IWOL Chapter 140: A Startling Call

This time, they slept for nearly twelve hours. Dong Zheng woke up, feeling sore all over his body.

After a good rest, the aftereffect of pushing himself too hard gradually revealed itself, causing his hands and feet to protest against him. Victor was awake, and seeing that Dong Zheng was moving stiffly, he couldn’t help but smile. With a dexterous leap, he went over to purify his soreness.

Dong Zheng looked around and saw no trace of Cui Zuojing and asked, “Where is he?”

“He went to the bathroom.” As the faint white light soaked into Dong Zheng’s body, a refreshing sensation swept over him, easing his aching muscles.

After a while, Cui Zuojing came back. It was quite troublesome to solve the three-pressing problems in the box. The temperature outside was so cold that urine would basically freeze up the moment it came out. There was also the risk of getting frostbite. But, it was impossible to go in the safe house, which wasn’t considerate enough to design a restroom for them. Therefore, they could only find a corner to resolve nature’s call.

Female pilgrims had the worst of it. Not only did they not have the convenience of a toilet, but they also needed to pay attention to their menstrual period as that it wouldn’t conflict with entering the box. If there was no choice, the only alternative they had was to take medication to delay it.

Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi were taking inventory of the weapons, while Wang Que was sitting in a corner in a daze. Since Allen fell off the cliff, she’d been mostly silent. Dong Zheng glanced at her but decided to let her have her solitude. Every individual needed to slowly digest their pain by themselves. No matter how much others may try to help, the effect would only be minimal.

She was still young, so strong emotions may seem too overwhelming. But, as the card on the stitched-hear bear had said, ‘Only time can mend all wounds.’

There were still 35 hours left before the end of the box.

Estimating that their rest time was almost coming to an end, Dong Zheng put his helmet back on and said, “Get ready to go. Once we find the master control room and send the signal, this will be over.”

Cui Zuojing took one final sip of water and put the empty canteen away. He stood with the Tang Sword at his waist, pressing down on the handle with one hand and his gun with the other. He was ready for any unknown creatures that might come through the door once it was opened.

In the past, it was Allen who was the fastest and the strongest. But now Dong Linhai had become the strongest one among the four of them. Therefore, he took the lead. Wang Que carefully sent out her perception and noted only a few small insects outside. She gave them the signal to proceed.

Dong Linhai took a deep breath, leaned sideways on the wall next to the door, pressing the doorknob with one hand, and slowly opened the door of the safe house.

The little flying insects resting on the wall were startled and immediately flew towards everyone. These insects were only the size of a rice grain and were gray all over. Although they died easily, it was hard not to be frightened when there was a large group of them.

Dong Linhai pointed the muzzle of the flamethrower at the insect swarm, gently pulled the trigger, and the flames spurted out. The high temperature of thousands of degrees directly burned the insects to ashes.

There was only the sound of breathing in their communication channel as everyone carefully focused their full attention on their surroundings. They advanced quickly. After walking through a corridor of more than ten meters, they arrived at the first fork in the path.

They paused, and Wang Que frowned. Due to her perception of the insects, she had a general outline of the entire layout of the Institute of Biochemistry. Every room and passage had these ubiquitous creatures that conveniently provided her with considerable data.

The door ahead could not be opened. The left path would lead to the outermost section where the light spots gathered in large numbers, indicating that this was probably the outskirts of the institute. The master control room could not be located in such a remote place. She thought for a moment and pointed to the right, “This way!”

She specifically focused on the locations of a few insects and told everyone about the layout along the way. The general control room in the military base had also provided Dong Zheng with general information about the institute’s layout. However, it wasn’t very detailed.

Fortunately, Lin Hangzhi had a great deal of understanding. During his PhD, he worked as an intern in a medical research institute. The specific layout between the two should be similar.

The research institute was in a dormant state in the middle of an ice age. No one thought that anyone would come here after thousands of years and so there was no lighting along the path. The only light source was from the fluorescent glow of insects, making the darkness glimmer eerily.

Soon, they saw a few lights coming from the other side. The hallway very quickly turned a corner, and the lights not only illuminated the path in front of them but reflected their solemn faces.

“How big is this place?” Dong Linhai asked. They’d been walking for forty minutes. There were countless doors along the way that required a chip from the research institute to open. In addition, there were many important pathways that wouldn’t be easy for them to provoke, housing large bugs that would take them a great deal of effort for them to get rid of.

“There’s more than one floor here,” Dong Zheng said. “Let’s see if we can find an authorization chip. We’ll need it to open the door to the master control room.”

Cui Zuojingsaid, “We’ll need to restore the power system first, otherwise a chip won’t be useful.”

The room numbers in the hall were covered by a layer of insects. Dong Linhai had to burn the insects on the door one by one, and then Cui Zuojing had to cut the lock. Because the insects could also enter through the ventilation system, they also found more insects inside the enclosed rooms. Unfortunately, many important paper documents were bitten into pieces and turned into a pile of waste.

The institute’s floor plan was originally hung on the wall in the corridor. Now, there was nothing left.

