The Second Kingdom (II)

"Impossible!" the three people said almost in unison.

The sound approached, barely a kilometer or two away. In the darkness, Liang Qing instinctively imagined the person approaching, and every thought she imagined sent a chill down her spine.

For the first time, determination appeared on her face. "If you don't leave, everything we've done before will be meaningless."

Her sacrifice was meaningless.

Everyone understood her hidden meaning. Precisely because they understood it, the three of them were even more reluctant to abandon Liang Qing at this time.

"We have guns." Shi Xiaofeng said, biting his gums.

"It's useless." Liang Qing closed his eyes. The voice was close at hand, and a hypothesis surfaced. "There are countless empty bullet casings in the room we came to. Do you think the people before us didn't use weapons to fight them?"

Deathly silence spread among the four of them. Liang Qing looked at them sternly, "You can die here with me, but what about Liang Baobao? He's still so young, how can you bear to do that?"

As soon as she said this, Nie Yun burst into tears. Liang Qing deliberately ignored her and Shi Xiaofeng and looked at Allen.

"Alan, promise me, no matter what happens, you will protect Baobao like you would your own teammates."

"I'll protect it like my own brother."

"If possible, take him away from here, back to the real world, and live a good life."

Alan was stunned for a moment, then nodded slowly and heavily.

Liang Qing finished speaking, then pulled out a knife, his eyes filled with determination. "If you don't leave now, are you waiting for me to rescue you?"

Shi Xiaofeng gritted his teeth and pulled Nie Yun and Allen up: "Okay, let's go!"

After a few seconds, he stopped again, but didn't dare look back: "See you later."

The three of them left with Liang Baobao, their backs disappearing through the cave entrance. Liang Qing's heart calmed down. She had done the best she could. From now on, they could only hope for the best.

Beneath her feet, in the darkness, a silhouette grew clearer. Liang Qing quickly bandaged her wound. Her hand, cold from the blood loss, felt weak. She adjusted her center of gravity and prepared for the battle.

A desk-sized insect appeared from thin air. Even Liang Qing, who had seen giant wolves and zombies before, was stunned for a few seconds.

Liang Qing felt as if her eyes had become a giant microscope. Within the microscope, the mosquito, originally less than a centimeter long, became a behemoth. She could clearly see its densely bulging compound eyes, like bulbs, its antennae covered in dust and bacteria, its pointed cerci beneath its massive body, and its proboscis as sharp as a steel nail.

If he was stung in this situation, Liang Qing concluded that he would die.

The disordered sense of size makes people dizzy and nauseous. What is even more incredible is that the mosquito's head and chest are wrapped in a layer of silver armor. Except for the abdomen and wings, the whole body is almost made of steel.

They are not purely natural products.

Soon, the mosquito rose to Liang Qing's height. She could even see countless reflections of herself in its compound eyes. Its mouth opened wide, and three steel forks blossomed like deadly flowers, stabbing at Liang Qing viciously.

Liang Qing steadied himself and raised his hand to strike. His mouthparts remained unscathed, the metallic clang resounding loudly. However, the mosquito couldn't withstand Liang Qing's force, and its body deviated from its course, being flung far away. Its massive wings created a hurricane-force wind, shaking Liang Qing violently.

Her injured hand was already shaking uncontrollably, unable to support her weight for long. She had to make a quick decision, Liang Qing thought to herself.

The mosquito quickly steadied itself, circling in the air before turning and charging towards Liang Qing. The strong smell of blood on her body was a natural feast for the mosquito.

Liang Qing suddenly released her feet from the pedals and, using her injured hand as a fulcrum, quickly pushed her feet against the pipe, spinning her body. Mosquitoes were attracted to her and followed her in a chaotic rotation.

Its mouthparts were like a net flashing with cold light, following Liang Qing's body closely, but each time it was almost caught, Liang Qing just managed to dodge it.

The mosquito's patience ran out. Its wings emitted a loud buzzing sound, and it lifted high and rose, trying to swoop down from the sky and pierce Liang Qing's body. In a flash, Liang Qing suddenly let go of his hand, and the next second before the mosquito took off, he grabbed its thin legs.

The moment she grabbed it, Liang Qing gasped—the thin metal legs were covered in dense barbs. The excruciating pain almost made her instinctively let go.

The mosquito, clearly aware of the added burden, spun in circles, trying to shake it off. Liang Qing's sting instantly intensified. As the bloody pain washed over her, she closed her eyes, and suddenly the image of Liang Baobao surfaced in her mind.

