In a world without the intervention of modern scientific and technological civilization, the sky seemed to be extremely dark. At this moment, it was pitch black outside and you couldn’t even stretch your hand out in front of you. But the movement in the darkness increased.
Qin heard the sharp cries, but he remained indifferent and just plucked the dead branches, letting them burn slowly.
In the tent at the back, he noticed the breathing sounds became very slow, so the kid from the new team seemed to have really fallen asleep. However, the wind beast still retained a little vigilance and did not completely fall asleep. During his watch, the number of survivors slowly dropped. One live broadcast room after another went black, and viewers came out cursing and then looking for the next live broadcast room.
In An Yinong’s live broadcast room, the yawning audience looked speechlessly at An Yinong who was sleeping soundly with a fluffy creature in his arms: Was this person stupid or careless?
Some people thought he was just stupid, but some viewers firmly believed that he was a skilled and courageous person who was fearless.
“No, I’m so sleepy. I’ll take a nap and set the alarm.”
As for Qin’s live broadcast room, they were discussing a very serious matter: “Is there a possibility that this Qin is not Qin, but Qin’s alternate personality, or his twin?”
The audience didn’t believe that the family man who was handling the small fish, building the stove, and obediently following the assigned night watch tasks was the Ice Blade Qin they were familiar with. There must be a conspiracy!
As the night deepened, the sounds became less and less, and it was unclear which side was solving the other.
There was a lightning bolt in the sky, and in an instant, raindrops rushed down. It took only two minutes for the drizzle to turn into a downpour, and then it was a deluge. No matter how heavy the rain was, water did not splash into the cave, as it was blocked outside by an invisible membrane.
Qin closed his eyes, and a thin layer of water vapor surrounded him, which condensed into sharp ice spikes. There were purple veins on his forehead, and it was obvious that he had to endure a lot of pain when he used his ability. This was what it’s like to be seriously injured in the mental realm. Once you use an ability, you will feel the pain as if you were cut into pieces.
For these advanced Zergs who use non-physical forces, the spiritual realm was the most important existence. It didn’t matter even if their limbs were disabled, as long as their spiritual realm was intact, there would definitely be no problems. Going wrong meant becoming a useless person and dying.
The whole galaxy knew that Qin had a problem with his mental realm. He had no intention of hiding it, nor did he want to show any sign of pain. Many people guessed that he came to the game to “die”, which was both right and wrong.
It was not right, because he came to the game to receive intelligence that aliens were taking action and their goal was the ‘survival game’.
Survival Game was an extreme variety show used by the Zerg to prove themselves, and in recent years it had also become a project for the seven major countries to compete with each other in terms of national strength. It was a live show of the Zerg people’s nature and also the variety show with the highest ratings. The aliens came to such programs to disrupt them in order to undermine the Zerg’s confidence.
It was true, because he came here, there was no chance of survival. He was now like a taut string, which would break in two months at most. He was indeed here to find the most suitable way to end his life. A warrior’s destiny was to fight to death, not to linger here.
However……Qin opened his eyes: It’s just that something unexpected happened.
“Ah——” While the players on the third layer were speechless, the first wave of malice from the gaming world had already hit the players on the first layer.
A row of “white walls” as high as a hundred meters was already in sight. The Zerg, who had flown high into the sky and thought they were infallible, stared in amazement as the huge waves that covered the sky and the sun rushed towards them.
Even when the cold, fishy seawater hit his face, the contestant still didn’t react. He was smashed onto a protruding reef and his body was instantly split in two, but he didn’t feel any pain at all. Bright red blood gushed out and was washed away in an instant, leaving no trace.
The player who activated the give up button just watched the roaring white waves rushing towards their body that had not yet been completely covered by the biofilm: “Help…”
Everything flying in the sky, running on the ground or burrowing in the soil seemed so fragile in the face of this devastating wave. The contestants were swept towards the land by the waves. They rolled in the sea water, and even the water-savvy Zerg were dizzy. Only a few people grabbed floating objects on the side and barely managed to survive.
