Chapter 105 The Vine Cage: Death is Within Their Reach
The seemingly lifeless giant python seemed to have awakened, and the behemoth coiled in the dense forest stirred up the very foundations of the land, causing the world to shake violently.
But that's not the case.
The roller coaster in the distance had not resumed operation; the giant python slept peacefully in the dead of night, while the number three car, located at the highest point, swayed wildly.
The gondola paused for a brief moment when it reached the highest point of the Ferris wheel, and then began to shake violently.
At the same time that the unusual situation suddenly occurred, Liang Jun, Jiang Zhiling, and Xin Sang had not yet had time to return to their seats.
Relying solely on their feet to maintain their balance, they were naturally no match for the earthquake-like shockwaves and were violently thrown to the ground.
The spacious aisle of the elevator car is a significant advantage, and this moment showcases its advantages to the fullest.
Liang Xun, who was already unsteady on her feet, was naturally the first member to hit the ground; Jiang Zhiling, who was supporting her, was also pulled off balance and fell onto Liang Xun; Xin Sang fell at the same time as Jiang Zhiling, but in the chaos, she was tripped by someone and staggered uncontrollably, becoming the person on top of the pile.
The other players were clearly not in a better position either; chaos erupted inside the carriage.
In the moment of turbulence, everyone instinctively looked for a handle to steady themselves, but such a facility was only available on the sides of the car.
With nowhere to turn, Gu Keke could only desperately cling to the arms of Qi Zhixia and Ge Lin beside her. Luo Chuange was dizzy from being shaken around and had to watch his feet constantly, lest he accidentally step on someone's head on the ground.
Liang Jun was still lying on the floor of the elevator car—and for this reason, the sounds that were ignored by everyone in the main body of the elevator car were amplified countless times through bone conduction and captured by her own cells.
The noise gave her a headache. Liang Jun clenched her teeth, enduring the burning sensation in her temples, and mustered all her strength to try to get up from the ground.
Jiang Zhiling and Xin Sang, regaining their senses, immediately stood up, but the violent shaking that was suspended in mid-air did not stop. The two trembling figures were grabbed by Luo Chuange's hands and pulled back to their seats.
Ge Lin, barely managing to steady himself, reached out to help Liang Jun back to her original position.
"Is this still a Ferris wheel...?"
Utterly miserable from the rocking, Gu Keke clung tightly to Ge Lin's arm, forcefully suppressing her urge to vomit. "It's rocking so hard, anyone who didn't know better would think we were on a pirate ship..."
Taking advantage of the chaos, Ge Lin glanced down at his arm. The other person's nails were already deeply embedded in the flesh, and the tender red flesh was beginning to ooze blood. However, under the influence of adrenaline, he obviously couldn't feel any pain.
"If I could just shake it a couple of times and pass the level, I'd accept it..." Before he could finish speaking, he saw Liang Jun beside him making a move to get up, which startled him so much that his voice trembled, "Sister Jun, what are you doing?!"
Liang Xun was startled by his sudden loud voice, but she calmed him down amidst the noise, saying, "Don't worry, I won't stand up."
She lifted her buttocks slightly off the seat, adopting a low-center-of-gravity stance.
After confirming that her arm was firmly gripped by Ge Lin, Liang Jun looked up and her probing gaze fell on the top of the sliding door.
The space here is narrow, and the metal plate used for connection is only a small piece, but Liang Yan managed to uncover some clues.
The silvery-white, curved lines resemble long filaments drawn out when plastic softens, and are not very noticeable on the gray-black metal plate.
“There are cracks here,” Liang Jun said in a deep voice, then closed her eyes and calmly analyzed the noise that was amplified countless times in her ears. “If nothing unexpected happens, there should be more in other places.”
Like a thunderclap from a clear sky, the little oxygen left in the carriage was burned away, and everyone felt unable to breathe.
The emotions that had temporarily stabilized were once again on edge. Everyone tacitly divided the tasks—the players on the sides checked the gaps at the connection points of the carriages, while the players in the middle mainly examined the internal structure of the carriages.
Liang Jun, who was standing guard on the side, was still trying to keep the sliding door stable.
She felt that the five minutes at the summit were especially long.
The elevator car showed no signs of stopping; in fact, it not only swayed back and forth like a pirate ship, but also swayed violently from side to side.