When they first met, he reached out and touched her cheek, soft and warm, with a faint scent of milk in his palm. He felt heavy in her arms, and the feeling of being trusted and relied on was something she would never forget.

Liang Qing gritted her teeth, opened her eyes, and rolled up her abdomen. At the moment when the mosquito went crazy, she flung herself out. Like a stray bullet, she rushed directly into the black hole.

Four or five hours of extreme physical exertion coupled with excessive blood loss completely drained Liang Qing of all her fighting power. She fell limply to the ground, looking up at the cave entrance.

The bad news was that the mosquito had spotted her movements and was following closely. It folded its mechanical wings and hovered over the cave entrance on six legs, slowly approaching Liang Qing.

The distance was so close that she could clearly see every disgusting hair on its body and the razor-sharp teeth in its mouth...

She couldn't get out. This was Liang Qing's last thought before her consciousness was forced to withdraw.

Then she fainted.

She didn't know how long she had been unconscious, but she felt her body being soaked in the cool spring water. She couldn't help but think of the black pool of water at the center of the earth in Silver Spring Town. What would happen if she, like those undead, calmly and lazily accepted the embrace of death?

As if someone understood her thoughts, a voice whispered in her ear the moment the thought came to her mind: "Don't fall asleep, don't give up. Baobao needs you. So do I."

Who is it?

Liang Qing didn't have the energy to judge whether the voice was male or female, maybe it was Shi Xiaofeng, Nie Yunyi or Allen... Then Liang Qing was still angry in his heart that they didn't listen to him and come back.

Amidst all the chaotic thoughts, she felt the coldness in her body being dispelled, and the feeling of being able to fully control her power returned to her body.

…

"Should we wake her up?"

"She has no weapons on her. She's so bold as to sleep here like this."

"That's right, maybe he's a newbie..."

"Isn't he abandoned?"

Liang Qing suddenly opened her eyes, and the man closest to her screamed in fright: "Wow, such big eyes, it's scary!"

The people around him teased him bluntly: "Can you please stop being so gay? It's so embarrassing!"

Liang Qing held her forehead, trying to sort out her thoughts from the noise. She put down her hand and held a bottle of water in front of her: "Miss, do you want to drink some water to sober up?"

Liang Qing stared at the man in a daze. She suddenly realized that the voice that had just spoken in her ear did not belong to anyone she knew.

The person who handed her the water thought she was wary of him not drinking it, and muttered unhappily, "I didn't poison you. We just happened to be passing by and felt sorry for you."

Liang Qing looked around. She was still in the cave, but the entrance was far behind her. The light inside the cave suddenly became much brighter. She sat at an intersection. The cave had six branches, and light was transmitted from them.

Someone else echoed the person handing her water: "That's right, water is so precious nowadays..."

Liang Qing shook her head and stood up: "You misunderstood. It's because water is precious that I don't drink it. Thank you."

She looked down at herself. Her clothes were still stained with blood, but the wounds on her arms and palms had completely healed. No scars, no blood, nothing. Even the mosquitoes that had been chasing her had vanished without a trace.

"Hey, are you a player too?"

Liang Qing nodded and looked at the people surrounding him. They were three young men.

"You were lying here sleeping when we found you. Were you drugged or did you lose your memory?"

Liang Qing shook his head: "How did you get here?"

The hand being called gay pointed to the rightmost branch. "That's where we came from. The system threw us on the cliff face. When I opened my eyes, I almost rolled over. I was so scared!"

He patted his chest exaggeratedly, and his strong biceps trembled uncomfortably.

"So this road ends at a cliff? What's below the cliff?"

"What else could it be! All sorts of bugs flying around! They're very sensitive to human scent. We fled all the way here, but who knew it would be even worse here!"

Liang Qing understood what he meant by "break the dish." It was a multiple-choice question. Eliminate one option, and the remaining five branches might not have a correct answer. Entering any of them would be dangerous. More importantly, she didn't know which branch would lead Shi Xiaofeng and his group to escape.

"Hey, beautiful, do you want to team up together?" The oldest-looking of the three remained silent. He silently observed Liang Qing and judged that she was not an ordinary person, so he made an invitation.

"No need." Liang Qing patted the dirt off his body. "I'm more likely to kill myself, and I don't want to be a burden to you. Goodbye."

Three men: ...

