Yinquan Town (9)
"Dead?" A middle-aged man held the gun nervously, shooting while staring at the direction of the explosion.
"That's right! Didn't you just hit their tire?" a woman next to her whispered.
"They can't be that weak. I heard that a top-ranked player came to this dungeon!" said another man, his tone full of disdain.
"So what! You still died under my gun!"
"After this round, our ranking might skyrocket!"
The three people obviously came out of another safe house to check the situation.
Hearing their words, Liang Qing laughed angrily. She threw a new gun to Alan, and when she saw Alan raising the gun to shoot the three of them, she held Alan's hand.
"No, let's have some fun."
Liang Qing suddenly threw three red flares from the window, landing squarely where the three men were standing. Originally, these three men had emerged from behind the zombies, sniping them with silenced rifles, but no one had anticipated that three flares would reveal their position out of nowhere.
The zombies struggling around the burning car turned their heads instantly and pounced towards them.
The three men froze for several seconds before they recalled their weapons. It was clear their meager firepower was no match for the zombies enraged by the explosion. Soon, they were engulfed in darkness. The wall of zombies grew taller and taller, and the woman's cries for help were particularly resounding...
Liang Qing didn't care what happened next. The moment the flare was launched, the location of their safe house was also revealed. She and Allen counted their points and used all of them to redeem a new motorcycle.
A handsome Harley motorcycle appeared in the center of the living room. Liang Qing jumped on it, followed closely by Alan. The next second, the safe house disappeared, and the confused night reappeared.
Liang Qing kicked his foot, shaking off the second wave of artillery fire directed at them...
——
"What the hell is this place..." Shi Xiaofeng whispered to Nie Yun, "I hope we're not in the wrong place."
After Liang Qing led the zombie army away, Nie Yunshi and Xiaofeng sneaked into the hole created by the explosion. They walked along the damp corridor, their teeth chattering as the increasingly damp and cold air made them feel cold.
"That should be right. Do you still remember the tavern lyrics that the boss copied down?"
Shi Xiaofeng recalled and nodded.
Dark as a dungeon, wet as night dew, danger lurking on every side, extremely lonely, no sound of rain, pitch black… these adjectives perfectly match the current scene.
The two walked along the rock wall in the dark for half an hour. Their vision became increasingly unclear and the air became increasingly thinner.
"Walk more quietly!" Nie Yun caught the footsteps behind him and reminded in a low voice.
Shi Xiaofeng, who was walking behind, looked confused: "I took off my shoes..."
He paused, and he and Nie Yun both looked back. At some point, they began to hear the sound of chaotic, light footsteps following behind them. The cave entrance in the distance had become a tiny dot, where a pale light converged. It was this light that allowed them to clearly see a group of people approaching them.
They were not zombies, that group of people walked in an orderly manner.
They are not players either. They are stiff and regular, with their hands hanging at their sides.
Nie Yun rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not seeing things.
"Could it be an illusion?"
The air in the cave was almost suffocating.
"Hide..." Shi Xiaofeng shook his head, trying to clear his mind. They looked around. The rock wall at the entrance was bumpy, with a fold nearby that was barely big enough for two people. Shi Xiaofeng pulled Nie Yun inside.
The group soon arrived. Shi Xiaofeng was outside, tightly guarding Nie Yun inside. The two held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
The people who came were strange. The strange thing was that they were clearly not zombies, nor were they normal living people. They were more like puppets whose minds were controlled, like the walking dead.
Nie Yun recognized the man in the lead at once. She opened her eyes wide and said to Shi Xiaofeng in a whisper: John?
Shi Xiaofeng nodded silently.
John, who had brought Daisy to them, was now standing in the first group in tattered clothes. His body moved lightly but awkwardly, his eyes fixed only on the front, his expression was empty and indifferent.
Then they saw their second acquaintance, Robert.
"Aren't they dead? That's why all of them are here..." Nie Yun said to himself, feeling the hairs on his back stand up.
"Undead." Shi Xiaofeng also gasped.
Why can they see souls?
Is this hole the junction where yin and yang meet?
What's at the bottom of the cave?
Does the fact that they can see the dead mean...
"Hiss..." Shi Xiaofeng felt a sharp pain in his arm. He lowered his head and saw Nie Yun pinching him hard.
Seeing Shi Xiaofeng's face twisted in pain, Nie Yun quickly let go: "I'm sorry, I pinched the wrong person. I want to know if I'm still alive."
Shi Xiaofeng: ...
As the two of them waited and watched, the team had reached the end. The entire team had about a hundred people, which was roughly equivalent to the number of players eliminated by the system in the first two rounds.
Shi Xiaofeng and Nie Yun remained silent. If they had died, there would have been a spot for them in the team by now.
"Follow him?" Nie Yun seemed to have guessed Shi Xiaofeng's thoughts.
"and."
"I'll leave a mark for the boss."
They quietly followed the wandering spirits for about half an hour before stopping in front of a stone wall. No one made a sound, and the undead seemed to be waiting for something, each staring straight ahead.
At that moment, the dark stone wall melted like ripples in a deep pool, becoming translucent. As if receiving a command, the undead filed in one by one, disappearing behind the stone wall.
Finally, the people standing in front of the stone wall were Shi Xiaofeng and Nie Yun. The ripples were rippling faster and faster, as if urging them, or counting down.
"Want to go in?"
Shi Xiaofeng shook his head firmly: "If you don't go, anyone who goes is a fool."
