Rules (fix typos)
I stared at the face with severe rigor mortis for a long time. I have seen a lot along the way, so I didn't show any ugly behavior. Instead, I felt relieved that something bad would happen.
The light from the headlamp continued to come from behind, allowing me to see very clearly that it was a solitary human head. The facial features were intact, but the part below the shoulders had completely disappeared.
The strange cross-section of the severed head was very smooth. I was very familiar with it. It was the same as the one of the guy who fell into the water and was cut in half.
I flexed my numb fingertips, my heart filled with doubts.
If the deputy didn't have any bloody twins, triplets or clones, then this undoubtedly meant that the deputy had died in the previous exploration.
And judging from his condition, it is highly likely that he decided to return after arriving at a certain location (which may still be a dead end), and was directly attacked by some kind of attack while heading back up.
The reason why I don't think he was in trouble on the way down is because the expression on this face is very peaceful and relaxed. It seems that at the moment of being attacked and killed, everything happened very quickly and he didn't have time to realize what happened.
Another thing that made me speculate more deeply about the possibility was that the face was still frozen in an upward position, with the eyes trying to look upwards, so I saw him staring at me straight and almost kissing me on the cheek.
A person who wants to venture down, in a waterway so narrow that one cannot turn his head, should lower his head, retract his chest, and focus all his attention on the unknown below.
If he heard some suspicious noises above and decided to observe, he would be powerless and it would be difficult for him to make such a big adjustment.
I put myself in their shoes and tried to do the same action myself. I wanted to look behind me to see what was going on with the hand that was still holding my ankle, but I found it was almost impossible.
The human facial bones are folded, and the protruding nose and cheekbones may get stuck if they move slightly in such a flat environment. If I must adjust the perspective, I will at most turn my face to the side and use my peripheral vision to observe.
Roughly speaking, he and the guy who was cut in half after falling into the water were both upside down with their feet down when the attack was triggered?
On the surface, that seems to be the case.
No, maybe it can be more in-depth and accurate. Let's consider these two attacks as one. Actually, the guy who fell into the water did not struggle or feel any pain when he lost his footing. The moment he died was when someone nearby grabbed him and pulled him up for protection.
...So, the cause of their death was that they were trying to leave this area of water, or something in the water, and died from "turning back"?
My mind suddenly became much clearer.
Although I still don’t understand the meaning of the “safety regulations” my deputy gave me, it seems to have served to protect me so far.
Let’s look back at the requirements: you cannot look back, communicate with your companions, or confirm any information; it emphasizes that the way down is safe, and that you must go down in the direction of the stone pillar, but there is not much description or requirements for the fork in the road itself.
There seems to be no concern about what to do if explorers get stuck or blocked at a fork in the road. It seems that the danger has nothing to do with the fork in the road itself.
Maybe I should keep things simple.
Putting aside the question of why there were two deputies, the person who told me the safety regulations in detail was undoubtedly relatively trustworthy.
Telling me false rules just to kill me is obviously not in line with the purpose of a pseudo-man.
If I think about it carefully, San Yi could disguise himself and mislead me into thinking he was my brother Zhang Tianyi. So it makes sense that the person who is the actual leader of the fake team would disguise himself as a deputy and act as a deputy, even if it is just out of caution.
Let's break things down:
It is entirely possible that the "deputy" disguised himself as one of his companions in order to better hide in the team; and that this companion himself had already died in the expedition.
As for the unexpected incident that happened along the way, which almost scared me, it was also a coincidence with a probability of one in ten thousand. No one would have thought of it in advance.
The young man once made three rules with me, saying that he would only take me a short distance into the water and then leave.
Is it possible that he did resist the temptation to go into the water halfway through, and just stayed in the water inside the giant net and watched, instead of following me to climb the second section?
The deputy hadn't spoken to me in a long time. Although the atmosphere of our last conversation was like seeing a ghost, it seemed to stop just before I entered the waterway again.
Thinking of this, I felt the fear for the first time in a long time. I cursed in my heart, and my temples started to throb.
If that was the case, then the thing that had been following me along the way was something else. It was because of my inertia of thinking that I mistakenly thought that my deputy was still following the team.
Holy shit, that thing has a headlamp in its hand? Where did that headlamp come from? Why are they following me so silently?
In a flash of inspiration, an answer popped up, making me gasp.
No way, is it the group of mandrills that were originally weaving a net to catch the moon?
Given their size, they are definitely more flexible than me in this narrow waterway. It is not difficult for them to follow me closely, and they don't even need my cumbersome protective equipment and oxygen tanks.
Thinking of this, I noticed that the cold and wet hand holding my ankle moved, as if trying to drag me out.
But I was almost stuck tightly at this time, and the hand failed, and after a while, it slowly let go. The light of the headlamp also went out. In the silence, the group of things behind me were clearly waiting for me to act again.
