V2C14

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

The arm outside of the cocoon suddenly shook, its veins bulging out. It curled up into a tight, pained fist and hit the wooden desk suddenly before slumping.

“Shentu!?” Song Hanzhang crouched down and ripped the webs around the arm open with his dagger.

Shentu Ming’s breath came in wisps, a terrible shade of blue invading his face. His lips trembled but not a sound came out. The scent of death surrounded him, seeping away at what time he had remaining.

He was about to die.

Lin Jue knew it in his heart, but at the moment, he didn’t want to admit it at all. That the man in front of his eyes was going to die.

Song Hanzhang’s left hand pressed onto Shentu Ming’s abdomen, and using the middle finger of his right hand, he knocked at the joint of the middle finger of his opposite hand.

He paused for a few moments, as if thinking of what to say.

A silver light spread from the tattoo on Shentu Ming’s hand, covering his body. His complexion eased a little but he stayed in terrible shape.

“I’m about to die, right?” he asked, opening swollen, purple lips.

“The percussion’s1 sound was very dull. You should know what that means. It’s most likely due to the spiders’ venom entering your system,” Song Hanzhang replied frankly.

“Is that so…” The last sliver of light in Shentu Ming’s eyes faded. “Even though my body is paralyzed, I can still feel my organs dissolving. My abdomen is probably filled with liquified tissue by now. There… will be no saving me…”

“How were you trapped here?” Song Hanzhang asked.

“It was Lin Wei. I never expected it, that he would just push me into the spider nest… and that Qin Hanwen, even though I was only an arm’s length away, would run without turning back.” Shentu Ming tried to force out a bitter smile, but the only expression that made his purple face was hideous and distorted.

“You should have kicked out a variable like him from the very beginning.”

“I saved them, I saved every one of them! Why then, why then would they do this to me!?” Shentu Ming roared, but his body couldn’t bear the weight of his hate and resentment. It convulsed and even his breathing became labored.

The tattoo on his wrist lit up again and as if in a final struggle, poured out a large amount of silver particles that covered his entire body. He calmed down once more, but the scent of death covering him only grew stronger.

Faced with his death, apathy and boredom spilled out from Shentu Ming’s eyes. He asked doubtfully, “Did I do something wrong? I just didn’t want to live without morality, didn’t want to be someone satisfied by their own selfishness; I just wanted to be someone with faith, someone who helped those in need. Humankind, everyone would eventually need help, right? When my family was in that car crash and the people passing by risked their lives to pull us out of the car, I thought… that I wanted to become someone like that.”

The shadow of death loomed over this sorrowful man and in his last moments, his faith shook.

“You’re not wrong!” Lin Jue said loudly, a warmth flowing in his heart, so hot it almost reduced him to tears.

Shentu Ming looked at him, stunned. His eyes could no longer focus yet still, he tried to look at him.

Suddenly, he smiled.

It was definitely not a pretty smile, something repulsive even, but in that moment, Lin Jue carved this man’s final smile into his mind.

“Thank you. My death… doesn’t matter to me anymore. Just my parents. They’ll be so sad to hear that I…”

“There’s no need to worry. They won’t remember you; if you die in this world, everything about your existence will be erased, so there’s no need to concern yourself with that.”

Shentu Ming stared blankly at the ceiling for a long, long time. Then finally, as if in despair, as if in salvation, said, “Is that so? Then… that’s good. Very good…”

The tattoo on his wrist dimmed, never to light up again.

Lin Jue couldn’t recover from that death for a long time. Those final despairing, empty eyes ran through his head constantly, like a curse he would never be free of.

He had already seen so many die. Zhou Yuxiu who broke down in front of him from despair at becoming a zombie; Liu Shan who was killed by him fearfully; Zhao Liangsheng who had so suddenly lost his head; and that girl who had been choked to death, lost in Lu Ren’s gentle smile.

So many deaths kept playing out in front of him, but none were as tragic and ironic as that of Shentu Ming’s.

He started to doubt too. Just what was this game after? To play with everyone cruelly? To make them die hateful and resentful?

He just wanted to go back, back to that peaceful highschool life, back to the past, to when he was untouched and untroubled by all of the nightmares of this cursed game.

Song Hanzhang who had been walking in the front suddenly stopped. Lin Jue tripped and ran into his back.

“Is something wrong?” Lin Jue looked around him in alarm.

Song Hanzhang turned around, his black eyes staring unblinkingly at him behind his glasses. Lin Jue straightened under his gaze, standing as tall as possible.

“You’re still thinking about Shentu Ming.” Song Hanzhang didn’t even phrase it as a question.

“…Yes.”

“Forget about him. He’s already dead, he won’t feel joy at your sorrow nor come back from your remembrance; even his family won’t remember his existence. He’ll only exist in your memories until they grow unimportant as well. It would be foolish of you to cloud your judgement for someone like him,” Song Hanzhang said solemnly.

Lin Jue couldn’t help but tighten his grip on his spear.

“I won’t ever forget,” Lin Jue whispered. “I’ll remember everyone who died, I won’t ever forget. If even I forget them, they really will have never existed!”

“Pointless,” Song Hanzhang said coldly.

—“He would only think about how to keep going. Always looking forward and never turning back.” Lu Ren’s words sounded in Lin Jue’s mind.

“If I died, would Xuezhang also see me as a pointless memory?” Lin Jue asked softly, meeting Song Hanzhang’s eyes.

“Yes.”

