V1C16

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【Player Lin Jue, requirements met, entering maze.】

Before his brain had processed what happened, Lin Jue could already feel that something was wrong beneath him.

The brick flooring of the south plaza became black mud, and from the mud came the calls of hell.

Skeletal arms with pieces of flesh still clinging to them reached out from the marsh, latching onto their ankles, a despairing scene from straight out of a nightmare, becoming all too real from pain and terror.

Lin Jue felt like his ears were about to burst from Gao Yifei’s screams as endless waves of white bones wavered and danced, their fingers opening and closing as if trying to grab onto every little piece of the living and drag them into hell.

His ankles were gripped onto tightly, icy cold phalanges clutching at his feet, pulling him down with tremendous strength. Lin Jue’s body was falling, falling as if he was trapped in an inescapable swamp.

With his polearm, Lin Jue struck at the white bones that clutched onto his ankles and crawled upwards, his hands shaking so much that he missed his swings; but with every shattered hand came another, moving upwards from his ankles to his calves, then to his thighs—— his body kept falling, his feet unable to feel solid ground, and the more he struggled, the faster he sank.

By the time the swamp had closed over his eyes, his breath had already been taken away. As he suffocated, he saw the entire plaza covered with endless white bones, like white plants dancing to the wind. The red crescent overhead shone with a bloody, looming light.

His body fell into the suffocating emptiness, soundless, colorless, senseless. In the quiet, Lin Jue could only hear his heart beat again and again.

Next to his ears came the sound of splattering water, and cold wind blew onto his face. Lin Jue sat up with a woosh, unsure of where he was and still dizzy from breathlessness.

It was still the south plaza, except the fountain which had always been silent unless during a festival had thin streams of water gushing out from it, reflecting a brilliant light underneath the nearby lamp posts.

The swamp and the white bones were all gone and everything was as silent and peaceful as any normal night.

——If it weren’t for the fallen people on the ground.

Lu Ren stood with his back to him, facing the fountain. Song Hanzhang was also awake and had just stood up. His eyes met Lin Jue’s and they both saw a different kind of solemness in the other.

“AH——!” With a scream, Gao Yifei also woke up and sat on the ground panting, her face panic-stricken. Zhao Liangsheng and Liu Shan who were woken up by the scream also sat up and looked around nervously.

“Travelers of the maze, take the cards belonging to you and step onto the path chosen for you by Fortuna, else you shall remain forever still, becoming allies to the undead.”

Lu Ren used a purposefully lowered drawl before turning around, a poker card held in his left hand. He smiled playfully. “Interesting, such a pleasant surprise.”

Lin Jue also walked to the fountain. In it, counting the card Lu Ren was holding, was a ring of thirteen paper poker cards. The words Lu Ren had just said came from the backside of them.

Lin Jue also picked up a card and flipped it over: the nine of hearts.

“Just what is going on? What was with those white bones just then?” Gao Yifei walked next to Lin Jue while looking at the circle of cards.

Lin Jue shook his head, his eyes glancing over Lu Ren’s card, the queen of hearts.

Gao Yifei also picked one up: the three of hearts. She stared at the card, confused.

“The message that we received just then said ‘entering the maze’, so this is without question the maze. Seeing the words on these cards, staying here will likely be equally dangerous to going inside.” Song Hanzhang looked at the cards and saw that the cards picked out by everyone were completely random, so he also chose one: the seven of hearts.

After taking it out, he tried to flip over another one, but the moment his fingers touched the card, a small spark sprang up and Song Hanzhang pulled his hand back out of instinct.

“You alright?” Lin Jue asked with a small voice.

Song Hanzhang shook his head, his shocked hand opening and closing. It was just a little numb, nothing serious.

It was a warning to those who wished to test the rules.

Liu Shan and Zhao Liangsheng also walked up silently and Liu Shan unwillingly but carefully picked one out, took one look at it, and stuffed it into his pocket. Zhao Liangsheng spat and flipped over a random card: the ten of hearts.

