Chapter 120.2: Love Welfare Institute
On the other side of the road, little Miao Gaojiang was carrying Mu Ke. A child's physical strength wasn't as good as an adult. He had to carry two people in a row while running. Little Bai Liu (6) and Mu Ke might not be heavy but Miao Gaojiang's speed inevitably slowed down. He walked on the soft, wet and slippery ground while sweating and this difficult road doubled his physical consumption.
Little Mu Ke was holding Bai Liu (6)'s blood bag on his back and he looked at the time anxiously. Bai Liu (6) had told him to be there before 9 o'clock. Once it was 9 o'clock and those investors came out, they would be caught and it would be over!
The thing they didn't know was that there were already two investors who set off before 9 o'clock. They were Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang.
Mu Ke watched the time pass bit by bit and he started to be anxious. "Miao Gaojiang, hurry up. The investors will come out after 9 o'clock and we won't be able to escape!"
"I don't think we need to wait until after 9 o'clock." Miao Gaojiang wiped the sweat dripping on his face. His expression was horrified and ugly as he turned to look at Mu Ke lying on his shoulder. "I heard the sound of someone stepping on the mushrooms nearby. They are walking very quickly."
Mu Ke was stunned and then his expression sank. "How fast? Do we have time to run back to the church?"
The church prohibited the killing of children and it was a safe zone, although it wasn't known how long it would last. Mu Ke gritted his teeth and gripped Bai Liu (6)'s blood bag in his hands.
He failed to successfully send over Bai Liu (6)'s blood bag. He just hoped that the garbage investor could hold on a bit longer and not die casually.
The sound of juices splashing in the tunnel became more rapid. It approached quickly like a snake swimming through the mushrooms.
Miao Gaojiang gulped in horror. He took two steps back and slowly shook his head. "...I think it is too late. They are walking fast and will catch us before we reach the church."
"We can't let them catch us." Mu Ke lowered his voice. In this critical moment of survival, he had lost Bai Liu (6)'s leadership but he was calm. "Miao Gaojiang, take out the extra infusion bags that Bai Liu (6) gave us. We will attach them to our bodies and pretend to be the monster children playing the flute. This tunnel isn't brightly lit and there are the corpses of children everywhere. If they don't look closely then they won't see the difference between us and monsters."
Mu Ke quickly jumped off Miao Gaojiang's body and started to hang the infusion bags around Miao Gaojiang's neck.
Miao Gaojiang was also busy hanging it but his face was pale and uncertain. "Can this disguise trick the investors? We look very different from these deformed children!"
"Even if we can't pretend well, we have to pretend." Mu Ke's breathing was very fast. His face was expressionless and there was a type of amazing determination in his dark eyes. "After thinking about it, I think we are just waiting to die if we run back to the church. By the time we go back, the teachers would've already woken up. If we meet teachers near the church, we will be imprisoned to wait for Thursday's matching. If we can't escape from them today then we can never escape."
"We can only make a bet once."
Miao Gaojiang gritted his teeth. He looked at Mu Ke for a second before finally nodding.
The sound of footsteps got closer. The plump mushrooms under the soles of the adult human's feet made a squeaky sound like juice being squeezed out from ripe fruit. This resounded strangely in the passage.
The smell of decay and blood became stronger. Mu Ke took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Don't make any sound. Lie under the mushrooms and pretend to be dead, okay?"
Mu Ke hurriedly found a place to hide Bai Liu (6)'s blood bag. He covered himself with mushrooms, took a deep breath and lay face down on the mushrooms.
Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang finally reached this section of the tunnel. Miao Feichi frowned as he flicked the blood from his knives. "What was that sound? It sounded like someone was talking just now? It isn't like the voices of the children were killed before. It was more like two living people talking?"
The more agile Miao Feichi had a higher sound perception. He looked around and found no strange movements. Soon, Miao Gaojiang urged him, "Don't look. Come on. This place is obviously the home of those deformed children."
The deeper they went, the more sure Miao Gaojiang was about this. This passage was narrow and dark with mushrooms everyone. One entrance was the church and the other entrance was the emergency passage for discarding the corpses of children. The nurse had told them about this passage. As the number of investors increased, the investors started selecting children through the form of matching and this path was abandoned.
