According to their original guess, there might be a villager down there. But judging by the situation, anyone who entered the water would probably be risking their life.
Zhao Fu grinned. "I'll go. I've been catching fish in rivers since I was a kid. I'm a strong swimmer."
Lu Jiancheng quickly said, "Let me go instead. I've got more stamina than you."
The two went back and forth, as though going into the water were something to look forward to.
Ji Xun couldn't understand their behavior.
He had seen many people trying to escape before.
Some abandoned their companions, while others traded their companions' lives for a chance to escape themselves.
But not one had charged ahead without hesitation, knowing they might be heading straight to their death.
"Aren't you afraid?" Ji Xun suddenly asked. "We don't know what's at the bottom of the river, but it definitely isn't anything friendly. You might go down and never come back up."
The others fell silent for a moment. Zhao Fu's voice remained perfectly steady. "I've already lived most of my life. I've had my share of hardships and happiness, and even made a fortune, though in the end... forget it. Why bring that up? Anyway, I've had a full life. But you're all still young."
Lu Jiancheng gave a quiet, bitter laugh. "Yeah. Getting into this game was an unexpected blessing for me. I wouldn't have any regrets if I died."
What was there to celebrate about being dragged into a game like this?
Seeing that their expressions were entirely sincere, Ji Xun shook his head.
Humans were so complicated.
"I'll go instead." Ji Xun sighed, then met Lu Jiancheng's disapproving gaze. "I've got an ace up my sleeve."
Ignoring Lu Jiancheng's attempts to stop him, he reached up and unfastened his coat buttons one by one. A neighbor in the Black Pine Forest had given him this coat, and Ji Xun had always treasured it.
Ji Xun took off his coat and was about to hand it to Tang Cha for safekeeping when he found himself looking into a pair of terrified eyes.
Tang Cha backed away a few steps, fear written all over his face.
Ji Xun's hand paused, and he looked down at his clothes.
Whoops...
He had forgotten he was still wearing his work clothes.
A second before entering the infinite survival game, he had still been planting mushrooms in the Black Pine Forest when his bastard boss had caught him off guard and dragged him into the system space.
That was why he was still wearing that shirt and those black trousers.
Under the moonlight and the flashlight's beam, Tang Cha could clearly see Ji Xun's rust-red shirt.
No, it wasn't red.
A closer look revealed that it was a white shirt stained red with blood.
Like the blood-soaked mattress in that bedroom, it seemed to fill the air with the lingering stench of blood.
That wasn't all. A long knife was tucked at Ji Xun's waist, its blade covered in dark red, dried blood.
Combined with that face, so beautiful it was almost bewitching, it left Tang Cha unable to tell whether he was human or some specter that only appeared late at night.
Fang Rui was silent for a moment before saying evenly, "Let's not waste time."
Tang Cha jolted and hurriedly took Ji Xun's coat, remembering to whisper, "Ji Xun, I wasn't doubting you. I just couldn't help myself for a moment."
He had thought one of the strange things in the village had possessed Ji Xun.
Ji Xun chuckled. "Keep an eye on your surroundings."
With that, he leaped lightly into the water.
Tang Cha met Fang Rui's eyes, and she gave him a slight shake of her head. "You can try trusting him. Otherwise, we'd already have died several times over."
Tang Cha bit his lip and nodded firmly.
Beneath the water and up on the bank seemed like two different worlds.
It was pitch-black underwater. Even the moonlight couldn't illuminate this area. Fish occasionally swam past, but eerily, they had no flesh at all-only complete fish skeletons.
Their tail bones swayed back and forth as they swam. Some boldly approached Ji Xun, then left a bloody scratch on the back of his hand with their sharp fangs.
Ji Xun pushed the fish skeletons aside and continued swimming down.
Only when Ji Xun reached the bottom did he realize how deep the river was. A human player would probably have struggled to dive this far without equipment.
There was debris on the riverbed, along with animal bones that looked as though they had belonged to livestock.
Beside those scattered bones, a figure sat quietly.
