Chapter 137
Chapter 137
Qin Musong slept well, but when he woke, something felt wrong. More than half the dormitory was empty, and many people were gone.
Ah Qiang had only just awakened as well. Rubbing his eyes, he looked outside. “What’s special about today? Why are they hauling everyone out?”
A faint unease rose inside Qin Musong. Before he could think it through, the dormitory door opened again. Ah Qiang’s wolfdog entered.
Watching Ah Qiang being led away, Qin Musong pushed himself to his feet. The bandages around his hand made movement somewhat inconvenient.
“Be careful. Something’s wrong!”
He received no answer from Ah Qiang, but Ah Qiang was a veteran player too. At a time like this, everyone had to fend for themselves.
Qin Musong waited until eleven thirty, but no one returned. They normally would have started preparing lunch by now, yet not a single wolfdog came in.
He was touching his wrist, sensing that everyone was in poor condition, and growing increasingly anxious when the dormitory door finally opened. It was his wolfdog.
The wolfdog fastened a chain around Qin Musong and led him outside.
Along the way, Qin Musong saw many people. None knew where they were being taken.
They stopped outside a small room and formed a single-file line. There were approximately three or four people ahead of him.
The wolfdog holding Qin Musong’s leash began to cry, making low, whimpering sounds.
It stroked Qin Musong’s head again and again. Qin Musong narrowed his sharp eyes as the unease inside him reached its peak.
At eleven fifty, Qin Musong reached the front of the line.
The wolfdog led him inside. It was a white room, with a row of cabinets containing all sorts of medicine and syringes.
The sight of a huge operating table, combined with the wolfdog’s sudden wails, made Qin Musong instantly realize what this place was for.
Euthanasia!
Without the slightest hesitation, Qin Musong pulled out the gun he had kept hidden on his body. He didn’t even aim. Two shots shattered the room’s fluorescent light and medicine cabinet.
He didn’t want to harm the wolfdog.
First, it had always treated him well. Second, he knew perfectly well that a police dog would never attack its owner.
If he attacked, he would violate the rule, and there was no predicting what would happen afterward.
The Chow Chow in the white coat barked. Amid the chaos, Qin Musong tore the leash free from the wolfdog’s grasp.
Enduring the agony, he wound the chain twice around his injured hand and charged toward the door.
Damn it!
The door was locked.
The room was small and sparsely furnished, leaving nowhere to hide.
Qin Musong felt the wolfdog pin him down with tremendous force. He had no strength to resist it.
Although he was stronger than most players, he was still effortlessly pressed onto the operating table inside this instance.
As he struggled, the Chow Chow fitted a mask over his face. Once Qin Musong inhaled the gas within, his head grew heavy, and his strength slowly drained away.
Just before he lost the strength to keep his eyes open, he saw the Chow Chow approach with an enormous syringe.
“Fuck!”
Qin Musong lost consciousness.
“Ding! Looks Are Justice Team has cleared the instance [Reversed World]. Rewards are being calculated. Please wait.”
The notification sounded like music from heaven. In the darkness, the first sound was Lin Zhu coughing.
There was no water now, and he was no longer on the verge of drowning, but his body’s lingering memory made it impossible for him to stop coughing.
Mixed with Lin Zhu’s coughs came Qi Jiajia’s confused, terrified voice. “Cheng Miao? Cheng Miao!”
“I’m here, I’m here.” Cheng Miao’s weak voice sounded. Following it, Qi Jiajia found her and immediately sank her teeth into her.
“Hiss! Qi Jiajia! Were you born in the Year of the Dog?!”
“You scared me to death!” Hearing the tears in Qi Jiajia’s voice, Cheng Miao found her head in the darkness and stroked it twice.
“There, there. I got scared too. What a goddamn instance…”
Qin Musong hadn’t made a sound in the darkness. Cheng Miao, who was still speaking, felt her heart skip a beat.
“Brother Qin?” Cheng Miao heard the tremor in her own voice.
“Here.” The reply was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. Cheng Miao released a heavy breath.
After another moment, Qin Musong finally returned to normal. “I was anesthetized right before we left. I’m still a little out of it.”
Lin Zhu eventually stopped coughing. Like a child returning home to complain after being bullied, he said, “The last instance said my luck would improve. What a liar! My luck was horrible!”
Cheng Miao went from comforting one person to comforting the next. She had seen Qin Musong on television, but Lin Zhu had been missing in the truest sense of the word.
“What was your identity?”
Lin Zhu sulked in the darkness. “A hamster! Worse, the hamster keeping me was a psychopath! It threw us to a person with a cat identity for entertainment!”
Lin Zhu cursed for a while. Only after noticing Cheng Miao had gone silent did he change the subject. “Sister Miaomiao, what about you two? What were your identities?”
Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia looked somewhat embarrassed. “Ah… We were cats…”
Lin Zhu fell silent. That had come out of nowhere.
“Ding! Looks Are Justice Team has cleared the instance [Reversed World]. Team reward: 40,000 Travel Coins. Additional temporary-instance reward: 40,000 Travel Coins.”
“Player Cheng Miao received an A performance rating in [Reversed World] with a 100% side-quest completion rate. Reward: 10,000 Travel Coins.”
“Player Qi Jiajia received an A performance rating in [Reversed World] with a 90% side-quest completion rate. Reward: 9,000 Travel Coins.”
“Player Lin Zhu received an A performance rating in [Reversed World] with a 100% side-quest completion rate. Reward: 10,000 Travel Coins.”
“Player Qin Musong received an A performance rating in [Reversed World] with a 90% side-quest completion rate. Reward: 9,000 Travel Coins.”
“Looks Are Justice Team earned a total of 118,000 Travel Coins in [Reversed World]. Remaining balance: 143,000 Travel Coins.”
“Every member of Looks Are Justice Team earned the ‘Last Moment’ achievement in [Reversed World]. All members are rewarded with a five-second time freeze one moment before death.”
“Settlement complete. Looks Are Justice Team’s return point: Peacock Grand Hotel.”
“Teleporting…”
Light returned. Cheng Miao’s group appeared inside an old-fashioned town.
Their first reaction wasn’t to see how luxurious the new inn was. The four looked one another over and only relaxed after confirming everyone was safe.
Items and buffs had been unusable during this part of the Game. They had cleared it on ability alone. No wonder the success rate was so low.
The rewards were generous, though. Their Items hadn’t upgraded, but they had received a great many Travel Coins. No wonder so many players flocked to temporary instances.
They simply didn’t know how many players had survived to the end.
The faces of Qiao Jin and Qian Ming flashed through Cheng Miao’s mind. She touched her chest and swallowed her worry.
She raised her eyes to study the new inn. Unlike Black Cat Hotel, Peacock Grand Hotel wasn’t located downtown. It stood inside an old town resembling a tourist destination.
Flagstone roads stretched between flowing streams and little bridges. Fragrant flowers bloomed brilliantly in planters, while people and animals inside the shops wore colorful ethnic clothing.
Cheng Miao brightened at the sight. Wasn’t this just like coming home?