Chapter 1: The First Item: Deserted City Notes
2023.7.31
No one knows what is in the thick fog.
Everyone had been staring at the white mist outside the doors and windows for half an hour.
It seems as if he is looking forward to something, but is also afraid of its arrival.
The air humidity outside the post station was too high. Everything around was soaked in fog, and the walls were covered with mottled water stains.
The fog was so pervasive that closing the door was of no use.
Someone glanced at his watch nervously, "The handover time is almost here, why hasn't it arrived yet?"
The young man with dyed red hair took out a can of chewing gum with trembling hands, poured out seven or eight gums like pills, stuffed them into his mouth and chewed them hard.
He puffed up his cheeks like a frightened roe deer, stared out the window with a pair of bloodshot eyes, and spoke incoherently.
"That team couldn't have been... wiped out..."
There was a blind man standing by the door, dressed in unlucky black. He heard the noise outside the door before the others, and tapped his cane to remind everyone:
“Here I come.”
"Bang!"
A bloody hand slammed heavily on the glass door.
The figure of the owner of the bloody hand gradually emerged from the thick fog.
Before anyone could see his face clearly, the hand slid down continuously, leaving an elongated bloody handprint on the door, and then he fell to the ground with a look of pain on his face.
act recklessly.
Three years ago, the other world collapsed completely. Things that did not belong to this world were scattered everywhere. The world was in turmoil and strange things happened frequently.
Wuliang Express came into being, announcing that the world has entered the era of universal delivery.
All the chosen people must be forced to deliver the items back to their original world, otherwise they will be wiped out.
Because long-term contact with these strange objects has such serious side effects, the delivery task is often completed by several teams of couriers.
This time they were responsible for the second half of the journey.
If any party fails to complete the relay and the delivery fails, everyone will die.
Through the glass door of the post station, you can see the blood-covered man holding a box tightly.
The style of the box is very familiar to everyone.
That is a special box made by Wuliang Express.
In addition to the dark red symbols on the box, the opening should be sealed with a talisman to reduce side effects.
But at this moment, the box was covered in blood, the seal had long disappeared, and no one knew whether the contents of the box were still there.
There were only a few minutes left in the countdown for the handover, but no one dared to step forward.
While everyone was engaged in a fierce ideological struggle, the aroma of instant noodles quietly filled the station.
"No, what time is it now? Who the hell still has the mind to eat instant noodles!" Red Hair cursed angrily.
Everyone turned around and looked back.
Chen Li blew away the hot steam from the instant noodles and clumsily stuffed the noodles into his mouth.
After feeling the pressure from his teammates' gazes, he put down his fork uncomfortably and asked a simple but sincere question:
“Why does this taste bland?”
The red-haired man answered him through gritted teeth: "No seasoning packet?"
Shen Li glanced at the powder bag next to him and smiled politely, "Ah... So that's how it is, thank you."
This sentence of thanks made his teammates so grateful that their faces turned blue.
How can there be such a person without common sense!
"There are only thirty seconds left. What are you still dawdling about? There are so many men in the room, so fussy, take the case first!"
The black-haired girl with a high ponytail couldn't bear to watch it anymore, so she opened the door in the last few seconds and picked up the monster box without hesitation.
The moment her hand touched the box, the unknown patterns all over the box spread along her fingertips and onto her arm in an instant.
"hiss……"
The pain came too suddenly.
The totems spreading across the forearms seemed to be carved with a knife, one stroke at a time, simultaneously engraved on everyone's left arm.
Blood dripped and everyone was swept by pain.
Someone was squatting on the ground groaning.
Some people broke out in a cold sweat due to the pain.
Someone screamed.
Someone is...slurping noodles...
Fortunately, the severe pain did not last long.
After the engraving was completed, the bloody wounds on everyone's forearms stopped bleeding as if they had been burned.
The sunken wounds are interwoven into a complex map. This is a very large city.
The small square is the post station, and various colored light spots are buried under the skin, corresponding to the five people in the post station at the moment.
When people move, the light moves.
The huge electronic screen in the station suddenly lit up.
[You have completed the handover of the current section of the road, and the progress of this delivery is 1/2]
[Item name: Notebook]
[Item Type: Resentful Item]
[Recipient: Unknown]
[Side effects: If you stay around this item for a long time, you will be eroded by resentment, usually with adverse reactions such as headaches, mental confusion, and memory loss.]
[Delivery type: multi-person cooperative delivery]
[Number of failures: 89267]
[Map: Loaded]
[We are sorry that we are unable to plan a route for you because the recipient is unknown]
[Please ask all couriers to complete the delivery within 72 hours. Wish you a safe journey]
"It has failed more than 80,000 times, the side effects are so severe, and the recipient is still unknown?"
Redhead used his thumb to pick up the gum jar and poured a few more life-saving gum into his mouth.
They are not newbies.
Although I have sent other items before, I have seen dozens or hundreds of failures in the column.
Those that have failed thousands of times are already high-risk and have little hope of survival. As for those that have failed tens of thousands of times, it goes without saying.
The blind man standing by the door didn't look much better.
It’s easy to imagine that most of the more than 80,000 failures occurred in the second half of the journey.
He didn't say anything else, but just concentrated on rubbing the indented map on his arm to remember the route.
The girl with a high ponytail wore a cool work outfit and was very organized in her work.
After carefully placing the monster box on the table, he dragged the courier who had fallen outside the door back and checked his vital signs. He was still alive, but not far from death.
"I know this delivery mission is difficult, but I don't like waiting to die."
She wiped the blood off her hands without changing her expression and quickly glanced at everyone present.
"Just call me Li Danxin."
After she finished speaking, she pointed at the person who had been hiding in the darkest corner of the inn with his back to everyone.
