Mist

Chapter 30

Less than two hours?

Even if the human body’s sense of time was prolonged due to the difficult environment, they shouldn’t have only been in that rainforest for two hours.

Ji Yushi said, “I saw the time when we left. It was indeed less than two hours ago.”

But he quickly remembered the magnetic field here and the compass whose pointer spun around and added, “Could it be a problem with the clock’s speed?”

Song Qinglan’s nose was tall and lips were thin. He continued to point Shen Mian at Big Beard, “It shouldn’t be. Although I didn’t hold back when I punched him, it shouldn’t be to the extent of still bleeding a day or two later.”

Perhaps it was because he understood that the two were discussing the problem of time, Big Beard shouted out some more nonsense again and appeared to be a little anxious.

Unfortunately no one could understand what he said.

After experiencing PU-31 and all the strange happenings there, the two no longer perceived time the way they did before. Faced with this situation, they didn’t panic.

Ji Yushi placed the alarm clock down, “I have an idea.”

He boldly surmised, “It is very likely that the time flow here is not the same as the time flow in the rainforest. If that is the case.....Then it wasn’t an accident that we were sucked here and it is in fact related to the mission.

For the new mission they had unlocked this time, the mission objective was —- Repairer of Time.

In Tianqiong’s transfer station, the team had discussed the mission objective and had interacted with Tianqiong’s voice system.

But despite the so-called awakening of Tianqiong’s self-awareness, it was ultimately still just a system and had its own way of thinking so the information it could give was limited. As a result, they were not able to gain any more useful information.

Please read this from kk translates

Song Qinglan noticed that Ji Yushi’s complexion didn’t look very good and his body was still wet, so he said, “Let’s analyse it later. Advisor Ji, we have now flipped the situation around.”

Facing the anxious bear-like Big Beard, Song Qinglan curled up the corners of his lips slightly. He knew that Big Beard couldn’t understand, yet he deliberately expressed the meaning of his words clearly, “We can have a hot shower first, warm up our clothes and then comfortably discuss this matter while we slowly eat up Big Beard’s stock.”

Big Beard’s eyes widened with vigilance, “Gulukagajijifalahe?”

Song Qinglan moved the muzzle, gesturing for Big Beard to move.

Big Beard blew away his beard, “Lawukaguda!!”

Song Qinglan ignored him, “I’m sure you know what I mean.”

This seventh squad captain who had always been rebellious escorted Big Beard into the corner with his gun like a full-blown gangster. He then found an iron chain like the one Big Beard had used on them and tied Big Beard to a pipe.

Big Beard was almost about to pass out with anger. He almost tore apart the chain!

*

Song Qinglan’s arrangement was right. They really needed to eat and fix themselves up right now.

The structure of the space capsule was almost a hundred times larger than that of their capsule and it had its own self-preservation system. Ji Yushi walked through several corridors and passed through several hatches before he finally saw the tightly shut outer hatch.

The outer hatch seemed to not have been opened in a very long time.

Ji Yushi entered the bathroom, took off his wet black combat uniform and placed it into the steamer to clean and dry.

He then stood under the showerhead and rinsed himself from head to toe with hot water.

Hot steam fogged up the glass. The hot water washed away all the uncomfortable dampness on his skin as well as all the unknown bacteria and filth he may have acquired from the mountain of garbage and the dirty blanket. Water flowed through every part of his body before finally reaching his ankle.

After taking a shower, Ji Yushi wiped himself down.

He put the black combat uniform which had been steam cleaned on again and saw Song Qinglan leaning against the wall in the corridor outside as soon as he walked out of the bathroom. Song Qinglan had his head lowered and was looking down at a small black and white game console in his hands.

It was Ji Yushi’s game console.

After he came here, it was taken away by Big Beard along with his communicator. Song Qinglan had clearly somehow managed to get it back.

Although he had given it to Ji Yushi last time in PU-31, they were in a situation where they even had difficulty protecting themselves in the big cycle so it was naturally not possible for Ji Yushi to use it to “distract himself”.

A faint chill could be felt from Song Qinglan’s body. There was even a small blade of grass from the rainforest stuck behind his earlobe.

He seemed to be waiting for Ji Yushi to finish washing up.

When Ji Yushi passed by, the last block on the screen fell and the words “Game Over” just happened to appear.

There was only one bathroom here, but there were many compartments.

Ji Yushi asked, “Cap Song, why aren’t you going in?”

If it was another team member, Song Qinglan would certainly not wait outside. It was just taking off some clothes and having a shower and they’re all rough men so what was there to be shy about?

“Going now.” Song Qinglan however didn’t answer that question and only returned the game console to Ji Yushi, “The high scores on the leader board are all yours?”

It was an unbelievably high score.

Ji Yushi received the game console, “Some were played by others when I’m not at home.”

Ji Minyue especially wanted to beat his score and would never give up even if he was about to die.

When he wasn’t around, it was played by someone at home. It seems that intelligent people all hang around with other intelligent people.

