Chapter 83
“Captain! Captain!”
Yu Fuling tried to wake Shen Yuan, but Shen Yuan was pale and motionless, his breath was extremely weak. She was so nervous and at a loss, she helplessly looked towards Xue Junli.
“The captain was hurt so badly! What should we do? Will he… Will he…”
Xue Junli was also pale because of excessive blood loss, “Let’s find a way to get out of here quickly. As long as we return to the City of the Abyss as soon as possible, the captain definitely can be saved!”
Sai Lulu also looked like she was about to cry, “But even the transfer cabin can’t repair damage caused by the Abyss Demon…”
“Even if the transfer cabin doesn’t work, there must be another way!” Xue Junli gritted his teeth and said with red eyes, “As long as we return to the City of the Abyss, there will be a way!”
Everyone could tell that Xue Junli had no real confidence, but no one exposed him. Everyone’s eyes were red. After a moment, Yu Fuling suddenly spoke with difficulty, “That… Xiao Tangqiu…”
Xiao Tangqiu was floating in the air and didn’t expect Yu Fuling to mention him. He was a little surprised. Not just him, everyone fell silent and their expressions became very heavy.
Compared with the uncertain fate of Shen Yuan, the death of Xiao Tangqiu was irreversible. Even if they did not completely accept and recognize Xiao Tangqiu as a new teammate, they had experienced life and death together, not to mention Xiao Tangqiu died to save their captain…
Xiao Tangqiu kept floating in front of everyone, doing everything he could to tell them that he was not dead yet, that he would be resurrected in a hundred days. But no one could see or hear him.
At this moment, a certain part of the ruins suddenly moved, and a faint cry for help came out.
“Help… Help me…”
Duan Hongzhen was the first to react. He walked to the pile of ruins and quickly dug out Tang Mianmian with one hand. Fortunately, this guy was buried very shallowly, and he didn’t suffer any serious injury.
Seeing that Tang Mianmian was okay, Xiao Tangqiu breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately floated to Tang Mianmian. The two of them have known each other for so long, maybe Tang Mianmian can see him?
However, Tang Mianmian’s gaze pa.s.sed through Xiao Tangqiu’s body, looked at the Duan Hongzhen who dug him out, and asked anxiously, “Where is Qiuqiu? What happened to Qiuqiu!”
“I am here! I am here!”
Xiao Tangqiu replied subconsciously, but in the next second, Tang Mianmian pa.s.sed straight through his body and grabbed Duan Hongzhen by the collar, “Where is Xiao Tangqiu! Where is he?!”
Duan Hongzhen looked at Tang Mianmian heavily and did not answer, he even let Tang Mianmian grab his collar.
Tang Mianmian seemed to realize something, but he couldn’t believe it, so he demanded over and over again, “Speak! Say something!”
Duan Hongzhen was silent for a long time before speaking, “He is dead.”
Tang Mianmian immediately retorted, “Impossible! How can he die? This is impossible!”
Duan Hongzhen, “Calm down.”
Tang Mianmian shook his head, “Impossible! That is impossible! He must be here! He must be still under the ruins!”
Xue Junli said coldly, “Wake up. All of us saw it. He is dead.”
Tang Mianmian gritted his teeth and said, “Why are you so cold-blooded! Even if you don’t see him as a friend, he is still someone who went through danger with you!”
“I have witnessed the death of my companions countless times…” Xue Junli said lightly, “I also know that sooner or later, death will come to me. I am not cold-blooded, just calm.”
Tang Mianmian did not hesitate to say, “If the dead person is Shen Yuan, will you be as calm as you are now!”
Xue Junli, “Your what if is meaningless.”
Tang Mianmian stared at Xue Junli with red eyes, “Qiuqiu must be under this rubble! I am going to dig him out! I must dig him out! We came here together, and we must go back together!”
Xue Junli, “You obviously saw him die with your own eyes, why deceive yourself?”
“I must save him… I must save him!”
Duan Hongzhen sighed, raised his hand, and knocked Tang Mianmian unconscious.
Everyone was silent for a few seconds before they finally turned to worry about Shen Yuan. Each of them was injured to different degrees. Shen Yuan was on the forefront against the Abyss Demon so he suffered the most serious injuries and was in a critical condition. They must leave this instance as soon as possible and return to the City of the Abyss.
Duan Hongzhen carried Tang Mianmian with one hand, Xue Junli and Yu Fuling supported Shen Yuan between them, and they all quickly left.
Xiao Tangqiu immediately floated to follow. He sometimes looked at the unconscious Shen Yuan, sometimes looked at the knocked out Tang Mianmian. His mood became heavier and heavier. He wanted to tell everyone that he was alive, but he couldn’t.
After a while, they returned to the tunnel where they came from and Duan Hongzhen turned to ask Xue Junli, “Can we leave this instance if we walk along the tunnel?”
Xue Junli frowned and said, “In theory, this should be the case. Our ultimate mission is to escape Hundred Ghosts Village. Originally, after we eliminated the mountain G.o.d, we should be able to leave Hundred Ghosts Village as long as we walk along this tunnel… But now with Lily Marlene’s interference, I am not sure.”
“No matter! We have to try!” Yu Fuling gritted her teeth.
Everyone rushed into the tunnel without hesitation, and Xiao Tangqiu floated along. As soon as he entered the tunnel, he felt dizzy. It seemed that there was some powerful force pulling on his soul and he resisted the discomfort. He continued to follow Xue Junli’s group.
In Xiao Tangqiu’s ghost state, he became keenly aware of some things he couldn’t detect when he was still alive. But he couldn’t tell what it was. He could only feel that this tunnel had a different magnetic field than elsewhere.