Xin Sang was so engrossed in finding the crack that he was completely unaware of the sudden attack from the elevator car. He was thrown heavily against the sliding door, and his left temple slammed directly into the glass.
A tingling, electric-like sensation spread from his temples throughout his body. Xin Sang gasped in pain, feeling as if the earth was shaking before his eyes.
But there was no more time for her to calm down.
Xin Sang shook his head, pressed himself against the sliding door, and once again immersed himself in his original task.
"I have cracks here too!" Gu Keke, who was in the center, suddenly shouted.
Her upper body was almost completely folded down to her thighs as she looked down and carefully examined the connection between the seat and the floor. "This crack is quite long. It feels like the seat is about to fall off."
Like the first step in the successful completion of the plan, players soon discovered new cracks inside the elevator car one after another.
The more we discover, the more it means that this space is no longer safe.
"There's a crack at the connection point on my side too."
Qi Zhixia, sitting at the innermost part of the carriage, composed herself and gestured to Lao Ren opposite her, "Do you have cracks on your side too?"
Reminded, Lao Ren hurriedly looked up at the diagonal angle of his field of vision, and after observing the result, he could only nod.
Qi Zhixia's heart skipped a beat.
"The crack has been severed, and the situation is not optimistic."
She tilted her head slightly, reaching out to touch the winding crawling insects that stretched to the top, her gaze following her fingers.
But just as those gray-blue pupils settled on the ceiling of the elevator car, Qi Zhixia's expression became increasingly unpleasant.
If we were to compare their Ferris wheel cabin to a seemingly sturdy cardboard box, then now, this once-sealed cardboard box is no longer airtight, and the tape wrapped around the opening is no longer secure.
The top of the cardboard box was slightly off, revealing a small but noticeable gap.
It is precisely this gap that allows fresh air from the outside to circulate with the interior of the car, preventing everyone from suffocating in this space.
However, it is precisely this gap that puts the entire carriage in a precarious situation, where it could "fall off at any moment," effectively sending all the players to their deaths.
The gap in the metal cover opened directly towards the sliding door. Liang Jun only needed to look up slightly to see the broken piece of the carriage.
The silver-gray ceiling had been lifted by nearly half. The support arm hanging above the car was now exposed to Liang Jun's view.
This is the only connection between the gondola and the Ferris wheel frame.
But now, it can only hang more than 200 meters in the air, like a small fishing boat sailing on the sea during a storm, swaying endlessly.
"Click—"
It was that familiar voice again.
Liang Jun's pupils dilated instantly.
She now realized that this was not the natural mechanical friction sound of a Ferris wheel in motion, but the tearing sound of the metal cover breaking apart from nothing.
"Quickly, sit inside!"
Liang Jun urged loudly, "Sitting on the outside will only worsen the roof's fracture. If the car and the support arm completely separate, none of us will survive!"
Facing the inside of the sedan chair, she didn't stop what she was doing. She grabbed Ge Lin and Luo Chuange's sleeves and pushed the two grown men inside.
However, transferring passengers would inevitably cause the elevator car to shake even more violently. In addition, the ordeal at the top was far from over, and the elevator car itself shook even more severely, making it impossible for passengers to even stand upright.
At this point, nearly half of the interior space was unusable, and what was once more than enough space now became impossible to walk on.
Liang Jun barely managed to steady herself by supporting herself against the wall of the sedan chair.
She turned around, ready to reach out to help Xin Sang, who had just gotten up, but an unexpected incident occurred at that moment.
As if anticipating everyone's movements, the sedan chair began to sway dramatically from side to side at the exact same time Xin Sang was acting.
Xin Sang lost his balance, and coupled with the dizziness he was already feeling from the Ferris wheel, he instantly lost control and fell backward.
As if things weren't going to get worse, the non-automatic sliding doors of the elevator had already been shaken open by countless bumps. When Xin Sang fell, she instinctively braced herself against the glass of the sliding door behind her, but little did she know that this action would only make matters worse.
Without the sealing strip, the non-automatic sliding door was opened with ease.
None of the things Xin Sang expected happened.
Her back suddenly lurched downwards, her feet lost their footing, and she was instantly swept up by the night wind high in the air. Her long, fiery red curly hair danced wildly in the wind, just like the still-wriggling vines.
"careful!"
Liang Yan's reaction speed far surpassed that of everyone else present.
