T/N
Hey guys. I have decided to change the release time for the chapters as the current schedule is right in the middle of my work day, so I can’t always get the chapters out on time. So, the new release time will be at 22:00 UTC/GMT +2. I will still try to release a chapter every day though. Hopefully this change allows me to be a bit more consistent with the releases.
Chapter 34.1 The Promised Land
It was still a brilliant sunny day, or in other words, from the moment they arrived, there was no hint of rain in the sky. Lin Banxia and the other three packed their luggage, had a simple breakfast, and then hit the road. They first had to pass through the wide but not deep river in front of them. Lin Banxia had explored it yesterday when he went to catch fish. The deepest part of the river only reached their knees, and you could carry your luggage on your back. However, you had to be careful when crossing over.
Lin Banxia was good at swimming and volunteered to go to the front, Li Su was second, and Sergey was at the back. He took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his trouser legs, carefully stepped on the smooth stones to the other side of the river, and waved to Li Su and others, motioning them to come over.
During the day, Li Su was fully armed again, wearing sunglasses and a mask. Like Lin Banxia, he also reached the other side safely.
When it came to Sergey, in fact, he was the strongest among the three. It stood to reason that it would not be difficult to cross the not-so-fast river in front of them. So, Lin Banxia and Li Su were not too worried, but an accident happened suddenly.
Sergey walked to the middle of the river then suddenly his feet slipped, and he fell into the river. The river was not deep. He could have stood up immediately, but he could not seem to get up. They could only see the constant beating and struggling as water splashed.
Lin Banxia immediately realized something was wrong. He jumped into the river without hesitation. Once he entered, he understood why Sergey couldn’t struggle. He saw a few rope-like things wrapped around Sergey’s feet. At first Lin Banxia thought they were water plants or something, but when he swam closer, he realized that they were actually slender, snake-like human hands. The arms and hands were slender and emerged from the mud of the river. Like ropes, they grabbed Sergey tightly and dragged him down. Sergey struggled feebly, spitting out a bunch of bubbles, and was about to die. Lin Banxia grabbed those things, pulled out the dagger tied to the outside of his thigh, and kept cutting the slender snake-like arms. Fortunately, these things were quickly cleaned up, and Lin Banxia struggled to drag Sergey’s heavy body to the surface. He coughed heavily and shouted: “Hurry up, help me, he’s too heavy.”
Li Su quickly stretched out his hand and pulled the two of them up one after another.
Lin Banxia went ashore, sat on the ground and gasped, saying: “Sergey, how are you?”
Sergey obviously didn’t understand what he said. He lay on the ground and spat several times before he regained his composure. He spoke a few words in Russian, and his tone sounded like he was swearing.
“Why didn’t the things in the river attack us two?” Lin Banxia asked strangely, “Could it be that they are acclimatized and like to eat the locals?”
Li Su couldn’t laugh or cry: “Don’t tell jokes at this time.” He exchanged a few words with Sergey and was relieved after learning that he was fine.
However, although Sergey survived, his luggage was damaged and washed downstream by the river. His whole body was wet, so when the cold wind blew, Lin Banxia shivered and said, “Why is it still so cold in May?”
“Baby, this is Russia.” Li Su said, “Go make a fire first and dry your clothes. Don’t get a fever. If we go back and tell others that our teammates died of a bad cold, we will probably be laughed at.” With that said, he quickly found some dry firewood and started a fire.
Lin Banxia started to dry his clothes again.
After Sergey recovered, he thanked Lin Banxia repeatedly, and Lin Banxia waved his hand: “You’d better be careful, I feel like you’re out of luck.”
Li Su helped Lin Banxia translate this. Sergey glanced at the river behind him and said, “It’s only now that I’m sure you two are not that kind of monster.”
“Then why did you give me the shotgun so easily yesterday?” Li Su raised his eyebrows.
“Being shot to death with a shotgun is not a painful way to die.” Sergey said with a wry smile, “At least… I don’t want to become like Irina.” He and Irina made an agreement a long time ago. If the other person unfortunately turned into a terrifying monster during a mission, then as their partner, please don’t be lenient. Because the spiritual world of that person at this time may have been destroyed, and they would no longer be the same person. In this case, it would be better to die happily.
He fulfilled his promise in this way, but in his heart, he was very afraid that no one would give him an end after he became like that.
Lin Banxia couldn’t understand what they were saying, so he kept drying his clothes silently next to them.
Seeing that the atmosphere had calmed down, Li Su joked with Lin Banxia: “Did you know the way you dragged him upstream just now, looked like a little hamster struggling to carry a large piece of biscuit?”
Lin Banxia glanced at his barely noticeable six-pack abs, and then at Sergey’s chest covered with chest hair, and said sadly: “What should I do? I have this physique, even if I lose weight That’s right, you wouldn’t say I’m a hamster, right?”
Li Su laughed.
After spending most of the morning, the two finally dried their clothes, and the three of them continued on the road towards the middle of the wilderness.
As they went deeper into the wasteland, the surrounding environment became more and more similar to the one in Li Su’s video. Lin Banxia asked Li Su several times what happened to them, and Li Su vaguely explained it. When Lin Banxia still continued to ask, he will say helplessly: “Banxia, there is a reason why I don’t tell you. In our line of work… curiosity is really not a good habit. If you must ask me, then I can only tell you. Whatever little secrets you have discovered… please don’t mention it, otherwise that thing will hear it, and something else may appear.”
“Okay.” Seeing that he was unwilling to let go, Lin Banxia had no choice but to give up.
Although Sergey and Lin Banxia confirmed each other’s human identity, his mental state seemed to be a little bad, and he seemed to be distracted. Sometimes when Li Su said something to him, he would be in a daze. It took him a while to react.
“Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?” Li Su asked Sergey.
