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Ch71.1 - Fear of the Full Moon
Under the moonlight, a few black dots were seen on the reflective white snow. The vast snowy peaks were under their feet and the huge moon was behind them. They were sandwiched between the boundless heaven and earth and it was easy to feel like they were just a small, helpless insect.
At this height, very little life could exist. They seemed to be at the end of life and the world as they climbed to the top of the world.
Rather than wasting their energy to climb upwards, they left the slightly more open ground and found a corner of a snowy rock to shelter from the wind to rest a bit and think about their next move.
He Yinchuan had served as a soldier and had walked through snowy mountains and deserts. However, the current situation made him frown. Snow that was nearly the size of a goose feather was falling, cutting the visibility of their field of view to around 20 meters around them. He Yinchuan observed a lot of the terrain and pointed out their most important predicament. “…I don’t know the terrain.”
Their opponents seemed quite experienced and their understanding of the mountain couldn’t be underestimated. The players might’ve managed to get out of sight of the climbers and the heavy snowfall had cleared their tracks but it wasn’t particularly reassuring.
Zhou Ao tightened the bandages on his hands, lifted a handful of snow and washed the exposed skin. He suggested, “Do you want to split up?”
He Yinchuan told him, “Don’t split up.”
“If we don’t split up, our group of eight is too big.”
“If we split up then it is easy to hit each one.”
Moving on a high-altitude snowy mountain was completely different from the ground. Even if they were traveling light and brought as little as possible, their cold-resistance clothes only weighing 5 kilograms, it was still enough to exhaust half a person’s life.
Jiang Fang carried Nan Zhou nearly 300 meters. The moment he stopped, he leaned down to gasp for breath. Then he simply leaned on Nan Zhou’s shoulder and closed his eyes to rest. Looking at the way his eyelashes fluttered, he seemed very tired. Yet judging from the calm heartbeat through his chest, he had recovered after sitting down to rest for a short time.
Nan Zhou heard it but he didn’t mind Jiang Fang resting on his shoulder. He even lowered his shoulder a bit and accommodated this person so that Jiang Fang could lean more comfortably. Now Jiang Fang was like a well-behaved Arctic rabbit who had folded his legs and curled into a ball.
Nan Zhou raised his hand and brushed off a bit of snow from the ends of Jiang Fang’s hair for him.
Jiang Fang smiled slightly.
The two people relied on each other in this way. It was tacit and they didn’t fight against their inner feelings. They just indulged in the wild madness of the snowy wilderness.
The wind blew and the snowy mountain was endless.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lu Bifang returned from his scouting trip where he braved the strong wind and snow. Then he gave a simple topographic map to the captain and vice-captain.
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He Yinchuan and Zhou Ao held the topographic map, looking at it horizontally and vertically as they planned for a long time. They had a big headache. The situation they faced now had four difficulties. If they dug a snow nest and hid here, it would greatly reduce the probability of a head-on conflict with the group of climbers.
However, they would be hiding and wouldn’t be able to climb much higher. Staying in place was basically tantamount to giving up the game. If they went up, they would reach the open area and the probability of them being discovered would increase.
They didn’t know the details of the bear man, hammer man and ice pick woman. Even so, they had seen the gecko man’s flexible actions and Lu Bifang knew they couldn’t be taken lightly.
In addition, He Yinchuan was worried about one thing. If the four person climbing group was smart enough, they could climb all the way to the top of the mountain and gain the best advantage spot from the beginning, just waiting for them to get close. There might also be some hell from the ‘moon god’ at the top of the mountain.
He Yinchuan became more anxious as he thought about it. “Damn, if guns could be brought out then we would be able to smash those strange-shaped things.”
They had been fully equipped with guns, knives, clubs and bullets before entering but presumably due to balance reasons, the system disabled them from using weapons apart from what the instance allowed. If they had their guns then these four zombies wouldn’t have a good result.
Zhou Ao gave him a look. “Pay attention to the quality of your words.”
He Yinchuan was surprised to find there were still people nearby. He coughed and said, “Look at the map, look at the map.”
Lu Bifang had spent nearly an hour exploring the way. He might be physically strong but he was inevitably exhausted. He handed in the task to the captain and crawled across the soft snow piles to sit down with Nan Zhou, Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang. Li Yinhang wanted to give him a seat but he waved his hand shyly and wearily. He leaned against the rock, allowing a small part of his body to be exposed.
After resting, there was nothing to do so Lu Bifang opened his warehouse. There weren’t many useful things that they had brought in from the outside. Lu Bifang specially spent 300 points and placed a small mirror he carried with him into a storage compartment. He took out the mirror, carefully blocking the mirror with his hand so it didn’t reflect the light spots and expose his whereabouts.
