Chapter 40

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The midnight wind was becoming colder and colder.

Zhang Sijia shivered and then looked at the time – 04:47.

Zuo Linyuan stood quietly by his side. Even though his shoulder continued to hurt, he remained silent.

The silence did not feel dead; rather, it allowed Zhang Sijia to feel protected, and thus safe.

“Linyuan,” Zhang Sijia called out.

Zuo Linyuan turned and looked at him.

“You…” Zhang Sijia was originally going to ask him if he regretted entering this death game with him, but the words were yet to leave his mouth before he realized how laughable the question was.

Instead of asking Zuo Linyuan, he might as well ask himself. Did he regret it?

When he saw Zhou Yuxiu standing on the plaza despite disappearing ten years ago, did he realize what sort of future was waiting for him?

No, he didn’t.

He only sprang forwards, latched onto Zhou Yuxiu’s hands, and asked if she was Zhou Yuxiu with excitement.

That young and pretty girl nodded at him with a faint smile and passed the box filled with easter eggs to him.

At that moment, Zhang Sijia seemed to have seen a box filled with candies slowly opening up to him.

He was like a gluttonous child, drooling over a box of sweets. When neither threats nor pouts worked, he finally couldn’t help but reach into the box.

“Is my favourite candy in there?” the child asked, full of hope.

“Yes. As long as you reach out, you will be able to take it,” said the person who carried the box.

“Then can I still take my hand back?” the child asked with worry.

The box-carrier let out a gentle smile. “Of course.

“Because, the monster hidden in the box also wants to come out to play. So quickly, open the box. It can’t wait.”

……

……

……

After entering the game, Zhang Sijia kept thinking. Who was the ‘It’ Zhou Yuxiu revealed to him in those short sentences? Or rather, what was ‘It’? Why did she say that ‘It’ was preparing to leave this game, so they had this one chance to return to reality? – He even realized during the corpse ball that the other two teams didn’t know this piece of information at all.

Did Zhou Yuxiu specially reveal it to him because of his situation? Or… did this possibility to return to reality not exist before?

Zhang Sijia quickly discovered the anomalies of this world, because after finishing the first round, the ‘reality’ he returned to did not have information on the dead players!

Whether it was the players who had died in this round, or those who had died ten years ago, twenty years ago, they had all vanished.

In that moment, Zhang Sijia realized he hadn’t returned to the real world. Even though he was prepared for it, the fear he felt when seeing a completely fake world still kept him up at night. He could only hold tightly onto the only real existence next to him and intertwine with him, both to release his fear and to prove his existence.

These two people who had warmed each other in the cold, harsh winter, grew closer in this dark and cold world.

They were like two stars in the night, emitting a faint cool light, seemingly close but separated by thousands of miles, by even the universe itself.

“Is it cold? You’re shivering,” Zuo Linyuan squeezed Zhang Sijia’s icy hands and asked.

“I’m not cold.” Zhang Sijia instinctively withdrew his hand from Zuo Linyuan, but after doing so, he felt that the action was inappropriate, so with a smile, he touched Zuo Linyuan’s face with his icy hands, which resulted in two dirty streaks on his face. He could only scramble to wipe Zuo Linyuan’s face clean. “It will only be hot once the lava comes.”

“…Mmm.” Zuo Linyuan nodded, then remained silent.

It wasn’t that he didn’t feel the faint resistance from Zhang Sijia; he had tossed and turned, unable to sleep because of this distance. He wasn’t very good with people, let alone being lovers with a sensitive and overthinking person like Zhang Sijia. But he still shyly made the attempt, although there was no result. In the end, Zuo Linyuan understood. If Zhang Sijia didn’t want someone to walk into his heart, there was no way to open the door no matter what he did.

But it didn’t matter, at least they were still together.

Together forever.

The faint throbbing from his wound continued to wear down Zuo Linyuan’s spirit; even though the wound on his shoulder had been healed, it wasn’t enough for him to recover fully. Time flowed by, second by second. He and Zhang Sijia quietly discussed the number of markings on the two remaining members of 2012, even though it was mostly Zhang Sijia speaking and him listening.

“…Actually, it doesn’t matter who has more. In the end, we will have to start one final fight. The only difference is that the side at a disadvantage will be more aggressive,” Zhang Sijia thought and said.

Zuo Linyuan nodded. “It’s always better to be careful.”

They were currently under the theater located in the south-east corner of the campus. The theater was stout and it had relatively little risk of collapsing. So far, it had been quite solid.

The lava from the north-west had almost completely submerged the water system. Looking to the distance, all that the eye could see was a scorching inferno almost as bright as day.

Zuo Linyuan felt it was hard to breathe. He was one of those with sharp instinctual types and this talent had helped him escape death many times. This time, he felt once again, the aura of an incoming storm. There seemed to be an icy glare in the darkness pointed straight at him, like a needle on his back.

