Chapter 37: Breathing Swing
【Dry period】
Clear sky, sunrise, and a sharp rise in temperature.
The remaining zombies hung their heads and crawled slowly and twistedly on the steep slope at the edge of the village.
The dark swarm of zombies, like birds returning to their nests, gradually disappeared into the gray forest on the top of the mountain.
It was as if the sudden downpour last night had never fallen. The rainwater that had accumulated on the ground a few hours ago was quickly absorbed by the strange temple. The Buddha statues disappeared one by one, and the bodies of the players hanging on the gallows in the center of the temple turned to ashes.
Not even a speck of blood was left.
The world seemed to have returned to its original state.
Yellow sand was whistling, and everyone's face was covered with a layer of fine sand. The liquid sticking to their bodies was not sure whether it was sweat or blood.
There were a few black spots scattered on the scorching ground, most of them were players who died last night. Occasionally, there was a little tremor in the static, which was the lucky survivor who was hiding in the shadow in front of the house and gasping for breath like a disabled dog.
The rainy night passed, but the player was thrown into warm water composed of painful high fever and exhausted bodies, and was cooked without realizing it.
They dared not close their eyes for a whole day and night, and despite their very poor physical condition, they still had to keep their nerves tense.
It has been more than 24 hours since all players last ate.
Sun Yuancheng huddled in the corner, his right palm slightly bent, his eyes looked around twice, then slowly put his palm to his mouth, then a small but cool liquid slowly flowed into his long-dried throat.
He was lucky and drew the "rich man" water at the beginning. He still had 18.75L of water left, and there were still two days before the normal end of the copy.
Despite this, yesterday he barely drank any water except for moistening the sand. Without knowing what might go wrong in the future, being cautious and frugal is still the best option.
Moreover, it can be expected that as the number of days spent in the copy increases, the average daily water consumption will only increase, not decrease.
The water shortage barely bothered him, but...
He touched his stomach which was protesting with hunger.
After the last dungeon ended, Sun Yuancheng returned to the virtual world and frantically studied dungeon-related knowledge with the belief that "if you don't study, you will die". He learned that except for the famine dungeon, other dungeons basically did not have "starving players to death" as their main goal.
This instance prohibits players from using the food in their backpacks, but there is definitely food, most likely obtained from NPCs...
How to get it? What can I get?
Sun Yuancheng recalled the unknown meat that the old woman cooked in the house last night.
He felt nauseous at the time, but now thinking about it...
His Adam's apple rolled and his mouth shamefully gushed out saliva craving for food.
He couldn't control this strong physiological reaction caused by hunger... and he was sure that if the old woman cooked again tonight, even if the pot contained human flesh, he would be able to swallow it with his eyes closed.
The world is big, but being able to survive is the most important thing.
His cheek was pressed against the loess wall that had begun to heat up, his breathing gradually subsided, and he seemed about to fall asleep.
"My life is worthless... I want to die sooner... I should go to hell... I just hope you're alive... my child..."
There was someone next to him trembling and muttering to himself. Sun Yuancheng barely raised one eyelid to take a look at the man and found that he was so haggard that his whole body looked like a skeleton with human skin hanging on it. Because of the fever, his face was red and swollen, his eyes were bloodshot, and the skin on the back of his neck was even burned by the rain to the point of rotting and cracking, with flesh and blood wriggling inside.
It looks like he won't live long.
Sun Yuancheng was frightened and perked up. He swallowed his saliva in fear and subconsciously shrank to the other side.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he moved, someone suddenly grabbed his ankle.
“Please.” The man curled up in pain, and with trembling hands he grabbed Sun Yuancheng’s trouser legs. He raised his head slightly with a miserable expression, “I don’t want to live anymore, but this child…”
Sun Yuancheng was startled. The man turned his body in an arc, revealing the shivering little girl who had been hiding behind him.
Child? Girl? Sun Yuancheng frowned.
Is he a gamer? A gamer this young?
