Mist (Web Novel CN)-Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Ouroboros

Chapter 20

Ji Yushi had read a brief introduction to the base in the book <Golden Crow No. 1: Propagation> and he also saw a plan for the next stage of Golden Crow No. 2.

“The network here is closed, making it difficult to locate the base directly but we can still find it.” Ji Yushi said, “The base was built to be very large. It is of a hemispherical shape and the two bases are mirror images of each other.”

Song Qinglan thought for a while, “Does it look like an inverted bowl?”

Ji Yushi said yes.

Song Qinglan, “When you were checking the books at the bookstore, Duan Wen from Team 3 and I saw a place like that through the drone but I’m just not sure if it’s Golden Crow No.1 or Golden Crow No.2.”

As he said that, Song Qinglan made Duan Wen fly the drone out again to confirm.

The spacecar started moving.

From the back of the bookstore, they left the small hillside that they had been using as a temporary base.

From the distance, there were many buildings and lush greenery. Even the zombies wandering around aimlessly looked like ordinary humans, giving them a sense of what this world probably looked like if the mutations never occurred.

At this moment, the Team 2 from the second cycle was still searching for information in the bookstore and forming a plan.

They were completely unaware that in a little more than two hours, they would be chased by the black wall’s sudden appearance, fail to escape using an old off-road car, and be completely annihilated by the black wall that obscured a large part of the sky.

As for the memory of escaping from the bookstore during the second cycle, all the teammates had no memory of it with the exception of Zhou Mingxuan who was still alive at the time.

Giving Tang Qi control of the spacecar, Zhou Mingxuan who possessed some vague memories felt very complicated inside.

“Advisor Ji, is it quite uncomfortable remembering all the bad memories?”

Zhou Mingxuan also sat on the floor and leaned against the car wall.

Like Song Qinglan, many people have heard about Ji Yushi’s hyperthymesia, but they had never taken it seriously until now.

Zhou Mingxuan moved his hand to rub the short hairs on the back of his head, “In fact, I haven’t been able to adjust too well. It feels like a nightmare and different point-of-views would appear from time to time. It’s a little hard telling what’s real.”

When the car hit the wire fence, Zhou Mingxuan who was in the driver’s seat had directly died from a broken cervical spine.

What do people think of the moment before their death?

Zhou Mingxuan unfortunately could answer this question.

Ji Yushi quietly looked at him.

The white T-shirt in combination with his small face made him look frail.

Zhou Mingxuan looked in Song Qinglan’s direction and said with embarrassment, “I’m definitely not as good as Cap Song but since Advisor Ji you can also do it, I want to ask you how I can adjust to this.”

This time Zhou Mingxuan was ready to risk it all.

When Ji Yushi first joined the squad, he had looked down on him. Right now, he had slapped his own face several times.

Fortunately, Ji Yushi didn’t put on airs and answered, “Distract yourself.”

Zhou Mingxuan was puzzled.

Ji Yushi said to him, “Find something that makes you concentrate and soon you won’t have the extra energy to think about the things you don’t want to think about.”

Zhou Mingxuan, “For example?”

Ji Yushi answered seriously, “For example, joining a new team and going to another world to fight against monsters together.”

Duan Wen found the drone and set its position over that giant dome shaped building.

Song Qinglan said, “We have a spacecar. We should arrive before the people of Team B.”

At that time it was the other Duan Wen who had discovered the base with him and now, that Duan Wen had joined Team B so Team B would most definitely go there too.

The spacecar rolled over a few zombies, spattering blood across the ground.

This road was outside of the main city so there weren’t many zombies, but the road conditions were very bad.

About the time the catastrophe happened, many people probably thought of leaving the city. With many damaged and abandoned cars on the road, the spacecar couldn’t move too quickly.

“If it is determined that it is not Golden Crow No.2, we will need to move to the next base.” Song Qinglan planned, “They have fewer people and lack equipment so we should leave some behind for them.”

At some unknown point in time, Team A had become the most complete team and the one that is better equipped.

Except for Ji Yushi’s injuries, they were more prepared than when they first arrived in this world.

Duan Wen asked, “Cap Song, do you need to contact them to explain? We are now outside the communication range of Team 2 so we shouldn’t be afraid of causing a paradox.”

Song Qinglan considered it.

Contacting Team B probably wouldn’t cause any paradoxes since they were after all from parallel timelines that had generated at the same time and there was no causal relationship between them.

Furthermore, in addition to leaving equipment for Team B, Team B may also be able to give them something —- For example, Ji Yushi’s medicine.

When they were hijacked by the dark-skinned man, their communicators, equipment as well as Ji Yushi’s medicine were all thrown out.

In addition to that, Song Qinglan also remembered the game console that was broken by the dark-skinned man. With Ji Yushi being so vengeful, he had pinned that dark-skinned man’s hand to the car with a fierce expression the moment he broke free. Recalling it now, Song Qinglan even felt that he was rather handsome.

But what he didn’t expect was that Ji Yushi would even bring the game console along to his mission. The scene of the other party skilfully handling the Tetris blocks with his head bowed during class had left a deep impression on him.

Pretty deeply addicted.

Perhaps the game console was gifted by someone important.

Song Qinglan looked back. Ji Yushi was still sitting on a box of equipment like earlier with his back against the car wall and his eyes closed. It was unknown if he had fallen asleep due to fatigue or if he was tired from the pain.

Zhou Mingxuan sat next to him. It was unknown what he was thinking but he seemed to be afraid of Ji Yushi falling over after falling asleep and reopening his wound.

The other teammates were also afraid of disturbing Ji Yushi so they all tacitly kept quiet.

This was already a brand new Tianqiong seventh squad.

