Chapter 168 - Ancient Remains (II)
Editors: Humu & Kitty
“The secret chamber’s mission seems to be a little simple, without many puzzle-solving elements. It’s just a simple escape mission. In this case, we should pay attention to what kind of monsters will appear in the s.p.a.ce station, and the problems lie in fighting.” w.a.n.g Yue spread the map on the ground and began to discuss their upcoming plan to escape from here with everyone.
As expected, the professional team was poles apart. The entire team carried out their plans strictly and had a proper division of labor. Even if Luo Jian could only be regarded as a player that came to buy the soy sauce, they still gave Luo Jian a task—to obediently hang on the shoulders of Captain Xing Yan.
As it happened, that was what Luo Jian had wished for. He immediately climbed on Xing Yan’s shoulders. He shook his head and said that he would not partic.i.p.ate in whatever they wanted to do when escaping from the secret chamber. Although Luo Jian knew that, maybe because of his partic.i.p.ation, the secret chamber would raise the difficulty of the mission by more than one level higher when Team Ghost Shadow was trying to escape from the secret chamber.
Since Luo Jian had joined ‘any team,’ according to the commands given by the secret chamber, he thought that he should have been given his next task by the secret chamber. Thinking of this, Luo Jian quietly took out the note in his pocket and looked at it. The words on the note were indeed updated and became a sentence like this:
[Dear Abyss, congratulations on joining Team Ghost Shadow successfully. Please gain the trust of your team in the following time.]
[Here, we must remind you that we have worked out a preliminary plan to enhance your strength, so in this s.p.a.ce Remains secret chamber, we will raise the difficulty of the chamber to the highest level: h.e.l.l-level difficulty. You may encounter an unprecedented fatal threat. Please do not conserve your strength; do your best to protect yourself and the safety of your team members.]
“F*ck!” Luo Jian stared at the note in surprise for a long time. After some time, he could not help but blurt out a swear.
Luo Jian’s hurling of invectives did not sound soft, and his voice immediately spread to the ears of every member of the team. All of them turned their heads to glance at Luo Jian but only saw his pale little face.
“What’s the matter?” Xing Yan noticed that the child was looking at the note that dispatched their mission and kneaded Luo Jian’s head. How fluffy.
“I was cheated.” Luo Jian squeezed the paper into a ball. Although he wanted to tear it into pieces, unfortunately he could not, so he could only frown as he deliberated, and after that he put the paper ball into his pocket.
Xing Yan noticed something. He questioned Luo Jian, “Is the content of the task on your note different from ours?”
Luo Jian said: “Far from that the same, it’s simply completely different from your note! Is it trying to put me in my place now?”
Luo Jian suddenly jumped down and leapt off of Xing Yan’s shoulder. He went to stand in front of everyone, took a deep breath, turned to all his team members and said, “My friends, it seems that our action plan will be changed.”
“Changed into?”
“All of you will only have to heed this single statement. In our following actions, you have to follow my orders.”
After Luo Jian spoke, he was met with strong resistance. Several members of the team said they did not understand. w.a.n.g Yue first retorted: “Why? You are just a newcomer who just joined our team. When it comes to giving us orders, you don’t have the qualifications.”
“What if Captain gives me that qualification?” Luo Jian looked at Xing Yan.
The other teammates turned their heads and looked at Xing Yan. Because they had all rushed into the secret chamber instance, Xing Yan had no way and time to explain too much about Luo Jian. Although he knew that doing so might leave a knot in his heart for his team members, Xing Yan inexplicably trusted Luo Jian a lot, disregarding that he was just a child whose origins were unknown.
That felt too weird. It was like being controlled by something.
However, Xing Yan found that he did not want to get rid of this control. He wanted to continue feeling that way, and he wanted to continue feeling it from the bottom of his heart. No matter what kind of abyssal h.e.l.l or something akin to that he faced in front of him, he didn’t want to stop feeling it because if he stopped feeling it…… he felt as if he was about to lose everything.
“I will only ask you one question.” Xing Yan stared at Luo Jian and hesitated for a moment. Then, he said, “Why did you change your mind and want to be involved now?”
After that, Luo Jian had a smile as dazzling as the sunlight on his face, “Because I want to protect you.”
Xing Yan instantly compromised and said: “I give him this right.”
“It’s not logical!” The brown-haired John immediately cried out, and the tall magician came up to Luo Jian and lifted the thin and frail child with one hand, allowing his feet to dangle off the ground and hanging his body up in midair.
“Look at his small body, thin arms and legs…… I suspect he can’t even shoot flies, let alone lead the whole team!” John pleadingly gazed at his captain and seemed to strongly hope that Xing Yan would change his mind, “He will definitely kill us!”
