Chapter 111: Lost in the Snow Mountain 14

Chapter 111: Lost in the Snow Mountain 14

Not only Qin Fei, but Mi Yang and the others also noticed Diao Ming's abnormal condition.

Ding Li was startled, taking a step forward, but was stopped by Mi Yang's outstretched hand.

In the snowflakes that filled the sky, Diao Ming sat alone in the cold wind.

His ten fingers seemed to have turned into steel claws or plows, scratching at his face. His not-so-long nails embedded into the flesh, tearing bloody streaks.

The heavy snow fell on his body and head, but he seemed completely unaware, gradually being dyed with a layer of white.

His face, however, was a vivid red, blood beads rolling down his cheeks, dripping onto the snow, staining it with a striking hue.

Something mixed with blood fell from his face onto the snow.

It seemed to be...

Chunks of flesh.

Standing far away, Ding Li gasped for breath, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his throat.

Diao Ming's appearance was truly terrifying; he had actually lost two points of his sanity from fear.

Ding Li fished out a can of supplement, pouring it into his mouth, while stealing glances at the others around him.

Mi Yang's brows were tightly furrowed, but clearly, he wasn't scared;

Cen San Ya sat upright in the snow, eyes closed, his expression cool and composed.

As for Little Qin,

He had his arms crossed, watching Diao Ming with a calm expression.

Those clear amber eyes revealed a hint of interest, as if watching some intriguing performance.

Ding Li: "…"

What kind of freaks were these people around him!!

Fortunately, Ah Hui, Duan Nan, and Guliang were also terrified, let alone NPC Kong Siming, who was shaking like a sieve, looking as if his bones would rattle apart.

Seeing their shocked and helpless expressions, Ding Li felt a bit more balanced.

Diao Ming's actions did not stop.

He seemed to be in increasing pain, growling in suppressed agony, covering his face with his hands, rolling in the snow.

Almost half of his fingers were embedded in his eye sockets, causing Ding Li's heart to race even faster, fearing that he would gouge out his own eyeballs and fling them onto the snow in the next second.

"Let's go," Mi Yang said, his brows still tightly knitted, implying something, "Patrol together, don't stay behind."

The Dawn Squad must have noticed something wrong with Diao Ming, which is why they left him alone at the village entrance.

Hearing Mi Yang say this, Cen San Ya stood up instantly.

"You're right, it's not safe here." Cen San Ya patted the snow off his body.

Mi Yang: "?????"

Mi Yang looked at Cen San Ya in disbelief. That smooth and decisive action, along with the steady footprints he left in the snow, left Mi Yang's mouth agape in astonishment.

Just now, just now, who was hopping around like a grasshopper, unable to walk, almost writing "I want to rest" all over his face??

And during the journey from the snowy slope to the village, it was even Mi Yang who had taken pity on him and carried him over!!

Mi Yang's face turned from black to green.

Apart from Qin Fei and Cen San Ya, who remained composed, the remaining four people were like quails, not daring to utter a word, quickly walking towards the village.

The Snow Village was silent.

The players walked several hundred meters forward, and Diao Ming's rolling figure had shrunk to the size of a sesame seed at the edge of their field of vision.

Along the way, they didn't see any human figures, nor did they see any signs of life in the village.

This was a village built for an unknown reason, abandoned in the snow mountain.

The houses lined up in two rows on either side, each exactly the same size. At first glance, the village appeared neat and fresh, but the longer one stayed inside, the stranger it felt.

"I've never seen a village built so uniformly." Ding Li whispered.

With the enhancement of his innate skill, he could see things more intricately than others.

Forget villages, even neighborhoods, apartments, or even mobile prefab houses beside construction sites wouldn't be like this, where every room's length and width were exactly the same, measured to units smaller than millimeters.

These were no longer houses that seemed to be built.

They were more like rooms directly copied and pasted.

Qin Fei looked at the doors passing before his eyes, one after another, without any difference. He felt that these houses resembled two rows of neat, sharp teeth, watching the players, calculating the right moment to bite down hard, chew, and crush them to pieces.

"These houses seem to be made of snow."

Ah Hui stood by the wall, exclaiming after observing closely for a moment.