It was hard to imagine how clingy the other person was.

Song Qinglan raised a brow, “Then you’re all very good.”

Song Qinglan entered the bathroom, reselected a cubicle and washed himself thoroughly from head to toe.

During this process, he suddenly understood why Ji Yushi was reluctant to stay in the seventh squad. It wasn’t that he was still holding a grudge —- It was likely because of his boyfriend. Although Jiang City and Ning City are not too far apart, it was still more than an hour’s drive. Guardians are usually busy with their job and with training so commuting from there wouldn’t be an option.

Becoming a Guardian would indeed have an impact on one’s relationship.

Because it was difficult to swallow, he ate very slowly. He used the pen to add an outer hatch to the space capsule.

That was the one he noticed when he went to the bathroom just now. He originally wanted to ask what was in that direction but, unexpectedly, as soon as he finished drawing, Big Beard who had been staring angrily at the cans in their hands immediately changed his expression and he excitedly said a lot of things.

“Gulaka! Gulaka!”

Big Beard looked very serious. The two understood immediately. He was saying that they shouldn’t go there.

“Going?” Ji Yushi asked.

“If we don’t go and see, we won’t know what’s there.” Song Qinglan thought for a while, “But I can go alone this time.”

“We should go together.” Ji Yushi said.

“Alright.” Song Qinglan agreed, “It would be best to find more clues.”

Please read this from kk translates

They rested for a while. Big Beard sulked on the side.

The two could see that Big Beard didn’t really want to dissuade them. After all, these two ate too much. The cans Big Beard had hoarded was already missing a small corner.

Among the piles of things picked up by Big Beard, they found their other belongings including their communicators, knives and medicine box. In case anything were to happen, they also found some clean clothes picked up by Big Beard as well as flashlights and some food.

*

Big Beard very reluctantly entered the password for them. After entering it, he muttered a few times. He was probably cursing.

The outer hatch which hadn’t been opened in a long time was now opened.

Unlike their journey to the mountain of garbage, there was no need for adapting here. As soon as the outer hatch was opened, they were met with darkness.

Big Beard may seem foolish, but his behaviour was rather shrewd. Fearing that they wouldn’t be able to return if he closed the door, Song Qinglan pointed at the door and then at his gun.

After confirming that Big Beard understood, the two turned on their flashlights and walked out of the hatch.

As soon as they stepped out, the darkness disappeared.

What greeted them was a dazzling light.

The sky was clear blue and cloudless.

They stood before a zebra crossing in a bustling city.

The traffic lights were flashing. For a moment, they felt like they had returned to the real world.

The painted surface on the quiet and clean asphalt road appeared to be quite new. There was no one at the intersection, let alone any moving vehicles.

Like the rainforest, it was also extremely quiet here. There weren’t any noises or human voices that belonged to a city.

This was an empty city.

The two turned off their flashlights. Ji Yushi said, “Cap Song, look there. The sign on the road next to it is reversed.”

Song Qinglan also noticed that.

They stood at an intersection and could see an English ‘STOP’ sign on the lanes on both sides but the one on the left was reversed.

Not only that, all the scenery on both sides of the road were extremely symmetrical with identical cars parked by the road and exactly the same shops. If one looked up, even the buildings were symmetrical, like mirror images.

This was very similar to the situation in the rainforest. No wonder Big Beard reacted that way.

They understood what the result would be if they continued walking.

That is, no matter how long they walked, no matter what they tried to do to get out of this city, they would only return to the original point in the end.

“Won’t go for the time being. This kind of mirroring makes it easy to get lost.” Song Qinglan said, “Let’s go back first and see if other directions are feasible.”

“Alright.” Ji Yushi also had that intention.

In order to compare the time flow, Song Qinglan had set a timer on the communicator before departing.

He raised his wrist and checked, “It has been less than three minutes since we arrived here. This time we gave up rather quickly. What is this called, cutting short one’s losses?”

Song Qinglan’s tone was helplessly self-deprecating. Ever since they came here, they hadn’t taken another step.

The two didn’t have to walk much when suddenly, the light before them dimmed and the city and sunlight disappeared. They had returned back to the space capsule.

As soon as they entered the space capsule, there was deafening music.

They walked through the corridor, enduring the painful vibration in their ears the entire way, and quickly returned to the control room.

There were two people in the control room, each holding a can of beer, shaking their heads and dancing to the music.

One was the red-faced Big Beard and the other wore a familiar black combat uniform.

Ji Yushi: “.......”

From the looks of it, not just three minutes had passed.

Song Qinglan walked over and slapped the speaker off. The veins on his temples bulged.

The two stopped with the music and turned their heads and looked over.

Li Chun was frozen for a few seconds before he cried and threw himself over, “Cap Song!! Advisor Ji!!”

“Wait a minute.” Song Qinglan poked his forehead with his index finger. His dark eyes were filled with distaste, “How long have you been here?”

Li Chun cried aggrievedly, “It’s been six days! What the hell is going on with this mission this time?!”