Chapter 14 Chapter 14 (1/2)
Ouroboros
Chapter 14
“Advisor Ji, how do you feel? You don’t look well today.”
Tang Le, a new teammate, one of the round-faced twins.wo
He looked a little shy. Upon hearing his answer, his reaction was much like that of a straight man.
“I see.” He said awkwardly, “Advisor Ji, don’t be too nervous. The transition this time is the same as your previous missions and the mission is also very simple. We should be back by tomorrow.”
…….
The next second, Tang Le’s neck was bloody, splattering all over his body and flowing down his black combat uniform. The ‘7’ symbol on his chest was stained crimson red.
His eyes were dull, and it gradually turned grey and turbid. Behind him were zombies gnawing at him as well as the seemingly endless black wall: “Advisor Ji……We can’t go back——-”
The scene shook. Blinding white light suddenly appeared.
The sky and ground cracked, shattered and collapsed.
There was a harsh siren.
【Illegal transition detected!】
【Illegal transition detected!】
Amidst the violent shaking, someone grabbed his shoulders: “Jian Jian, calm down!”
A blank piece of paper and a pencil was tossed in front of him. That person squatted down beside him and said to him, “Here, do as teacher said, okay?”
The room was eerily quiet. Sun shone through the window, falling onto the table. A small hand held the pencil and started to right the first number in the centre of the white piece of paper.
“Look.” The teacher spoke gently, “We start at 1 and slowly write until we can’t write anymore on this paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong, you don’t need to think and you don’t need to remember. That’s right don’t be afraid. Keep writing…. keep writing until you feel better…….”
“Bang, bang, bang!”
Gunshots rang.
Someone fiercely pushed him out the window while blowing off the heads of an oncoming tide of zombies with Shen Mian. When that person looked back, his eyes were furious: “Don’t speak nonsense and leave now!! I’ll hold up the fort!”
…….
In the speeding car, dust scattered up behind it.
“Sacrificing yourself is a foolish act and shouldn’t be done again. There is nothing more important than surviving. There are still many other things our team needs to do, no need to rush to your death.”
“Do you understand?!”
……..
The car rolled over. A large hand reached over.
The palm was pieced with glass shards and still dripping with blood.
He reached out towards that hand.
The moment he held it, the other party’s dark eyes narrowed, “Advisor Ji, I think you have a lot of things you haven’t told me the truth about……How many times have you experienced our current situation?”
……
“Looks like we’re both not crazy.”
Everything was still.
Before Ji Yushi’s eyes was the flawless and white interior of a capsule. The transparent panel in front of him was showing garbled characters and outside the glass window was a dense forest and a dark grey sky.
“Bzz.”
With a soft sound, a robotic arm grabbed a bag of nutrient solution and foolishly handed it over.
Badump badump.
Badump badump.
When swallowed by the darkness, what did he think about just before his death?
He couldn’t remember.
All that remained was the heart still beating violently in his chest.
Disregarding the dizziness and weightlessness he was feeling, Ji Yushi pressed open the safety lock almost without a second thought and weakly climbed out of the capsule.
Cold early morning wind blew past.
Seven capsule compartments glowed faintly in the middle of the quiet forest.
Three or four teammates stood not far away. They seemed to be talking about something and were a little agitated, as if they were complaining about the wrong time coordinates.
On the other side, the door to the capsule closest to him opened. The young man appearing from it had a poor expression and he had his hand covering his mouth as he tried to clamour out of the capsule.
“Thud!”
The door to the capsule was kicked closed.
“Cap Song!!” Li Chun’s muffled voice could vaguely be made out from the airtight capsule, ““Bleagh—-”
“If you want to vomit, vomit in your own home.”
The man passing by wore a black combat uniform which outlined his pair of firm and long legs. His actions were particularly domineering but also reassuring, “Who told you to fucking slack off and only sit on the pendulum twice during this long vacation.”
The three other people gathered not far away initiated their teasing mode.
“Is Chun’er throwing up again? How many times has he been caught by Cap Song now?”
“Can’t blame him. Even the girls are better than him at the thrilling rides in amusement parks. The pendulum only has to go up once to make him vomit three times.”
“No wonder. The simulation can no longer help him.”
On the other end, Duan Wen who was in his early thirties was busy debugging the main control panel. One could tell from his voice that he had smoked far too many cigarettes, “Cap Song! Our equipment seems to be locked!”
Song Qinglan, “I know.”
He walked over unhurriedly, leaving Li Chun alone in the capsule, suffocating himself with his stench.
When he was about two or three steps away from Ji Yushi, Song Qinglan suddenly stopped and turned his head.
Because of the other party’s height, Ji Yushi felt that the other party was almost looking down at him.
Song Qinglan’s expression was deep and his dark eyes were filled with strong spirit. He said without hesitation, “Advisor Ji, I think this is my first time seeing you smiling.”
Ji Yushi: “…..”
He subconsciously looked down.
The fluorescence from the capsule illuminated his face.
Ji Yushi could faintly see from his reflection in the glass a small, almost imperceptible arc at the corners of his lips.
“Looks pretty good.” Said a low male voice.
He looked back with astonishment but the person who had just made that remark had already proceeded on, leaving only a tall and straight back.
“The main control panel is offline, and the command centre cannot be contacted. The capsules also don’t work. It seems to be because of the electromagnetic waves here. The magnetic field here seems a little different but it’s still not certain. Perhaps the transition just now had something to do with it. Right now, all that we can use is the communicator. We’re basically trapped…..here.” Duan Wen finished speaking but he seemed to have noticed something. He frowned, “Did I say this before?”
Song Qinglan patted his shoulder, “You have.”
Duan Wen squatted there racking his brains to remember.
This scene seemed to feel familiar to him but he couldn’t pinpoint why.
“Can’t remember?” Song Qinglan approached Zhou Mingxuan and motioned for him to open the weaponry storage, “Take your time and think.”
The rest of the people: “……….”
Song Qinglan looked at the neatly arranged weapons and proceeded to pick out a military knife.
At this moment, footsteps sounded in the forest.
In the dim lighting, a cold light flashed across in Song Qinglan’s hands and a dark shadow fell to the ground not far away.
Everyone: “!!!”
Even Ji Yushi was stunned. This person’s accuracy was beyond his expectation.
The teammates used their flashlight to examine the corpse. They quickly fell into discussion about the other party’s blue-green blood vessels, grey eyes as well as his rotting flesh and were inwardly shocked.
This drifter killed by their captain didn’t look human, but didn’t Cap Song kill him too quickly?
When Li Chun finally came out of his capsule, Song Qinglan gathered everyone up.
“Anyone else who has a sense of déjà vu, think over it carefully.”
Song Qinglan’s eyes swept across everyone’s faces. His tone held rare sternness, “This time, no one should die on me.”