Chapter 31 Chapter 31 (1/2)
Chaos
Chapter 31
The mission this time.
[Mission mode: Chaos.]
[Mission rule: None.]
[Mission objective: Repairer of Time.]
After being hijacked by Tianqiong’s ‘self-awareness’, they had completed the Super S-level [Ouroboros] mission. That task itself had left everyone in tatters so before they set off this time, Song Qinglan had chosen an A-level mission from the missions that needed to be unlocked. It was enough for them to just get some clues about when they could return.
They had thought that this mission would be very simple compared to [Ouroboros]. After all, an A-level and a Super S-level mission was not the same. This one was so much simpler; the system didn’t even specify a mission rule for them.
But no one expected that this damned system had once again thrown them a curveball.
Ji Yushi was pretty certain now that they weren’t sucked into this place by accident.
Whether it was that rainforest that was mirrored vertically or the city that was mirrored horizontally, the flow of time on both sides didn’t make sense.
These strange phenomena corresponded with their mission objection: Repairer of Time.
To him and Song Qinglan, it had only been three minutes since they left the space capsule, but to Li Chun, it was different.
According to Li Chun, he had arrived here six days ago.
Like them, his capsule had fallen into the mountain of garbage. In his muddled state, he saw Big Beard with his nose stuffed with tissues.
Big Beard examined the clothes he wore and, after confirming that he was still alive, he slowly took away the nutrient solution from the capsule, tied him with an iron chain, and brought him back to the space capsule along with the other materials he had picked up.
“I thought I was going to be cut up and cooked by him!” Li Chun said, “I couldn’t move at all at the time and even thought of what to write in my will. How are we so unlucky? Forget about the fact that we were hijacked by the system on our way out to our mission, we now even have to complete mission after mission and there’s not even a damned bonus! And even despite all this, when I joined Tianqiong, I swore to be a fearless Guardian but if I were to die in this god forsaken place, I won’t be able to rest in peace. The girl from last time is still waiting for me to ask for her number!”
Song Qinglan sent him a look, “After all that chatter, the last line was the key point.”
Li Chun froze for a moment, “That’s just an additional point. In fact, I’m not very afraid of death. I’ve after all already died many times in PU-31. I was just afraid that I would die here alone without seeing any of you one last time.”
With Li Chun the chatterbox here, the space capsule finally felt a lot livelier.
The empty and strange atmosphere from this strange world was gone and even Big Beard didn’t pick up a frying pan to fight against Song Qinglan like before.
Big Beard saw that they had returned and blabbered on for a while. He then pointed at Li Chun to express that he had saved him before gulping down the rest of the beer in his hand and falling asleep on the spot. One phrase surfaced to everyone’s minds: Large body, large heart.
During those three minutes Song Qinglan and Ji Yushi were away —- That is, the six days in the space capsule, Li Chun and Big Beard had already had a deep exchange with each other. The floors, the walls, they were all covered with remnants of their exchanges, and the originally interesting photo album had been drawn all over to the point where it could no longer be recognised.
Ji Yushi listened to Song Qinglan and Li Chun’s exchange and then looked around at the ‘communication artworks’. Some he could understand, others he couldn’t.
“Where are the others?” Song Qinglan asked.
“Don’t know.” With the captain back, Li Chun no longer dared to indulge and answered honestly, “The communicator doesn’t work here so I don’t know where Brother Wen and the others have gone. Maybe they are still on their way here.”
Like Ji Yushi, Li Chun also fell here the moment he entered his capsule in preparation to leave for the new mission. To him, he had only separated from his teammates not long ago.
It seems that there wasn’t just a problem with the flow of time in the mirrored rainforest and the mirrored city. The whole world here had a time difference with the outside world.
Ji Yushi faced a piece of paper on the wall and asked, “Is this a drawing of Big Beard?”
On the paper was a drawing of a space capsule and there were nine people drawn beside it, one of whom was very tall.
The space capsule was drawn in a cartoon style similar to how Song Qinglan had drawn it previously whereas the people next to it were drawn very crudely. It was obvious that it was drawn by Big Beard himself.
“Big Beard?” Li Chun readily accepted this simple title and said, “Yes, this was what he drew of him himself. There should be nine of them when they came but now, he is the only one left. Looking at the uniform and the space capsule, could they be traversers like us?”
Song Qinglan answered, “It’s possible. They were probably also sucked in like us.”
Li Chun remembered something and walked over, “Advisor Ji, there are some words written here that I don’t understand. Can you read it?”
Li Chun pulled out another piece of paper. The Big Beard drawn on it was more detailed, and he was wearing a uniform with some symbols on it.
These symbols seem to be words in Big Beard’s language. No one could understand.
Li Chun however asked the right person.
When Ji Yushi saw those symbols, he immediately remembered the password keyboard in the small room. The symbol on the uniform in this drawing had the same symbols.
Ji Yushi said, “If the symbols on that password keyboard are numbers, then it would correspond to the numbers 1-9. Two of those symbols should be 18.”
Song Qinglan understood, “According to your analysis, if we use the process of elimination, the first two symbols are definitely not numbers.”
“It shouldn’t be.” Ji Yushi looked back at the drawing of the space capsule, “But since they appear on the uniform, even if they are not numbers, it must represent something like region or their mission. To figure out the meaning, we need to know where exactly Big Beard came from.”
Ji Yushi reached this point and paused, “Nine people…..He’s the only one left?”
There were almost no traces of other people living in the space capsule.
The control room was filled with miscellaneous items. It wasn’t something that could be achieved in a short period of time and instead it was accumulated over a long time. Big Beard’s messy hair and long beard was also an indicator that he had been here for a very, very long time.
So, how long had Big Beard been living here alone for?
The traces by the door of the small room left from repeatedly dragging iron chains also showed that Big Beard had dragged someone back on more than one occasion. In that case, where did those people go?
Why was there only Big Beard here in this place?
Song Qinglan mused, “Could it be like the twelfth squad and they also encountered something in the rainforest or the city or somewhere else?”
Li Chun asked curiously, “Twelfth squad? And what rainforest, what city?”
“I’ll talk to you about this later.” Song Qinglin wasn’t interrupted by him and continued, “Advisor Ji, if those people really entered those places and they end up getting lost because the flow of time in those places are different, then they’re probably unlikely to return?”