Translator: BinBin92 Editor: EllisBLV13
Gushes of wind brushed along the farmland. The breeze was cool and refreshing, just like it was ten minutes ago. However, deep inside her, Lin Sanjiu wished that the wind could stop now.
That was because she had smelled the scent of insects from the wind ever since she was born. Not many people in the world knew how an insect smelled, and Lin Sanjiu cursed them for their luck.
After she forced herself to look at the beetle, even the well-seasoned Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help but lower her gaze. Her stomach had already shivered up into a little ball, and she would throw up if she continued to stare at the beetle.
As her gaze fell on the soil bridge, even though she could still see the massive, polished feet of the beetle looming at the corner of her eyes, her churning stomach settled a bit. After she recomposed herself, she gasped as she asked, “Does our conversation has a time limitation?”
“Yes, there is. Every team member from every team can talk to me for a minute; of course, you can choose not to talk to me,” Beetle said as if it didn’t see the ugly expression on Lin Sanjiu’s face. It wiggled the tiny feet on its body and said with a smile, “But be careful that not more than one person talks to me each time. Those who talk at the same time will be forbidden from talking to me for that round.”
Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu quickly darted a glance at Number 43.
“Did you come here to eat us?” Lin Sanjiu calmed herself down and quickly formed another question in her mind and shoot it out, “How often do you come?”
Harry had given them too little information, so they had no other choice but to pry for more from the pest.
“Hmm, I’ll come over once I’m hungry. I don’t follow any fixed schedule,” answered the beetle as it moved its body. The way its two antennae and its many fine feet wriggled in the air was a scene enough to make people’s stomach to do a flip-flop. “… it’s kind of embarrassing to say that I’m going to eat a pretty lady like you—but, yeah, that’s why I’m here.”
“How are you going to eat us?”
“I’m a gentleman by heart, so I have good table manners. I would only have a few nibbles every time. Nothing more than a row of teeth marks would be left on your body, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“The beetle makes it sound harmless…” The thought swam into Lin Sanjiu’s mind but she doubted the beetle’s words.
As Harry had hinted before that one bite was equivalent to losing a month’s worth of vitality, so if the “one bite” counted as a nibble, then it was quite dangerous.
Frowning, Lin Sanjiu asked again, “So that means you will distribute your bites over all six people—No, all six seedlings here every time you come? You won’t bite only one person, right?”
“Bingo, that’s right! But it’s a little troublesome to give one bite each to all six seedlings. I prefer to have my tummy filled at one place.” said the beetle as it rubbed its first pair of feet again.
“It said one place, not one person or one young shoot,” Fang Dan murmured beside Lin Sanjiu’s ear.
Indeed—Lin Sanjiu’s consciousness had given her a clue. The beetle was reluctant to change its dining area, but it never mentioned it couldn’t change its target. In other words, the intention of grouping was to spread the losses among the groups to prevent any severe casualties from happening?
So in the end, it still boiled down to competition among groups. With only two people on their side, they had already been put at a disadvantaged position since the beginning.
Lin Sanjiu’s brain was so full of information that it derailed her train of thought. She couldn’t put her ideas into shape as such she decided to ask as many questions as she could within the time frame, “On what basis you pick the young shoot?”
“Right after I have talked to all of you. After that, I’ll make my choice,” Beetle answered while narrowing its eyes.
“That isn’t helpful at all—” Vexation had begun to take hold of Lin Sanjiu. They didn’t make any appreciable progress even though their conversation had come so far. The beetle was merely toying with them, and the information it gave wasn’t any much better than Harry’s.
“Stop beating around the bush and tell us what should we do so that you won’t bite us?” Lin Sanjiu had run out of patience. She made no bones and went straight to the point, “…Anything you need? Special Item? Food? Or other things?”
“Oh my my, I’m merely a bug, those things have no use to me— Oops, your time is up. Hehe, I almost get caught by your little trick,” As if it had made a joke of itself, the whole beetle trembled with excitement as its two antennae swayed in the air.
Even though she had anticipated this, she still cursed the beetle inwardly. After all, a minute was too short for her to dig up anything useful. Just when she took a step back, her gaze fell on the four people on the soil bridge opposite her. As of the moment, the four of them were on their feet and they were all looking at her. Aside from Number 47, who gave an impassive look, the remaining people including Number 46 had a worried expression on their face.
