One less (starting with an inverted V)
When I asked this question, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the shopkeeper Yan Er, who was unwrapping the oil-paper package with a bitter face, paused and pricked up his ears, waiting for the answer.
He wondered, "Does it make a big difference whether you drown in water or mud?"
As he was asked the question, he naturally stopped the work he had been doing for just one minute and began to rest.
I gave him a sidelong glance with a displeased look, but I also gave in. I stopped urging him and focused my attention back on verifying the matter with Gao Liu Yemao.
But this question caught me off guard and made me feel a little confused, even though I was originally extremely solemn and nervous.
Because Gao Liu's answer was just three words: not sure. As for the manual, she just took a look at it when she handed it over, and didn't know much else.
I felt uneasy when I heard this. I looked at Gao Liu again, who looked like he had nothing to say. Not to mention Wildcat, whose face showed that he didn't understand and was just there to make up the numbers.
I was a little bit in disbelief. I pointed at the female corpse with shaking hands, then pointed at the entire messy surroundings of the reservoir. My eyes gradually widened. I felt a little injured.
Aren't these things calling me over here to tell me something important? Shouldn't the problem be solved?
All three looked at me as if it was natural, waiting for me to solve the problem.
What's even more outrageous is that the group of guys nearby, who were busy cleaning up the corpses and scaffolding and expanding the excavation, also stopped one by one and looked around. They pretended to be busy with their hands, but they all looked at me with anticipation and curiosity in their eyes.
No, what do you mean, you've already given me some useful clues, but you're just looking at me? Am I Conan or Ma Liang the Magic Brush?
I used to get scared when I saw their cracked and muddy faces, fearing that they would be completely deformed before me. But now, none of them lost control, and their eyes revealed clear curiosity and "wisdom", which made me feel even more terrified.
Damn, we’re already on the ground, why don’t we be a little more scary.
The chatterbox just now squeezed in and squeezed a bottle of mineral water for me, saying cheerfully: "Advisor, just say whatever you think, it's okay. We don't have to be so strict."
What ideas can I have???
"...Okay, there is one." I sighed, thinking that I might be very smart, so I started to speak so illogically, "but there is no evidence."
The three of them also neatly opened a bottle of mineral water for me.
"..." I had no choice but to draw one of the four bottles of water in front of me, grab a handful of soil from the ground and sprinkle it in, shake it for a while, and watch the turbid yellow-gray color spread in the water. Then I tore off a small stick figure from the manual.
"I've always thought that the infection of the pit is a kind of call from the mother body. So... I've been here for so long, where is the mother body? I was trapped for a while, what's going on with that suspension that is totally unscientific and unphysical?"
I threw the torn stick figure into the mineral water. The paper figure curled up in the water for a moment, then unfolded and floated up. The transparent water seemed nonexistent under the flashlight.
"Is there a possibility that we did not return to the camp through some mysterious passage, but are actually still deep in the pit, at the destination we were supposed to reach."
I said, this is the mother's "womb" and we are immersed in the "amniotic fluid".
As I was speaking, my nose started to feel hot again. I had to cover my nose and bend over, and I felt dizzy again.
“And this,” I couldn’t help laughing, wiping my chin with blood, “I don’t think there’s any sense of trap, nor do I think this kind of rule is so difficult to play with. As soon as I think deeply about something, they punish me forcefully, target me, and don’t let me think.”
"So I wondered if I had been breaking some rules unconsciously, triggering some natural mechanism. Then, I thought, just like that time in senior year, maybe I had just done something to hurt my body."
Wildcat was stunned and subconsciously glanced at Gao Liu. "Another... fetus?"
I nodded.
"…The brain of a fetus in the mother's womb is completely immature. If it is overused by an adult's mind, it will be like having a high fever. Will it suffer from lack of oxygen and fever, leading to irreversible brain damage?"
"In other words, compared to all of you strong men, I am already a fetus with very limited congenital conditions, and I am gradually drowning in the amniotic fluid."
After saying all these purely speculative thoughts in one breath, I felt a little dizzy and sat down on the ground.
Maybe it was the tinnitus that caused my hearing loss, or maybe they really didn't say anything. Anyway, I felt that the surroundings were unusually quiet for a moment.
Anyway, I've come to this point and don't mind talking more nonsense. I pressed hard on the solar plexus which was in so much pain that I felt like I was going to faint, and waved my hand to ask some strong man to come over and lean on me.
"I still can't figure out the mechanism of the Mud Trap, but it should be consistent with the breeding rules of the mother pit..." I paused, feeling like I couldn't open my eyes, and randomly found a direction, "Gao Liu, did I make myself clear? Did you write it down?"
Gao Liu nodded in my blurred vision.
After making sure that she understood what I meant, I shrank back with peace of mind and told the big brother I was leaning on to take a break and let me take a nap for fifteen minutes while the others could help me listen to the next recording first.
After I finished speaking, I really fell into a deep sleep, and had a very sweet dream. I don't know who covered me with a coat and twisted a towel to cover my forehead.
Fifteen minutes later, when I opened my eyes again, I felt that the rare rest made me much more awake, and the particularly sluggish and rigid stupidity since I came out of bed began to dissipate.
