Chapter 250 - 249: Conjecture

Chapter 250: Chapter 249: Conjecture

"Me?" Xu Yiming froze, then looked at Li Qing and Huangfu Miaomiao.

It seemed he really was the one who should go.

To apply for weapons from the Inspection Bureau’s local branch, you had to be a normal person, at least. Among everyone here, only he and Feng Ling counted as normal humans. With Feng Ling leading the exploration of the Maze, that naturally left him as the best candidate.

Xu Yiming’s heart was a turmoil of mixed feelings.

There were so many reporters outside, so many people watching. What would it look like for him to walk out of the Maze alone? It would feel like deserting his post, a total loss of face.

What if the application process was complicated and took too much time? Was he supposed to just wait around outside the Maze?

Xu Yiming was conflicted, unsure whether he should agree to Feng Ling’s proposal.

Just then, Huangfu Miaomiao changed the subject, whining pitifully, "How much longer do we have to walk, Feng Ling? I’m so tired..."

"You have terrible stamina," Feng Ling mocked her.

Huangfu Miaomiao tugged on the corner of Feng Ling’s shirt and said pitifully, "Can we rest for a little while? I’m really so tired."

Her current body was that of a 12-year-old girl. And while 12 wasn’t that young, years of hospitalization for cancer had stunted her growth, leaving her small and short for her age.

Huangfu Miaomiao had suffered greatly during their last mountain climb, so to avoid being left behind this time, she had kept the lower half of her body in Ghost Shadow Form to increase her speed. But the Ghost Shadow Form consumed more energy than usual, causing her to tire out faster.

Li Qing said, "It’s been about an hour since we left the last offering table. I estimate the next one will also be about an hour’s walk away."

"Another whole hour?" Huangfu Miaomiao felt like crying.

Feng Ling laughed. "Why don’t you just leave the Maze with Xu Yiming? You can get some rest. After you get the weapons, you can drive a car back in. You won’t be tired if you have a ride."

Huangfu Miaomiao frowned and said seriously, "I definitely can’t leave the Maze. If I’m not here, no players can accept the task, and you’ll all be trapped inside—unless you manage to kill the Maze Master while I’m gone."

—The Maze entrance couldn’t just be opened whenever an administrator wanted. Either someone outside had to accept a task, someone inside had to abandon a task, or the Maze Master had to be killed, causing the entire Maze to disappear. Only then did an administrator have the authority to send players out of the Maze.

Feng Ling considered this and replied, "Then you’ll just have to hold on a little longer. I promise I’ll let you rest when we get to the next offering table."

"But an hour is so long..." Huangfu Miaomiao asked miserably, "Can you... can you give me a piggyback ride...?"

Hearing this, Feng Ling burst out laughing, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

Li Qing glanced over, bewildered. He often found Feng Ling’s sense of humor impossible to understand.

Ye Zheng, walking at the very front, snapped irritably, "If you want to get turned into a pincushion, go ahead and climb on her back."

Feng Ling cackled, her laughter growing even louder.

Huangfu Miaomiao was very unhappy. She felt wronged but didn’t dare to complain, just making strange whimpering sounds for the rest of the way.

The team continued forward.

Xu Yiming fell to the back of the group, feeling a bit lost.

’So you need a player’s cooperation to get in and out of the Maze.’

’Didn’t Feng Ling know this? She suggested I go out to get weapons without even knowing how to leave the Maze?’

Something felt wrong to Xu Yiming. He felt that while Feng Ling’s style was reckless and headstrong, she wasn’t so careless as to overlook such a detail.

He suspected Feng Ling simply wanted to get rid of him.

’But why?’

’Was there something wrong with my performance since entering the Maze? Have I been dragging the team down?’

As Xu Yiming walked slowly, his gaze drifted unconsciously to Ye Zheng up ahead.

Before Feng Ling had suggested he leave the Maze, he had been talking with that contaminated Hunter. They had talked about weapons, about the Inspection Bureau... It didn’t seem like they’d discussed anything sensitive.

As Xu Yiming’s thoughts churned, a terrifying suspicion suddenly took root in his mind.

...

...

In the end, Huangfu Miaomiao ran out of stamina and ended up hanging off Li Qing’s back.

Xu Yiming offered to carry her, but Huangfu Miaomiao was clearly more delighted to burden Li Qing.

Li Qing said, "You can check the shops along the street. If you see a Divine Statue, pray to it. Maybe one of them can help you recover your stamina."

Huangfu Miaomiao declared righteously, "Wouldn’t that be a waste of time? We need to destroy the offering tables as quickly as possible. We can’t get distracted with other things!"

Li Qing added, "Rest on my back for about ten minutes and eat a bag of Jelly, and you should be mostly recovered."

Huangfu Miaomiao refused. "I’ll rest on your back for thirty minutes, and I’ll recover just fine without eating Jelly. I’ll even save the points for the Jelly." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Li Qing: "You’re not short on points right now."

Huangfu Miaomiao: "Even if I’m not short, I still need to be frugal."

Li Qing fell silent for a moment, then looked up at Feng Ling ahead of them and said, "Feng Ling, even if a player holding a Demon Card is pure-hearted by nature, they will harbor malice. Given the chance, they won’t be able to resist the urge to cause trouble."

"Oh, you! Trying to sow discord again!" Huangfu Miaomiao, still on Li Qing’s back, tightened her arms around his neck. "You administrators are the biggest villains! No one is more evil than you!"

Feng Ling looked back to enjoy the show and laughed. "Doesn’t seem like you’re out of energy now, does it? If you have that much strength, you can get down and walk on your own~"

Huangfu Miaomiao shouted, "I don’t have any energy! He just made me angry!"

"Are you guys on a picnic?" Ye Zheng, at the head of the group, was very displeased. She turned back with a cold expression and said, "Look ahead. We’re here!"

Everyone looked forward.

Through the thin mist, they could vaguely make out a table piled high with corpses.

Feng Ling exclaimed, "Wow, the offerings on this table are quite something."

Ye Zheng’s expression was grave. "We need to deal with this quickly."

The pieces of corpses were piled on the table almost into a small mountain.

Ye Zheng raised her right claw and, just like before, lunged forward and swung it down hard!

BANG!—

The solid impact sent a dull ache through her five fingers!

She was completely stunned.

The pain was nothing to her; what shocked her was that the table wasn’t made of mahogany.

"I think it’s made of stone." Ye Zheng turned her head to look at Feng Ling. "This table is too hard. I can’t break it."

Feng Ling walked over with a smile playing on her lips. "Excellent," she said.

"Excellent?" Ye Zheng was confused.

Feng Ling pushed the remaining corpse pieces off the table, revealing a smiling face carved into the stone. She smiled as well. "Excellent. We’ve found the Maze God Statue."

Ye Zheng stared blankly at the bloodstained, smiling stone face.

A faint memory finally surfaced...

It seemed... the last time she was culling Cards, she had seen a smiling face and a stone table just like this.

"These rats actually used the Maze God Statue as an offering table. Tsk tsk, they got it so filthy." Feng Ling knocked over a few more corpses, revealing a stone stool by the table. It too was covered in dark red bloodstains, along with the foul-smelling ooze of rotting bodies.

Feng Ling asked Huangfu Miaomiao for a few tissues, trying to wipe the stone stool a bit cleaner.

But she failed.

’Oh well, this will have to do.’

Feng Ling waved Ye Zheng over. "Sit down and give it a try."