V2C18

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From the distance, Lin Jue could hear the sounds of buildings crashing down as the ground beneath his feet rumbled. He held onto the wall, only for his fingers to break off a piece of cracked brick.

He silently threw it onto the ground and continued walking forwards on the vine-covered earth.

The time was 02:53; parts of the buildings had already began to collapse and there were around three more hours before sunrise. They were about to lose the protection of their concrete barriers and face the army ants within the rainforest head-on.

Song Hanzhang stood on the balcony and watched the spiders and ants fight. The closely-fought contest was nearing its end; the female spider had already been killed by a horde of soldier ants, and the rest of the spiders were slowly falling into defeat, devoured.

Even the giant web on the plaza was collapsing due to lack of maintenance. Replacing it were huge masses of plants, growing wildly from every corner as if trying to take over the world.

Lin Jue wanted to step out for a better look, but Song Hanzhang pulled him back. “Don’t walk too far outside, the structure of the balcony is dangerously fragile. Should you step on it, it’ll most likely collapse.”

Lin Jue looked at the giant cracks across the already plant-smothered balcony and nodded in fear before asking again, “What should we do now?”

“If the situation would allow it, I would like to meet up with Gu Fengyi again. The battle with the ants will be long and cruel; we’ll need long-distance firepower as assistance.”

Lin Jue nodded. “So let’s go to the northern dormitory area.”

Right underneath the laboratory building, the two suddenly saw someone unexpected.

“Dan Liang?” He sitting next to a flower bed far away, waving at them with a grin.

Connecting the situation around them with Song Hanzhang’s opinion of Dan Liang, his actions seemed extremely out of place.

“I had thought that you would have ran to somewhere far away. To think that you would have stayed here.” Song Hanzhang walked slowly towards him.

Dan Liang flicked the handle to the shovel with his fingers, a strange smile on his childish face. “Why wouldn’t I have?”

“You had been looking for a way to leave your team. The time when you were leaving the gym, you seemed as though you had been tripped by Lin Wei’s knife, but if one had observed you closely, they would have been able to see that from your body’s center and direction, you fell on purpose.”

Dan Liang cupped his face and blinked his wide, open eyes at Song Hanzhang. “But why would I do that? There were so many army ants, I would have been eaten.”

“Your aim was undoubtedly to fake your death and separate from your team. You dared to do so because you received a reward that gave you that courage; I assume it’s some sort of special spray that prevents insects from attacking you. You were certain that you wouldn’t be attacked and because of that, your actions became even more unrestrained,” Song Hanzhang extrapolated. His tone was stable, certain.

Dan Liang clapped, an exaggerated expression of joy appearing on his baby-like face but his eyes as cold as ice. “That’s amazing, completely correct, wonderful! Would you like to guess what else I did?”

“I’m not interested in playing deduction games with you,” Song Hanzhang rejected, and with a speed that left no time for reactions, swung the knife in his right hand against Dan Liang’s neck.

Dan Liang looked at him, his face overflowing with the smile plastered on it. “How scary.”

“I ask, you answer.”

“Alright,” Dan Liang acknowledged lazily.

“Shentu Ming and Qin Hanwen are both dead; did you know that?”

“I know now.”

“Did it have anything to do with you?”

“Would you believe me if I said no?” Dan Liang asked, smiling.

“Did you plan it?”

Dan Liang widened his eyes with youthful innocence. “Why would I do that? I have no reason to.”

“Judas.” Song Hanzhang looked at him coldly.

“I’m not.” Dan Liang smiled meaningfully back.

“Prove it.”

Dan Liang sighed. “Alright, alright, I’ll tell you. Judas is already dead.”

“When?”

“From the start.”

The two fell into a long silence. Lin Jue looked around, unable to cut in.

“Prove it.” Song Hanzhang didn’t let down his guard. He didn’t trust any explanation without evidence.

Dan Liang splayed his hands in distress. “How am I supposed to give you anything? Mm, I’ll keep it short then. When I left the northern dormitories, I saw a corpse that was being devoured by insects. Suddenly, the dead body missing half its head revived itself. I was so shocked and terrified that I picked up a shovel and killed it on the spot. A strange ‘Judas’ Rule’ appeared on the ground, then I left in a panic.”

Lin Jue didn’t know how to react. Judas being killed as soon as he arrived was too big of a coincidence to believe.

“What did the rule say?” Song Hanzhang pursued.

Dan Liang scratched his head. “Basically that they can’t directly kill players.”

Song Hanzhang still didn’t let him go. “Take me to the corpse.”

Dan Liang hugged his head and yelped. “Give me a break, just how serious are you? If I had known you were such a psychopath, I would have run away long ago.”

Song Hanzhang pointed at his face with the knife.

Dan Liang settled down again. “Fine, fine, fine, I’ll take you there.”

