Editor: Kitty
But the problem was whether Luo Jian was mentally prepared to take someone else’s life.
Luo Jian felt that life was very valuable. He had been educated for more than 20 years on how to be a good citizen who abides by the law. Do not hurt people—his parents had repeatedly explained, educated, and engrained this concept into him, and it had become deeply rooted in Luo Jian’s heart.
It was no exaggeration to say that Luo Jian was a very upright, kind, and loving man.
But even though he was kind, it did not mean he was stupid. He did not mind being selfish and cruel when his safety was threatened. Moreover, in such a cruel environment, no matter how much kindness Luo Jian had, it would not allow him to live on. Luo Jian must strive for his right to live.
“Don’t be afraid. You’ll have to do this someday anyway.” Luo Jian held his knife tightly, took a deep breath, and murmured to himself.
It was Clown who had climbed into the narrow tunnel with Luo Jian. He had two other teammates waiting outside. One was the vampire team captain who remained silent and had no expression, and the other was the long-haired woman who had a cool, noble appearance and was pointing out the mountains and seas.
Although Clown was also a member of the team, it had not long since he had joined the team. In total, he had only experienced two secret chamber escapes with the team. The vampire captain’s team originally had five members, but one of the core members had died in an accident. The new blood added to the team was Clown, who appeared here right now.
Clown was very dissatisfied with the team he was in. He was not a rookie in the infinite chambers. He had worked alone before, and his way of survival was to remain cautious. He would not easily allow himself to fall into danger. Although he may lose many opportunities and some evident rewards in the secret chamber, as long as he could live on, Clown did not mind how much loss he suffered.
However, after joining this team, Clown could not help but risk his life many times. The reason was that these team members regarded him as an outsider and a heaven-sent cannon fodder.
He would rather not rely on the vampire captain. Although this guy clearly bore the title of captain, he rarely spoke out. He neither spoke nor fought much. He usually stood aside and looked on coldly, occasionally uttering a word or two of advice.
Clown’s view of the captain was unfathomable because he had never seen the real appearance of the team captain. The strange style and clothes of the vampire captain appeared very conspicuous in the crowd, but sometimes it was very easy to ignore his existence when he was standing in the dark.
It was the long-haired woman who really gave orders in the team. She had always appeared with long hair, donning a cheongsam and wearing a pair of high-heeled shoes. Clown really did not understand— when walking in such a rugged tomb, did her feet not hurt? But Clown had to admit that this woman was really powerful. She had a kind of inexplicable, terrible intuition and extremely excellent analytical ability. No matter what happened, her strategies could turn calamities into blessings.
For example, right now.
The pile of bones in front of him was just about to finish burning. The walkie talkie in his bosom sent out a twittering signal sound again. When Clown picked up and answered, he heard the voice of the long-haired woman. She lowered her voice and asked, “Is your walkie-talkie on amplification mode?”
“Yes, how did you know?” Clown also unconsciously lowered his voice.
“I heard the echo…… Turn off the amplification mode!” the woman said angrily, “Do you want our conversation to be heard?”
“Is this place really…?” Clown indicated he did not believe it, but he obediently turned off the PA.
“Listen, now, do what I say! Plug the earphones into the walkie talkie…” The woman interrupted Clown’s words, but her next words were softer. Clown had to take out his earphones and connect them to the walkie talkie, and then he placed the walkie talkie back into his bosom and inserted the earphones into his ears. There was also a tiny microphone on the earphones’ wire that allowed Clown to talk and answer.
After Clown put on the earphones, the woman continued to say, “Are the bones completely burned? Just reply using one word!”
Although Clown was discontent, he still reluctantly raised his head up to look at the bone pile that was still emitting sparks in front of him and replied, “No.”
“Okay, when it has finished burning, you should first use a flashlight to observe the passageway in front of you and inform me of any situation.”
Clown was really confused and asked, “Why do I have to do this?”
Thereupon the woman replied through the earphones, “If you see a corpse, not a pile of bones, we don’t need to be so vigilant.”
Clown seemed to suddenly grasp what she meant, quickly took out his weapon—the scalpel—held his breath, and stopped talking.
Through the earphones, the woman continued to talk: “The part of the tunnel you’re at is very narrow and you can’t even turn around, let alone effectively defend against someone! If this tunnel is completely straight, the enemy may not want to attack you because his situation is the same as yours. Since he cannot turn around to defend against you, he will definitely climb forward until he reaches the exit.
“But if this tunnel is not carved in a straight line or has any spacious areas where one can turn around, he will definitely want to ambush you there. If you pop your head out to look ahead, it may be cut off by someone at that moment. The situation you are in is very dangerous, so you must be careful.”
When Clown heard this, he lowered his voice and replied, “Why didn’t you say this earlier?”
“Because I didn’t realize it previously,” the woman straightforwardly admitted without any hint of guilt, “Until you said there was a pile of bones in front of you.”
Although he had been very dissatisfied with this woman, at this moment, Clown’s opinion of her suddenly improved. This sort of wisdom and adaptability was not something he had.
