Chapter 128 One Sacrifice After Another

Staring at this magic array for too long will make you dizzy.

Looking at this group of people with numb expressions, tied up and sitting together like a bunch of uneven asparagus.

You felt nauseous again and took a few steps back.

The person in charge is probably beyond saving, but you still want to try to find at least a way to rescue the students.

You don't want to spend the rest of the month as a "missing person" after escaping summer camp.

You need to resolve this issue and then smoothly return to your normal life of keeping copies of the game.

And this magic circle... perhaps the professor has something in his luggage that he can use to interpret it.

After confirming that everyone was securely tied up, you opened the tent flap and crawled inside.

Scanning the interior with my phone's flashlight, I found neatly arranged notebooks, sample bottles, research equipment bags printed with the name of the foundation that funded this trip, and a locked black metal box.

You searched around and found the key under her sleeping bag, then opened the metal box.

With a "click," the box opened, and you shone your flashlight beam over it—

There are only three things:

An old photograph, a dried insect shell, and a thick notebook with a black leather cover.

The photo shows a broken stone tablet, with fragmented inscriptions that coil like nerve endings, faintly revealing the rhythm of inhuman language.

Several blurry figures are gathered around the base of the monument, one of whom stands in the very center. Judging by his figure alone, you can tell that he is the professor.

There must have been a problem when the photos were being developed; her face looks like half of it was burned off, leaving only a blurry outline.

If you look at the insect shell again, it is the mortal shell of some kind of moth larva, hollowed out, with cracks facing you like an open mouth.

Its surface was dry, but inside there were several fine, mercury-like filaments still trembling.

You quickly covered your mouth and nose.

And this notebook.

You expect to see some kind of mystical interpretation here.

But it's no different from the notebook that the professor always carries around, which you've already flipped through.

It was just an experimental notebook, and its handwriting became increasingly illegible as it was written. Later on, page after page was simply filled with horizontal lines.

Is that really all? You searched again, unwilling to give up, but still found nothing.

Look at what others have.

Becca's tent is right next to the professor's tent.

This is your first time entering this young teaching assistant's private space.

As soon as the curtain was pulled back, a sense of unease immediately washed over me.

—It's so neat and tidy.

In this damp, moldy rainforest camp filled with the smells of sweat and blood, her tent seemed like an anomaly.

The bedding was clean, the clothes were neatly folded, and even the insect-repelling grass was tied into bundles and tied to the corner of the tent with string.

You become alert and start searching.

Her backpack contained some basic medicines, all of which had been re-written and affixed by hand, with the front facing up, meticulously.

You keep searching, and under the pillow you feel something hard.

You pull it out and hold it up under the lamp.

That was a...box?

A box that looks rather odd.

The lid is carved with an upside-down toad totem; the simple carving makes the dull relief look even more incongruous.

You subconsciously touched the seam of the box lid.

With a soft click, the box was opened by you unintentionally.

We can only take a look.

You hold your breath and carefully lift the lid.

There was nothing inside except an old photograph.

You slowly take out the photo.

The photo is somewhat yellowed, with severely worn edges and corners, and the flashlight beam flickers on the reflective surface.

The photo shows a woman holding a young child.

The background appears to be at the edge of a dense forest, next to a large stone tablet carved with totem symbols, where a woman sits cross-legged on the muddy ground, her expression indistinct.

No—it wasn't that her expression was blurry, but rather that her entire face was blurred, as if it had been wiped or smeared, leaving only a damp, white patch.

In her arms, the child, wearing a red hat, was facing the camera, with chubby cheeks.

It's hard not to think of Professor Shia's old photograph and Becca herself.

Your throat tightens, and you suddenly feel as if this photo is "posing a question" at you.

So, who is Becca to the professor?

You stare at the totem characters engraved on the inside of the box, wanting to search for them online, but then remember that you need to connect to American hotspots.

You clicked your tongue in frustration, but a cold voice above you explained what you meant.

"May your lost mother return from her body once more."

At that very moment—

Bang!

Suddenly, a sharp, dull pain explodes in the back of your head, and you fall forward. The photo in your hand is thrown away, and your phone spins and flies to the corner of the tent with a dull thud, the light spot spinning wildly.

Suddenly everything went black, my ears were ringing, and after the churning in my stomach, my limbs began to go numb.

Before you could even regain consciousness, the very thing that had just hit you was pressed coldly against your head.

"Stand up, I know you can walk."

It's Becca.

She said coldly.

You struggled to sit up, with the muzzle of a gun pressed tightly against you the entire time.

I was careless, really careless.

You would never have guessed that, in the end, the real boss was the professor's assistant.

She really is very composed... hiss.

But perhaps...

You forced yourself to stand up.

