Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 913 Decision

Anjie, Chen Yi, and Xu Han all looked at her.

“Sister An, Brother Chen, Xu Han, if we really have to do this… the three of you are responsible for creating more chaos on the outside of the burrow to attract the attention of Old Field Mouse and Fang Youhua. It would be best to alert the claws in the walls and make the burrow chaotic.”

Once He Lingling made up her mind, she quickly began to deploy her respective tasks. "The location... is near the warehouse, or, try to make some noise at the entrance of that hidden cave, but remember one thing: if things go wrong, retreat immediately, with self-preservation as the top priority."

"Only those who are alive can leave this place."

He Lingling didn't want to see any of her teammates die, even though no one would actually die in the guild battle dungeon, she wanted to avoid that possibility as much as possible.

Especially Yu Shijiu... his mental state wasn't very good to begin with, even though it's much more stable now.

"And what about you?" Anjie asked, frowning.

"Shi Jiu and I went to 'visit' the mole."

He Lingling took a deep breath. "My innate skills might be of some use at a crucial moment, and most importantly, I need to observe the mole up close to confirm some of my guesses."

"Lingling!" Anjie disagreed.

Once He Lingling's innate skill is activated, the person will likely be completely passive and unable to move.

"This is the optimal solution."

He Lingling insisted, "We need information, and we also need an opportunity to kill or severely injure the mole. The contamination on Shi Jiu's body is an unexpected variable, Sister An."

Her voice lowered slightly as she spoke: "Once 'Ghost Eye' is activated, I'll definitely be able to see the mole's memories. I need some concrete evidence to prove my suspicions... Besides, it's better for Shi Jiu and me to look after each other than for him to wander around alone."

Yu Shijiu looked at He Lingling, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end just nodded: "Okay."

Anjie frowned, clenched her fists repeatedly, and finally let out a heavy sigh:

"...What exactly is the departure time?"

"Let's do it tonight," Yu Shijiu suggested first. "When those 'claws' in the burrows are most active, and when the moles and field mice are probably most tired and sleepy?"

"There are flowers over there..." Chen Yi reminded him.

“If they were smart, they wouldn’t have intervened directly in the chaos.”

He Lingling analyzed, "Their task is to 'receive' people, and maintaining stability is more advantageous for them, but if they obstruct us... conflict is possible if necessary. Brother Chen, Xu Han, this part is up to you to handle; just be flexible."

Xu Han looked distressed, but still nodded, "Okay, I'll try my best not to hold Sister An and Brother Chen back."

He said it with considerable confidence.

"And swallows..."

Anjie looked towards the door, as if she could see through the wall towards the main room. "It's also a variable that can't be controlled."

"So we have to act quickly."

Yu Shijiu licked his slightly chapped lips, his eyes burning with anticipation for the impending chaos.

"Let's smash everything here before the swallows can fly up and 'take the bride away'."

The remaining four people: "..."

Why does it sound so... natural when Yu Shijiu talks about smashing up someone else's house?

Is it really just a habit?

Regardless, the plan was finalized after continuous discussions and revisions among the five people.

The entire plan appeared somewhat rudimentary, risky, and fraught with uncertainty due to the haste involved.

But deep within this suffocating cavern, amidst the slow turning of the revolving gears, this was the only possible way they could think of to tear open the gap.

The group began to prepare quietly.

Check the weapons, allocate the limited supplies (mainly rummaging through the system inventory for potentially useful items), and adjust your physical agility.

There's not much to worry about in terms of items. Even Yu Shijiu, who joined the game the latest, has quite a few items—although he doesn't use them much.

The talent skill with enough destructive power is enough for Yu Shijiu to use alone.

Moreover, his own strength is beyond that of ordinary people.

Yu Shijiu walked to the corner of the room and completely untied the strip of cloth from his left arm.

In the dim candlelight, his entire arm and neck were covered with an unbelievably thick layer of black and yellow hair. The skin beneath the hair was still dark and gray, but the undulations under the skin were even more obvious.

Yu Shijiu's heart skipped a beat. He glanced at An Jie and the others who were busy with their own things in the room, and while they weren't paying attention, he quickly looked down to examine the "wriggling" skin.

