Ouroboros
Chapter 13
As an artificial colony, the bookstore in PU-31 had a vast assortment of books. Books covering anything and everything and catering for all ages and preferences were available and there were also old and new books. It was obvious that they had been procured from different places.
This time and space they were in was far more accepting of parallel worlds than the one they came from. Judging from the number, there were likely more than one place similar to PU-31. Ji Yushi however found that there weren’t many books covering this matter in this bookstore. The book found earlier called <Mini World: PU-31> was noticed mainly because it had a conspicuous name. It showed that the people here didn’t find something like that novel that important —- Of course, it didn’t rule out the possibility that all the knowledge was stored in the cloud or in the online library.
But fortunately, there were some gains.
As Ji Yushi walked around and looked, Song Qinglan helped take down the books he needed.
Ji Yushi wasn’t someone particularly arrogant and he didn’t deliberately use the bruises on his wrist to take advantage of him. He only just pointed it out earlier and along the way forgave him.
With him holding grudges so easily, it’s a wonder how he can find a boyfriend.
Song Qinglan took in Ji Yushi’s side profile. From his angle, he could see Ji Yushi’s focused expression. Those eyelashes of his were like tiny fans.
Probably because he looks good.
Even if they have different sexual orientations, their aesthetics should be similar to what they see in women.
After a while, both returned with a tall stack of books.
“Hurry up.” Song Qinglan threw the books onto the floor, “Pick out the useful information.”
“I know.” Ji Yushi responded without looking up.
With the sun high up in the sky outside, the lighting was particularly good.
The sun shone into the bookstore, casting a golden glow, but no one appreciated its brilliance.
Far in the distance was the dormant black wall.
Up close were the zombies pressed up against the glass windows, letting out growls as they scratched at it.
“Splat.” A zombie was squeezed against the window so hard, its turbid eyeball exploded onto the glass, leaving filthy gore trailing down.
Song Qinglan could bear with it well but even he found it somewhat disgusting.
When he turned around, he saw the other three looking at the two of them with intriguing expressions, as if they were wondering what happened after they went out to scout out the area.
Song Qinglan narrowed his dark eyes. Seeing this, the three of them immediately rushed over and divided the books between them.
“I’ll also look!”
“Here, here, here. Come help out.”
“Look for place names, people and anything related to darkness!”
The moment Zhou Mingxuan opened a book and saw the words inside, he immediately felt dizzy. He then stood up with his gun, “Um so, someone should be on lookout. I’ll watch over the situation from the second floor.”
Li Chun: “Old Zhou put that down. Let me go!”
Tang Le pulled Li Chun back. He wasn’t in the mood for the tricks and his expression was stern, “Search around properly, in case you find something useful.”
Li Chun obediently sat down.
Song Qinglan thought for a while about the matters they had discussed earlier.
He went back to the counter of the bookstore and found the bookstore’s communicator he had overlooked earlier.
If their speculations were in the right direction, then the Tianqiong system of this era doesn’t have a command centre and even needs to hijack Guardians from another time and space for help. Was the Tianqiong system controlling the mission itself?
Song Qinglan couldn’t reach a conclusion.
This communicator was also the same kind as the one from the park management office. On the screen were the same information.
[Welcome Guardians from Star Era 1456. Welcome to PU-31.]
[The transfer this time has been locked in. Unlocked after mission is successful.]
[Mission mode: Ouroboros.]
[Mission rule: Death elimination]
[Mission objective: Chaser of darkness.]
There was no internet. It meant that the information was sent one-sidedly.
An idea flashed through Song Qinglan’s mind but at this moment he happened to spot a small rectangular medicine box through the corner of his vision.
He bent over and picked it up. The box was completely blank, with no symbols or markings on it.
It was Ji Yushi’s.
Hyperthymesia……
Song Qinglan glanced at the teammates sitting in the centre of the bookstore.
Among the three, the only one who didn’t look strange in the bookstore environment was Ji Yushi.
Ji Yushi naturally wouldn’t forget about this medicine box. He was just busy looking for clues and had temporarily put that matter aside. Song Qinglan stored the box in his pocket, not wanting to disrupt the other party’s focus.
