Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore
Predecessors
Predecessors plant the trees, successors enjoy the shade1
Logically speaking, Shen Maomao was very familiar with the path of the maze, but that familiarity was not her own; it was only a familiarity from the memory imposed on her by the instance, making it difficult to guarantee that there wouldn’t be any big pits2 inside.
However, the path ahead was also one she led based on memory, and from the looks of it so far, no mistakes had appeared. For the time being, she would just trust that memory, to save herself from wandering around in the maze like a headless fly3.
The six people walked forward for a distance, and a row of surrounding walls about two meters high appeared beside them.
Compared to the outermost wall, these walls were somewhat not worth mentioning, but if speaking from the simple angle of blocking their line of sight, it did its job very well.
Having gotten used to walking in the open country, it was inevitable that they would feel a bit ill-adjusted being suddenly trapped in this kind of narrow square frame, especially for a little friend like Huo Dongdong.
He was already short, and with the walls blocking his view, he truly couldn’t see anything at all.
After thinking for a moment, he tugged on his father’s arm and said: “Dad, can you carry me on your back? I feel like I’m about to be unable to catch my breath.”
The moment Boss Huo heard this, he became anxious and quickly called for a stop, then crouched in front of his son and asked in a soft voice: “Does it hurt anywhere? Or is your heart feeling unwell again?”
Shen Maomao listened with one ear and, with her back to the father and son, made eyes at Lou Jingmo.
Huo Dongdong has a heart problem? But looking at him along this journey, he didn’t seem like someone who had a problem. What secret were this father and son hiding?
Lou Jingmo bizarrely discovered that she had actually understood her wringing of eyebrows and making of eyes4, but she had absolutely no desire to respond, because doing so was truly foolish, so she pretended not to understand and revealed a puzzled expression.
Shen Maomao’s fire went out5.
She remembered that she and Lou Jingmo had no tacit understanding to speak of at all.
Over there, Boss Huo learned from Da xiongdi’s example and placed his bag in front, then squatted down to let his son lie on his back.
After everything was settled, he grit his teeth and tried to stand up, shakily getting halfway up, and then directly sat on the ground with one butt, causing Huo Dongdong to fall into a snowdrift.
Shen Maomao said helplessly: “Give me the luggage, okay? You carry your son.”
Boss Huo was a little embarrassed: “You’re a girl…”
Shen Maomao: “It’s fine, time is tight, let’s walk faster.”
Heng Chuan, who was behind him, chimed in: “Let me do it, if you all can trust me.”
Boss Huo quickly presented the luggage with both hands: “Thanks, brother.”
Heng Chuan said: “A small matter, after all, having joined your team, I should contribute a bit of strength.” As he spoke, he also glanced at Shang Zhou.
Shang Zhou felt that he was being implied at.
But his physical strength was truly not good, only a little stronger than Boss Huo, and similarly no match for those two women, let alone Heng Chuan, who could run a round trip under the hands of ghosts.
…
The six people set out again, advancing along the tracks left by the predecessors on the ground. They walked for probably about two hours, and surprisingly, they did not encounter any danger during that time.
The expression with which Boss Huo looked at Shen Maomao carried a trace of doubt, as if asking: This is what you called full of crises?
Shen Maomao’s face hurt6 a little, but it wasn’t a big problem, she could still make something up: “This is because the path we’re taking is one that others have walked. The traps and ghosts on the road should have been dealt with by them.”
Boss Huo had a look on his face that said: Really? I think you’re deceiving me, but I have no proof.
Shen Maomao said calmly: “Isn’t it a good thing that there’s no danger? Are there people who complain about there being too little danger?”
Boss Huo thought about it and agreed, so he stopped talking and turned his head to ask his son again: “Dongdong, are you still uncomfortable? Are you hungry? Do you want to drink water?”
Huo Dongdong first nodded, then shook his head, answering one by one: “Still a little uncomfortable, not hungry, and don’t want to drink water.”
After speaking, he paused for a moment, then turned to ask: “Dad, what are the people ahead shouting?”
Shen Maomao was taken aback and immediately stopped in her tracks, pricking up her ears to listen. Sure enough, she heard a vague female voice, but because the distance was too great, she couldn’t hear clearly what she was shouting.
Boss Huo’s expression turned serious. He had Huo Dongdong jump down from him, then held him in front: “Tell Dad, what did you hear?”
Huo Dongdong’s eyes widened, and he listened with pricked ears for a while, then said: “Someone is crying, and someone is calling for help.”
Lou Jingmo said: “Can you tell which direction the sounds are coming from?”
Huo Dongdong stretched out his small hand, pointing at the tracks on the snow that extended into the depths of the maze: “It’s this way.”
Boss Huo looked at Shen Maomao: “Rabbit, what do you think? Do we need to change routes?”
The ten eyes of the five pairs looked over in unison, causing her to inevitably feel a great deal of psychological pressure.
After all, when she used to clear instances with Lou Jingmo, she didn’t need to use her brain to think at all. Now that the decision-making power and the power over life and death were suddenly placed in her hands, it would be a wonder if she could adapt immediately.
Fortunately, the memories from her time with amnesia were still there. At that time, she came and went alone, and had to consider many things herself, which prevented her from choosing blindly after recovering her memories.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she made her decision: “The route remains unchanged, continue following them.”
To put it bluntly, to them, this team ahead was cannon fodder responsible for scouting the path. They exhausted their energy and manpower to eliminate dangers, only to provide convenience for those who came after, like them.