The thing Lu Bifang really wanted was the photo of three people behind the mirror. Lu Bifang noticed Nan Zhou’s curious gaze from the side and didn’t mind. He proudly introduced the two beautiful girls in the photo beside himself.
“This is my sister, Lu Lizi.”
“This is my girlfriend.”
It was only at this time that he revealed a bit of youthfulness. It was like he had an invisible, big tail wagging behind him.
“This was my sophomore year. The three of us went to the amusement park together and took a photo.”
Li Yinhang was a bit surprised. “You have a girlfriend yet you still signed up?”
“Ah…” Lu Bifang had originally harbored the thought of showing off. He hadn’t expected Li Yinhang to focus on this strange thing. He touched the back of his head and smiled in an embarrassed manner. “I came all the way here. In the end, we are definitely going to take everyone back with us.”
The first day the Bronze Brigade had entered, they had a simple discussion and let Lu Bifang make his wish if he won in the wishing fountain. His wish was that after they won, all the game participants would be able to return to the real world as they did when they entered this world, regardless of whether they were alive or not.
Before Lu Bifang could speak, Nan Zhou covered his mouth.
Lu Bifang, “?”
“Don’t say too much about this.” Nan Zhou told him. “Generally, if you show photos of the friends and relatives you miss and talk about the future, you will soon…”
He changed the word ‘die’ to a relatively mild statement. “Be in danger.”
Lu Bifang whose mouth was covered, “……”
It wasn’t that he didn’t think it was bad luck to say ‘I’ll go home and get married after the task was over’ but he had just spoken casually. Now he saw Nan Zhou’s cautious look, as if this person was seriously blocking the flag for him.
Lu Bifang couldn’t help smiling and felt a bit closer to Nan Zhou in his heart. This also made him more guilty. Just now, he had delivered the topographic map and was ready to leave to rest when Lin Zhisong stuffed a small tape recorder and note into his pocket.
The note read: You are close to them. Help me ask about Nan Zhou.
Lu Bifang had looked up in surprise. This… wasn’t it bad?
Then once he turned his gaze to He Yinchuan, he found the young captain nod imperceptibly as well. Lin Zhisong might be neurotic and unsociable but there must be a reason why he cared so much about Nan Zhou. As teammates, they all trusted Lin Zhisong’s instincts. He must have a reason to doubt Nan Zhou.
This meant that Lu Bifang, who had the responsibility of interrogation, had to take the lead. He asked softly, “Teacher Nan, what about you? Who is in your family?”
Nan Zhou answered, “Parents and a sister.”
Lu Bifang felt relieved. Nan Zhou also had a sister! This way, the topic could open up. He actively asked, “Is your sister well behaved? My sister is good everywhere else but she has loved to grab food from me since she was a child. She is greedy.”
Nan Zhou was silent as he seemed to recall something. Lu Bifang was waiting for his response. Nan Zhou searched through the thesaurus before finally finding a relatively appropriate adjective. “Annoying.”
Lu Bifang, “……”
Nan Zhou added, “She is very fierce.”
Lu Bifang gritted his teeth and kept chatting. “…Is she spoiled?”
“Um… she should be.” Nan Zhou explained, “I didn’t kill her, which means I spoiled her.”
Lu Bifang’s character wasn’t good at engaging in sneaky things and Nan Zhou’s style of conversation completely disrupted his rhythm. He couldn’t think of any more clear questions and asked casually, “What is your sister’s name?”
Nan Zhou, who had already seen Lu Bifang’s purpose and was ready for the high-level and difficult questions, froze subtly. “Nan…”
He finally said, “Nan Yuan.”
Lu Bifang thought, ‘…Why does it sound like he just made it up now?’
He could finally understand why Lin Zhisong doubted this person.
Lu Bifang still wanted to pursue some questions but Jiang Fang, who had been resting against Nan Zhou’s shoulder, straightened up as if he had recovered his vitality and looked at Lu Bifang. “Have you thought about how we should go next?”
This one question ruined Lu Bifang’s cross-examination plan.
Jiang Fang was asking about a serious matter concerning the success or failure of the instance so Lu Bifang couldn’t talk about personal matters. In addition, he had a straightforward and honest personality who couldn’t do any spy business. Thus, he simply gave up on the spot. He stammered and said he would go to ask the captain. He patted the snow off his body and left.
Ch71.2 - Fear of the Full Moon
Nan Zhou naturally knew how many slip-ups he had just made and turned to look at Jiang Fang. Jiang Fang continued to lean on Nan Zhou’s shoulders, closing his eyes and continuing to recuperate. Li Yinhang naturally heard it too but she didn’t ask anything.
Nan Zhou looked down. He remembered what Jiang Fang had told him in the second instance. He told Nan Zhou that Nan Zhou’s story belonged to himself. Nan Zhou could say it whenever he wanted.
