MMPS Ch. 55

Chapter 55: An Operation Without a Leader

“Are you out of your mind…?” Wei Chiyue couldn’t hold back any longer, stepping forward as if ready to take a swing at Yu An along with Ji Nian. “Trying to act all noble and righteous, huh?” When he saw Yu An swing the fire axe earlier, he thought he was dealing with a cold-blooded, decisive leader. But it turned out to be a bluff, this guy was practically a saint descending from the heavens.

“Don’t go up there! He’s Team Leader Zhao’s intern. When Mr. Zhao comes back, do you really think he won’t take it out on you?” Ai Ke desperately tried to stop the reckless young man, who was a head taller than him. Ai Ke had already been humbled by Yu An during the skill test, so he wasn’t about to provoke him again. But he could tell Wei Chiyue cared about his pride, and directly calling Yu An too strong might just make the hothead charge even harder.

Noble? Yu An silently turned the word over in his mind. If the interviewer heard this, he’d probably be thrilled.

“Hmph.” Wei Chiyue snorted dismissively. Deep down, though, he was a little intimidated. He’d heard Yu An had set a record-breaking score in the skill test, so he must have some skills. But since Yu An was a technician, and Wei Chiyue was an intern in the Rapid Response Unit. Shaped by Team Leader Duan’s influence, he stubbornly believed that technicians relied on clever tricks to win, which wasn’t worth praising. Ever since the skill test ended, he’d been holding a grudge for his teammate Huo Yangui. In his mind, Huo-ge and Lan-jie were the only ones fit to lead the interns.

What really unnerved him about Yu An was the half-face mask covering his left eye. The mask was irregularly shaped, made of what looked like flowing black water, constantly dripping shadowy droplets.

The interns all said they’d never seen Yu An’s face because he always wore a pure black outfit. When he pulled up the hood, his face vanished into a void-like darkness, impossible to see from any angle.

And everyone knew, people who hid their faces were usually dangerous.

“Where’s Zhao Ran?” Yu An asked.

He’d actually called his mentor by his full name. The interns froze for a moment before realizing who Zhao Ran was.

“Mr. Zhao disconnected midway and hasn’t come back yet. Let’s wait for him here.” Ai Ke replied.

Yu An didn’t respond, knowing full well that waiting was pointless. If something had happened outside, the interviewer would likely have to stay by the interns’ real-world bodies to prevent the Circus Illusion Chamber from turning into a mass grave.

The J.S brothers wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

What would happen if the interns were wiped out in the game’s illusion chamber? The interviewer was the one in charge of this operation, and his reputation would be ruined. Would the company shift all the blame onto Zhao Ran to avoid responsibility? If that happened, it wasn’t impossible for him to end up in prison for life.

Yu An didn’t like the idea of the interviewer going to prison. Visitation hours probably didn’t allow kissing with prisoners.

While they were arguing, Ji Nian quietly untied the ropes binding his hands and feet. The rough cords had cut into his flesh, leaving his slender arms and legs pale and cold. He stumbled closer to Yu An, hunched over and rubbing his skin to restore blood flow.

Yu An picked up the fire axe, pushing aside the countless nooses hanging from the ceiling, and headed toward the stairwell leading up. Ji Nian staggered after him, not daring to get too close, maintaining a careful distance.

“Are you really taking him with you? I’ll see how you die.” Wei Chiyue said, the first to follow. Ai Ke, too scared to stay alone in the pitch-black gallows, hesitantly ran after them. “W-Wait for me…”

The last intern had no choice but to grit his teeth and move forward.

“Hey, can you listen when people talk?” Wei Chiyue reached out and grabbed Yu An’s shoulder. “He’s got a visual transmission chip in his brain that’s broadcasting everything here. The J.S brothers’ sudden power boost is thanks to him, right? The opponents must’ve bribed a bunch of platforms to livestream this. If the J.S brothers can monitor our every move, do we even stand a chance?”

