Chapter 84: Mouse Maze：The dead lead the way
"Huff... Huff..."
The sound of panting reverberated through narrow paths within the maze. The person who was panting seemed to be totally out of energy. Surrounded by silence, that heavy breathing could be heard clearly. Lara was the first to give up running, her steps slowed down as if she would just collapse anytime. Unable to catch her breath, she asked, "Is that… that woman still chasing after us?"
Before the two men behind her could reply, a long shadow reached out from a corner, answering her question.
That mouthpart was aimed at Old Wang. He immediately pulled his head backward as the mouthpart with serrated edges drew a long scratch on the wall, and pieces of concrete fell.
"D*mn it! All of you, stop running!" Old Wang shouted furiously as he grabbed Lara’s arm. He finally made up his mind when he recovered from that ambushed attack. "I don’t believe we can't defeat her if we work together! Didn't we get the rabbit unconscious?"
Lara hesitated for two seconds before casting a glance behind.
"That’s only because that rabbit has lost one of its abilities, so it couldn’t really fight," Zhong Junkai retorted nervously. "Let’s just return that rabbit to her and search for that place, okay?" he urged his girlfriend.
Lara furrowed her brows instantly as she turned to him with an irritated face. "Search? Do you know where it is? Can you bring me there now? Among us, you’re the only one who retained all your abilities. You’re not helping, and you’re even saying something like that!?"
"Xiao Zhong, don’t worry. Right now, she is just as weak as us." Old Wang flashed a grin at Zhong Junkai, who was glaring at Lara silently. "Besides, you still have Lara and I backing you up."
As he saw Lin Sanjiu walking toward them, Zhong Junkai felt a push from behind. When he turned behind, he could not tell who had pushed him, all he saw was his girlfriend’s bloodshot eyes. He clenched his teeth and bent forward, preparing to sprint. Then, he rushed toward Lin Sanjiu, who had heard their conversation and thus was already prepared.
Zhong Junkai rushed toward her at an alarming speed. She did not dare to take that attack head-on, so she swerved to one side. However, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, Zhong Junkai turned sharply in an unexpected manner and approached her once again with an overwhelmingly vicious aura.
[Hit-and-run]
This is an ability tailored for rich kids. With this ability, the user can reach the speed of an F1 car, and his body mass will reach a few tonnes. Anyone who is rammed by this attack will either die or be badly injured. However, the user(culprit) of this hit-and-run will be unscathed.
As the paths in the maze were very narrow, Lin Sanjiu realized that she had nowhere to dodge after shifting to one side, and as she saw Zhong Junkai heading toward her like a wild bull, that pressure motivated her to think quickly. She thrust the mouthpart in her hand directly into the area of the wall above her. The sharp tip of the mouthpart immediately dug deep into the wall. Shortly after, Lin Sanjiu jumped and held the mouthpart, swinging her body upward into mid air.
"Boom!" A thunderous sound rang out as Zhong Junkai crashed into a wall. The impact was so great that the tall, black wall even shook for a few seconds. He held his own shoulders and was momentarily stunned for a second as he didn’t expect that Lin Sanjiu would disappear from his sight at that critical moment. Within that one second, Lin Sanjiu retrieved the mouthpart while one of her feet landed heavily on Zhong Junkai’s face. He fell to the ground before he could even retaliate. He was unable to pull himself up even after some time. That one kick had scattered his wave of courage, and he held his wounded face. In the first place, he was unwilling to fight, and now, the pain from his nose exceeded the anger he felt from getting hit.
Lin Sanjiu gave him a sideway glance and then ignored him. She turned and walked in the direction where Old Wang and Lara were standing previously. However, she was flabbergasted when she discovered that there was no one there. [Where are they?]
"You idiot! They were just using you as a distraction! They pushed you out here to die, using you as a human shield. How could you just attack without any consideration!?"
"Huh?" Zhong Junkai’s fair face turned even whiter. Blood from his nose covered half his face as he stood up suddenly. "La… Lara? I'm alright. Where are you?"
His anxious voice wafted through the dark, empty space, traveling through the tall walls and slowly faded away. It was barely a meaningless murmur when it reached Lara.
Old Wang, who was currently panting like an ox, looked at Lara and asked, "So, we're just going to abandon him like that?"
The petite, young woman didn't answer him. The wind teased her side-parted fringe revealing her cold, collected expression.
"Leaving him like this, he'll… he'll die of hunger too. Haha..." Old Wang wanted to wipe the sweat from his face, but he was so frail that he couldn’t even lift his arms. "Well, you took so much effort to find a stupid, rich man’s child like him..."
"Why do have so much bullsh*t to say?" Lara rolled her eyes at him, annoyed, though she was actually a little taken aback. "I don’t know what you’re talking about," Lara defended as they reached a fork. Lara stopped abruptly and thought for a moment before she sighed and chose the left path.
Old Wang quickly chased after her while he continued, "I met Zhong Junkai’s father some time back..." They had not even walk for half a minute when they realized that the path led to a dead end. To their bodies, this was equivalent to another half a day without food, and they could feel their stomach spewing gastric juices… Lara was so hungry that she felt as though her stomach would just consume all her other organs. When she heard what Old Wang said, she swept her bloodshot eyes at him. "So?"
As she replied, both of them turned back and chose the other path. "He lost financial support from his family for a few years because of some random girl from nowhere. In the end, his father couldn’t stand it any longer and brought back his own son..." Old Wang chuckled, "This world has already been destroyed, yet you still choose to be by his side?"
