Chapter 260: As long as I kill fast enough, I’ve got nothing to fear!
Night fell, and the campfire inside the temple was crackling loudly.
The number of people in the top-tier Chosen Ones’ camp was constantly decreasing.
Only two people were on night watch tonight. The family of four didn’t send anyone.
The father and son had each taken a night watch shift already, so they were both resting tonight.
That meant only one person from the purple mark team and the lone wolf from the green mark team—just those two—were on watch tonight.
Hilde, the extraordinary being from the Hans Kingdom, wasn’t on duty tonight, but while the others were resting, he quietly slipped out through a temple window.
At this stage, casualties were pretty high. On his side alone, four lone wolves had been killed, and one female nurse had died.
Except for the lone wolf on watch, there were no other lone wolves left in the temple. This gave Hilde perfect conditions to leave without anyone noticing him.
There was a bit of moonlight tonight. He was already familiar with the route and went to stake out the area near the room where the family of four was staying.
Around 2 AM, the family of four finally began to move.
He quietly followed them.
Over on Zhang Yangqing’s side, things were different. The purple mark team had a large number of people—six in total.
So, they took on the night watch duty for tonight. The others didn’t object and went to rest peacefully.
Before long, the lone wolf older brother came rushing over.
“Big shot, you guessed right. That family of four is already digging up the disinfectant. Looks like they’re planning to head into the city tonight.”
The lone wolf older brother hadn’t believed that anyone could strategize so well at the beginning. Wasn’t everything in this world unknown?
But then he saw it with his own eyes and realized that some people really could do it.
The one-eyed kid was still following the family of four. The lone wolf older brother had come back first to report the situation.
Hearing this, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t surprised at all. He said, “Let’s go. Tonight, we’ll follow them into the city.”
With that, Zhang Yangqing led the team out the main entrance, planning to take the main road down the mountain.
At that moment, the lone wolf older brother asked, confused, “Big shot, first of all, I’m not doubting your ability, but can we really wait for that family of four on this road?”
Based on his judgment, the family of four would probably leave by one of the smaller paths, not the main road.
Besides the main road down the mountain, there were two smaller paths.
So he was reminding Zhang Yangqing, wondering if they should stake out one of the smaller paths instead.
Zhang Yangqing smiled helplessly and said, “Why should I care which way they leave? Aren’t they going to end up at the sewer anyway? We’ll just wait for them at the entrance.”
Why bother following them? Wasn’t the sewer their destination anyway?
After Zhang Yangqing said this, the lone wolf older brother finally got it.
“Man, what was I thinking? Why didn’t I realize that?”
Just now, he actually thought this big shot hadn’t thought of that, and he felt proud that he’d finally considered something thoroughly for once.
But now that he thought about it, his brain really was unnecessary.
Even when the three female nurses teased him about it, he could only scratch his head awkwardly.
After the red mark team and the purple mark team had all left, only three people remained in the temple.
Tonight, the middle-aged uncle in the room couldn’t sleep at all. His initial idea had been to lead his team in attacking the surrounding teams to see if they could snatch some disinfectant.
But that plan was too risky. He wasn’t sure he could beat the other teams.
Besides, his own team wasn’t very united. They might shrink back when faced with danger, and then he’d try to steal a chicken only to end up losing the bait.
“What if some of my teammates are hiding disinfectant on them?”
The middle-aged uncle spent the latter half of the night thinking about this.
He thought the three female nurses might actually have some, since they were nurses.
They said they didn’t have any on them, but that didn’t mean they were telling the truth.
Killing teammates was much easier than killing enemies. Maybe he could just poison their breakfast and lunch.
If he could get the other team members to eat different pills, they would die.
Although it sounded immoral, at this point, who cared about that?
The middle-aged uncle struggled with it for a long time. Finally, just as he decided to kill off the other teammates and take his son with him into the city…
When dawn came and he walked out of his room, he realized there were only two people left in the temple: him and his son!
