Endless Debt-Chapter 773 - 240 Short Respite
The entire carriage of the board was engulfed by the flood, and in the crashing waves, Ewen could even catch glimpses of silvery white fish darting past. He struggled to maintain his balance, inching forward towards Cinderella.
Ewen encouraged, "Hang in there!"
"Mm!"
Cinderella responded with difficulty. The icy seawater was quickly sapping her body heat, her hands gradually losing color and sensation. Yet, even so, Cinderella tightly gripped Hart’s fur, striving to maintain her figure in the rapids.
The lives of everyone in the carriage were now in Cinderella’s hands. If she lost the dice she was holding, the game would lose its crucial tool for progression.
As Ewen struggled towards Cinderella, Bologue also recovered from the impact. Water pushed him against the wall, but with his excellent physique, he still had some mobility, slowly making his way to the door.
Under the repeated scour of the torrents, Hart’s head was already submerged, bubbling away. Bologue ignored Palmer’s piercing scream, just hoping Hart wouldn’t die so easily.
Suddenly, Ewen’s shout echoed, "Bologue!"
"I see it!"
Bologue shouted back. Caught in the rapids, Hart’s body was moving at the door. Soon he would no longer be able to stay stuck there, and Cinderella would be swept into the rear carriage with him.
This damn game’s changes were too quick. If the previous events corresponded with the story of "Night Hunter," adding a lot of immersion, this game now obviously leaned towards magical realism, disregarding any real-world logic, simply and brutally achieving the strongest sensory impact.
"I’m losing grip!"
Cinderella’s body rose and fell in the rapids, seawater flooding her mouth and nose, with her painful coughs continuing relentlessly.
Seeing Cinderella’s sorry state, Ewen recalled that this stubborn fellow keen to see whales couldn’t swim at all.
Cinderella’s hand was slowly slipping from Hart’s fur, knowing how meticulously Hart maintained this fur. It wasn’t easy for Cinderella to hold on for so long.
Various thoughts battled in Cinderella’s mind for a few seconds before she decisively made a choice.
"Roll the dice!"
Cinderella shouted, using all her strength to throw the dice in her hand. It sailed over Ewen’s head, across the cold rapids, and landed precisely on the board.
Ewen didn’t have time to admire the girl’s precise throw, as Aimou, struggling to maintain her stance beside the chess table, snatched the dice, tossing it back towards Ewen.
"It’s your turn! Ewen!"
Ewen raised his hand and caught the dice thrown by Aimou. He was the last one; only by rolling the dice could the next round of events unfold. But right now, he had more pressing matters. Without a glance, Ewen tossed the dice back.
The dice hit the board. Bai Ou calculated the points, then let out that familiar circus clown-like laugh.
The seawater submerged the board but couldn’t affect the pieces on it one bit. Scarlet slender blood arms rose, like elongated spider legs, as Bai Ou grabbed the deck, the cards rubbing against each other, producing a crisp shuffling sound.
"Doomed!"
Cinderella couldn’t wait for the next round of events. She tore away a handful of black fur and, enveloped by the seawater, slammed into the next carriage. Almost instantly, the seawater completely consumed her.
Ewen could no longer proceed cautiously. He swiftly took off his jacket, diving into the water and quickly swimming forward, moving like a nimble shark.
Bologue had read this part in the drafts; Ewen had spent some time as a sailor and, during a stormy night, beat his captain to death. He jumped into the sea with heaps of cash, not knowing how long he swam before being swept ashore again.
Ewen went to rescue Cinderella, while Bologue turned to draw cards, praying for an event card that could turn the tide, or maybe trying Palmer’s rotten luck for another flush down the toilet wouldn’t be bad.
The idea was good, but reality was harsh. The water level rose rapidly, and Bologue was already floating, his head almost touching the ceiling, with breathing space shrinking further.
Underwater, Bai Ou continued to excitedly fiddle with the deck, waiting for others to draw a card. Bologue took a deep breath, held it, and dove in, exerting all his strength to swim to the table, blindly grabbing a card in the murky, dark water.