They watched Liang Qing walk towards a cave in the middle without looking back, as if they had guessed that this was the branch that would lead them out.

"Who is this woman? If you say she's powerful, she doesn't even have a gun. If you say she's not powerful, she seems confident that she will win."

"Should we follow?"

"Follow!" the older man said. "This is the first round. What lone loser could survive this long?"

He glared at his teammates after he finished speaking and said, "You guys really searched me thoroughly just now, but there's nothing?"

The other two shook their heads decisively: "There's really nothing."

After entering the branch, Liang Qing immediately found a corner to hide in. She didn't go far and could clearly hear the conversation between the three men.

She sneered.

A few minutes later, the men sneaked in. They didn't dare to walk too fast to avoid being discovered by Liang Qing, so they just moved forward slowly.

Liang Qing made sure that he had distanced himself from them before he slipped out.

In fact, not long after she woke up, she saw a small white square at the entrance of the second branch on the left - Nie Yun habitually folded Baobao's used diapers into small squares.

Her teammates still held out hope that she would survive.

The three people had never seen the Qiankun Bag, so they naturally didn't know that this priceless item had a hidden function, which was that it could avoid any search that went against the owner's will.

Liang Qing put away the marked diaper and ran quickly towards the depths of the branch.

The air here was much better than the room T had been in before. The air was filled with the delicate fragrance of earth and plants, and the scent grew stronger the further in he went. Liang Qing's energy level had skyrocketed after waking up, as if she had endless energy.

After jogging for a while, the system's voice suddenly sounded -

"The Second Kingdom dungeon is currently 1/5 complete! 45 players have been eliminated, leaving 255 players remaining. Congratulations on making it to Day 2! The score between Team A and Team B is currently 42:3! A player on Team B has already triggered [PUBG], and the system is awarding an additional 10,000 points! Players A and B, please keep up the good work! You can earn extra points by completing specific trials and collecting important clues!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a message popped up on Liang Qing's phone: "Congratulations on achieving the [PUBG Mobile] achievement by using detoxifying herbs to remove toxins from your body and heal your wounds! The system rewards you with 10,000 points. Current point balance: 87,101!"

"Detoxifying herbs?" Liang Qing stared at the four words. Forget about herbs. She hadn't even seen any grass along the way.

How she woke up and who saved her needed to be sorted out slowly. Liang Qing decided to let it go for now.

A beautifully packaged food box suddenly appeared in front of her, and the system's voice sounded again: "The system is distributing the first food supply today! Please note that the quality of the food supply is highly dependent on the level of player participation in the game! Players who slack off will face the risk of starvation! Please enjoy the supplies!"

Liang Qing opened the lunch box: inside was a generous portion of eel and beef rice, with soup, fruit after the meal, and plenty of side dishes, comparable to a five-star takeout.

Liang Qing sat down, picked up her chopsticks and prepared to eat. She suddenly thought of the two bowls of disgusting porridge Liang Baobao had eaten, and suddenly she lost her appetite.

She drank up the soup in one gulp, quickly finished the fruit and side dishes after the meal, then patted her stomach which was almost empty, carefully covered the rice combo, and put it back into the outer packaging bag.

She wanted to give Baobao a small reward.

"Girl...did you just eat?"

Liang Qing turned her head and saw a frail man appear behind her. Before she knew it, they were less than five meters apart. Liang Qing took a step back. The man smiled sheepishly.

He had a scruffy beard, the tips of which were a bit gray, and his old suit was stained and stained, giving him a look of dejection. If Liang Qing hadn't seen him in the game, he would have thought he was a frustrated man in his forties or fifties, on the verge of bankruptcy.

Facing the man's question, Liang Qing didn't have any intention of hiding it. She tilted her head slightly and looked at him: "Yes."

"I can give you points, can you give me a bite..."

"I know you." Liang Qing suddenly spoke, and the man was stunned.

He subconsciously touched his chin and smiled awkwardly: "The old copy? It's a pity that I don't remember you."

"No, you're the twelfth sister on the list. You seem to be 32 years old?" Liang Qing looked him over. "Your disguise is quite good. Is it a special skill?"

The middle-aged man paused. Three seconds later, he suddenly straightened his spine, rolled his eyes upward, and chewed a piece of bubble gum stiffly, "How did you find out?"

Liang Qing generously admitted: "I can see the players' personal information. In other words, you are transparent to me."