Nan Zhou bit the tip of his tongue and vaguely hesitated. Suddenly, a strange and strong feeling filled his heart. Nan Zhou didn’t look back to check. He just grabbed Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang by his side and used all his meager remaining strength to carry them forward!
Li Yinhang didn’t know the reason but once she lost her balance and staggered forward, she felt a strange wind mixed with a strange smell that blew over the top of her hair. The whistling wind wedged itself into the rock and made a startling, breaking sound that made people feel numb.
Ding.
Li Yinhang’s ears rang from the piercing sound. She turned back in horror and was instantly shocked by the scene before her. It was the woman! The woman with the ice pick! Just now, she had quietly been behind them, raised her ice pick and brought it down! How could this be? How did she approach without Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou noticing?
The moment Li Yinhang’s eyes fell on this person, her heart became even more shocked. The woman’s eyes were dull and her hands were braced on top of the snow-colored black rock as if she was growing from it. Below her waist was clearly empty! She was a moving body with only the upper body!
Nan Zhou also turned back in a hurry. In a flash of light, Nan Zhou recalled the scene of seeing her for the first time. She lay in the sleeping bag and only the upper half of her body stuck out. No wonder.
The soft snow, the fresh snowy breeze that blew into their eyes and the short torso that was less than a meter. These conditions were enough for her to quietly get close without attracting any attention.
He Yinchuan’s group also hadn’t expected the surprise attack. They had even divided some of their attention to the situation on Nan Zhou’s side. Unexpectedly, they were still ambushed by this monster! He Yinchuan cursed and pulled out a dagger stuck in his boot before speeding in the direction of Nan Zhou!
The woman with a half body didn’t move again after the blow failed. She held the ice pickaxe in one hand, braced her hand on the ground and ran away a few meters using a handstand. Her running posture was ridiculous and scary but it was almost like a guidepost in the white snow.
Nan Zhou looked around. For a time, he thought they were surrounded by the mountain climbers. Yet after looking, he found that this monster with the upper body was the only one who had caught up with them. The other side had carried out the strategy of splitting up to search.
Nan Zhou didn’t have much strength and could only shout at Jiang Fang. “Block her mouth!”
Unfortunately, it was already too late. She didn’t scream and call out to her teammates as Nan Zhou imagined. It was because she didn’t have a tongue. She opened her mouth, revealing a black hole. Then she bit the rescue whistle hanging around her neck.
Beep—
The shrill whistle tore through the cold air and transmitted layers of sound to the far distance. For a time, the mountains were silent. Even the wind seemed frightened by this whistle and stopped for a moment.
The umbrella-shaped snow canopy above their heads trembled twice. Some snow fell down on Nan Zhou’s shoulders and neck like frost. She wasn’t able to blow twice before a hand grabbed her hair hard.
The playing cards were light and small. It was impossible to aim and throw them in this thick, snowy land. However, close-up attacks still worked. Jiang Fang held a card in one hand and swiped it horizontally across her throat, cutting her trachea. As a result, not much blood came out.
The moment a bit of the cold, black blood seeped onto Jiang Fang’s gloves, Jiang Fang reacted quickly and withdrew his hand. He had expected that as well. The act of her throat being cut hadn’t deprived the woman of her mobility.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Jiang Fang didn’t let go and grabbed her hand. He pressed the woman down onto the frozen earth, snatched the ice pick from her hand and without mercy, he nailed the tip through the back of her vest.
He nailed her torso to the ground with her own weapon!
He Yinchuan and the others arrived to see this scene and couldn’t help their hearts thudding. However, they didn’t have time to care about how inhuman and simple Jiang Fang’s means were. It was because the woman hadn’t lost her mobility at all.
Her eyes rolled and she propped her hands up on the ground as she struggled on the dirty ice. They could even hear her internal organs rubbing back and forth on the sharp object.
Obviously, the woman had finished her task of informing the others with the whistle. Their location was exposed and they had to leave this place as soon as possible. The trickiest question right now was how to deal with this undead woman. Generally speaking, they should destroy the brain for this type of zombie.
He Yinchuan glanced at Liang Shu. Liang Shu understood and pulled Li Yinhang back to let her avoid the next bloody scene.
He Yinchuan was part of the special forces and had killed people. He just had very little experience with such close-up killing, even if the opposite person was a human turned monster. However, he had no way back for the sake of the people behind him.
He picked up a palm-sized rock handed to him by Zhou Ao and took a deep breath before smashing her head without any delay! The thin, black-red liquid splashed onto the snow. However, she wasn’t dead yet!
Her body squirmed, twisted and flipped like a dying fish. She just couldn’t die. Her face was almost as flat as a photograph and her dead eyes made her look like a flounder. She seemed to feel no pain at all. She just stared at the full moon in the sky and continued to concentrate on freeing herself from the shackle of the ice pick. Her pious but turbid eyes were full of blood and vitreous almost dripped out of her body.
