V3C24

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It was done.

Du Cheng collapsed onto the ground, his body reeking of blood, but he no longer had the effort to care about hygiene as he let Bai Lushuang heal him with her tears. A nü gui had clawed out a ten centimeter long wound on his arm and blood poured out of it. The adrenaline had kept him from feeling any pain but now that the danger was gone, he paled and cursed the teammate and their eighteen generations of ancestors who made this illusion. But no one claimed the illusion as theirs.

Zhang Jia and Ke Zhengjie weren’t feeling any better; the two had to fend off a wave of muscular nurses and they were more or less also covered in wounds. Unfortunately, the only healer in the team was biased beyond reason.

They could leave the illusion once the monsters were dead, but it was a shame he hadn’t find the opportunity to do it just then… Zhang Jia looked back to the door which had already opened a sliver and deliberately put on an anxious expression. “We need to leave quickly.”

“What’s the hurry! Can’t you see I’m still injured? We’ll leave when we’ve recovered!” Du Cheng shouted as expected.

Zhang Jia argued with a stern face, “2022 and 2012 have decided to work together against us, they have probably already narrowed down our most likely location. If we don’t leave the south dormitories soon, I’m afraid we’ll bump into them the moment we leave.”

“Du Cheng laughed mockingly. “What’s wrong with you? Are you that scared of that brother of yours?”

“It has nothing to do with him, I didn’t even know he existed,” Zhang Jia frowned.

“Alright, everyone’s still wounded. Why don’t we stay for a while in the illusion? They’ll go search somewhere else if they can’t find us, we’ll be safer that way,” Bai Lushuang said.

“Babe is right. You’re so smart.” Du Cheng slapped Bai Lushuang’s ass with a grin as Bai Lushuang gave him a pouting glare.

Zhang Jia was used to Du Cheng’s dictatorship. At first, he held the naive belief that he could keep it to himself, believing that people were stronger together, even giving Du Cheng advice and suggestions. But what was the result? Lili ended up missing just like that.

The moment Su Tian said she saw Zou Lili leave the school by herself, Zhang Jia knew she was lying.

He understood his girlfriend. Not even mentioning how Zou Lili had no reason to leave the school, even if she had, she definitely would have called him or left him a message. The only reason she would have disappeared so suddenly was if the person who did it was a familiar face, a woman even, who caught her entirely off guard.

But Zhang Jia couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t expose them, he couldn’t question them, he couldn’t even investigate them. Du Cheng’s people were watching him in secret. The moment he acted like he knew how Zou Lili died, he would die, even if he was useful to this team.

He wasn’t afraid of dying, he had already lost all will to live after Zou Lili’s death. If not for the desire for revenge, he would have killed himself a long time ago.

But he didn’t want to die now, he wanted to see these people pay for their crimes!

He had succeeded in making Du Cheng stay in the illusion longer. Zhang Jia didn’t say anything and sat down by the wall, staring emptily at the corpse on the ground.

The dead nü gui was dressed in a patient gown, so she was most likely one of the patients in the mental asylum, while the muscular ones were the nurses in charge of the patients. The person who created this illusion must have been to this mental asylum before, and the patient must have been closely related to them, perhaps a relative, a lover, or a friend.

Whose illusion was this? Zhang Jia couldn’t help but consider this question. Firstly, Du Cheng was eliminated from the equation. If this illusion was based on his past, he wouldn’t pretend it had nothing to do with him. Then it was either Bai Lushuang or Ke Zhengjie.

Zhang Jia glanced at Ke Zhengjie in secret: he still had the same silent and honest appearance. Zhang Jia had heard him talk about his family before: he came from a rural village and his family was very poor, but he did well with his grades and had managed to get into this university, finally jumping out from the poor mountains. As for this mental asylum, even though the environment had been severely corrupted, it was still possible to see that this was not a rural hospital from details like the number of beds per room, the uniform on the nurses, and the decorations on the balcony. Rather, this should be quite an expensive and strictly controlled mental asylum. Even if Ke Zhengjie had a relative with mental illnesses, they wouldn’t be in this hospital.

Then only Bai Lushuang remained… Zhang Jia stared coldly at the woman snuggled in Du Cheng’s arms, a numb pain spreading from his scraped right hand to his chest, making his entire heart convulse in pain.

Even now, he didn’t know how Zou Lili died. Even the news of her death itself, he had only found out when the three teams had met. But out of a lover’s instinct alone, his suspicions had landed on the right person. He had been careful, pretending that he had lost his will to fight from his grief, and cutting off Du Cheng’s party one by one, choosing to hurt the wrong people over letting go entirely. Until finally, this round, only Bai Lushuang remained by Du Cheng.

It was time, Zhang Jia thought. Time to end it all.

He couldn’t wait to finish his so far stifled revenge, and then reunite with her, even if he would be trapped in this world forever.

Half an hour later, the illusion gradually started to collapse. Du Cheng finally had to get up from the ground and he waved at them grumpily. “Let’s go!”

Leaving the illusion, the four decided to find a high rise building to observe the changes to the trajectories of the blackholes, the same as before. They moved towards the nearby dormitory roofs. As they walked, they realized that more changes had occurred; not only had the buildings become more dilapidated, but cracks had started to appear on the ground, and more terrifyingly, in the depths of the cracks, red lava flowed through them.

These cracks seemed to be wounds on the crust of the earth, growing larger with each shake and tremble, eating away at their survival space.

“I’m afraid the lava will start coming up soon and devouring some areas. The decreasing space will force the players to gather together and a fight will be more likely to break out. Then, we’ll be in danger,” Zhang Jia analyzed calmly.

“Then what do we do?” Du Cheng finally felt a sense of danger. Even though he was confident in his strength, he wasn’t arrogant enough to think that he would be able to come out on top of two teams.

