Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 967 Self-harm?

What can they say?

They said it was outrageous or something.

These rivals can even team up to clear the dungeon at the end! What can the spectators say?

What they say won't affect these few people in the instance, right?

In the audience, Lin Feng frowned as she looked at Yu Shijiu, who was surrounded on the screen, and turned to look at Lu Chusheng beside her.

"Brother Lu," Lin Feng whispered, "can we trust the people from 'Echo'?"

If it were Lin Feng herself, she would never believe it.

In Dawn of the game, any guild or team with even a little bit of fame is no pushover; otherwise, how could they stand out among so many people?

Although Lin Feng didn't like to suspect fellow human players casually, he still had the necessary vigilance.

"...They didn't believe it all."

Lu Chusheng stared at Yu Shijiu on the screen, his gaze lingering on her left arm for several seconds.

"Lin Hai had no motive to deceive them."

Lu Chusheng said calmly.

It was obvious that the five "alive" members won this guild match, so Lin Hai didn't need to do anything else.

Unless Lin Hai has really lost his mind.

Lin Feng: "...But—"

"Sister Feng".

The girl's clear voice came from behind them, interrupting Lin Feng's voice.

"Xiao Rui?"

Lin Feng looked at Wang Rui with surprise, somewhat astonished, "Didn't you just go to buy water?"

Wang Rui chuckled twice, shaking her head and saying:

"Buying water is quick! There are players selling it outside the plaza! It's only 1 point more expensive than in the store! It's a great deal and saves us the long journey!"

Lin Feng: "...Everyone here is quite intelligent."

"That's quite impressive."

Kang Shaojie, who was standing nearby, interjected:

"Sister Feng, you don't know, when we came out this morning there were only two or three people selling water and boxed lunches. But when we went out just now, wow, there were at least twenty or thirty 'stalls' around."

"Actually, that's understandable, isn't it?"

Wang Rui popped a potato chip into her mouth and whispered, "There are always players in the plaza who are too lazy to go to the store to buy things, but are really rich and powerful."

Just like in the real world, there are street vendors selling water and food outside concerts, music festivals, and other outdoor events, right?

Players who are afraid to go into dungeons still have to find a way to survive!

Unlike some players who think these vendors are low-class, Wang Rui doesn't believe that these people are stupid. There are skilled players in the town, and there are also those who aren't.

Just like how not everyone in the real world is rich, right?

Lin Feng nodded, "Everyone has their own difficulties."

After saying that, he frowned and looked at the screen again, "I still don't think Lin Hai and the others are very trustworthy."

Wang Rui chuckled and teased:

"Sister Feng, you and Lin Hai both have the surname Lin, maybe you were even family eight hundred years ago, why don't you believe him?"

She was obviously joking when she said that. Hearing this, Lin Feng blushed, coughed lightly, and said embarrassedly:

"I met Lin Hai in a dungeon before...".

Kang Shaojie suddenly realized and clapped his hands, "So, Sister Feng, you were fooled by Lin Hai!"

Lin Feng: "..."

"It wasn't that I was scammed—"

She instinctively tried to explain, but was interrupted agitatedly by Wang Rui.

"No wonder, no wonder! So you were fooled, Sister Feng! That despicable Lin Hai! Wait, Sister Feng, I've watched most of your dungeons. When was this? Which dungeon?"

Lin Feng explained helplessly, "...Actually, there's no need to ask so clearly. By the end of the dungeon, neither I nor my teammates had suffered any losses."

After speaking, she glanced at Lu Chusheng beside her, her eyelids twitching wildly.

Lu trusts her so much, and she just brought up the fact that she was deceived by Lin Hai in the past... Won't that make Lu think that she can't lead the team into the dungeon?

"Oh, Sister Feng, this is all very normal."

Wang Rui was very excited, chirping like a little bird:

"Many of us in the team have been scammed by various players, it's not shameful, everyone started out as a kind and innocent person..."

The more she talked, the more excited Lin Feng's eyelids twitched.

"Xiao Rui," Lin Feng said with some difficulty, "Actually, there's no need to keep saying it—"

"Kang Shaojie".

Wang Rui didn't hear Lin Feng's words and suddenly turned her head to look at Kang Shaojie beside her.

This time, it was Kang Shaojie's turn to have his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

He immediately declined all of Wang Rui's offers, waving his hands repeatedly.

"Don't look at me, don't look at me, don't look at me! I've almost never been fooled. Whatever you say is right. I'm a despicable and shameless scoundrel..."

