V2C9

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“We’re here.” Song Hanzhang twisted the handle of the thick security door and it opened, revealing the dense display screens inside.

“The main monitor room?” Lin Jue looked at the sign outside the door in shock. “It was in the administration building?”

The room was empty but the security cameras were still working.

“I searched for where the main monitor room was after the last round. From here, you can see almost all of the main roads in the school. Unfortunately, the security cameras in the two dormitory areas aren’t connected, but we’ll take a look at the situation in each area here.” Song Hanzhang walked up and observed the screens carefully.

“With this, we won’t have to go to the theater anymore, right?” Lin Jue thought and said.

“That’s not the case I’m afraid. Look here.” Song Hanzhang pointed at one of the screens.

A black creature crawled across the road. Due to the pixellation, lighting, and fog, only a blurry shadow could be seen, the actual identity of the creature left unknown.

“This is the business district outside the south area, so it should be a cockroach, right?” Lin Jue asked uncertainly.

The camera swapped a row of shops. Four figures hurriedly ran out from one of them, heading towards the direction of the camera. Ten or more black shadows chased after them as they ran towards the oval, the last of the four, most likely Shentu Ming, closing the metal gates separating the two areas behind them.

The black shadows slammed into the doors, unable to enter due to their size.

“It’s Shentu Ming’s team,” Lin Jue murmured.

The four ran into the monitoring area of another camera, most likely going towards the sports building.

“They went into the building. Are there cameras inside?” Lin Jue asked.

Song Hanzhang shook his head. “The main monitor room is only responsible for the cameras on the main roads; there are monitor rooms inside each building for their internal systems.”

“I don’t see Gu Fengyi and the others,” Lin Jue whispered.

“They’ve most likely gone to the northern dormitory area. Now, when the difficulty isn’t very high, she’ll be training the other members of her team. The cockroaches in the dormitory areas are weak; they’re the best choice to fight against.” Song Hanzhang turned his gaze to the theater.

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There weren’t many lamps there and with the overgrown trees, it was difficult to see anything.

“Spiders!” Lin Jue yelped.

Song Hanzhang followed his gaze. A huge spider slowly crawled out of a flowerbed on the screen, leisurely creeping towards a building before disappearing into the fog. Its disturbingly large body made it look like some sort of multi-legged alien.

“So in the southern plaza, the main insects will most likely be spiders…” Song Hanzhang flipped the map, put a mark down, then muttered to himself with a hint of confusion, “Then the theater will be bees. Are bees active during the night?”

“Probably not right? Aren’t they honey gatherers? Flowers close up during the night,” Lin Jue said, thinking about it.

“The bees here aren’t interested in honey,” Song Hanzhang replied.

Lin Jue laughed dryly, remembering the hint on the easter egg. “I really want to wrap my head up…”

“It would be a good idea if we had motorcycle helmets. I’ll bring them next time,” Song Hanzhang answered seriously.

“…” Lin Jue was torn between whether or not he should tell Song Hanzhang that he had been joking or let it be.

For once, he thought that Song Hanzhang’s seriousness wasn’t a good thing.

&&&

The car stopped in front of the theater.

Even from within it, Lin Jue could sense the change to the environment around them.

Three days ago, they welcomed dawn here. Back then, the trees weren’t as thick and there weren’t any hums in the air. If before, it could only have been said to be as noisy as a normal summer’s night, now, it could only be said to be steeped in a deep sense of fear.

Surrounded by countless enemies, ambushes hidden in the greenery…

“The ones that are humming won’t attack us actively, right?” Lin Jue asked, suddenly reminded of the cicada that had lunged at them on the bridge.

“It’s difficult to say. The cicadas are like moths; they’re everywhere, without a fixed area.” Song Hanzhang looked at the dark and dense grass and said quietly, “Safety first.”

The theater was right in front of them. The circular building appeared eerily tall in the night, not a sliver of light coming from within.

Behind the theater was the glasshouse.

Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang walked along the rock-paved path in the middle of the area. The originally well-cut oval looked like it had been left to grow for several years, the tips of the grass already past their knees. If it wasn’t for the lack of other paths, they would have never chosen such a dangerous road.

Lin Jue was on guard against the huge insects that could appear at any time. Maybe he was hallucinating from the stress, but he kept feeling like there was something rustling in the grass and couldn’t help but stare at it ever more intently, his head lowered.

And so, when his ears finally caught the buzzing in the air, his body didn’t even have time to react.

“Duck!” Song Hanzhang pushed him onto the ground, the machete in his hand swinging through the air. The buzzing grew louder before being cut off. Something fell right next to Lin Jue’s head. In the dim light, Lin Jue could see a bee, sliced from thorax to abdomen, its wings still fluttering!

Lin Jue pressed down on his bleeding forehead as he got up, staring at the mutated body before stabbing it in anger.

“Don’t move,” Song Hanzhang called out as Lin Jue prepared to keep walking.

Lin Jue turned around, confused, when his forehead was covered by Song Hanzhang’s hand. He froze.

Another person’s warmth. It was unfamiliar.

He felt entranced, rooted to the place, unable to react.

Faint silver particles floated midair. Across the dream-like lighting, Song Hanzhang’s face was blurred like a beautiful, out of reach idea.

The wound on his forehead gradually healed before forming a thin scab.

Lin Jue touched it. The tropical weather made his cheeks flush up and he said, embarrassed, “It’s just a small wound, you shouldn’t have wasted your energy healing it. It didn’t hurt anyways.”

