Chapter 14: Rules of the Vortex Gate

Blood was all over the ground. Several sailors carried the man's severed limbs and head out, and the rest of the sailors began to clean the ground.

They washed the blood off the deck with water, then mopped it up carefully, and soon it was clean. If no one had seen it with their own eyes, no one would have guessed that such a brutal scene had just taken place here.

After witnessing what had just happened, the people who stayed in the restaurant were all horrified, some crying and vomiting - they finally realized what kind of world they had entered.

After the sailors left, the remaining few people gradually dispersed and returned to their respective cabins.

"Xie Liang, have you known that the meat paste was made of human flesh? As soon as it was placed on the table, you signaled to me and Carrot not to eat it." Hu Bing asked Xie Liang who was lying on the upper bunk.

"No, I'm just speculating. There's suddenly some meat paste for no reason, and it doesn't smell like fish."

Xie Liang looked like he was about to lie down and get ready for sleep. Seeing that he wanted to rest, Hu Bing said nothing more and turned around to sit back on his bed.

"Brother...it's only noon, I...I...can't sleep..." Carrot stammered with a pout.

"Then let's go to the deck and get some fresh air." Hu Bing ruffled Luobo's messy hair and led him to the fence at the end of the deck. Luobo felt the sea breeze and stared at the dark sea in the distance.

Hu Bing suddenly heard the faint sound of a man and a woman arguing from the mast. Luo Bo turned his head as if to speak, but Hu Bing gently covered his mouth and pulled him behind a large barrel to hide together.

"You bitch, that guy can do it, but I can't!" The sound of a man unbuckled his belt came.

"No means no! He can take me out, can you?" The woman's voice was sharp and piercing.

"Don't worry about whether I can do it or not! I'm going to play with you today! You stinky bitch was screaming so lewdly when you were having sex with him just now, you are not satisfied yet!" The man said in a lewd tone.

"Ah! No! Go away! Help!" the woman shouted in panic.

At this time, Hu Bing saw a fat man walking towards the mast, who must have heard their quarrel.

"What are you doing here?" the fat man said.

The woman took the opportunity to break free from the man's shackles and shouted for help to the fat man who was walking past.

"This slut was being very wanton just now. Anyway, she doesn't know how long she can live after encountering something like this. Don't tell anyone and let her satisfy us two brothers - even if we get out, no one will believe it if we tell others." said the man with his pants half taken off.

The fat man stared at the white undulating lines of the woman's chest for a long time, as if he was thinking about something. After a while, his small and shrewd eyes released some animal desire.

"No... let me go, help... no..." The woman's desperate voice came out. Then the fat man violently covered her mouth and nose with his hands, and she could no longer scream.

Hu Bing looked at the scene not far away and suppressed the urge to help. He was afraid of getting into unnecessary trouble, so he could only pretend not to see it.

He covered Carrot's ears tightly and pressed his head against his chest.

The woman's struggle became weaker and weaker, and the man's obscene laughter and groaning continued to be heard. She seemed to have given up struggling and had no reaction at all.

After an unknown amount of time, the fat man said in a panic, "She seems... seems to be motionless..."

"Damn it! Who told you to strangle her? Hurry! Pack up and get out of here!" The other man was also panicked.

The two men fumbled to tidy up their clothes and left the mast.

Hu Bing then released his hand that was covering the carrot and bravely walked closer to the mast. The woman collapsed limply on the ground, motionless.

Luobo wanted to go forward, but Hu Bing grabbed him and pulled him towards the boathouse.

"Brother...they...they hurt that woman!" Carrot said intermittently.

Hu Bing looked at him solemnly: "Brother, I know, but I know even more clearly that it's hard to protect myself here. I can't care about so many things - I only know that I have to protect you!" After saying that, he pulled Luo Bo away.

Not long after, the woman's body was discovered by several descenders who came out for some fresh air. Their screams attracted a crowd of onlookers.

"Ah! Someone's dead!"

"Is it her? Isn't she with Lu Baixing..."

Lu Baixing rushed over when he heard the sound. When he saw the woman's body, he was shocked for a moment, then went forward to examine it carefully.

After a moment, he shouted at the onlookers: "Who the hell is this! Who did this! Whoever did this, stand up right now!"

"You dare not admit it, huh? That person won't live to see tomorrow even if I don't deal with him! It's forbidden for those who descend to kill each other in this small world! Just wait, no matter who did it, he will be dead tomorrow!"

Hu Bing saw that the only response he got was silence from everyone.

Then a passage was made through the crowd, and the sailors walked over and carried the woman's body away with a smile on their faces - they seemed to be happy to see people die, and every time someone died, they were as excited as if they had discovered some fresh food.

When Xie Liang woke up, he found Hu Bing and Luo Bo sitting blankly on their respective bunks.

When Hu Bing saw that he had woken up, he told him what had happened in the afternoon.

"The Adventers can't kill the Adventers?"

"Yes, Lu Baixing said so."

Xie Liang nodded: "Don't blame yourself, the bell is ringing, let's go eat."

It was still the same meal, and everyone lowered their heads to eat the yellow rice. Only those mutated adventers were eating the half-cooked fish with relish. After they finished eating the food on their own table, they went to eat the food on other people's table.

