Escape the Infinite Chambers-Chapter 72 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (III)
Chapter 72 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (III)
Editor: Kitty
Luo Jian had made a fatal and low-level mistake, but it was also a mistake that every novice could make. Other than those natural-born, cold-blooded perverts and inhuman lunatics, every newbie would have a moment of hesitation when trying to kill a person who was truly alive, who was perfectly fine and of the same kind. This was exactly the most fatal mistake one could make in a battle.
The fear you would feel when you killed was the same fear the victim would possess when you killed them. This feeling would change you from an ordinary person to a murderer. It also meant that from this moment on, your outlooks on life and the world as well as your values had been completely refreshed, and you could never have that naive and optimistic attitude you once held again. All of this reminded him of a saying that Duan Li once said: A murderer should be aware that he could be killed at any time.
How much one could understand from that determined how long they could walk on that road.
Luo Jian clearly did not understand that, so he made this fatal mistake. When he was stabbing his blade forward, he unexpectedly reduced some of the strength he used. The enemy’s reaction was very fast, and his head was slightly drawn back. Therefore, Luo Jian’s knife only managed to make a shallow cut on the other’s neck, and this little amount of blood drawn was not a fatal blow.
At this moment, Luo Jian felt the unspeakable fear. He missed the best opportunity to strike the deadliest blow possible to the enemy. It was only because he still held a ridiculous sense of justice in his heart that he pulled away his weapon at the last second. However, he also knew clearly that in the terrifying secret chamber where people would eat you alive and not even spit out your bones, mercy and kindness would only cause him to die faster.
Luo Jian felt somewhat regretful. Inwardly, his feelings were a mess, but he could not stop his movements at this moment. The blade in his hand turned to attack the enemy again, but this time, the enemy had already calmed down from the panic he’d felt when he was first attacked. Even if he could not move while sitting, he could still resist Luo Jian’s attack very well. His scalpel and Luo Jian’s short knife were locked in a stalemate. At that instant, neither of them could overpower the other.
The faint light from the flashlight, even if it was weak, was enough to illuminate their faces. Luo Jian stared at Clown’s face, which was painted with strange makeup, at close range, but he did not have any idle time to be surprised. He was above Clown’s head at the moment. His legs were against the wall and his hands were holding the knife, but almost all his strength and weight were on his own knife.
But the enemy seemed calm and composed. He held a scalpel with his right hand and resisted all of Luo Jian’s strength. At the moment, Clown suddenly gave him a wry smile, stretched out his other hand, and touched Luo Jian’s neck.
Clown’s fingers were cold, and his fingernails were sharp. Luo Jian felt a little prickly pain on his neck, and goose bumps rose on his back. He could not tell whether he was flustered or frightened, but he could hardly speak at that moment.
No secret chamber that Luo Jian had experienced before could compare to what he was experiencing now. He was both calm and scared, and the two complex emotions were intertwined, causing even his heart to tremble. He was calm because he knew that the gap between himself and his opponent was so big that the opponent could resist Luo Jian’s full strength with one hand. Therefore, Luo Jian knew that the person who appeared in front of him was a real senior, a master who had been thoroughly tempered by the abyss, and was a terrible existence that Luo Jian could not resist now.
Therefore, Luo Jian felt fear. The god of death was creeping closer to him. He had not even felt so scared when he was attacked by Xing Yan in the secret chamber for the first time! Therefore, Luo Jian regretted that he had bitten more than he could chew when he decided to deal with such an enemy. And even more so, he regretted that he had missed the only chance to kill the enemy.
“You just missed the best opportunity.” But Clown suddenly spoke with a ferocious smile on his face, making the strange clown makeup on his face appear extremely ugly: “If you were not soft-hearted moments ago and did not hesitate, with the fastest and most ruthless means, your strength could have definitely cut off my head in one stroke. No matter how skilled I am, I cannot stop when death arrives.”
Luo Jian could not speak. He had nothing to say to rebuke him. He did not have the strength to turn the tables around from his defeat.
“You’re probably still a rookie since you hesitated to deal with the enemy. I’ve only seen it in those lamentable and compassionate newcomers.” Clown seemed to have some doubts: “But it’s strange. Since when was the team battle so easy for newcomers to join? And your strength is still quite weak.”
