Escape the Infinite Chambers-Chapter 70 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (I)
Chapter 70 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (I)
Warning: This chapter may be uncomfortable to those who are claustrophobic, or may trigger claustrophobia problems. Please read with caution!
Editor: Kitty
“I’m so f*cking stupid.”
Luo Jian wanted to laugh at himself. He held the luminous pearl tightly in his hand and used so much strength that he almost crushed it. Luo Jian really thought he was stupid. When he had first found the tunnel behind the painting, Luo Jian should have understood that the painting depicted a woman driven to the brink of desperation, but he just had to foolishly head into this ridiculous tunnel.
How great. Now, he was really being driven to the brink.
“Desperation?” Luo Jian suddenly asked rhetorically. It seemed as if he thought of something, so he lay in the narrow passage for a long time. However, he could not move forward or backward now, so he was at a loss and stared at the luminous pearl in his hands. He was in such a closed-up, narrow tunnel that air could not flow smoothly. The narrower the environment was, the greater the mental pressure it caused.
Therefore, he soon found that his vision was blacking out, and he had difficulty breathing. He realized that if he did not escape from this tunnel, he really might suffocate to death.
Like the corpse in front of him, he would be stuck in the tunnel and rot into a pile of bones.
Luo Jian did not want to become a pile of white bones or die. Therefore, he was facing a dilemma at the moment. He could either stay in this tunnel to wait for his death or retreat and crawl out.
Therefore, Luo Jian retreated. He placed the luminous pearl into his mouth again and began to crawl backwards uneasily. Since there was no way to turn around in such a narrow space, he could only use his butt to lead the way, but he had not even crawled two meters yet when Luo Jian suddenly heard some voices coming from behind. Someone said loudly, “There is a tunnel here!”
After that followed the sounds of indistinct twittering and chattering. Shortly after, Luo Jian seemingly heard someone crawl into the tunnel with a rustling sound and the sound of friction.
“I’ll go in alone!”
Luo Jian softly swore. Just by listening to the noises, he was sure that the enemy was already less than 10 meters away from him. He was 80% sure that the group of enemies had found the tunnel behind the painting, and one of them had already started to crawl in to explore the tunnel. At this point, if Luo Jian continued to retreat, he would meet his death.
But he could neither retreat nor move forward. Luo Jian continuously shed cold sweat. How could he escape from here? Could it be that he would die here?
For a while, Luo Jian found it hard to remain calm. While he was dazedly in a state of panic, he began to feel afraid. He heard the voices of the enemies behind him. He felt like his heart was being cut into a thousand slices. Luo Jian had no choice but to suck in a deep breath and close his eyes. After a while, he opened his eyes.
He began to tell himself, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic.”
“There must be something I haven’t found.”
He did not retreat any longer but continued to crawl ahead. He crawled back to the place where he had found the corpse. The corpse still stuck there. The tunnel was very narrow, and he could only see the legs and feet of the corpse. Without thinking much about it, Luo Jian reached out and grabbed the corpse’s ankles. He tugged at it hard, but he could not move it. The corpse was tightly stuck.
Therefore, Luo Jian pressed on the corpse’s foot again and pushed it forward, but his actions were useless. Moreover, with his pushing and tugging, he had instead pulled out the leg bones of the corpse.
But Luo Jian was not willing to give up, and he was still adamantly saying to himself, “There must be some hidden door and other tunnels in this place.”
Thus, he used his hands to feel all around the narrow tunnel. He checked the rocks and sharp stone edges all around him, but he found nothing. Instead, the enemy behind him was getting closer and closer.
Luo Jian swallowed a mouthful of his saliva, and a bad feeling in his heart started to grow. He stared at the corpse in front of him and thought for a long time. Somehow, inspiration struck, and he suddenly thought of a good idea.
Once Luo Jian came up with the idea, he acted upon it. Once again, he grabbed the leg bones of the corpse and pulled them down using much strength. The corpse was basically a pile of bones, and after he pulled the bones out, with much effort, he forced himself to make some space in the narrow tunnel and placed the bones on a protruding rock behind him.
Following that, starting from the leg bones, Luo Jian took off the bones of the corpse one by one and threw them all behind him until they were piled up into a small mountain of bones. Since the tunnel was very narrow, the pile of bones blocked the tunnel behind Luo Jian. When Luo Jian finally reached the skull, he found that the bone was too big to be stuffed behind him, so he took out his short blade and chopped the bone into tiny bits and pieces.
At last, Luo Jian dragged the clothes on the corpse and casually threw it onto the pile of bones. Just like this, the whole corpse was chopped into pieces by Luo Jian, and the road ahead that was originally blocked by the corpse appeared while the path behind Luo Jian was blocked by the bones.
“When pushed to the brink in any situation, the secret chamber will always leave an unexpected way out for players. As for how to find the way out, one simply has to put aside habitual thinking and observe the situation from another angle.”
This was the advice that Uncle Boss, the newbie mentor, once gave to Luo Jian.
“Fortunately, only the bones were left. If they were not completely rotten, it would be difficult to chop them up.” Luo Jian pressed down his trembling hand, his face carrying an ambiguous smile that was either sarcastic or joyful. Luo Jian continued to hold the luminous pearl in his mouth and began to crawl forward.
