CH 119

Chapter 119 – Temple of the Five Internal Organs 9

The unlucky guy was on the verge of collapse and when he heard Lian Qiao’s words, he cried out “oh” and burst into tears.

Although the unfortunate act was unintentional, he accidentally caused the shield to get stuck in the pipe and indeed killed two people. If it wasn’t for the shield just happening to get smashed down just now, it would probably have killed even more players.

It was so miserable. After finally surviving the dark forest and the fire field, they was hacked by the shield left by a pig teammate. Who could they find to reason with?

Therefore, Lian Qiao didn’t bother to comfort him and let the unlucky guy cry.

The unlucky guy was crying, apparently not daring to touch the shield again. Xu RenDong picked up the shield, wiped the blood on it and looked around. He saw that the yellow sand was long and the desert seemed to be endless, spreading to the horizon. A round yellow sun hung  directly overhead. It would be very difficult to rely on the sun to identify the direction.

Where to go next?

He was about to ask Lian Qiao what he thought when he saw Lian Qiao pull out a plastic bag from his backpack, squat next to the shredded corpse and start cutting into the meat with a knife.

Xu RenDong was taken aback, his first reaction was that Lian Qiao was doing an autopsy. But what’s the point? Wasn’t the cause of death of these two very clear?

Soon he found out that Lian Qiao wasn’t doing an autopsy — he was doing a dissection.

He cut off a large piece of meat from the dead man’s thigh, stuffed it into a plastic bag and turned to dig through the guts on the other half of the body. Xu RenDong narrowed his eyes and roughly guessed what he was doing.

Despite this, he still felt that dismembering the body on the spot in front of the unlucky guy was a bit…

Sure enough, the unlucky guy was so frightened by Lian Qiao’s actions that he sniffled and shivered: “You, what are you doing… …?”

Lian Qiao’s hands were covered in blood and he didn’t lift his head amid the shredded corpses on the ground: “If I were you, I wouldn’t ask such stupid things.” 

The unlucky guy: “Hey!”

Lian Qiao cut a piece of meat off that broken thigh and stuffed it in a plastic bag. He turned his head to the other half of his body and dug out some unknown internal organs. The unlucky guy looked pale and unconsciously cast his eyes towards Xu RenDong for help.

Xu RenDong thought to himself what’s the use of you asking me for help, isn’t it obvious that me and him are together?

He was too lazy to deal with the unlucky guy, so he walked over to Lian Qiao, took out the mineral water and helped wash the blood on his hands.

The unlucky guy: “…” It’s over, the division of labor between these two people is clear, it seems that this is not their first crime!

When Lian Qiao stuffed the collected pieces of meat into his backpack, the unlucky guy’s legs had already gone weak and he was about to cry again.

Fear did a good job of dispelling his guilt and he had long forgotten about the shield. Seeing Lian Qiao cast a glance at him, the unlucky guy knelt down in fright and begged for mercy: “Please don’t kill me, I can do anything! I’m very obedient! Please let me go!”

Lian Qiao did not speak. Instead, he just raised his hand to his lips and made a zipper action.

The unlucky guy understood and immediately shut up, becoming as quiet as a chicken.

Lian Qiao nodded with satisfaction, turned to Xu RenDong and said, “Did you want to say something just now?”

Xu RenDong pointed at the sun overhead: “Do you know how to identify the direction according to the sun?”

Lian Qiao raised her head and glanced at the sky, then shook his head: “No. The sun is too blurry.”

Xu RenDong thought for a while: “Then, let’s go in the direction of the extension of the pipeline?”

Lian Qiao: “We can try.”

This desert is endless and no matter where you look, it seems to be the same scenery. The biggest fear in the desert was getting lost. Not to mention the lack of food and water, the hot sun alone was enough to kill people.

The two of them had only spent a little time beside the pipe but their mouths were already dry. If you really want to get out of this desert, you would probably have to shed a layer of skin.

So the two stopped wasting time and immediately set off towards the extension of the pipe outlet.

Neither of them paid any attention to the unlucky guy. The unlucky guy looked at the few remaining corpses in the sand and then looked at the boundless desert. After gritting his teeth, he finally followed.