When Lara saw another tall wall standing before her, she suddenly felt a crazy frustration which made her want to just tug her own hair and scream out loud. Luckily, when they walked another few steps forward, they discovered a small path at the left side of the wall. Lara let out a sigh of relief before she countered, "Did you just call me ‘a random girl from nowhere’? It is none of your business whether I was targeting his money or his possessions. It is already the end of the world, why do you still have so much rubbish to say?"
Just then, they saw a plastic notice on the wall in front of them. It pattered noisily as the wind blew at it. Both of them approached the notice suspiciously. Old Wang tore down the plastic notice and turned it over as he mumbled to himself, "What is this drawing..."
There was no reply as a sudden silence invaded the air. Next, a resounding gulp broke this silence. Old Wang could sense Lara suddenly walking forward, he turned to look behind and was instantly dumbfounded.
There was a lunchbox right in the middle of the path. The warm air around them heated the lunchbox and carried the beautiful fragrance of that fully packed lunchbox. That tantalizing smell was strong enough to even lure out their intestines. How long had it been since they had last seen a properly cooked meal? They could see that emerald green, chopped spring onion atop a bright, large yellow omelet which looked as though it was so thick that they might not be able to bite through it in one mouth. Then, they saw that fleshy pig trotter, well-wrapped in soft tendons and collagen which shone with a layer of red oil. This created a contrast with the green fried Chinese broccoli beside it, making the vegetable look even more appetizing.
The two of them took a few steps forward hazily. Then, they rushed toward that lunchbox.
"No, there is something wrong… Didn’t Mr. Dot say that there will be a dinner table?" Old Wang tried his best to keep his saliva in his mouth. As his tongue was bathed in saliva, he couldn’t even speak properly. "This isn’t a portion for four, either..."
"Why don’t you explain to me where this food came from?" Lara didn’t even pause to look up. She snatched a large piece of that oily, fluffy omelet and stuffed it into her mouth as if she was afraid that she might lose out if she was too slow. "Can’t you see that there are four items here?!"
She chewed hastily, in a perfunctory manner, eagerly swallowing the egg down hoping that it would quickly erase that hunger in her stomach.
When Old Wang saw her eating, he quickly grabbed a pig trotter and small scoop of rice. He opened his mouth wide and stuffed both items in. "Umm… Delicious. It’s really delicious..."
The taste was heavenly. It wasn’t because he was too hungry, but the food itself was really very delicious. The pig trotter was well-marinated, and that fatty flesh simply melted once it was in his mouth. A glorious flavor erupted in his mouth. Old Wang knew that it wasn’t healthy to just eat meat after so many days of hunger, so as he thought about that, he forced himself to chew a little more thoroughly before swallowing the meat from the pig trotters.
Just when he was about to reach for the omelet, he noticed that Lara stopped chewing. Her cheeks were stuffed with omelet as she stared straight at him.
Old Wang quickly took the opportunity to grab a handful of omelet. He looked at her warily for a split second before also stuffing the omelet into his mouth.
Plop. Lara’s stiff body fell to the ground with her eyes wide opened. She spurted a mixture of white froth and half-eaten Chinese broccoli from her mouth. Before Old Wang could even react to what had happened, his vision turned black. Two minutes after both had died, a person staggered out from a corner.
"[An inedible lunch]? Why is it here?" Lin Sanjiu, with a pale face, was boggled by the scene in front of her. Two stiff corpses laid among the overturned mess of rice and half-eaten side dishes, and their skins were gradually turning yellow. Lin Sanjiu stared at them for a long time before she could finally react. She crouched down and quickly searched Old Wang’s pocket.
She gently carried the motionless B.Rabbit from his pocket and saw the breathing movements of its little belly.
"You scared me…" Lin Sanjiu sighed a breath of relief as she placed the rabbit into the pocket of her combat pants. The tempting fragrance of the poisonous food wafted into her nose, so she pinched her own forearm to stop herself from attacking the food.
However, a dark figure suddenly rushed out from behind her and grabbed the food and even let out a low growl. Responding quickly, Lin Sanjiu kicked the person away and dragged him backward, shouting, "Don’t eat it! Can’t you see that they both died of poisoning?!"
Zhong Junkai noticed his girlfriend’s stiff corpse, her face had already turned a bright yellow. He forgot about the pig trotter instantly as he sat on the ground. He had the urge to back away and also to crawl forward, but in the end, he remained in the same spot. "Miss… Miss Lin, how did this happen?"
Lin Sanjiu looked at him, baffled, "Isn’t this your item? It is a special item called [An inedible lunch]!"
[An inedible lunch] was an item that Lin Sanjiu had won in the first game. Since Lara and Old Wang had eaten the lunch in that lunchbox without any hesitation, that item was clearly not theirs, so apart from herself and B.Rabbit, the only possible owner would be Zhong Junkai.
However, Zhong Junkai shook his head violently while he stared at the food, "No! No! No! It’s not mine. That’s not mine!"
Lin Sanjiu frowned as she ruminated. "Ah!" she suddenly exclaimed hitting her forehead. During the first round, many of the offered items were taken away as a penalty and placed in the chest. This meant that the items she received might not necessarily be from the Red Team. She found it pretty useless so she offered it as a prize in the second game and lost it to the White Team. If that was the case, the item most likely returned to its original owner. Next, the owner set up this trap which then caused the death of two Red Team members.
"This maze is big. If both teams start from one side of the maze and meet here…" Lin Sanjiu mumbled softly to herself. She stepped over the corpses and continued forward. "We must be near the center of the maze."
[That specific area could not be situated nearer to the sides as it would be unfair…] as she thought of this, she suddenly perked up and looked around. "Could the dinner table be nearby?"