IWOL Chapter 95: The Strength to Protect

Cui Zuojing held the card between his fingers and looked at the three men provocatively. But, he suddenly felt his fingers become empty.

He turned his head. Wang Que had appeared behind him and was now holding the card. With a determined expression, she bit her index finger and pressed the blood onto the pattern of the Hanged Man on the back of the card.

For ordinary prisoners, there weren’t so many rules. The prisoner in the card would belong to whoever holds the card and drips blood on it.

A white light flashed, and a new prisoner contract overrode the previous. From this moment on, the woman would become Wang Que’s prisoner.

Cui Zuojing turned and looked at the three dazed men. Cui Zuojing’s attack was too fast. The other two hadn’t even seen him move before their companion suddenly fell directly to the ground.

The attacker was the shortest, most harmless looking one.

This dazzling gap in strength made the two men lose their will to fight back. They knew how bad the current situation was and took hold of the team captain’s arm, wanting to take him away.

“A spiritual attack! You mentally attacked me! You’re a brain developer!” The team captain stood up, looking wretched with his nose bleeding profusely. Not even bothering to look at Cui Zuojing, who’d punched him, he stared at Dong Zheng and shouted, “That person on the ship. You were the one who killed that person on the ship, right?”

Dong Zheng didn’t deny it and said coldly, “So what.”

Although everyone in the Wonton Insurgency took it in stride, mental abilities were the rarest and most difficult ability to awaken. Every mature brain developer had a chilling ability–they were good at destroying a person’s consciousness without making a single move. Just like Fu Zhe.

These three people were really scared. They hadn’t forgotten how that poor guy had died. His entire brain tissue was destroyed, so much so that his brain was oozing out of his ears.

Cui Zuojing raised his sword and pointed at one of the men’s crotch. With a dark smile, he said, “Since you’re so hungry and thirsty, why don’t you solve each other instead? It just happens that you now have a chance to do so.”

“Fuck, you guys just wait.” One of them was quite unresigned, but his life was on the line so he could only help the injured team captain and run away.

They’d passed through so many boxes and met so many people along the way. How did they run into someone who was so nosy? Why were they so unlucky this time?

“Okay, I’ll wait. I’m waiting to take your lives,” Cui Zuojing shouted.

The three people quickly disappeared before Cui Zuojing could completely release his anger. He turned his gaze around and told the confused woman, “Put your clothes on.”

He may lack feelings, but that didn’t mean he lacked the most basic morality of life.

The woman trembled in fear. In her opinion, being taken away by a team with so many men was like falling from a tiger’s mouth in a wolf’s den.

Wang Que walked over, took off her coat, and gave it to the woman. Seeing that there was another girl besides her, the woman’s tear-filled eyes immediately brightened. She gripped Wang Que’s hand, as if she’d found a savior.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.” Wang Que gave the woman her pants and softly added, “Put your clothes on.”

Dong Zheng still felt an unbearable nausea. Still tightly frowning, he asked Cui Zuojing in a low voice, “Real prisoners…are normally treated like this?”

This was the first time he’d seen other prisoners in a box. Dong Zheng thought that he was a grown adult, but he still felt disgusted and resistance from the depths of his soul.

Not to mention the two 18 and a half year old children in the team. This display had completely subverted Dong Linhai’s three views.

This was also his first real, bloody realization of the cruel laws of the jungle.

Cui Zuojing said, “It depends on fate. Some people I know in the past were good to their prisoners. Human altruism exists naturally and so instinct will cause people to treat those who are similar to themselves kindly. But then again, if people become evil, they’re more terrible than the most ferocious demon.”

Dong Zheng nodded silently. Wang Que was still comforting the new prisoner and helping her get dressed. Meanwhile, the others stood silently far away, not looking in their direction.

Lin Hangzhi came over and looked at the white prisoner card. The pattern on the back was a hanged man strung upside down on a tree.

“What’s your name?” Wang Que helped the woman pull up her shoulder straps and fasten her coat buttons.

Wang Que looked like a very gentle girl and didn’t seem to have an ounce of aggressiveness. The woman held her hand and finally realized her sudden change of fortune. She couldn’t help crying again and choked out, “My name is Lillian.”

She had an Australian accent. Wang Que helped her up and said, “My name is Wang Que. These are my teammates. They are very good people. Don’t be afraid.”

Lillian only nodded her head a little. She was still very timid and was too afraid to make eye contact with the others. Everyone didn’t mention the three men in tacit understanding. Wang Que asked, “Do you want to go back to the prisoner space to rest?”

Lillian nodded, then she shook her head and whispered, “They came ashore on the east coast. Last night, they entered a canyon and found the remains of a ruin. Inside, they discovered a book written in what was probably Hebrew and Old English.”

The man only regarded her as a slave who couldn’t escape the palm of his hand and didn’t try to hide anything from her. She knew almost everything.