Dong Linhai gave full play to his talent for finding things and rummaged back and forth through the cabinets. Under the base of a metal trophy in the cabinet, he found a hidden compartment.

He weighted it on his hand and estimated that the base of the entire trophy should be hollow.

Cui Zuojing hadn’t forgotten that Dong Linhai had shown amazing talents in finding things since the very first box. He raised his eyebrows and said, “This skill of your isn’t bad.”

Dong Linhai waved his hand and said, “I have lots of practice. When I was younger, my parents used to hide my game console, so there’s no place in the whole house that’s safe for me. I even found a mouse hole once.”

It seemed like everyone’s childhood was similar…Cui Zuojing nodded, expressing his deep understanding.

“At that time, I took advantage of the fact that no one in my family was home and secretly played on the computer. The moment I heard the sound of the car door outside, I would hurriedly close the door and pretend to study.” Dong Linhai chuckled twice. “I had a special cushion for playing and would just spread it on the chair the moment my parents and brother came back. Once they saw the chair, they would know that someone had sat there.”

“Your trick didn’t fool our mother.” Dong Zheng couldn’t prevent the corners of his mouth from hooking up. “Did you really think turning off the computer and changing the cushion worked? All mother had to do was check how warm the computer was and she’ll know that you’d been playing games on it.”

Dong Linhai was stunned and howled, “What?! Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?! No wonder Dad beat me several times!”

“I was waiting to see when you’ll figure it out, silly boy.” As Dong Zheng spoke, he’d been trying to open the secret compartment. As soon as his voice fell, he succeeded. In the hollowed base was a U disk, which was taped to the wall of the compartment.

Dong Zheng took out the U disk and said, “Now we need to find a working computer.”

Dong Linhai checked the fuel in the flamethrower to confirm that it was still fine. He said, “Then let’s go.”

Cui Zuojing didn’t say a word. He stared at the black telephone, as if he had a certain premonition and was waiting for something.

Five seconds later, when everyone was walking towards the door, the screen on the phone suddenly lit up, and it began to rang.

Everyone was taken aback. Wang Que screamed and clutched Dong Linhai’s arm. She turned her head and stared at the ringing phone in horror.

Although Dong Linhai had played countless horror games and was used to the trick of the phone suddenly ringing, he was still shocked. Experiencing it in a game was one thing, but experiencing it in real life was quite another thing!

Biochemical spill, numerous insects, a sudden telephone call….Zoe is your Zoe. Don’t call me. I want to save Mia! (1)

Lin Hangzhi took a few steps back, holding the radium gun, which began to tremble. Weren’t they the only group of people here? How did the phone rang? Was it possible that…the insects had evolved enough to make calls?!

Dong Zheng was also alarmed. He stared at the ringing telephone and glanced at Cui Zuojing, not knowing whether to answer it or not.

The phone rang persistently. An insect became attracted by the sound and climbed onto the dimly lit screen, blocking the number 6.

On the display screen was a string of six-digit numbers, which was an internal number.

The call came from inside the research institute.

Dong Zheng took a deep breath. He walked over and picked up the receiver without answering.

He didn’t speak, and likewise, the person opposite didn’t say a word. He could only hear a slight sound from the other end of the phone.

After about half a minute, he heard the person say, “Go down the second fork in the corridor and turn left. At the end, there is an elevator leading to the next floor. After going downstairs, in the second room on the left is a computer with a good backup power supply.”

Dong Zheng was shocked. They needed to find a working computer. The call came, as if… as if someone was watching them from an unknown location.

“Who are you?” Dong Zheng didn’t panic. He stared at the string of numbers on the screen and secretly memorized it.

There was no answer.

Just when Dong Zheng thought that the person on the other end of the phone had already left, the person spoke up again, “Take care of Cui Zuojing, and do what you want to do.”

The person’s voice was low and a bit distorted due to static.

Do what I want to do? 

Dong Zheng keenly sensed that there was something in his words. He was  just about to open his mouth to ask when a beeping, busy tone came from the other end of the phone.

He held the receiver and looked at it for a few seconds, frowning tightly. The man knew that he was the one answering the phone and had also specifically mentioned Cui Zuojing.

Dong Zheng looked at Cui Zuojing, who was also looking back at him inquisitively. The earpiece had a good sound muting effect. Aside from Dong Zheng, no one could hear what was said to him.

Dong Zheng gently put the receiver back in place.

Putting aside the question of why this mysterious man wanted to help him, what about the sentence ‘Do what you want to do’?….What did that mean?

Cui Zuojing asked, “What’s the situation?”

“Someone told me that there is a working computer in a room downstairs.” Dong Zheng didn’t tell them the second part.

Everyone was startled when they heard this, Dong Linhai exclaimed, “What? Could it be…someone was watching us?!”

Dong Zheng shook his head and said that he didn’t know. The voice just now seemed a bit familiar, but because of the static, he couldn’t remember who it was.

He glanced at the phone one last time, as if he wanted to see through the line to the person on the other end.

“Let’s go and find that place first.”

____________________

Translation Notes:

(1) Zoe is your Zoe! Don’t call me. I want to save Mia! — According to the author, this was in reference to Resident Evil 7, wherein the protagonist had to chose between using a life-saving serum on his wife Mia or on Zoe, who had been secretly helping him.