Unfortunately, there was no information about ‘chaser of darkness’ or the ‘black wall’.
Ji Yushi however found a number of artificial cultivation projects implemented on PU-31, including but not limited to artificial soil, artificial water sources etc. He picked up a book, “<The History of PU Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor Project>? Is this related to development of sustainable energy?”
“Huh?” Li Chun’s expression was blank.
“It’s about energy.” Ji Yushi explained, “It mainly uses deuterium and tritium in controlled settings to carry out nuclear fusion to release energy which can then be used to generate electricity and heat.”
Everyone: “………”
Ji Yushi: “In other words, the energy for this place may perhaps come from this source. We are also researching into this field in our era, but it hasn’t developed to this extent yet.”
This had no association to what they are looking for.
And so, Ji Yushi placed the book back down.
After the serious atmosphere was interrupted by this conversation, Song Qinglan picked up a half-full bottle of water from the shelf and wanted to give it to Ji Yushi along with the box of medicine.
The area under Ji Yushi’s eyes were a little blue, “No need, thanks.”
The bitter taste of the beans were clearly still there but he wasn’t willing to touch that bottle of water again.
Song Qinglan understood. This person also has a bit of mysophobia.
At this moment, Ji Yushi’s eyes fell outside the window and the expression on his face froze.
Everyone followed his line of sight.
They saw another wave of zombies gathered outside the windows of the bookstore, stacking up layer by layer.
In the last row, there was a tall zombie.
He wore a black combat uniform and there was a large bloody wound on his neck, exposing the arteries and veins inside. His eyes were grey and turbid, and his face was identical to that of Tang Le’s.
“Brother!!!”
Tang Le’s eyes turned red. He shouted this loudly as he got up and hurried over.
Everyone was shocked. The convenience store was at least twenty or so kilometres away. He couldn’t imagine how Tang Qi could suddenly appear here.
Through the layer of glass.
Tang Le’s tears flowed endlessly. On the other end, Tang Qi numbly opened his mouth, exposing his rotten gums. Facing a living human, he was so excited, he wanted to tear him apart immediately.
“Grrrr! Grrrr!”
The zombies started moving.
The originally brightly lit room suddenly darkened and almost at the same time, Zhou Mingxuan’s frustrated voice sounded, “Hurry! The black wall is here!!!”
Everyone’s heart immediately sank.
Zhou Mingxuan had already rushed downstairs, “It can be seen very clearly from the second floor! I was fucking watching it the entire time and it happened almost instantly! And the speed is still increasing!!”
Everyone looked back. The black wall that was originally in the distance had appeared close to them in a blink of an eye.
It had silently reached about four or five kilometres away from the bookstore in an instant and it was currently engulfing the city at an unimaginable speed that was visible to the naked eye!
The black wall covered the sky like a cosmic black hole. Everything it came in contact with was submerged in darkness, disappearing completely. What was even more terrifying was that the large number of zombies in front of the black wall seemed to be deathly afraid of this dark force. This dense crowd of zombies gathered together, rushing towards the light. One could almost see the dust scattering behind them!
Tang Le was still standing in front of the windows.
Zhou Mingxuan yelled loudly, “Fuck!! Hurry and go!”
Tang Le seemed to be jolted awake by this. The two of them fired with their guns, sending zombie blood and flesh flying outside the bookstore.
The car was stopped outside the bookstore. Song Qinglan strode out with Shen Mian, “Everyone get in the car! Li Chun! Stop fucking picking it up!”
Cans of beans rolled around by Li Chun’s feet.
Gunfire continued nonstop. “Grrrr—– Grr—-.” The zombies nearby were attracted by this sound and similarly rushed over.
“In the car!!!”
“Hurry, hurry!”
The light inside the bookstore darkened further.
With a dull rumble, the tide of zombies chased by the black wall headed in their direction.
As parts of the zombie tide was swallowed up, new zombies joined in. The rumbling sound was like thunder, it announced the imminent end of the world.
At this critical moment, as if he was being guided, Ji Yushi caught sight of a book by the door that had been knocked down during the panic. Song Qinglan however had already grabbed his shoulder.