Smack! While John was talking, Luo Jian suddenly reached out and smacked somewhere with much force as if he was trying to kill a mosquito by clapping his hands. His palms came together and sounded out with a smacking sound. Then, he looked at John and said, “There are no flies here, but I’ve killed other flies. Do you want to have a look?”
With that, Luo Jian had opened his hand, and there was a patch of black, a flying insect carca.s.s of unknown species, in his originally-clean palm.
Interestingly, the liquid secreted by the remains of the flying insect turned out to be green. It looked extremely disgusting.
John instantly screamed in horror, “F*ck, there are insects!” Following that, he threw Luo Jian down immediately. Contrary to his tall appearance, he was actually afraid of small insects. Was this the portrayal of the legendary theory that things would develop in the opposite direction when an extreme was reached?
Luo Jian landed gorgeously and wiped his hands with a tissue that appeared out of nowhere. He looked around and said, “This is an abandoned s.p.a.ce station. It is located in the vast universe without life, air, and sound. However, we can stand here in good condition. It means that some equipment in the s.p.a.ce station is still working and can provide us with oxygen and…….”
Luo Jian stepped on the steel floor and continued: “Oxygen and gravity. Therefore, this place is still suitable for some living things and, therefore, giving ‘life’ to these existences.”
“We can first predict the dangers we may encounter in this s.p.a.ce station…… or the enemies. First of all, this is a secret chamber set in a futuristic background. Here, we can only use restricted magic skills and weapons, so there will be no magical creatures like ghosts. The remaining options are much simpler…… What kind of threats are there on a s.p.a.ce station in s.p.a.ce?”
“Alien invasion?”
“Asteroid impact?”
“Sucked in by a black hole?”
“The disintegration of a s.p.a.ceship or the s.p.a.ce station?”
Luo Jian’s words made several team members speculate. Luo Jian said: “On the back of the note given to us by the secret chamber, there is a line like this: ‘Those things came in, but how do they come in?’”
Thus, Xing Yan said: “It clearly implies that there are other creatures invading this s.p.a.ce station, which are different from human beings.”
“That is also a possibility.” Luo Jian went to the resting pods in the rest area. When Luo Jian walked over, they finally had a clear comparison on the difference in physiques. The people in the team found that these resting pods were different. These…… were extremely huge pods. They were about three meters long. They were very different from the average height of ordinary people on Earth.
“This s.p.a.ce station, it could be an alien s.p.a.ce station.”
“That’s true.” w.a.n.g Yue noticed all this and took out the map of the s.p.a.ce station that was given by the chamber, “But this map…… completely adopted symbols that humans can understand, and there are Chinese and English signs on it.”
“Because it was specially prepared by the secret chamber for fear that we could not understand the language of alien creatures,” Luo Jian said, carrying his netherfire lamp as he went to the door of the rest area. This door was made of pure metal with special patterns on it, appearing rather…… retro and different.
“Well, we’ll just listen to your commands.” After Luo Jian uttered a few sentences, John also noticed how different the child was from an ordinary child. He also compromised and said, “So what should we do next?”
“Let’s just head to our destination,” Luo Jian said, “The secret chamber is telling us to find a lifeboat. Before that, we have to determine which route we should use to go forward……”
“w.a.n.g Yue, it’s up to you,” Luo Jian said, turning his head to the short man, and he said with a smile, “Can I trust you?”
w.a.n.g Yue had no choice but to turn over the map and said with pride: “Of course you can trust me. I am the one who possesses the legendary ‘pa.s.sive GPS’ function.”
What he said seemed to make Luo Jian a little confused. He looked at Xing Yan next to him. Xing Yan seemed to understand what Luo Jian was thinking and gave him a rare smile, saying: “This guy is in danger most of the time…… such as always being chased by monsters. Therefore, he can find a way out in the shortest time, no matter whether he has read the map or not. Therefore, we all think that he possesses an instinct that can be used in escaping, and we call this ‘pa.s.sive GPS.’”
“Wow, that’s really amazing!” Luo Jian immediately exclaimed.
After discussing the way forward, they set out. They first walked out of the rest area and went to a long corridor. This corridor had a surreal design style, and it was set in a futuristic style that only existed in people’s imaginations. The distance from the ground to the ceiling was very high, and obviously, this corridor was not designed for the height of Earth’s humans.
The walls and aisles were all made of metal. There were special and strange patterns carved along them. It was hard to describe how these patterns looked, but they looked like some sort of totem.
However, as they approached these metal walls and touched them with their hands……
“The wall is not made of metal.” It was Jiang Li who touched the wall. They wrapped their whole body up and down to prevent even a trace of skin from being exposed. They spoke very little. Throughout the whole discussion, they remained silent, but they spoke at this time.
Jiang Li’s words aroused Luo Jian’s interest. Luo Jian also went forward and touched the wall which looked like a ‘metallic material.’ Soon…… he also found a distinctive fact.