He Yinchuan cursed. “Fuck!”
Zhou Ao’s words were concise. “Cut the hands.”
He Yinchuan was so disgusted that he looked up with slight anger. “How can we have anything that will cut bones in one go! Besides, those things can arrive at any time. Can we work slowly?”
Zhou Ao criticized him. “You can’t be angry. You are the captain.”
“…Yes, I’m not angry. Let’s go and leave her here.”
The ice pickaxe had nailed her body to the ground and they didn’t have anything to replace the ice pick at the moment. If they pulled out the ice pick then she would immediately leave their control. They couldn’t take her with them. Nevertheless, leaving the ice pick to her would bring about endless trouble.
The group was feeling at a loss when Nan Zhou wandered over slowly. He pinched open the woman’s mouth and confirmed that she had no tongue. He sighed with a bit of regret. It was hard to let her drink things willingly and he wasn’t sure if she was human.
…She also had no tongue.
Brother Fang’s Truth Tequila wouldn’t work on the physical level. He had wanted to make her give some information on the moon god.
Nan Zhou failed in his wish and looked at Lu Bifang. “The recorder.”
Lu Bifang’s mind hadn’t returned. “Huh?”
Nan Zhou looked at Jiang Fang. “Brother Fang.”
Jiang Fang understood and took the recorder from Lu Bifang’s left pocket. “Thank you.”
Lu Bifang, “……”
Nan Zhou took the tape recorder. He didn’t bother questioning Lu Bifang, who was turning red. Instead, he asked Lin Zhisong who was standing to the side. “Has it been recording this whole time?”
Lin Zhisong answered, “…Yes.”
“Is it fall proof?”
“…It is protected.”
“Can you erase the content and leave only some of it?”
“…Yes.”
Nan Zhou crouched on the ground and held out the recorder to Lin Zhisong.
Then do it.
Meeting his clear eyes, Lin Zhisong had to take the tape recorder and quickly operate it in accordance with Nan Zhou’s thoughts. Nan Zhou gazed at the woman and followed her eyes to the full moon in the sky. Then he told Jiang Fang, “Brother Fang, do me a favor.”
***
The woman’s whistle summoned the monsters scattered in three directions to the valley in unison.
The bear man was the first to arrive. He looked east and west but couldn’t find the woman. He was searching when the gecko man and hammer man arrived.
They were like a group of snow wolves. After meeting, they looked for the woman in silence. Through the heavy snow, the bear man spotted a high, grave-like mound of snow that looked very unnatural. He rushed to dig at the snow.
Sure enough, he caught a glimpse of the shining tip of the ice pickaxe. However, only the pickaxe was left. The wooden handle was removed.
The bear man quickly found the upper half of the woman. The woman was still gasping for breath. It was just that the bones of her arms were broken. They were at odd angles that were normally impossible.
The bear man was trying to pull the woman out when the hammer man by his side seemed to notice something and raised his head. There was a dark, slender figure standing alone on a rocky outcrop at the top of the depression. The wind lifted his dark hair and made his pale and delicate face look like a snow maiden on the mountain.
Nan Zhou raised his hand and threw down the tape recorder from a high place. There was the cushioning of the snow and combined with its high-strength shock resistance and fall proof function, it was still intact when it hit the ground.
The hammer man stared at the little black box and frowned suspiciously. The next second, a deafening whistle came from the speaker.
Beep—
Beep—
Beep—
The originally shrill whistle became even harsher and stranger due to the repeated playing and increasing volume. The gourd-shaped depression formed an excellent echo belt. The originally loose snow eaves were stimulated by this and started to slide downward like flowing water. It issued a rumbling, low growling sound that was like a warning.
The hammer man took two steps back as he seemed to realize that something was wrong. However, it was too late for him to take action. The collapse of nearly a thousand cubic meters of snow was only a breath away.
The large area of snow poured down like a waterfall, bringing countless weathered rocks mixed in with the snow. It swept away the three men below like a tidal wave! The sound of the avalanche was soon swallowed and absorbed by the snow mountain. Even the whistle recorded on the tape recorder was buried under the deep snow. There was only a faint, thin sound.
Nan Zhou was still looking down but was picked up by the neck in time by Jiang Fang and brought back to the group.
“Go. They wouldn’t be able to chase us for a while. Let’s hurry.”
Nan Zhou was surprised. “Huh?”
The moonlight shone silently on the realm of death like the gaze of a Cyclops. There was no sorrow and no joy.
***
An hour and a half later.
A thin arm suddenly emerged from the thick layer of snow that was like a grave. The palm forcefully grasped at the nearby snow.