Chapter 106: Fell into a Misunderstanding

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Fell into a MisunderstandingDeep into the night, the gas station was illuminated by two flashlights hung up to serve as lights, and none of the players rested, either sitting or standing, occasionally glancing at Wang Chaoqing. As Xu Huo patted his trousers and started to walk outside, Gu Yu quickly called out to him, "Where are you going?" "I’m going to have a smoke." Xu Huo didn’t go far, just across the street. After a while, Shen Yi came over, offered him a bottle of water, and asked him for a lighter. The two squatted by the roadside, smoking. "That kick you gave me earlier was pretty fierce," Shen Yi said, touching his ribs, and added with a smile when he saw Xu Huo turn his head, "Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming you." "The game is a place of life and death struggles, where doing anything to survive isn’t surprising. Your intentions were good, and you didn’t really want to harm us. On the contrary, if we had followed Lin Pei, we might have ended up like Wu Qiuyi." Xu Huo’s fingers paused, and his eyes fell on the rest room across the street, already split in two by his blade. Gu Yu had already carried Wu Qiuyi out. "What’s the point?" he murmured. Shen Yi heard his muttering and said self-mockingly, "For us, it’s a form of comfort." "Before coming to this instance, my sibling and I joined a local Player Association formed spontaneously by a few players, with the aim of banding together for warmth." "To get through the ordeal together, we went all over collecting Tickets for the same station. But before we found the Tickets, several companions got dragged into a random instance and all were killed." "You didn’t see their state, their bodies were gnawed clean of any good flesh... not by large animals tearing at them, but by small ones like cats and dogs. One of them was still breathing when he came out, falling into the pot where his mother was cooking soup... she thought he had gone out to fool around..." "We don’t know when we’ll die, but when the time comes we hope at least to be granted some dignity. Not to have our bodies exposed in the wilderness; that’s the least we ask." Xu Huo flicked his cigarette ash, "Players could be eaten by Aliens after dying, be eaten by Cannibal Players, canned, or served on a dining table. Compared to these, being exposed in the wilderness is more dignified." Shen Yi choked, and after a long while, managed to say, "Talking to you is really uncomfortable." Xu Huo smiled. After the cigarette was done, Shen Yi went back to rest, and Gu Yu and the others gradually started dozing off. The night passed without any other disturbance in the town. "Wake up," Xu Huo kicked Wang Chaoqing, who was dozing off under the clock. Caught in a deep dream, Wang Chaoqing immediately jumped up, wiping drool off his face, "Brother Xu, good morning!" "Have you found the person?" Xu Huo squinted at him. Wang Chaoqing forced a smile, "Brother Xu, look, the town is so big, it always takes time." Xu Huo surprisingly did not argue with him, but instead asked, "Did you find anything special underground?" "Something special?" Wang Chaoqing looked perplexed, "Nah, it’s pitch-black everywhere, can’t see anything." "What about Master Niese’s residence?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow at him. Wang Chaoqing didn’t dare say he hadn’t been there, "It’s just a mess inside, I didn’t see Lin Pei." Xu Huo nodded and then turned to Gu Yu and the others, "Let’s go check the east gate first." "There’s no movement at either gate, and the game hasn’t notified anyone of passing the instance, so it seems Lin Pei hasn’t left the instance," Shen Xin said, her face bright with joy. After resting for the night, she felt much better. "Random instances don’t rank players, and besides, we’re not Ticket-holding players. Even if someone did pass, others might not know," Gu Yu had a wide range of channels, and knew a fair bit about random instances, "Ticket-holding players can pass, and random players can follow them through, but it seems there is no connection between random players, who must pass on their own." "So we can’t be sure whether Lin Pei has left or not, better to be cautious." A line of people set off for the east gate. To guard against the possible appearance of Aliens, the six split into two groups and kept some distance between them. The edge of the town was piled up with a number of abandoned cars. Ke Liang went ahead to look for usable vehicles while Wang Chaoqing and Shen Yi buried Nian Hong’an. Although the gas station was relatively near the east gate, it still required passing through a not-so-small forest. Using a vehicle would not only save time but also be relatively safer. "This one will do," Gu Yu found a small truck, and after igniting it, she discovered it worked. The group worked together to clear out a path and Ke Liang drove, Shen Xin sat in the passenger seat, and the others sat in the back of the truck. The familiar sound of the engine echoed in the small woods, Gu Yu looked around nervously, and even the occasional sudden noises from the vehicle startled her. Seeing the others looking at her, Gu Yu smiled and said, "After staying here for a few days, I’m not used to loud noises anymore. I’m afraid that louder sounds will attract the Aliens." "If there were still Aliens roaming the town, they wouldn’t have waited until now to come out," Shen Yi reassured her. "I’m afraid it’s Lin Pei who has released the Aliens," Gu Yu said. "He wouldn’t dare," Ke Liang rested one hand outside the car window, his tone filled with mockery, "As long as he has to hide from us, he wouldn’t dare release the Aliens. In a one-on-one fight, he’s not even a warm-up for an Alien." The vehicle quickly passed by the scrapped buses and arrived at the wall gate. Each person got out in turn, Shen Xin looked up at the towering wall, "It’s stunning no matter how many times you see it." Xu Huo stopped five meters in front of the gate, the Crimson Sword carried a dark red glow as he slashed down, a semi-transparent rectangular slice emerged from the blade, but it dissipated like dust when it hit the gate. Gu Yu rushed over to feel the area that had been chopped, disappointedly saying, "It didn’t even leave a mark." "Try somewhere else," Xu Huo tried other places beyond the gate, even using the Sword to hard-hit directly several times, but only left scratch marks on the gate wall, like those made by a cat’s claws. The rest pounded and knocked on the wall for a good while but couldn’t find anything like a secret door or hidden compartment. "It seems we have to go back to town to search." This was within Xu Huo’s expectations; he didn’t seem as disappointed as the others, "Let’s go to Master Niese’s place first." The car rattled back to town, and Master Niese’s place was indeed as messy as Wang Chaoqing had said. Some of the exquisite ornaments were shattered, even the clocks didn’t survive. "He really was looking for something." "It can’t possibly be for one Super Prop at this point, can it?" "Could there really be something like a key? Or is the mechanism to open the gate right here?" "Let’s split up and look," Xu Huo said. His knowledge of Super Props wasn’t comprehensive, and he didn’t know what information Lin Pei held; it was uncertain whether Lin Pei took risks for Super Props or to leave the side story. But he was so fixated on this place, he would surely circle back to find them. Everyone painstakingly searched every corner of the rooms repeatedly but found neither a mechanism, secret passage, nor anything resembling a key to open the gate. Sёarᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "It’s really strange. There are so many doors in this house, yet not a single key," Gu Yu complained mockingly, "Does this town even lock doors at night?" "You don’t need keys to open these doors," Shen Xin said, pushing the door, "The keyholes are just decorations." "The keyholes are just decorations," Xu Huo repeated, a thought suddenly occurring to him. The wall gate was seamless, looking like a part wedged in, different from ordinary doors – hence, the method to open the gate could be out of the ordinary too. "We’ve fallen into a misconception."