“The scent of blood would attract other insects,” Song Hanzhang explained calmly.

“…” Realizing that he had thought too much, Lin Jue felt a little abashed and turned around, an unspeakable sense of loss surging through his heart.

So he wasn’t worrying about him? He had just been overly sentimental…

The two continue forwards, the buzzing slowly disappearing into the fog. Up ahead was the glasshouse and the botanical garden. The forest covered in fog had an ominous feeling, one like death, the vine-covered lamps struggling to light up their surroundings.

If it wasn’t for him being in the situation himself, Lin Jue might have even been inclined to praise how accurate the gloomy atmosphere was; but when they were the ones standing in the perilous forest, facing unknown enemies without any reinforcements, it was enough to break at.

Faint buzzing surrounded them. He was unable to discern where exactly it was coming from and he felt like he was being surrounded by countless giant bees.

In the white fog, where were they?

Lin Jue gripped his polearm which was almost slippery with sweat.

Close, they were getting closer, right there! Lin Jue wanted to make a run for it; the enemies hidden in the fog were ready to pounce but he didn’t even have the ability to judge the direction they would come from, let alone their number!

Suddenly, Song Hanzhang’s overly calm voice reached his ears.

“Right, four o’clock.”

With no time to think, Lin Jue’s polearm penetrated the fog. A bee the size of at least two fists fell to the ground.

“Left, eleven o’clock. Raise your hand higher.”

A black shadow flew at him and Lin Jue struck out, but the shadow agiley swung around his spear, leaving its attack range. Too close! He wouldn’t be able to attack it! Lin Jue’s panic had just begun when his body accepted the challenge. Without his mind having caught up to his movements, he leant forwards slightly, his empty left hand drawing the dagger from his waist——

Close, his eyes could already see the bee’s compound eyes and the fur covering its head. It was close!

He slashed forward with his dagger and the shadow flew backwards. The feeling of striking something with his blade was truly blood boiling.

Lin Jue’s hands shook from the excitement.

The polearm in his right hand violently pinned the injured bee onto the ground.

More and more bees flew towards them and he could already see at least eight plunging at him like fighter planes.

There were too many of them!

Lin Jue’s heart sank, his motivation doused by the sudden sharp turn in the situation.

“Pssst——” With a soft sound, his nose was filled with the choking smell of insecticide. The bees which had been right in front of them immediately turned around and vanished.

Song Hanzhang looked at the insecticide in his hands and chuckled. “See? It’s still quite useful.”

Lin Jue let out a long breath. Only now did he realize that his back was completely covered in sweat. “I thought we were finished.”

Song Hanzhang glanced at him. “Your reaction times just then were very good, but your aim needs work.”

“Ahem.” Lin Jue coughed dryly and sheathed the dagger.

“Let’s go.”

The two continued forwards, the overgrown path half-hidden by fog. It made it appear like it was a mystical path leading them into an unknown rainforest. Fortunately, not far away was the botanical garden.

Now it was a true ‘playground of plants’. Large amounts of tropical greenery had already occupied the garden, thickly grown trees towering over dense shrubbery, stopping any human invasion. From the darkness within the trees came rustles and hums, ominous hints of what was to come through the air.

As for the glasshouse next to the botanical garden, the transparent exterior had already been swallowed by creepers, looking like a huge green box from the distance.

Lin Jue paced outside the botanical garden and said in frustration, “Is it really going to become a rainforest? Moving around will be so difficult.”

Song Hanzhang took out a flashlight from his bag, avoided the vines beneath his feet, and jumped into the rainforest. Lin Jue hurriedly followed.

The two walked through the now-tropical schoolground, the soil beneath them moist and muddy, overgrown weeds and twisted tree roots ready to trip them at a single slip of concentration. Lin Jue copied Song Hanzhang and cut off a firm tree branch to use as a cane, moving forwards with difficulty.

The forest wasn’t actually that big though and it didn’t take that long for them to walk though it. Song Hanzhang stopped in front of a tall tree.

His flashlight shone on an area of shadow behind it. Song Hanzhang walked up and crouched down.

Lin Jue also walked over and when he saw the shadow, widened his eyes.

Under the glare of the flashlight, how hideous and horrible that deeply decayed corpse was! The eyeballs had already completely rotted off, leaving behind two black holes filled with mutated maggots, any brain material probably already sucked dry by the bees.

“Why would there be a corpse there?!” Lin Jue lowered his voice and asked, an unspeakable horror crawling through his skin.

Song Hanzhang used the branch to lift up the wrist of the corpse- in between the rotten flesh, it was still visible that there was once a ring of a tattoo there.

“A player, and not from this round,” Song Hanzhang said confidently.

“The bodies of the previous players will be kept here?” Lin Jue asked in disbelief.

“Lu Ren came from the northern dormitory district so it’s impossible that he would have killed here. Judging from the degree of decay, even if the environment had sped the process up, it wouldn’t have been in such a deeply rotted state.” Song Hanzhang stood up. The smell of rot in the air discomforted him greatly.

Lin Jue thought, in the last round he didn’t see any previous player’s bodies, but then again, it’s setting meant that the dead were either eaten completely or zombified, rendering them unrecognizable.

“So the corpses will remain,” Lin Jue lamented.

“…” Song Hanzhang stared at the rotten corpse, deep in thought.

A deeply rotted corpse appearing here, belonging to a player from a previous round.

“Let’s go.” Finally, as if tired of such meaningless debates, he held his branch and left.

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