If not a player... a villager? But there seemed to be no children in this village... He recalled the side quest he had unexpectedly taken on last night and temporarily suppressed the doubts in his heart.
The little girl was about seven or eight years old. After a day of playing in the dungeon, her hair and face were disheveled, her pink skirt had several fist-sized holes, and her lips were bloodless from excessive hunger. However, her mental state seemed to be pretty good.
No fever.
Maybe this person protected her very well.
Somehow, when Sun Yuancheng saw her, he thought of the missing Li Ziyue, and a wave of sadness rose in his heart.
The fact that he was not abnormal except for being exhausted was also thanks to Li Ziyue. Without Li Ziyue's protection, he might have died of fever a long time ago...
The man fell to the ground, face down, his whole body shaking, sobbing sound came from the other side: "There will be a competition for food later... I hope the two of us can be in the same team... I won't compete with you for food, I just ask you to give this child a bite after you get the food..."
Sun Yuancheng looked hesitant: "...I may not be honest, why would you believe me?"
The man shook his head helplessly: "I don't have much energy to test... Look at me..."
He revealed his skin which was tortured by the rain and was a horrible mess of blood and flesh. Sun Yuancheng sniffed nervously, and before he could say anything, he heard him suddenly change the subject.
“Is there someone you can’t let go of?”
Sun Yuancheng was stunned.
Why are you saying this suddenly?
The man leaned against the wall, looking at the yellow sand on the other side, with a lonely expression: "You know in your heart that if we didn't have someone we couldn't let go of, we wouldn't have been chosen as players."
Sun Yuancheng lowered his head and rarely spoke a word.
"It's this child that I'm worried about..." He sighed, "She looks exactly like my deceased daughter... I don't know if this is God's will or..."
The man choked as he spoke because he was really dehydrated. His throat was stuck and he cried painfully for a few times, but no tears came out.
Sun Yuancheng seemed to be watching a sad and powerless pantomime.
"In my current state, I won't be able to grab any food in the next round. Instead of struggling in vain, I might as well take a gamble..."
"It doesn't matter if you betray me in the end." He closed his eyes. "I'm just seeking psychological compensation... When my daughter was still alive, I was too harsh on her and owed her too much. I have always felt guilty. I didn't expect that before I died, I could save a child who looks exactly like her..."
His shriveled hands barely covered his blood-stained face as he cried tearlessly, his upper body shrinking into a tiny shrimp.
Sun Yuancheng remained silent, with a hint of sadness and concern in his eyes.
After a long silence, he pursed his lips, turned his eyes away, and his voice trembled a little in the yellow sand: "...Okay."
"Thank you... Thank you!" The man cried with joy, "My name is Wang Qi, and this child is Wang Ya. Wang Ya, say thank you to your brother."
Wang Ya came over timidly, holding Sun Yuancheng's shirt with her little hands, and her childish voice reached his ears: "Thank you...brother."
Big and warm tears rolled down Sun Yuancheng's wrist. He panicked for a moment and shook his head quickly: "It's okay, it's okay... Don't cry, don't cry..."
The girl wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with her hands stained with yellow mud, but her eyes became even redder and she looked like a poor deer trapped in a trap.
Sun Yuancheng felt more and more bitter. He turned his head away, not daring to look the girl in the eye.
However, it was much later that he understood the true meaning of those tears.
They were not tears of sadness, nor were they tears of genuine gratitude.
Those were the hypocritical tears that a crocodile sheds before swallowing a person, pretending to be sympathetic.
Just as the three of them reached an agreement, they heard a shrill sound of gongs and drums coming from the open space ahead.
The sound was sharp and long, and the echo lingered for a long time, frightening Sun Yuancheng so much that his hair stood on end. Looking up, he saw that two swings stretching as far as the eye could see had been built in the open space at some point.
The two swings were surrounded by iron railings, and the young man beating the drum was standing in front of the railings.