“We can only try to avoid battle for now. After enough time without a result, their peace treaty will break apart. After all, these people are all suspicious of each other; if they’re forced into an illusion together, they won’t be able to work together and it’ll aggravate their conflicts. Once one team has the chance, they’ll definitely try to kill the other and loot their marks. There’s no way they would let go of such an opportunity.” Zhang Jia was desperately trying to let down Du Cheng’s guard, to at least temporarily calm him down. His words sounded logical but were filled with mistakes upon closer inspection. If it was another person here, they might retort immediately, “But what should we do if we’re found?”, but it was enough to fool Du Cheng.

As expected, Du Cheng found it very reasonable. “Alright, we’ll avoid them for now.”

Zhang Jia sneered in secret and followed Du Cheng and Bai Lushuang.

The four walked into a nearby dormitory building in order to observe the ‘blackholes’. Due to the shifts in the environment, the building had become more and more dangerous, the concrete stairs at risk of breaking apart any second. Thankfully, they didn’t.

Upon arriving at the roof of the building, Du Cheng fished out a cigarette and lighter from his pocket and lit it up, the smell of tobacco somewhat relaxing him. A crack appeared right underneath the building, red lava flowing through it, that terrible temperature enough to reduce someone to ashes in a second.

“Don’t go near the railings, the ground has loosened as well, you’ll die if you fall,” Bai Lushuang said as she pulled on Du Cheng’s sleeves. The building had already become broken beyond repair, cracks appearing even right under their feet.

“Women are such scaredy-cats.” Du Cheng sent a hard kick to the safety railings around the roof. The metal railings moaned and split apart under his violent action. Bai Lushuang screamed out in fear.

Du Cheng laughed out loud and comforted Bai Lushuang with his arms around her shoulder.

Ke Zhengjie kicked at a crack beneath his feet; a giant hole appeared, rusty metal bars, concrete, and waterproofing all falling down in a loud crash. Even Ke Zhengjie himself almost fell down; thankfully, he reacted fast enough to jump out of the way, otherwise they would have had to go downstairs to find him. Zhang Jia walked over and looked down. Underneath the remaining metal bars was a dormitory room, the hole aimed right at the bed in the room. Even if he had fallen, he wouldn’t have been wounded.

Standing next to him, Ke Zhengjie muttered, “This building is so rundown it might collapse in a few hours.”

“Mhm,” Zhang Jia answered half-heartedly.

Ke Zhengjie asked again, “Say, will those two teams really not find us?”

Of course they would, Zhang Jia thought. It was only a matter of time before they were found, and if anyone in those teams held a skill for tracking people, they would be found even faster. A shame he didn’t know their skills… No, he at least knew one. One of the 2012 players seemed to have the power of transformation. They transformed into the appearance of a girl named Liu Qingqing in their team, but why?

Zhang Jia’s thought process suddenly paused… Transformation? Transformation!

If this power was used to infiltrate other teams unnoticed…

Zhang Jia suddenly felt like a child. Was that mental asylum illusion they just went through really the experiences of one of them? He thought it was Bai Lushuang’s illusion, but now that he gave it more thought, Bai Lushuang had never shown any reaction to it from the very start. If it really was her, there would be no need for her to hide it.

So they were now back to the first question. Who did that illusion belong to?

Eliminating all of them from the equation, the final impossibility surfaced.

Zhang Jia thought back. From leaving the ball to entering the illusion, only one person had left his field of sight. If someone really was replaced, it could only be Ke Zhengjie!

Zhang Jia glanced at Ke Zhengjie from the corner of his eyes, only to find in horror that he was silently staring at him with a hint of curiosity. It wasn’t a malicious gaze, but it made all of Zhang Jia’s hair stand on end!

He used all his self-control to not let himself step back in horror or yell. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Du Cheng and Bai Lushuang in the distance.

Calm, calm down, he probably didn’t know he was already exposed. No, maybe he had thought too much: if Ke Zhengjie really was replaced, then the original Ke Zhengjie should have died. But since the three teams had met, each player’s death would be announced. The fact that nothing was announced meant that Ke Zhengjie was still alive!

With that in mind, Zhang Jia’s heart settled as he let out a long sigh. He really was too oversentitive.

[2002: Player count decreases by one. Three survivors, zero markings moved.]

The announcement which suddenly sounded in their head was like a lightning strike across the night sky. They stared at each other with widened eyes.

They were standing here on this roof, the four of them. There were three survivors.

In that moment, Zhang Jia suddenly understood.

Just a few minutes ago, the real Ke Zhengjie hadn’t been dead, he had been under someone’s control – maybe he had been tied up in some secret corner with his mouth gagged, or tightly guarded by other players – but though he couldn’t move, he could still be taken into an illusion, and there, he would naturally die. Because he didn’t die at the hands of another player, the markings weren’t transferred!

This death came so late that they had no idea such a dangerous entity was mixed into their team. Then did that mean the other two teams were already…?

“Hey…” Du Cheng’s first word had just left his mouth when two arrows soared through the sky from the entrance to the roof, one towards him and one towards Bai Lushuang! Du Cheng ducked into the ground in a nick of time, not caring about Bai Lushuang in the slightest.

Bai Lushuang stumbled, the arrow hitting her at her shoulder. In that moment of pain and fear, she stepped backwards – behind her were the railings that should have stopped her, but that section had been broken by Du Cheng just a few minutes ago.

It was too late when she realized this. Her feet suddenly stepped on empty air, her body losing its center of balance. Bai Lushuang shrieked and fell into the fiery abyss.

[2002: Player count decreases by one. Two survivors, zero markings moved.]

***

Vera’s Notes:

Getting back into the swing of things… So many uploading things I’ve forgotten…

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