He immediately turned his head back and was met with never seen before ferocity in Song Qinglan’s eyes, “Go!!”
Following Song Qinglan out the bookstore, Ji Yushi raised his gun to kill a zombie and followed the bloody path opened up by his teammates ahead.
“Bang, bang, bang, bang!!!”
In the rapidly darkening environment, the sparks from the gunfire were bright. The sky split open in an instant and the darkness was overwhelming.
The zombie tide had come.
“Ahhh!!!”
A scream from an unknown source sounded in the darkness. With the zombies gathered, nothing could be seen.
The car was blocked by the zombie tide. At the very last second, Tang Le killed the zombie stuck between the car door and slammed the door shut. “Grrrrr.” The engine started and the car barely managed to escape out with its remaining energy.
The zombies in front were knocked flying, leaving remnants of rotten blood and flesh behind. The windscreen wiper could barely move. Zhou Mingxuan could only rely in his instincts to navigate out onto the main road.
Darkness chased them from behind, swallowing up the zombies scattered around in the process.
“Grrr—-”
In the back seat, Li Chun opened his mouth and made an attempt to bite.
In just a few short seconds, a piece of flesh was missing from his face. His skin was covered with blue-green blood vessels and his eyes had turned completely grey and turbid. He had mutated!
Zhou Mingxuan saw this through the rear-view mirror and almost lost control of the car. Ji Yushi almost fell onto Li Chun in the process.
Tang Le’s voice cracked, “Chun’er!”
The two held Li Chun down. Their teammate’s voice and smile was still in front of them but he had already become an unrecognisable monster. How could Tang Le kill him?!
The Diamond Bird in Ji Yushi’s hands was shaking uncontrollably. He could only hear Song Qinglan yell from the front, “Do it!”
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Bang!”
The back seat was quiet again. No one moved to check on Li Chun in the dark.
The car had rushed a hundred metres ahead in a blink of an eye. Suddenly, there was a loud noise. With a ‘boom’, the car had rammed into a wire fence, shattering the windshield in the process. The car rolled across the ground for several metres before finally coming to a complete stop.
The ears of everyone inside the car were still ringing.
Zhou Mingxuan’s head drooped. His neck was bent at an incredibly awkward angle.
“Get out of the car!” Song Qinglan’s voice carried some pain and he almost seemed to be yelling that out through gritted teeth. He unfastened his seatbelt, fell to the ground and kicked the car door open.
After the car rolled, the back door had deformed.
Ji Yushi, Li Chun’s corpse and Tang Le were trapped together. Tang Le: “Cap Song!!”
There were severe pain in Ji Yushi’s leg, and his face was pale, “Can’t open the door!!”
Song Qinglan grabbed the broken edge of the door, the glass shards cutting into his palms and fresh blood landing on Ji Yushi’s face. He however didn’t seem to notice the pain and proceeded to pull the door off with gritted teeth!
“Clang——” The door was thrown aside.
Song Qinglan stretched his hand out. Ji Yushi held onto it.
The two hands clasped together.
One was fair and the other was dripping with blood.
That large and firm palm carried strength. That strength came from a captain’s sense of responsibility, and it also came from friendship towards a teammate.
Ji Yushi was pulled out of the car.
Next, Song Qinglan pulled Tang Le out.
No sooner said than done, the second Tang Le was pulled out, the black wall was only a dozen metres away from them
At that moment, all the people there felt despaired. No longer caring about whether there were zombies ahead, they used all their energy to escape and there was only one thought in their minds – Run.
Ji Yushi felt that he had never run so fast in his life.
It was so fast, he even forgot about the pain in his leg.
With the sound of wind whistling past his ears, the teammates beside him were, like him, trying their best to survive in this time and space.
After running for tens of metres, a bad feeling formed in Ji Yushi’s heart. Together with Song Qinglan, they turned their heads back.
“Tang Le!!”
Tang Le had stopped in place. A zombie was biting at his neck and blood poured out from the wound instantly soaking through his clothes.
Tang Le’s lips moved. He slowly spoke up, “Advisor Ji……We can’t go back——-”
He couldn’t finish his words.
Behind them, the darkness had arrived.
In this world, together with the other survivors, everything was completely submerged.
