Chapter 10: The First Item: Deserted City Notes
Chen Li walked alone in the huge city for a long time until he heard a warning sound coming from the front.
"Whoever you are, don't come over here."
The voice did not belong to anyone he knew. Shen Li felt that this person should be another survivor in the city.
"Sorry, I'm just passing by."
He was holding a bunch of first aid items he had collected in his arms. He walked a few steps to the side and heard rustling footsteps coming from all around him.
There was even a slight smell of blood, so I asked very friendly: "Are any of you hurt? I have some extra bandages here."
Who knew that after hearing what he said, the people around him were like cats with their fur standing on end.
"Don't go over there! He's fake, he's fake!"
"Yes, those monsters will imitate human voices to trick us into passing by!"
"If you think about it carefully, you will understand. There are monsters everywhere. It is impossible for a normal person to walk around safely..."
Without waiting for Chen Li to speak, the leader suddenly shouted, "Do it!"
These people had rich survival experience and knew that the monster's weakness was that it was afraid of fire. They took their homemade incendiary bottles, lit them on fire, and were about to smash them in the direction of Chen Li.
"Wait!" Another voice came from behind the crowd.
Although he was blind, he had amazing hearing and recognized the sound of Shen Li's footsteps. He knew that if it was him, he could have walked around all night and still be safe and sound.
Even more favorable evidence was the map tattoo on his forearm, where one spot was painful all night.
No monster except him can imitate this strange mosquito-coil-like movement trajectory.
"Bang."
Without waiting any longer, the burning bottle fell to the ground, bringing with it a burst of fire.
The people around could feel the scorching heat of the fire. Listening carefully, the monster seemed to be no longer talking. It must be dead.
"It's too close to us. To be on the safe side, use a few more Molotov cocktails."
"I said wait." The blind man was a little angry. Why were these people so stupid and didn't listen to his advice?
"He said wait." Shen Li agreed from the opposite side.
Blind man: "Shut up!"
What on earth was he thinking? He should be thankful that he didn't get burned to death just now, and he dared to agree with others?
The red-haired man caused a car accident and caused all the members to be killed, so the blind man felt that the team was unreliable and left the team immediately.
He met these survivors on the road, and in just one night, his status jumped up. Although he is not the leader now, he has enough say.
“He’s my teammate.”
The blind man saved the man with just one sentence, and the other survivors did not touch him again.
The Asphalt People around them had been cleared out of an area using Molotov cocktails, and this was their base.
There were burnt-out car frames blocking the intersection in front and behind, and buildings on both sides, leaving only a small gap, and Chen Li had to grope his way in and out.
There was a bonfire in the middle and everyone gathered around the heat source.
This little bit of warmth is the only comfort when I can’t see anything else.
The blind man asked Chen Li to sit down and rest for a while.
The man who had hit him with a burning bottle was called Feng Rao. He greeted him across the campfire, his voice a little hoarse.
"Fortunately I couldn't see it and didn't throw it accurately, otherwise I would really be sorry for you. By the way, you said just now that you have a bandage?"
After apologizing, I must first grab some money.
Someone in their team was injured and needed bandages urgently.
Shen Li sat on the hard bricks and gave them several rolls of bandages and iodine.
The two sides showed goodwill to each other, and the people around him finally stopped being hostile to him.
"I heard from Brother Xia that you are his teammate on this delivery mission?"
Fengrao is a person who is very wary of outsiders.
Chen Li nodded subconsciously, but the other party couldn't see it and thought he was pretending to be cool by keeping silent.
"Let me be clear. Several of us here used to be couriers, and we all delivered that notebook."
"We failed in our missions, but we are still alive here."
Feng Rao rubbed his hands in front of the campfire and said, "Oh, by the way, you still don't know where you are now, right?"
He wanted to keep the secret and appear to be in possession of crucial information.
The blind man next to him handed over a steaming hot bun, and Chen Li took it in his hand and took a bite.
The warm food slid down his esophagus into his stomach, filling up the hunger that had tormented him all night.
Chen Li chewed the food in his mouth carefully and swallowed it. He ignored the other party's attempt to keep him in suspense and directly expressed his thoughts.
"We all touched the notebook, so we're all stuck in the notebook."
He actually knew.
Fengrao frowned.
He didn't like Chen Li using the word "trapped".
It might be a trap for him and the blind man, but for them who have lived here for several years, this place is a gift from God.
The blind man next to him was also frowning.
The buns were his food this morning, and he roasted them carefully for a long time beside the campfire.
But after meeting Chen Li, he handed it over naturally.
The blind man examined himself and realized that he had always been selfish and kept to himself, and was not the kind of person who would be nice to others.
He was still hungry, so why was he so bewildered as to give away his breakfast?