“Oi, you, what card did you get?” Zhao Liangsheng slapped Liu Shan’s shoulder and asked.

Liu Shan’s face shook and said with a small voice, “The ace of hearts.”

Zhao Liangsheng made a noise of understanding and uncaringly stuffed his card into his pocket.

After all six people had picked out their cards, the remaining seven vanished and six arrows appeared at where the cards used to be, each numbered differently and pointing to different directions.

“A lucky dog,” Lu Ren suddenly said in English with an odd tone, and he grinned at Liu Shan, apparently having heard his answer to Zhao Liangsheng.

Liu Shan held his pocket and took a step back, his expression strangely twisted with terror and nervousness. His lips shook but not a word came out, as if he were prey in the face of his natural predator.

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your card. Who knows what it means.” Lu Ren shrugged and walked towards the arrow marked with the queen of hearts, that cold blade still in hand.

The remaining five watched as he left and not a sound was made for a long time.

Song Hanzhang was obviously not in the mood to say anything much and patted Lin Jue on the shoulder. “If the number on the card is related to the difficulty of the maze, yours will most likely be more dangerous. Be careful.”

Lin Jue forced out a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine by myself.”

The nine of hearts and seven of hearts were in two completely different directions. Lin Jue watched as Song Hanzhang’s figure disappeared into the night and nodded to the other three, preparing to leave.

“Lin Jue, wait.”

Lin Jue had already gone in some way when Gao Yifei suddenly caught up to him and asked, “Did you see Zhou Yuxiu?”

Lin Jue’s expression froze as he calmly replied, “No, was she not with you guys?”

Gao Yifei looked at him suspiciously before turning back hesitantly to check on Liu Shan and Zhao Liangsheng. When she saw that the two had already started walking towards the other side, she lowered her voice and said, “After you two left, Liu Shan said something to her and then she gave her shovel to him and left by herself. I couldn’t convince her to stay…”

Many thoughts flitted through Lin Jue’s mind in that single moment but they all twisted into each other, making him unsure of where to start.

Finding out that it was Liu Shan who instigated Zhou Yuxiu to go after him wasn’t very surprising; after all, Liu Shan had heard his conversation with Gao Yifei and knew that he possessed the antibody.

I need to be careful of him, Lin Jue thought.

“I need to go now, be careful too. Goodbye.” Lin Jue politely bid farewell and left without turning back.

Gao Yifei bit down on her lip uneasily, lowered her head, and walked towards her direction.

***

This was the first time that Lin Jue had come to the languages block.

On the two glass doors, a giant heart was branded on the left while the number 9 was printed on the right. Across the corridor, only the green emergency exit still provided light; all the classrooms were unlit and darkness and silence spread across the entire building.

Almost as if even the zombies didn’t exist there.

But it was this kind of eerie silence that was the best at arousing the deepest sense of fear in a person’s heart.

The silence was enough to drive someone mad.

Lin Jue held tightly onto the wooden pole, pushed open the glass doors, and walked into the languages building, moving in between the eerie darkness and silence.

The safety exit sent out a green light, casting over the surrounding walls and ground, making them all appear eerily verdant.

His footsteps were light, barely audible.

What was ahead of him? He didn’t know. In the dim and ominous surroundings, it was as if a monster could appear at any second and savagely tear open his chest and feast upon his innards, just like that scene which he had seen himself.

Wind blew in from the open glass doors of the entrance, sending a cold breath across his naked nape, every hair seeming to stand up in an instant.

Lin Jue pressed his back against the wall and cast his vision towards the entrance, alert and alarmed. The wall behind him seemed to press up against him, the coldness slipping through his clothes, surging through every vein. His heart thumped loudly in an attempt to warm up his cold blood and create relief for his frozen limbs.

The entrance was empty apart from the light shining diagonally across, casting the shadow of the bare tree onto the ground. Its branches trembled in the wind, like countless thin claws struggling.

Lin Jue felt his heart settle back to where it was supposed to be, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh of relief.

When he finally opened his eyes, his heart suddenly missed a beat——

A shadow stood there!

His body froze over.

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