"What's taking so long? Nothing's happened to him, has it?" Zhao Fu looked anxious, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
Half an hour had already passed, and Ji Xun didn't have an oxygen tank. No normal person could hold their breath that long.
A rare look of anxiety appeared on Fang Rui's face as well. "Let's wait a little longer-"
It was hard to tell whether she was reassuring Zhao Fu or herself.
"Maybe I should go down and check." Lu Jiancheng lifted his foot to jump in, but Fang Rui grabbed him.
"If even Ji Xun can't handle whatever's down there, you won't be any help either."
Just as everyone was fretting helplessly, Xin Xin's exceptional hearing came into play. "Watch out-something's coming."
Hearing that, Lu Jiancheng immediately tightened his grip on the hoe and went on guard. Zhao Fu also looked around warily.
Rustling came from the grass, and then an enormous, pitch-black scorpion crawled out.
Like those snakes, this scorpion had a human head. Its two huge pincers were as sharp as steel blades, and its tail arched high over its body, exposing a stinger that gleamed coldly.
"Shine the flashlight at it! This thing's afraid of light!" Lu Jiancheng shouted.
Tang Cha fumbled to aim the flashlight at the scorpion. Sure enough, something resembling pain appeared on its face.
But before he could celebrate, three more scorpions crawled out from behind the grass.
"Fuck it! Let's take them on!" Lu Jiancheng roared, charging forward with his hoe swinging.
"Be careful not to get stung. These things are venomous." Zhao Fu panted as he fended off the scorpions' attacks and checked on the two women.
Scorpions kept crawling out of the grass. Worse still, the human-headed snakes were drawn by the sounds of fighting and were close to surrounding them completely.
Lu Jiancheng swung his hoe and viciously pinned a charging scorpion to the ground. Black blood flowed from its abdomen. It struggled a few times, then went still.
Its face instantly turned ashen, like a corpse that had been dead for days.
Perhaps because the bright light hurt the monsters, they actually managed to hold their own. Before long, the scorpions retreated into the grass to lie in wait.
Their nerves stretched taut, the players stared fixedly at the grass, bracing for the scorpions' next attack.
"Who are you?"
Ji Xun couldn't speak underwater, but NPCs had their own special ways of communicating.
"It-hurts-so-much."
A child's voice rang out in Ji Xun's mind, broken and halting, filled with excruciating pain.
"Help-me."
The voice suddenly began to cry, seeming to explode directly inside Ji Xun's mind. It felt as though a knife were twisting endlessly inside his head. Caught off guard, he staggered from the pain and had to drop to one knee to ease it.
"Please, little one, stop crying. Whatever's upset you, sit down and tell me." Ji Xun's face was pale as he forced out a bitter chuckle.
It was a mental attack-the most troublesome kind.
NPCs capable of mental attacks were rare, but whenever one appeared, it became the players' nightmare.
Seeing that the child wouldn't stop crying, Ji Xun had no choice but to endure the pain and approach the figure, placing a hand on him.
Through that physical contact, Ji Xun conveyed his desire to soothe him. Sure enough, the crying gradually stopped.
The child's head trembled slightly before he stiffly turned around.
His hair had long since fallen out from being submerged, and his facial features had rotted beyond recognition. His gaping mouth made his face look horribly twisted and grotesque.
His clothes were also in tatters, their original appearance impossible to discern.
The body beneath them was likewise swollen and rotten. Much of the flesh on his arms was missing, whether from prolonged immersion or being eaten by fish.
The child stared at him with eyes that were nothing but dark hollows. Despite being underwater, Ji Xun could sense that he was crying.
As his mouth opened and closed, images appeared before Ji Xun's eyes.
They were like the memories flashing before someone's eyes at death, or a wronged soul's plea for justice finally delivered to the underworld.
By the time the images stopped, Ji Xun's expression was colder and darker than ever before. He gathered the child into his arms, showing no disgust at his horrifying appearance, and said softly, "Leave it to me."
The child went still. Only now did he seem like a true corpse.
[Main quest: Find at least four villagers (3/4)]
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