Surfacing again, the space left for movement was getting less. Palmer even began to babble nonsense, still holding Hart’s head to prevent him from drowning. But from Hart’s floating state, it seemed it would have been better to let him die swiftly.
Bologue blinked forcefully, trying to see clearly what card he had drawn, but before he could take a closer look, the card in his hand turned into a puff of black smoke and vanished.
"When it rains, it pours!"
Bai Ou screamed with excitement, and immediately a dense hissing sound came from all directions, as if thousands of snakes from the outside were wrapping around the carriage, their hard scales scraping against the metal, and the sharp, high-pitched screeches echoed incessantly in the confined space.
Palmer’s face turned pale, as did everyone else’s. They exchanged glances until Palmer broke the dead silence again.
"Bologue... do you remember the movie we saw a while ago?"
Palmer said, swallowing hard, and Bologue nodded. He remembered that film and even recalled the plot vividly because it was a low-budget horror film with a plot that was nothing but a simple massacre.
Bologue said, "Called... Giant Boa something?"
Palmer nodded numbly, and the next moment, the hissing sound grew louder, followed by one giant boa after another squeezing through the gaps, their silvery bodies writhing wildly in the water.
"What on earth do you guys watch all day!"
Aimou screamed suddenly, brandishing a dagger wildly, slashing open the bodies of the giant boas, their blood mingling with the water, which only stirred the boas’ wild instincts, causing them to swim more vigorously and bite at the others; in an instant, even the water surface seemed to boil.
The resistance of the rapid currents was immense. Even Bologue found it difficult to wield his sharp sword fluidly to kill these boas. He hadn’t expected his luck to be so bad, drawing one malevolent event after another.
"Palmer! Quickly, draw a card!"
Bologue swam with all his might to Palmer’s side. Even over such a short distance, several boas bit into Bologue’s body, leaving bite marks on him.
Human blood mixed with boa blood, both diluted in the torrent, flowing toward the successive carriages.
Bologue reached out to catch Hart, holding him while treading water and trying to stay afloat. As for the boas gnawing at his body, Bologue had no time to worry about them.
Palmer took a deep breath and dived underwater; just as he submerged, Palmer began to regret it. Underwater, groups of boas were piled together like an angry school of fish, surrounding the table, while Bai Ou’s laughter continued to echo faintly underwater, sounding like a heavy drumbeat pounding on his eardrums.
The gradually numbing body dulled Palmer’s senses, a wave of piercing pain surged through him as boas coiled around him, one even wriggling toward his throat.
Palmer randomly pulled off a few boas, their teeth tearing out of his wounds, scraping out fresh marks. Ignoring the bodily pain, Palmer summoned his courage, thrust his hands into the snake swarm, disregarding the blood oozing from his bitten hands, and forcibly parted a path through the boas.
The swarm of snakes biting his body, sharp hisses filled his ears — Palmer had never imagined he’d become part of a movie in such a way.
Stretching his arms with all his might, Palmer reached out and grabbed a card.
"Temporary Respite!"
Bai Ou’s voice clearly reached his ears as the carriage shook violently again. Through the murky seawater, Palmer barely saw the change on the game board as the submerged Dawn began to rise gradually.
Correspondingly, in reality, the inflow of seawater stopped. Laden with who-knows-how-many boas, Palmer struggled to the surface.
"Haha! Lucky Palmer!"
As Palmer exclaimed, Bologue kicked open a window. Most of the Dawn had already surfaced, and as the window swung open, a torrent of seawater, along with the boas, rushed out.
Aimou asked, "Are we saved?"
"I don’t think so."
Bologue shook his head. The water level rapidly dropped, but when it returned to chest height, it ceased lowering, for the ascent of the Dawn had stopped at that moment.
The teasing of the Joyous Desire Witch was far from over, and Bologue could only keep shouting.
"Whose turn is it!"
