V2C19

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The two’s stumbling footsteps echoed in the now-sizable rainforest, accompanied by the humming of insects and the rustling of leaves. Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang walked towards the northern dormitories.

When they arrived at the business district, Song Hanzhang suddenly stopped and looked up at a particularly tall tree, pulling on the thick vines hanging down from its branches.

“Do you want to climb up and take a look?” Lin Jue asked.

Song Hanzhang shook his head. “The fog is too thick to see anything clearly, it wouldn’t matter anyway.”

Suddenly, the fog in front of them lit ablaze, bright light breaking through and pointing them in the right direction.

“It’s Liu Qingqing’s group!” Lin Jue exclaimed and ran forwards, carrying a pathfinding cane with him.

Just as he thought, it was indeed Gu Fengyi’s group in the distance, but it appeared that they were in some trouble-

Large eclipses of moths dove down at them as Gu Fengyi waved a steel bar in her hand, knocking the moths to the ground. Her movements were agile and her courage was fierce, calm and confident even in such a dangerous situation. Next to her, Xia Huan held her first-aid kit and watched Liu Qingqing and Chen Lu helplessly.

“Stop lighting things on fire, the moths are all attracted by it!” Chen Lu shouted at Liu Qingqing as she retreated.

Liu Qingqing startled- so much so that she forgot the danger at hand for a moment.

A few moths plunged at them. Sensing the danger with her snake sense, Gu Fengyi darted to Liu Qingqing from instinct, pushing her to the ground as her hand whipped around, piercing through a moth and throwing it viciously onto the side.

Xia Huang covered her mouth to push the scream in her throat down. A moth landed on Chen Lu’s face; she struggled and her hand rose up before it froze halfway and slumped back down to her side.

Lin Jue ran out from the rainforest and with a few steps and a sweep of his polearm, swatted the moth on Chen Lu’s face away.

She stared at the sky blankly, mouth open, throat trembling like she was in shock.

“Chen Lu, are you alright?” Lin Jue crouched down and shook her shoulder.

Xia Huan dragged herself over despite her trembling legs and said, still stiff with fear, “I have a first-aid kit… I…”

Chen Lu’s eyes blinked like a person recovering from anaesthesia and she looked, muddle-headed, at Lin Jue and Xia Huan. She tried to speak but only managed a few broken sounds before clambering away and throwing up.

Song Hanzhang had already walked to her side. He flipped the moth’s corpse over and said, “The scales on the wings most likely have anaesthetic and hallucinogenic effects. Once she returns to consciousness, she’ll be fine.”

Gu Fengyi helped Liu Qingqing stand up. “Don’t just stay there, there are more incoming!”

Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang joined the battle. The six fought as they retreated and were finally able to make it to a building that had not yet collapsed before they became completely exhausted.

Chen Lu had already been overstrained and slumped down by a wall. Xia Huan was a little better, but she was still afraid beyond measure; she sat down next to Chen Lu, hugging her legs.

Gu Fengyi sipped some water before passing the bottle to Liu Qingqing. “Don’t drink too much, it will affect your speed,” she warned.

Liu Qingqing held the water bottle and nodded. She took a small sip before trotting over to Chen Lu and passing the bottle to her. Chen Lu looked at her coldly, grabbed the water, and took a few deep gulps.

“Did you stay in the dormitories the entire time?” Song Hanzhang and Gu Fengyi started exchanging information.

Gu Fengyi nodded. “The buildings collapsed and the insecticide stopped working. We couldn’t stay there anymore but the moment we left, we were surrounded by the moths.”

Song Hanzhang rubbed the tattoo on his wrist and asked, “Did you find any corpses in the northern dormitory area?”

Gu Fengyi’s expression turned solemn. “Many, most thoroughly decayed. They should have been corpses from a long time ago, but there was… an unusual one.

Song Hanzhang took a wild guess. “The corpse was fresh but had already developed rigor mortis. The cause of death was a fatal injury on the head, and the weapon used was blunt, assuming no damage on the body from the insects, correct?”

Gu Fengyi looked at him with judging eyes. “Was it that Lu Ren? No, it doesn’t fit him; he doesn’t seem like the type to bury people.”

Song Hanzhang’s eyes lit up. “Can you describe the situation you found the corpse in?”

“The body wasn’t damaged by insects. It was hidden behind a bush and buried in a shallow hole; if not for my snake sense, I wouldn’t have found it either.” Gu Fengyi suddenly stopped, a considering expression coming over her face. “Digging a hole and burying a body to hide it, blunt weapons… Does this have to do with that Dan Liang person? He was holding a shovel at the plaza and I smelled blood on him, but I thought he had gotten it on him from saving Xia Huan so I hadn’t paid much attention.”

Song Hanzhang looked appraisingly at her. “Mostly correct.”

“No way!” Xia Huan held her first-aid kit and yelled, “There’s no reason for him to do that!”

