Chapter 239 - 238: Blowing Up the Mountain

Chapter 239: Chapter 238: Blowing Up the Mountain

After Huangfu Miaomiao and Ye Zheng left, Xu Yiming and Li Qing tidied up the safe house.

They moved all the shelves from the supermarket against the walls, clearing the central area for the supplies Huangfu Miaomiao had left.

As he worked, Xu Yiming couldn’t help but remark, "Player inventories can really hold a lot."

From large items like tents, mattresses, pillows, and blankets, down to a single pair of chopsticks and a spoon, she had everything. Her clothing collection included thick, warm goose-down coats as well as thin, breathable tank tops and shirts. The toolbox was filled with an axe, a hammer, an awl, a shovel, a saw, and knives, and the first-aid kit contained gauze, alcohol, bandages, and disinfectant. There were also entire barrels of drinking water and stacks of self-heating meals.

Xu Yiming felt like Huangfu Miaomiao was carrying a small supermarket around with her.

Li Qing said, "Each inventory slot has a 10kg limit. The total weight of all this must be over fifty kilograms. I’d guess Miao Miao has at least five slots."

"She has seven. The seventh one cost 1,000 points," Feng Ling chimed in from the side. "Whoever designed the progression in this game is sick in the head. The eighth slot costs 5,000 points."

Huangfu Miaomiao only had a little over seven thousand points, so there was no way she was spending five thousand on another slot. Luckily, seven slots were enough for Feng Ling to use for now.

Xu Yiming grabbed two self-heating meals. "Feng Ling, I’m taking a couple of these, alright?" he said.

"Go for it. I have a big appetite, so I brought tons of food into the Maze, but I never expected we could pray to gods here. After I prayed to the Five Grains God, I haven’t felt hungry at all!" Feng Ling then asked Xu Yiming, "Didn’t you pray earlier?"

Xu Yiming tore open the package. "You guys said the Five Grains God’s buff replenishes your energy. I wasn’t hungry then, so I didn’t pray. I didn’t want the Immortal to think I was greedy, you know? But of course, now I’m hungry."

Feng Ling fell into thought. "...I wonder what these Mouse Monsters live on. They ate all the food off the supermarket shelves, and there isn’t a single fish left in the restaurant aquarium. Once the food here is gone, it’s gone for good—it doesn’t respawn. So where do they get more? Don’t tell me they pray to the gods, too?"

Xu Yiming blurted out, "Isn’t there that mountain of flesh? That’s a huge pile of meat, enough to feed them for years."

Feng Ling shook her head. "You can’t eat that mountain. Get too close, and the mountain will eat you."

Li Qing mused, "In that case, it seems the Mouse Monsters can only rely on praying to the gods for the energy they need."

Feng Ling thought of the Mouse Monster she had marked last night. She waved a hand at Xu Yiming and Li Qing. "I’m going to rest on the second floor. Call me if anything happens."

"Go on and rest. I think I’ll get some rest, too." Xu Yiming unrolled a camping mattress and lay down contentedly. "It’s so much better without those Mouse Monsters bothering us."

Feng Ling turned and headed to the second floor.

The shelves on the second floor were stocked with toiletries like toothpaste, soap, and body wash. They hadn’t been cleaned in a long time and were coated in a thick layer of dust.

Unbothered by the filth, Feng Ling found an empty spot to sit down. She then used Mother’s Thoughts to track the Mouse Monster from last night.

She closed her eyes and saw a faint red ribbon of mist floating in the air.

Her mark was temporary, only lasting for 24 hours. Perhaps because some time had passed, the ribbon of mist had faded considerably and was no longer very distinct.

It wasn’t dark yet; if she waited until nightfall to track it, the mist’s path would likely be even harder to make out.

Wasting no time, Feng Ling followed the ribbon of mist with her gaze, searching for the Mouse Monster’s whereabouts. Along the path, she could see bloodstains on the ground where a severed limb had been dragged.

The bloodstains were sometimes dense and sometimes sparse, eventually dwindling to just a few scattered droplets.

The Mouse Monster had traveled a great distance.

Feng Ling found this strange. She had shared Xu Yiming’s suspicion, believing the Mouse Monsters were driven mad by hunger and were dragging away the corpse of their kin to eat it.

But if it was just to eat the corpse, was it necessary to travel so far?

Just as she was pondering this, she saw a T-junction ahead. At the end of the intersection stood a long, redwood table.

The table was bare, its surface covered in a large amount of dried, foul blood. Even its four legs seemed to be coated in a patina of blood.

The mist she was tracking circled the table a few times before moving on. Feng Ling’s gaze followed, and she finally spotted the Mouse Monster in a small building.

It was crouched in a corner, huddled together and sleeping with a group of other humanoid Mouse Monsters.

Feng Ling opened her eyes, baffled by the Mouse Monster’s behavior.

’Why drag a corpse all the way to an empty table? Do all the Mouse Monsters do this, or was this a one-off? And what happened to the corpse afterward?’

The sound of voices drifted up from downstairs.

Huangfu Miaomiao and Ye Zheng were back.

Feng Ling set her questions aside for the moment and went downstairs.

Downstairs, Huangfu Miaomiao was complaining to Xu Yiming:

"You could have just eaten one of the meals! Why did you have to eat the beef jerky? This jerky and the chocolate bars are emergency rations for Feng Ling! Only Feng Ling is allowed to eat them!"

"Ah... My bad, my bad. I thought they were your snacks..."

Xu Yiming rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

He subconsciously tended to treat Huangfu Miaomiao like a child. So when he found a bag full of snacks, he assumed they were hers, didn’t think much of it, and grabbed a vacuum-sealed stick of beef jerky. He was just getting into the satisfying chew when Huangfu Miaomiao returned and caught him in the act.

Huangfu Miaomiao pouted. "You’re a grown man! How can you still be such a glutton!"

"Thirty isn’t that old..." Xu Yiming mumbled awkwardly.

He caught sight of Feng Ling coming downstairs out of the corner of his eye and shot her a desperate, pleading look.

Feng Ling, showing no inclination to mediate, gleefully fanned the flames. "However will I survive without my beef jerky~" she wailed dramatically.

Xu Yiming’s embarrassment deepened.

Ye Zheng, standing nearby, could no longer take it. "How can you possibly be in the mood to joke around?" he snapped, clearly displeased. "We may have found a safe house, but we still haven’t found the Divine Statue, and the Maze Master is still missing. We can’t let our guard down!"

He directed that last part at Feng Ling.

"Alright..." Feng Ling dropped the playful act and asked Huangfu Miaomiao, "Did you bring the explosives?"

Huangfu Miaomiao, who had shrunk back after being scolded by Ye Zheng, timidly peeked out again. "I brought all of it," she replied to Feng Ling. "I also brought two guns and several boxes of ammo."

"Good, let’s go then." Feng Ling rummaged through the supplies, pulled out an axe, and tested its weight in her hand. She looked at Ye Zheng. "Let’s blow up that mountain before it gets dark and see what’s hiding inside."

Upon hearing this, Ye Zheng immediately headed out the door, leaving the safe house.

Xu Yiming quickly called out, "What about me? What are the Daoist and I supposed to do?"

"What are you supposed to do? Stay here and enjoy your beef jerky~" Feng Ling shot him a wicked grin, hoisted her axe, and walked off.

Huangfu Miaomiao hurried after her.

Xu Yiming followed them to the doorway and watched the trio walk off into the distance. "They just left?" he said, stunned. "Blowing up a mountain is a pretty big deal. I thought we’d at least discuss it for half an hour."

From inside the supermarket, Li Qing said calmly, "You’ll get used to it."