Mist

Chapter 22

Ouroboros

Chapter 22

“Don’t look....at what?”

Under the strong smell of blood, Ji Yushi’s eyes were covered and he couldn’t see anything, but his brain automatically began to replay the scene he saw just now.

It was just a glance.

But his brain had involuntarily noted down all the details.

It was still the same marble-like floor like outside, white and smooth, but blood covered most of his field of vision. Mixed together with that blood was something white and sticky and to the far left of the pool of blood, there was something thin and flesh coloured. It was someone’s right ear.....If he moved his eyes a little, he could see white skin and muscles. That was someone’s thigh.....Following that was a mass of red that looked like intestines as well as scattered teeth and if he looked a little further, there was a calf wearing a black boot.

Ji Yushi only felt a strong bout of nausea.

He couldn’t be mistaken.

That was his own calf.@@@@

As for ear and other pieces of flesh in the pool of blood, they belonged to the teammates who were still standing next to him.

In other words, he had almost witnessed the complete annihilation of Team 5.

“Grrrrr!!”

Ji Yushi heard it. It was the sound of a zombie rushing over from the end of the corridor. Before it could reach them, it was killed with a ‘bang!’.

The gunfire came from next to him. Song Qinglan who was covering his eyes from behind had fired a shot with one hand.

The people around seemed to find it unsettling. They all quickly scattered away.

“What is that?!”

“Insect legs?”

“Slimy and sticky, it’s liked a damned spider web!”

Ji Yushi followed Song Qinglan along for a few steps before he finally removed the hand in front of his eyes.

Everyone in the team was pale, their expressions also very ugly.

Even if they knew that their future selves would continue to pave the way for their present selves, seeing firsthand how that path was formed was something they couldn’t imagine.

“Warned you a little too late.” Song Qinglan suddenly spoke, “Next time, I’ll try to be faster.”

Ji Yushi was stunned. It took him a while to realise that Song Qinglan was talking to him.

The other party’s cold and stern face showed sincere concern under the bright lights. It was concern from a captain towards their teammate, but there was also a trace of emotion that Ji Yushi couldn’t decipher — The same kind of emotion he had seen in his teacher’s eyes when he was young. Because of this, he was a little surprised.

“Thank you.” He said.

Song Qinglan, “Team 5 split up. Half of them are at the Golden Crow No. 1 base. Don’t think too much, there is no ‘you’ there.”

This time Ji Yushi was really surprised.

But Song Qinglan’s expression was still natural: “So treat it as if you hadn’t seen it.”

Duan Wen was still standing at the entrance to that large room. His psychological endurance seemed to be pretty good. He suddenly shouted, “Cap Song! This Old Zhou seems to still be alive!”

Song Qinglan, “Having lasted until now, he must have something to say. I’ll go over.”

As he said that, he strode over to that room without any hesitation.

One of the teammates couldn’t handle the sight and had ran away to throw up. This time it wasn’t Li Chun, but Zhou Mingxuan.

Anyone who saw themselves dying so tragically wouldn’t be able to stay completely calm.

Ji Yushi wondered: What exactly happened here?

Why was Song Qinglan able to control his emotions so well despite having clearly seen that scene? Was it to comfort him, fearing that he would not be able to complete the next task?

It must’ve been a clue Zhou Mingxuan of Team 5 had left for him.

Everyone was still in shock. Before they could mourn for their future selves, they saw three similar sized giant spiders appear on the ceiling in the distance. They ignored the zombies and wandered around, their eight intact legs moving extremely fast. They very quickly concealed themselves in the dark again.

Ji Yushi knew that these spiders are quietly hiding away, using the hairs on their legs to detect vibrations in the air. If anything living came their way, they would suddenly appear and tear up the food that had sent themselves to them.

After a moment of silence, Song Qinglan said, “Let’s go.”

They had already passed through the corridor, reaching another open space.

This dome was more than a hundred metres high. It was too large for them to immediately find the control centre.

At this moment, a green light flashed on Song Qinglan’s communicator.

Duan Wen had at some point in time turned off the silence mode on the communicator.

Immediately afterwards, everyone heard Ji Yushi’s voice coming through the communicator. This included Ji Yushi himself.

“Cap Song.”

A clear and cold voice sounded through the public channel for the first time.

It was Ji Yushi from Team B.

Probably because it felt strange calling out his own name, the Team B Ji Yushi chose to speak to Song Qinglan, “After going past the corridor gate, enter the first gate on the left, go down two floors, and after you follow the path for half a circle, you will see the control centre.”

From what everyone saw from the real-time holographic projection just now, Team B had already found the control centre and turned off the first set of energy transmitters.

The two bases were mirror images of each other. Team B’s Ji Yushi was naturally as meticulous as Team A’s, so he immediately thought of passing on the information to them.

Everyone was surprised.

This kind of experience was too strange. They were clearly standing in front of Ji Yushi who wasn’t speaking but they heard his familiar voice travel through from the public channel. Even the tone of his voice was exactly the same.

Song Qinglan also found this experience very novel.

He looked at Ji Yushi who was looking quietly back at him, as if waiting for him to finish talking to ‘someone else’.

“How is your situation there?” Song Qinglan asked.

“Everything went well.”

Another familiar voice also appeared.

Song Qinglan was startled as soon as he heard it. He almost thought he was listening to his own voice recording.

It was the other Song Qinglan.

The tone was casual and careless, but it also gave those hearing it an urge to beat him up, “Except for a little too many zombies and half of the people from Team 5 disappearing, there were no problems. We’re right now waiting for Advisor Ji to work out the order of turning off the energy transmitters. If we’re not careful and end up putting an end to our lives, how would we be able to go over and help you?”

Everyone: “.......”

Hearing the silence, the other Song Qinglan continued, “It’s too much for you to handle on your end, isn’t it? It is said that the second base is filled with mutations of SSS-level difficulty.”

Everyone: “............”

Sure enough, no matter which Cap Song it was, they all have a knack for making the atmosphere be filled with the smell of gunpowder.

Gunshots sounded and it was followed by the sound of zombies falling. Li Chun of Team B’s cursing became part of the background sound.

Ji Yushi of Team B reminded, “Cap Song, fourth row, the sixth from the left.”

Song Qinglan of Team B, “Righto, I’m on it.”

The call was cut off.

For some reason, Song Qinglan felt that the way the others looked at him was a little strange.

Ji Yushi also retracted his gaze. He seemed to be a little unaccustomed to the way he and Song Qinglan in Team B interacted.

Song Qinglan bent down the corners of his lips, “Let’s go. Our side is SSS difficulty.”