Chapter 615: A Guild Named Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild

Chapter 615 A Guild Named Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild

Although Bluesea was a soldier who had had his fair share of gunfire action, this life and death battle was still enough to send a faint chill down his back. Cold sweat oozed out of his body.

As his heart was thumping, Bluesea heard footsteps coming from afar. Chen Xiaolian walked before him, the blade in his hand stained with blood.

“It is done.” Chen Xiaolian smiled at Bluesea.

“… … thank you.” Bluesea reached his hand out toward Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaolian grasped Bluesea’s hand and said, “Find your companions, we need to leave this place quickly. These monsters… … I fear there are more of them around.”

Bluesea nodded before moving forward. As he was doing so, he turned around to look behind him.

It was only a few seconds, but the pillar he used to block the flames earlier had been partially melted. What remained was still glowing with a faint reddish colour.

Several gullies of varying depth could be seen on the surrounding area, the ground and the wall. After Chen Xiaolian killed the three monsters, they fell while continuing to shoot out the stream of flames. Those gullies must be the result of the streams of flames coming from the monsters.

All three Godzilla-like monsters were decapitated, their corpses sprawled upon the ground as blood flowed out.

“You… … just who are you?”

As they walked, Bluesea, who was walking alongside Chen Xiaolian, asked, “How can you do these… … things that normal humans cannot do?”

Chen Xiaolian turned and cast a profound look at Bluesea. “Do you feel very shocked?”

“I am still all right.” Bluesea shook his head lightly. “After dying and entering this world, I had encountered a small number of strange people like you, people who possess extraordinary abilities. However… … they do not appear as strong as you.”

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes lit up. “You had encountered people like me before? Then…”

After considering his words for a moment, Chen Xiaolian continued, “Among those people, is there a young woman? Her name is… … Qiao Qiao. Appearance wise, she looks around two or three years older than me. She has long, black hair, quite a beauty. As for her temperament… … sometimes, she can be a handful.”

Bluesea thought about it for a moment before shaking his head gently. “I have not seen her before, but Yang Lin and the others might have. Oh, he is one of my three companions.” 

Chen Xiaolian gave a slight nod without saying anything. He reached out with his hand to push open the door before them.

By then, the two of them had reached the door leading into the staircase area. However, the area inside was completely dark and they were unable to see if Bluesea’s three companions were inside.

Although Chen Xiaolian was feeling slightly despondent, he maintained an impassive face. To begin with, he had not hoped to be able to find Qiao Qiao the moment he entered this World’s End.

“Who is it?”

The sound of cocking rifles could be heard as a man whispered out.

“Yang Lin, it is me, Bluesea.”

Bluesea put more strength into his voice and shouted out before walking up the stairs.

Light shone out from above as the three figures above turned on the flashlights on their rifles.

The three figures eyed the bottom area of the staircase carefully. It was only after they could clearly make out Bluesea’s face did they let out a soft sigh of relief. They put down their rifles.

Two of them were men, with black pupils and black hair. Their appearance suggested they were Asians. As for the woman who had cried out earlier, she was a blonde, a Caucasian.

“You… … are you all right?” The one called Yang Lin had a rather guilty look on his face as he nodded at Bluesea. “Just now, you told us to run, so…”

“I am fine.” Bluesea saw through the guilt in Yang Lin’s heart and waved his hand. “You did well. Staying there would only bring danger to everyone.”

“… … thanks.” Yang Lin extended his hand to pat Bluesea on his shoulder. “If not for you, the three of us would have died. Thankfully… … we have you. Right, those monsters…”

Using his chin, Bluesea indicated toward Chen Xiaolian. “He finished them off.”

Yang Lin was stunned. He turned to look at Chen Xiaolian as he asked Bluesea, “He… … could he be… … ‘that type’?”

“Seems like it, but there is no need to worry.” Bluesea shook his head. “He is not hostile toward us.”

“Hostile?” Chen Xiaolian knitted his brows slightly and turned to look at Yang Lin. “If I understand you correctly, when you said ‘that type’, you were referring to people with abilities surpassing that of ordinary humans. Why are those people hostile toward you people?”

“It is not ‘those people’, it is ‘you people’.” Yang Lin corrected Chen Xiaolian’s mistake while giving him a vigilant look. “As for why, how would I know?! At any rate, whenever one of you people sees us, they will start killing us!”

“Like the one who was flying in the sky?” Chen Xiaolian looked at Bluesea.

“Yes.” Bluesea nodded his head. “We have had two such encounters. The first one was a man who can transform his whole body into rocks. Thankfully, he was not too fast and we managed to escape from him. Still, we lost two companions in that encounter. The second one was the thin man pursuing us earlier. If not for you, I fear we would have all died to him. And then there are the monsters from earlier. In total, you have saved us twice.”

“There was no exchange of words?” asked Chen Xiaolian with a frown.

“No.” Bluesea replied with a bitter smile. “In those two encounters, they tried to kill us the instant they saw us. They did not ask any questions nor did they explain anything. They simply gave us no opportunity to talk things through.”

