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墨書 Inktalez
Qin Yaojie was dead.
A Zombie, a Player, and beneath the tree lay Qin Yaojie, a knife plunged into his chest, with He Min grieving beside him.
This scene would forever be etched in Xu Nuan's memory.
Everything in the world turned black and white; all the scenery around her faded away. Xu Nuan gripped a short knife tightly and charged into the crowd of Zombies and Players.
Whether it was a Zombie or a Player coming at her, she showed no mercy with her knife. Whether blood or blue liquid splattered, she didn’t care. She needed to reach that person; she had so many questions, so much blame. How could that man die without giving her an explanation?
She had thought she craved answers.
It turned out she craved his life.
It was a long road filled with obstacles. She tried to clear them away by herself but soon realized she had been deceiving herself all along.
Perhaps she was just fresh blood; many Zombies surrounded her. They were not living beings, yet they oozed liquid from their mouths like humans. Unfortunately, that liquid was black and terrifying.
Xu Nuan swung her knife until her arm felt numb, but the number of Zombies only increased, and the distance between her and that person did not close quickly. Just as one Zombie grabbed her and leaned in with its grotesque mouth, a hand reached from behind her, wielding a short knife that swiftly and accurately severed the Zombie's hand, causing a torrent of blue liquid to spray out.
“Thanks.”
Xu Nuan whispered her gratitude without turning to look at Gu Ze. He was more ruthless than she was, his accuracy higher, and soon he had cleared a path for her.
As they fought through the obstructive Zombies, she inevitably came into contact with the First Batch of Players. Though her heart was focused on Qin Yaojie, she still roughly counted the number of Players present—less than ten. Some must have left the group. And whether it was just her imagination or not, the way those Players looked at her felt strange, but she couldn’t delve into it at that moment.
As Xu Nuan was nearing the end of the road, she noticed He Min looking up in her direction, surprised to see her presence. He Min stood up abruptly, tears still visible on her face.
In front of He Min and Qin Yaojie, there was an unfamiliar Player who had been helping He Min fend off the Zombies, giving her the time to grieve.
With the addition of Xu Nuan and Gu Ze, their combat strength significantly increased, and the Zombies were quickly cleared away. However, as Sun Ming had mentioned, Zombies could infect Players before they were eliminated. Ultimately, one Player would have to maintain the appearance of a Zombie to prevent further infections among others. The last infected person would inevitably be killed by their former companions.
The real Zombies had been dealt with, leaving only a few infected Players and normal Players. After jointly repelling external threats, they began to harm each other. Each person bore wounds from sharp weapons, but their skills were similar enough that they could not deliver fatal blows.
Xu Nuan paid no mind to whether these people hesitated to strike each other fatally or simply lacked the skill to do so; she had only one destination in mind. The initial intention of entering the game had changed inadvertently over time, yet some things remained unaltered by time. She had known Qin Yaojie for twenty-six years; they had grown from stumbling children into intimate lovers and then into the most familiar strangers who could no longer meet. Perhaps with the unveiling of conspiracies, they might even become enemies. The bond between them had deepened to a point where no weapon could sever it.
She walked forward burdened by this bond, yearning desperately to see Qin Yaojie again.
Little did she know that their separation over half a year ago was a permanent one.
The so-called uncertainty of life and death was indeed heart-wrenching and unbearable.
Xu Nuan nearly collapsed beside Qin Yaojie. The knife still lodged in his chest had not been removed, and the blood flowing from him was not entirely red. She already understood that the poison coursing through Qin Yaojie was deeply embedded; without that knife and without an antidote, he would still perish.
After more than half a year apart, Qin Yaojie's appearance had changed significantly.
His once gentle yet fierce brown eyes were now forever closed, deeply sunken in their sockets—a sight that sent chills down her spine. Perhaps due to prolonged poisoning, his skin had turned pale, losing its previous healthy flush. His nose, which often bore scratches from losing games, remained prominent; his thin lips beneath it were tinged with a faint purple hue, and stubble on his chin indicated he hadn't shaved in quite some time.
Qin Yaojie looked much older now; however, aging could never triumph over death. The passage of time could not compare to the loss of life.
Xu Nuan gently caressed Qin Yaojie's face; his body was still warm, indicating he had not been dead for long. How she wished this were a joke, a prank after their separation, or even a conspiracy—anything that would allow her to hear his voice and see his vibrant face again.
But this was not a joke from Qin Yaojie; it was fate playing a cruel trick on her, and perhaps only ten minutes separated them.