But the woman was too lazy to pay attention to what Clown was thinking and continued, “After the bones have completely burned, continue to crawl forward. Remember to pay attention to your left and right to check for areas where one can turn. Do not hold yourself back; If you feel anything, do everything you can to attack……”
The woman’s voice suddenly halted when she had yet to finish speaking! Her voice had stopped very abruptly. It felt as if time suddenly halted and everything remained still. The atmosphere became so quiet that people would feel flustered! Clown waited for a while but did not hear what else she had to say. He became flustered and called out twice, “Hello? What happened?!”
The other party’s walkie talkie didn’t seem to be off. Clown could hear some subtle electronic sounds and heavy breathing. After a while, Clown heard an even softer voice coming from the woman: “We are under attack! Retreat for the time being! Don’t come out; keep going forward!”
Clown’s good tactical awareness made him not ask more questions. In team battles, all sorts of strange situations could occur. He did not want to divide his attention to care for his teammates’ situation. Therefore, he simply turned the radio off and put away his earphones, and after the bones were burned, he bit his weapon with his mouth and took out the flashlight to illuminate the road ahead. The flashlight emitted a limited amount of light, but when using it, Clown could clearly see the road ahead.
And Luo Jian, who hid himself not far away from him, felt something wrong now.
Moments ago, he could no longer hear the conversation between the enemy and his team members clearly. The enemy seemed to have turned off the walkie talkie’s amplification and turned the volume softer. Luo Jian could only hear a single word. These actions made him feel uneasy immediately, and because of this, he even thought of retreating. However, after much deliberation, he realized that in this sort of vertical tunnel, it would not be easy for him to climb fast. No matter what, Luo Jian still had to face the enemy. Since a confrontation could not be avoided, it would be better for him to lurk here as he waited for an opportunity.
The firelight in the narrow tunnel had vanished, and Luo Jian hid the luminous pearl. He stuck himself in the vertical tunnel in an awkward position, holding his feet and back against the wall to fix himself there, and stared downwards, waiting for the enemy to appear in order to stab a knife towards his back.
Luo Jian soon heard the sound of scuffling and friction and saw the light emitted from the flashlight. Therefore, he clenched his teeth and his weapon, activated the mental technique, and concealed his breath silently.
He bided his time just for this moment.
It was very dark in the tunnel, but Luo Jian was used to being in the dark. He was so focused at that moment that he seemed to have night vision. Even in the extreme darkness, Luo Jian was not afraid of it. He simply imagined what would happen next again and again in his heart. In any case, Luo Jian had to calmly face it.
Luo Jian heard the sound of the enemy breathing along with the sound of friction due to the enemy’s crawling. Soon, Luo Jian saw a man crawling out of the tunnel below. The man held a flashlight and used it to illuminate the wall in front of him. He mumbled regretfully, “There is a wall here.”
Luo Jian was right above the enemy’s head at this moment. He could unhesitatingly release the strength propping him on the wall and allow his body to hit the enemy’s head. This was a great opportunity, but Luo Jian did not do it because he temporarily decided to change his strategy.
Moments ago, the enemy had turned off the walkie talkie’s amplifier and deliberately lowered his voice to speak, which alerted Luo Jian and gave him a bad feeling. This premonition made Luo Jian understand that he could not rashly launch an attack. He had to jump down from the dark at the moment when the enemy lowered his guard so as to defeat the enemy successfully!
And just like the foreboding that Luo Jian felt, the enemy seemed to have known that there was a hole on top of his head. Just when he stretched his head out, he did not look upwards, but his hands swiped out and two scalpels flew out. He threw the knives directly toward the tunnel above him!
Of the two scalpels, one hit the wall of the tunnel while the other brushed past Luo Jian’s leg. Luo Jian’s left leg was slightly scratched, and he suddenly felt his leg become a little weak. His forehead was trickling sweat, but he remained silent.
Clown turned over and took his flashlight to illuminate the tunnel above him. It was pitch-dark there, and there was nothing where the light had shone.
“No ambush…… There will also be times where that woman is wrong?” Clown saw that there was no one waiting to attack him above him. Although he was confused, he sighed in relief, put away his weapons, held the flashlight with his mouth, sat up against the wall, and wanted to climb into the tunnel above.
However, just as he sat up straight, he suddenly felt that there seemed to be a small stone that fell on his head. Clown subconsciously reached up, touched his head, and felt a small stone. He looked at the stone in his hand doubtfully and subconsciously looked up.
There was a flash of cold light in front of him.
There was no sound, no breaths, and not even a glimpse of the enemy’s face. Clown opened his mouth wide, and the flashlight he was holding in his mouth fell and landed on his clothes. The flashlight was obviously the small flashlight that Luo Jian had used before.
Yes, Luo Jian had changed his strategy after seeing the other party use the flashlight to illuminate the way ahead.
The small flashlight was easy to carry because it was small and light, but the time it could remain lit was not too long. This was because Luo Jian had bought a shoddy product, and the products of this brand he had bought could only last for an hour and a half. When the time limit was up, the light would start to weaken. As it was too dark here, the weak light would not be able to shine too far into the tunnel.
Therefore, as long as Luo Jian could climb up higher into the tunnel, the enemy would not be able to see him with the illumination of the flashlight.
When the enemy did not find him, he would relax his vigilance. Then, when he tried to climb up from the tunnel below, Luo Jian would just need to slide down closer to the enemy to swipe off the other party’s neck cleanly.
But Luo Jian made a mistake.