I've been fooled by her. Xiya cursed, and in a blink of an eye, she returned to her original appearance. She wasn't as tall as Liang Qing, but she was petite, with a slender figure and a beautiful face. She had a mixed-race, queen-like face.

"What else do you know?"

"How come your points are only 20? You are even poorer than me." Liang Qing raised his eyebrows, a little surprised.

The rankings are not based on points or levels. What is the logic behind this?

"Hey! That's rude!"

Xia, who was ranked in the top 20 in the world, fell into extreme poverty and was exposed by another person without any hesitation. She took out a samurai sword and swung it at Liang Qing.

Xia's moves were extremely fast, and it was obvious that she was a martial artist, but she did not kill anyone with her sword. Liang Qing could understand that she was just attacking to intimidate him, not to kill him.

She seemed to really need something from me.

Liang Qing barely dodged and made a pause gesture with her hand, as if to give her a way out: "We are the only two women in the top 20. It would be boring to play infighting. Aren't you hungry? I have food here, but I am very interested in your special skills."

She took the initiative to express her request and waited for the other party to respond.

Xia frowned. She had three special skills: Disguise and Hide, both of which could only be used on herself. The only skill Liang Qing was interested in was Short Leap.

——

When the system delivered the second serving of food, Liang Baobao had already been on a hunger strike for nearly ten hours. He was a small lump, crouching in the corner, ignoring Nie Yun and the others.

"Bean soup again?" Shi Xiaofeng's mouth was swollen and his voice was lisp. He stared at Alan, who was opening the package sent by the system.

"It's a set of Western food, and the portion is quite large." A look of surprise flashed across Alan's eyes. Without thinking, he placed the platter consisting of beef, sausage, salmon cubes, and beans in front of Liang Baobao.

"What do you want to eat? How about salmon chunks?" He imitated Nie Yun and used baby cutlery to pick up a piece and handed it to Liang Baobao's mouth.

Liang Baobao turned his head, his light-colored pupils filled with tears. He glared at Alan with the most vicious expression he could muster and pushed the fork in his hand away.

The salmon chunks slurped away.

Shi Xiaofeng leaped up, picked it up, and put it in his mouth. Nie Yun's eyes widened as he was about to scold him, but Shi Xiaofeng muttered in defense, "Haven't you heard of the three-second rule?"

"What?"

"Food dropped on the ground for three seconds is not considered dirty..." Shi Xiaofeng's fallacy was interrupted by Liang Baobao's scream.

They quickly stopped arguing and went to comfort Liang Baobao. Allen had just accidentally taken out a towel from his training bag to wipe Liang Baobao's face, and the scent of Liang Qing on it aroused Liang Baobao, who had finally calmed down, and became excited again.

Fortunately, Nie Yun only now realized that the pair of silent headphones he bought for Liang Baobao can block noise in both directions. When he put the headphones on Liang Baobao's head, his extremely loud noise was instantly muted.

Nie Yun had secretly felt sad several times. If they hadn't encountered a giant ant dripping with concentrated sulfuric acid on the way here, interrupting their progress and causing them to flee in panic, Nie Yun would have been able to mark the path for Liang Qing along the way.

Now that they had lost any contact, they were effectively cut off from Liang Qing. The walkie-talkies they'd bought in the previous level also contained no messages. Team morale was low.

"Come, Uncle Xiaofeng will lift you up high!" Shi Xiaofeng had only this trick to amuse children. When Liang Qing was around, this trick worked very well on Bao Bao. As long as he lifted her up high, Bao Bao's cold little face would always smile.

Now... Shi Xiaofeng raised his hand, and Liang Baobao, who was under the double pressure of sadness and anger, kicked Shi Xiaofeng directly in the face.

The other side of Shi Xiaofeng's face, which was not injured in the battle, instantly lost consciousness due to the pain.

Nie Yun hugged Liang Baobao down and rubbed his head. "Silly Baobao, are you planning to never eat again in your life?"

Baobao seemed to understand and stopped screaming. Her face just turned red and she cried angrily.

The three of them found themselves in a very delicate situation. The cavern was only about ten meters deep, with a complex inner maze at the back and an abyss beyond. The abyss's walls were green, dotted with countless openings in all directions. Players would peek out of some of the openings to survey the terrain, only to vanish without a trace in an instant.

Even if you lean out, you still can't see the end when you look up, and you still can't see the bottom when you look down.