The desert was hot from the sun. The three of them trudged through the sand and it didn’t take long for them to start sweating profusely.

Xu RenDong’s cheeks were tanned red. Lian Qiao handed over a bottle of water, looked back at the footprints when he came, and said, “Our speed is a bit slow. If we continue at this speed, we will definitely die of thirst.”

Although Xu RenDong was unbearably thirsty, he was extremely restrained. He took a sip of water: “I can’t hurry. The faster you go, the more you will consume.” Then he returned the mineral water to Lian Qiao.

Lian Qiao didn’t answer but said, “You drink more.”

Xu RenDong said: “We don’t have much stock, so save it.”

Lian Qiao smiled and said, “It’s okay, drink it.”

Xu RenDong wrinkled his forehead. When Lian Qiao saw his frown, he knew what he was thinking, shook his head and smiled: “Do you think I have to endure myself not to drink, so that you can drink more?”

Xu RenDong was stunned, his ears slightly red: “… “Isn’t that it?”

Lian Qiao laughed, cupped his hand holding the mineral water bottle with both hands, put his lips together and took a few gulps.

“Do you believe it now?” Lian Qiao let go of his hand with a smile, “Drink more. Your lips are cracked.”

Xu RenDong licked his lips subconsciously and it smelled of rust. Looking at Lian Qiao’s smiling face, he suddenly understood.

—Lian Qiao must have found something out. But he didn’t say it directly, did he just want to see if they had a tacit understanding?

So Re Dong no longer insisted but gulped water while sorting out the clues so far in his heart.

Xu RenDong looked around again. Although they had been heading in this direction for half an hour, the surrounding scenery remained the same. The pipe connected to the sky was far away, and the air was so hot that the pipe in the distance was blurred and looked like a long, writhing gray worm.

There is nothing in this desert but this pipe. What did Lian Qiao find?

Xu RenDong recalled Lian Qiao’s actions a moment ago and suddenly remembered – that’s right, footprints!

Lian Qiao calculated their travel speed based on their footprints and came to the conclusion that no matter how fast they walked, with the supplies on hand, they would never be able to get out of this desert.

But isn’t this an absolute dead end?

In the first two levels, the materials that can be collected are extremely limited. Even a scavenger like Lian Qiao only found one backpack’s worth of supplies, so don’t talk about others. Since everyone had absolutely insufficient supplies, no one could get out of this desert.

Therefore, if you want to leave here, it is definitely not due to patience and perseverance. It is not possible to pass the instance by conserving materials.

—The absence of ghosts means that the difficulty is not in the battle. The absence of animals and plants means that this level is not a test of their desert survival ability.

Then, the point of this level, without a doubt, was to solve a mystery again.

But what was the mystery?

The only answer Xu RenDong could think of was “the location of the door”.

The end of the dark forest was the bronze door, and the end of the mall of fire was the brick red door, so what color door will the end of this desert be?

No matter what color it was, it was hidden in the desert and impossible to easily find it with the naked eye. What’s more, the desert is boundless. Even if a large number of people are sent to carry out an inch by inch search, the probability of being able to find it is very small.

It seems that there are other key clues that they haven’t found yet.

Having been with Lian Qiao for so long, Xu RenDong also began to learn to use game thinking to consider problems. All of the above reasoning was done in an instant. He screwed on the cap of the mineral water bottle and he already had a general idea in his mind.

The unlucky guy naturally didn’t know what the two bosses were thinking, and he didn’t have the time to guess the boss’s thoughts. He watched the two drinking water eagerly, feeling that his throat was so dry that it was about to burn. But Lian Qiao didn’t allow him to speak, and he couldn’t beat the two big men, so he didn’t dare to grab it. So he had to desperately lick his chapped lips, trying to use his miserable appearance to win the sympathy of the big bosses.

Xu RenDong casually threw the remaining half bottle of water to him, turned his head to Lian Qiao and said, “I want to go back to the pipeline and have a look.”

Lian Qiao’s eyes widened in surprise and a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.

“You really know what I’m thinking.”

