Chapter 133: A beauty deserves a good knife.
So far, the best news was that Shen Ti was still around, and they had met.
“Let’s get out of here first.” Shen Ti led An Wujiu through the chaotic crowd.
Along the way, An Wujiu grabbed his wrist to check Shen Ti’s remaining time.
“That’s good…”
Shen Ti heard his muttering, “What’s good?”
“Nothing.”
The crowd was dense, An Wujiu’s hand was tightly held by Shen Ti. Their current state of fleeing wasn’t suitable for holding hands, so he told Shen Ti, “You can let go now.”
But Shen Ti insisted, “You already disappeared once.”
These words made An Wujiu’s turbulent heart pause slightly.
He couldn’t disappear a second time.
Up to now, he still didn’t feel the reality of having entered the game. The altar penetrated the barrier and appeared directly in reality. So many people died miserably before An Wujiu’s eyes, making him feel extremely bewildered.
Until he found Shen Ti, his heart floating in danger finally settled.
An Wujiu looked up to check Shen Ti’s sanity value and found that the parameter bar was almost unchanged, still at full capacity.
Was it because the monsters here were essentially of his kind?
While running, he frantically checked his own sanity value, which had decreased, but not by much, about five percent.
The altar should not only use these pollutants to damage their mental strength. Maybe there was something more terrifying that would lower everyone’s sanity value.
They ran through a block, avoiding a collapsing low building. An Wujiu asked Shen Ti what happened before the game started, “I came out of Lilith’s building, and you and Gabriel were gone. Did you refresh from somewhere else?”
“Yes, I was supposed to get out of the elevator, but when I walked out, I ended up outside a clinic, like I traveled through time. It was nearby.” Shen Ti looked at him, “I thought Gabriel was with you.”
“No.” An Wujiu frowned, worried about Gabriel’s current situation, as well as their other companions and Lilith, “We’d better find a better means of transportation.”
“Let’s find weapons first.” Shen Ti said.
They came to a new street that wasn’t as busy, with relatively few people, and almost no pollutants on the street.
“I bought the gun right up ahead.” Shen Ti led An Wujiu over.
Suddenly, a row of large screens on the silent street flickered twice simultaneously. After a burst of white screen, the rabbit appeared once again.
“Good evening, my friends. How are you feeling now? Still alive?” The rabbit’s expression and tone were unusually exaggerated, “Is this the first time you feel the preciousness of life?”
“But…” The rabbit put its hands on its hips, “I feel like you haven’t grasped the essence of this game.”
It raised one hand and pointed to its wrist, “Have you seen the time on your wrists? It’s ticking away constantly, tick-tock, tick-tock… Don’t know what terrible thing will happen when it hits zero?”
“Now, I’m going to announce a new rule.” The rabbit smiled and raised both arms high, “Each of you has a chance to increase your time! There are two ways: First, kill the pollutants in front of you. Each pollutant has a corresponding time point marked on it. As long as you kill them, you can get the corresponding time, but be careful, the more time points a pollutant has, the more dangerous it is. Be careful that you might become a pollutant yourself while killing them!”
After saying this, the rabbit chuckled, “I thought about it, and this method of gaining time is indeed a bit difficult. So, I am mercifully offering a new method, which is to kill people!”
An Wujiu frowned.
Killing people…
“Each of you has time. As long as you kill anyone, you can directly inherit their time, and looking at humans won’t decrease your sanity value because you are the same kind.”
The rabbit laughed, “Isn’t this method great? Hahaha!”
Shen Ti’s expression showed some impatience, “This is troublesome now.”
“Yes, the opponents have increased.” An Wujiu had expected this. The altar wouldn’t be the altar if it didn’t sow discord among the players.
“Fortunately, I thought of buying weapons earlier.”
Shen Ti took him to the place where he previously bought a gun, an automatic vending machine at a crossroads. It looked no different from other vending machines, just much bigger and taller, with different items inside, specifically selling firearms and equipment.
“Now even the altar’s player system can’t be opened, making it very troublesome to exchange for things.” Shen Ti stood in front of the vending machine, clicking to select the gun he wanted to buy, “We might need to buy some medicine and food later.”