If that group passed this obstacle, then they would continue to pick up the leak7. If they didn’t pass, and if they could catch up, she personally wouldn’t mind helping out if conditions allowed.
She explained her general thoughts to the others. Lou Jingmo and Shang Zhou had no objections, and Boss Huo also agreed after thinking about it himself. As for Heng Chuan——he currently didn’t have any voting rights.
The further they walked, the more distinct the screams became. By this point, it was already very easy to tell that the one screaming was not a human, but a female ghost.
The footsteps on the ground became messy, and a pile of miscellaneous luggage was scattered around the footsteps, along with a suspicious drag mark, enough to imagine what had just happened here, and how hasty the people’s fleeing footsteps were.
After turning a corner, specks of bloodstains began to appear on the ground. The marks were still steaming, clearly having just flowed out from a body not long ago.
Walking a few more steps forward, the sharp screams formed a tangible sound wave, nearly deafening them.
Shen Maomao covered her ears in pain, wishing she could stick her head into a snowdrift.
A pitch-black shadow flew onto the top of the wall, its long, disheveled hair dancing wantonly askew in the air, like numerous nimble little snakes.
The few people behind them quickly shrank behind a wall, squatting in a row at the corner of the wall.
Boss Huo asked: “What do we do about this?”
Shen Maomao said: “Shang Zhou will stay behind to protect Mr. Huo. Xiao Lou, Heng Chuan, and I will go over to check the situation. If we can help, we’ll help. If we can’t, we’ll turn around and run. Understood?”
Boss Huo nodded furiously.
Shen Maomao looked at Heng Chuan: “Any objections?”
Heng Chuan raised his hand and made an OK gesture.
The three of them threw their luggage on the spot and then began to move, stepping on the snow with creak creak sounds as they approached the location of the battle ahead.
Heng Chuan took out a telescopic baton from his coat pocket. He didn’t look like he was going to fight a ghost, but rather like a delinquent youth who had arranged a fight with someone in a small wood.
Lou Jingmo, on the other hand, gripped a dagger, her expression blank. The hood of her down jacket, blown by the wind, whistled, making her look like a cold and ruthless killer.
As for herself——she wasn’t holding anything, stepping deep and shallow in the snow, as if she were participating in a winter camp…
When a team like theirs descended from the heavens, the heavily injured group of people did not show expressions of relief, but rather a bit of despair.
Who were these three people? Were they afraid that not enough human heads were being delivered8?
The man lying on the ground spat out a mouthful of blood and motioned with his eyes for them to run quickly. The woman sitting diagonally behind him screamed: “Help!! Save us!”
The female ghost swished and turned her head one hundred and eighty degrees. A pair of scarlet eyes looked over, her hair grew explosively by several zhang9, and baring fangs and brandishing claws10, she launched an attack towards them.
Shen Maomao secretly cursed that woman for being a cerebral palsy11. She hadn’t expected that the sound of them stepping on the snow didn’t attract the boss’s attention, but instead, this woman’s shout exposed their position.
A sneak attack was not possible, so they could only face it head-on.
Shen Maomao had her hands in her pockets, looking extremely leisurely, but in reality, she was taking out her own items.
At this moment, she was especially grateful to Lou Jingmo for urging her to organize her item bar.
The instance update hadn’t been too absolute; each player could still choose ten types of items to carry with them. Items with less powerful functions could be stacked, but only one of each type of card could be brought.
For a poor bastard12 like her, who relied on handouts from Lou Jingmo and Golden Retriever, the impact of this rule was truly not significant.
She brought a pile of the explosive pellets that Golden Retriever had given her. This thing was handy for her to use, and she could also experience the pleasure of scattering coins13. Secondly, she also brought some items with different attributes, preparing to use them on the knife’s edge to play with elemental counters. And then there was her only card, Fei Li.
Currently, she couldn’t tell what attribute of item this female ghost was afraid of, so she chose the explosive pellets with the largest quantity, preparing to fight a war of attrition with it.
She threw a handful of items, and her sufficient wrist strength made the small pellets spin rapidly, reaching the female ghost’s face in the blink of an eye.
The female ghost’s head tilted, and her hair flew out on its own, entangling the small pellets without missing a single one, and then flung them back.
“Lying in the trough14!” Shen Maomao cursed, and quickly dodged to block in front of Lou Jingmo, then threw another handful to collide with the ones coming back. Both sides exploded prematurely, and with a “BOOM,” two large sparks erupted in mid-air. The gunpowder dust fell rustlingly, dyeing the pure white snow surface black; the black smoke billowed upwards, giving the female ghost sister floating on the wall a free smoky eye makeup look.
Heng Chuan jumped back a large step and roared amidst the aftershock of the explosion: “That thing of yours is a bit cool!”
Shen Maomao: “It just looks cool, it’s not of much use. The rest will have to rely on you two, add oil15!”
Heng Chuan said: “She’s so high up! How do I hit her? I’m melee!!”
As soon as his voice fell, Lou Jingmo threw out three daggers with a swish swish swish. The daggers pierced through the black mist and flew straight towards the female ghost.
The female ghost reapplied the old trick, wanting to use her hair to wrap up the flying daggers and throw them back. As a result, she overestimated her hair and underestimated Lou Jingmo’s daggers.
That thing could cut through iron without it being an issue, let alone hair composed of protein?
The result was that a large section of its beautiful hair was severed, yet the daggers’ speed did not decrease in the slightest, arriving before its eyes in the blink of an eye.
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