But they all said that this was not enough.
The most terrifying thing about a tsunami was that it carried everything it swept back into the vast ocean. They must hold onto something like a tree or a reef, otherwise when the tide started to recede, they would really have no choice but to die. The number of survivors began to drop rapidly.
The people watching the live broadcasts felt that it was not enough. They said, “This difficulty is not too bad. It’s not like we haven’t seen 100-meter waves before. Besides, this is a primitive environment with no buildings and the lethality is not great. It was just a little scary at the beginning, but the elimination rate was not good later.”
“This is a survival game that happens every three years. Isn’t it as boring as the last one?”
“Same as the last one? Haha. We can prepare for the second wave, which should be over 100 meters high. After the tsunami, the second layer of extreme cold equipment will start preheating. The third layer will increase the rainfall and the frequency of lightning.”
The game designer who was looking at the first-tier players touched his chin and smiled: “Not only the first-tier players, but also the second-tier and third-tier players need such surprises.”
“Boom!” A bolt of lightning struck the cave entrance, and the world outside the cave was as bright as day, but Qin didn’t even raise his eyebrows. The fire in the small pile was a little weak, so he added more wood.
As time went by, the rain got heavier, and there was the sound of rushing water in the distance, and several lightning flashed across the sky. The sound of raindrops was so noisy that the cave became even quieter, with only the sound of shallow breathing.
An Yinong frowned in the tent, he was troubled by a nightmare. In the dream, he was a small ant. There was a violent storm in the dream. The rain was heavy and the wind was very strong. He was holding on to a small leaf, but was washed away to nowhere by the rain.
There were many other small ants in the dream, some were floating in the water, being swept away by the undercurrent, and some were holding on to leaves like him, struggling to survive. Then the dream changed again, and a group of muscular men with bulging muscles appeared. They were half human and half insect, possessing the characteristics of both forms.
These people danced around the stone bench shaped tomb, and then placed relics on it one by one and sealed it with soil. It was raining outside while they were dancing, and the water reached the grass and their feet.
At this moment, a horrific situation occurred. An Yinong found that he was not seeing from God’s perspective. He was the corpse lying in the pit, watching pots of soil being scattered towards him, with words he could not understand being recited as earth was scattered.
He tried to struggle and twist his body, but it was of no use. The dirt mixed with rainwater formed mud. He seemed to be bound by an invisible force, and finally his body was covered by mud.
“Ah!” An Yinong opened his eyes, still in shock.
“Living sacrifice?” The dream was so clear, as if it was not a dream, but something he experienced personally.
The so-called living sacrifice was to sacrifice living people. In ancient times, people sacrificed their enemies or criminals to their ancestors and gods. But the situation in the dream was a little different. If the man was a criminal, he would not be worthy of enjoying so many sacrifices, rock paintings and high-standard stone tombs.
An Yinong recalled what he heard during the day and analyzed it based on his limited common sense of ancient times. Judging from the evidence he had seen so far, this man was not a criminal or enemy, but rather a person of relatively high status in the team.
The man was conscious at the time, his hands and feet were not tied, and he was willing.
The people in the rock paintings were kneeling at his tomb, and there were pictures of the afterlife related to blessings. There are also two death gods guarding it. Those who offered sacrifices to men were very grateful to him and worshipped him. Under what circumstances would they need to sacrifice a prestigious person?
With this doubt, An Yinong walked out of the tent. Qin was still motionlessly guarding the fire.
“It’s raining so heavily.” He walked over, sat down beside him, and stretched out his hands to warm himself by the fire.
“Yeah.” Qin nodded.
The rain was indeed heavy; just by listening to the sound one could tell it was falling in sheets.
An Yinong added firewood to the fire. The firewood was cut by Qin, and the width and height were exactly the same, as if he was a perfectionist. When he joined the army, he was also neat and orderly.
“Qin, what is the battlefield like?” He asked suddenly.
