Chapter 114 Another one was brought in.

Day 10 of the road survival game!

They were involuntarily thrown into the air, then pulled back to the ground by gravity. Hagiwara and Matsuda, being native Japanese, had extensive experience with earthquakes. They reacted instantly, frowning and shouting, "It's an earthquake!"

"Be careful, Feng-chan."

As soon as they finished speaking, and as they skillfully landed safely before crashing to the ground, they witnessed the earth being torn apart as if by a ripple, separating the building they were standing on from the road, using the two adjacent buildings as the boundary…

As it sank downwards, the view, which had previously allowed for a glimpse of the surrounding buildings and roads by the faint starlight, quickly turned into complete darkness, with the night sky, illuminated only by the faint starlight, growing smaller and smaller in the field of vision...

After a mere ten seconds or so, once everything quieted down, Hagiwara immediately pulled out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and called out anxiously, "Kaze-chan, are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" Hagiwara breathed a sigh of relief when the familiar touch gripped his wrist again and a panicked voice reached his ears. But before he could exhale, Kazesei-no-Mori's next words made his expression change drastically: "But there's a problem with the dungeon exit."

"What's wrong with the dungeon exit?" Hagiwara quickly asked.

Feng Xing Shou looked up and frowned as he replied, "We fell down with the building's collapse, but the dungeon exit isn't on this wall. I guess it should still be at its original height. It seems the dungeon exit isn't fixed to a building or object, but rather located in a spatial position."

"So we're falling down with the building now, but the dungeon exit is still stuck in the same spot." Hagiwara understood and felt something was wrong, because when he turned on his phone's light and shone it upwards, he couldn't see the area above, indicating that the depth of the fall was considerable.

"Could this instance destruction crisis be caused by an earthquake leading to a ground collapse?" Matsuda, guessing what Kazesei-no-Mori had just said from Hagiwara's words, immediately asked in surprise. Then, looking at the time on his phone, he said with a grim expression, "If that's the case, we're in big trouble."

The instance's destruction time was 00:47, and it's currently 39 minutes. There are 8 minutes left, meaning there will likely be a second earthquake in about 8 minutes. At that time, the building will completely collapse along with the earthquake, and we will naturally die along with it..."

"But that doesn't make sense! If an earthquake occurred during Morofushi's escape and caused the building to collapse, something so serious, Kofuruya wouldn't have kept quiet about it." Hagiwara clearly sensed the contradiction this time.

Matsuda, with an exceptionally cold expression, answered his confusion: "There is another possibility. History is history, and a copy is a copy. Perhaps some parts of the real history will not necessarily be destroyed."

However, the game's organizers, based on the historical events of the time, created a replica of the original, which would eventually crumble, thus achieving a dramatic effect for the game and simultaneously increasing the difficulty for the survivors.

"In other words, in the real history that Kofuya experienced, there was no earthquake today, or there was an earthquake but it wasn't this powerful. The game's organizers deliberately altered history in order to create a devastating gameplay effect for the dungeon?"

"Can this really be done with the power of technology?" Hagiwara felt that what Kojinpei said was highly likely, but his understanding of scientific effects made it hard for him to believe that such a level of technology could be achieved.

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However, Feng Xingshou, having gained unscientific abilities under that strange state, was quite accepting of anything unscientific. After hearing the two's speculations, he directly said, "Whether it's possible or not."

Your friend couldn't possibly lie to you. In fact, if he had lied to you and concealed the earthquake, he himself would have been on the rooftop when the second earthquake occurred.

I guess it will end up like us, and then it will be impossible to contact you in the future. Since other possibilities have been ruled out, what remains must be the truth. Actually, I found it strange before.

Although Japan's crime rate has been rising year by year, there are not many devastating cases or disasters on the surface, such as fires or bombs. However, we encounter them almost every time we enter a dungeon.

I thought I was just ignorant because I was in China and hadn't heard of the various major cases in Japan! Now it seems that the outcome of the case back then was probably not as serious as the one in the game. It's highly likely that the game developers adjusted the power of the historical events involved in the game.

This situation arose because they pushed things towards the worst possible outcome. How cunning! They deliberately exploited people's misconceptions, making us believe the instance was safe until the countdown ended, when in reality, this delayed destruction occurred twice.

"You're right." After hearing Fuu-chan's analysis, Hagiwara's scientific perspective finally allowed him to accept this reality. However, he didn't have time to think about how this reality would affect their future activities in the dungeon.

His attention was focused on the fact that now that the truth had been deduced, he needed to evacuate the area before the second earthquake. However, when he shone his phone light around and above, he discovered that most of the metal staircase was buried in mud.

Unable to find anywhere they could use as leverage to climb up, he said in frustration, "If we had a gun or something similar right now, and tied on the ropes you kept, we could use them to climb up. What a pity..."

"Even with guns, it would probably be difficult. Look at the loose soil around us. Japan's geology is already poor, and the land is prone to liquefaction when an earthquake occurs. We've probably sunk quite deep, and the surrounding soil has already started to liquefy."