Because early that morning, that lone wolf had sensed something was wrong and quickly left the camp as well, heading towards the sewer.
That night, unlike the other Chosen Ones who were afraid of losing the trail, Zhang Yangqing had arrived early at the entrance of the abandoned sewer to wait.
In this dark place, he hid in a nearby pile of rocks. There was also some grass there, enough for a few people to conceal themselves.
Before long, the group saw two flashlight beams appear in the nearby area.
It looked like the family of four had arrived at this place, following the false information they’d been given.
They had to admit, the one-eyed kid’s tracking skills were top-notch. After the family of four walked into the sewer, the other teammates still hadn’t spotted the one-eyed kid.
On this pitch-black night, the teammates just saw a dark shadow flash by and then enter the sewer.
“That’s strange. The boy’s movements are really weird. Why haven’t the parents noticed?”
The lone wolf older brother spotted the couple leading their children inside from a distance. One of the boys was walking very strangely, not at all like a normal person.
He was arching his body towards the sky, with his limbs on the ground, crawling backwards.
“Maybe the parents think their child just fell and hurt himself. After all, they don’t know about the parasites.”
One of the nearby nurses explained softly. They had a lot of experience with this kind of thing.
Zhang Yangqing wasn’t very interested in all that. He figured he’d let the one-eyed kid handle the tracking and finding the bug nest anyway.
After all, the one-eyed kid only hesitated when faced with the unknown. Once he knew what to do, he was very efficient.
Zhang Yangqing just led his people along behind. With his memory from yesterday and his night vision, he moved through here without any trouble.
At this stage, two completely different scenarios had emerged.
The other Chosen Ones were more honest. They carefully explored the relatively dry passage on the left and marked the route and dangers on their sketches.
So in their world, the family of four followed the sketch and made it all the way to the exit without any problems.
They also used the disinfectant to avoid being attacked by the strange cockroaches.
This level couldn’t be easier for them.
But on Zhang Yangqing’s side, they hadn’t explored that dry passage at all. Their sketch was drawn randomly. So the family of four ran into a lot of trouble.
After dodging one danger, the husband of the couple started cursing in the sewer: “Damn that purple team! They didn’t even explore anything! How can people in a team be so shameless!”
The one-eyed kid, hiding behind them, snickered to himself.
You have the nerve to call us shameless? You’re the ones who snuck off and killed your teammates. Isn’t that shameless?
Good thing they listened to their partner and taught them a lesson.
Trying to use us as pawns? No way!
Anyway, as long as they scouted out the locations ahead, the one-eyed kid could just follow behind, mark the walls, and let the main force behind him follow the marks.
Hearing her husband say this, the wife asked with a grave expression, “So, do we keep going?”
The husband sighed and answered, “What else can we do? If we go back now, that middle-aged father and son will suspect we have the disinfectant. And the purple team is too big for us to afford offending.”
Thinking this, the couple had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue leading their children forward.
They had no way back now. They just hoped this was the right path.
The one-eyed kid noticed one thing: these bug-people weren’t very strong. They also needed disinfectant to avoid being attacked by the strange cockroaches.
After all, with strange creatures like insects, even the same kind would prey on each other. Why would bug-people be any different?
If they weren’t on the same side, they probably wouldn’t even recognize each other.
After fumbling through the sewer for an hour and a half, the couple finally reached the exit—a ladder leading up.
Because they had enough disinfectant, they managed to avoid being attacked by the few strange cockroaches nearby and successfully climbed up.
After the husband forcefully banged on it a few times, the manhole cover above finally started to loosen.
He then struggled to move the cover aside, and after going through all sorts of hardships, the family of four finally made it inside the city.
The family of four was exhausted from all the suffering that was originally meant for the other Chosen Ones.
They were planning to close the manhole cover and find a place to hide, waiting for an opportunity to find a doctor.
