Chapter 679: Everyone’s here for a reason
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
Fortunately, with this small cave exit being near the entrance of the 3rd layer, they only travelled another 4-5 kilometers before spotting the black rocky mountain that Gong Yi had described in his earlier briefing.
This mountain appeared to be scored with wounds; its surface was pockmarked, with dense and numerous large caves covering the entire mountainside, causing it to appear just like a ma.s.sive ant mount that had been exposed to the world. Just looking at the dense array of caves was enough to make people dizzy.
However, in Gong Yi’s eyes, the dizzying, labyrinthine roads appeared just like a straight line in Gong Yi’s eyes. From his perspective, everything was automatically sorted and organised into an easily understandable form. Unorganised messes that made ordinary people confused would be clearly processed in his mind due to his innate talent. Even the tiniest details that would take people hours to notice were easily found by him after just a quick look. After taking a few minutes to scan their surroundings, he moved off without any hesitation, leading the group into an inconspicuous cave.
No unworthy person would dare to ascend Mount Liang (from Water Margin). Gong Yi had already made the necessary evaluations, based on the information he had obtained beforehand and his a.s.sessment of his own strength. He believed that he could pull it off; furthermore, he was confident of his gift of the gab.
Only after entering the cave did everyone finally manage to breathe a sigh of relief. They had heard terrifying b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l roars ringing out from where they had engaged in combat with the pack of Cerberi. At this moment, there seemed to be more than one terrifying life form at that location, and they seemed to be fighting with one another. Despite being more than 4-5 kilometers away, the roars could still reach them. Obviously, those ferocious beasts duking it out over the corpses of those 2 dead Cerberi.
Everyone felt their hearts pounding in their chests.They were lucky to have fled the scene of combat in time. If not, they might have been targeted by those terrifying life forms, and that would definitely have been disastrous for them. Even though they could put up a fight, they couldn’t afford to delay their progress. Furthermore, despite the infighting, the native life forms would definitely prioritise and target life forms that were not from their world. The mutated beasts on Earth could not be compared to the Dimensional life forms here. After all, this was their home turf, and their strength would not be weakened or restricted. Everyone understood the severity of this matter; it was pointless to judge those beasts with the same ranking system used back on Earth. This was why Sister Hong and Reynolds had acted so decisively, as attempting to continue hiding in that situation would only lead to their death.
w.a.n.g Zhong supported Sister Hong into a seated position on the floor of the cave, before sitting down with Reynolds and Gong Yi. Quickly opening her backpack, Little Xin retrieved water and food for everyone. Since she had been useless in the earlier fight, she wanted to play her part now.
Everyone gulped down big mouthfuls of water. Although they were usually stringent on their water rationing, as their future was still unknown, their earlier fight had left them extremely spent. Panting hard, Reynolds and Sister Hong tried their best to calm their beating hearts as they stuffed their mouths with food and water, creating a rather solemn atmosphere.
Earlier in their journey, everyone had hidden their true strength. While it was rather distasteful, it was still understandable; this was the first time that they had met one another, and it was in such an inhospitable environment. Of course, everyone sent here was a “good person”, and was sent here for a reason. This made it even more difficult for them to trust one another, and despite getting more familiar with one another along the way, no one would be willing to place their lives in others’ hands.
However, Sister Hong had unleashed her Dharma Idol without any hesitation during the fight to save w.a.n.g Zhong. Furthermore, Reynolds had revealed his terrifying “Soul Weapon” for the sake of saving Sister Hong. The level of trust between them had naturally improved; fighting back-to-back in life-or-death combat situations, they had become comrade-in-arms.
“Ha ha!” All of a sudden, Sister Hong laughed with a mouth stuffed with food, breaking the awkward silence that filled the cave. Hearing that, a smile surfaced on Reynolds’s face, closely followed by Gong Yi, w.a.n.g Zhong, and Little Xin.
They had really survived a terrifying ordeal.
A lot of people loved to talk about living and dying together. However, in reality, few would actually see it through.
Standing together and facing death, and trusting one another to cover your back; experiences like these would naturally cause people to develop a bond with one another, become more comfortable around one another, and lower their guard against others.
In an instant, the awkward atmosphere within the cave had been dispelled, replaced by a much warmer and cozy atmosphere.
“Spiritual Soul talent, Heart’s Blade,” Gong Yi said as he glanced towards Reynolds, his tone showing his great interest. “I can think of one person.”
“Oh? What person?” Reynolds’s icy expression seemed to have warmed a little.
With a smile, Gong Yi replied, “I don’t personally know that person, but his fame has been circulating within the Federation’s Internal Security Battalion for all this time. It was a rather eye-catching wanted announcement about a criminal who had committed innumerable S rank offenses. I’ve heard that this fellow had specifically taken action against the aristocratic families, and had killed quite a few of their later generations, as well as looting quite a bit of their wealth.”
Despite being in such a vile environment, gossip wouldn’t stop. Hearing what Gong Yi had just mentioned, Sister Hong, Little Xin, and even w.a.n.g Zhong revealed expressions of great interest.
Giving a smile, Reynolds did not confirm or deny Gong Yi’s implicit claims.
Biting down on a compressed biscuit, the resulting crumbs became stuck within his thick beard as he took his time to properly chew it. After a short while, a flash of killing intent flashed across his eyes before speaking slowly. “That’s because they deserve to be killed.”
His tone was extremely heavy, accompanied by a cold, callous hatred and decisiveness.
Hearing that, Gong Yi gave Reynolds a pat on the shoulder. In the Federation, those playboys from the various great aristocratic families were infamous. Being a subordinate of the Gui Family, one of the most rampant and overbearing among the aristocratic families, Gong Yi had met many who “deserved to be killed”.
“I’ve heard about that. Those people should have been killed a long time ago. Nevertheless, you really have the guts to actually do it. Both officially and in the underground, high bounties have been placed on your head, yet in some weird miracle, both sides ended up hampering each other. This is how the world works, alright. Accept it, old brother,” said Gong Yi with a faint smile. “There’s no end to those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
“Indeed, there’s no end to them. However, so what?” Reynolds replied in an indifferent tone. “Although I might not be able to change the world, at the very least, I can still do something about it.”
“You’re a real man!” Sister Hong exclaimed as she gave a thumbs up. “This old lady loves heroes like you the most! If I establish my own business in the future, I’ll make sure to give you an 80% discount! However, you can’t keep tabs, okay? I won’t be easily bullied.”
A slight smirk appeared on Reynolds’s stiff face as he reconsidered his impression of Sister Hong. “Your extraordinary senses and danger perception really makes me remember a famous figure in the a.s.sa.s.sination world.”
“A girl’s intuition is perfect and definite…” Sister Hong replied as she twirled a lock of hair, before humming a tune with a grin. However, despite her strength, her singing wasn’t something to be commended.
Everyone started to laugh, before Gong Yi raised everyone’s curiosity once again. “All right then. This isn’t something about intuition; don’t forget what I used to do. In the black market’s killer ranking list, the Red Queen is ranked at 5 stars, and excels in concealment and poisons. Only when faced against troublesome opponents would she reveal her Blood Red Cobra Dharma Idol.”
“Tsk tsk tsk. What ‘killer’. It sounds so awful.” Sister Hong rolled her eyes. “The economy’s not doing well, especially with so many of you swindlers out there. I’m just being forced to do some side jobs to survive. If not, wouldn’t my group of sisters be left cold and hungry? Would you be willing to provide the money?”
She seemed rather reluctant about mentioning about her ident.i.ty as a killer, s.h.i.+fting the limelight to w.a.n.g Zhong.