Zhang Sijia pondered. “We still can’t be sure who the survivors in 2012 are, I’m guessing…”

“Careful!” Zuo Linyuan shouted and dragged Zhang Sijia away.

In the cold darkness of the night, an arrow pierced the sky like a silent venomous snake, sinking its teeth into Zhang Sijia’s thigh.

Zhang Sijia stumbled and landed in Zuo Linyuan’s arms. The sharp pain from the left of his thigh made him realize that he had been hit.

Zuo Linyuan pulled him into cover and used the wall of the theater to block off any sniping angles.

All was peaceful and quiet, there wasn’t even the sound of the bow reloading, a deathly silence.

But they both knew that in this still night, the killer who had shot that arrow still had their eyes on them.

Zhang Sijia gritted his teeth to stop himself from making a sound. Even as the arrow wound throbbed, he was wondering who had shot the arrow. Could it have been Gu Fengyi? Judging from the direction of the arrow, it came from the small forest outside the theater. Even though it was only a dozen meters away, the nearby lights had all spluttered out. How did she see where they were? Did her snake sense also include vision enhancement?

Zuo Linyuan whispered next to Zhang Sijia’s ear, “Can you still walk?”

Zhang Sijia nodded heavily. He knew they had to move quickly, otherwise they would be all but standing under a spotlight.

The space outside the theater was too open; with the enemy in the shadows, staying there was a death wish, but Zhang Sijia was unable to walk far, with his thigh wounded as it was. If they tried to escape, their hidden enemy would chase after them like a hyena that had smelled blood, but if they tried to fight, the crippled Zhang Sijia would be bound for death.

It looked like they could only go into the theater.

But…

Zhang Sijia was also worried about the ambusher. If it really was Gu Fengyi, her crossbow paired with her snake-sense and stealth skill would make her a king of assassination.

Would it be her? Was she by herself?

Zhang Sijia was inclined to think there was only one ambusher, otherwise after the arrow hit, they could well have started the final battle here.

It seemed that his previous judgement was correct. The Lu Ren from 2012 was still alive, and he was wandering alone. The other remaining 2012 player could be Gu Fengyi, or Song Hanzhang, or someone else, and they were also by themselves. In this situation of one against two, they wouldn’t be able to have an upper hand even if Zhang Sijia was wounded.

The decision was made in a split second. Zhang Sijia decided to go into the theater, find an empty room, lock the doors and windows, and treat the wound on his thigh. Although a closed room would block his own retreat, it would also make sure that they would not be ambushed. If they truly started fighting, Zhang Sijia didn’t think they would lose to Gu Fengyi or Song Hanzhang.

Thinking through their plans, Zhang Sijia leant on Zuo Linyuan’s arm and limped into the theater, trying not to put any weight on his injured leg.

The building devoured by darkness seemed like the bloody maw of a monster, swallowing them whole.

Zuo Linyuan helped Zhang Sijia into the men’s bathroom and locked the windows and door. The environment grew more bizarre as time went by; all the mirrors in the bathroom were foggy, unable to reflect their faces, and the originally white tiles were soaked in slivers of dark-red liquid. Even the plastic doors to each cubicle were covered in cracks and somehow, rust.

Zhang Sijia sat on the sink, his left leg still bleeding incessantly. Zuo Linyuan ripped his clothes into strips and said to Zhang Sijia, “Bear with me.”

Saying that, he suddenly pulled out the arrow. Zhang Sijia’s face paled and he hissed in pain.

His hand lit up from the healing skill and the wound on his thigh quickly knitted together. Although it wasn’t able to scab yet, at least it wasn’t bleeding anymore.

The light in the bathroom was long broken; they only had that one crescent outside the tightly-shut window to drive the darkness away with its cold light. The silver light landed on the side of Zuo Linyuan’s face. He held the cloth strips and said, “Take off your pants.”

Zhang Sijia looked at his surroundings in distaste but didn’t say anything. He took off his blood-soaked pants, revealing the healing injury.

The hideous wound exposed on the white skin somehow was erotic in a twisted way.

Zuo Linyuan half-knelt on the ground and meticulously bound the cloth onto the wound.

Zhang Sijia looked down at him. The familiar face gave him endless security in this collapsing world, allowing his anxious and stressful heart time to breathe.

Zuo Linyuan planted a gentle kiss on his wrapped-up wound, as natural as if he had done so countless times. He looked up and asked, “Does it hurt?”

In the darkness, cold silver illuminated the side of his face. Half of his face was bathed in moonlight, the other half soaked in darkness.

The image before him suddenly overlapped with that cold yet burning night. Back then, Zuo Linyuan had also been like this, kissing his skin under the moonlight, allowing stoic sweat drops to flow down his forehead, asking in a whisper, “Does it hurt?”