But just then, their two children seemed to sense something.
They took off like wild horses.
The couple couldn’t worry about anything else now. They shouted for their children and chased after them.
At this point, the Chosen Ones, afraid of losing them, immediately climbed up and chased in the direction of the couple.
“Looks like completing the hidden mission isn’t going to be easy.”
Hilde, the extraordinary being from the Hans Kingdom, didn’t have the black slime. He was just going through the motions to see if he had a chance to complete it.
Even if he couldn’t complete it, gaining some experience would be good.
The one-eyed kid had a heavier task. While chasing, he also had to leave marks on the ground so the main force behind him could follow.
Meanwhile, inside the sewer.
Zhang Yangqing and the others had also arrived at the exit.
Because the one-eyed kid had taken a bottle of disinfectant with him, they only had one bottle left now.
That middle-aged uncle had guessed wrong. The three female nurses really didn’t have any disinfectant on them.
At the exit, a few aggressive strange cockroaches attacked. They came so suddenly, catching everyone off guard.
Deep in the night, these four strange cockroaches seemed to be in full swing.
Their presence was even more powerful and intimidating, like kings of the sewer, determined to kill any living thing that entered.
The two groups that had passed by earlier had used disinfectant to drive them back, which had already made them very angry.
Seeing the cockroaches charging furiously, the lone wolf older brother instinctively reached out, ready to remind Zhang Yangqing to use the disinfectant.
But just then, a flash of sword light lit up the sewer. The shiny blade reflected the flashlight’s beam into every corner of the sewer.
This move was like daylight suddenly arriving.
The strange cockroaches, which had super regenerative abilities, were chopped into pieces by that supreme sword intent.
Zhang Yangqing’s sword intent slashes meant that even though the cockroaches had strong regenerative powers, they would still need some time to come back to life.
Besides, chopped up like that, it was doubtful they could come back at all.
After sheathing his sword, Zhang Yangqing asked the lone wolf older brother, who still had his hand outstretched, “What were you about to say?”
The lone wolf older brother, either because he was slow or just hadn’t processed it, answered directly: “Big shot, I was going to remind you to use the disinfectant, but it looks like we don’t need to now.”
Since you already chopped the cockroaches to death, what would be the point of using disinfectant?
“Yeah, next time tell me sooner. I just reacted on instinct and swung.”
This statement left many nearby stunned. Thank goodness we were standing over here. What if you had just instinctively swung at us too?
The lone wolf older brother seemed a little worried that Zhang Yangqing would call him stupid.
But Zhang Yangqing didn’t blame him. He said it was a good thing he thought of it.
This was actually Zhang Yangqing’s habit. For people who were a bit slow but worked hard, he generally wouldn’t scold them. Instead, he would encourage them.
He would scold those who were clever but didn’t work hard. Yes, he was talking about Xiao Xuan.
And just now, it really was a stress reaction when facing danger.
Whenever some unknown creature with hostile intent approached him quickly, Zhang Yangqing would instinctively draw his sword and kill it.
Because the best way to solve a problem was to get rid of the problem directly.
They couldn’t really blame the one-eyed kid here. After all, when the couple’s two children got out, they had immediately run off.
He had been in a hurry to chase them. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to find the bug nest.
Anyway, Zhang Yangqing had already done the deed. He wouldn’t dwell on it after chopping them up. But sometimes, he did feel that taking the standard approach would have been simpler. He wouldn’t have to deal with the churning energy inside his body like now.
If he hadn’t been taking his medicine for so many days, and the virus had stabilized a bit, he might be coughing up blood right now.
The truth was, on this level, if he hadn’t stepped in, the others wouldn’t have made it through either.
There wasn’t enough disinfectant for so many people.
Unless they had swapped out the disinfectant the family of four was carrying beforehand.
After climbing out of the sewer, the dark red mist outside was hazy. This was definitely the city.
The top-tier Chosen Ones had finally reached their final destination.