RenDong smiled: “Is there any need to ask?”

Lian Qiao smiled and his eyes moved. There was a love that couldn’t be hidden in the brows of his eyes.

The unlucky guy gulped water and seeing the two big bosses looking at each other, there were 10,000 grass and mud horses running in his heart, but he didn’t dare to say anything.

Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao were going to turn back and, although the unlucky guy felt strange,  he didn’t dare not follow. So the three of them walked in the direction of the pipeline along the footprints when they came.

“I don’t know if any new players have fallen.” Lian Qiao said casually.

Xu RenDong suddenly remembered a question, frowned and said: “Speaking of which, how many initial players are there in this dungeon?”

“I don’t know. A large number of people died in the dark forest and a few died at the fire scene… It’s really not easy. The few who survived were even split by the shield…” Lian Qiao felt amused as he spoke, turned his head and glanced at the unlucky guy, “It’s really tragic.” The unlucky guy thought: Big boss, why are you suddenly “cue-ing” me, I don’t have anything to say, I already know I’m wrong, what do you still want from me?

“Then…” The figure of a gentleman flashed in Xu RenDong’s mind, “How many people are walking ahead of us?”

Lian Qiao shrugged.

Xu RenDong also sighed. There was no answer to this question but it is very disturbing.

It’s a pity that the gentleman left the team quickly after entering the fire, failing to give Xu RenDong a chance to kill him. RenDong knew that this mistake would bring him a major crisis in the future but there was nothing he could do.

At that time, the fire was too big, oxygen was scarce, and he and Lian Qiao didn’t have any weapons and equipment. If he really wanted to try something, the gentleman wouldn’t be the one who died.

The two chatted casually and the unlucky guy followed behind like a small tail. The pipeline is getting closer and closer and the extremely gentle slide buffer belt can be clearly seen.

Suddenly, a sound appeared in the sky.

“Click”.

Lian Qiao and RenDong were stunned and immediately stopped. The unlucky guy instantly became nervous and hid behind the two of them nervously: “What’s the matter? What’s the situation?”

Lian Qiao grabbed Xu RenDong’s arm and whispered, “The sand is not right.”

Xu RenDong nodded. He also found that the sand under his feet seemed to be a little looser than before.

Lian Qiao: “Run?”

Xu RenDong: “Run.” 

The two took a deep breath and started running towards the pipe. The unlucky guy turned pale in shock, screaming “Why are you running?! What happened” , all the while running wildly with the big guys.

It’s a pity that the unfortunate guy does not walk as lightly as the two big bosses. He sank deep into the sand with every step so he ran extra hard and was quickly left behind by the big guys.

“Wooo, wait for me!” The unlucky guy cried and shed tears.

Lian Qiao roared without turning his head: “Why are you crying! If you have the strength to cry, you might as well run!”

The unlucky guy still doesn’t understand why they wanted to run – the sand is loose, isn’t it easier to sink if you act rashly at this time? But seeing the big guys running, he didn’t dare not to chase. Anyway, following the pace of the big guys, the survival rate was always higher.

At this moment, the sound in the air rang again.

“Click.”

“Click, click.”

“Click, click, click…” 

The weird sound got louder and faster, like a gear turning inside a machine. The sand under the three of them became looser and even began to flow backwards like a tide.

At the same time, all three felt a strange suction coming from the rear. It didn’t feel like something was tugging at them but an… all-round suction.

That suction made their running movements unnatural, making it difficult to maintain balance. The sand under their feet was also getting slippery and it was difficult to find footing. The three of them continued to sink as they ran and their speed dropped significantly.

The unlucky guy cried: “It’s over! We’re going to sink!”

RenDong didn’t even say a word to Lian Qiao,but just desperately ran against the suction behind him and ran towards the pipe as quickly as possible.

Getting closer to the pipeline. When Xu RenDong looked up, he was inexplicably surprised.

What’s wrong with this pipe…? !

Originally, the upper end of the pipe was almost straight into the sky but, at this time, the entire pipe was slowly falling down, and the angle formed with the ground kept getting smaller and smaller!

This pipe was not going to fall from the sky, was it?!

***