Chapter 3: An Unpleasant Experience

  Bao Yingjie's performance was unexpectedly good. It can be said that as long as he continues to maintain his current state, he will definitely be among the last batch of minority people!

  Maybe he can pass?

  Shaking her head, Jiǔ Mìng looked at Chéng Xīng who was sitting on the ground with a dazed expression, clutching her skirt. She seemed too ordinary, and just that one episode of crying had brought her a certain degree of exhaustion...

  Hmm? Why bother making such a boring evaluation in my own mind?

  After all, I am also a person in the局, and I should think about my own future. If not, I will specially support one who can survive to the end. At that time, I may be able to get out, even if I become a ghost now, I can still experience a unique ghost life experience.

  At the eighth hour, Bao Yingjie, who had been forcing himself to sleep, finally fell asleep. Cheng also couldn't resist his drowsiness due to mental fatigue and leaned against the wall to rest.

  Is it really that reassuring?

  He smiled lightly, Jiuming stood up and stretched his body, then sat back down, helping them keep an eye on their surroundings again without any losses... it's just unknown how far they can go, hopefully this little fatty's performance won't disappoint him.

  An invisible pressure hangs over everyone's head, and many people have realized that the probability of encountering others is not as low as they thought. In fact, if one makes an effort to look for it, finding someone else is not too difficult. Sometimes, just sitting still can make it possible to see someone appearing around the corner.

  Anxiety, depression, and the usual white surroundings bring a lot of pressure to everyone. Some people with strong crisis awareness dare not sleep well, fearing that they will be encountered by others while sleeping.

  There are also some who are irresolute, and their minds have already begun to constantly recall that sentence, death is just a nightmare for oneself...

  Well then, might as well give myself a good release and not have to slowly endure this torture here, so in the labyrinth some places' white walls were stained with crimson blood...

  "Damn... someone actually did this?" Looking at the dried bloodstains on the wall, Bao Yingjie took a deep breath, observing the direction and convergence of the blood flow. It was clear that the person who crashed into the wall had committed suicide. As for the body...

  "Brother Jiu, this corpse won't 'refresh' again, will it?" Bao Yingjie and the woman asked with a hint of hope. Brother Jiu scratched his cheek, simply pointing to one side, where a faint but visible trail of blood droplets had formed.

  "Damn it...... I was dragged away, could it be that some lunatic actually wants to use people as spare rations? Even if he's surprised, Bao Yingjie's voice isn't loud, even if he wanted to shout, his hunger and thirst wouldn't allow him to."

  "Think of it as a good thing, maybe that person is also kind-hearted and doesn't want to see others die in the wilderness, so they went to help them deal with it." Jiǔ Mìng said with a laugh, somewhat helplessly.

  Bao Yingjie touched the tip of his nose, and the woman named Autumn Red, who was already pale, became even paler. The fatty wanted to ask more questions, what about handling? How to handle it? With a barbecue rack and mouth?

  Wait! It seems like there's nothing to start a fire here, I'm going crazy, won't we have to eat it raw?

  Having realized this point, Bao Yingjie felt that his hands and feet were icy cold. The society was complex with dark roads and slippery paths. He hadn't watched news on TV, but he had barely missed any on the computer. In short... can two types of abilities be compared?

  Of course not!

  Wow, I didn't expect there are people with such a heavy taste!

  Xiao Pangzi saw Qiu Hong's hesitant and struggling expression, "Hey, Jiu Ge, you said that suicidal guy should have gone back by now, right?"

  Bao Yingjie's words seemed to have touched some determination within her.

  "Who knows? You're talking so much, aren't you thirsty?" He waved his hand to interrupt Bao Yingjie's slightly suggestive words. "Even if I'm here, you'd better keep your strength up."

  A bit of a scatterbrain, a six-godless woman, nine lives rubbing heads, this team isn't easy to lead. Never mind, everyone here is a poor soul, if you can lend a helping hand, just do it. After all, he himself is an ordinary person, even though he has a weak body and faces the possibility of dying at any moment, he still has a very calm attitude, he's still an ordinary person, not some kind of monster.

  Even if it has become a ghostly existence now.

  Why suicide? Why suffer? Believe those irresponsible subtitles?

  Alright, this ninth life is also unclear whether it's true or false, but since we haven't reached a dead end yet, let's not try it out easily. This unfamiliar person slightly shook his head, can this be considered a kind of relief?

  "...found a clean place, the two of them and the ghost sat down again. Bao Yingjie rubbed his stomach, which was growling from time to time, and truly missed the good old days of eating and drinking. Now...he could only reminisce while slowly grinding his teeth, because he was so thirsty that not even saliva would come out."

  It's been twelve hours already.

  As soon as they sat down, apart from Jiǔ Mìng, both of them felt a wave of weakness and powerlessness, purely because they were starving.

