NOVPUB
Chapter 93: Bloodhand Diary
Linghu Wetland Park.
The unnamed river was surrounded by burnt mud and tree trunks.
The fire had been extinguished, and the torches surrounded the open space, enclosing the twenty nine dejected prisoners.
It was already late at night, and dawn would break in a few hours.
Night Ten, who was guarding on the side, yawned and looked at Old White.
"How long will the administrator take?"
"I don’t know."
"Where is Gale?"
Ample Time gestured to the cave-dwelling dug halfway by the river with his chin.
"He still has a class in the afternoon, so he went to sleep there."
It was actually very convenient to log off. In addition to logging out safely at the resurrection point, players could be disconnected anywhere as long as they lost their consciousness.
That included, but was not limited to, being knocked out, or if one fell asleep normally.
It was just that the genetic sequence progress couldn't be saved that way.
Hearing that Gale had actually gone to his class, Night Ten asked suspiciously. "Didn't he send the slides to his assistant?"
"I don't know, maybe he’s still worried about his students. Anyway, the team battle is over. He looked pretty worried so I let him go offline first. When he wakes up, he can take over."
As the oldest member of the Bull and Horse Squad, Old White was probably the one who had been in contact with Gale for the longest time, and was also the person who knew him best among them.
"... Gale may look like a guy who likes to brag in the group every day, but in reality, he is actually a very honest and diligent man. He has no other hobbies except playing games."
Night Ten chuckled. "Honest and diligent? I don't see it. But he does look a little wild if given the chance."
Old White laughed. "Haha, you only dare say that when he is not online."
Night Ten couldn’t help but continue, "By the way... After we log out of the game, our in-game characters would have no response no matter what you do to it, right?"
"Probably? That would mean that logging out in a non-secure zone is pretty dangerous if no one is watching out for you." Ample Time glanced at Night Ten before adding in a suspicious tone, "What do you want to do?"
Night Ten rolled his eyes. "I didn't want to do anything, I was just thinking... If we are all offline, couldn't the NPCs do whatever they want to us in the nurturing cabin?"
Hearing his nasty thoughts, both Old White and Ample Time choked on their saliva.
"Pfft."
"Ahem! That's enough. Please don't use your dirty mind to think about others. Moreover, this kind of unprovoked speculation has no meaning at all. You have neither evidence to prove it, nor evidence to falsify it. Similar questions include but are not limited to, stuff like if aliens have been around us the whole time or if the world was actually a simulation. Also, there’s the famous question if the science that we know of is still valid outside what we can actually see. Infinite suspicion will bring endless trouble unless you can find reliable evidence," Ample Time mumbled.
"What do you mean dirty mind?! Can't I be curious? Otherwise, what do you do when you stand guard? Are we supposed to stare into space and zone out? Hey, why do you sound more and more like Gale?” Night Ten rolled his eyes silently.
Ample Time shrugged. "No, it's just that people who think about this problem are very problematic."
Old White nodded in agreement, giving Night Ten another strike, "Yes, and I don't think anyone will do whatever they want with your body."
Night Ten scowled in response. "I said what if... Don’t you know what a hypothetical question is? Sigh, there’s really no common language with you old people."
Ample Time stared blankly at him while Old White didn’t wish to speak any further.
The next moment, Tomato Eggs and three other players could be seen walking over.
Seizing the opportunity, Night Ten immediately changed the subject.
"Yo, Tomato Eggs, why are you here?"
"I'm here to change shifts. Didn't the administrator say that I will be on duty after two o'clock?" Tomato Eggs saw that there was a missing person, so he curiously asked, "Where is Gale?"
"He logged out. Something came up back at home, so we'll carry him for a while."
Tomato Eggs nodded in understanding. "Oh..."
It felt much more comfortable when someone came over to take over them.
They could go offline and have a meal before coming back to play again.
Old White carried Gale on his shoulders, handed over the matter of guarding the prisoners to Tomato Eggs and others, and then left with Night Ten and Ample Time.
This time it was Tomato Eggs' turn to feel bored.
The four little players stood on guard with serious faces at first, but seeing that the captives were all asleep, they also stood and started to chat to each other to pass the time.
"Too careless. If I knew it would be so boring to stand guard, I would've gone to the warehouse to buy some meat and charcoal to have a barbecue."
"Yes, speaking of which, Tomato Eggs, are rhinoceros delicious?"
"How would I know..."
"Aren't you a chef?"
"Which restaurant do you think has the guts to cook something like that?!”
"I heard that rhinos are on the CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It seems that the minimum punishment is five years in prison, and there's no upper limit. However, there are probably no wild rhinos in our country. You have to go to South Africa."
"... Well, there should be no problem in-game, right?"
As they continued to banter among each other, a rustle came from the woods.
The group of people immediately became tense and tightened their grip on the guns in their hands, but soon relaxed.
The one who came was one of their own.
"How are the prisoners?"
"They’re all here, dear administrator."