An Wujiu vigilantly observed the surroundings, not spotting any pollutants. He saw a neon sign not far away, “There seems to be a supermarket up ahead.”
“Okay.” Shen Ti set all the parameters and paid a large amount with points.
Turning around, An Wujiu saw the consumption amount and couldn’t help but ask, “How much did you buy?”
“Not much, just what’s needed.”
The vending machine started to vibrate slightly. The lowest drawer-like delivery compartment made some falling sounds, and when the sounds stopped, the compartment automatically popped out. Shen Ti bent down and took out an assault rifle, and with the other hand, he took out a light sniper rifle.
“Use this.” Shen Ti checked the ammunition and handed the assault rifle to An Wujiu, then slung the sniper rifle over his back.
An Wujiu took the gun, feeling something was off.
Compared to before, it was way too quiet here.
No matter how much he observed, there was indeed no movement around, so he had to withdraw his gaze and look at the delivery compartment.
“And this knife, called Zhuyuqing.”
Shen Ti took out the last weapon inside, a narrow, slightly curved, green willow-leaf knife with a tapered end and a handle emitting a splendid red glow. The blade shimmered with a faint green light under the moonlight, seemingly covered with fine scales, extending upward, with a red dot embedded at the tip.
Like a snake’s eye.
“This is for you. I liked it at first sight.” He handed the knife over. “You handle knives the best. A beauty deserves a good knife.”
Zhuyuqing.
Indeed, a snake’s name.
“What beauty?”
An Wujiu took the knife and suddenly felt his ankle being grabbed by something.
Looking down, it was a hand!
The hand was human, but its texture was bizarre—it was a prosthetic, yet covered in a liquid metal that flowed and melted from the vending machine. It was impossible to tell if the “person” was being devoured by the vending machine or if the vending machine was merging with the person.
The liquid metal was still spreading and was about to reach the prosthetic wrist. An Wujiu mercilessly drew the knife and severed the hand, retreating with Shen Ti.
It turned out that the pollutant on this street was the vending machine!
The severed-hand pollutant roared in fury, emitting a huge howl, and ignited instantly, rising from the ground and charging at them.
A series of numbers appeared above its head, indicating the time that could be gained by defeating it, but now the numbers wavered in the flames, making it impossible for An Wujiu to see clearly.
“Run!”
Shen Ti retreated while shooting, but perhaps because the pollutant had fused with the metal shell of the vending machine, it became extremely hard, making it very difficult to suppress with firepower.
No way.
The monster covered in flames suddenly lunged at them.
At that moment, with a loud bang—
A huge truck rushed out from the other end of the intersection, colliding at high speed with the giant monster ahead.
The flaming pollutant was sent flying over ten meters by the massive impact, landing heavily on the ground.
The truck door opened, and the driver was Wu You.
“Wujiu, hurry up and get in!”
An Wujiu was somewhat surprised. He and Shen Ti got into the truck before the monster could pounce again.
“Finally found you guys.” Nan Shan was sitting in the passenger seat. He saw the weapons on the two of them, “You have guns?”
“Just got them.” Shen Ti breathed a sigh of relief, “At least this monster had a bit of decency, not going berserk before we took our stuff.” As he spoke, inertia caused his body to lurch heavily to the right.
Wu You was turning the wheel, “So I’m not dealing with the pollutant?””
“Forget it, let’s just go.” An Wujiu observed outside the window, feeling that Wu You’s driving was not very stable, so he looked back at him.
At this time, An Wujiu noticed that Wu You’s sanity value had already decreased by a quarter!
“Wait!” He looked back, and the pollutant hadn’t caught up.
“What’s the matter?”
“Switch drivers quickly.” An Wujiu said to Wu You, “I’ll drive.”
“I’ll do it,” Nan Shan volunteered, “It’s easier for me to switch, no need for everyone to get off.”
Nan Shan’s sanity was much more stable than Wu You’s. After encountering the monster, his sanity only decreased a little, probably due to his constitution and his job as a Taoist.