It hurt; the pain of his body ripping and the pleasure of self-mutilation overlapped. What did he say then? Zhang Sijia struggled to recall but all that remained in his mind was how Zuo Linyuan had looked at him so steadily, cherishing him to his bones.

So he felt safe. Because he knew, he was loved. It was a love that emboldened him.

“Linyuan…” Zhang Sijia murmured.

Zuo Linyuan looked at him, and asked with his eyes.

Say something, comfort him, praise him. But Zhang Sijia was stumped, unable to say a single word.

They never spoke much of anything to each other, and they had little to talk about beyond important matters. The jokes and love stories often spoken between lovers were a faraway tale for them; they were as distant as two strangers bound together. He didn’t know what sort of people Zuo Linyuan’s relatives were, didn’t know what Zuo Linyuan liked, didn’t know what Zuo Linyuan hated. He had no interest in knowing.

How strange this was, yet he had never felt that there was anything wrong with it.

“…Nothing. My healing skill is almost ready to use again. One more use should be enough; it would be best to not delay after.” Zhang Sijia reigned in his wandering thoughts and refocused on their dangerous present. “It’s very dark in the theater and the ground has been mutated to such an extent, so even if we left blood trails, I highly doubt that they would be able to track them – as long as it’s not Gu Fengyi.

“Let’s sort through the information on 2012. There were three announcements for 2012 deaths, all close together. The marking transfers were “six markings”, “zero markings”, and “zero markings” respectively.

“First, Lu Ren was not one of those three. If the Lu Ren from 2012 had died, he would have had to die at the hands of Lu Ren from 2022, which means that all his markings would have moved over. I noticed his hand during the ball; there was a shocking number of markings there, much more than six. So that is one survivor spot taken.

“Dan Liang who had infiltrated Team 2002 was probably 2012’s Judas. We don’t know if he’s alive, but even if he was, the people from 2012 wouldn’t trust him, so we can eliminate the possibility that he is the one waiting to ambush us. Of the remaining four, any of them could be the ambusher, though it’s difficult to judge who the ones who died were… we can only be certain that either Lin Jue or Song Hanzhang died for the transfer of six markings; they both had exactly six markings when we ambushed 2002. Liu Qingqing only had four, and Gu Fengyi has Mu Qiuning’s markings, which makes at least ten. Unfortunately it’s hard to judge who had killed Du Cheng… otherwise we would’ve been able to pinpoint who the one who died was.”

Zhang Sijia frowned, and continued. “The one who died was probably Lin Jue; Song Hanzhang wouldn’t die that easily at another’s hands… he’s the most likely to survive out of all four of them.”

He also hoped that the survivor was Song Hanzhang. Even though he was smart and sneaky, his skills gave him no advantages. The worst case scenario was that the one ambushing them was Gu Fengyi; her skills gave her too much advantage in this dark and complicated environment.

The cooldown for the healing skill ended. Zhang Sijia healed himself again and the wound scabbed over completely; it would not open as long as he didn’t exercise strenuously. He put on his pants, sorted his clothes, and looked at the entrance of the bathroom.

No one knew if the enemy had locked onto their position in this great theater. Perhaps the moment they opened the door, an arrow would come straight for their face.

“I can move normally now, so there’s no need to stay here. We need to get out. The entrance isn’t safe, go by the window,” Zhang Sijia pointed at the window on the other side of the bathroom and said.

Zuo Linyuan nodded. He stepped onto the windowsill, pulled open the window, and flipped outside. He surveyed their surroundings.

His senses were as sharp as always, and it was difficult to conceal any movement from him. After making sure there was no immediate danger, Zuo Linyuan reached out to Zhang Sijia and helped him out the window.

Zhang Sijia looked to the distant west. The edges of the lake next to the theatre were being invaded by burning lava which cooled down the moment it flowed into the water, making loud pops and bangs, covering the moon with white smoke. This apocalyptic scene made Zhang Sijia seem part of a scorching hell with no way out.

This nightmarish, apocalyptic, collapsing world aroused in him a tragic fatalism, as if he was just an insignificant bug in this world, waiting helplessly in the midst of a ruinous onslaught for the judgement of fate.

How insignificant, too insignificant…

Zuo Linyuan didn’t have so many thoughts. He was still observing everything around him so when a slight noise came from above him, he looked up instantly.

A shadow that had sat down on the second floor balcony of the theater sometime, and was illuminated by moonlight.

It was like an Asura who had crawled out of a river of blood, drenched in that foul crimson liquid, but it was impossible to smell the scent of blood which should have been so strong on him. Under a silvery glow, a deep wound carved through the left side of his face, one ear cleanly missing, yet he seemed not to feel the pain, not a sliver of expression on his face, neither sorrow nor joy.

He held the crossbow in a single hand, and pressed the trigger.

|TOC|

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