Then when Miao Gaojiang entered this abandoned passage, in addition to the deformed children at the entrance, there were traces of deformed children when walking inside. This proved that children lived here in this abandoned passage.
Miao Gaojiang's face became gloomier when thinking of the deformed children who weren't seen during the day. "This group of deformed children should come out from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. They will stay in this tunnel for the rest of the time. Feichi, don't waste time. It is almost 9 o'clock. We must get out soon or this group of monster children will return to the nest. The passage will be blocked by these monsters returning."
Miao Feichi heard Miao Gaojiang's reminder and looked down at the time. It was 8:51 a.m. and it was almost 9 o'clock. There really was no time to waste here. He retracted his searching gaze and continued to move forward while holding his double knives doubtfully.
There were two main reasons for his doubts. The first was that Miao Gaojiang was very impatient since waking up from the explosion. His father was usually a very calm person so this created an anxious restlessness in Miao Feichi.
The second reason was—Miao Feichi's eyes swept over the corpses of two children buried in the mushrooms on the ground. He had come all this way and had seen the corpses of many children in this passage. According to reason, Miao Feichi shouldn't be surprised about bodies appearing in this place.
After all, investors didn't allow the hospital to have unlucky existences like an incinerator or morgue.
The hospital didn't have a place to dispose of the children's corpses so the nurses used this passage as a waste passage. The fungi in this passage could survive by breaking down the bodies, thus breeding more mushrooms to break down more bodies. This was an excellent ecological waste disposal channel for the corpses of children.
However, these two corpses gave him a sense of disobedience like they shouldn't be here. Miao Feichi's agility was relatively high but players with average intelligence usually believed in their intuition accumulated in the game. At this time, he normally let his more intelligent father take a look at the situation.
However, now Miao Gaojiang was in a bad state. If this path was indeed the nest where the deformed children lived during the day as Miao Gaojiang said then time was indeed very short. Miao Feichi finally took back his eyes and stepped forward.
Mu Ke heard them continue to move forward and sighed with relief. Before this breath was completely released, the walking Miao Feichi abruptly stopped.
Miao Feichi turned his head, his neck making a loud sound. He looked at the 'two corpses' with a fanatical, terrifying and excited expression.
There was a small patch of water on the back of the 'corpse.' Miao Feichi slowly licked his mouth while watching the water stain.
Miao Gaojiang knew that Miao Feichi had a meat addiction. He was just about to interrupt Miao Feichi's actions when he heard Miao Feichi speak in an incredibly light voice that trembled slightly with surprise. "Dad, these two children's clothes are wet. They are sweating. I smell fresh sweat."
"They are living people, living children who escaped."
At this point, they found living children who had escaped. Miao Gaojiang was stunned but he quickly responded. "This is Bai Liu's group of children!"
It was bad!
Mu Ke's heart was cold and his brain moved quickly. After weighing things in his mind, he suddenly hugged the blood bag in his arms and jumped up, running crazily toward the exit of the hospital. Miao Gaojiang also climbed up from the mushrooms and ran after Mu Ke.
Miao Feichi laughed and drew his double swords. "Fuck, I was almost killed last night. If I don't drain your children's blood and eat all your children's meat today, I will lose face even if I pass the instance."
Then he narrowed his eyes and whistled. "Yes, it won't take much effort today. The blood has been brought to us. Dad, your child is also here."
Miao Gaojiang sighed with relief when he saw his child and his face calmed down. "I see him. Feichi, please avoid the aorta when killing him. Don't waste any blood."
"Yes." Miao Feichi crossed his arms and wiped off the mushroom slime and blood from the knives. He licked his pale mouth and his eyes shone with a red and bloody light. "I just have to kill them and the game will be almost over."
Mu Ke ran quickly. His heart had never felt so painful before. He could clearly feel the blood pouring into his heart like a bomb and exploding with a 'thump.' The bright red blood passed through the ventricle and atrium again, making him feel sharp pain. It rushed to every blood vessel in his limbs in a numb way.
He breathed in and out with all his strength but he could feel that the air was separated by an invisible, wind-like filter membrane. His limbs couldn't absorb the oxygen in the air and burned.
