Shen Xin was so scared that she trembled and nearly screamed. Her instincts made her press herself down even lower while her heart made “putong putong” sounds, almost jumping out of her chest.
Rustling…… The wind maneuvered through the leaves in the forest, bringing with it a burst of noise, but no one answered. The man seemed calm, and his voice sank: “Which friend is in the forest? Come out and help us brothers. In the future everyone can also take care of each other in the game!”
It was only now that Shen Xin’s violently pounding heart finally calmed down a little. The other party’s immobility made her feel temporarily relieved. Curling her lips, she silently thought to herself: Only fools would believe you, too bad you can’t hit me (略略略)*!
*T/N: 略略略 is a popular online buzzword that originated on Weibo (an online platform in China). It refers to the sound of poking your tongue out. The literal translation is closer to ‘just a little bit’, but without context it doesn’t make much sense so we used a more approximate translation that holds on to the general meaning!
“Really?” At that moment, a female voice suddenly sounded in the forest. Although her voice was weak, the sudden sound greatly startled Shen Xin. She almost fell over and hurriedly balanced herself, holding her breath, but while she’d heard a voice, no figure had appeared.
Hearing the sound, the man who’d been talking also paused for a moment, and then immediately laughed, answering: “Of course it’s true, the three of us are working together, do we have to be afraid that there is something we can’t solve?! When the time comes, brother will cover for you and carefully spoil you!”
The female voice didn’t talk again, and the forest was quiet for a while. Shen Xin was scared in her heart, and she also felt a little speechless. Saying these words at such a time……
After a moment of silence, the big man was beginning to feel impatient and anxious, yet he still forced himself to laugh, saying, “How about it? I can hear that you’re a woman, alone and helpless. It isn’t ideal is it? Brother is doing this for your sake!”
Hearing the foul remarks repeatedly made by the man, Shen Xin immediately frowned, suddenly feeling a burst of nausea and anger in her heart. She couldn’t even care about her momentary fear anymore.
But she heard that soft, weak voice in the forest again: “I can save you, why are you guys tied up here? Are you bad guys?”
Hearing the voice again, the man appeared to let out a breath, and his tone also eased a lot: “How could that be! It was a little lady who naughtily plotted against us! We invited her to travel together with us out of kindness. Seeing that she was beautiful, we were afraid that she’d come across danger while alone in the forest. Who would have thought that she was unexpectedly a martial artist and mounted a sneak attack on us while we weren’t paying attention, causing us to pass out. She even tied us up. MD* broke our way of survival! Wait when we catch that naughty girl, Laozi XXXXX… “
*MD: <Expletive> Chinese internet slang. Basically another way to swear at someone.
The female voice seemed a little hesitant: “But….. you…… your brother isn’t awake yet, are you going to carry him on your back and go? Wouldn’t the speed be very slow then?”
The big man said immediately: “Then we’ll leave first, he just has to wake up and then he can catch up to us!”
After the big man realised what he’d said, he felt slightly regretful. By saying that he could leave even his own “brother” at any time, he was simultaneously implying that there wouldn’t even be a need to hesitate over abandoning a woman he’d met on the road. For fear that the unknown woman would no longer help, he hurriedly explained: “That isn’t what I meant. My brother knows where the site is. He will definitely make it when he wakes up. He can hurry there directly!”
The female voice was obviously unconvinced: “If you want to scam people you need to have the right appearance! The rules that were announced were clearly heard, how could anyone know the location of the game site? I haven’t even helped you untie your clothes, and you’ve already started to lie, how can you expect me to trust your sincerity?” Toward the end of the sentence, the female’s voice rose clearly.
At that moment, the fear in Shen Xin’s heart gradually faded away. Hearing the word ‘clothes’, she couldn’t suppress the curiosity in her heart, inadvertently raising her head quietly to peek at the scene outside. That single look almost made her laugh aloud. She hurriedly squatted down and covered her mouth——the two middle-aged large men’s hands and feet were bound using their own clothes and pants, only underpants remained on their bodies. They became like four trussed horses*. The big man who was awake struggled constantly, his face flushed. The other lay on his side, and appeared as if he was still unconscious.
*T/N: Idiom meaning that their hands and feet are tied together.
The one that was alert was obviously anxious: “If Laozi lied to you, Laozi XXX! Okay, okay, I’ll tell you. Laozi played this game once before! That time also took place in a forest sometime last year and it was pitch black at night, even a moon wasn’t X there. There were only a few stars! That round, Laozi accidentally found the place. After listening to other people’s analysis, it turned out that the brightest star was the North Star! By going north, you can reach the meeting place!”
The female voice was a little silent for a while, yet Shen Xin’s heart was in complete confusion. This person turned out to be one of the player’s who’d previously failed a round that the system had mentioned! He must’ve discovered that a year has already passed once he’d woken up, no wonder he’s so irritable!
When the female voice didn’t speak any further, the big man hurriedly spoke again: “You still don’t understand?! It’s the sun ah! It’s daytime now, just go in the direction of the sun!”
The female voice spoke this time, but she still didn’t trust him, and her analysis was also quite reasonable: “You just said that you only need to go towards the west? Then if someone arrived on the west side of the house, wouldn’t they be unable to find it?”
“Last time, after everyone had all arrived, they all TM-ed checked! They all walked north! Do you think this is a real forest ah?!” The big man finally couldn’t resist and shouted loudly, “Quickly come and untie Laozi! What time is it already?! You want to be the last three?!”
But the forest was quiet for a while, and then there was the sound of trembling leaves. The rustling sound gradually went further away, and then no one spoke anymore.