The houses in the Snow Village didn't appear different from ordinary cottages, but upon closer inspection, it could be found that whether it was the walls, doors, steps, or tiles on the eaves, the texture was very peculiar.

Indeed, they were indeed molded from snow.

The structure of the village was also very simple, with two main roads running left and right, then looping around to converge in the middle.

When Qin Fei and his group had walked through half of the village and reached the center, they happened to meet the Dawn Squad face-to-face.

Seeing Wenren Liming's inquiring gaze drift over, Qin Fei shrugged his hands.

"Found nothing."

Wenren Liming nodded.

But they had made some discoveries on their side.

Wenren took out a piece of paper filled with words from his personal space, gesturing for Qin Fei to come take a look.

The players crowded forward.

This was what the Dawn Squad had found beside the door of the last house on the left side of the village.

"Snow Village Nightlife Guide," Qin Fei read the title softly.

"Overnight Rules"

1\. Snow Village belongs to everyone. Snow Village is safe. No bloodshed will occur in Snow Village.

2\. Only one living person can reside in each house.

3\. If someone knocks on the door, pretend you didn't hear it. If someone enters the room, pretend you didn't see them and hide under the bed.

4\. Under the bed is safe. In case of any special circumstances, you can hide under the bed and count from 0 to 300. If the danger has not passed, count again from 0 to 300 until everything returns to normal.

5\. There are no "snakes" in Snow Village.

6\. Snow Village is dangerous. Do not linger outdoors after nightfall.

Qin Fei read through the rules word by word, and everyone wore different expressions.

Such a set of rules seemed short at first glance, but the information contained within was quite substantial.

"Only one living person can reside in each house, which means we all have to stay separately," said Wenren Liming.

Although everyone had harbored some suspicions while in the wooden house earlier, those were without evidence.

Under the rules of Snow Village, staying separately was clearly the safer option.

"It's already night," Qin Fei looked up at the overcast sky, "We need to speed things up."

"From the rules, we're likely to encounter danger tonight, but 'Snow Village is safe, and there won't be any bloodshed,' so even if something happens, we can't retaliate, but instead, we have to 'hide under the bed.'"

Qin Fei pondered.

The rules were clearly aimed at the players. If real monsters did attack, they wouldn't care about any rules.

However, if these rules really worked, the night shouldn't be too difficult.

As long as they hid under the bed and counted the hours until dawn.

Wenren Liming nodded. "Stay calm and get through tonight."

Once the sun rose and the mission was completed, they could leave this place.

As they spoke, the group had already returned to the entrance of the village.

Although no one had mentioned anything, the closer they got to the entrance, the more alert everyone's gazes became.

Their vigilance was directed at.

Diao Ming.

Diao Ming was no longer struggling or clawing at his own face.

He had stopped moving altogether, hunched over and lying stiffly on his side in the snow.

From a distance, the players couldn't see his condition clearly. Ding Li was terrified. "Is he dead?"

"No," Cen San Ya replied indifferently.

Cen San Ya was well-known among high-level players, and Ding Li naturally knew of him, but only after encountering him in the same instance did he understand why people always said that Cen San Ya was different from ordinary precognition stream players, with a hint of evil about him.

Just as Cen San Ya finished speaking, Diao Ming actually stood up right where he was.

He swayed as he walked towards them.

Ding Li took three steps back immediately, and Kong Siming slipped behind Wenren Liming's broad back.

Diao Ming's terrifying ghost-like appearance was still deeply etched in everyone's minds, and they didn't want to see his rotting face again.

However, when the person in front lifted his head, all the players were stunned.

Diao Ming's face was fine.

His eyeballs were still in their sockets, and his skin hadn't been torn apart.

His cheeks were abnormally flushed, as if frostbitten, and there were several thin scratches, as if made by fingernails.

But that was the extent of it.

There were no more severe wounds.

As he approached, his expression appeared perfectly normal, and he muttered in complaint:

"Why didn't you wait for me when you went into the village to look for clues?"

As he spoke, he raised his hand, rubbing his face with the back of it.

The sight of Diao Ming unscathed did nothing to comfort the players' psyches.

Ding Li was almost spooked, stammering as he asked him, "Y-your face…"

Diao Ming was confused. "My face? It seems I have some frostbite on my face; it's really itchy, but it's much better after applying medicine."