Wang Rui: "..."

Wang Rui's lips twitched. "You know you're insulting yourself, don't you?"

Kang Shaojie: "It's better to criticize yourself than to be criticized by others."

At least when he insults himself, it's just casual talk and doesn't really mean it, but when others insult him, it's a different story—they really mean it.

Kang Shaojie could distinguish this point.

Wang Rui clicked her tongue in amazement and tossed a bottle of drink into his hand, saying, "I didn't realize you were so self-aware."

Kang Shaojie gritted his teeth, "I'm not like some people who lack self-awareness..."

"Who?"

Wang Rui pretended not to understand his veiled insults.

"Hehe, maybe you're overthinking it."

Kang Shaojie: "..."

Sometimes he was genuinely shocked by Wang Rui's shamelessness.

No matter what, she pretended to be stupid and shut him down completely!

Seeing that Wang Rui and Kang Shaojie were no longer paying attention to her, Lin Feng breathed a slight sigh of relief.

She glanced nervously at Lu Chusheng, "...Brother Lu."

Regardless of what Wang Rui and the other two said, Lu Chusheng's eyes remained fixed on the screen, and he only gave a curt reply when he heard Lin Feng's words.

"Don't worry about it."

Lin Feng is a good team leader player. He is quite skilled and has the right mindset. Although he sometimes feels sympathy for weak creatures, he will not hesitate to take action when necessary.

No one is perfect, and Lu Chusheng didn't think that Lin Feng's past belief in Lin Hai was a black mark on her past.

"..."

Lin Feng finally felt completely relieved. She let out a silent breath, her cheeks slightly flushed.

I believe Lin Hai's alliance with the other party dates back to when she first entered the Dawn Game—

At that time, she jumped into the Dawn game to commit suicide. Before she could even wonder how she was alive, she was shocked by her completely healthy body.

Later, he barely managed to enter the "Chrysalis Shop" by passing the trial dungeon, and then he encountered Lin Hai in a game dungeon and briefly teamed up with him...

Looking back now, Lin Feng realizes she was a bit too naive.

Who would completely agree with your thoughts?

Even family, friends, and lovers can have different ideas and opinions, so how could a player she has only known for a short time possibly think exactly the same way as her?

Although she eventually found out, and Lin Hai didn't benefit from it... her thinking at the time was indeed a bit foolish.

Fortunately, Lu Chusheng didn't dwell on the stupid things she had done in the past, otherwise she really felt that she was not qualified to be the leader of the inspection team.

...even if such a foolish thing happened a long time ago.

Lu Chusheng had no idea what Lin Feng was thinking; his mind was completely focused on Yu Shijiu in the dungeon.

The "Return Journey" instance greatly suppresses Yu Shijiu; there are almost no monsters with purely physical attacks, and most of them are mental pollution...

This wouldn't have been a big deal before, but Yu Shijiu was "contaminated" by a swarm of rats in the "Thumbelina" instance.

Lu Chusheng appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, he had pinched his palms countless times as the story of the "Return Journey" dungeon unfolded.

—Although the wound on my palm healed quickly.

In Lu Chusheng's view, although Yu Shijiu did not show any signs of discomfort or weakness in the dungeon, her mental state was probably not very stable.

"..."

The more Lu Chusheng looked at it, the more he thought, and the tighter his fists clenched.

"Brother Lu!"

Wang Rui's voice came through.

Lu Chusheng was distracted for a moment and turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

Wang Rui looked at him strangely and pointed at his hand.

"Brother Lu, why are you pinching yourself?"

They pinched it so hard it was dripping blood; it looked really scary.

When did Brother Lu develop this bad habit of self-harm?

When Wang Rui said that, Lin Feng, Kang Shaojie, and the other players from the monitoring team all looked over.

Lu Chusheng, whose palm was being stared at by everyone: "..."

He looked embarrassed for a moment, his ears burning slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I didn't notice."

Lu Chu casually replied, took out the recovery potion, took a sip, and the wound in his palm instantly healed.

Didn't notice?

The surrounding monitoring team players were all stunned for a moment, exchanging suspicious glances.

Even Brother Lu sometimes fails to notice?

Or did I pinch myself and not notice? Why don't they believe me?

Especially Wang Rui.

Wang Rui looked at Lu Chusheng's back with suspicion, and even though his back looked no different from usual, she could see something... "stiff"?

"What's wrong with Brother Lu?"