As the beetle walked toward them, Number 48 gulped in fear. Nevertheless, he rooted his bare feet firmly on the ground.
The two round eyes on the beetle’s face rolled and rolled and rolled.
The conversation between Lin Sanjiu and the beetle had merely been a minute long and the time was obviously not enough for Number 48 to come up with a countermeasure. He tried to ask a few questions, but as expected, the beetle countered them all with a few ambiguous answers of its own. Aside from getting some useless intel such as “different seedlings has different taste,” the information he obtained was even far less useful than Lin Sanjiu’s.
“Wait, let me think,” Seeing that he was running out of time, sweat began to form on Number 48’s forehead. His toenails were stabbed deep into the soil, unbeknownst to him, “F*ck, this is too slow—” As he cursed inwardly while looking at the ground, a thought formed at his mind, “Oh yeah, that’s right, since you want to eat us, why don’t you eat them first?”
“Time’s up!”
The beetle’s pair of large compound eyes darted in between the two as it laughed, “To be honest, I have already made my decision.”
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat as a fear suddenly dawned on her. Just when a shadow appeared, she had already made her move. Instinctively, she tumbled backward and summoned her [Tornado Whip] onto her hand. Then, she lashed the whip against the shadow in front of her.
However, this time the [Tornado Whip] didn’t raise any storm as she commanded. The shadow continued to press forward, and in the next second, Lin Sanjiu felt a tingling pain spread from her arm, causing her to lose her grip and her [Tornado Whip] fell to the ground.
Her knees went weak and as the whip touched the ground, the offshoot of losing a large amount of vitality finally struck her hard. It felt like her chest and stomach were dried up as if burned by fire for a couple of days. Her vision blurred and she realized that she couldn’t move any part of her body aside from her quivering lips.
“Number 49! Are you okay?” Number 43 yelled in concern. He quickly went forward to help Lin Sanjiu get up and wiped off the dirt from her face.
Lin Sanjiu blinked hard a few times to regain her vision.
“Actually, I’m not that hungry today,” The huge beetle said. It shook the carapace on its back, smiling, “… and you’re quite pretty so I just took two bites. But I have to say that you taste good. Your leaves are crunchy and your juice is clean and sweet…”
“F*ck off!” Number 43 was enraged. He looked even angrier than Lin Sanjiu as he took his shoe and hurled it at the beetle. However, before the shoe could fulfill its given role, its target, the beetle, had opened its carapace and blocked it, revealing the disgusting creases underneath.
“See you next time, then!” The beetle was unfazed by such a petty attack. It opened its wings, making it look twice the size of its original size and flew away nimbly.
Lin Sanjiu waited until its figure completely disappeared into the ground before propping herself up wobbly. As she had expected, one bite was equivalent to losing a month worth of vitality. She had been starved for a month, and she had used up too much energy in the chamber and now, she had lost yet another two month’s worth of vitality, she felt dead, very extremely dead.
“Let me help you. Remove your shoes, like that your vitality will regain faster,” Number 43 said as he supported Lin Sanjiu by her arm. Before he wanted to say something, he saw Lin Sanjiu suddenly stopped moving and then a low outburst of delight from the other soil bridge drifted into their ears.
“It bit them! Number 46, your tactic really worked like a charm!” This sharp voice was none other than Number 45. Before she could praise Number 46 any further, Number 48 interjected and quelled her excitement, “Stop speaking. They might hear us.”
“What a bunch of bastards!” Number 43 cussed, “What did they do? How come they are so artful in this kind of thing?”
Lin Sanjiu had no energy to spare now so she couldn’t reply to his question. After she had taken some rest, she then removed her shoes and her socks. By doing this kind of trivial errand was enough to make her gasped for air. Her chest pumped up and down violently for a long time before the feeling of breathlessness finally dissipated.
When Number 43 saw her had regained some of her mobility, he then oriented her to lean against the low wall. Squinting her eyes, Lin Sanjiu peered at the sky that was turning blue. Then, she said, in her weak voice, “What did you say just now? Why would you say they are good at playing mind game?”
Her voice was so feeble that it would dissipate into the air the moment the words escaped her lips, “…What do you mean by that?”