The corners of Song Qinglan’s lips bent down. He said in a low voice, “Wait first. We can talk about it later when we need to contact them.”

*

The spacecar drove with great difficulty through the obstructed roads for almost an hour. Passing road signs, Song Qinglan was able to confirm that the place they had found was the Golden Crow No.1 base.

They drove through the main gates. The large spacecar looked very small in comparison to the giant circular building.

The scorching sun was high up in the sky at noon.

All their shadows were under their feet.

The metal surface of the building reflected the dazzling sunlight.

Ji Yushi had already opened his eyes. He supported up himself using the wall of the car and took in the scene from the front of the spacecar.

A five-metre-high wire fence surrounded the entire base. There was no greenery around, and the ground was bare. There were many zombies wearing white coats walking around aimlessly on the empty field.

Hearing the sound of the car, the zombies frantically rushed to the wire fence but were immediately shocked by high voltage electricity. The air was filled with the terrible smell of burnt flesh as well as the smell of a wasteland one would often see in science fiction films. It reminded people of the cause of this world’s disaster as well as the world’s source of light— The artificial sun.

The security equipment at the entrance of the base was still in operation. As soon as the spacecar approached, a warning was issued, “Dangerous zone. Please leave immediately.”

The group divided up the equipment. Tang Qi and Zhou Mingxuan were responsible for carrying them off the car and placing it in the nearby security room.

Song Qinglan walked ahead opening the way for them. At this moment, he heard a small noise from above his head.

He looked up and saw a bee-sized drone circle around him.

In the car, Duan Wen also saw it and couldn’t help but laugh and curse, “Fuck, this is controlled by the other me?”

Li Chun next to him grinned and urged him, “Brother Wen, hurry and say hello to your twin brother!”

Duan Wen: “Hey, it really does feel like I have a twin brother. If it were me, I would’ve also sent a drone to follow us. It’s tacit understanding!”

Tang Le stared at his brother’s back and said meaningfully, “When your older brother wants to beat you up for no reason, you won’t like this kind of tacit understanding.”

Just now in the car, Tang Qi and Cap Song had exchanged a few words before his expression turned ugly. He then came over and started to beat him up, “You sure have strong curiosity, huh? No discipline at all?!”

Tang Le was confused, “What did I do?!”

Tang Qi said as he hit him, “Next time you see a dog with two tails or a cat with three tails, don’t fucking chase after them! You understand?!”

“What dog and cat?!” Tang Le was furious, “Stop finding excuses. You’re just in a bad mood and want to vent by hitting your younger brother!”

At this moment, Ji Yushi who heard Tang Le complain said, “You’re right.”

Tang Le was happy to have someone who understood him, “Advisor Ji, you also have an older brother?!”

Ji Yushi said lightly, “Yes, but I’m the one beating him.”

Tang Le: “……”

The drone hovered around until the three of them entered the security room before leaving. It is presumed that the distance between Team B and them wasn’t too far. They were at most half an hour away.

But soon, everyone saw the three of them come back out. They didn’t place the equipment down and just stood there saying something with a strange expression.

Even Song Qinglan’s expression wasn’t very good.

When everyone in the car saw this, they all got out the back door to check on the situation.

On the wasteland not far away, more than a dozen zombies were running towards the entrance of the base.

Gunfire sounded.

Brains exploded, and the zombies fell to the ground.

Ji Yushi had also used Diamond Bird to kill a few, causing the wound on his abdomen to be reopened. When he reached the security room, his forehead was sweaty, “What’s the matter?”

They originally planned to leave the equipment and go.

Ji Yushi had a bad feeling. He had always been very keen in this sense.

Ji Yushi stood in place while Tang Le and the others had already hurried into the room. When they came out again, their faces were all pale.

Song Qinglan had already pulled himself back together in a very short period of time.

Under this heavy atmosphere, he even spoke with a relaxed tone, “Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?”

“Bad news.” Ji Yushi almost didn’t hesitate.

Under the scorching sun, his brows were wet from sweat, making him look fierce.

“The bad news is that for some reason we once again died.” Song Qinglan looked at them and spoke, “The good news is that the future us seems to be a little smarter and have left a message.”

It turned out that clues had been left in the security room of Golden Crow No.1.

A knife was used to engrave the following words onto the ground, “Turn off energy supply of the two bases.”

Signed below was: Team 5.

From the writing, it was left by Song Qinglan himself.

Team 5 had experienced everything they had and once the cycle restarted at the park, they didn’t waste time and rushed straight to their destination.

Then, as Song Qinglan said before, they continued advancing. Even if they failed, they left clues behind for next time.

But no one could be happy hearing this.

Because every time the cycle restarted, it was due to the entire squad in the cycle before that being annihilated.

The so-called death elimination was indeed just as Ji Yushi had said. It was to ensure that the mission could be completed even if there was only one person left.

The emergence of Team 5 meant that whether it was the current Team 3 or the Team 4 from a parallel timeline, they would all die in this cycle, and thus Team 5 was born.

They had clearly just regrouped and pumped themselves up to do everything they could to clear the mission, but this clue was equivalent to leaving them with a death sentence, reminding them they were going to die soon.

In this foreign world established by the time anchor, they felt like fish caught in a net, unable to escape their predetermined fate.

Ji Yushi was shocked. His pupils gradually constricted.

Team 5.

Turn off energy supply of the two bases.

That black wall…..

Suddenly, a slight smile appeared on Ji Yushi’s pale face. When he raised his head again, his eyes were bright, “I know how to clear it!”

Everyone: “???”

Although Song Qinglan didn’t know what Ji Yushi thought of, a smile also appeared on his face.

He looked at Ji Yushi and asked, “Advisor Ji, is there a prize for guessing right?”