"Very good." Chu Guang nodded, looked at the players next to him, and ordered. "Bring them away."
A player on duty asked excitedly, "Are we going to take them home and hang them?"
That was something they had always dreamed of doing.
However, their administrator seemed to have a new idea this time.
"Take them to the abandoned tire factory four kilometers away, where the underground cells they built are," Chu Guang glanced at the captives and said lightly, "Death is too light a punishment for them. They will spend the rest of their lives in the mines of Red River Town."
The mines in Red River Town were not real mines. Most of them were old landfill sites.
Only god knew what could be dug out of it. Even if it was nuclear waste that had been buried illegally, it would not be surprising.
The slaves working there were replaceable. Few people could live for ten years, or even two or three years.
However... Who would care about them?
People were dying in the wasteland every day.
The dozing prisoners were all woken up and more than twenty of them were tied up with one long rope.
There were about a dozen players holding guns next to them, so no one was worried that those people would be running away.
They walked four kilometers along the viaduct out of the city, into a street, and soon arrived at the abandoned tire factory.
Seeing people standing on the fence of the old camp, the faces of these marauders were pale and desperate.
In the camp, the liberated prisoners all stood blankly in the clearing, looking at the marauders returning home, instinctively wanting to run away in fear.
However, after seeing the rope tied to marauders and guards ready to fire if they tried anything funny, those poor people became quiet again.
Even if they weren't smart, they weren’t blind.
The owner of the tire factory has changed.
After giving out a high-reward “Garrison Mission”, Chu Guang selected ten lucky players who raised their hands first to stay in the factory before arranging the others to pack up everything and bring them back to the outpost.
According to his contract with Hein, all the spoils belonged to him.
After making his arrangements, Chu Guang went to Hein and looked at the merchant who had done a great job and asked, "When are you going to leave?"
Hein said respectfully. "I have already sent Wen back. He should be able to bring back what you want in four days."
Chu Guang asked. "Is he alone?"
"Of course, a single person travels the fastest. He carries my token on him. It doesn't matter whether he is with me or not." This old and cunning merchant might have suddenly thought of something, so he added, "I know what you are worried about, so please rest assured, I am willing to stay here as a hostage. Even if you don’t believe in me, you should believe that I won’t risk my life for nothing."
Chu Guang glanced at him with interest.
Not bad... He actually knew what I was supposed to be worried about. I haven’t even thought of it...
"Whatever. I have neither believed in your words nor cared about your tricks. I plan to go back to the outpost in a while. Are you staying here or going back with me?"
He left ten players to guard the base, and he set five of them up in each group before splitting them up into two shifts. Two people would be in charge of guarding the cells and three people would be watching the gate. It was more than enough to watch the prisoners.
Anyway, all their gains couldn’t be brought back to the outpost in a single trip and they had to come back for more anyway. As such, the players were going to be busy the entirety of the next day.
"I'll go back with you," Hein made a judgment in just a second and said immediately, "I don't want to stay here a second longer."
Marauders usually wouldn't pay much attention to hygiene. There was a rotting stench in the camp. Normal people wouldn't stay, as only rats and cockroaches would like it.
Chu Guang nodded without saying anything and gestured to the players who were pulling the carts. "Let's go."
“Bring everything we gathered up and let’s go home for dinner.”
...
It was four o'clock in the morning when they returned to the outpost.
Looking into the distance through the gap in the forest, a few faint shadows could already be seen.
Except for the guards standing guard on the wall and a few Lifestyle Profession players in the industrial zone, there were basically very few people in the base.
Well... Everything would change in a few hours.
Chu Guang randomly found two empty rooms in the nursing home's main building and allocated them to Hein and his female bodyguard for the time being.
Then Chu Guang asked Luca, who had just woken up, to keep an eye on them. He returned to the shelter with Little Seven in his arms.
After putting Little Seven in the corner to charge, Chu Guang asked it to ask Xia Yan to get up to work on time tomorrow. He also reminded the little bin to not allow her to disturb him from his sleep before going back to his room.
Closing the door behind him, Chu Guang sat on the soft bed and took out a yellowed note from his pocket.
That was something he found in Bear’s room.
Because there was a bloody handprint on the cover of the notebook, Chu Guang thought that this should be some kind of token of the Bloodhand Clan, so he curiously stuffed it into his pocket.
However, what Chu Guang didn't expect was that when he opened the front page of the notes, he found that inside was not a list of strange customs or traditions he had imagined, but just a simple diary.
[January 2, 2129]
"The war ended at the end of 2128, 2129... In other words, this diary was written in the first year of the Wasteland Era?"
Chu Guang was very sensitive to numbers and would never forget anything after reading it once.
Speaking of which, in all the information he had collected so far, there was no information about that war.
Maybe this diary can give me a clue.
With a hint of curiosity to search for historical sites, Chu Guang looked at the first line under the date label with the soft light in the room.
That was a very intriguing sentence.
[... That day, I survived.]
