Chapter 605: Thank You For Your Sacrifice
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As one of the most common and safest sports, the footrace attracted almost half of the population in the Salvation of God zone. There were a total of 45 participants.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and gazed into the foggy sky.
After all of them had worn their number tags, more and more tracks appeared to accommodate the number of contenders. Their numbers were 39 and 40 respectively, so their running lanes were at the outermost edge of the track. They took a few minutes to reach their respective paths.
After they got into position, Lin Sanjiu began to study the contender standing next to her.
Accompanying the low temperature that morning were some cold blasts of air that made goosebumps rise on the people’s skin as the chilly wind whipped about them. All of them came from the Salvation of God, yet not none of them were perturbed by the rolling mist overhead. Next to her, contender no. 38 even had his eyelids half-closed. The man was as thin as a rake, and his unruly hair was clumped into sticky strands. If it were not for his beard, Lin Sanjiu might not have discerned his gender.
“Hi,” Lin Sanjiu greeted him.
The bearded man flipped his eyelids but said nothing. He was not arrogant. He was simply too lazy and tired to move. He reminded Lin Sanjiu of the lackadaisical wild animals in Africa that slept under the scorching sun. Their energy was drained by the intense heat of the sun, and they would not budge even if a fly landed on their faces.
“How long have you been here?” Lin Sanjiu continued to ask.
Stunned, it took a little while for the bearded man to come up with a response to the question, “More than six months.”
Lin Sanjiu nodded, offering the man an amicable smile. She was not surprised that the man was reluctant to talk to her. Having done her homework before coming to the race, she knew that although they were competitors, all they needed to do was finish the entire track. The Olympics would not punish them even if they got last place.
In a sense, they could guarantee their lives as long as they ran the race. So, why make enemies when they could make friends?
As for those nasty people who were willing to commit atrocities just to get to see Zeus, screw them all!
“I’m new here, so I’m not very familiar with the rules. I’d be incredibly grateful to you if you could tell me one or two things about this place,” Lin Sanjiu continued to pry in a low voice.
Again, the bearded man flipped his eyelids but did not say anything. It was as if he did not want to spend his energy on this useless conversation.
After seeing that the man refused to respond to her, Lin Sanjiu fell into deep thought. Sensing the need for a sweetener to catch the man’s attention, she then said, “How about this? If you can tell me about what I should watch out for, I’ll lend you a hand during the game.”
This time, the bearded man’s eyes lit up. Just as he opened his mouth though, a horn blasted out, tearing through the air in the parade field.
Before Lin Sanjiu could react or fathom the meaning behind the horn, the bearded man vanished from her sight. The wind swept her hair back from her forehead. She was only brought back to her senses by Soulsqn’s yell.
“Why are you still standing there?! Run! The race has already started!”
Nevertheless, it was too late. The moment Lin Sanjiu began to run, the other contenders were already very far ahead in the race.
Those contenders might seem jaded on the surface, but their speed was something else. All of them ran as quickly as lightning, and none of them looked like they wanted to be the last even though there was no punishment. They all were going so speedily that even Lin Sanjiu, who took pride in her speed, could not catch up to them.
If the audience was watching the race, they would not be able to see anything but blur figures and the after-images of the 45 runners in the field. Fortunately, they were not running on the traditional all-weather running track. Otherwise, the footrace would have ended within seconds after the horn was blown.
The tracks were almost endless. As if bestowed with life, the running tracks seemed to follow the runner’s footsteps and stretched itself forward indefinitely. It felt like they were participating in a marathon that had no end.
“These guys are mad!” Soulsqn shouted in a breathless voice, “The game has just begun. Why are they running so fast? They’ll run out of energy before they can even finish the race!”
Unfortunately for Soulsqn, running was not one of her strengths. Both of them fell behind the crowd, but they were not alone. There was a fatty that joined them at the tail end of the group. All the 45 contenders were now running in a strange, irregular rectangular formation. The fatty was about twenty lanes away from them, yet he looked huge. His body jiggled like white Jello with every step he took.
Catching up to the other contenders was as easy as pie for Lin Sanjiu, but that was not the case for Soulsqn. Her skin seemed to be so loose that a light breeze could blow it off her face. This was the fastest she could go, and it would not be long until she was left behind by the rest of the contenders.
Lin Sanjiu gazed at the contenders, who were running for all their worth. Turning to Soulsqn, she shouted at her, “No wonder they all look so tired. This is not crazy! This is suicidal!”
“Huff, huff…” Soulsqn had spent almost all her strength at this point. She could hardly keep up her pace, let alone speak. She took a considerable amount of time before gasping a sentence, “Can… can you stop worrying about the others?”
“I don’t understand. They could have run slower,” Lin Sanjiu questioned, frowning. Unlike Soulsqn, Lin Sanjiu’s breathing was normal. Her face was a healthy pink, and it seemed all fun and games to her. “The rules have stated very clearly: there won’t be any penalty even if we lose the game.”
However, Soulsqn did not reply. As if she had given up to keep her skin in place, the two spots where her eyes should be suddenly rolled back and became black holes. Lin Sanjiu could see some hint of red through the holes. The flesh worm had turned herself around in the skin pouch and extended her eyes through her ears to look behind.