After Clown said that, it seemed that he intended to intimidate Luo Jian. Clown put his hand on Luo Jian’s neck, and a scalpel appeared out of nowhere. The cold blade rubbed against Luo Jian’s skin, but it did not cause any harm to him.
“Do you know this? The human carotid is here…… it ends here.” Clown used the back of the scalpel to press somewhere on Luo Jian’s neck and smiled: “If I cut into the artery quickly, you will be like a big fountain; the blood will spurt out to a height of more than five meters, and in less than a minute you will die of massive blood loss.”
“Stop the bullshit. Either kill me or wait for me to kill you,” Luo Jian suddenly said in a low voice.
He suddenly felt that he was no longer so afraid. It was as if his fear had reached the maximum level possible and conversely dissipated. Luo Jian thought that since he had failed, he had to bear the consequences of failure. Even if that was what he feared most, he had to bear it.
Clown did not seem to be in a hurry to do anything to Luo Jian. He just sneered at him, “You, keep climbing.”
What he said surprised Luo Jian a little. He uncertainly looked at Clown.
“If you die here, your corpse will get in the way. It’s troublesome.” Clown did not want to burn another corpse. The fire would exhaust the little oxygen that remained in this tunnel and always attracted other people’s attention. In this narrow environment, Clown did not want to be a sitting duck. His conversation with the woman just now proved that his team members could not provide support to him from the rear.
Since Clown could not retreat, he could only move forward. It was not convenient for Clown to kill Luo Jian now. In such a narrow place, he could not move the body at all. And coincidentally, Clown’s carry-on secret chamber was in the hands of his team members, so he could not temporarily move the corpse elsewhere.
Therefore, with the idea of moving forward, Clown decided to climb out from the tunnel first and instructed Luo Jian to climb up before him, treating him as cannon fodder. Luo Jian just looked at Clown and did not raise any objections. He put away his weapons and began to climb up. This completely straight and vertical tunnel was very difficult to climb up. Luo Jian stuck his body against the walls and slowly climbed up. Clown stayed a little distance below Luo Jian as he followed Luo Jian at neither a fast nor slow pace.
Just now, the two people who attempted to kill each other began to act together for their own interests, so the atmosphere between them was heavy and terribly silent. Except for Clown’s commands, which were given from time to time, they did not converse, and Luo Jian did not speak a single word.
The vertical tunnel was very long, but in this strange silence, the two quickly climbed to the top. Luo Jian found a hidden door over his head with the familiar rotating array formation mechanism. When Luo Jian touched the mechanism, something within him stirred, and he subconsciously glanced beneath him to take a look at Clown.
Clown also paid close attention to Luo Jian’s actions. When he stopped, Clown asked, “Why are you not climbing?”
“We’ve reached the top,” Luo Jian said, “There is a hidden door…… Should I open it…….?”
“Don’t move! If you move, I’ll blow your head off!” Clown suddenly raised his voice and spoke sharply. He was really not bluffing. Clown could use the scalpel as a concealed weapon like Xiao Li's flying knife, and his knives could also be infinitely recycled and used. In theory, he could constantly throw infinite knives and instantly use the throwing knives to poke Luo Jian’s head into a sieve.
After hearing this, Luo Jian stopped moving and stayed still. Clown opened his mouth and bit a scalpel. Then, he first took a flashlight to shine on Luo Jian. There was a hidden door over his head that was just the right size for one person to pass through.
Clown climbed a little further up and slowly approached Luo Jian’s body. The two people, one located higher up and one lower down, were locked in a stalemate. Luo Jian did not move but looked at the array mechanism of the hidden door he found. He suddenly pulled out a cold smile.
How high was this almost-vertical tunnel? Luo Jian was very clear on that since he had climbed up all the way. It was about 20 meters, which was about six or seven stories high. It was a very dangerous height. If he fell straight down, even if he did not end up dead, he would end up crippled.
“You better not come up with any stupid ideas. Even if you want to kick me down at such a height, I will immediately cut your throat with a flying knife.” Clown seemed to see through Luo Jian’s idea immediately and began to threaten him with the use of force.
“It sounds like you are quite skilled.” It was unknown whether Luo Jian was being sarcastic or not, but his tone did not carry any hint of goodwill.