“Quiet, do you want to alert the bugs!” Chen Lu covered her mouth.

Song Hanzhang took a moment to organize his thoughts, then said, “A lot of things happened. Shentu Ming and Qin Hanwen are both dead, both of their deaths related to Dan Liang somehow. The body you saw; Dan Liang said that he killed it as well, due to ‘being so shocked at seeing a corpse come back to life’.”

Gu Fengyi laughed coldly. “Nonsense, how could a person in shock calmly hide and bury a corpse?”

“Then what probably happened would have been similar to this: Lu Ren killed someone and a female saw him do so. As she fleed from him, she met with Lin Jue but still proceeded to be killed. The player who died previously was chosen as Judas and resurrected, and was seen coincidentally by Dan Liang. Under an unknown motive, he chose to kill Judas and bury the corpse, then head for the plaza. He saved Xia Huan on the way in the supermarket, and they arrived at the plaza together.”

Song Hanzhang combed through the situation. “When he killed Judas, he most likely saw the Judas’ Rule that had appeared on the ground afterwards, which would also explain what he said after seeing the board with the other Judas’ rule written on it.”

No one spoke. Xia Huan’s eyes were filled with disbelief; she opened her mouth several times to argue for Dan Liang who had saved her life, but she was unable to make a sound.

“Motives?” Gu Fengyi asked the most important question.

Song Hanzhang shook his head. “Only he would know.”

Lin Jue’s instincts told him that Song Hanzhang was hiding something, but he couldn’t ask him in front of everyone so he swallowed his words back down.

The six recovered their strength silently. Gu Fengyi and Song Hanzhang discussed the situation at the south plaza and their next course of action in hushed whispers.

“We can’t go to the southern plaza and Time Plaza has become the ant’s nest and the cockroaches in this dormitory have evolved beyond the point that we can deal with. Our movement range is too small,” Gu Fengyi analyzed, then frowned, searching for a way out. “What about the greenhouse and the theater area? Though it’s become heavily rainforested, Qingqing’s skills can hold up against the bees. Didn’t you two manage to escape without a scratch earlier?”

Song Hanzhang shook his head. “That would be the place I would consider going to last.”

“Why?”

“The easter eggs specifically pointed out three monsters: the army ants, the spiders, and the bees, none of which would be easy to deal with, especially not the bees. The hint said, ‘the queen bee in her palace says brain is as delicious as honey’. Going by the hint, we can conclude that the bees work together as a group and have a maze-like hive that will be difficult to survive in. Further, monsters with the ability to fly are generally more difficult to deal with than those bound to the ground. I would say to go to either the gym or the southern dormitory area; compared to the bees, centipedes and cockroaches should be much easier to deal with.”

Lin Jue looked at the time. It was now 03:33 with approximately three hours until daybreak. They would never be able to make it if they kept fighting with the ants, they had to somehow avoid battles at all costs.

Gu Fengyi sighed and turned to ask Liu Qingqing, “What do you think, Qingqing?”

She shook her head. “I’ll follow Fengyi. Chen Jie and Xia Huan, what about you two?”

“I’m staying with Gu Jie!” Xia Huan responded immediately, as if afraid of being left behind, clutching the medicine bag reward tightly in her arms.

Chen Lu lowered her head and said after a while, “I don’t mind.”

Liu Qingqing looked at Chen Lu awkwardly; she could feel that Chen Lu was more or less discontent with Gu Fengyi favouring her. She looked to Gu Fengyi for help, using her eyes to hint at her to comfort Chen Lu. Gu Fengyi glanced over at the slumped figure and didn’t say a thing.

Liu Qingqing went next to Gu Fengyi with her head lowered and held her hand in disappointment. Gu Fengyi sighed and whispered a few comforting words to her.

Lin Jue felt like there was something strange going on between them but couldn’t quite figure it out and could only go stand next to Song Hanzhang in confusion.

“I trust your judgement,” Gu Fengyi told Song Hanzhang solemnly. “I’ll have to keep bothering you.”

The commitment was brushed aside. “There’s no need to say it so seriously- everyone will be responsible for their own decisions.”

From the distance came the sounds of more collapsing buildings as the ground beneath them shook. Lin Jue could already hear the concrete from above them breaking. He looked up at the ceiling uneasily. “Should we stay here?”

“Let’s go,” Song Hanzhang said.

The six exited from the building single-file. It was difficult to discern the previous appearance of this rain forest in front of them now; in the fog, the rainforest seemed to emanate mystery and danger, promising ghouls and monsters in the shadows. Restless creatures hid in every corner and the smallest error would lead to their deaths.

Gu Fengyi suddenly stopped, her sense of danger alerting her even before her snake sense.

Her expression suddenly shifted. “Not good, it’s the army ants! From the north, the west, and the south; they’re everywhere!”

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