In front of them was a large, abandoned factory. Maybe because the pollution was too severe, there was hardly anyone around here.
This also explained why the strange cockroaches’ attacks came with built-in contamination.
Zhang Yangqing looked at the ground, saw the marks the one-eyed kid had left, and quickly led the team after him.
As they walked, the Chosen Ones tried to observe the buildings in the distance to find the location of the hospital, but visibility was low due to the dark red mist.
So they could only plan their next move after finding the bug nest.
Moving through the abandoned buildings, Zhang Yangqing was looking for the markers the one-eyed kid had left behind.
The moonlight was pretty good tonight, but as it shone on the dark red mist, it cast the dilapidated, abandoned factory in an eerie and mysterious light, as if countless secrets were floating within.
It was a strange and oppressive atmosphere, making people feel an unusual tension in the silence.
If the Chosen Ones hadn’t gotten used to it in the previous levels, suddenly coming to a place like this might make them feel very uneasy, as if someone were always watching them from the dark corners.
Under the beam of the flashlight, the walls of this abandoned factory were covered with mottled lime. It might have once been a bustling industrial area.
But now, abandoned due to severe pollution, only the dilapidated workshops, rusted machinery, and facilities eroded by time remained.
The iron doors creaked, swaying in the night wind, making desolate sounds that startled many Chosen Ones.
When Zhang Yangqing followed the markers to an abandoned reservoir, he found traces of the one-eyed kid.
He was hiding behind a tall tree, big enough to completely conceal his figure.
“What’s going on?”
Zhang Yangqing walked closer and asked softly.
Because it sounded like there was a fight up ahead.
The one-eyed kid pointed in a direction and said, “There’s a hidden passage at the reservoir ahead. The couple’s bug-child ran in. When I was about to follow the couple inside, it seemed like someone attacked them, and they ran out.”
In the dark red mist, a few people could vaguely be seen fighting near the reservoir.
The sounds of fighting weren’t very loud, but they were close enough to hear.
Before long, the couple seemed to be losing and started to flee. The bug nest’s bug-person guards chased after them.
At that moment, Gregori, the Chosen One from the Ramen Kingdom, thought it was a golden opportunity. Maybe this was the rule giving the Chosen Ones a good chance to sneak into the bug nest.
Thinking this, Gregori looked around, didn’t sense any danger, and walked towards the bug nest entrance.
He didn’t dare be careless along the way—after all, it was a completely new place. As he neared the entrance…
Two aggressive dark shadows suddenly appeared from the perimeter, startling Gregori back five paces. He assumed a defensive posture.
He didn’t understand how he had been discovered despite being so careful.
But after seeing the faces of the two dark shadows, Gregori relaxed a little.
And the two on the other side, upon seeing Gregori’s familiar face, also seemed a bit surprised. The hostility on their faces began to slowly fade.
The husband and wife from the family of four were supporting each other, like two injured, lonely birds.
From this distance, they could see that the couple’s clothes were torn and covered in bloodstains.
Their bodies had many wounds so deep that bone was visible. Every breath was accompanied by pain and difficulty.
It looked like they had managed to shake off their pursuers before appearing here.
“What were those things? How did you end up like this?”
Gregori asked first. As for why he was here, neither side brought it up. At such a critical moment, there was no time for idle chatter.
The husband of the couple, upon seeing it was Gregori, also relaxed. The husband said, “Our children seem to have been controlled by something. They ran inside. Could you please help us? After this is done, we’ll do whatever you ask. We just beg you to help save our children.”
The couple’s eyes were full of sincerity and pleading.
They had only managed to kill their pursuers by getting injured themselves. Gregori was relatively healthier, so they begged for his help.
At this stage, Gregori judged that the bug-people might not actually be very strong.
When bugs controlled human bodies, their combat ability was even less than that of a normal human.
Otherwise, how could this infected couple have killed them?