"That's my brother Li Yixin."
In fact, if she hadn't pointed it out, no one would have realized the existence of that person.
Her brother's presence is 0!
Li Dangxin saw that everyone was looking at her brother, and quickly reminded everyone:
"My brother is socially anxious. You'd better not look at him no matter what. He feels uncomfortable."
Red Hair swallowed his gum, raised his thumb and pointed at the tip of his nose perfunctorily: "Just call me Red Hair."
After saying that, he raised his chin towards the blind man at the door.
Strangely enough, the blind man seemed to be able to see and was very cooperative, but he was unwilling to say more: "Kou Yuxin."
The only one left is the instant noodle guy.
But this relay of self-introductions came to an abrupt end when it came to him.
The red-haired man sneered and began to insult others: "Tell a joke, even a blind person can read people's expressions, but some people can't."
The instant noodle guy who had no good taste was wearing a very ordinary white T-shirt. His facial features were all very delicate when viewed individually, but when put together they looked plain and ordinary, which was a pity.
This person is probably nearsighted, as he sits very close to the screen when looking at it.
He ignored their self-introductions and just pointed at the two words "魍魉" on the screen and asked them: "How do you read these two words?"
Whoever pays attention to him is a dog!
The red-haired boy's eyes were almost rolling up to the sky.
"Socially phobic, blind, illiterate, thank nature for the gift! What else is there to send? I suggest suicide."
"Shhh."
Li carefully signaled Hongmao not to do any more harm.
"Did you hear any sound just now?"
There was a dead silence in the inn, and everyone was so nervous that even their breathing slowed down.
“Knock knock knock…”
It was an extremely light knocking sound, without much force, and with a hint of tentativeness.
The blind man had the best hearing and pointed in a direction with his stick.
What he was pointing at was the monster box that was placed on the table and no one was interested in it.
The originally dark box suddenly began to glow.
The dark red lines engraved on the box body quickly spread all over the box like water ripples, emitting an increasingly brighter light.
It was as if it was struggling with the things in the box.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The knocking sounds suddenly became louder and the whole box was vibrating.
Red Hair was so frightened that he took a few steps back and retreated to the wall of the post station, his hand trembling as he touched the chewing gum again.
"Without the seal, the box alone can no longer contain the things inside!" Li Dangxin reminded everyone.
Red Hair reacted immediately, rushed over to the bloody delivery man, grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently.
"Wake up! Where did you lose the seal? Where is the seal?"
How could the dying courier answer him when his eyes were rolled back, blood was gushing out of his mouth and nose, and his head was almost shaken off?
The knocking sounds became more and more frequent, and everyone stared at the monster box without daring to breathe.
Finally, after a brief pause, a crack appeared at the mouth of the box.
A finger like a dead branch poked out from the box, followed by a skinny, grayish-blue forearm...
The box was not big, and it was hard to imagine that such a long arm could fit inside.
It's not just the arm, it seems like a huge monster is about to come out from it.
The lid of the box rose and fell, and the entangling spell was still making its final effort, trying to seal back the thing that had crawled out a little.
But without the seal, the power will always be that little bit less, and at most it can only slow down the speed at which that thing crawls out.
"Bang!"
The second hand began to reach out.
Red Hair collapsed and questioned loudly:
"Didn't they say there was a notebook inside? Is this a notebook? Can this be a notebook?"
The item type is marked as a resentful object, so it must be related to resentful spirits.
The blind man held his stick tightly, ready to die.
The socially anxious person huddled in the corner and trembled, and Li Dangxin stood in front of her brother.
Now, they know how those previous failed couriers died.
The pressure and momentum that the vengeful spirit brought out were something they had never seen before. Just the exposure of one arm was enough to almost suffocate people.
Such a huge gap in strength made them gradually lose the desire to resist.
The side effects have already begun to appear.
My head hurts and fear seeps into my bones.
I felt depressed and vaguely forgot who I was. I wanted to escape, but I felt that it was unnecessary. I would die whether I struggled or not.
Li Dangxin shook his head in a daze. Through a table, he vaguely saw Instant Noodle Brother with a normal expression walking to the Wangling Box as if taking a stroll.
He tore off the hem of his clothes, bit his fingers, and wrote something on the strip of cloth.
He held the strip of cloth in his left hand and pressed the lid of the box with his right hand, then snapped it shut.
The action is as natural as closing the lid after eating instant noodles.
He clearly didn't use any force, but the box lid acted like a switch and directly cut off the monster's exposed arm.
A shrill scream came from the box.
The two skinny arms turned into a ball of black smoke and dissipated.
Along with it, the suffocating feeling of fear that weighed on everyone also dissipated.
Red Hair was stunned and had to look at him again:
The hem of the dress was torn in a very irregular way, turning it into a ridiculous belly-exposing outfit.
He was very thin, and the exposed skin had a sickly pale color.
He was concentrating on wrapping the strips of cloth around the box.
This person looks dull.
He had clearly done a great thing and saved everyone's lives, but there was no sign of it on his face.
He is not proud and does not seek credit.
There was no trace of the halo of a heroic rescuer or the joy of surviving a disaster on him.
The slightly revealed edge was soon replaced by a simple dullness, as if that moment of highlight was an illusion for everyone.
Hongmao and Li Dangxin looked at each other from a distance.
The post station is like a race track. Those who are smart and can read people’s expressions will always survive to the end.
"魍魉! Those two words are pronounced 魍魉!" Li Dangxin answered quickly.
Red Hair was a step behind because Sister Sa had stolen his lines. He let out a disgruntled "eh" and then stood up and added in a flattering tone:
"Wuangwang, Liaoyiangliang, Wuliang, hehehe."
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