“I don’t know if the enemies that were tailing me will think of retreating when they see the pile of bones.” Luo Jian mulled it over as he crawled: “When I saw the corpse previously, I really thought that the road was blocked, and with that narrow tunnel, I felt the oppressive mental pressure as well. Therefore I started to think of retreating, but I’m afraid that the senior who is tailing me will only be temporarily blinded.”
“Therefore, I’m not out of danger yet. I have to crawl out quickly.”
Luo Jian deduced that the corpse might have been a little fat before he died because when he crawled through the tunnel where the corpse was stuck, he felt the space was extremely narrow. His head could pass through, but his shoulder was stuck. He was so badly stuck that the skin and flesh on his shoulders had torn, but he still could not pass through. Luo Jian was a little anxious. He took his knife out and used it to grind at the rocks. At last, he managed to slightly chip off a piece of stone to successfully allow the upper part of his body to pass through.
Men’s bodies are broad shouldered. Since his shoulders had passed through, there would not be a problem for the lower part of his body. While Luo Jian was wriggling around to push his body forward, he suddenly heard a voice coming from somewhere nearby behind him.
“Damn it, there’s a pile of bones here.” It was a man’s voice, but it was not the voice of the vampire captain or the woman that Luo Jian had heard before. Aside from hearing that voice, it seemed that there was also the sound of something like a walkie talkie since he heard a tittering signal sound.
The enemy, who was nearly five meters away from Luo Jian, made him so scared that he almost swallowed the luminous pearl in his mouth. Up until now, Luo Jian was focused on chopping the bones to block the tunnel that he had ignored the rustling sound that grew increasingly closer. Unknowingly, the enemy was already close at hand.
He had to move faster!
Luo Jian could not continue to deliberate any longer. He immediately crawled forward. While crawling, he also paid attention to the enemy’s situation behind him. The enemy was blocked by the bones and was using wireless communication to talk to his teammates. Since the enemy was very close to him, the echoing sound was very loud. Luo Jian could hear every word clearly.
“Keep crawling ahead.” It was the voice of that woman.
“I said that there is a pile of bones here. There is no way ahead.”
But the woman insisted, “I said, keep crawling ahead!”
“How can I crawl ahead? This tunnel is too narrow. My body is squeezed so tightly by the surrounding rocks that there isn’t even a gap. I can’t crawl through this pile of bones!” Obviously, the enemy behind Luo Jian was a little angry and began to argue with his teammates.
The woman on the opposite side of the wireless communication device sneered, “Then you should smash the bones and grind them to pieces so that you can squeeze through!”
“Tsk.” Obviously, the enemy was very irritated, but he did not dare to disobey the woman’s order. After turning off the device, Luo Jian heard the man talking to himself, saying, “Wait until that damn b*tch falls into my hands. I’ll definitely f*ck her to death!”
As soon as he was done speaking, he began to pick at the bones like Luo Jian had done previously. In such a narrow place, the enemy did not seem to have any large weapons. As Luo Jian crawled forward, he suddenly found that the tunnel became brighter. Although he could not turn his head around in the narrow tunnel, he could see the reflections caused by the fire light, and he immediately understood! The enemy was burning the bones!
Certainly, burning the bones would be the fastest way to turn the pile of bones into a heap of powder. In this narrow tunnel, only the corpse was flammable, and since the surroundings were rocks, the enemy did not have to worry about the fire spreading.
Luo Jian felt more anxious now. Although the other party may not see Luo Jian for a while due to the fire between them, the distance between them was not far. After the fire was extinguished, the other party would be able to directly charge towards Luo Jian. Moreover, in this environment, it was difficult for Luo Jian to make a counterattack—he could not even turn his head and look towards his rear!
He could only move on.
Luo Jian had to continue crawling, and after moving through the narrowest part of the tunnel, he found that the surrounding passage seemed to become wider and wider. It was not as narrow as before, but Luo Jian soon crawled to the end. This time, it was not a body that blocked Luo Jian’s way but a real rock wall. However, after observing his surroundings, Luo Jian soon found there was actually another passageway above his head.
Luo Jian arduously managed to flip his body around. Although the tunnel had become a little wider, his movements were still heavily restricted. After he turned over, he held onto the passageway above his head with his hands and moved his body up a little bit. Then, he sat up slowly and continued to head up. Because the passageway above him was straight, Luo Jian could stand up instead of crawling in the narrow tunnel.
After that, he placed his hands and feet against the rock walls of the passageway and began to move up bit by bit. The vertical passageway was wider than the tunnel he had passed through previously. Although it was harder to crawl in it, at least Luo Jian felt it was less suffocating. Luo Jian could even lower his head to look downwards. If he could still see light due to the fire, it meant that the enemy had yet to finish burning the bones.
However, after crawling for a small distance, Luo Jian suddenly paused. He raised his head and looked at the upper part of the vertical passageway. It was also pitch-black, and no one knew where it led to. After that, Luo Jian lowered his head again and looked at the faint firelight coming from the passageway below him.
The firelight illuminated Luo Jian’s face and the slightly ferocious expression on it.
Although it might be a little troublesome for him to move at this angle, the other party certainly could not move freely. Also, it seemed that there was only one enemy, so the probability of success was extremely high.