"What's wrong?"

His tone was calm, so calm that it didn't seem like him at all, but rather someone else entirely.

Ding Li shook his head like a wave drum. "Nothing!"

Wen Ren Dawn gazed deeply at Diao Ming, silent as if pondering something.

When they later divided up the houses, Wen Ren placed Diao Ming between him and Wu Meng.

"This team is quite decent," Mi Yang commented in a lowered voice, making it hard to tell whether he was praising or mocking them.

Diao Ming clearly had issues, yet he was also adept at disguising them.

In Snow Village, there was a rule that "no blood could be shed," which meant they couldn't do anything to Diao Ming tonight.

Wen Ren Dawn arranged this out of concern that Diao Ming might cause trouble at night, affecting those around him, so he deliberately placed him within the Dawn Squad for close surveillance.

Qin Fei watched Diao Ming's disappearing silhouette behind the door, lowering his eyelids and casually pursing his lips. "Let's go inside quickly."

...

For safety reasons, the players chose to stay in the middle of the village, in a row of interconnected houses.

Qin Fei's room was specifically picked by Mi Yang, with Mi Yang himself on the left and Ying Huo on the right.

This maternal-like attention to detail for Qin Fei truly stunned Ding Li and the others.

At the start of the instance, they thought there might be something special between Qin Fei and Mi Yang, but after two days, they felt it wasn't the case, as they didn't display any intimate behavior typical of such relationships.

Ding Li scanned the two of them with an odd gaze, as if thinking, "Could Little Qin be Mi Yang's long-lost son?" He scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered.

Qin Fei, however, didn't particularly care about which specific room he stayed in.

Given the rules of Snow Village, he could already deduce that tonight's danger would be scattered within each house.

It was unlikely to spread outdoors or affect people in other rooms.

After entering the courtyard and closing the door, Qin Fei lifted his eyes to observe the scene before him.

Just as Ah Hui had said, this courtyard was made of snow, and Qin Fei had a clear perception of this when he pushed the door open.

The snow-made door had no lock, nor did it have hinges, but it opened and closed normally.

The courtyard was empty and clean, with a stone table and two stone stools—designed to resemble park benches, but actually made of snow.

Qin Fei didn't linger, stepping into the indoor area.

Inside, the room was just as empty. In the square main room, there was only a single bed placed against the wall.

Although called a single bed, it was practically no different from a stone slab—or rather, a snow slab.

There were no sheets, blankets, or pillows.

These houses were definitely not man-made, nor were they intended for human habitation. They seemed like crude imitations created by some strange creature trying to mimic humans.

Qin Fei circled the room once, then directly crawled under the bed, lying down peacefully.

Regardless of whether monsters came or not, the space under the bed was the safest place.

So why struggle? Might as well take the direct approach.

In the live streaming hall, the audience was thoroughly enjoying themselves in front of the light screens.

All the other players who entered the snow houses were extremely cautious, almost paranoid, wanting to inspect every corner and every crack in the floor tiles.

Only Little Qin was so carefree that he resembled a lazy fish, lying flat without a care in the world.

It nearly made the audience burst out laughing.

"Hahaha, my wife is so smart."

"The streamer really has some badassness in him; why doesn't he look scared at all?"

Even though this was a high-level instance and the players were battle-hardened,

when faced with unknown dangers and the threat of death, no one could remain completely fearless and relaxed.

Except for Qin Fei.

He was genuinely relaxed, with every muscle, hair strand, and eyelash exuding ease and comfort.

But Qin Fei wasn't idle under the bed either.

He took out a dark object from his personal space and retrieved the backpack he had packed at the campsite, rummaging through it intently.

The light under the bed was too dim, and the live-stream camera was being deliberately enigmatic; the audience couldn't see what he was doing with his hands.

"What's he doing?"

"It looks like he's wiping something, then... wait... is that a phone???"

There was an uproar in front of the light screens.

"A phone? Kong Siming's phone? But didn't Kong Siming give his phone to Wen Ren already?"

Before Wen Ren Ming entered the snow house, he said he wanted to study the contents of Kong Siming's phone again at night. Qin Fei had handed over the phone to him, and all the viewers saw it happen.