She was the first to notice Xin Sang's contorted figure. Almost without thinking, Liang Jun instinctively lunged forward, trying to grab him.
But her efforts were no match for the opponent's freefall. Liang Jun made a seemingly reckless lunge, and her hands did manage to grab Xin Sang's ankles, but as a price, nearly half of her body was also dangling out of the sedan chair.
The sheet metal on the elevator car floor felt like a sharp blade, scraping back and forth across Liang Jun's chest.
The edge of the sheet metal was deeply embedded in her flesh, and apart from the excruciating pain, Liang Jun had no time to feel anything else.
She groaned softly as the night wind blew upwards, carrying the distinctive smell of rust into her throat.
"Hold on..." Liang Jun gritted her teeth and gripped the ankle tightly with both hands.
Xin Sang, who was hanging upside down outside the sedan chair, had a heart rate approaching 160.
All the blood rushed into her brain, which was about to explode, and Xin Sang's fair face turned red, almost indistinguishable from her own hair color.
The inside of the sedan chair immediately descended into chaos.
Everyone panicked when Xin Sang fell out of the sedan chair, and went completely mad when Liang Yan was suspended in the air.
In comparison, young people's minds react faster.
Ge Lin rushed to Liang Xun's side first, and with her feet firmly hooked on the seat support to make sure she wouldn't fall, she stretched out her arms to grab Xin Sang's other leg, which was bending in the air.
"Sister Xin, give me your leg right now!"
Ge Lin shouted desperately towards the outside of the sedan chair, and when he turned around, he caught sight of Liang Jun's liver-colored face, and his heart trembled even more, "Quickly, pull Sister Jun away!"
The remaining few people, who were still stunned, finally came to their senses.
Jiang Zhiling, Luo Chuange, and Lao Ren immediately surrounded Liang Jun. The so-called taboo of "men and women not touching" had long since disappeared among them; the group immediately grabbed Liang Jun's legs and waist, desperately trying to pull her back from the brink of death.
Old Ren seemed to have returned to the days of dragging pig legs in the market, straining so hard that veins bulged on his face, as if his blood vessels were at risk of bursting at any moment.
The muscles in his arms tensed, and Old Ren forced out a sound through clenched teeth, "Little Liang...doesn't Little Liang have a guardian spirit that can save lives? Why isn't he showing up now?!"
Amidst the noise, Gu Keke caught Lao Ren's grumbling and couldn't help but feel anxious, "Guardian spirits can't appear anytime they want. Are we just going to watch Sister Jun die like this?!"
Qi Zhixia was nearly thrown to her knees by the jolting of the sedan chair. In order to take care of the injured and reduce unnecessary trouble, Gu Keke had no choice but to stay by her side.
Even with everyone's help, Liang Jun was still unable to pull Xin Sang back into the sedan chair.
The Ferris wheel continued to sway, and each violent sway from side to side rendered all their previous efforts futile.
Qi Zhixia, who was at the innermost part of the carriage, was not idle either. Her gray-blue pupils were fixed on the metal cover above the carriage, reporting the extent of the cracks in the metal cover to the other players in real time.
Despite the violent shaking, the cracks in the ceiling spread faster than Qi Zhixia had anticipated.
She clung tightly to the lever embedded in the car wall, unwilling but forced to speak: "The ceiling is about to be torn open."
Qi Zhixia felt as if a wad of cotton was stuffed in her throat.
She turned her head away, but the second half of the sentence she had prepared earlier simply wouldn't come out—
"The elevator car is about to fall."
But actually, she doesn't need to say it; everyone can understand and sense it.
As the cracks in the metal cover gradually widened, the elevator car tilted outward at an extremely exaggerated angle. Players lying prone on the ground felt this most acutely; if they didn't fight against the reaction force, they would inevitably be thrown out of the elevator car like garbage, driven by gravity, and fall into the morgue, which was over two hundred meters high.
After all their efforts, death was within their grasp.
Ge Lin was naturally unwilling to accept this outcome.
The seat that held his feet in place had begun to loosen, so Ge Lin had no choice but to grit his teeth and pull with all his might towards the back of the car.
At an age when he could still indulge in his youthful exuberance, every word he uttered seemed to be filled with the passionate spirit of an anime protagonist.
"We've come this far, we can't afford to fail here!"