After going for a while Xiao Tangqiu suddenly felt the world spin, as if he was thrown into a washing machine. His whole body… No, his whole soul kept tumbling around until he felt faint. He could only vaguely make out Xue Junli and co being sucked into a black vortex. He felt like that might be the path through the “wall” to the City of the Abyss and immediately rushed towards the vortex. But in the next second, the vortex disappeared.
The warped magnetic field disappeared instantly with his discomfort.
Xue Junli’s group had disappeared.
Xiao Tangqiu floated in the air dumbly. After a while, he realized that Xue Junli and co had successfully returned to the City of the Abyss.
And he was left in the instance world. He was left in this instance.
Xiao Tangqiu was naturally unwilling to accept this. He frantically tried to find a way out of the instance world in the tunnel. But he could not find anything no matter how he searched the tunnel again and again.
He didn’t know how long he had been searching for, but the tunnel remained just a tunnel. In the end, he could only float out of the tunnel in defeat, intending to look elsewhere.
Hundred Ghost Town was still in ruins, the Holy Mountain and Kisaragi Shrine were collapsed and also in ruins. There was dead silence everywhere. Even the handful of villagers were missing.
Xiao Tangqiu wandered aimlessly in the ruins, feeling absent and numb. Just like a ghost hovering above Hundred Ghost Town… but he couldn’t even find a ghost.
After experiencing that tribute, the entire area became barren and lifeless. For Xiao Tangqiu, this state was actually quite comfortable, because the heavier the Yin energy, the more comfortable he was. The Yin energy bathed his entire soul, just like a hot spring.
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t know how long he wandered in the Hundred Ghost Town. Ghost did not need to rest and eat after all, so he kept up his energy at all times. The pa.s.sage of time felt endlessly long and grueling.
After wandering aimlessly for a long time, he returned to the tunnel again, holding onto the last hope of leaving the instance… He still did not find the door out of the instance, but he managed to enter the Hundred Ghosts Village through the tunnel.
Hundred Ghosts Village was also in ruins, but given that the map was much larger than Hundred Ghosts Town, his mood lifted a little. He continued his wandering in Hundred Ghosts Village.
Hundred Ghosts Village also didn’t have even a ghost, but the Yin energy was heavier than Hundred Ghosts Town. Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but become immersed in this heavy Yin energy, floating around like a drunk.
However, his mood got heavier… Was he really going to stay in this instance for a hundred days until he was resurrected? He would definitely go crazy staying alone for a hundred days in a ruin with no people and no ghosts.
He didn’t know how Shen Yuan was now, he was so badly injured…
Xiao Tangqiu’s mood suddenly became even heavier at the thought of Shen Yuan, whose life or death was unknown. Shen Yuan seemed to have been fatally wounded, who knew if he could survive. If Shen Yuan survived, his memory should have been restored, right? And Tang Mianmian, this guy must think he was dead. Who knew how upset he would be…
He finally couldn’t bear the terrible loneliness and opened the live stream room again, only to see that the countdown at the top of the room had just ticked down one day. There were still 98 days before his resurrection.
Xiao Tangqiu almost fell into despair. Was a day so long?
But the good thing was that he could still look at the chat in the live stream. Even if he didn’t know who the audience behind the chat was and whether they really existed, he could at least look at the chat to gain comfort that he was not alone.
The only thing he was afraid of was whether his audience would leave him because his live stream was too boring. But to his surprise, the viewers seemed to be very interested in his new ghostly floating career. He felt fortunate and speechless at the same time. People watched everything in live streams these days. If he could return to the real world, he might be able to write a book called “The Years When I Live Streamed as a Ghost”…
Because being a ghost was too lonely, Xiao Tangqiu even started to try to interact with the audience in the live stream. When he was a horror game host, he naturally interacted with the viewers often, but after coming to this horror game world, he had never tried to interact with the viewers in the “live stream”. Firstly, the time for this special skill was only one minute, the time was too short to interact. Secondly, he was afraid that talking to the air would be regarded as neurotic by others. And thirdly, he had been subconsciously afraid of the ident.i.ty of these viewers. Separated by the live stream, who knew whether these viewers were humans or ghosts?
Now he had no such worries. He could open the live stream and talk to himself at any time and would not be regarded as crazy by other people. There was no one else here and he had already become a ghost now. Dead was dead. Who was afraid of whom?
“h.e.l.lo everyone, welcome to the Floaty Float live stream. I am your host, a ghost who died from being so handsome. Today is the 38th day after my death…”
“The content of my stream today is how to be handsome as a ghost. As we all know, some ghosts float horizontally, some ghosts float vertically, and some ghosts float diagonally. So how do you float in the most handsome way? Let me demonstrate, first of all, we have to make ourselves very light…”
In a blink of an eye, Xiao Tangqiu has been trapped in this instance for thirty-eight days. He had explored all the areas in Hundred Ghosts Town and Hundred Ghosts Village. Due to all kinds of boredom, he could only amuse himself.
On the thirty-eighth day after he became a ghost, he continued to live stream himself and play by himself. He also interacted with the audience in the live stream to prevent himself from going crazy and depressed because of being too lonely. Although such days were repet.i.tive and every day was the same, the chat in the live stream still brought him a trace of comfort.
But today, something changed.
As Xiao Tangqiu was live streaming, he suddenly felt the surrounding mountains shake. He was taken aback and quickly floated into the air to see that the ruins of Hundred Ghosts Village began to reorganize quickly. In just a few seconds, everything looked just like when he first entered this instance.
Just as he was shocked, he once again felt a strange yet familiar magnetic field wave in the direction of the tunnel.