My scalp suddenly tingled as I finally understood what these mandrills were doing, and I felt a chill all over my body.
——They came here to wait in advance to salvage my body.
Vultures that eat carrion will always follow the movements of seriously injured and dying animals, and crows will also announce the death in advance in folklore. These mandrills, which do not show active aggression and seem to be almost harmless to humans and animals, also have their own habits to abide by.
The close following, the sudden turning on of the headlamp, and the attempt to drag my ankle were all the mandrills trying to observe whether I was dead or not.
I don't know if the used headlamp behind me was the one I threw away in a hurry, but they obviously didn't mean to kill me directly.
However, it seems that when my patience runs out, I am not immune to the push to accelerate the process of my death.
It seems understandable that people who sweep fallen leaves are too lazy to wait until the leaves are about to fall, so they just beat and shake all the fallen leaves down.
The mandrills were doing the same thing just now.
If the waterway here was not so flat and narrow, my, or an explorer in a tense and high-pressure environment, first reaction after discovering the deputy's head would most likely be to confirm who the "person" behind me is and try to turn around and escape from the waterway.
Even if that face was completely different from his deputy's, he might have asked loudly about the condition of his companions in panic out of concern.
Each of these is a violation of the "safety regulations", and even if only one of them is achieved, it will immediately trigger an attack.
Then, I will start to break off from some part of my body and become limbs that are easy to carry. The mandrills can then clean up and take away the body as soon as possible, keeping this area of water clean.
This human head that remains intact and blocks the end of the waterway is clearly a deliberate intimidation trap.
In an instant, a chill crept up my back and I knew it was impossible for me to go back.
I don't know where the deputy's words about the mandrill's "gentleness" in not actively attacking people come from. Perhaps it is a habit that has been specially cultivated when it is raised here as a "divine beast" for guarding.
But that doesn't mean that mandrills can't hurt me.
In order to do a good job of cleaning in a "gentle, harmless and non-aggressive" manner, the mandrills would crawl down continuously and occupy all the passages behind me. If they couldn't wait for me to die on my own, they would come up with other ways to scare me to look back or to confirm with surprise.
However, the fact that a human head could get stuck there proves that the waterway has shrunk to such an extent that it is no longer passable by the human body.
Even if I refused to take the bait and continued to confront the mandrills, my oxygen tank would not last long. However, the mandrills could breathe and move freely in the water.
It doesn't seem like they need to eat a lot in a short period of time. The most troublesome thing would be waiting for me to suffocate to death, which actually wouldn't take much time.
...They probably don't know what an oxygen cylinder is, right?
Instinctively, a very bad premonition arose in my mind, and I heard a slight sound behind me, which was the sound of metal accidentally colliding with the wall of the waterway.
Ah, that's what happened. The moment I turned on the headlamp, the mandrill saw the oxygen tank dragging behind me.
Suddenly, in the darkness, there were intermittent sounds of sneering laughter like children playing.
Along with this sound, the rubber oxygen tube was bitten and deflated, and a large amount of oxygen suddenly spread out and filled the entire waterway.
Caught off guard, I held the last breath in my lungs and my vision suddenly went black. There was no way to retreat at this moment, so I could only use all my strength to hit the person's head below.
Please, please. I shouted in my heart, hoping that the part where the head was stuck was the most narrow knot in the waterway, and there would be a wider area to maneuver after crossing it. Cold sweat broke out, and I knew it was almost impossible.
But at least I don't want to die like this head. I will die with regret if I claim to be smart but die in such a ridiculous trap.
I made up my mind not to look back, so I hardened my heart and closed my eyes. This time the opposite happened. After hitting the human head, the front was as solid as before. The human head I witnessed sliding down just now was the last bit of its movement range.
Severe pain and dizziness came at the same time, my head was spinning and my ears were suddenly filled with a buzzing sound.
It's funny to say that my last thought at this moment was to naively tell myself, "Don't scream, that's too embarrassing. I want to die quietly today and leave a sad and beautiful freeze frame for future generations."
Just as I was thinking this, there was another violent buzzing sound around me. In the fierce shaking, the wall below began to tremble and jump non-stop, breaking off stone chips and lumps of soil. Along with it came the amplified sound similar to the breaking of chopsticks that I had heard before.
Only then did I realize that it was the wall of the waterway that was continuously cracking. It turned out that my tinnitus was not loud enough to explode my brain.
Oh my god, was it me who bumped into him? My Iron Head Magical Skills actually became perfect in the midst of his uncle's danger?
An inappropriate thought popped up in his mind, and with another violent shake, the defeated head lost weight and fell down, revealing the empty darkness underneath.
At this moment, I was stunned, and saw that inexplicably, an oxygen mask with residual heat was raised from the bottom of the widening crack, and it was pressed against my mouth and nose without caring about my life or death.
A pair of arms suddenly stretched out, grabbed me and dragged me down.
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