Kang Shaojie lowered his voice and leaned closer to her, whispering:

"He's never pinched himself like this before."

Kang Shaojie genuinely didn't understand, but in the end, he was still worried.

He was a little worried that Lu Chusheng might have some health problem—although he couldn't possibly say it out loud.

"..."

Wang Rui hesitated again and again, secretly glancing at Lu Chusheng's back, then looking up at the big screen. Finally, she gritted her teeth and leaned close to Kang Shaojie's ear, quickly and quietly whispering a sentence.

Kang Shaojie: "—!!!!"

His pupils widened suddenly, and he looked up in disbelief—bang!

"Ouch! Damn! That hurts so much!"

Wang Rui was hit on the nose by Kang Shaojie, who suddenly looked up. The pain made her face contort, and tears streamed down her face.

"Kang-Shao-Jie!"

Wang Rui choked with sobs from the pain, and grabbed Kang Shaojie's arm and twisted it hard.

Kang Shaojie: "...I'm sorry, ouch! Be gentle, be gentle! I was wrong, I was wrong! I'm so sorry, so sorry, ahhh!"

Wang Rui was both in pain and angry, and she pinched Kang Shaojie hard several times while whimpering.

Kang Shaojie was in so much pain that he almost cried, and his breathing was trembling.

"Wang Rui, that's enough—ah!"

"..."

The noise of the two playfully hurting each other made the other players in the monitoring team laugh a few times, which distracted them from Lu Chusheng's self-harm.

Lu Chusheng, listening to the noise behind him: "..."

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, there were Wang Rui and Kang Shaojie.

Relieved, Lu Chusheng forgot that it was Wang Rui who had just exposed his pinching of his palm.

He calmed himself down and focused on the live stream on the screen.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Inside the bus, a faint mental barrier rippled outwards like water. Yu Shijiu sat cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

He relaxed slightly, and his left arm, which was wrapped in cloth, began to tremble uncontrollably.

Soon, yellowish-black hairs slowly emerged from the gaps in the cloth strips, wriggling slightly in the dim light, as if they were alive.

"here we go."

"Let's begin."

He Lingling and Lin Hai’s hoarse voices rang out at the same time.

The former's dark pupils were fixed on Yu Shijiu's left arm, while the latter kept an eye on the residual pollution in the corner of the carriage.

In He Lingling's view, the cold source of pollution deep in Yu Shijiu's left arm was like a startled wild beast, actively probing out its fur to "sniff" out the thin but stubborn residual pollution in the air of the carriage.

These pollutants are not complete black smog, but rather finer, dust-like dark red particles, somewhat like the dispersed particles of dried blood that have been kneaded together.

He Lingling suspected that these dark red particles might be formed from the dried blood that splattered from Ah Xiu's body when she was stabbed.

These dark red particles adhere to seats, floors, windows, and even the air... emitting an emotional pollution of despair, fear, and pain.

He Lingling didn't dare to look for too long, afraid that she would be contaminated by those complicated emotional particles.

"Stay calm, Shi Jiu."

Xu Han called out softly and reached out to press his hand firmly on Yu Shijiu's shoulder.

In an instant, warm, healing energy emanated from his hands, like a gentle stream, slowly soothing the restless source of pollution within Yu Shijiu's body.

At first, things went relatively smoothly, but soon, Xu Han's expression changed.

He felt his healing energy being quickly "swallowed" as if it had been thrown into the sea when it came into contact with the source of pollution deep in Yu Shijiu's left arm!

"No... my healing power... my healing ability has been consumed..."

Sweat beaded on Xu Han's forehead as he gritted his teeth and increased his output in disbelief, but the healing effect was still negligible.

It was at this moment that Xu Han, whose face was deathly pale, suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with terror.

He suddenly realized something: Yu Shijiu hadn't responded to him since she released the suppression of the contamination in her left arm.

This frightened Xu Han a little. He looked down at the back of Yu Shijiu's head with some fear and worry, wanting to continue speaking, but afraid that his strength would be lost and his healing power would not be able to keep up.

"..." Xu Han bit his lower lip hard and increased his healing output once again.

Damn! I'll give it my all!

Yu Shijiu did hear Xu Han's voice, but his full attention was focused on his left arm.

With He Lingling and Lin Hai's permission, he voluntarily relaxed his control over the pollution, and the pollution originating from the burrowing rats deep in his left arm began to greedily extend outward.

They are like countless tiny tentacles, penetrating the skin and slowly probing into the surrounding air through the growth of hair.