As Yu Shijiu got closer, she saw tiny, fleshy growths on her skin trying to break through her pores.

What is this?

Is the hair breaking through the pores and continuing to grow outwards?

Yu Shijiu found himself a perfect excuse.

He started trying to clench his fist and swing his arm.

really……

Yu Shijiu looked down at his hairy left arm.

His feeling was real.

The strength in my left arm has definitely increased; it's a strength that far surpasses that of my right arm.

This should have been a good thing, but Yu Shijiu could also feel a strange, beast-like impulse occasionally surging into his brain.

A desire to tear, to dig into the surrounding soil, to merge into the rustling group deep within the walls, kept spreading, wanting to replace the owner of this body.

"..." Yu Shijiu forcibly suppressed these thoughts, looked at He Lingling, hesitated for a few seconds, and then said:

"Sister Lingling, when we get close to the mole, if you notice anything wrong with me... don't worry about me, just go ahead."

He Lingling was carefully hiding the old straw bracelet in her sleeve when she heard him and looked up at him, her dark pupils reflecting the flickering candlelight.

"Don't talk nonsense, we'll go together."

Yu Shijiu smiled and didn't say anything more.

He felt he could still suppress it for the time being.

They're just a bunch of field mice hiding in the mud, too afraid to show themselves.

Yu Shijiu thought.

Time passed slowly in the oppressive wait. The scratching sounds from the walls of the passageway outside rose and fell like the tides. Occasionally, the faint scolding of the old field mouse to Thumbelina could be heard from the room in the distant passageway, as well as the girl's low, suppressed sobs.

The five people didn't say anything about Thumbelina's plight, but Xu Han kept opening his mouth and closing it, his eyes full of sympathy for Thumbelina.

Indeed, fairy tales only briefly mention Thumbelina's plight in a few words, nothing compared to the shocking and direct confrontation we see today.

Xu Han scratched his ear, feeling that every minute of waiting was like torture.

Shi Jiu is right. It would be better to smash the cave as soon as possible and clear the game directly.

Finally, the group estimated that it was nearly midnight—the candlelight in the cave had dimmed considerably, which was noticeable.

An Jie, Chen Yi, and Xu Han were the first to stand up. They nodded to Yu Shijiu and He Lingling, quietly opened the door, and quickly disappeared into the darkness outside, heading towards the warehouse and the hidden cave.

Yu Shijiu and He Lingling waited a few more minutes in the room.

"Let's go."

Yu Shijiu said in a low voice, holding the axe (the cloth strips were wrapped back on, but could no longer conceal the unusual outline), and in his other hand he tightly gripped the broken claw that had become scorching hot again.

He Lingling gripped the bracelet in her sleeve, glanced at his completely distorted left arm, and nodded.

"it is good."

The two slid out of the room like ghosts, heading towards the direction of the mole's room—deeper into the burrow, near the old field mouse's bedroom, in the "best" room.

Similarly, the underground passageway of the mole's guest room was unusually quiet. Even the usual scratching sounds from the soil were much quieter, as if the entire burrow was holding its breath in fear of something.

Yu Shijiu's stinging and itchy left arm guided him forward.

He sniffed, unusually sensitive to the lingering, earthy smell of moles in the air and some deeper, unsettling odor.

At the same time, he also "heard" that deep within the walls on both sides, countless tiny "claw" thoughts were quickly focusing on them, filled with confusion, greed, and a hint of repressed unease about the adventurous behavior that their "similar kind" were about to undertake.

Yu Shijiu didn't voice the emotions he felt. He just stared at He Lingling's back and glanced back at the quiet, dimly lit cave behind him.

By now, the two of them had bypassed several intersections and were approaching a relatively open area.

There seemed to be more candles hanging on the walls around the cave, but the light was still somewhat dim.

In the dim, dense candlelight, the two stood before a wooden door that appeared to be thicker.

The wooden door was ajar, and warm yellow light shone from inside, along with heavy snoring—it was Mole.

