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墨書 Inktalez
Xu Nuan couldn’t hold her breath and could only swim in a dog paddle style. She clearly understood that if she were in the water, her combat ability would be nearly zero.
So when Xu Nuan was pulled underwater by the tentacle and then released, she had only one thought: no matter what, she had to swim up as quickly as possible.
However, after swimming upwards for just two seconds, Xu Nuan noticed something strange.
According to Gu Ze's description, the scene he saw underwater—or rather, the hallucination he experienced after consuming the lake water—was of a deep blue, transparent lake with no other creatures present.
But what Xu Nuan saw was not like that at all. The lake water had a normal color; it was slightly murky due to the lake bottom. She could see the plants at the bottom and the fish swimming around her. Most importantly, she realized she could breathe underwater.
She didn’t have gills nor had she been modified in any way. How could she possibly breathe underwater?
Xu Nuan thought this must be an illusion and reflected that different people might experience different hallucinations when exposed to the same substance.
Then she considered that since she was in an illusion and could breathe freely, she might as well take the opportunity to observe the situation at the lake bottom. Even if it was an illusion, perhaps she could find some clues, just like how she often extracted helpful information from her dreams.
With that thought in mind, she swam back down to the lake bottom. This was the first time she encountered water without fear and could breathe freely; the illusion perfectly matched her psychological state.
The scenery at the lake bottom wasn’t beautiful; it resembled what she had seen in documentaries. What she wanted to find wasn’t related information. After swimming aimlessly for a while at the lake bottom, Xu Nuan noticed something.
Her clothes were wet.
Well, that didn’t seem quite right. To be precise, she realized that aside from being able to breathe freely underwater, her body felt exactly like it did when submerged in real water.
Could there really be such a peculiar illusion?
Although Gu Ze saw such a scene due to suggestion, what about her? Wasn’t it also due to suggestion that ultimately led her to a dead end? Perhaps that was the ultimate goal of this game.
Yet now, she wasn’t facing any danger, even though she had previously imagined various dangers related to the lake bottom in her mind.
Based on her conclusions, she was not in a hallucination.
Xu Nuan was surprised by her own deduction and suddenly recalled the joke she had made with Gu Ze about being immune to the substances in the lake water.
It seemed that not only was she immune to the lake water, but she could also breathe freely. No one could breathe freely underwater, and currently, there were no auxiliary drugs that could achieve this.
She was not in the water.
This was another conclusion Xu Nuan reached. Although it sounded absurd, in this game, absurdity was reality.
Therefore, she could boldly speculate that the place she was in had the sensation and effects of water but was not actually water. Despite feeling a bit dizzy from her analysis, she sensed that she was getting closer to the truth of this level.
And she was not bound by the drugs of this level, as if she had some sort of cheat activated.
What right did she have to have a cheat? The only person she could think of who might have helped her was Qin Yaojie.
In the end, after all her thoughts, she still thought of Qin Yaojie. Was that person really only related to the secret passage?
Considering Qin Yaojie's strange behaviors and Zhang Xiao's probing questions, she had once thought that Qin Yaojie might have unknowingly been responsible for designing the secret passage. Otherwise, how could Zhang Xiao only inquire about the secret passage and not about other aspects of the Survival Game?
Compared to a direct and less credible passage, the Survival Game was truly the essence of this game.
She had been paranoid in believing that Qin Yaojie was only related to the secret passage, but her doubts about this idea were growing. With every step she took outside, her suspicion increased; with every experience she went through, her contemplation deepened. In the end, everything began to point back to Qin Yaojie.
Had she become obsessively paranoid?
Xu Nuan suddenly remembered how she had once sworn to Gu Ze that Qin Yaojie would not be involved in the design of this game. Yet not long after, she had stated that Qin Yaojie was only related to the secret passage and nothing else. And now? Was she going to change her statement again?
She began to doubt whether her thoughts were heading in the right direction. If her unique condition was related to Qin Yaojie, it meant that Qin Yaojie knew she had returned to this perilous Survival Game, where her life was constantly at risk.
Where did he get his confidence?
With no one to confide in, she found herself in a place that felt like being underwater but wasn't. Was seeking out Gu Ze or the Third Batch of Players the right choice?
Could it be that they were also connected to the game, which forced them into it?
Gu Ze's arrival was one example; his Uncle's technical team provided support for the game. But what about the others?
She began to suspect that Tang Jingshu's death was part of a conspiracy.
Who had set up this conspiracy?
Their entry into the game was also a scheme.
Who was behind all of this?