It was as if a horror movie was playing right in front of her eyes. Before Lin Sanjiu could ask anything further, Soulsqn turned to the front. Her eyes and her other facial features returned to their original appearance. Then, she yelled in her highest voice, “Run!”
The hair on Lin Sanjiu’s back stood up as she shouted back, “What did you see?”
“Look for yourself!”
Lin Sanjiu darted a glance at her back. When she saw the faint incoming ripples of light, she grabbed Soulsqn from the back, threw everything to the wind, and rushed forward at her top speed.
Only now did Lin Sanjiu realize why all the other contenders had run as fast as maniacs. Something was chasing them from behind!
Resting on Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder, Soulsqn had a full view of what was happening behind them all the time. Since she did not have to run by herself anymore, her voice became more urgent. Yelling at the top of her lungs, she urged Lin Sanjiu forward, “You gotta pick up your speed! It’s getting closer!”
“What the hell was that?” The wind got stronger as she reached ultra-speed. It smacked her face mercilessly, and she was having a hard time breathing.
“How would I know what that was?! It’s definitely not something good anyway. It seems like a ripple of light that bends everything it touches, even the tracks… Oh my, oh my! Go faster! That thing is getting closer!”
Lin Sanjiu’s heart seized. She lowered her body, took a deep breath, and unleashed her top speed.
The wind buffeted her and stung her skin like needles. Undoubtedly, it was a burden for Lin Sanjiu to keep moving at such a high speed for such a long time. However, not only did the running tracks not stop to extend forward continuously, but she also could not get rid of the weird ripple of light that was gaining fast on them.
She felt as if her lungs were on fire. Lin Sanjiu had never sprinted so fast in her life before. No matter how swiftly she was going, she could not widen the gap between them and the ripple of light.
“Ah, that fatty!” Soulsqn suddenly shouted, “The ripple of light has caught up with that fatty!”
At the same time that Soulsqn yelled, Lin Sanjiu heard a scream from the back of the track. Gritting her teeth, she sped up again and turned her head around.
Like what Soulsqn said, the ripple of light had caught up with the fatty. Perhaps because he was too fat, the ripple of light only managed to envelop half of his body.
The scene that happened next was a phantasmagoria of horror and mystery. It was something that Lin Sanjiu had never experienced before, and it felt like an illusion or a nightmare that no human concept could explain.
Many fatties appeared within the ripple of light that stretched from the starting line. They were not the real fatty and appeared more like his afterimages. However, every one of them seemed as real as they could be.
It was a sight which was too difficult to describe. From the starting line, there was a chain of fatties frozen in a specific action. The first fatty was taking a stride with his left foot while the second fatty landed his left foot on the ground. The third fatty moved his body to the front, and the fourth fatty raised his right foot.
Just like a little man that was drawn in the corner of a book’s pages, after connecting each different frame, it would form a stop motion. The only thing that set this apart from the latter was instead of being sketched on a book or a paper, the string of fatties in different movements was stretched out horizontally across the running track. Apparently, the ripple of light was the main culprit for creating this bizarre scenario.
Although the fatty at the front was frozen in place, he was still alive. It seemed that the ripple of light had caught him off guard. Just as he dug his hand into his pocket to reach for something, the ripple of light glowed.
Immediately after that, the row of countless fatties suddenly became alive and rushed towards the first fatty in the front.
Then, the ripple of light dimmed as the chain of fatties charged into the back of the real fatty. He now seemed like he was playing a human train game. It was just the people behind him were all himself in different forms.
The fatty’s fingers quivered once or twice when he slammed to the ground. Nevertheless, he ultimately fell still in the next second as the light left his eyes.
Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a chill creep up her spine. Although she was still running, her brain had stopped functioning. Blank. There was nothing in her mind. She stammered a question, “Wha-what was that?” In her shocked daze, she did not realize that she had gotten slower.
“I don’t know, but can you please not slow down?!” Soulsqn had also just returned from her shock. She raised her eyes, and her pounding heart almost jumped out of her throat.
The ripple of light was merely 20 meters away from them. The ground was crooked, and the track was bent. If it sped up again, they would follow in the footsteps of the fatty.
With a nervous gulp, Lin Sanjiu quickly picked up her momentum, but there was nothing she could do to close the gap anymore. She looked ahead desperately. Although the contenders did not turn around, it was as if they knew what was happening behind them. Some of them were taking out their Special Items while others were activating their Evolving Abilities to gather speed. In a moment, all of them turned into small dots in the distance.
“Quick! Quick! Faster, faster, faster! It’s not more than 5 meters away from us now!” Soulsqn urged Lin Sanjiu desperately, “It’s all your fault! If you didn’t stop me from wearing that little girl, we would’ve had the rocket already!”
‘The rocket!’
An idea suddenly flashed across Lin Sanjiu’s brain like a streak of lightning. Without wasting a second, she yelled at Soulsqn, “Hurry! Describe an ability like the ‘rocket’ that can boost our speed!”
The flesh worm did not disappoint her at this crucial moment. Just as the ripple of light almost touched Lin Sanjiu’s feet, she turned into a blur and bolted towards the horizon in the distance.