Where did this phone come from?

This phone seemed to have some issues.

Huddled under the bed, Qin Fei wasn't very bony, but his figure was slender and delicate, looking somewhat frail. He lay lazily under the bed, his two hands fiddling with something.

After a while, the phone finally lit up.

With the light source, the audience could now see clearly that he had taken out an emergency lamp from his climbing backpack that could be used as a power bank. He charged the phone for a bit before turning it on.

The wallpaper on the phone was a selfie of a girl. The face was unfamiliar; no one had seen it before.

A quick-witted viewer finally figured it out.

"Damn! I know! The wooden house!"

"In the wooden house earlier, when Wu Meng cut open the monster's belly, there was a blind spot in the view. Little Qin seemed to bend down and pick up something, but we couldn't see clearly."

The wooden house?

A monster?

Why would a monster have a phone?

And it was a girl's phone.

Could it be...

"Could it be that the monster was Zhou Li?"

In the scenario, the only named female NPC was Zhou Li.

There was no doubt that this phone belonged to Zhou Li.

On the shoulder of the girl in the wallpaper, Qin Fei saw the rose tattoo that Kong Siming mentioned.

In the wooden house, the monster that Qin Fei killed also had a black mark on its shoulder.

Deformed by the skin and then sliced open by Qin Fei using Wu Meng's knife, it was unrecognizable.

But comparing the two, they were indeed in the same position.

With most of his suspicions confirmed, Qin Fei let out a sigh of relief.

He had hidden Zhou Li's phone during the chaos in the afternoon, and of course, it was intentional.

One of the tasks for players in the survivor camp was to solve the mystery of Zhou Li's death.

For Qin Fei to pass, he had to turn ten players to his side.

Turning players couldn't be rushed; it required careful planning and breaking them down one by one.

But time was not on his side.

The five check-in points on the snowy mountain were beyond Qin Fei's control because he needed to find the location of the guiding place and the source of pollution, which also required exploring the snowy mountain.

So, he could only start with Zhou Li.

Now that he had obtained Zhou Li's phone, he was halfway to success.

The phone was undoubtedly a crucial mission item. By hiding it, Qin Fei had severed the clue chain for other players.

Fei: Feeling good.

The phone came out along with the monster's guts, blood, and miscellaneous items when Wu Meng cut it open.

Qin Fei had been quick to hide it in his personal space and hadn't had a chance to look at it since.

Now that he finally found the opportunity, Qin Fei planned to thoroughly investigate Zhou Li's secrets.

Why did she suddenly return home?

And why did she suddenly enter the snowy mountain alone?

As a local, her phone might contain more clues about the snowy mountain.

Zhou Li's phone was different from Kong Siming's; it had a four-digit screen lock password. In Member No. 1's climbing diary, there was a mention of Zhou Li's birthday and Member No. 1's own. Qin Fei tried both and successfully unlocked the phone.

There was no network in the mountains, so Qin Fei first opened WeChat to check the chat history.

However, just then, there was a sudden noise outside.

Qin Fei froze.

He quickly turned off the phone screen, put everything back into his space, and lay flat on his back under the bed.

At the same time, in the other rooms.

Players fumbled to hide under their beds, while others, like Qin Fei, had already been waiting there since long ago.

But among everyone, Qin Fei was the one with the most relaxed expression.

It was as if the existence that was stealthily entering the house and posed a potential threat to him was utterly insignificant.

"Tap."

"Tap."

"Tap tap tap tap..."

Light and swift footsteps echoed in the darkness, with an abnormal frequency of steps.

Qin Fei remembered the rules; if someone from outside came into the house, he must pretend not to see them.

He simply closed his eyes and silently counted numbers in his heart.

He had to count up to 300.

Qin Fei counted neither too fast nor too slow.

The footsteps grew closer, and that thing indeed pushed open the door and entered the courtyard.

And it entered the room, circling around less than half a meter away from Qin Fei.

Qin Fei's expression remained unchanged, calm as if he were asleep.

Counting silently didn't require any brainpower, and Qin Fei treated it as a mechanical activity. While counting, he could still think about other things.

He was thinking about the players' taming progress bars above their heads.