Chen Xiaolian grew even more puzzled.

Earlier, the sudden appearance of the monster disrupted his interrogation of the thin man and he was unable to properly find out what was going on. All he could get out of the thin man was the words, “Because the Recycle Bin is not refreshing.”

What did ‘Recycle Bin refreshing’ and ‘Recycle Bin not refreshing’ meant? Why would it lead to ‘them’ anxiously killing off innocent people? Chen Xiaolian could not understand.

“We… we should hurry up and leave!” The woman turned to Bluesea and whispered.

“Mm.” Bluesea nodded. However, he did not immediately move. Instead, he asked, “Yang Lin, Daniel, Grace, have you ever met a young woman known as Qiao Qiao? Long, black hair, roughly no more than 20 years old. Like him, she is ‘that type’.” 

Having said that, he pointed at Chen Xiaolian.

The three figures exchanged glances. Next, they shook their heads.

Chen Xiaolian gave a silent sigh. He nodded without saying anything.

“Let us leave this place first.” Bluesea patted Chen Xiaolian on his shoulder. He did not ask him why he wanted to find Qiao Qiao. “After we return to the village, I will help you ask around. There are more people there. Maybe some of them would know about her.”

“Let’s go.” Chen Xiaolian was slightly shocked to hear the word ‘village’, but he elected not to probe. The situation was dire and they had to quickly make their way out of this instance dungeon.

After reaching the ground level, they went searching and found a seven-seat SUV. This time, they did not encounter anything along the way. Neither the Irregularities hunting them nor the remnant monsters within the instance dungeon showed up.

“Where do we head to now?”

Chen Xiaolian, who sat in the front-seat asked Bluesea, who was in the driver’s seat.

“We are looking for a store, something like a supermarket.” Bluesea started up the engine as he replied, “The supplies in the village is running low. We came out to find more supplies.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded and listened to Bluesea, who briefly explained the situation to Chen Xiaolian while driving.

Bluesea and the three people in the back had only just appeared in this world not long ago. After the initial state of confusion, they quickly accepted the fact that they had died.

They were fairly lucky. They were able to quickly meet up with others like them, who entered this instance dungeon after their deaths. Gradually, they came to understand the way this world worked.

At least, what appeared to be the rules of this world.

This world they entered after their deaths was divided into an unknown number of blocks of varying sizes. Each of the blocks appeared independent of each other.

It was possible for someone who were just wandering around the centre of London to reach the edge of the Amazon rainforest by just stepping on the car accelerator.

Furthermore, this world possessed life forms that were beyond the norm.

The encounter with the three Godzilla lookalikes from earlier was not their first dangerous encounter. Over 10 days ago, Bluesea and his group had narrowly escaped getting eaten up by a swarm of ants the size of wolves.

As for the village that Bluesea mentioned, it was established by a group of people who found themselves in this world.

“So, you people came out to collect supplies for the village. Still, I don’t get it.” Chen Xiaolian interrupted Bluesea. “Why didn’t you just establish your village in a resource-rich instance dungeon?”

“Instance dungeon?” Bluesea furrowed his brows as he looked at Chen Xiaolian. “What is that?”

It was only then did Chen Xiaolian realize that Bluesea did now know what an instance dungeon was. However, to explain to Bluesea about Players, Awakened ones, Irregularities, the system… … all those complicated matters… … it would be too troublesome.

Chen Xiaolian gave a wry smile and said, “It is… … the different areas that you were talking about just now. As for the word instance dungeon, I will slowly explain it to you later.”

Bluesea was someone who possessed the unique air of calmness seen in soldiers. Hearing that, he nodded and chose not to further question Chen Xiaolian. “We first appeared in a southwestern town within America. It is not as though we have never tried to explore around, but those surrounding areas… … or in your words, instance dungeons, the environment in those places are extremely harsh. If it is not a tropical rainforest, it is a vast desert, or the icy polar region. After exploring around, we found that the best place to live in was the little town. Thus, we all got together and decided to just stay in the town.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. “How long has it been since then? How many people do you have with you now?”

Bluesea considered the question for a moment. “Since my death and appearance here, it has been over a month. During this month, other people had arrived as well, one after another. Some of them directly appeared in the little town, some came to us from the surrounding areas. At present, there are around 35 people in total. However, the more of us there are, the more food we consume. Although the little town has its own food stores and restaurants, the supplies inside will only decrease. Right now, the amount of supplies has fallen really low. Seeing no other alternatives, we can only move out to look for new sources of food.

“We used a jeep and gathered a team of people with knowledge in handling guns. After that, we drove through the desert. Thankfully, there is a gun shop in the little town, allowing us to arm ourselves somewhat. Right…”

Still driving, Bluesea raised his right hand to point behind him. “Yang Lin, he used to be a police officer. Daniel, a Chinese-American immigrant and a shooting enthusiast. Grace, a Swiss who had received gun training before.”