Yu An turned around, giving him a disdainful look. This guy had some intelligence, but not much.

“The visual transmission chip doesn’t work like that…” Ji Nian weakly interjected.

“Shut up, traitor,” Wei Chiyue snapped.

Ji Nian’s slender shoulders trembled, and he carefully backed away, biting his lip and softly defending himself. “I didn’t…”

The end of the stairs was still endless darkness. The only light came from Yu An’s flashlight, its beam barely reaching the end of the stairs. On the platform at the top, a figure swayed faintly, its neck bent at a ninety-degree angle, supported only by a noose hanging from the ceiling.

Everyone’s footsteps came to a halt.

“It’s just a corpse. I’ll go first.” Wei Chiyue said, pushing past Yu An and taking the stairs two at a time. He squeezed past the hanging corpse and gestured to the others. “Keep up with me.”

Yu An shone the flashlight ahead, illuminating Wei Chiyue’s path. Someone volunteering to scout ahead suited him just fine.

Wei Chiyue, full of energy, climbed the stairs quickly and was the first to reach the next floor. But as soon as he stepped onto the ground, a wave of chilling cold hit him, seeping through his raincoat. He shivered.

The place was packed with people.

These “people” stood with their hands hanging limply, their necks broken, heads tilted at grotesque angles. Dozens of hemp ropes hung from the ceiling, their ends tied into nooses around the corpses’ necks.

The hanging corpses were both men and women. Some wore clothes covered in dust, their dry, gray hair almost crumbling at a touch. Others were still softly rotting, their features distorted as the decaying flesh flowed, corpse oil dripping from their swollen, yellowed fingers.

The oil and foul water from the corpses had pooled on the ground, seeping through cracks in the walls.

Wei Chiyue had never seen anything like this. A wave of nausea rose from his chest to his throat, but his pride was stronger than his fear. He forced down the lunch that had almost come back up.

“They’re just some hanged people. What’s there to be scared of in a game setting?” Wei Chiyue’s voice trembled slightly, unsure whether he was explaining the situation to his teammates or trying to calm himself down.

“It’s terrifying.” Ji Nian suddenly spoke up, startling Wei Chiyue, who backed into the wall and shouted, “Traitor, are you just trying to cause trouble?”

“Come back here quickly.” Ji Nian said with difficulty, but his words were drowned out by Wei Chiyue’s yelling.

Yu An finally spoke, his voice cool and detached. “If you just drill a hole in your head and let the water out, you’ll be fine.” He raised the flashlight, sweeping the beam through the forest of corpses. “You’re standing right there. Haven’t you noticed some of these corpses don’t have nooses around their necks?”

“…” Wei Chiyue felt his head buzz, his scalp tingling. He stiffly turned to examine the corpse nearest to him.

Its neck was broken, its head almost hanging to its chest, its hands hanging limply at its sides. At first glance, it looked no different from the others, but under the light, he could see that the noose hanging from the ceiling was merely draped over its shoulders, not around its neck.

The other corpses were standing upright only because of the ropes, but this one was standing on its own.

Wei Chiyue wanted to run, but the more scared he was, the more he couldn’t help but stare at the self-standing corpse.

“Don’t go downstairs. Follow the flashlight and slowly move away.” Yu An’s calm voice was the only comfort for everyone at that moment.

“Okay, the light…” Wei Chiyue trembled as he searched for Yu An’s flashlight beam. When he turned around, the corpse suddenly lifted its head, its hazy, decaying eyes staring straight at him.

Wei Chiyue screamed and turned to run, completely ignoring the direction of the light. The corpse stiffly moved as well, its decayed fingers reaching out to grab him.

In the silent darkness, the muffled sounds of bones twisting came from different directions. It seemed their arrival had awakened the hunters hidden among the corpses.

More than one living corpse was disguised as a hanged person standing among the dead.

Yu An quickly rushed up the stairs, grabbing the panicked big guy by the collar and dragging him behind. He raised the flashlight and sprinted toward the emergency exit on the left. The other three, seeing figures moving in the darkness, terrified, ran up the stairs, their chaotic footsteps echoing loudly as they desperately fled in the direction Yu An had gone.