Besides, generally, only weaker bugs would hide inside human bodies for protection.
Gregori sighed and said, “Your children have already been taken over by the bugs. You should give up.”
His mission wasn’t to save the couple’s children. It was to find the mother bug and make it eat the black goo-covered black citrus fruit.
Helping them complete their mission was indeed a side quest, but it was obviously incredibly difficult.
After being parasitized, the host had probably already suffered brain death. Who knew if a doctor could even save them?
But just then, the couple, who had almost no strength left, looked at each other, suddenly fell to their knees, and began kowtowing desperately to Gregori, as if using their last bit of energy to beg him.
“As parents, we’ve known for a while that something wasn’t right with the children. But they’re still our children, the ones we raised with so much hard work and care. Even if there’s only a one in ten thousand chance, we want to try. Please, we beg you, save our children.”
The couple kowtowed until their heads bled. They already seemed to be contaminated. Their wounds were still bleeding, and they had little strength left to go in. Just making it this far was already pushing their limits.
They could only see the Chosen Ones before them as their only hope.
Faced with parents so desperate to save their children, many people were indeed touched by this bond of family.
Even knowing that their children were probably beyond saving, as parents, they still wouldn’t give up.
Their sincere words made many Chosen Ones hesitate.
Hilde, the Chosen One from the Hans Kingdom, was a bit conflicted. He did have some items he could use, but this seemed really dangerous, didn’t it?
He had no idea what was inside the bug nest. Wasn’t it a bit rash to promise the couple he would save their children?
Gregori, with much more experience, was thinking: Oh no, is this another trap? If I refuse their request now, I might run into danger when I try to leave. But if I agree and can’t complete the mission, they’ll take revenge on me too.
This was a huge trap!
He remembered that in a previous Ghost Story world, the Wax Museum, some Chosen One had been suddenly attacked at the last moment because they refused a wax figure’s kneeling request. They almost didn’t make it out in time for the settlement.
As for the correct answer, that Dragon Kingdom Tianshi had already given it.
Because at the very end, he hadn’t been attacked.
Gregori knew what to do, but doing it seemed so cruel.
If he hadn’t known this part of the story, killing them would have been no big deal.
But once he knew about this family bond, compassion arose in his heart.
This was the Ghost Story world’s test of human nature, and a form of torment.
Even if some Chosen Ones thought of the right answer, they still worried about their reputation after getting out, and about being condemned by others.
After all, the audience were a bunch of people who found it easy to talk.
Even if the answer was right in front of them, it was hard to act on it.
Watching from outside was a completely different feeling from facing two poor parents in reality.
Their bleeding wounds, their sincere pleas, and their desperate love for their children—it indeed made it hard for many to raise a hand against them.
The Ghost Story world seemed to be gradually pushing the Chosen Ones towards ruthlessness.
And it also seemed to be telling the Chosen Ones that only by being cold-blooded could they survive in this world.
Just as Gregori was considering whether to strike them down, the Dragon Kingdom Tianshi next door had already finished killing.
But at this stage, it seemed no audience member would condemn the Dragon Kingdom Tianshi.
Not because of the Dragon Kingdom Tianshi’s power, but because he hadn’t even watched this part of the story.
When Zhang Yangqing was about to lead his team into the bug nest, two hostile, very dangerous, unknown creatures suddenly rushed out from beside him.
Unlike the other Chosen Ones, Zhang Yangqing didn’t quickly step back to see what the danger was.
His stress reaction was just too fast. He simply swung his sword and killed the two unknown creatures.
What else could he do? On a dark night with red fog, if they suddenly appeared right next to him, weren’t they just asking to be killed?
After killing them, Zhang Yangqing realized it was the couple.
But since they were already dead, he didn’t feel much of anything. He just led his team inside.
Zhang Yangqing’s move really emphasized one thing: As long as I kill fast enough, I don’t care what grievances or requests you have—I can’t hear you!