Xu Nuan realized that if she continued down this path of thought, she would end up viewing everyone and everything around her through a lens of conspiracy. She would rather hold onto a simpler mindset regarding these matters.
Was this her own psychological suggestion and pressure?
Xu Nuan clung to the slim possibility that she was merely seeing illusions, that she was immune to the drugs, and that she was not just a pawn on someone else's chessboard.
She had failed.
She noticed violent ripples in the water in the distance, and that force gradually reached her.
Should she swim over to inform everyone of the situation and discuss her new hypothesis with Gu Ze, or should she investigate the source of the water's disturbance?
Xu Nuan hesitated for a few seconds before continuing to swim forward, occasionally encountering some immovable stones or oddly colored plants.
As she got closer to the source of the disturbance, Xu Nuan believed she was nearing the truth about the Green Tentacle.
When she was about five meters away from the source, she could still see her surroundings clearly. Suddenly, she was attacked by the Green Tentacle. These tentacles were different from those she had encountered on the shore; they were barbed, making them more like whips than mere tentacles.
Xu Nuan awkwardly dodged the barbed whips, but sometimes she failed to evade in time and felt sharp stings as they scraped against her skin, drawing blood and causing her pain.
She had to admit that she was facing all of this while fully aware; she could no longer deceive herself.
There was a hint of reluctance within her, but Xu Nuan quickly shook off that negative emotion. Solving the current problem was the most important thing.
While desperately dodging those whips, Xu Nuan carefully observed where they connected on the other end.
It resembled a heavy-duty motor, large and indistinguishable in material from a distance. The motor was constantly in motion, and the whips extending from it flailed wildly at her.
Could it be that the Green Tentacles that had attacked them before originated from here?
Xu Nuan suspected she had found the truth, but she had no tools at hand to destroy this large motor, and alone, she couldn't withstand so many barbed whips attacking her.
Her companions should play their part at this moment.
Understanding this, Xu Nuan slowly retreated from the range of the whips' attack and then swam vigorously toward the surface.
As she floated on the water's surface, breathing in fresh air, Xu Nuan realized that although she could breathe underwater just moments ago, the air there had been somewhat murky. She could breathe freely but still felt discomfort in her body.
"Everyone, I’ve discovered something..."
Taking several deep breaths, Xu Nuan looked toward the shore to share her findings with Gu Ze and the others, only to find that there was no one there. Moreover, it was already daytime.
Xu Nuan felt lost and flustered as she stumbled to the shore, struggling to climb up. She looked around for a long time but still saw no one.
"Gu Ze, where are you?"
"Gu Ze, can you hear me?"
"Gu Ze?"
Her voice grew weaker with each call until it finally faded away.
She found herself beneath the Azure White Clouds, by the shores of a few lakes, alone beyond the sparse trees.
"Has everyone already left?"
In that moment of realization, Xu Nuan felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar; what surrounded her was not just wind, but a chilling cold.
Her clothes were wet, her hair was damp, and she shivered in the breeze. She had not seen her companions nor her backpack.
She thought she had been abandoned.
After standing in silence for a long time, Xu Nuan shivered again and suddenly realized something was off.
She had been awake at the Lake Bottom, which meant the time she spent there was real. She had been at the Lake Bottom for about half an hour, and when she was pulled into the lake, the moon had just reached the treetops.
But now it was broad daylight.
"The timing doesn't add up," Xu Nuan murmured excitedly to herself.
"I must have drifted to another place while they are still where they were."
Xu Nuan looked around excitedly, realizing she was between many lakes, with no dense forest nearby, unlike the place where she had camped that night.
"Maybe this lake can take someone from one place to another in a different time," she thought.
She didn't know how the Game Designers managed to create such a time-traveling ability, but what she wanted to know was whether she could find her companions and if they would find her.
With this in mind, Xu Nuan unceremoniously jumped back into the water, hoping to dive down once more and then swim back up, perhaps returning to her original location.
However, matters of the world are often difficult to fulfill.
Once she entered the water, she realized she was truly submerged. She needed to hold her breath, but diving down was incredibly challenging. Before long, the oxygen in her lungs ran out, forcing her to surface.
Wiping the droplets from her face, Xu Nuan looked around and found herself in the same spot. Taking a few deep breaths, she plunged back into the water again, yet still failed to reach the bottom of the lake. The scene at the Lake Bottom looked no different from before.
Xu Nuan couldn't understand what was happening. All she could do was try again and again to dive and swim back up to see if she had returned to her companions, but each attempt ended in failure.
Finally, exhausted, Xu Nuan crawled onto the shore, lying back on the ground and gazing at the blue sky and gently floating white clouds, completely still.
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