Becca gripped the gun tightly with one hand while bending down to pick up the box you had opened.

Her thumb gently traced the box, as if trying to erase the traces left by your fingers.

She carefully fastened the lid and placed it in her inner pocket as if cradling it in her arms.

"Let's go." She taps your head with the muzzle of her gun.

She shooed you out of the tent.

You were hit pretty hard by her, and your steps faltered. Just as you accidentally kicked the rope securing the tent, you saw—

Mina.

She slumped to the ground, a reddish-brown vine wrapped around her wrist, stained with blood.

The blood had dried, and the skin had turned an unusual grayish-white due to blood loss.

Her eyes had become like everyone else's; only the corners of her mouth were still twitching, revealing her expression.

"Are you crazy..." you said through gritted teeth, "These things need time to settle, right? Are you in such a hurry to fast-forward through everything?"

"Hmph." Becca sneered contemptuously, her light-colored, glass-bead-like eyes looking at you as if you were the most detestable insect.

“Five sacrifices, an outsider as a catalyst… until the seventh day, awaiting the return of the spirit…” she murmured to herself, then suddenly flew into a rage and struck you down again with the butt of her gun.

Lying on the ground, you feel a sharp pain in your head, as if needles are piercing your scalp. You feel an urge to beat Becca up right now.

No, now is not the time.

"You little troublemaker! If it weren't for you, I could have proceeded according to plan at my own pace. But do you know what you've done?" Becca cursed, wishing she could punch and kick him.

"Never mind, you have to live," she said, shaking her head.

"Get up, and then move forward." She lifted you up and shoved you forward.

The others followed behind, swaying and walking like zombies.

Including Mina.

You are ahead of Becca, and the group walks through the camp toward that open, historically significant place.

It had been cleaned just yesterday, but now it was covered in moss.

Surrounding this ancient altar, under the red moonlight obscured by some kind of force field, a circle of mushrooms with umbrella-shaped caps and drooping heads were distributed at perfectly uniform intervals.

Becca wasn't gentle with you at all; she pushed you so hard you fell right in the middle.

It was also thanks to her that you were able to see the pattern on the ground clearly.

—Full of serpentine veins and recurring patterns… what is that? A toad with its mouth facing inwards?

The lines that make up these spiral inwards in every circle, and the central depression has been filled with dark, damp soil.

“Mom, I will bring you back.” Becca clutched her heart, where the little box was.

Carlos stepped forward, unwrapped the gauze, revealing a completely festering wound with bone exposed. Becca simply smashed the bone and removed the fragments.

Max stepped forward, his entire body enveloped in a black halo under the red moonlight, and Becca grabbed at him.

Tony stepped forward, and Becca simply asked her to write something on a piece of paper. You guessed it, it was her name.

Mina…look at her, clench your fist. Becca removes the vine from her hand.

Finally, it was Dora's turn. She simply opened her mouth, and the tongue fell out on its own.

Becca placed them in the five corners of the altar.

Then, she took out the box and slowly tossed it into the air.

Gravity seemed to disappear, and the box floated above you right in the center.

She began chanting the incantation.

You can't understand her tone of voice; it's not any language you can recognize.

But when the wind blew, it revealed the meaning behind Becca's words:

"Let the silent bones speak, let the leaping soul cross the river of dreams, return to the flesh, return to the breath, return to her."

Her voice echoed through the forest, and all the birds scattered.

The five people stood in a circle around the altar, and as the conversation continued, they too rose into the air.

Their heads, which they had lowered, were all facing you.

All their open eyes are looking at you.

The urn at the center of the altar trembled and made a muffled "thud," as if something inside was hitting the shell.

Becca knelt down, pressed her forehead against the stone platform, and began to sob.

"Mom...I've brought you back...Don't disappear again..."

She took out a bone whistle and blew a strange tune. Professor Shia walked to her side and placed his hands on her shoulders.

You sit on the ground, looking at them, then at the altar, and then at the things in the sky. You see black mist beginning to seep out from the cracks in the box.

It was a thin mist, yet it could wriggle and even breathe, like some folded creature slowly loosening its joints.

Is it now?

You slowly move toward Becca—she's still kneeling on the ground chanting incantations, no longer worried that you can escape.

You see her holding that photo to her forehead, reverently holding it like a deity.

The photograph was torn, and the blurry image of the woman trembled in the firelight—becoming clearer.

Professor Shia's face slowly began to reveal more emotions.

The incantation grew more intense, and the tremors of the bone box began to become irregular, even emitting a piercing sound like a baby crying.

"Mommy, come back, come back..." Becca cried out pitifully.

Now!

-----------------------

Author's note: If you accidentally press "Publish" instead of "Exit" again, I'll chop off your hand! ^ u^