How could the big man still not understand that he was tricked by someone? For a while, he swore and desperately tried to get rid of the clothes restraining him. It was just that the uniform prepared by the system still had excellent workmanship. No matter how he twisted his body, he could only roll on the ground.
Shen Xin didn’t delay anymore when she saw this. She was short and so she drilled directly through the bushes next to her, avoiding the need to worry about being seen. Shen Xin wasn’t afraid of being heard, no matter how much the man roared at her from behind, she no longer noticed. The only thing she didn’t dare to do was to go too fast when walking on the road. For some reason, although that female voice she’d heard just now was gentle and weak, Shen Xin was a little scared of this woman who she hadn’t seen the true identity of, and didn’t want to bump into her.
………
Shen Mu walked the entire way toward the place where he’d seen the birds. After walking for a long time, he only saw that the sun had mostly fallen, but except for a few birds, neither movement nor figure could be seen. Just then, when he’d surveyed the scene from upstairs, the distance from the building to where the disturbance took place wasn’t far, so he should’ve arrived by now. Shen Mu suddenly felt slightly hesitant, and couldn’t help looking towards the direction in which the sun had set to reassure himself of his position.
I’m not going the wrong way right…
Shen Mu apprehensively moved forward a little more, slowing his speed down significantly, beginning his contemplation. Suddenly, he heard a young male voice coming from in front of him: “Is anyone there?! Is anyone there?!”
The sound issued from somewhere very close by, and seemed to come from below him. Shen Mu couldn’t help but become startled, looking intently toward the front. There was an unobtrusive pit three or four meters before himt, around the size of a manhole cover. Dense, long grass grew all around it. If someone carelessly rushed past, it would be easy to fall in.
Shen Mu was suddenly quite glad that the person in the pit had called out. Looking at the well-hidden pit, he felt that this person was really unlucky. He walked over to peer into the hole, only to see a young man in his twenties waiting anxiously at the bottom. The young man had dyed his hair a dazzling blond colour, and some black had already grown out slightly at the roots. Wearing an elegant uniform, his facial features also appeared very attractive, however, he was covered in dirt. How long had he already stayed in the hole? Although the hole wasn’t very deep with a depth of around three or four meters, the soil on the inner wall was very hard, and without any handholds, it would be very difficult to climb up.
Seeing that a shadow had suddenly fallen over the pit and someone had appeared, the man immediately called out for help: “Good man! Handsome brother! Help me, do some good, saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda ah!”
Shen Mu asked: “How come you are in this pit?”
The man in the hole froze for a moment, saying: “I fell down ah.” before feeling that these words were superfluous.
Shen Mu then asked: “You fell by yourself?”
The man was choked off for a while, but he couldn’t resist saying: “Nonsense! Don’t tell me it was someone else who pushed me… eh?” The man seemed to have thought of something, immediately switching to a nicer tone: “Brother! Good brother, I fell down by myself! I knew at a glance that you were a good person, so pull me up ok? Otherwise I’ll be done for!” He finished speaking before seeming to have thought of something else and added, “If I receive a useful identity in the game, I definitely won’t let you die! If I’m the witch, I will certainly save you! I swear to God! If I don’t save you, I will never get out of this Suspended Life Game!”
Witch? Shen Mu keenly captured the key word.
In the presence of supernatural powers, being willing to make such a vow had the meaning of staking everything. After talking with him during this brief interlude, Shen Mu felt that this person was very interesting, and furthermore he didn’t seem to be harbouring ulterior motives. In his heart, Shen Mu had already decided to fish him up, but he continued to ask: “Did you not meet anyone else along the way?”
The man hesitated, but immediately said: “After I fell down, you were the first one to pass by. Previously, I met someone else, and seeing the shadow, they seemed to be a girl, but she stayed very far away from me at the time. When I called out to her, she ignored me, and all of a sudden she’d disappeared. She must’ve been born in the year of the rabbit.”
A girl, then it wouldn’t have been… Shen Mu didn’t know whether he felt happy or disappointed in his heart, but he no longer wasted time. He said to the man in the hole, “Throw up your jacket and pants, I’ll pull you up.”
Hearing this, the man immediately undressed, feeling such excitement that he wasn’t shy at all. Shen Mu stood by the hole and waited for him to prepare himself. Suddenly, there was an unnatural breeze by his ears. His whole body froze, and with an almost instinctual reaction of his body, Shen Mu subconsciously dodged to the side. Turning around, Shen Mu kicked heavily towards the stomach of the person, who turned out to be a woman, and the unprepared body fell to the ground. Covering her stomach in pain, the thick branch that had been in her hand fell to the side.
“What’s wrong! Did something happen?” Hearing the noises outside the pit, the man who’d just taken off his clothes in the hole hurriedly asked.
Shen Mu countered that woman’s hands, and looking closely, he found that there were wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. With her hand twisted behind her, she hissed out in pain before desperately calling out: “Murderer! He’s going to murder me!”
Shen Mu was somewhat speechless. This strange woman that he’d never met before appeared to be in her thirties and didn’t seem to know him. Even though this was their first meeting and they had no grievances between them, she’d been holding a stick with the intention of knocking him into the pit and getting rid of two competitors at the same time. Seeing that Shen Mu didn’t respond, she screamed out: “Let go! I’m a teacher! How can you not respect a teacher! Ah…” The woman hadn’t finished speaking, but Shen Mu had already knocked her out.
Once the young man in the cave threw his clothes up, Shen Mu pulled him out.
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Timeless Translations 
Poor lady.
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