CH 26

Everyone stood close together, and Lin Man Man nervously took Zhang Xue's hand, feeling a little scared. Seeing that the situation is not right, Qin Tan told everyone to follow him to the outside of the village. Listening to the shouting as they walked, it felt heartbreaking.

A faint mist began to appear on the lake.

"Come on, let's go to camp outside the village."

"It must be Shan Hu and the rest are gone." Lin Man Man whispered.

Lou Fan gesture to stop talking at Lin Man Man. Even if no one is around, what if they are overheard? They are going to get on the train tomorrow so they must make sure that nothing wrong could happen.

Gong Yi looked at the countdown on his watch; 4 hours left. He is very excited, he can finally get out of this hellish place.

The group moved quickly and swiftly walked outside the village, making sure not to leave the area belonging to the village. Suddenly, Gong Yi exclaimed.

"What happened?! The countdown is over!" Gong Yi raised his wrist in confusion.

"Shouldn't there be a few more hours?" Chen Shuyang remembered the actual time clearly.

Gong Yi felt a little anxious as he replied, "Yeah, I took a look earlier. It said 4 hours! But just a minute has passed and now it's 0!"

Lin Man Man looked like she is about to cry. Their mission is clearly almost finished, so how could it suddenly change?

Everyone glanced at the 2 newcomer's watches in a daze, confirming that the countdown is really over, but no one knew what went wrong. At this moment, terrible screaming could be heard from the village! The group of 7 people looked back, and what they saw seemed like a scene of hell. Countless fish monsters crawled out of the lake and rushed straight into the village. They chomped at anyone they saw, and the villagers screamed in agony.

"Help!"

"Ahhhh!"

"Help me!"

"NOOO!"

Without the invisible protection, the villagers are like sheeps trapped by a pack of wolves, fresh, tender, and delicious.

Wen Lang suddenly had a flash of inspiration and murmured, "Did the Black Scorpion capsize?"

The rest heard it but they don’t understand. Lou Fan asked, "What?"

Qin Tan pulled him up and ran, "Let's go first. Go back to the station to talk about it!"

Lin Man Man and Gong Yi didn't dare to move. They just stood there, at a loss.

Wen Lang shouted, "Go, go, go! What are you doing, the boat has capsized! The Black Scorpion has capsized!" He pushed at the 2 newcomers, and they finally recovered to their senses. Understood that Wen Lang knew what is going on, they ran quickly.

"Wen Lang, keep talking!" Chen Shuyang urged as he ran. When he looked back, the fish monsters seemed to be heading towards them and he quickened his pace.

Wen Lang said as he ran, "Someone said in Lazuli before. Once the higher-level team in the mission world dies before completing their mission, it is called capsize. That is when emergencies occur. For example, now, the Black Scorpion’s team may be all dead, or their key NPC may have died or escaped. If so, their mission certainly won’t be able to complete. Hence, the massacre started in the village. At this moment, if the countdown for newcomers is not over yet, there will be only a dead-end for them. Therefore, the countdown for Lin Man Man and Gong Yi is immediately reset. This means their mission is completed."

Both Lin Man Man and Gong Yi listened attentively, and their nervous hearts can finally relax. Gong Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it didn’t say that they have to stay in the village, otherwise, they would really die.

The most unexpected thing for everyone is that everyone in the Black Scorpion team has died. Lou Fan sighed, they really don't look very smart, but after completing so many missions, how could they simply die like this? Lou Fan couldn't figure it out, and no one could tell him what is going on.

Although Qin Tan led the way, they still took the whole night to reach the station. At this moment, the sky has turned faintly white; it is almost dawn. Everyone sat in a circle to rest and Wen Lang said, "The mission worlds are actually very scary. If you took the wrong step, you may all die. I really didn't expect the Black Scorpion team to..."

Lou Fan thought about the day he got out of the train where Wen Lang said not to mess with them. But because of their deliberate alienation, they really didn't mess with Black Scorpion, so they didn't know what is going on.

"Finally, everything is settled." Qin Tan said, "For the next mission, we need to be more prepared."

Wen Lang was sighing at first, but after a while, he suddenly realized something. "My god! The entire Black Scorpion team has game over, but our lower-level team survived with no casualties! Aren’t we too awesome?!"

Lou Fan’s team of 3 ignored Wen Lang. Only Zhang Xue gave Wen Lang a light look and said, "It's not that we are awesome, it's just that your fate is good."

Wen Lang didn't speak for a while. He knew what Zhang Xue meant. He and Zhang Xue got lucky and met a reliable team. Otherwise, they might get eaten by the fish monsters when they stayed in the cabin on the first day.

"Wooo..."

The whistle of the train finally sounded. Watching it slowly approach, everyone felt a sense of rejoicing for their new lease of life. They got into the coaches separately, they would meet again in 15 minutes.

As soon as Lou Fan got on the train, he threw his bag on the ground and put the bow beside him. Laying down, he stretched without caring for his image, and blurted out, "Finally, we are going home."

The moment Lou Fan said that, he got stunned for a moment. It hasn’t been for a long time but it seems that he has already regarded Lazuli as home. Resting his hands behind his head, Lou Fan did the math, it has only been more than a month since he came to this world. So, why does he have the illusion that it has been a long, long time?

As Lou Fan is thinking about it, he actually fell asleep in a daze.

When Lou Fan woke up again, Qin Tan is trying to wake him. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Qin Tan’s face in front of him, and he subconsciously smiled. Qin Tan also smiled, "We have reached the station, get up."

Lou Fan nodded and turned over. His backpack is already hanging on Qin Tan’s shoulder. Grabbing his bow, Lou Fan put it over his back and followed Qin Tan to get off the train. The other 5 people are already waiting on the platform.

"You people just returned from Lao Ye Temple’s mission world?" A man walked up to them with a puzzled expression.

Qin Tan: "What do you want?"

The man frowned and asked, "You are in the same mission world as Hu Nan, right? Where are they?" His question sounded a bit strange. Since they didn't come back, it means they didn't complete the mission, but that's where it got strange.

So, it turned out to be someone from the Black Scorpion group.

Qin Tan: "After getting out of the train, we have gone our separate ways, and we haven't seen them since. We are unable to answer your question. We still have something to do, so we are leaving first."

"You are in the same mission world, it's impossible not to meet once, right?" The man obviously didn't believe it, his expression as if saying ‘don't lie to me’.

"No." Qin Tan said coldly. After saying that, he took everyone and prepared to leave.

The man stopped them, "Wait a minute, tell me about your mission world. Those people are from Black Scorpion, they can't just die in such a vague way."

So what if it’s Black Scorpion? Is Black Scorpion amazing?

Lou Fan couldn't help but say, "What is Black Scorpion, an animal? I'm sorry but we're not interested. Please let us go, we almost got wiped out, and we need to go back to soothe our wounded heart."

Man: "…"

Who exactly got wiped out here? He clearly saw 5 people getting off the lower-level carriage? Can this person give a bit more thought to his lie?

Watching the people walk away, the man's expression turned cruel. Good, he has noted down these people. The next time they meet, don't blame them Black Scorpion for being ruthless.

Raw word count: 2039