“It’s as if it’s alive.” w.a.n.g Yue also came to touch the wall. He pressed his finger on the wall. There was some dust on it. The corridor seemed to show no sign of biological activity for a long time. The ground and walls were covered with dust.
Although it was covered with dust, occasionally, they would feel that the wall seemed to be undulating, but the undulation was so small that it was invisible to the naked eye, so even humans would be unable to feel it.
“It’s really alive. I even feel something like a pulse,” John also said, “It’s as if the wall is breathing and it is almost as if we are in the body of some giant living creature.”
Living creature……?
Luo Jian felt that he thought of something and something flashed in his mind, but when he tried to capture his thoughts, that flash of inspiration disappeared.
“Forget about it and move on.”
Luo Jian said this, leading the party to continue to head forward. Through w.a.n.g Yue’s superb road recognition skills, they soon…… got lost.
“Is that what you call pa.s.sive GPS?” Luo Jian stood along with the others in front of a sealed-off walkway. They pa.s.sed through several similar long corridors and walked through a few rooms that housed strange instruments. They endlessly felt deja vu; a feeling of ‘did I pa.s.s through here?’ arose, and finally they reached a dead end.
w.a.n.g Yue retorted instinctively: “Mine is a ‘pa.s.sive GPS.’ When I am actively using it, I can’t start it…… Well, probably.”
“Does that mean I have to make you feel a sense of crisis before you can activate your pa.s.sive GPS function perfectly?” Luo Jian started to threaten the other party.
w.a.n.g Yue felt the threat and immediately waved his hand in a panic: “This is not the same! I headed here in accordance to the map…… It’s strange that it clearly shows that this road can be crossed. Why is this so?”
Because their progress was hindered, the people were very aware that they were in a team and started to investigate around to see what could be triggered…… like a mechanism or something like it. John looked at the wall that blocked their way for a long time. He found that the totem-like patterns on the wall were not the same as those on other walls.
“Is this a door?”
w.a.n.g Yue also agreed: “Yes, this must be a door! The map that the secret chamber gave us should never be wrong.”
“So we have to find the key?”
Luo Jian shook his head: “There is no keyhole on this door. Except for the totems, the surface of it is almost smooth…… I think it is turned off because there’s no energy.”
This was a s.p.a.ce station, that was, a huge s.p.a.ceship. Since it was a product of future technology, it was necessary to have ‘energy’ to maintain the continual s.p.a.ceship navigation—of course, we did not know whether this s.p.a.ceship, which may be a product from outer s.p.a.ce, needed electricity or not.
“There’s an energy control room on the map. I think that’s what we call the power room.” w.a.n.g Yue was quite reliable in the end. He immediately made some markings on the map to mark it. But following that, he said: “However, the power room seems far away from here…… but it’s interesting that this huge s.p.a.ce station has a lot of ventilation ducts, so we can get to the power room quickly.”
The ventilation duct was very narrow. For these strong aliens who might be as tall as three meters, it was merely a small hole that was impossible for them to crawl into, but for human beings, they were just the right size…… No, it was still a little narrow.
“I think you’re the only ones among us who can go in.” After everyone glanced at the entrance of the ventilation duct, they all focused their sights on Luo Jian and w.a.n.g Yue. Among them, these were the two people with the smallest figures.
Luo Jian looked at w.a.n.g Yue, unsatisfied. He said, “May I know how old you are, brotha? Why do you look to be my size?”
“I’m an adult!” w.a.n.g Yue seemed very sensitive to this and immediately roared, “It’s only because of the influence of a special permanent prop in the secret chamber that I became this way. In the real world, my height is 1.8 m! One meter eight! I have to emphasize the important things twice! Don’t look down on me!”
Luo Jian helplessly smiled: “Yes, yes, I understand.”
“But why are you so small?” After w.a.n.g Yue was done roaring, his curiosity on Luo Jian was also aroused. He stared at Luo Jian, looking at him from his left and his right, “With your IQ, you also should not be a child.”
“As for me, of course we are different,” Luo Jian said with a gloomy face, “First, let me introduce my ident.i.ty! I am the only GM in the secret chamber! In order to satisfy the preferences of certain special players! I will appear like a lovely child forever!”
Of course, although part of what Luo Jian said was completely true, no one in Team Ghost Shadow seemed to believe it. They either laughed it off or muttered, “Who are you lying to? The ghost?” They took it for granted that Luo Jian simply didn’t want to tell what happened to his body, so they were very considerate and no one continued to ask.
In the ventilation duct, only Luo Jian and w.a.n.g Yue could fit. The rest of the team members had to remain in the same spot, waiting for them to head to the power room to turn on the power so that they could open the door and rid themselves of the status of being lost.