But instead I was sweating all over, had a high fever, felt a heart-wrenching hunger, and my head still hurt.
I drank two full cups of salt-sugar water that Wild Cat gave me, and only then did I feel that my smoking throat was better. I started to eat compressed biscuits and canned yellow peaches.
At this time, they had already listened to all the recordings and played half of the second recording again.
The guys around me were very happy to see that I woke up. They rubbed their hands and didn't dare to come up, for fear that I would fall to the ground. They continued to stare at the recording and hold the pen.
I was also very happy because it was originally just pure intuitive nonsense, but through my drowsiness and various exhaustion, this conjecture has some initial possibility.
"One good news, one bad news." I said, feeling refreshed as if I had just had a flash of light. "I have some ideas about the Mud Devil, but we don't have much time left tonight. Should I speak first, or should you share with me first?"
Shopkeeper Yan Er squatted silently by the side, pushed me back, and then asked Yemao to open a can of beef for me. He worriedly told me to eat it first and not to fall down and die suddenly.
Only then did I realize that they all looked tired. After the joy of seeing me wake up, they couldn't hide a certain restlessness.
It is a kind of anxiety and restlessness where you have to rely on the people around you, but are extremely suspicious of them and don't know how to act.
What's in the recording?
When I thought of the public expulsion in the recording, I felt that things might have taken another drastic turn for the worse that I had never imagined.
"One is missing." Shopkeeper Yan Er said to me hoarsely, pushing the record he had made to me. The handwriting was densely packed with details.
"After the referendum, their numbers had reached an even balance, so they should have been fine. But the next day, one of their guys collapsed in the middle of the camp and was killed. So they were short of one more person."
One missing?
I shuddered and felt a chill instantly running up my back.
It was not because the team eight years ago had lost another member, but because Yan Er’s tone told me that this death seemed to be a man-made murder, and it would continue to happen in the future.
This is totally illogical. Who would break the security mechanism that they worked so hard to figure out and do this?
Would the Mud Devil use the same methods as ordinary people to kill people?
A guy tuned the recording to the corresponding section and asked me to listen to it.
The rustling sound in the recording was the young Zhou Tingmao reporting to Yan Tou'er: "The surveillance cameras outside the tent didn't capture anything. We didn't see anyone going out to deal with the bloody clothes or anything like that. We checked our luggage and didn't see any suspicious traces."
Zhou Tingmao's confusion and panic can be clearly felt in the recording. He added: "The deputy captain went to see the dead brother again. The wound... the wound really looks like..."
It seems like it was done by one of our own people.
Zhou Tingmao didn't finish his words, but we all understood what he meant, both inside and outside the recording.
After a while, there was the sound of lame footsteps, followed by Xu You's voice. "Boss Yan, I checked, no one showed any signs of violence."
The following recording is an anxious silence.
Then, my guy helped me tune the recording to that night.
Sure enough, the referendum started again.
This referendum was much simpler and more indifferent than the first one. There was not even a vote count. All that could be heard was Yan Tou'er's fingers tapping on the flashlight.
After a while, as if it was entirely up to him, he directly called out a name, the waiter calmly said "here", followed by a loud muffled sound without stopping.
After hearing this, even though the guys around me had heard it before, I could still clearly feel a sense of fear and rejection permeating the crowd at that moment.
After killing someone, there was a slight sound in the recording, as if he had thrown the musket at his feet, and then he just stood up and left. His presence in the team definitely made me feel a strange and terrifying feeling, because during this process, even the guys who were killed did not resist or curse at all.
"Counselor, next is the next day."
Shopkeeper Yan Er whispered that when the number of people returned to an even number, on the day after Christmas Eve, another guy was killed in the camp during the day for unknown reasons.
As if by some malicious joke, they were one man short. The resolute sacrifice of the previous night now became a huge black humor.
This time, suspicion within the team was clearly growing. There were often tiny background noises in the recording, which were the guys discussing, arguing, and questioning each other fiercely.
Some people began to suggest that maybe someone was dissatisfied with the previous referendum, so after everyone had safely spent Christmas Eve, they deliberately hunted their companions, forcing the camp to hold another referendum to kill people.
This sound was not too loud due to Yan Tou'er's reputation, but then there were many more short recordings, which were Xu You patrolling the team and reporting on the situation at all times.
The team obviously had great trust in this resolute "guard", and the voices of suspicion were temporarily suppressed.
That night, there was another referendum to survive the "family pairing" rule of the pit.
This time it was shorter and colder, with nothing but a dull thud.
However, once again during the day, when everyone had regained their spirits, actively formed a group with trust and took the initiative to supervise each other, someone was killed again.
The victim fell next to a supply box, with no sign of defense at all, and it was very clear that there was a dagger behind him that only a human could use.
"One is missing..." someone muttered in the recording, and then shouted in complete despair, "Why is there another one missing!"
What interrupted his collapsed questioning was a gunshot.
Even through the recording, my hair stood on end, and I felt Yan Tou'er's high-pressure and cruel gaze as if it was right in front of me. I couldn't guess his body shape, but his whole body exuded a strong smell of blood.
"They're crazy," said Yan Er, the shopkeeper, as the second recording came to an end and stopped with a click. He took out the recording with a trembling hand and looked at me.
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