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Anonymous
Anonymous
2 years ago

Thank you for the chapter~

Was that Domingo on the phone?? O.O It really does seem like he knows everything that's happening with the team… Does he have some advanced means of spying on them? Does he know the future? I'm starting to develop all sorts of wild theories about him now -w-; Maybe he's a teammate they'll get in the future? Or someone from their past who's been secretly following them? Maybe he's a part of the Pure White Realm itself and that's why he knows things? Or maybe he's the human form of Cui Zuojing's Tang sword? XD I wonder how that advice to Dong Zheng is going to come into use later…

Toast
Toast
2 years ago

I still feel that Domingo is future Dong Zheng, especially after Allan’s death. He seemed to have knew he was going to die (I remember back in one chapter where he had specifically looked at Allan with complex emotions or something). In general, Domingo seems to have a lot of regrets. Even his advice of “Do what you want to do” to Dong Zheng sounded like it stemmed from his own past experience, like he was cheering on this Dong Zheng so he wouldn’t end like him.

It makes me wonder what happened. Domingo having the time power makes me assume that something had happened to Cui Zuojing and had caused his power to go to Dong Zheng. My theory is that perhaps, Cui Zuojing had faced a deadly situation and in order to not allow the power to go to the queen or someone else, he had forced Dong Zheng to kill him so he could inherit the power. It’s a perfect ingredient for angst LOL. But it might be a far-fetched. (; -u-)

Unknown 2
Unknown 2
2 years ago
Reply to  Xixi

Does it mean that it’s not right?..

rias
rias
1 year ago
Reply to  Xixi

ohh, I need to binge read this! I need to know everything 😭

Dreamer
Dreamer
2 years ago

I’m sorry but I can never emotionally recover from Allen’s death… Huhuhuhu

AAAAAAAH Resident Evil 7 reference!!! I knew that this arc has the most similar vibe to RE7 among the other RE games. I had a stroke when I read that line.

So yes, in the game, you are given a choice to save Mia–you’re wife who went missing and you search out to discover she is a researcher of a crime syndicate who does bio-weaponry– or Zoe, who helps you throughout the game in order to survive.

If you chose Zoe, she will still die on the journey. Mia then sacrifices herself for you in order to live later on. Eventually Mia turned into one of the monsters and you’ll have to kill her. You escape alone. This is considered the bad ending.

If you chose Mia, Zoe doesn’t appear ever after even until the end of the game. And Mia will live until the very end.

So yeah. Even if Zoe is such a great woman and she did nothing wrong… Gotta save your wife even if she worked for a crime syndicate lol

Psyx
Psyx
2 years ago

Wait a minute…female pilgrims still get their menses??? Does that mean they can still get pregnant while in the Pure White Realm??? Are there any kids born from pilgrims, then??? Will CZJ suddenly turn into an omega and have a kid with DZ that will grow up as Domingo??? (Ignore the last statement lmaoo 😂😂)

Ale 🐺
Ale 🐺
1 year ago
Reply to  Psyx

For a moment I thought the same lol

weiwei
weiwei
7 months ago
Reply to  Psyx

lmao

bmb
bmb
1 year ago

I think the person in the phone is future Dong Zheng.

I dunno
I dunno
1 year ago

Yup, before its only my assumption, but now i feel like Domingo is really future DZ. All the hints are pointing to this crazy and tragic conclusion.

Why else would he cry when Allen died? And there’s also reminisce from his eyes from Dusk island when he saw Allen. His best friend.

He also knew what DZ is feeling right now for CZ that’s why he said “Do what you want to do” or meaning express your feelings for CZ as soon as possible. He’s also telling his past self to take care of CZ.

Maybe he did kill CZ in the future? But not because he want to, but because CZ wants him to inherit his power of time or smthing that’s why he could travel back in time now and has the power of time? Maybe his whole team died in the future(diff timeline) ? If Domingo is really future DZ, then that’s really tragic. Im sensing Trunks (from DBZ) vibes from him.

3694
3694
1 year ago

It is DZ 😭

bel
bel
1 year ago

i love how the author talked about the bathroom thing lmao because its something i always wonder about every time i read a novel like this 😂😂

theeggmonger
theeggmonger
11 months ago

I’m curious about how Domingo always gets into the same boxes. Is there a notification or a team up? Thank you for the translation!

weiwei
weiwei
7 months ago

domingo is DZ or the human form of his ability kernel idk

thatonecat
thatonecat
4 months ago

Who the hell saves Mia after everything she’s done? Zoe and her family are victims of her. Stupid game makes taking Mia the better choice for Zoe though. Not sure why the developers made it that way, I’m genuinely curious.

Oh, right, the novel. I hope that future boy isn’t a deus ex machina or even involved in most of the remaining boxes. It makes their choices and fates seem to not matter, as he’ll show up and change things anyway.

Elea
Elea
15 days ago

I’m becoming more and more sure that Domingo is DongZheng. I’m just hoping that doesn’t mean DZ experiences something horrible, making him say something like that to his past self