Mu Ke had never run so fast. In his limited life, he more frequently crouched down and looked up at others because it was easier for him to regain blood in this position. Mu Ke had never used a posture where he strode with his own legs, running at such a speed that he turned into a small bug in the wind. He never knew he could actually run so fast.
Mu Ke hugged the bag containing the blood drawn from Bai Liu (6)'s body. He felt like he was going to vomit blood into this bag in the next second.
His eyes were full of physiological tears as he ran and suffocated. He was like a noble cat with congenital defects that was finally awakened by the stimulation of a natural enemy. Mu Ke knew his knees were weakening and his brain was blank due to a lack of oxygen. Even so, he was still running mechanically with his legs.
"Don't stop if you want to live, Mu Ke." Bai Liu (6) lay weakly in his arms and spoke weakly, like praying or begging as he calmly told Mu Ke what to do. "Mu Ke, you must save my investor. You must live, Mu Ke."
He must, he must. Mu Ke's eyes were becoming hazy. It wasn't because he was crying but because he was becoming dizzy from his extreme movement speed.
Mu Ke's nose started bleeding. The blood dripped onto the back of his hands that tightly hugged the blood bag against his chest. He had no perception of any of this. Mu Ke was just running with empty eyes, completely unaware that MIao Feichi behind him had caught up with him.
Miao Feichi held the double knives as he looked at Mu Ke who was still running wildly. "Damn, this bastard ran so quickly that I almost missed it."
He lifted the two knives that shone with a cold light. The thin, shaking shadows were reflected on the walls like a god of death holding a scythe. Miao Feichi aimed at Mu Ke's shoulders as he kept running unaware.
Mu Ke's eyes became dark and he felt himself being pushed into someone else by wind coming from another exit. Mu Ke was held by someone and buried his head in the hospital gown. His ears rang for a long time before he felt the temperature from his forehead.
Someone had rescued him and he was now in the arms of the person who rescued him. The other person's heartbeat was completely different from his own. It was slow and calm, like regular drops of water on a remote cliff where no one went. No one could disturb this heart rate.
Even if the person holding the machete was enough to kill him, this wasn't enough to disrupt his breathing and heartbeat.
[System notification: Player Bai Liu has used Mu Sicheng's personal skill Thief Moving Stealthily. Movement speed +3700 and your physical strength is rapidly declining...]
[System notification: Player Bai Liu has used Mu Sicheng's personal skill Thief's Monkey Hand to block player Miao Feichi's attack.]
"Fuck, it is you again, Bai Liu!" Miao Feichi instantly exploded. He gritted his teeth and pressed the knives down. "Liu Huai's arms are gone and you sent yourself to the door. Let's see who else can help you today?!"
Miao Feichi snapped and his two knives danced wildly. The silver light of the blades flashed in the tunnel. Bai Liu threw Mu Ke back and pushed him on the shoulder to signal for Mu Ke to continue running forward. Then he moved sideways to avoid Miao Feichi's knife that was aiming at his shoulder with force. Miao Feichi tried the same trick again. He didn't know how long Bai Liu's health could last and wanted to quickly kill Bai Liu.
Bai Liu used high speed to avoid Miao Feichi's powerful knives. Then he turned around and used his monkey hands. He stepped back while trying not to let Miao Feichi's knives touch him. How could Miao Feichi easily let go of Bai Liu? His attacks became so fierce that it seemed like Bai Liu couldn't hold on.
Mu Ke had run two steps. His heart was still pounding and it wasn't calm. As he ran, he suddenly turned his head and glanced at the investor who saved him and was still fighting.
This was an investor who would save children. 'He won't kill you because he is a strange man. He will save you.'
Little Mu Ke burst into tears while laughing. His lips shook as he ran, tears filling his small face like an outburst of emotions.
He did save me. Bai Liu (6), your investor is really too strange. He clearly isn't a good person.
He killed you but saved me. I can't figure out what he is trying to do, just like I can't figure out what you were trying to do.
It is clear that neither you nor he is a good person but in the end, you both tried your best to save me. However, we only met on Sunday and today is Wednesday. You and your investor seem like you are going to die for me.
I don't want this.
7th anniversary celebration event
Proofreader: Purichan