Under such geological conditions, it was impossible to fix the stress point. Matsuda even thought that perhaps there would not be a second earthquake after 8 minutes, but rather that the soil liquefaction was so severe that mud would flood their foothold, leading to the destruction of the replica.

He didn't voice his conjecture, but instead said to the two of them, "Anyway, let's climb up the stairs to the top floor first. Even if the stairs are buried in mud, the pure metal stairs are sturdy enough that we won't get stuck."

"Okay!" Hagiwara reached out and made a gesture to hold her hand back, saying as she walked towards the mud-covered stairs, "Kaze-chan, hold on tight to me. No matter what happens along the way, don't let go. I don't want to get separated from you in such a dangerous situation."

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However, faced with Matsuda's suggestion and Hagiwara's words, Kazesei-no-Mori hesitated. More than a minute had passed since the earthquake, and it was hard to say whether the height of the nine-story building could reach the location of the ground dungeon.

Just climbing the stairs, which were buried in mud and were rapidly turning into mud for some unknown reason, she felt that even with her water manipulation skills to assist her body, it would be difficult to climb up in less than 7 minutes.

Her Reincarnation Overturning effect was extended to a passive duration of 6 minutes after taking the Mental Awakening Potion. This means that if she dies now, or at any time in the next 5 minutes, she can return to the vicinity of the dungeon exit before the earthquake due to the Reincarnation Overturning effect.

However, if she dies after this time, she will be resurrected in the time that occurs after the earthquake, along with the other two, and she will be in a very awkward situation.

If they are resurrected at this time, unless they can find another way to quickly escape and enter the dungeon exit, they will be trapped in a 6-minute death loop of reincarnation, constantly repeating the process of death—returning to the underground where the sinkhole was—and dying again...

Thinking of this possibility, Feng Xing Shou couldn't help but shudder. No, she didn't want to fall into such a desperate and embarrassing situation. She should keep an eye on the time. If she couldn't climb to the dungeon exit on the ground within 4 minutes and 30 seconds...

He committed suicide, triggering the passive resurrection effect of the cycle of reincarnation. Anyway, Hagiwara and Matsuda's guns were all stored in his backpack space, and his brother had also taught him which part of the human body would kill quickly without feeling pain...

After making up her mind, she casually replied to Hagiwara, "Yeah! Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"..." Hearing the confidence in her tone, Hagiwara felt that she seemed to have some kind of plan in place to ensure that nothing would go wrong. This made him think of the time he saved Kojinpei. Would she use that ability again this time?

However, in order to protect her privacy and secrets, he couldn't ask her this question. Recalling that experience, Hagiwara took a deep breath and decided that he must prevent things from developing to that extent this time.

To prevent her from experiencing the pain of death again, he pulled Feng Jiang with renewed vigor as they climbed the mud-covered stairs...

Hagiwara and Matsuda's physical abilities are already superior to those of ordinary people, and Kazesei-no-Kami also has water manipulation to enhance his physical abilities. Under such circumstances, their athletic ability is no worse than that of athletes.

Unfortunately, even with their excellent physical abilities, their progress was still slow due to the influence of the environment. As time passed by, more than four minutes had gone by, and they deduced from the fact that some buildings were not covered by mud that they had climbed to the fifth floor.

They still hadn't seen the dungeon exit, indicating that the sinking was deeper than they had anticipated. With only a dozen seconds left before the scheduled time, Feng Xingshou knew they couldn't delay any longer; it was time to take action.

So while Hagiwara and Matsuda were still helping her climb upwards, she took a pistol from her backpack, released Hagiwara's hand, disengaged the safety, and pulled the trigger without hesitation...

The moment the sensation in his palm disappeared, Hagiwara had a bad feeling and instinctively called out, "Kaze-chan!"

"What happened?" Matsuda asked him, puzzled.

However, before Hagiwara could answer, their figures froze at that moment, and the next second, the frozen moment vanished into thin air...

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6 minutes ago:

"...Did you two see someone coming over just now? A man in his twenties, with black hair, blue eyes, and a beard."

The exact same words came to her ears, instantly bringing Feng Xingshou back to her senses. She realized that this person was an FBI undercover agent from the United States. If things continued as they were, the impending earthquake would trap him in the building as well, until the entire building was destroyed.

When the earthquake struck, she saw that only the three buildings on their side had torn apart and sunk into the ground. The abandoned buildings across the street were fine, though they were shaking violently. So, before Hagiwara could answer, she whispered in his ear, "Hagiwara, quickly tell him that your friend ran into the building across the street."

"..." Although Hagiwara didn't know why Fuu-chan suddenly asked him to answer like that, his trust in her made him immediately swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue, and he changed his words in a nonchalant tone: "I just saw a man running over."

He was originally running this way, but then, apparently seeing us smoking here, he turned and ran towards the abandoned shop across the street.

“Oh!” Ray hesitated a bit at the answer, because according to his observation, only this building had an escape route. As for the abandoned shops across the street, unless there was a back door, did Scotland know about this place?