It was like he had swallowed raw metal, cold and hard in his stomach. He felt disappointed, immeasurably disappointed. Was he just an irrelevant companion to Song Hanzhang as well? Someone to work with for a common purpose and to abandon as easily once dead?

But… he longed for something deeper than just a common purpose; something from the heart, from the soul.

Just… what was it?

Song Hanzhang looked at Lin Jue who was unspeaking, head down. “So you have to keep living,” he said. “As long as you live for longer than I do, I will always remember you.”

Lin Jue lifted his head. In the dim light, Song Hanzhang’s shadow seemed like it had been devoured by darkness. He was all that stood there, tall and straight like a pine tree, unafraid of wind or snow.

“I…”

A loud bang came from beneath them. The two immediately retrieved their emotions and ran downstairs.

Level three was as dark as level four. Consecutive bangs came from within a certain classroom. Song Hanzhang twisted open the door handle and the torch in his hand lit the small room up.

Bodies. Three dead bodies hung straight down from the ceiling, suspended neatly in the classroom’s center. An intense rotting stench filled their noses and turned their stomachs.

One of the large bodies was still convulsing, its head sometimes slamming onto a wooden table, causing a repetitive bang.

“Qin Hanwen!” Lin Jue immediately recognized the one still moving and ran up to it to try and save him.

Song Hanzhang shone the torch across the classroom. The spiderwebs were not as dense and he was able to see straight to the bottom. There was nothing strange about it.

The other two bodies gave off a rotting smell- players from a previous round.

An odd sense of contradiction made Song Hanzhang frown. He walked up and checked the other two bodies- their limbs were wrapped in spider silk and hung upside down.

The faces of the corpses were beyond recognizable, the thoroughly decayed skin swollen, the outer layer already festering, revealing the marbled flesh beneath. Maggots ate away at the exposed meat as small spiders came in and out of the eye sockets, making a sound like that of water churning.

A ping-pong ball sized spider climbed out from the corpse’s open mouth and landed onto the ground before disappearing into the strange plants around.

“Xuezhang, the spiderwebs here are very sturdy, like they’re made of rubber! The machete won’t cut through it!” Lin Jue was still struggling with the webs hanging Qin Hanwen.

They were truly odd webs, falling down from the ceiling, hanging the bodies feet-first.

Qin Hanwen shook in vain. His limbs were completely entangled in the webs to stop him from escaping. Even his face was covered in webs and he was unable to make a single sound.

Song Hanzhang ripped off the spider webs on his face; they weren’t as sturdy as the ones keeping him up.

Qin Hanwen’s obese face had swelled. His lips trembled, but his breathing was hitched and shallow. “Spi… spid…”

Lin Jue stopped his attempts to cut through the web and leaned in close to hear him. “What did you say?”

Qin Hanwen’s eyes rolled up, saliva flowing from the corners of his mouth. His body shook eerily as if spasming.

“A neurotoxin. He can’t be saved.” Song Hanzhang delivered his death sentence.

A strange gurgle came from Qin Hanwen’s stomach. He opened his mouth as if to retch, but a copious amount of brown liquid rushed out from his mouth instead, over his nose and past his eyes before dripping through his hair to hit the ground.

Lin Jue’s eyes widened as two small spiders crawled out from the brown liquid, both quickly disappearing.

And then more.

Qin Hanwen’s consciousness had yet to disappear completely. The anesthetic was starting to wear off and he was able to feel clearly the organisms writhing in his abdomen and the tiny limbs clawing at his organs, and the strange, itching sensations crawling up his esophagus. They were hatching inside of him and leaving through his open mouth.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!” he shouted hysterically, the nausea making him retch even more violently, even more spiders flowing out from his insides as a result.

Lin Jue stared at the ghastly sight, his mind blank.

“Something’s wrong! Run!” Song Hanzhang’s voice reached him from light years away as Lin Jue slowly turned around.

A claw almost as thick as an adult’s thighs appeared at the door. It was covered in fur, a sharp pincer at its end.

Followed by another.

A terrifyingly large spider slowly blocked the door to the classroom, cutting off their only exit.

***

Author’s Notes：Shentu Ming would have died in resentment if the two didn’t find him, or he would have died with a sense of fulfilment because in the end, Lin Jue acknowledged him.

But in the end he died in despair and confusion. Xuezhang’s comfort was not the nicest (even though he was trying to say ‘your parents won’t suffer the pain of losing a child’, it sounded like he was saying ‘your life was pointless’). Even though many people wouldn’t care about what happens after their death, someone like Shentu Ming most likely would still. Being forgotten by everyone is a terrible feeling.

Out of all the characters that have appeared, Shentu Ming has the most perfect personality. Some people might think that he’s too much of a saint, but he’s a true good person. He enjoys helping people, has a sound personality, he just came to the wrong place.

Some people guessed that Shentu was the final boss. Ahahaha, I wouldn’t let you guess it that easily.

On another note, even though I like him, I felt a strange sense of joy♂ when he died.

***

Vera’s Notes:

Okay what the heck, I admit I didn’t feel much towards Shentu Ming up until that moment, but he didn’t deserve that! Shentu Ming support group! Let The Good Folk Live!

Luci: Autho-chan has problems but we won’t judge.

***

1Percussion is a method where one taps on a surface to determine the nature of the structures underneath it. It’s used in clinical examinations to assess the condition of the thorax or abdomen. It can help locate the size and positions of your internal organs, and show the presence of fluid or air in the chest. A dull sound indicates a solid mass under the surface.

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