chapter 29
His body went weightless as he fell downward. Lu Li only had time to turn his head and see clearly who had pushed him.
It was Jian Yingying.
“Sorry… No, why should I apologize to you? There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
Jian Yingying was still holding her hand out, her Eyeball moving slowly up and down, her expression filled with a drug-like excitement.
“This place is too small. If you don’t go down, we’ll both die! Who told you to stand so close to the edge? You looked like you were about to jump anyway. I just reached out and gave you a little push!”
Jian Yingying muttered, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
After she successfully pushed Lu Li down, her Eyeball grew larger, the black part expanding to occupy two-thirds of her eye sockets, the whites shrinking. With her twisted expression, she looked especially frightening.
“Lu Li!”
Luo Jia Bai’s panicked shout exploded in his ear.
Luo Jia Bai caught Lu Li.
A dull pain shot through Lu Li’s wrist. His body hung in midair, swaying side to side but not falling.
His toes were still a meter above the flat sand below.
“Jian Yingying, are you fucking crazy!”
Luo Jia Bai gritted his teeth, half-lying on the ground. One hand pushed the Doll aside and grabbed the edge of the Slide to anchor himself, while his other hand stretched out from the ground, holding tightly onto Lu Li’s wrist.
“You’ve got a mouth, but you don’t use it-just resort to sneaky tricks? I should have pushed you down first!”
Luo Jia Bai’s upper arm was braced against the ground’s edge. He clenched his jaw, tried to pull Lu Li up, but failed.
He kept trying. The part of his arm pressed against the ground was rubbed raw and began to bleed, staining his bandages red.
Luo Jia Bai’s eyes were bloodshot, the force pulling him from both sides nearly tearing him apart.
What to do? What now?
There was no way to pull up an adult man with just one hand.
If he let go of his anchor, Lu Li’s weight would drag him down, too.
The ground was still shrinking, fragments of stone breaking off and falling. Suddenly, Luo Jia Bai’s eyes lit up, and he shouted at Lu Li, “Quick! Use the space transfer Item!”
He and Lu Li could transfer to another facility-Jian Yingying could fend for herself!
Lu Li shook his wrist. “I can’t redeem it. Doesn’t meet the usage requirements.”
“What?” Luo Jia Bai couldn’t free either hand. Twisting his body, he finally managed to tap the top of his Wristband with his chin. He found the corresponding Item, but saw that the ‘redeem’ button on his interface was also grayed out.
The Item required 800 Points.
He had enough Points, but still couldn’t redeem it.
“Why can’t we redeem it?” Luo Jia Bai turned and saw a strange smile on Jian Yingying’s face. “Was it you? What did you do this time!”
“I didn’t do anything,” Jian Yingying replied, her face full of the satisfaction of revenge. “It’s just that Lu Li never wanted to team up with me, so of course I wouldn’t tell you everything I know.”
“There are conditions for redeeming Items. You can only transfer from one flat surface to another. That means both the starting point and the destination must be safe.”
Jian Yingying stared at the hands the two of them were gripping, finding it an eyesore. “Luo Jia Bai, you actually meet the requirements to redeem the Item, but if you want to take Lu Li with you, it won’t work.”
“You can let go and transfer yourself to another safe place.” Jian Yingying crouched next to Luo Jia Bai, her fingers now cold and stiff, lightly touching the hand he’d dug into the Slide. “Or you can choose to die with him.”
“I think, right now, even two people are too many for this patch of ground.”
Luo Jia Bai’s fingers were pried open one by one. He clenched his palm tighter to resist, cold sweat breaking out all over his body. “Fuck, just wait till I get the chance to kill you!”
“The first to die will be you. You won’t have a chance for revenge.” Jian Yingying exchanged for a knife, the sharp blade sliding along Luo Jia Bai’s hand. “Looks like you don’t want to make a choice, so let me help you. Which finger should I start with? The index finger or… ah, it’s so itchy, my eyes are so itchy…”
Jian Yingying suddenly threw the knife away and clawed at her eyes with both hands, scratching bloody marks across her face, her skin twitching and convulsing.
Lu Li looked up and called out, “Luo Jia Bai.”
“Don’t rush, I’m looking for an Item.” With Jian Yingying no longer blocking him, Luo Jia Bai finally had a chance to quickly scan through the Shop.
He was pulling with all his strength, his face flushed red, a few drops of sweat running down his jaw.
Lu Li’s gaze landed on the hand that was being gripped.
He said, “Luo Jia Bai, let go.”
The Live Stream Room erupted in disappointment at his words.
[Who said the Streamer spent thirty thousand Points last night setting up, exchanged for a shocking Item, and was going to go all out today? It’s already come to this, and he still won’t use the Item-what is he waiting for!]
[With all due respect, the Streamer right now is like a salted fish lying on the chopping board, not even flopping! Every time he tries to save himself, it’s so slow, I’m dying of anxiety.]
[Can I get a refund? Moderator, are you here? I’m an underage ghost, I want my Spirit Money back.]
[I actually think the Streamer isn’t giving up, but is calmly seeing through everything!]
[Wait, ghost friends, don’t get agitated. Why does it feel like the Streamer is deliberately trying to fall?]
Luo Jia Bai was equally agitated. He couldn’t believe it, poked his head out, and met Lu Li’s sincere gaze, instantly exploding.
“What the hell are you saying? Do you think that even if you’re torn apart by Dolls and Mutilated Corpses, even if your head is chopped off, you can still survive by relying on resurrection?
This Instance has problems! The Necromancer Game isn’t a place for you to mess around!”
Luo Jia Bai was furious, his arm losing strength and starting to tremble, his body slowly sliding down along the edge of the ground.
“Don’t think that just because you can exchange abilities with the Evil God and have infinite resurrection, you have nothing to fear! We can’t rely on someone else’s power forever. Evil Spirits won’t help for free, and yours is an Evil God-it doesn’t lack Points or money.
You gained resurrection-what did you trade for it?”
Cold droplets landed on Lu Li’s face.
He touched his face, thinking it was Luo Jia Bai’s sweat, but found that Luo Jia Bai’s eyes were now redder than his face.
“The only one who can save you is yourself. Anything gained through exchange always hides a price far greater than what you think you’ve paid.”
The bandages on Luo Jia Bai’s arm were loosened by the friction with the ground, revealing skin that hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time, sickly pale.
On that patch of skin were crisscrossing knife scars and ugly wounds.
Just through that small gap, it was crowded with healed but never truly cured injuries. It wasn’t hard to imagine what both of Luo Jia Bai’s bandaged arms looked like underneath.
“Lu Li, I only understood this after dying once. I consider you a friend…”
Lu Li blinked.
Friend.
Such a strange word.
In his long twenty years of life, he’d heard many terms.
Monster, freak, Weapon, beast-but never friend.
“I didn’t make myself clear just now.” Lu Li reversed his grip and held Luo Jia Bai’s wrist, his voice calm. “I meant, let go of your other hand.”
“What?”
Luo Jia Bai was stunned.
Lu Li asked him, “Do you trust me?”
yaya
Self harm wounds ?