An Wujiu compared the situation. Judging by the rate of sanity consumption, Wu You was currently the worst off, on par with Nan Shan, with himself being slightly better.
Shen Ti was the most stable. Despite encountering so many pollutants, his sanity value had hardly decreased.
Nan Shan briefed An Wujiu and Shen Ti on their current information. At the moment the city’s power was cut off, he was originally in Yang Erci’s apartment but suddenly appeared downstairs, while Wu You was trapped in the elevator. After meeting each other in the crowd, they saw Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou, but because a pollutant as tall as 60 floors appeared, they got separated in the fleeing crowd.
“I only saw them running southwest. I don’t know exactly where they are now.”
An Wujiu nodded, “Let’s head in that direction first and see if we can find them along the way.”
Shen Ti stared out the window, “If they’re escaping, they would definitely go to a relatively safe place—few people, not too tall buildings.”
After leaving the previous environment, Wu You’s sanity value rose slightly. He suddenly thought of something, “Come to think of it, there is a relatively safe place in that direction.”
“What is it?” Nan Shan asked.
“You drive, I’ll navigate.” Wu You told them, “It’s a whole area of factories, all single-story buildings with no high-rises and very few people. It’s been abandoned for a long time, and it’s not far from Sister Rou’s home. If they indeed ran southwest, there’s a good chance they went there.”
Having a lead, everyone felt a bit more hopeful about surviving.
An Wujiu and Shen Ti were responsible for scouting the road conditions to prevent unexpected situations like the one just now.
Although there had been some small disturbances, they had already gathered four people, which was a huge piece of good news. No matter how dangerous things got, it was better than fighting alone.
As he was thinking, a force made him look up at the night sky. There wasn’t a single star in the dark sky, but two moons hung there. Strangely, when An Wujiu looked closely, he saw countless cracks in the sky.
He patted Shen Ti’s hand, “Look at the sky.”
“You mean the two moons? I know.” Shen Ti said this but still looked up.
“No.”
Shen Ti paused, realizing what An Wujiu meant.
“This… is the same as the last round.”
An Wujiu also remembered the sacrificial scene from the last game. “In that Blood Moon Sacrifice instance, Zhou Yijue obtained a flame from the Snow Fairy. She said that lighting the three god pillars with this flame would bring about the miracle of resurrection, but in the last game, no one resurrected. Instead, those pillars flew into the sky and shattered it.”
Nan Shan also felt something was wrong, “So the cracks from the last round still exist in this round.”
“And they are even deeper.” Shen Ti gazed at the cracks in the sky.
Wu You felt a headache and pressed his hand against his temple, “I can’t tell if this is reality or still in the game. It feels like the Altar has invaded reality, but how is that possible?”
The more impossible something seems, the more likely it might happen.
On the way to the abandoned factory, they encountered three pollutants, including a slime monster similar to what An Wujiu had faced alone and a mutated pollutant fused with other substances like the one just now. They fought them off from the car and managed to escape, driving smoothly forward.
An Wujiu was worried about these fusion-mutated pollutants, wondering if there would be further mutations.
“Luckily, you have weapons, or we wouldn’t have made it.” Nan Shan was driving and saw in the rearview mirror that An Wujiu’s arm was covered in corrosive slime from the pollutant. “Are you okay? There seems to be some water in the car. Rinse the wound first!”
Wu You, in the passenger seat, turned around and handed them water. An Wujiu noticed that Wu You’s sanity value had decreased a bit more.
“Wu You, don’t look at the pollutants if they appear.”
Wu You nodded, calmly stretching out his hand to pour water on An Wujiu’s arm.
The car shook a bit, and Shen Ti took the water from Wu You, “Let me do it.”
An Wujiu looked at Shen Ti, whose brows were furrowed tightly, looking very uncomfortable.
“It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt much.” He comforted Shen Ti.
Shen Ti said nothing, pouring the water on his arm. The corrosive slime was diluted, significantly reducing its potency.
Even so, a large chunk of An Wujiu’s arm was corroded away, leaving a bloody hollow with the silver bone faintly visible.
“You shouldn’t go out later, leave it to me.” Shen Ti took off his coat and tore off a piece of fabric to bandage An Wujiu.