Seeing that his eyes were fixed on the stone wall, Nie Yun thought that he was waiting for the undead to come out, so he also tightened his grip on the gun and stared at the stone wall.
The stone wall's vibrations went from slow to fast, then from fast to slow. Suddenly, Nie Yun heard a quick breeze, and Shi Xiaofeng dodged into the stone wall. The stone wall fell silent.
Nie Yun was stunned. She rushed forward and patted and touched, but all her palms touched was cold and wet stone.
"Shi Xiaofeng! Shi Xiaofeng, what do you mean? Come out! Come out!" She was really panicked.
"Hello..." A whisper came from the intercom.
Nie Yun stopped and quickly took out the intercom: "Shi Xiaofeng?"
"...It's me... The signal is bad... Wait for Liang Qing to come... I'll notify you..."
"How could you do this!" Nie Yun's eyes turned red.
"...It's okay... See you later..."
Afterwards, Shi Xiaofeng's voice became increasingly unclear and the signal connection failed frequently.
Nie Yun rubbed her face to calm herself down. She turned on all channels on the intercom, waiting for Liang Qing while trying to catch the message from behind the stone wall.
Time seemed especially long while waiting. Nie Yun knocked on the stone wall from time to time, praying for a miracle to happen and Shi Xiaofeng to suddenly jump out from inside.
After an unknown amount of time, a bright light suddenly burst out from the distant cave entrance behind her, followed by the sound of a motorcycle braking.
Liang Qing's voice came from the intercom, which had been silent for a long time: "I'm here."
Nie Yun's tears seemed to be about to fall: "Boss, you are here, Shi Xiaofeng..."
Liang Qing paused, and spoke faster: "What happened to Shi Xiaofeng? If you can come out, come out and tell me."
The distance between them was the distance from the cave entrance to the bottom. Nie Yun ran towards the light at full speed. When she came out, she fell to the ground due to exhaustion and lack of oxygen. Alan jumped out of the car in the back seat and helped her up.
Liang Qing opened the safe house so that Nie Yun could take a breath. After drinking a whole pot of water, Nie Yun recounted the whole story.
Liang Qing unfolded the map and asked, "How long have you been walking inside?"
Nie Yun thought for a moment and said, "Less than an hour. But including the time we had to wait for the undead to pass, it should have taken about thirty minutes to walk. It's just that it's so dark in there, with so many twists and turns, we have no idea which direction we're going."
Thirty minutes, if the two of them weren't walking fast... Liang Qing quickly drew a circle with his fingers, using the cave entrance as the center. This circle was where the stone wall was.
Behind the stone wall is the center of the earth where the dead go.
"Shall we blow it up again?" Alan suggested cautiously.
Liang Qing immediately shook his head: "No, Xiaofeng is inside this time."
Nie Yun blamed himself: "I didn't expect him to rush in headfirst. If I had known earlier, I would have rushed in front of him."
Liang Qing patted her and said, "We can get Xiaofeng out safely. Let's go."
She pointed at the location of the church, and coincidentally, this was also one of the possible locations of the stone gate. Liang Qing put away the safe house and left with Alan and Nie Yun.
I came to the church again, and this time it went much more smoothly than last time. There were no malicious priests and no zombies wandering the streets.
With Liang Qing's help, zombies from all over town, both visible and hidden, came out in droves, attracted by the signal flares from the main street. Now the players hiding on the main street were forced to come out to fight. The sound of gunfire and explosions in the town was like a dense drumbeat, one after another, providing a good umbrella for their actions.
They passed through the town history museum unimpeded. Just as they were about to enter, Liang Qing was attracted by something at the door: a scrap of clothing. She picked it up, looked at it, and quietly put it in her pocket.
The secret passage is still a secret passage, and there is no longer the restless sound of zombies in the abyss at the end - after the priest committed suicide, he lowered the cable. The zombies listened to the sounds outside and climbed up the human wall on the tattered cable. Now they have long since merged into the zombie army on the main street.
For safety reasons, Liang Qing dropped two flares. In the red light of the fire, only the priest's cross lay on the ground, empty.
Liang Qing quickly exchanged a set of rock climbing equipment from the [Survival Equipment] in the points mall, fixed the rope on the rock wall, and then jumped down first.
"It's safe, come down." Three minutes later, Liang Qing's voice came from inside.
Nie Yun was next, with Allen at the rear. After the three of them landed, they could clearly see the structure at the bottom. It was an abandoned mine. Besides the piles of bones, there was a broken iron gate at the end. They passed through the gate and walked deeper. After only ten minutes, they heard that indescribable sound.
It was the strange sound of ripples in the stone wall, like the sound of wind or water.
A deep pool of water appeared before them.
This is the real Dongquan.
The pool was about twenty meters in diameter, its pitch blackness unnerving, as if absorbing all light and shadow. Countless people stood in layers around it, shoulders pressed together, silent and silent.
The undead that Nie Yun mentioned.
Along the way, Nie Yun whispered messages to Shi Xiaofeng on the walkie-talkie from time to time, but there was no signal from Shi Xiaofeng.
Across the pool of water, the three men were unable to find Shi Xiaofeng among the dense crowd of people.
At that moment, the pool began to shake violently, and the entire mine emitted a sickening stench. Two black hands stretched out from the pool. Nie Yun and Liang Qing remembered that hand from Anna's attic. It was David's hand.
It was huge and withered, composed of countless black hands. At this moment, it stretched out towards the undead on the shore... At this moment, Nie Yun saw Shi Xiaofeng, the last of the team, holding a gun ready to defend himself.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