The mission to turn the living players to their side was triggered by Qin Fei only in the afternoon, and until now, he hadn't had time to do much. The only effective action was using the radio broadcast in the wooden house to kill with a borrowed knife, reaping a wave of benefits.

The results were indeed quite good, with many people's taming values skyrocketing to over 20. Among them, Ying Huo had the highest taming value, reaching an astonishing 53%.

Throughout the day, Qin Fei had discovered that Ying Huo played the role of a strategist in the Dawn Squad.

Although Qin Fei felt that Wenren LiMing making Ying Huo the strategist was a major blunder, the members of the Dawn Squad were willing to believe in him.

This guy was a master of imagination, and Qin Fei felt that not utilizing him would be a disservice to himself.

Qin Fei began to ponder.

He wondered when the monster in the room would leave.

If the monster left, could he go to Ying Huo's room for a visit?

The rules stated that only one living person could reside in a room, but Qin Fei realized the wordplay involved.

He wasn't a living person.

He was a dead man.

If he were to go over...

Qin Fei's small braid at the back of his head had come undone when he crawled under the bed earlier, and his soft black hair draped over his shoulders, making his delicate face appear particularly gentle and harmless.

The footsteps in the room stopped.

Qin Fei realized that the creature had climbed onto the bed.

Although he didn't open his eyes, just by listening to the sound, he already had a guess about the visitor.

It was probably the monster that had attacked them before, or a variant of it, in any case, it was from that species.

The monster remained still on the bed for a while, and Qin Fei had already repeated counting to 300 several times.

But it still didn't leave.

In the pitch-black space under the bed, Qin Fei's keen senses replaced his vision, and he felt something watching him.

Qin Fei remained motionless like a mountain.

However, this composure wasn't something everyone could possess.

In another room separated by a wall, Ying Huo was also lying under the bed.

The difference in brain capacity between people could sometimes be greater than between humans and dogs.

Ying Huo was also lying under the bed counting numbers, but he couldn't multitask at all.

In fact, even the numbers from 1 to 300 were becoming unclear to him.

"285, 286, 2..."

What the hell was supposed to come after 2???

As Ying Huo listened to the approaching footsteps, beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

He actually wasn't afraid of the monster.

If they were to face each other directly, Ying Huo wouldn't hesitate for a moment, but the situation was different now.

The dark house.

The eerie footsteps.

An unknown monster lurking in the shadows, watching.

An indescribable tension welled up in Ying Huo's heart.

He really wanted to flip the bed board, raise his fists, and smash them into the monster's face, rather than hide under the bed like a rat in a gutter, exuding fear.

Unfortunately, he was destined to be a rat tonight.

"294, 295..."

Ying Huo's breaths were heavy through his nose.

As a player with martial talent, his senses were sharper than those of other players. He could sense that the monster was squeezing its way under the bed.

...

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

Ying Huo's inner scream echoed loudly!

Wasn't it supposed to be enough to hide under the bed and count? How could this thing want to have an intimate encounter with him all night long?

Ying Huo's goosebumps were standing on end.

He couldn't open his eyes, so he could only inch further inward, bit by bit, without showing any sign of movement.

Further in!

Further in!

Ying Huo wished he could embed himself into the wall, just to avoid the monster touching his skin, which would be both disgusting and terrifying.

But how could a wall made of snow withstand the full force of a burly man?

Dizzy and disoriented, Ying Huo didn't notice that the wall seemed to be starting to wobble under his constant pressure.

He kept pushing, harder and harder!

Finally, thanks to Ying Huo's tireless efforts, the snow wall collapsed with a loud crash!

The player under the bed, cushioned by the bed board above, wasn't much affected, but snow chunks flew everywhere, splattering Qin Fei's face.

Through the collapsed snow wall, the player's strong arm pressed against Qin Fei's, completely unguarded. Qin Fei's eyelid twitched violently!

Ying Huo: "…"

Qin Fei: "…"

What the hell was going on???

The translation aims to maintain the original tone and style of the text while ensuring clarity and coherence in English. The use of colloquial expressions such as "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" and "What the hell was going on??" helps convey the character's frustration and confusion in a relatable manner. The translation also preserves the dramatic pause indicated by the ellipsis and the use of multiple exclamation marks to emphasize the intensity of the situation.