“Of the three of them, one has the ability to keratinize his whole body in order to lighten his body a little, one has increased aiming ability, and one has a monkey as his summoning beast,” Lillian exposed everything. She added uneasily, “That’s all I know. I hope that will help you–”

As soon as her voice fell, Dong Zheng felt a sense of crisis. He grabbed Lillian’s wrist and pulled her to the side, saying, “Bow down!”

Lillian staggered and subconsciously bowed down hastily.

Bang!

Cui Zuojing fiercely raised his hand, and the Tang Sword immediately blocked a fast-flying arrow. He turned his head. The man in the shadow of a tree behind him saw that he couldn’t make a shot. He retracted his bow and arrow and ran away, cursing.

If Dong Zheng hadn’t sensed it in advance and Cui Zuojing hadn’t blocked it, the arrow would have pierced Lillian’s heart.

Her previous master would rather destroy something that was no longer his own than leave it in the hands of others.

Lillian’s eyes finally showed unconcealed horror. Wang Que was still stunned. Dong Zheng immediately drew a pattern in the air to show her and said, “The summoning method.”

Once Wang Que learned to successfully do it, she called Lillian back into her prisoner space.

Now she could finally be considered temporarily safe.

Cui Zuojing didn’t bother chasing after the man. The attacker was probably the man that Lillian said had the ability to shoot accurately. Although these three were terrible people, he didn’t want to act as judge and executioner.

The wicked will have their own heavenly retribution.

Dong Linhai frowned and said, “How disgusting.”

“There are many disgusting things here. This is not the harmonious society of the modern world.” Seeing that Wang Que was still discomfited, Cui Zuojing patted her shoulder and added, “Let’s go. There’s no point in wasting time.”

The group continued their journey, though they were more silent now when compared to earlier. Although Wang Que didn’t know much about Cui Zuojing, it wasn’t difficult to guess that he must have been a very strong pilgrim before he became a prisoner. She walked by his side and asked softly, “Big Brother Cui, have you encountered this kind of situation many times before?”

Cui Zuojing was somewhat gratified that Wang Que was calling him “Big Brother Cui.” He was as old as Dong Zheng, but because of his appearance, he’d always been treated like a child. Wang Que was the first person to raise him up.

“More or less. Sometimes the evil of human nature is far beyond imagination, not only among these players but also in the scripts of many boxes. Do you remember the Doll’s House and what happened right before we left? It took a long time to get over, didn’t it?”

Cui Zuojing said, “So as a pilgrim, what we need to do is to improve our psychological endurance, lest we collapse before we even get to see the queen.”

“Of course, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be kind. It’s still possible to help change the tragedies within the limits of our abilities. At least in the Doll’s House, Agatha will be happy forever in the world of her dreams.”

On the way, Dong Zheng showed Wang Que some methods for manipulating prisoners. There was no spiritual connection between an ordinary prisoner and its owner. Therefore, all she needed to master was the various summoning calls under various circumstances.

Wang Que placed the card securely in her closest place. This was her first prisoner and a friend she’d helped save, one who was even weaker than she herself and who needed her protection.

She glanced at the prisoner’s space and saw that Lillian was already asleep. She was in her early twenties, not more than a few years older than Wang Que herself. She seemed quite insecure and was shrunk into the corner of the bed, holding onto her comforter tightly.

This made Wang Que feel sad, but she also felt that she was very fortunate to have met these teammates who were so good to her.

The deeper into the forest they tread, the more difficult it became to walk. The middle portion of the island protruded into a hill. Although it wasn’t steep, the ground was completely covered by lush green. To make sure that they’re moving in the right direction, Victor climbed to the top of a tree and saw the smoke dissipating in the clear sky.

From the distance came the roar of an unknown bird, and a red-ringed snake silently slithered along the tree. This tree was different from other trees in the surrounding area. It was a tall cedar tree with barks full of holes. The branches and leaves stretched out toward its surroundings, and it’s high tip pointed directly to the sky.

The parts of everyone’s arms and ankles that were exposed were all bitten by mosquitoes. Cui Zuojing was bitten on the side of his neck and it was so itchy that he couldn’t help but reach out and scratched the whole piece of skin red.

“Hey, I want to–” Cui Zuojing looked back to Dong Zheng, only to find that there was no one behind him.

Where did everyone go?

The youth instantly became more alert. He hadn’t heard any unusual sounds. How could everyone suddenly disappear?

“Dong Zheng?”

No one answered. Only the birds were crying non-stop atop branches, intermixed with the chatters of cicadas and monkeys.

“Victor?”

His calls seemed to sink into a bottomless sea.

Cui Zuojing clenched the sword in his hand and stood in place. He looked around for a while but found no clues.

He furrowed his brows and returned to their original path. When he brushed aside the jumbled branches and shrubs, his sight suddenly became clear–

Dong Zheng laid face down on the ground, and there two small puncture holes on the large artery of his neck. Blood was constantly pouring out, staining half of his body a dark red.

And Victor was at Dong Zheng’s feet with a red-ringed snake winding around him, constantly tightening and squeezing. It extended a scarlet forked tongue, ready to swallow the motionless white cat alive.