“No, you can’t handle it alone.”
“Why not? Do you want to lose an arm?”
The two were at an impasse. Nan Shan glanced at them through the rearview mirror, “It’s fine, we’re almost there.”
An Wujiu looked out the window. It was pitch black, and he could barely see anything except where the car lights shone. Ahead, some factory buildings appeared. The gate was closed but dilapidated, offering little defense.
“Everyone, hold on!”
Without a word, Nan Shan drove straight into the factory gate. Wu You almost thought Nan Shan was going to kill them all, but Nan Shan managed to stop the car just in time, narrowly avoiding a crash.
They arrived safely, and Wu You took out three flashlights from the car, sharing them among the group. He and Nan Shan shared one, giving the other two to An Wujiu and Shen Ti.
“Do you think they came here?” Nan Shan asked Wu You.
Since the two had to share a flashlight, they stayed close. Wu You shook his head, then called out for Zhong Yirou.
There was no response.
It was very quiet, so quiet they could hear their own echoes. It didn’t seem too dangerous, but after their recent experience, An Wujiu didn’t dare let his guard down.
“Let’s go in and see if there’s anything useful. We shouldn’t split up.”
Because it was abandoned, the gate’s lock was rusty and not really locked. The four of them entered, finding the space inside larger than expected but too dark to see clearly. They walked further in, and the flashlight beams revealed some workstations, abandoned tools, and huge mixing barrels.
It was too quiet. An Wujiu’s intuition told him something was wrong. He glanced at his wrist and saw he had less than 3 minutes left, even after gaining time by killing monsters.
He asked Wu You and Nan Shan, “Do you have much time left?”
“I still have 34 minutes,” Nan Shan said.
Wu You replied, “I have 56 minutes left.”
An Wujiu nodded, feeling a bit more at ease. He had the least amount of time left. If this really was a countdown, at least they could last longer.
It was so dark here that they couldn’t find anything useful, nor did they see a single person.
“We might not be able to stay in such a safe place for too long,” Wu You thought of the game’s special rules. “If we don’t kill any pollutants, our time will gradually run out—”
Before he could finish, he suddenly let out a strange, painful whimper.
The flashlight beam wobbled.
With a thud, the flashlight that had been in Wu You’s hand suddenly fell to the ground.
Warm liquid splashed onto An Wujiu’s face—it was blood.
Wu You had been slit in the throat from behind—
It was completely unexpected; the attack came too fast!
Seeing Wu You’s eyes wide open in shock and pain, with blood gushing from his neck, An Wujiu felt as if he had been stabbed deeply.
He quickly turned around, angrily searching for the assailant.
In the crossing flashlight beams, he saw a masked face flash by.
It was him, he killed Wu You…
There was no time to think; An Wujiu couldn’t think. The fire of revenge consumed him entirely. He quickly chased forward, the light reflecting off the green blade, swinging fiercely.
At the moment the blade touched the mask—
The numbers on his wrist hit zero.
[00:00:00]
Suddenly, countless strange tentacles appeared before him, surrounding him as if trapping him in a cocoon. The tentacles stabbed at him like venomous snakes, piercing his arms, legs, chest, throat, and eyes with unstoppable force!
Every part of his body was stabbed, torn into countless bloody pieces!
It was over…
An Wujiu woke up abruptly, standing in place, breathing heavily.
It felt like he had fallen from one huge whirlpool into another.
Just now, just a moment ago, he had been torn apart by countless tentacles, ending his life in immense pain.
But opening his eyes, An Wujiu found himself completely intact. He looked down at his legs, standing firmly on the ground.
In front of him was Shen Ti, holding a knife.
“And this knife, it’s called Zhuyuqing.”
“This one is for you, I liked it at first sight.” Shen Ti smiled, speaking the same words with the same expression as before.
How could this be…
Wu You had clearly died, right in front of him. He had been so close, just a bit closer to killing that person.
But now, he was back twenty minutes earlier.
“You handle knives the best.”
An Wujiu stared blankly at the green willow-leaf knife in his hand.
“A beauty deserves a good knife.”
