The Trembling World

“Do you know why XuanZang was eaten by BaiGuiJing? It was because of stupidity! There’s no medicine for stupidity! It didn’t matter what the BaiGuiJing monster said to XuanZang; he believed it. Even if his allies tried to persuade XuanZang otherwise, he wouldn’t believe it!” Liu Gan said to Zhang ShengNan as he was angry at her behavior.

[TL: This is straight out from ‘Journey to the West’ with the monkey king. Look up ‘Xuanzang’ and ‘BaiGuiJing’.

Originally, he felt that those three players had potential in their physique. So, he had planned to nurture their growth and keep them by his side. However, after this first test, he was very disappointed. On one hand, strange and mysterious things wouldn’t arouse suspicion, so their alertness was too poor. On the other hand, when there was a difference in opinion, as a team member, the one who is the team leader should decide. They definitely did not have good team member qualities, which is required for following the team leader.

In fact, Liu Gan wasn’t able to conclude that this young boy really was a problem, but he wouldn’t easily release this boy. Basic verbal questioning was required. One aspect was that this was a top secret laboratory, and he was trapped within this alloy metal cage. No one knew if it was some extremely dangerous variant zombie or some product of a dangerous biological experiment.

DuDu was so weak, small, and pitiful, so who could say that he wasn’t faking it? Maybe this was all a scheme for us to help him open up this alloy metal cage. After that, he could go on a rampaging massacre. Being this cautious wasn’t for himself, but he was doing this for his three teammates. He didn’t want them to end up getting ambushed and killed like Jiang JinYuan.

“Do you feel like you are the smartest person in this world? Do you have x-ray vision, and are you a know-it-all? Do you think other people are very dumb? You are really selfish and inconsiderate! No wonder you are always alone without any friends at school!” Zhang ShengNan started to attack Liu Gan after being insulted. She felt hurt and started instigating attacks onto Liu Gan since his tone wasn’t too courteous to her.

Liu Gan was really mad. He stared at Zhang ShengNan with a single glance and said no more.

“ShengNan, don’t be rude to Brother Liu!” Zhang ShengLi said to his sister after the debate started getting more and more heated. He tried his best to calm his sister down. Previously, Liu Gan had saved them before and helped them a lot. So from Zhang ShengLi’s perspective, Liu Gan’s cautious nature was required to survive.

“I know we owe him our lives, but he shouldn’t treat us as if we are three-year-olds! Not everything he says is always right!” Zhang ShengNan saw that Liu Gan had stopped talking, so she decided to reason with her brother.

“Brother Liu, I am so sorry… Please don’t take take what this young girl had said seriously. She is just stubborn and has a bad temper. Even if she knows she is wrong, she won’t correct herself. I can’t do anything about it.” Zhang ShengLi stopped caring for her sister and walked in front of Liu Gan to apologize.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bicker with her anymore.” Liu Gan waved his hand like it was nothing. However, deep down Liu Gan had decided that once they reached the ground floor of the building, he wouldn’t continue leading them. Even though Zhang ShengLi’s temperament wasn’t that bad, he wouldn’t leave his sister behind.

“I am so done with my brother! Why does he think that I am wrong? This is truly interesting!” Zhang ShengNan overheard her brother’s conversation with Liu Gan and became even more upset. Her boyfriend Hu Rong was quite embarrassed, and he quickly pulled Zhang ShengNan aside to the other room and started talking to her.

“Brother Liu, why do are you skeptical about DuDu?” Zhang ShengLi squatted by Liu Gan’s side as he asked him.

“Remember yesterday night, this building had an hour of electricity? Do you remember that?” Liu Gan asked Zhang ShengLi.

“Really? This building had an hour of electricity?” Zhang ShengLi didn’t quite remember. Yesterday, during the hour where the backup energy supplied electricity, the three of them were already in a room resting. That room didn’t light up nor did any machinery turn on or off, so they wouldn’t know about it.

“It was very possible that you didn’t notice. I had a partner back then, and he was very good with handling computers. He used this building’s surveillance installation system to discover that there was a variant zombie nearby on this floor. It is very possible that it is on this floor, so I suspect that DuDu is the variant zombie.” Liu Gan explained to Zhang ShengLi in detail. Of course, he didn’t mention Jiang JinYuan’s PDA, but instead he said it was the building’s surveillance system.

“Oh?” Zhang ShengLi said after hearing Liu Gan’s reasoning. He also raised an eyebrow at DuDu.

“If he was a normal young boy, he wouldn’t be trapped by his mother within the alloy metal cage unless someone felt that he was dangerous.” Liu Gan said to Zhang ShengLi.

“I was forced in here by my mom. She wanted to protect me, so she did that…” DuDu replied in a scared tone as he spoke to the two people standing outside his cage. Then, DuDu started crying again.

“If… indeed if he is really a variant zombie, then would it be possible that this laboratory is participating in manufacturing this disease? This game world’s disaster and outbreak could be possibly related to their research, so they can’t escape from this responsibility.” Zhang ShengLi guessed.

“Perhaps, this is also part of the background story to the game, but the truth of the situation is still unclear. That is because there are too few hints.” Liu Gan replied to Zhang ShengLi as he stared into the cage.

If this young boy was the variant zombie detected by the probing system, then Liu Gan would not let it go. He would definitely kill it to retrieve the valuable experience. Playing these types of frightening games, it was usually the harmless looking individuals that caused the most damage. So, Liu Gan wouldn’t dare risk letting it out, so he would avoid more trouble later.

Even if he was afraid of letting it out, there was still the question of whether or not he and Yin He could win. Nimble zombies were the scariest type, and it would try to escape if it were injured. So without the probing scanner’s aid, it would be hard to relocate its position the moment it escaped. Then, all their work would be in vain.

“So how do you plan on handling him?” Zhang ShengLi said, getting back to the topic of DuDu.

“Kill him.” Liu Gan replied to Zhang ShengLi.

“Are you absolutely sure that he is the variant zombie that was detected before?” Zhang ShengLi asked Liu Gan.

“Not absolutely sure, but I’m at least 90 percent positive.” Liu Gan answered Zhang ShengLi.

“Is that so…” Zhang ShengLi revealed a painful expression. He couldn’t bear to witness it. Everything that had happened in this game world led him to believe that this was no longer a simple game. Perhaps it was also a real world here, and they had just been transferred over to it.

Then, that would mean this world’s NPCs are also like them, living regular lives. The question of whether the young boy lied or not was still difficult to tell. Zhang ShengLi felt that Liu Gan also wasn’t too sure, but he had already given a death sentence to the young boy. This was against Zhang ShengLi’s code of moral ethics. The only difference between Zhang ShengLi and his sister was that he didn’t voice his opinions.

“I am not a monster, please let me go…” DuDu noticed Zhang ShengLi’s expression and started begging him for help while crying.

Zhang ShengLi shook his head, and then he walked away. Right now, his inner feelings were in turmoil. It felt very strange and complicated. However, he didn’t want to create any unpleasant feeling by choosing between DuDu or Liu Gan, even if he didn’t quite support Liu Gan’s methods.