The rusty emergency door was locked from the inside. Wei Chiyue yanked at it hard, but the iron door only shook slightly. “There’s no key!”

Ai Ke held up a piece of wire he’d pried from the iron window on the previous floor. “Try picking the lock!”

“Give it here.” Wei Chiyue snatched the wire, his sweaty hands trembling so much that it took him several seconds to even insert the wire into the keyhole.

“Technicians are better at picking locks.” Yu An said, standing in front of everyone, swinging the fire axe with both arms. The long-handled axe smashed into the chest of an oncoming headless corpse, instantly creating a bloody hole. The corpse howled and flew several meters away, its body splattering against the wall like rotten tofu.

“Let me.” Ji Nian took the wire, crouching close to the keyhole. His sensitive fingers lightly twisted the wire, precisely detecting every bump it touched.

Wei Chiyue glared at him, grabbing the door handle with both hands. The moment he heard the lock click open, he yanked hard, pulling the rusty door open a crack. Taking a deep breath, he pulled again, fully opening the door and shoving the two nearest interns inside. Then, with a large hand, he grabbed the slender Ji Nian and threw him in.

“Get in!” Wei Chiyue shouted back at Yu An.

The refinement badge obtained from defeating the Parasite of the Dead Lake had greatly enhanced Yu An’s strength and agility. The long-handled fire axe whistled through the air as he swung it, but the corpse tide surged faster, quickly eroding the space around him.

Yu An shook off a corpse, rolled to the ground, and dived through the door. The fire axe, now covered in filthy corpse oil, flew out of his hand and landed several meters away. Wei Chiyue gritted his teeth and growled, pulling the rusted emergency door shut and locking it.

Along with Yu An, a living corpse had also fallen in. Yu An didn’t have time to grab the fire axe. Instead, he flipped onto the corpse’s neck, pulled the hemp rope from his waist, wrapped it around the corpse’s neck, and yanked hard.

A crisp bone crack sounded as the decaying head was snapped off, rolling on the ground before stopping at Wei Chiyue’s feet.

The headless corpse collapsed to the ground, completely immobilized. Yu An released the rope, coiled it up, and rehung it on his waist. The interns watched in horror.

Wasn’t he a student? Could the company have recruited him from some fighting ring or black market as a teenage assassin? Wei Chiyue finally realized that Yu An’s skill test score might not have been inflated. In fact, it was more likely that Yu An had gone easy during the test, allowing the others to survive until now.

“Yu…” Wei Chiyue still couldn’t bring himself to call him “Yu-ge,” so he changed the subject. “Are you really taking that traitor with us? If our actions are being monitored through his eyes, it’s dangerous.”

Yu An picked up the fire axe from the ground, wiping off the filth on the wall. He straightened his back and faced them, resting both hands on the end of the axe handle like a gentleman’s cane. “First, the visual transmission chip in Ji Nian’s brain intercepts signals during the consciousness link transmission process, synchronously transmitting the internal scenes to the outside.”

“This signal only captures scenes and character models. In other words, to the people outside, our current experience still appears as the pixelated graphics designed by the game itself. Our actions are displayed to them as a few pixelated block characters walking in a side-scrolling view. So, don’t worry about your face or your stupid remarks being exposed.”

“As for whether the J.S brothers are peeking at the screen to observe our movements, I can only say that once our consciousness entered this game’s illusion chamber, we were already completely under their surveillance. This is their illusion chamber, their territory.”

“But as long as he’s alive, the J.S brothers will keep getting stronger. Without Mr. Zhao here, how are we supposed to fight two cheating Aberrants?”

“I want them to be strong.” The stronger they got, the better the aberration core inside them would become. That way, this trip wouldn’t be a waste, Yu An thought. If things went smoothly, wouldn’t he be able to boss the interviewer around when he got back?