  "Wait!" Almost at the same time, Jiǔ Mìng stood up and grabbed her hand as she was about to dash towards the wall. "This won't do..."

  "I've had enough!! I have a child and a husband! Why did you bring me here!!! I want to go back!!! It's been a long time since she's been suppressing her emotions, but they suddenly burst out, "You're not like us! You're just watching from the side, it's easy for you, isn't it?! It must be you, you monster, who brought me here! I want to go back!!"

  I don't know where the strength came from, but the weak Autumn Red suddenly broke free from the desperate tug-of-war and stumbled towards a passageway on one side.

  "Is that so......" He let out a sigh of relief, and the Nine Lives slightly shook his head. Perhaps he had made things too simple for himself, but it wasn't him who had brought them here after all.

  "Brother Jiu, so you can actually touch things?" Bao Yingjie twitched the corner of his mouth, and the words that Qiu Hong shouted out were something he had thought about before. As time passed, with his own weakness, this idea gradually deepened.

  "Huh? I was a bit anxious just now, but it seems like this might actually work. I'll go take a look at the situation, can you wait here for a bit?"

  "It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter!" The little fatty hastily nodded his head.

  Jiǔ Mìng followed the direction of Autumn Red's escape, and Bāo Yīng Jié swallowed his saliva and quietly followed. Jiǔ Mìng didn't explain anything to reassure him, as the saying goes, "If you don't do anything wrong, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door." If Jiǔ Mìng had explained a bit more... it would have also avoided the possibility that he was particularly good at pretending.

  A sharp cry, Jiǔ Mìng raised an eyebrow, the voice could penetrate over here, and the person was not far away. After looking around and memorizing the local roads, Jiǔ Mìng went around to where the sound came from.

  After figuring out some of the rules of this maze, it's still very convenient to move around.

  "What are you going to do with the person I'm taking care of?!"

  "It's you! Don't come any closer!" A man with a blood-stained ** in his hand, grabbing Autumn Red's hair, shouted at Jiu Ming with dry and cracked lips.

  "Alright, alright, you let him go and I won't bother going over there, how about that?" Jiǔ Mìng said with a faint smile, using a tone of negotiation with the man.

  "Let her go..." The man swiftly put **around Akihong's neck, "No! If you come any closer I'll kill her!"

  "Oh?" The smile on his face stiffened for a moment, not the stiffness of being unable to come to an agreement, but because he saw the determination in Autumn Red's eyes as she was pulled by her hair by the man. Sure enough, the next moment, she actively rushed towards the man's knife.

  Can't stop it?

  Taking a light breath, Jiǔ Mìng's heart was not pleasant. In this place, many things were indeed unstoppable. Rescue people?

  Apart from providing some safe convenience to a small number of people, it can't bring any substantial help to that small number of people. At the same time, those few people will also be subject to the hostility of others, and perhaps those few people will also have a repulsive meaning towards Jiǔ Mìng.

  If nine lives were here... how would they find 'food'?

  It's not that people's hearts are dark, it's just that they've been forced out!

  The man stared blankly at Qiu Hong, who was bleeding from the neck and falling to the ground. He snapped out of his trance and saw that Jiuming's attention was not on him, so he quickly pulled her aside and retreated.

  "Get out!" The furious Jiǔ Mìng rushed to the man's front, kicked him flying with one foot, and crashed into the white wall. The power of this kick exceeded Jiǔ Mìng's expectations.

  "My god, I'm not that unlucky, am I?" Feeling a sharp pain in his back, Bao Yingjie turned around to see a muscular man with tattoos on his chest and a short knife stabbed into his back.

  It seems that from the beginning there were a few people in this group who seemed to be carrying weapons...

  Lonely sitting on the ground, Jiǔ Mìng's body was surrounded by a pool of blood, next to which lay a single shoe, belonging to Bāo Yīngjié.

  I've always been alone, in life and now in death. I feel a little tired for some reason. If a ghost stays in the mortal world, it's because of a strong attachment. What about me?

  I don't have any special obsession with anything. I looked at my hands and there's no sign of them disappearing, okay, it seems that nothing is reliable after all.

  This place is not reliable either, just like now!

  The nine lives leaned against the wall, unknowingly becoming a long, long wall that extended far away. Before, this was still part of the maze, but now it has become the boundary?

  The scope is narrowing down.

  It's easy to imagine that the possibility of people meeting each other won't decrease with the reduction in numbers, it feels like a crucible here.

  Select those with the strongest abilities and survival skills.

  Having discovered this, the nine lives are temporarily stagnant. Even if helping others, without results, the assistance feels unfulfilling, just like some works that are destined to be depressing from the beginning. No matter how good or joyful the process is, the abrupt and steep decline at the end makes one want to curse!