The sailors looked at these mutants with even more eager eyes - their skin was covered with shiny blue-green scales.

Two sailors couldn't help but come forward to touch the scales growing on their bodies. The mutant, who was feasting on the meal, felt that the two sailors were in the way, so he turned around angrily and slapped them a few times.

The two sailors who were slapped were not angry. Instead, they smiled and placed the fish from other tables in front of them.

The night was like a layer of purple-black gauze, with only a little dim light from the sky leaking in, making it almost impossible to see the surrounding scenery. As the night deepened, the sea breeze blew stronger.

There were still three hours until midnight, and Xie Liang and Shi Xiaoyin met at the stern in advance. They planned to go to the bottom of the hold while there was still time to see if there were any clues to the mission.

Shi Xiaoyin was a little uneasy. "Isn't it too dangerous to go to the bottom warehouse now? Are you sure the sailors won't suddenly come down from the second floor?"

"Nothing unexpected should happen."

"Who's keeping watch outside?"

"I." Xie Liang remained calm.

Shi Xiaoyin held him back: "No, let's go together. Didn't you say that according to your observation, the sailors would go back to their rooms to rest for a while after dinner? Now is the opportunity, it will be faster if we act together." After that, she pulled Xie Liang towards the bottom cabin.

As I approached the bottom warehouse door, a fishy and rotten smell hit me in the face.

The door was locked, and Xie Liang found a piece of wire and started tinkering with it.

"You look so gentle, but I didn't expect you could do this." Shi Xiaoyin said.

"I can't. When the protagonists on TV encounter a door that can't be opened, they just poke it like this and it opens."

"You'd better let me do it. I look more like the protagonist." Shi Xiaoyin was about to push Xie Liang away when the lock opened with a "click".

She looked at Xie Liang and muttered to herself, "Could this guy be a thief in real life? He doesn't look like a gentle man..."

The two of them went down the stairs to the bottom warehouse, which was extremely dark.

Shi Xiaoyin took out the flashlight she had prepared in advance and handed it to Xie Liang: "Here, it was originally prepared for Lu Baixing. That guy is more of a hindrance than a help. I told him to stay in the room and not get in the way."

Xie Liang took the flashlight: "Where did you find it?"

"Of course, they're brought in from outside the small world. While many things can't be brought in, there are quite a few that can be brought in—like flashlights, paper, matches, lighters, and so on. Aside from food, anything that's consistent with the era of the small world can be brought in."

"No food?"

"No, you can't bring in anything food, not even water."

The further they went in, the worse the smell became, a mixture of fish and rot. The two of them retched at the same time.

The dark floor of the bottom warehouse looked extremely dirty, with puddles of black liquid that seemed to have solidified. When one stepped on it, one could feel a disgusting sticky sensation from the soles of their shoes.

Shi Xiaoyin was so choked that tears came out: "This place is not big, let's go together, finish the inspection quickly and get out, this smell is too unbearable."

"Ugh, we need to speed up. If I take a few more sniffs, I'm going to suffocate."

"These boilers are all covered in dust, but the ship is moving forward at a fixed speed. Even if it is powered by the wind, it is impossible for it to move at such a constant speed all the time," said Xie Liang, covering his mouth and nose.

"This is what it looks like now. It's extremely weird. And what on earth is the source of this dirt?"

Shi Xiaoyin squatted down beside the boiler as she spoke, picked up some sticky filth with her finger and put it to her nose and smelled it. "Ugh..." She couldn't help but spit it out.

Seeing that her stomach was churning after she vomited, Xie Liang and the other decided not to study the boiler anymore and continued walking forward.

They stopped at a small cubicle.

Inside was a large fish barrel filled with small, live sea fish, which swam back and forth in the murky water. Nearby lay the bones of humans who had been dead for who knows how long, and the barrel was stained with a foul-smelling stream of blood and flesh.

"Are these fish fed with human flesh? Could it be that those mutated adventers eat the fish in this bucket?" Shi Xiaoyin said while suppressing his nausea.

Xie Liang saw a cloth bag piled up not far away. He walked over and opened it with his hands to take a look. It was half a bag of yellowed rice. "It should be. The rice should be fine, but it looks like it has been stored for a long time."

He slowly moved the flashlight to the dark area on the side. After seeing the scene in front of him clearly, he couldn't help but gasp at the fishy smell that hit his nose, choking him and making him cough violently.

On the ground lay bloodstained anvils, knives, and the heads of several recently deceased Adventers. Some of them had been cut into pieces, and some had been chopped into meat paste.

The smell of blood was too pungent, and Xie Liang covered his mouth and nose and coughed non-stop. Shi Xiaoyin saw this and walked towards him. Soon, she began to retch beside Xie Liang, and the coughing and retching sounds of the two of them came one after another.

The two men slowed down and continued walking forward. There were several boxes on the ground in the corner, covered with dusty canvas.

Xie Liang tucked the flashlight under his armpit and used both hands to pull open the canvas.

"They're the same boxes the villagers carried onto the boat on the shore, but these look much older. They must have been there for a long time."