Number 43 was clearly not expecting her to ask him this question first, staring at her slack-jawed.
“Err…” He threw Lin Sanjiu a hesitant gaze before opening his mouth, looking like an errant child who was trying his best to explain himself to his mother, “I know I’m not a very bright person, and I, indeed, have an impulsive manner. Hence, after I left my homeland, I’ve been telling myself to keep everything in my heart, not to stay too close others as they might want to cheat me.
“The reason I’m telling you this is not that I tried to keep it a secret from you, it’s just my way of life,” Number 43 sighed, “In the chamber when I grabbed your rope, it’s all thanks to you for pulling me up… I was too weak at that time, and all I could manage was flailing in the air like a beached fish. When my legs were kicking in the air, I accidentally broke a large chunk of soil which revealed what is being buried underneath. Do you know what it is?”
“What was it?”
“A leg, a human leg,” Number 43 gulped as if he didn’t welcome the memory that surfaced in his mind, “The remaining was still covered under the soil, so I can’t see anything else. I was shocked at that time and when I wanted to have a closer look at it, you pulled me up. Anyway, though I just took a glance, I saw that leg was encased in a navy blue trousers.”
Navy blue…
Even with her foggy mind, Lin Sanjiu instantly remembered Number 44, who had gone missing. This was because he was wearing a navy blue color jeans.
“I’m not the murderer neither are you,” The vein on Number 43’s forehead bulged, “… Everything is as clear as day when you relate it to the situation we’re in previously. Someone from us must be worried that the pure water bubbles were not enough for all of us, so he killed Number 44. I guess the murderer was Number 47. You see, he quickly turned his coat to Number 46’s gang when we were regrouping.”
Lin Sanjiu knitted her brows together. A glimmering thought was knocking at the back of her mind, making her feeling as if she could find the connection between two shreds of evidence. However, she couldn’t make any kind of conjecture from the connected pieces of evidence with her now jumbled mind.
“Anyway, that’s in the past,” Number 43 pushed down his upturning emotion and said with a parched voice, “… The thing I can’t figure out at this moment is what they did to get that damn beetle not to bite them?”
Reasonably speaking, there were only two ways to prevent being bitten by the beetle. The first way was to make the opposing team look more delicious, and the second way was made themselves less appetizing. The beetle denied the idea of trading itself, and thanks to Harry’s unreasonable rules, they had no means to counter or bargain with that beetle.
“They must be using something that makes them less “appetizing.” Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly.
The sun was setting in the west. With the arrival of the dawn, the wind was getting stronger and colder.
Perhaps pressing her feet barefooted against the ground did help, Lin Sanjiu did feel a tingling warmth coursing through her blood vessels as she had regained a bit of her vitality.
The discussion ended in the doldrums — as most discussions of the kind did. Dejected, Number 43 threw himself on the ground and stared into the sky. Lin Sanjiu slowly rose to her feet and put all her weight on the low wall. She was watching Number 46 and his gang.
She wanted to try her luck and see if she could hear something from the other side but her attempt was thwarted. The four of them were very cautious as they all hid under the low wall.
When the wind petted her face, Lin Sanjiu’s heart quivered for a bit as if she had caught something in the air with her senses. She looked around but she couldn’t see any hallucination right now.
After that, Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes.
With her hypersensory activated, when she intentionally concentrated her mind into one of her senses, that sense would become extremely sharp and clear—
This combat technique had never failed her, even at a time like this.
As the soothing wind dabbed her cheeks, Lin Sanjiu caught a familiar scent hiding in the breeze. It had been almost six years since she last smell this kind of scent and she doubted herself. However, after she sucked the air in again, she quickly squatted down and hollered, “Number 43!”
“Yea?” Number 43 raised his head from the ground.
“I guess I know how they avoid being bitten by the beetle…” she said with a low voice, “I’ve caught a scent from the wind. Which world did you come from? Does your homeland have the essential balm ointment?”
“Ah, yea, we have that!” Number 43 shot up, “I came from Honey Marsh, and we do have the essential balm ointment!”
Lin Sanjiu was stunned by his answer.
“So they dabbed the essential balm ointment on their body! That explains everything!” Number 43 railed.