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at the three and greeted them with a nod of his head. He continued listening to Bluesea. “Speaking of which, this world is very strange. I clearly do not know Swiss and Grace do not know Chinese. In the village as well, there are quite a number of people from different nations. However, we can communicate with each other regardless of what language we are using.”

“It is the world after death. What could be impossible?” Chen Xiaolian smiled.

“Found it!” Bluesea’s eyes lit up and he pointed forward.

There beside the street, not far from their position, was a small convenience store.

The four of them stepped down from the SUV and hastily moved into the store.

Each of them picked up a shopping basket ad frantically gathered up the goods inside. As there were no one else inside the store, there was no need for them to worry about things like what the store owner might think or payment.

“Too little.” Yang Lin, who was rapidly sweeping all the food items on the shelf into his basket, frowned and muttered.

“We are in the centre of New York. The priceless items here in Manhattan Island are the land and gold. What? Were you hoping to find a Walmart?” The young man, Daniel, snickered. “All right, load up everything in this shop. It should be enough. Once the supplies run low again, we will come again to get more supplies.”

“We… … have to come here again?” Grace trembled. “But… … there are monsters here!”

“People need to eat to stay alive. Although… … I am not sure if we are actually dead or alive right now.” Daniel shrugged, a smile plastered on his face. He appeared to have the easy-going temperament that some Americans have.

“We can only go about this one step at a time.” Bluesea said calmly. Then, he turned to look at the door of the store. There, several stacks of baskets piled up high, all filled with supplies. “We won’t be able to fit much into one SUV. You all load them up first. I will go find another vehicle.”

“I will follow you.” Seeing Bluesea move toward the door, Chen Xiaolian followed suit.

The two of them moved outside and looked around. There were not much traces of battle within the street before them and there were quite a few vehicles there. Unfortunately, almost all of them were small cars.

“There must be more goods in the storeroom in the back. This area is too dangerous. It will be for the better if we can bring back as much food as we can in this one trip.” Bluesea looked around and continued, “Also, since someone wants to kill us, it will be better for us to look for some weapons. There is not much ammo in the little town’s gun shop.”

“Mm.” Chen Xiaolian nodded. “If that is the case, we will be needing a truck. Let’s go.”

“I think… … I should go alone.” Bluesea turned to look at Chen Xiaolian, who was standing beside him. “Can I ask you to stay and look after those three?”

“Why?” asked Chen Xiaolian.

“They… … need protection more.” Bluesea sighed. “I am a soldier, but those three… Yang Lin was a police officer, Daniel was a gun enthusiast and Grace had military training. At the end of the day, though, they were just ordinary civilians. Just now, you saw what happened in the underground parking garage. You saw their performance in face of an unexpected situation. If another one of those monsters appeared, just one, they would likely all die. The only one who can protect them now is you.”

“However, I don’t have any obligations to protect them,” said Chen Xiaolian coolly.

Bluesea became stunned. He did not say anything else. He simply turned to look at Chen Xiaolian with a calm expression on his face.

Chen Xiaolian pulled out a packet of cigarettes he had swiped out from the convenience store. After tearing open the packet, he placed one into his mouth and gestured the packet at Bluesea. “Want one?”

Bluesea nodded and took one.

Chen Xiaolian helped lit up the cigarette for Bluesea before lighting his own. After taking a deep puff, he smiled and said, “The Mr Bluesea I know is a smart man. Although you are not ‘him’, I believe that you are also very smart. At present, things are simple. I have no obligation to protect anyone. Be it the monsters in this instance dungeon or those hunters, they are no threat to me. I can just ignore them and leave on my own.”

“Yes.” Bluesea did not attempt to avoid the subject. He nodded his head and said, “I am very clear that there is no need for you to travel with us. The only reason you are doing so is because you want information. The young woman named Qiao Qiao.”

“Correct. For me, you are more important than all three of them combined.” Chen Xiaolian spread open his hands. “Even if all three of them were to die, I believe you have the ability to bring me back to your village. On the other hand, if you were to die, I am dubious as to whether they can do that. I can protect them, but only if you are already well-protected.”

“That’s all?”

“Also… … I know you.” Chen Xiaolian looked right at Bluesea. Suddenly, he let out a sigh. A trace of sadness appeared on his face and he said, “There is no need for you to suspect it. Nor is there a need for you to ask about it. I am certain I know you. I also know why you do not have any memories about me.”

“Fine.” Bluesea nodded. “However, since this is a deal, I naturally have the right to make the offer. After we return to the village, I will help you ask around for information regarding the young woman known as Qiao Qiao. The price for me doing so is – to protect them.”

Chen Xiaolian slowly released another puff of cigarette smoke. Then, he turned to face Bluesea. Likewise, Bluesea had turned to face Chen Xiaolian, his face as calm as lake water.

After a moment, Chen Xiaolian abruptly smiled. “Mr Bluesea, you… … are still the same as then, willing to put your own life on the line for the sake of your guild.”

“Then?”

“Mm.” Chen Xiaolian put out the cigarette and raised his head to look up at the sky. “A guild called Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild.”

…