“I’m a surgeon.” Clown propped himself up against one wall with his left leg and another with his right. He remained upright as he did a split so that he could use both hands to hold his knives.
“I know every weakness of the human body. As long as my scalpel is in my hand, I can tear a big, living man into pieces within seconds.”
“Is that so? How incredible,” Luo Jian suddenly laughed. He suddenly made a bold and unusual move; he threw out his luminous pearl. Since the luminous pearl shone in the dark, Clown was immediately attracted to that light, and at this moment, Luo Jian suddenly relaxed. He no longer forced his tired muscles to continue to prop himself between the walls. Instead, he relaxed his body and allowed himself to fall freely!
At the same time as he fell, Luo Jian took out his knife and stabbed Clown directly. This time, Luo Jian was no longer afraid, no longer fearful. Death could not shake his determination and firm understanding. He had once felt confused and helpless because of this terrible secret chamber, which forced him to proceed without knowing his destination.
His will and his thoughts had once wavered. He could not locate the meaning of his existence because the secret chamber was so terrifying that fear once occupied the entirety of him……
But at this moment, Luo Jian was no longer at a loss.
If Luo Jian did not take the initiative, then he would always have to remain where he was currently. What could he do here? Wait for someone to help him? Act like he did previously and hope for the stalker who had been chasing him around to appear at this critical moment?
He had been too naïve.
“What a fool!” Clown also noticed Luo Jian’s suicidal way of attacking and raised the scalpel with a sneer. Luo Jian was a rookie who had overreached. As a surgeon, Clown was very good at dissection, and this skill of his was also recognized by the secret chamber! This skill allowed Clown to instantly tear others apart, limb from limb, and from the internal organs to the bones, he could cut them all into equal sizes.
But the side effects of this skill were grievous. Generally, Clown did not really want to use it. He had originally wanted to give Luo Jian an easier way of death after climbing out, but since the other was in a hurry to seek death, no one else was to blame.
It was just that there was a lead time to use any skill. Clown must first resist Luo Jian’s attack, and after that, he would then be able to use the skill. Therefore, Clown wanted to block Luo Jian’s knife first. To be honest, Clown always thought that the rookie’s weapon was a little strange. Although it looked like an ordinary short knife, it carried a very strange aura on it.
However, there was no time for Clown to think so much. When he wanted to swing his scalpel to resist Luo Jian, he found out something terrible in the next second. He found that…… Luo Jian did not have a knife in his hand! Neither of his hands were holding a knife! Was it possible that he did not use his weapons to attack him at all?
Luo Jian really was attacking him in a suicidal way. When Clown swung his scalpel to fight back, Luo Jian directly reached out his left hand and grabbed Clown’s blade with his bare hand. The sharp knife directly penetrated his left hand and cut through Luo Jian’s palm and the back of his hand. Luo Jian simply grasped Clown’s right hand with this left hand!
At this time, Luo Jian had almost entirely plastered himself on Clown’s body. Clown had to bear the weight of two people by himself, so his legs and feet, which were stuck against the wall, were sliding. The sense of falling made Clown panic! His right hand had been seized by Luo Jian, and he subconsciously stabbed the scalpel in his left hand into the wall as he tried to stop himself from falling, but at the same time, Luo Jian also extended his right hand.
His right hand was clearly empty, but the shape of it seemed like he was holding something. His hand swung directly toward Clown’s neck at a speed that Clown almost could not respond to in time.
“You taught me this. Cut the carotid,” Luo Jian suddenly uttered in a low voice.
“F*ck me!” Clown also had a sense of what was going to happen. He decided to simply not stop himself from falling. He loosened his legs and hands, and since he was still an extraordinary senior player, he did not fret when he fell into such a predicament. He sent a scalpel flying out at a rapid speed, and since there was no time to use any skills, at this moment, only the simplest and the most direct way could achieve his intended purpose in the most effective manner.
Therefore, when Luo Jian tried to cut Clown’s throat, Clown also carried out the same movement! They were competing to see who would be faster than the other.
In the deep tunnel, the two figures fell down at a crazy speed as their shadows overlapped. They held no hatred against one another but had to carry on battling; only in death could they rest.