Ten minutes, a divide between life and death, never to meet again.
She regretted having lingered so long with Sun Ming before entering the Maze. She regretted her slow progress through the challenges. There were so many regrets that made her realize all the coincidences had led to this inevitable outcome. She would never see Qin Yaojie again; she would never learn the reasons behind everything he had done from him.
Xu Nuan's hand slowly moved to the hilt of the dagger, her eyes widening as she drew it out.
She thought she would cry at this moment, but no tears came. All she could do was widen her eyes, feeling the pain of being unable to weep. She had shed all her tears for this man; she could not afford to cry for him any longer.
Xu Nuan's hand moved to Qin Yaojie's left hand, where he wore a Tail Ring identical to hers, one that could only measure temperature.
Their fingers intertwined, silently feeling the warmth fade away.
This was the last time she would hold this man's hand.
The place where Xu Nuan and Qin Yaojie were seemed isolated, terrifyingly quiet.
He Min had intended to say something but was stopped by Gu Ze. Meanwhile, several people who had been attacking each other gradually shifted their attention toward them and began walking in their direction.
The unknown man who had been protecting He Min walked forward in frustration, wanting to stop the others from killing each other, only to be bitten and infected in the process.
More people had set their sights on Gu Ze and his group. He Min felt a surge of fear and wanted to pull Xu Nuan, who was silently staring at Qin Yaojie, away from the scene. What she didn’t expect was that Gu Ze single-handedly blocked the attacks from the Players, who were now nothing more than mindless zombies.
Gu Ze remained silent, offering no comfort to Xu Nuan in that moment.
Once infected by a Zombie, a sacrifice was inevitable. The dilemma they faced now was who would become that sacrifice or who would be the one to kill the last Player turned Zombie.
As Gu Ze pondered whether there was a better solution, someone flew in from the side—or rather, someone was thrown in, and it was someone he recognized.
Furrowing his brow, Gu Ze examined Sun Ming, who had fallen to the ground. He noticed that Sun Ming was injured; blood flowed from his wrists and ankles, suggesting that his tendons had been severed. It seemed he might have also been hurt in a vein, as the blood loss was significant. At that moment, Sun Ming appeared disoriented, mumbling incoherently.
“You devil! How could you break your promise!”
“No, I don’t know anything about that! Don’t come after me!”
“Who are you? Who are you?”
His words were fragmented and chaotic, making it difficult for Gu Ze to glean any understanding from them. He suddenly questioned whether his feeling of other presences in the forest before entering this Maze had merely been an illusion.
Having trained in combat sports and other disciplines requiring keen observation and awareness of opponents’ presence, he was highly sensitive to human energy. In the forest, he had sensed an unusual aura, but it had been masked by the smell of blood, preventing him from confirming anything. Now that Sun Ming had been injured and thrown back to them, it indicated that someone had indeed been tracking them at that time. That person was likely the one who made an agreement with Sun Ming and used gunfire to lure them in.
Was it Zhang Xiao? Ning Han? Or perhaps another member of the first batch of Second Batch Players who hadn’t shown up yet?
There were too many suspects to consider, and Gu Ze suddenly realized something crucial: why had Sun Ming been thrown back in such a severely injured state?
Someone wanted to silence him!
Realizing this, Gu Ze rushed over to help Sun Ming, only to find that in the brief moment he had been pondering, Sun Ming had become the last person infected. A Player had mercilessly slashed Sun Ming's throat with a knife.
The only victim had appeared.
Gu Ze frowned, lamenting the loss of a valuable lead that could have helped Xu Nuan.
Thinking of Xu Nuan, Gu Ze felt compelled to face her at this moment. He did not want Qin Yaojie to die; that person should not perish before he had won Xu Nuan's heart.
A sense of panic welled up inside him as he approached Xu Nuan, anxious that she might truly shut herself away in a closed-off world, rejecting everyone. Just as his hand was about to touch Xu Nuan's shoulder, a tremendous noise erupted from the forest, and the ground began to tremble. He then saw the trees around him starting to move.
After a while of watching the trees shift, he noticed a row of Red Special Trees a hundred meters away. This was the Survival Game with the fewest Special Trees ever recorded; from where he stood, he could see a white Supply Station behind that row of Special Trees.
This game was quite clever, offering a reward after delivering a blow.
Perhaps startled by the commotion, Xu Nuan was no longer kneeling beside Qin Yaojie's body. Instead, she picked up the knife and stood up to face He Min, asking each word slowly and deliberately.
"Who killed him?"
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