Sun Yuancheng remembered him. He was Qian Wanlong, the old woman's son, who had given them an umbrella last night.
Qian Wanlong held a broken ceramic bowl in his hand, with an ambiguous smile on his face: "Thank you all for fair reporting of the murderer of the bride last night. The evil god is very happy. In order to thank you, he specially sent everyone food."
just?
The light in Sun Yuancheng's eyes gradually dimmed.
How can we talk about justice? Without any other evidence, as long as everyone opens the door and sees the player and the dead bride in the same room, they can directly sentence the player to be guilty.
Maybe there really is a murderer among them, but... I'm more afraid that he has been slandered and framed.
He couldn't forget the sinister smiles he saw in the crowd last night. The smugness on the real murderer's face could not be hidden.
However, no one reported them. The players and villagers who broke into the room seemed to be crazy. They grabbed the people in the room and dragged them out without thinking. The "murderers" were restrained in their movements and were left with only screaming voices and bloodshot eyes.
They were tied to the gallows, staring with wide eyes as their necks were strangled by the thick ropes that were wrapped around them several times...
The screams and roaring thunder were drowned out by the heavy rain.
And the next level is the ridiculous congratulations that the system transfers points for completing tasks into your account.
The cold rain of the night seemed to splash on the side of his face again, and then he felt a burning pain, and a strong smell of blood suddenly came into his nose.
His heart gradually grew heavy as he looked towards the two swings.
This open space was originally the site of a temple, and the location of these two swings... if I'm not mistaken, is right near the gallows.
Another form of gallows.
As soon as Qian Wanlong finished speaking, everyone smelled a sticky sweet smell of food in the air. The unconscious player couldn't help but grin at the swing, with large streams of saliva slowly flowing from the corners of his lips.
Then, the system prompt sounded in everyone's mind.
[Congratulations to the player for triggering the "Breathing Swing" side quest]
[Mission Difficulty: Two Stars (The starving dog is waiting for the human who falls off the swing. The right to enjoy food has never been given to humans alone)]
[Task requirements: Two players form a team, sit on the swing, and try to swing to eat the food hanging in the "sky". The task is over after eating. (This task is not mandatory, and players can choose whether to complete the task)]
[Task Reward: Rich Food (can be stored in backpack for one day)]
[Task reminder: When the player is at the lowest point of the swing, the dog has a certain probability of biting the player and pulling him off the swing. The number of dogs under the player's swing is uncertain, and the dogs like to gather under the slow players.]
The mission difficulty is two stars.
Sun Yuancheng looked up at the swing above. There were only a few thin wooden sticks tied together on both sides of the swing, and the rope that provided the player with stable balance was just a simple hemp rope that looked like it would break if pulled.
Further up, the dazzling sunlight obstructed his vision. Sun Yuancheng squinted his eyes and could vaguely see a ball of pink floating in the air.
It was still unclear what it was, but perhaps because he remembered the tragic scene of yesterday, Sun Yuancheng was pessimistic and did not think it was a good thing.
He glanced around and found that many players were staring at the swing, but there were still a few players lying there motionless.
Last night's bride rescue mission caused many people to suffer. As the saying goes, "Once bitten by a snake, one will be afraid of ropes for ten years." Waiting and watching has become the best option for some players.
Qian Wanlong urged impatiently: "The amount of food that everyone can get will be reduced in the order in which they participate."
"I don't recommend you to just stand by and watch today," Qian Wanlong sneered, "The food will only get less and less. Tomorrow when you sit on the swing again, you may only get half a hard bun if you work very hard."
The crowd began to whisper.
Wang Qi leaned towards Sun Yuancheng in panic. Perhaps because of the severe high fever, his throat seemed unable to make normal speaking sounds.
“…”
"What?" Sun Yuancheng looked at him in confusion.
But he closed his eyes and shed tears, took Sun Yuancheng's hand with his scarred hands, and waved to Qian Wanlong.
“Than…Than…”
"We go first!"
Another voice sounded.
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