His question woke up all the sleepy audiences. They stared at An Yinong with wide eyes, wondering what gave him the courage to commit suicide.
“You know?” Qin didn’t get angry, but asked, “What do you know?”
Audience: …Well, it’s a preference.
“Can you tell me about those alien races on the battlefield?”
The orange-yellow firelight illuminated the two people’s faces, and warmth flowed in the relatively independent small space. An Yinong looked at him, his sparkling eyes showing undisguised liking. He moved closer, and closer.
“Qin has fought aliens head-on on the battlefield at the edge of the star field. What are they like?”
“I just want to know how to kill them.”
Some strange movies and TV shows glorified aliens, and many people regarded them as “interstellar people”, calling for tolerance towards aliens, as they also had flesh and blood. Qin had never understood this kind of emotion, and he didn’t want An Yinong to be one of them.
“I heard this phrase.” An Yinong was very direct, “To defeat your enemy, you must first kill him.”
Qin’s expression relaxed. It seemed that they had reached a consensus on how to view the unfriendly aliens.
“The main enemy we have is…”
Qin had spoken a lot unconsciously, more than he had in a month. When he came to his senses, the person next to him was lying there, having fallen asleep at some point, sleeping peacefully. Instead, Fengchi stuck his head out of the tent, walked all the way to the fire under Qin’s gaze, grabbed An Yinong’s clothes and tried to drag him back.
“Too careless.” Qin Xin, “Did you trust me just like that?”
He stood up and Fengchi was startled. Even though he was trembling with fear, he still bared his teeth at him.
Qin ignored Fengchi, he just walked a little further away and sat down at the entrance of the cave, leaving the warm place near the fire to An Yinong. Fengchi calmed down and lay down next to An Yinong, but he still refused to let down his guard, staring at Qin with his round eyes.
It was not until almost one o’clock that An Yinong woke up and opened his eyes. He rubbed his eyes and found that Fengchi had fallen asleep by the fire. He didn’t know when Fengchi showed up.
“I’ll take over the next shift, Qin can take a rest.”
Qin didn’t refuse, nor did he go into the tent. He just leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
An Yinong yawned as he faced the fire. He took out the animal skin and shone a lamp on it. He recalled the rock paintings on the tomb while comparing them with the map in his hand. Although the paintings were different, they could serve as reference to each other.
This tribe seemed to like to depict “water” with continuous lines, and there were triangular “fish” in the lines on the map, so this line was very likely the small river he had visited before. Once he identified this part, he could try to find other signs.
An Yinong compared them one by one. Suddenly, he saw a “bench” made up of three short lines. Wasn’t this the stone tomb? He first assumed it was a stone tomb, then looked at the others, and all the other abstract shapes fell into clarity. The straight line with thorns was the cliff, and the circle was where they are now, the cave.
The “tooth” symbol that An Yinong believed to be the treasure was not far to the left of the circle, between the cliff and the stream, in the middle of a triangle.
“What is a triangle?” He pondered carefully, but couldn’t remember.
Unable to get up, he put away the animal skins and looked at the rain outside: if the rain didn’t stop, they would not be able to leave tomorrow.
Rain was not just about getting his clothes wet, making the ground slippery and difficult to walk on, and blurred vision. It could also cause problems such as having no place to live, getting sick, hypothermia, and no suitable place to eat, etc. Moreover, he felt that given the nature of the game, this rain was definitely not just water.
This was how they spent the night in the cave, and it rained all night outside. At daybreak, it was still grey outside. The rain blocked his vision and blurred his voice. An Yinong put on the hood of his protective suit and carefully went to the cave entrance to investigate. This reminded him of his second dream.
The rain mixed with the mud sealed his ears, nose and mouth in the dream, and his struggle gradually stopped. People knelt down and prayed around his grave.
What were they praying for?
“Where?”
An Yinong came back to his senses: “I seem to have found a map to a treasure chest. Qin, do you want to go treasure hunting with me?”
WhiteMoon x BlackSun 