Just as the two were about to move closer to observe the situation—

"Eh-"

A very faint sound of a wooden axle turning came from their side and behind.

Yu Shijiu and He Lingling froze instantly and turned their heads to look.

In the shadows of another side road, a small, low door, resembling a storage room, which they had never noticed before, was pushed open a crack from the inside by "someone".

A pale, slender hand, covered in tiny wounds and dirt, reached out and beckoned to them urgently and silently.

Behind the crack in the door, half of a familiar woman's face, swollen and pale with empty eye sockets, was faintly visible in the shadows of the candlelight.

It's another "Thumbelina with long hair"!

Or rather, it is one of her remaining, resentful remnants!

He Lingling was somewhat shocked. She thought that "Thumbelina" would not reappear after disappearing last night, but she did not expect that she would take the initiative to appear again tonight. Moreover, judging from the situation... she seemed to be gesturing for them to come over?

"..."

Yu Shijiu and He Lingling exchanged a glance, both seeing surprise and doubt in each other's eyes.

To go or not to go?

Ahead of them was the mole's guest room, their ultimate target in the plan.

To the side and behind lies the reappearance of "Thumbelina," fraught with unknown dangers.

And time is passing by, second by second.

He Lingling gritted her teeth and made a gesture to Yu Shijiu:

"Go over there and see, there might be a turning point."

Yu Shijiu glanced back at the half-closed wooden door behind him and nodded.

Once they reached an agreement, they immediately turned around without hesitation, silently slid towards the low door, and slipped inside.

The small door closed silently behind them.

Almost simultaneously, the heavy snoring paused for a moment behind the slightly ajar door of the Mole's Guest Room.

Soon, two faint red lights suddenly appeared behind the half-open wooden door.

Two red lights flickered in the dim light, then turned toward the empty passage outside the door, their nostrils twitching slightly.

A few seconds later, a very low, unintelligible murmur came from behind the wooden door.

Click.

The wooden door was closed by the mole behind it.

------

Behind the low door was not the storage room-like interior I had imagined, but a narrower, steeper dirt staircase leading downwards, the air thick with the pungent, suffocating smell of rotting rats.

He Lingling and Yu Shijiu followed behind "Thumbelina" and looked back at the closed door behind them.

It's such a pity. If I hadn't run out of the "vines" I used for communication... I could at least have informed Anjie and the other two.

Now all we can do is accept it as it is...

He Lingling sighed inwardly.

With the help of a faint, eerie green lantern in Thumbelina's hand, which seemed to be made of decaying fireflies, Yu Shijiu and He Lingling could barely see the road ahead.

Thumbelina's figure drifted ahead, her tattered skirt trailing on the steps, yet she made almost no sound.

She occasionally turned her head, and on her empty, swollen face, her lips moved silently, as if urging the two of them to hurry up.

He Lingling's heart was pounding in her chest. She could feel that the walls here were unusually "clean"—there were no ubiquitous scratching sounds, and the depths of the soil were deathly silent, as if all the "claws" had deliberately avoided this area.

This only made her more uneasy.

What kind of place would it be without those "claws"?

That's highly unlikely.

However, unlike He Lingling, the contamination reaction on Yu Shijiu's left arm reached its peak here.

The hairs under the cloth stood on end, the stinging and itching felt like countless tiny needles pricking him, and a cold, sticky malice spread up from the depths of the steps, faintly resonating with the "wriggling" sensation under his arm.

The severed claw in the pocket was incredibly hot, almost burning through the fabric.

It wasn't because of the reaction of being too close to others of the same kind... Yu Shijiu felt that this state was somewhat like—fear?

fear?

Yu Shijiu raised an eyebrow slightly.

What are these things on my arms, deep within the Stairway of Fear?

Could it be——

Where...is she taking us?

He Lingling approached Yu Shijiu and asked in a low, whispered voice, clutching the straw bracelet in her sleeve.

"Let's move on."

Yu Shijiu's voice was somewhat strained, not out of fear, but out of a strange feeling of being strongly attracted yet instinctively repelling fear.

"The area very low down...it felt a lot like that hidden cave, but more...'concentrated'."

He Lingling: "Collect?"