Or perhaps he chose to gamble over there because he saw people around? He noticed again that Matsuda looked like a member of the organization, and speculated that Scotland might have thought they were members sent by the organization to capture him, which is why he chose to escape over there...

Despite still having some doubts about this hypothesis, Ray, eager to rescue the person before the organization members could act, turned and quickly chased after them towards the abandoned three-story shop across the street...

As soon as he turned around, knowing that time was of the essence and there was no time to explain to Hagiwara and Matsuda, Kazesei quickly transferred them to his backpack space and then rushed into the dungeon exit.

Just as her figure disappeared at the dungeon exit, another violent earthquake struck. Lai, who had just run to the entrance of the abandoned shop, immediately stopped and instinctively found a safe place to take shelter.

A few minutes later, some strange yet familiar memories suddenly surfaced in his mind. He saw another version of himself getting different answers from that carefree, frivolous handsome guy. As a result, the earthquake happened just as he reached the third floor.

Despite his efforts to avoid it, he was buried under the mud on the stairs. As the mud rapidly liquefied due to the water rushing up from the earthquake, he gradually suffocated and lost consciousness. It's unclear whether he died or simply fell into a coma due to lack of oxygen...

Upon seeing this part of his memory, he covered his head, a look of confusion on his face. What were these memories? Why did he have different experiences before the earthquake in his own memory?

However, I was luckier in reality than in my memory, because that person, whose answer was completely different from the one in my memory, happened to run near these low-rise buildings. It was clearly safer here than over there, except...

He looked at the three buildings that had sunk so low that even the rooftops were no longer visible, and assumed that the two people had fallen into the depths of the earth along with those three buildings, covered in mud just like he remembered. He couldn't help but sigh.

Just then, rapid breathing and hurried footsteps approached. Upon seeing Ray, Bourbon immediately asked anxiously, "Ray, where's Scotland? Did you catch him?"

"It's a pity! We were about to catch him when the earthquake happened." Although Ray had noticed from Bourbon and Scotland's behavior during the mission that their relationship was unusual.

But not sure if Bourbon and Scotland were allies, so he immediately pretended to be a member of the organization who had failed to catch the rat, with a dangerous and angry expression, and told Bourbon that he hadn't caught Scotland...

Bourbon breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Scotland hadn't been captured by Rye, but looking at the torn earth, he couldn't help but worry that Scotland might be injured in the earthquake...

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On the other side, Feng Xingshou stepped into the dungeon exit and breathed a sigh of relief when he returned to the car. He quickly released Hagiwara and Matsuda from his backpack space, but sensed another person's figure when he released them.

She suddenly realized that in her haste, she had forgotten to leave Hagiwara and the others' friends behind in reality. o(╥﹏╥)o Waaah... Another one had snuck in, and a Japanese policeman at that! What kind of luck was this? Could it be that she had an inexplicable connection with kidnapping?

Was the gleaming silver bracelet constantly beckoning to her? Was she really that unlucky? She inwardly groaned, hesitating whether she should release the Japanese police officer from her backpack right now.

Just as she hesitated, Hagiwara and Matsuda, whom she had released into the driver's seat and passenger seat, suddenly 'saw' another experience of their own, because the death of the Wind Star Guardian occurred in a dungeon dimension.

Without witnessing it firsthand, Matsuda had no idea what had happened. Based on Hagi's reaction, he speculated that the junior student might have done something when she saw that the time for the instance's destruction was approaching, causing them to return to the moment they met the FBI agent and leave the instance in time, thus avoiding the earthquake.

However, Hagiwara, who had experienced time reversal after the death of the Wind Star Guardian, immediately guessed what had happened to cause the time reversal after seeing this memory. The Wind Star Guardian helped them make the right choice in time and safely escape from the dungeon.

Thinking about what Fuu-chan went through for everyone's future in a dimension she couldn't see, Hagiwara felt extremely sad, yet he insisted on protecting her privacy and secrets.

He couldn't even bring himself to comfort Feng Jiang or advise her not to do it again, which made him feel terrible, and for a moment he didn't know what to say to Feng Jiang...

Just as he was feeling conflicted and upset, Kazeki suddenly looked at them with an innocent and pleading expression, his voice filled with helplessness: "Hagiwara, Matsuda, I accidentally brought your friend in here too, what should we do? Should we move him out now?"

"Cough cough... Did you bring another one here?" Matsuda then remembered that before he was transferred into the backpack space, the junior schoolmate had not released Jing Dan's thing at all.

He thought about the consequences of a Japanese public security officer with important responsibilities disappearing into thin air, and couldn't help but cough. He even forgot to ask Feng Xingshou about what had just happened.

Looking at her pitiful appearance, and remembering that she had just experienced death, Hagiwara felt only heartache and didn't care about how the Japanese Public Security Bureau would react to Komorobushi's disappearance.

So when Feng Xing Shou asked for help, he immediately acted like it was a trivial matter and got out of the driver's seat. He came to her side, gently patted her hair, and comforted her, "It's okay. Xiao Zhu Fu is in a dangerous situation in reality. Bringing him into the game is actually helping him!"