Luo Chuange didn't mean to discourage him, but he had no choice.
"If we save our energy from shouting slogans, maybe we still have hope."
Is there really still hope?
The answer is obvious.
Liang Yan's chest was constantly being squeezed by the floor, and her arms were constantly exerting force, but what she got in return was soreness in her joints and numbness in her muscles.
Her limbs seemed to be out of control of her brain, and Liang Jun even had the illusion that she wanted to let go of her hands.
The "click" sound of the metal cover cracking was like the death knell of death. It seemed that every cell in Liang Jun's body had been hollowed out and occupied, collectively playing the "prelude" to her demise.
But almost in the blink of an eye, Liang Yan seized the opportunity.
The decibel level of the background noise in the "prelude" is gradually increasing, and this rustling sound seems to be a precursor to replacing the cracking sound of metal.
Following her posture, Liang Jun looked down into the bottom of the sedan chair, where a section of decaying, fluorescent vine came into view.
Her grip remained firm, her piercing gaze fixed intently on the wriggling vines.
If his memory had not been wrong before, the vines had clearly climbed around the sedan chair, so why did they suddenly appear like a spider web at this moment?
Liang Jun had a question in her mind, so she lowered her head and looked down at the number four sedan chair not far below her.
The metal cover of car number four blocked all prying eyes, but that was enough—the vines spreading on the support arm did not extend to the other car, and everything maintained a strange balance of quiet, just as Liang Jun had guessed.
However, the differences are not so simple.
The decaying vines, which had been moving at a leisurely pace, suddenly sprouted like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, climbing rapidly up every part of the carriage like tentacles.
When the vines snaked their way to the glass of the elevator car, Qi Zhixia and Gu Keke, who were standing guard inside, were both startled.
They stared intently at the rapidly spreading tentacles, watching them leave behind a translucent, viscous liquid in their path, and then watching them wriggle and gather at the top of the carriage.
These decaying vines, as if receiving some kind of collective command, sprouted in abundance on the main body of car number three.
They covered the outside of the car in circles, and once the three glass walls were completely enclosed, that familiar feeling of suffocation and oppression came back once again.
Gu Keke's voice trembled uncontrollably, "The ceiling... the ceiling has been covered!"
This undoubtedly gave everyone on the ground a shot of adrenaline.
Liang Jun also noticed that the tilt of the sedan chair was gradually leveling out. Once the pleasant rustling sounds completely drowned out the annoying noises, she took a deep breath and shouted, "At this moment! One, two, three—pull!"
With the swaying of the sedan chair restrained, everyone worked together and finally managed to pull Liang Xun and Xin Sang, who was completely suspended in mid-air, back to safety.
Liang Xun's entire face was a horrifying dark red, and her hands were swollen from exertion and blood engorgement. Xin Sang was even more disheveled, her fiery red curly hair blown into a mohawk by the wind, her upper body was swollen from hanging upside down, and she looked completely listless.
Ge Lin, who was closest to the sliding door, took on the task of cleaning up the mess.
After confirming that the number of players was correct, Ge Lin casually swept away all the dry vines near the sliding door and, without saying a word, tightly closed the two glass doors again.
Inside the carriage, the sounds of people struggling to breathe rose and fell.
Ge Lin slumped back into his seat. The previously loose chair was now held in place by vines that had inexplicably sprouted.
He hadn't been sweating much before, but now that the adrenaline was subsiding, a layer of cold sweat suddenly broke out on Ge Lin's forehead.
He casually wiped his forehead with his hand, only to find that some thread-like stuff was stuck to it.
Ge Lin curiously picked it up, held his fingers up to the light, and carefully examined the object at his fingertips.
Coffee brown and brownish-yellow intertwine.
Perhaps it was hemp rope wrapped around vines, but it felt much softer to the touch.
Ge Lin wasn't sure, "This is... a horse's mane?"
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The author says: Tonight I had hot pot, a pack of Shin Ramyun, and a piece of durian at home.
I feel like I haven't eaten this much in all these days combined. My stomach is so full it's round and bulging. I just want to sleep as soon as I lie down on the bed, and as soon as I close my eyes, I feel incredibly sleepy...
In addition, you absolutely must not stay up late.
I feel terrible; I experience heart-wrenching pains almost every day, and my fitness tracker is constantly giving me warnings. I really need to go to bed earlier from now on (I swear).
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