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墨書 Inktalez
His biggest problem now was a mental breakdown, and his actions were out of control. It was hard to determine how far we had run this time; first, we needed to find our way back, to the intersection where a pair of Boots stood. No matter how bizarre this situation was, or what purpose the other party had in scaring us and creating panic, I became increasingly convinced of one thing: we were on the right path. This entity that was causing panic was obstructing us from walking the correct road.
Now our biggest trouble was Liu Squad Leader. To incapacitate him from causing trouble, or at least to weaken his ability, the first thing I did after treating her wounds was to crouch down and take his Boots. They were one size larger than mine, but military boots are generally roomy. I tried them on, and thankfully, they weren't too tight.
I ran barefoot for this stretch of road until my feet were numb with pain. Upon inspection, I discovered that the soles of my feet and my big toe were cut. Now running was out of the question. The more pressing issue was the lighting; we had been cautiously using torches all along, worried that our light source would be exhausted first. We could endure without food for a while, but without light, we could only stop and wait. I firmly opposed aimless wandering.
Logically, we should extinguish the torches and rest now, but Liu Squad Leader's condition made it impossible for us to relax. If he woke up and started running again, I truly had no confidence in catching up with him. We had no choice but to keep the lights on temporarily and quickly wake him up to assess his condition before deciding on our next steps. Zhao Squad Leader and I discussed that if he woke up still confused and uncontrollable, we would have to restrain him—at least tie him up—to prevent him from causing more trouble. However, we couldn't take any forceful measures before he regained consciousness; doing so might provoke him further into madness. He might have had a chance to regain clarity but could lose it entirely due to the current situation.
Zhao Squad Leader and I tried various methods to wake him: shouting, pinching his nose, slapping him; Zhao even gave him two hard slaps across the face. Finally, Liu Squad Leader woke up.
I hurriedly asked him, "How are you? Do you feel anything unusual in your head?"
Liu Squad Leader looked dazed for a moment before suddenly chuckling coldly twice. "Who slapped my face?"
Zhao Squad Leader muttered under his breath, "How does he know?"
Liu Squad Leader looked at him. "That was you? Do you think I'm stupid? I can feel five burning marks on my face!"
"That was to wake you up," I quickly interjected. "You ran off recklessly and almost got yourself killed, putting us in danger too. Slapping you is being lenient."
This left Liu Squad Leader speechless. Seeing that he had regained some rationality, I said to him, "Let's rest here for a bit; we'll find our way back soon. Please don't run off again."
Liu Squad Leader chuckled coldly again. "Where are my shoes?" he suddenly exclaimed.
"You ran off without them; don’t you know?" I replied with a flushed face. "I'm going to extinguish the torch soon; stop being paranoid."
With that, I stepped on the torch and put it out.
"You're wearing my Boots," said Liu Squad Leader, watching my movements.
Damn, I had forgotten about that. I really should have asked Zhao Squad Leader to handle this. It seemed he wasn't foolish; he was just overreacting to this bizarre situation.
I didn't respond to him but turned to Zhao Squad Leader. "Let's share some food. If we don't eat something soon, we won't be able to walk."
Zhao Squad Leader rustled around and pulled out some fish meat, handing me a piece. Then I heard him say, "Liu Squad Leader, here you go. Why aren't you taking it?"
"It will start with the fat ones," came Liu Squad Leader's hollow and eerie voice from the darkness. Then he chuckled.
I cursed silently in my heart: the logic of a madman is not something ordinary people can understand.
It seemed he hadn't yet emerged from his fear; perhaps he was still cowering in the shadow of terror. However, this was a problem I couldn't solve. As long as he didn't create more chaos and didn't affect our actions, that would suffice.
In the darkness, only the sounds of chewing from me and Zhao Squad Leader filled the air. There was limited water, so to conserve it, we had to chew the fish meat thoroughly before swallowing. Fortunately, the dried fish had softened a bit after soaking, retaining some moisture, making it easier to swallow without choking.
I had already marked this intersection; at least we knew which path we had come from. However, I couldn't be sure about what lay ahead. Rather than aimlessly searching, I preferred to establish a new focal point at the next Branch and expand outward layer by layer using our old methods to find an exit.
After swallowing the last piece of fish meat, I took a sip of water. The dryness in my throat and the parched esophagus finally felt a bit relieved.
"Zhao Squad Leader, we need to confirm our action plan moving forward. Do you have any good ideas?" I asked him while he continued chewing.
In the darkness, the chewing gradually stopped, and then I heard Zhao Squad Leader say, "Give me water."
A hand reached out and patted me on the shoulder. I picked up the water bottle and handed it to that hand, then heard Zhao Squad Leader take a gulp of water. After that came the sound of the bottle cap being tightened, and then there was silence.
I knew that Zhao Squad Leader wasn't particularly good at solving problems; in this regard, he was far less imaginative than Liu Squad Leader. His strength lay in executing orders rigorously and meticulously. So I didn't expect him to have any brilliant ideas; I merely wanted to express my stance: this was a matter for collective decision-making. Any proposal that passed through voting would represent the collective will.
After a moment of silence, I noticed that Zhao Squad Leader had no response, so I said, "Let me share my thoughts." Then I laid out my ideas.
This concept wasn't novel; it was still going in circles, but it simply reestablished a central point. The only step we could skip was searching the innermost Hexagon passage. We could use the passage we had run through as the connection between the first and second layers, turning right from here and searching clockwise. Of course, we needed to visualize an accurate map in our minds; otherwise, it would be easy to make mistakes.
As long as we finished searching the twelve passages on the second layer and returned here as planned, it would prove that our search had not gone awry, allowing us to enter the third layer for further exploration. If we found no clues about Xiao Guolin and the others on the second layer, then there would be no chance of finding anything on the first layer. Therefore, skipping the search of the first layer wouldn't have any negative impact.
What I mainly emphasized was that omitting the search of the first layer wouldn't cause any errors in our overall search operation. I was worried that Zhao Squad Leader might not understand, so I explained it in detail. However, what frustrated me was that Zhao Squad Leader did not respond at all to my explanation.
I had no choice but to ask him, "Zhao Squad Leader, do you understand?"
Still no response. I patiently waited for a moment until I heard Zhao Squad Leader say, "I might be able to find my way back."
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