“No, no, I’m fine.” Sergey responded vaguely, but his whole face drooped listlessly. He was tall by nature, but he gave people an inexplicable feeling of depression, and he would look behind him from time to time. He looked around, as if something was following them.
Li Su and Lin Banxia naturally noticed it, but now they were in the endless wilderness. If something was followed behind them, they would be able to see it if they turned around. The low bushes could not hide the tracker’s whereabouts.
That night, after lighting the bonfire, Li Su took out two dice that were exactly the same as those used by Song Qingluo and asked Sergey to conduct a mental test.
Seeing the dice, Sergey panicked. Lin Banxia had always been curious as to why they cared so much about rolling the dice. It even seemed that the two dice in front of him were more terrifying than the monsters. Mou Xinsi, whom he met in the mountain village before, only reluctantly rolled the dice under Song Qingluo’s suppression.
Sergey stared at the dice without reaching out, his Adam’s apple couldn’t help moving up and down. He cast a pleading look at Li Su, still refusing to reach out and take the dice in Li Su’s hand.
Li Su was not in a hurry, and just waited calmly.
“I should be fine.” Sergey said, “Can you, not cast the die…”
“Let’s cast the die.” Li Su said warmly. He seemed to have a good temper. Even at this time, he was not tense. On the contrary, he was like a gurgling stream, with a soothing flavor. He said, “At least don’t lie to yourself.”
Sergey smiled bitterly and finally gave in. He stabilized his trembling hand, slowly reached out and took the dice, then took a deep breath and threw the dice to the ground. Clattering, the dice spun a few times and then stopped. One was white and the other was black. They were 7 and 6 respectively. The total was 76, which did not exceed the dangerous value.
“Huh.” Seeing the result, Sergey let out a long breath. This was much better than he had imagined.
“Why are they all so scared?” Lin Banxia asked strangely, “Aren’t you just checking your mental state?”
Li Su carefully put away the dice. Hearing Lin Banxia’s question, his voice was a little helpless. He said: “Banxia, not everyone is as slow as your nerves. Usually, the value of this mental pollution…Once you get past the danger point, it means one thing.”
Lin Banxia said: “What?”
“It means that you may have gone crazy.” Li Su said in a serious tone, “Or, you have turned into something else. These are things more terrifying than death. You have never thought about it. When you see it in front of you…if everything is false, how terrible would it be?” He considered his words, trying to make it more clear to Lin Banxia, ”In some cases, if your mental value exceeds the limit, then your companions have the power to execute you. Didn’t you read the agreement carefully?”
Lin Banxia honestly confessed: “I was just looking at my salary and insurance benefits.”
Li Su: “…”
Lin Banxia laughed a few times to ease the embarrassment: “Hahaha.”
Li Su was silent for a while, not knowing what to say for a while, and finally held back: “This guy Song Qingluo really should go to another training class!”
Sergey passed the mental test, but he still couldn’t be happy. He thought he was crazy, but the value on the dice told him that he was still some distance away from going crazy. In this case, what exactly did he see? What?
Sergey licked his dry lips. Ever since they left the riverbank, he felt that something was following them. He could not see its shape or hear its sound, but Sergey could clearly feel that there was something there. Following him, the thing had a face exactly like Irina’s, and its body was soft. It seemed to hide itself in the invisible sand, and the others were completely unaware of it. After Sergey confirmed that he was not crazy, he found it even more painful, because a madman does not need to think or feel pain. Now he felt as if he was being haunted by a ghost. This ghost was invisible and intangible, and only he could feel it.
As night fell, the temperature in the wilderness dropped quickly.
Today was Lin Banxia and Sergey’s vigil. Li Su was a big-hearted person. He made himself a soft bed with grass early, then lay down on it and fell asleep.
It was only after nine o’clock, and Lin Banxia couldn’t sleep, so he and Sergey sat by the fire to warm themselves up. Seeing that Sergey was not in good spirits, he wanted to say a few words to him, but he couldn’t speak the language, so he could only reluctantly say a few words in 50-cent English.
Sergey’s English was not very good, but he was still willing to communicate with Lin Banxia. After all, compared with Li Su, who was armed and looked weird, Lin Banxia looked more like a normal person. He seems to be easy to get along with too.
The two chatted intermittently, and Lin Banxia gained a lot. He felt that his 50-cent English had become 60-cent. Sergey obviously didn’t know that he had become an English sparring partner. He felt that Lin Banxia was a really nice person. He not only saved him, but also tried hard to comfort him.
“You should rest for a while first.” Lin Banxia felt that he was not in good spirits, so he wanted him to rest more, thinking that he could stay up a little longer to get through the night. “I’ll call you if anything happens.”
“Okay.” Sergey didn’t try to be brave. He lay down next to Li Su and soon started breathing evenly.
Lin Banxia watched the bonfire and listened to the harsh wind howling in the wilderness. There was no shelter there, and at night, the sound of wind howled, hovering above their heads. From time to time, tumbleweeds were carried by the strong wind and rolled past them. Desolate was the most appropriate adjective for this place. Lin Banxia caught a tumbleweed and made the bonfire thrive even more. He looked up at the bright night sky and tasted an exotic beauty from this scenery.
However, when Lin Banxia was staring at the sky, the originally bright starry sky suddenly darkened. At first, Lin Banxia thought it was a dark cloud floating above his head, but when he heard a dense buzzing sound in his ears, he suddenly realized that it was the sound of an insect swarm arriving.
Translator’s comments:
If possible please consider supporting me on Patreon or Ko-fi. I will be working on a stockpile for Patreon where you can read advanced chapters for as little as $3 a month. Alternatively, I will release an extra chapter for every Ko-fi donation I receive. It might not be on that exact day, but it will be released within the week.