Chen Li, who was standing next to him, had his mouth full of buns and choked, then coughed.
When the blind man came to his senses, he had already handed over his water bottle...
Tsk, what's with this sudden servility? I really want to chop off my hands!
"To be honest, there were actually dozens of couriers who survived in the book world at the beginning. But as you can see, it's not peaceful here, and now there are only a few of us left."
Fengrao explained things clearly and concisely.
When delivering the package, they thought they would die if the mission failed, but God played a joke on them and made them live in the world inside the notebook.
But the joy of survival could not last long.
Every once in a while, some rules appear in this world.
The predecessors died one by one, but they also gradually mastered the rules of survival in this world.
They are living a lingering life, but that is also living.
After a heart-to-heart talk, Feng Rao finally asked tentatively:
“Actually, I’ve always wondered, in the real world, are we really dead?”
Alarm bells rang in the blind man's mind.
These people are indeed dead in the real world.
But if we tell the truth, they will regard the world in the book as their last hope, and only hope that everything can remain the same. They absolutely do not want them to complete the delivery mission successfully and destroy this world.
If you answer some questions incorrectly, you will have to pay the price.
He could certainly handle it, but Shen Li...
Oops, this guy doesn't look like a liar.
He grabbed Chen Li's wrist to hint him not to talk nonsense, but Chen Li thought he was here to ask for the kettle, so he returned the empty kettle to him and said thank you to him.
The blind man bit his back teeth.
"I don't know. In fact, this is my first time delivering a package." Shen Li replied.
Fortunately you didn't know! The blind man breathed a sigh of relief.
Feng Rao began to question the authenticity of Shen Li's answer.
"How many years has Yunxu been destroyed? Is this your first delivery?"
"Three years." The blind man tried to smooth things over. "In the first half of the year, the world was in a mess. Currency was invalid, there was an overpopulation, and resources were scarce. Later, Wuliang Express sealed off some humans to alleviate the scarcity of resources. He just unsealed it, so many things are not very clear. If you ask me, I will know."
"I don't know the consequences of failing other missions, but I know this one. Those who failed to deliver the package became vegetative, as if they had lost their souls and only their bodies were still alive."
"Vegetative?"
"Yes, if you complete the delivery mission, you may wake up, so let's cooperate and exchange information."
If you make things too absolute, the other party will not believe it, so the blind man used "maybe he will wake up" as bait.
Abundance may waver because of "maybe", but as long as there are enough chips, they can gamble with their lives.
"You all probably have families, don't you want to see them again? Do you want to be trapped in this place forever?"
The blind man seemed to be eager to help them analyze the pros and cons, and then asked in return: "If it was the Peach Blossom Spring, it would be fine, but is this the Peach Blossom Spring?"
Feng Rao did not give an immediate answer, and even said perfunctorily: "I'll think about it."
The blind man didn't waste any more words.
What family! Parents, wife, children...
In front of people who are used to seeing life and death, family affection is not the heaviest weight.
In order to survive, they can give up everything.
They are the same kind of people, extremely selfish.
Fengrao was wavering because he didn't believe they could successfully complete the delivery mission.
And Chen Li was the weight he was about to put on the scale—the weight that would overturn the balance.
The blind man picked up his cane and poked Chen Li's spine, "Then you take your time to think about it. Chen Li, let's go and meet up with Hong Mao and the others."
Fengzao stood up and extended an olive branch, "Actually, you can stay."
If you want to survive in this place, sticking together is the safest way.
"Stay and become one of us. We are familiar with every corner of this city and know how to deal with it when the rules come."
This is the real purpose of Fengzao taking them in.
He wanted to expand his team. The more people there were, the higher the chance of survival.
"Besides...it's so dangerous outside, are you sure you want to leave now? How about I send a few people to protect you?"
Fengrao felt that they had reached a dead end, so he felt very confident in absorbing this group of new people.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated.
The blind man asked Shen Li seemingly casually: "Is it dangerous outside?"
Shen Li: “Not dangerous.”
Blind man: "Let's go then."
"Wait a moment!"
This answer was beyond his expectation. Fengrao asked anxiously:
"There are monsters everywhere outside, how can it not be dangerous?"
Shen Li: "Oh, I accidentally killed a monster last night."
"Just one?" Feng Rao laughed, "Do you know how many monsters our team killed last night?"
"I don't know how many you killed."
Chen Li could not hear the meaning of Feng Rao's words that he wanted to show off first and then take advantage of others, so he just told the truth:
"I only killed one, and they no longer dared to stand in my way, so this journey was safe."
Fengrao couldn't laugh anymore.
But the blind man smiled particularly brightly at this moment.
Because he seemed to hear the sound of weights falling heavily.
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