Liang Baobao calmed down temporarily, and Nie Yun forced himself to encourage him: "Let's go, Baobao, I'll hold him. Liang Qing sacrificed his life to give us a chance to survive. We can't just sit there and wait for death."

Upon hearing this, the other two quietly packed up their things.

They cleared away any traces of their presence and exited through the small cave. Shi Xiaofeng looked at the countless forks in the road, large and small, and pulled out the plastic bottle again. The bottle spun around, finally pointing in a certain direction.

"Let's go, let's follow fate..."

Before he could finish his "go," he heard Nie Yun's low cry from behind him. He and Allen turned around and saw Nie Yun and Liang Baobao being lifted into the air.

The ant they had thrown away was found again.

Liang Baobao was in the safety harness on Nie Yun's chest. The feeling of weightlessness interrupted his tears. He looked up and saw a pair of insect antennae hanging high above his head...

Allen and Shi Xiaofeng reacted almost immediately. Allen took out the rope and threw it to Shi Xiaofeng, who then ran towards the ant's hind legs with ease. Because its forelimbs had thrown Nie Yunliang Baobao up, the ant was now almost standing, and its center of gravity was unstable, which was the perfect opportunity to attack.

Shi Xiaofeng quickly tied a knot, nodded to Allen on the other end, and at the same time sounded the alarm to Nie Yun. Nie Yun closed his eyes, hugged his chest, and waited for the pain of falling.

Shi Xiaofeng and Allen pulled the rope simultaneously. With a loud thud, the ant was entangled in the shackles beneath its feet and fell to the ground. At the same time, it retaliated, spraying yellow mucus from its mouth as it charged straight at Nie Yun.

Fortunately, they had fought against it before and knew the ant's trump card. Nie Yun dodged the first round of strong acid attack with a nimble move.

Shi Xiaofeng stepped forward and grabbed her, and was about to run away. Nie Yun touched his chest and his face turned pale.

The seatbelt buckle had been undone at some point, and Liang Baobao, who was supposed to be hiding on Nie Yun's chest, was gone. Shi Xiaofeng and Nie Yun were both so frightened that their hearts suddenly stopped. Their first glance was at the spot where the acid had melted on the ground.

Alan looked up and pointed at the ant's antennae: "There!"

The three of them looked at it together and almost suffocated again - Liang Baobao, who was less than 90 cm tall and had just learned to walk not long ago, was now openly riding on the ant's head, pulling its two antennae and playing bullfighting.

Ants' antennae are their sensory organs, and naturally, being "contaminated" by the human doll's hands, they were furious. They had fallen to the ground, but now they were desperately flailing their hind legs, struggling to get up, while their mouths could not stop spewing yellow acid.

Smoke billowed everywhere as the acid passed through. Nie Yun dodged while trying to get closer to the ants. Shi Xiaofeng and Allen tightened the rope again, then met and tied it into a knot, buying time to rescue Liang Baobao before the acid dissolved the rope.

"Baobao, come here, come to your aunt!" Nie Yun anxiously reached out to reach Liang Baobao.

"Baobao, jump!" Allen and Shi Xiaofeng also echoed.

The ant's forelimbs are made of alloy and are very sharp. Seeing that the strong acid mucus is useless, the ant has changed its strategy. It raised its forelimbs high and chopped towards Alan Shi Xiaofeng indiscriminately.

Allen and Shi Xiaofeng had previously fought back with both cold and hot weapons, but to no avail. This time, they didn't intend to waste time, dodging while thinking of a solution.

Shi Xiaofeng suddenly noticed a detail. The strong acid of the ants had eroded the ground into potholes, but its six legs subtly avoided the place where the strong acid was.

An idea suddenly occurred to him, and he shouted to Alan: "Pull it! Pull it towards the acid solution!"

Alan understood and jumped to the other side. He grabbed one end of the rope and pulled at the same time as Shi Xiaofeng. The ant's hind legs were pulled into the nearest pit. The synthetic metal legs seemed to be boiled and instantly became mottled. Thick smoke rose up.

The ant convulsed in agony, its entire body twitching. Its hasty attempt to retract its injured leg only resulted in more of its leg coming into contact with the acid. A buzzing sound emanated from its mouth.

It was at this moment that Liang Baobao finally jumped down from the ant's head. He was still unhappy and uninterested, burying his head in Nie Yun's arms and refusing to look at him again.

"Snap", the ant's antennae that were pulled off fell in front of the three people.