Hint of Death

A fire was made in the fireplace. Fatty was baking some sausages, everyone was holding a can of beer, and everything seemed to be quiet and cozy. But each of them had some personal plans in mind, even some evil ones.

Going through something for once, there would be nothing but a little regret and confusion. However, if the same thing happened all over again, and a person had enough energy and time to relive everything all over again, what he felt would be the most authentic and egoistic reaction of humanity.

If the ending was known, it was much easier to infer what had happened. However, Su Bai was somehow upset. It turned out he was so unwanted that Ego and Fatty had been secretly signaling each other with their eyes and actions, but neither of them was willing to invite him in. They looked just like those kittens wishing to eat up all the food without sharing.

But on second thought, Su Bai was doing exactly the same thing.

He knew what the Main Task 1 was, as well as how to actually start and enter the story world; but he was still playing dumb and pretending to be the innocent him as before. He chose not to tell Ego and Fatty anything.

Maybe that was because Fatty and Ego had started the war against him; he was just defending himself. In fact, Fatty and Ego were of the same kind of people—they would let anyone else die in order to save themselves, and if they knew anything useful, they would hoard it as a rare commodity instead of sharing it with others.

It was about time. Su Bai stood up with the beer and walked to the door.

"I think I’ve heard some animal howling. I’ll go check it out."

Fatty and Ego nodded. But neither of them had stood up.

Feeling a little soft, Fatty said, "Don’t go out alone, it’s not safe."

"I won’t go too far away from here. Just take a quick look."

Just when they were talking, from the water by the cabin there came a plop. Fatty and Ego immediately stood up; Su Bai pushed the door and rushed out.

Su Bai hurried to the river and found a floating person with a pair of glasses shimmering in the moonlight.

He jumped into the river without hesitation.

Ego and Fatty were merely one step behind him; they were surprised to see such an impulsive and reckless Su Bai.

Only Su Bai himself knew what was going on. He didn’t have much clue, so this was the only way to dig up more.

After getting into the water, Su Bai approached that body due to the rushing inertia. He stretched out a hand and grabbed the dead man.

The body quivered. Then it moved like a drowning child that had just found someone to save him. Then it entangled Su Bai like an octopus.

That was something he hadn’t imagined. He had expected many reactions from the dead man, from escaping to attacking, and he had planned how to handle them. But now it was shamelessly entangling him and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Together, they were sinking to the riverbed.

Su Bai started struggling but couldn’t get rid of it instantly. And he had already reached the riverbed.

He knew what was there. Last time, he had only cast a quick glance from the surface, but this time, he could have direct contact with them.

The dead man let go of Su Bai as soon as they reached the riverbed. Then, a lot of bodies nearby started coming closer to him. They were not fast, but there were too many of them. They were like a group of savages who had been starving for ages and were about to have a party when they finally found food.

Su Bai estimated his power against the walking dead and found it difficult to fight a way out through so many zombies. Besides, there wasn’t any sound coming from above after all this time, which meant Fatty and Ego didn’t come down to help. That didn’t mean they wanted him dead; they must have noticed the horrible view down here and were afraid of what was going on.

However, Su Bai wasn’t desperate. His body withered, his scent became filthy, guilty and disgusting. A zombified Su Bai turned up.

The restless walking dead immediately quiet down. Then they came back to the line and continued to march forward.

Su Bai looked around. There were all kinds of walking dead, and most of them were in modern clothes. God knew how they ended up in this river. However, for now, they had mistaken Su Bai for one of them, so they were not interested in him. Su Bai just walked with them on the riverbed.

Main Task 1 was to find the source of the river. But apparently, it wasn’t that simple. The audiences who got MT 1 needed to do more than just reaching the end of the river; "source" here was more like a metaphor, which referred to the real reason why the river was so creepy.

There was light from a flashlight coming from above the water. Su Bai looked up and saw a wooden boat. Fatty and Ego must be on it.

Just then, the walking dead seemed to be attracted and started to float. It seemed that they were about to attack the boat.

Soon, under the attack of several zombies, the boat started to lose its balance. Fatty and Ego began to retreat rapidly. The boat accelerated dramatically; that wasn’t because the two guys were paddling fast, but because Ego was using his willpower as a driving force.

It seemed that Fatty and Ego had given up on him or the search on this river. After all, they cared most about what was in the cabin.

Su Bai didn’t have any hard feelings about that. He followed the walking dead because an idea suddenly came up to him: what if the walking dead were going to the source of the river?

Could it be possible that he could just accomplish Main Task 1 in this way?

Muddleheaded, Su Bai was marching along with the zombies. He felt fatigued. In fact, he couldn’t hang on for long as a zombie; but luckily, he didn’t have to fight this time, so it wouldn’t consume much energy.

It had been a long way when suddenly some noise came from above the water.

A woman was washing clothes and attracted the zombies. She was also saying something, but she was too far away and there was water in-between. Su Bai couldn’t hear her clearly.

Two zombies nearby were already floating up, ready to hunt.

This river was really full of danger.

"Plop!"

A woman was taken by the throat and dragged down into the water by one of the walking dead. Then while she was sinking quickly, the corpses nearby all gathered around. But she took out a purple bell and shook it; it sounded clear and crisp even in the water.

The walking dead all started behaving well and went back to their original places.

Sophia fell down, just a little farther in front of Su Bai.

It seemed that she didn’t notice Su Bai, because there were so many walking dead and Su Bai’s present appearance had perfectly blended in.

The troops moved on after she joined in.

Soon, there was something different. There was a secret cave on the bottom of the river. All the walking dead turned around by the cave and went back.

Sophia stopped in front of the secret cave. She seemed to be hesitating about whether she should go in. At last, she seemed to have put up all her courage and went directly into the cave.

Su Bai would’ve definitely gone back with the zombies as well. He didn’t trouble all the way only to take a walk with zombies.

However, before Su Bai had stepped out of the zombie troops, Sophia suddenly drew back from the cave with astonishment on her face. In her chest, there was a huge deep wound that almost cut her body through. Blood drifted away in the water in a beautiful way, but the cost of such beauty was death.

Su Bai’s eyes widened. He knew that Sophia had taken the fall for him. What on earth was in that cave?

All the other walking dead had turned back, but Su Bai was still standing there. Because of that, when Sophia turned her pale face around, her eyes were caught by Su Bai although she could barely focus. She looked pleadingly at Su Bai, stretched out her hand and gestured "three" and then "two". At last, she threw the purple bell around her wrist toward Su Bai and then pointed to herself. Her pupils dilated and she slowly floated upwards.

Yes…

She was dead…

… for good.