“Give me the reward from the plaza as well.” Song Hanzhang motioned for Lin Jue to get it with his eyes.

Dan Liang reached into his bag, his face all scrunched up, but Song Hanzhang interrupted him again. “Throw the bag onto the ground.”

“You’re being way too careful!” Dan Liang couldn’t help but yell.

“There’s no such thing as being too careful, especially towards you,” Song Hanzhang replied icily.

Lin Jue remembered Lu Ren’s words and couldn’t help but raise his guard even more. He picked up Dan Liang’s backpack and reached inside with a hand. Just as he felt something cold and metallic against his fingers, Song Hanzhang shouted, “Above you!”

Lin Jue looked up instinctively and dodged as a flash of cold wind blew past him. Song Hanzhang wasn’t able to keep his eyes on Dan Liang as he sliced open a spider that jumped down from a tree branch. At that moment, Lin Jue was pushed down and stomped on, almost making him spew out blood.

Dan Liang grabbed the spray and backpack from his hands before jumping on his back once more, laughing, as if using him as a trampoline. He sprinted into the world of mist as the wind carried back his joyous words. “Bye! Don’t die too fast!”

Lin Jue punched the ground in anger. Song Hanzhang didn’t chase after Dan Liang, pulling him up from the ground instead.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t careful enough…” Lin Jue apologized, his head bowed.

“It’s fine, I have all of the information that I need.” Song Hanhang added a knife to the still-moving corpse of the spider. “Let’s go to the northern dormitories. We’ll see if we can meet up with Gu Fengyi and the others there as well.”

Lin Jue nodded and looked over to where Dan Liang had disappeared, his eyes chilling in a flash.

Next time, the next time they met…

He would kill him for sure.

&&&

Dan Liang skipped forwards in the mist, grinning and apologizing to giant ants on the occasions where he stepped over them.

The buildings around him were already on the verge of collapsing. He ran into a one of them, looking like he wanted to spectate the battle between the ants and the spiders. The railing on the balcony had already fallen over. He stood near the edge and watched the situation from overhead curiously.

The spiders were in full defeat. Countless ants surrounded every building and were searching for hidden spiders and humans within the rainforest and the rubble, leaving no corner untouched.

He laughed dementedly. Thinking back to the horrified faces of the humans just before they died, he was happy beyond himself.

Lying brought him an unparalleled joy, especially when seeing the stupid faces people would make when they realized they had been lied to. And if it was right before their deaths, it was a joy that couldn’t possibly be expressed. Suddenly, he felt a bit of regret for not being able to send off Shentu Ming and Qin Hanwen.

He liked this game, he liked it a lot. Here, he no longer had to hide his perverted hobby, no longer needed to pretend to be a normal human; for someone like him, it was almost ecstasy.

“Dan! Liang!”

From behind him came a furious shout. Dan Liang turned around in interest, just to see a bloody Lin Wei glaring at him, face twisted in fury.

“Ah, it’s my good friend Lin Wei. There are ants everywhere now, what are you doing here instead of running for your life?” Dan Liang cocked his head to the side, his expression one of guiltlessness and sympathy.

Lin Wei walked towards him, dragging his machete behind, his face full of murderous intent. “I came here to kill you! I still haven’t settled the score with you for setting me up before! Even if I die, I’m going to take you down with me!”

Dan Liang looked at the wide masses of ants underneath the building. They had poured into the building already and would soon arrive at the second floor where they were.

“So you want a double suicide? Aw, I thought you would’ve had a more interesting excuse,” Dan Liang sighed.

Lin Wei waved the blade at him. Dan Liang leant backwards, stepping on nothingness. Without a railing, the balcony couldn’t stop gravity’s pull on him. He fell.

Shocked, Lin Wei could do nothing but watch as Dan Liang disappeared into the seething darkness of plants and ants, the eerie smile he had on as he stepped off leaving a sinking feeling behind in his heart.

There must have been something behind this, there was no way that this guy would lose his footing and fall… No, it was only the second floor and there was grass beneath, even if he fell, he probably wouldn’t have died, right? Lin Wei looked down, only to see an army of ants crawling around in the dark.

No, he couldn’t jump, he would be surrounded in an instant. Lin Wei spat and prepared to go down through the stairs. At that moment, the ants arrived at the second floor, barricading his exit. Lin Wei’s face darkened as he gripped the machete in his hands.

In the huge tremors and loud noises of the collapsing buildings, the entire southern block began to fall. Gigantic trees that seemed to almost touch the sky sprung up from the ruins as the ants devoured all living things within the plaza.

Lin Jue looked back at that unrecognizable block, but thick fog covered his eyes that he was unable to see through.

Whether forwards or backwards, everything was shrouded in thick mist, and he couldn’t see through any of it.

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