “thud”, but it was in no way affected, and it rushed again as if it didn’t know pain.
Even though its eyes were blind and blood kept flowing out from them, it still had memories and a nose. It would use its last breath to kill anything that lived. That was how it was designed.
Bai Jingan watched as Xia Tian hit it with the bone spear and the creature once again hit the wall in front of it. This time it finally stopped, the eye injury finally taking its toll.
It stretched out its human-like claws and grabbed the bone spear in its eye, trying to pull it out—damn, it didn’t look like it was going to die at all; the bone spear was halfway through its head—but it didn’t succeed. The whole time it hadn’t made a single sound.
It took a few steps back, and all they could do was stare at it as it made rustling footsteps and retreated into the darkness.
There was still a dead silence around for a while, but when you saw and crossed paths something like this, it would linger in your mind for a long time.
Bai Jingan lowered his head. Fang Youtian was dead.
The young, naive, and underused sniper had died silently. When he saw the corpse, Bai Jingan realized that when the monster had rushed back just now, it had used its tail to penetrate Fang Youtian’s temple. It was so fast that no one could see clearly.
He barely bled, and was already dead by the time they saw him.
He looked extraordinarily young and boyish after his death. He had barely said anything about himself, except that he had a lot of friends out there and was running a website of some sort. That was all.
Bai Jingan felt he should kneel down and check Fang Youtian’s injuries, but he didn’t move. He knew that the boy was beyond hope.
He also knew that if Xia Tian hadn’t pulled him in time just now, he would have been lying on the ground exactly the same as Fang Youtian, dying swiftly and without warning.
They just stood there without saying a word. It was only a few hours, and none of the cellmates who had come down together were alive. Only the two of them stood alone in the underground palace.
Bai Jingan’s dizziness hadn’t receded yet, and a part of his soul was still trapped in the darkness, not like because of the hit on his head. That place seemed real, but after leaving it, it was just an illusion.
The man next to him bent down and picked up Fang Youtian’s bone spear, an action that Bai Jingan felt was familiar—the way the people of the Lower City acted, even their grief was cold and efficient.
Xia Tian turned his head to look at him and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I feel better,” said Bai Jingan.
Xia Tian flashed a smile at him; a bright, handsome, and peaceful smile.
“I’ll look after you,” he said.
“That’s an unrealistic and over-exaggerated statement,” Bai Jingan said.
Xia Tian laughed, then lifted his hand to smooth Bai Jingan’s hair—the damn lock of hair was probably sticking up again. This time, Bai Jingan didn’t move, thinking it was horrible that he didn’t feel upset but even felt quite relieved.
Xia Tian looked down at the body. Fang Youtian’s brain was still slowly oozing out of his head. The surrounding darkness was thick and menacing. He said, “I need a sword.”
Bai Jingan turned his head to look at him. Their eyes had met for only two seconds, but he instantly realized what Xia Tian was talking about.
His first thought was that this plan was absolutely insane. But there was no doubt that it was the best idea that was feasible right now.
So he nodded and said, “We’ll have to make a plan.”
Xia Tian flashed him another smile, and Bai Jingan thought to himself, this isn’t like a fighter and a tactical planner planning, this is simply two lunatics making a plan.
They returned back along the same path, looking for the zombie they had seen earlier.
Yes, the zombie was dangerous. After all, it carried the virus and often appeared in groups. But Xia Tian and Bai Jingan had no other choice.
—The zombie virus was originally the name of a drug that produced symptoms like – a dull mind and acting on instinct; they were like a dead body but with a strong sense of hunger and desire for blood and meat.
It was once so popular that young people vied with each other to experience the sensation of being a corpse and they actually ate a few people.
Until now, TV stations had developed it as a specific virus to use in their programs.
Only TV stations would study this technology, extract the evil part of it, fix it, and make it into an infectious disease as a prop for entertainment.
“Even though zombies lose their hearing and sight, they still move very quickly, not much slower than when they were alive,” Bai Jingan said to Xia Tian, “Attacking its head is the most effective way. The real danger lies in the virus they carry on them, you can’t be scratched or bitten even a little…”
“I’ve dealt with this thing before,” Xia Tian said.
Bai Jingan nodded. This virus had once broken out in several districts of the Lower City, and District N21 was one of them.
“My brother died of this infection,” Xia Tian said. His tone was totally nonchalant when talking about the tragic past, as if it was commonplace and meaningless.
Bai Jingan knew that tone. Xia Tian really did feel that those deaths and pain had no meaning. There were such people and pain everywhere around him. In the end, you could only turn a blind eye, otherwise you would be at a loss about how to keep on living.
“The city was full of this thing. I killed him and burned him. I know what a zombie can do,” Xia Tian said.
Bai Jingan also knew it very well, that was why he didn’t feel relieved at all.
But this time he could only bite the bullet.
Link to a fanart is here.
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Brr… Thank you for new chapter
Im really on the edge of my seat now…..QAQ
Thanks for the chapter🦑
More hair patting!
Thanks for the chapter