Chapter 63: Loss

Translator: Letty / Editor: DarkGem / Jello

Just as Dr. Huang had said, the neurotoxin kicked in pretty soon. They just ended the conversation, and another 2 soldiers rampaged into the flower as if that distant fragrance was their destined fate.

“What a weird way of predation, they seduce their prey by the fragrance they produce.” Qing Shui glanced at the flower bush without showing care for those 2 soldiers. He pondered for almost half a minute, then gulped almost half the bottle of water that was tightened to his waist.

Chang followed Qing Shui as he believed there was always a reason behind what Qing Shui did. Chang also swigged down half of the bottle of water and wiped off the excess from the corner of his mouth. He took out the spare bottle of water and asked Jing to gulp as well.

The others learned up to Qing Shui, although this could be useless but no one wanted to give away the last chance of surviving. Therefore, in less than 30 seconds, they emptied all of their water supply and they all had their stomachs slightly bloated.

“Mingyi, if anyone else loses control, just knock that person out.” Qing Shui was the first to finish gulping and made a request to the strongest in the troop.

“Understood.” Mingyi nodded.

That was the last conversation in the troop. After that, it was time for everyone wait for the judgment of death.

As everyone inhaled the poisonous fragrance, no one could be spared from this misfortune. However, they had probably prayed the most desperately in their lives, hoping they could be a lucky miss. The troop sat on the ground while waiting, hoping for survival and in terror of death.

The atmosphere was almost unbearably depressed; the sound of heavy breathing was so clear among the troop that it sounded like a piteous cry for mercy.

Another minute later, a poor man went frantic just as the previous two, but he got knocked out by Mingyi before he began to suffer. Even though this man had lost consciousness, he was still twitching tortuously, the symptoms were not relieved at all. At this moment, Mingyi’s fist had offered the utmost help, the rest just waited silently without concerning others.

As time passed, the poison caught onto everybody one by one, but the severity seemed to be negatively correlated with how strong they are as an EM. The ordinary soldiers were the first batch that was seized by the neurotoxin. Then there was Dr. Huang, Jing and others, who happened to be lower level EMs. As for Chang and Mingyi, they were the last two to know what the odd symptoms felt like.

Lying on the grass, Chang didn’t lose his mind as the others did. He was fully conscious, but his body was under great torment.

It was a kind of extreme torture.

Chang never understood the concept of neurotoxins before, but at this moment he was fully aware how the toxin made every single strand of his nerves burn. It was a whole new level of suffering compare to physical injury, and even the acid burn was incomparable to this. The neurotoxin directly acted on his nerves, making Chang, a person with a strong mind, hope for death eagerly so the pain could be taken away.

But it was merely a thought, his remaining consciousness refrained him from scratching into his own skin. His fingers deeply buried in soil, Chang was just slowly waiting for time to pass…

Seconds by seconds, the minutes dragged on like years. As if time had stopped for him, he lost his sight and the tinnitus took away his ability to estimate time. It was unknown how long ago the neurotoxin kicked in, maybe it had been a few hours, maybe it had been a few days already. The sharp burning pain suddenly disappeared as if it had evaporated.

The suffering came and left swiftly, from relief to complete disappearance, it was only lasted less than a minute. Every sense of his body returned, and it almost gave him the illusion that the tragicness never existed.

Sitting up, the first person Chang saw was Mingyi – it was clear that the strongest recovered the soonest.

“There you are!” Mingyi smiled bitterly.

“Hey.” Chang knocked his head a few times to make sure the effect of the neurotoxin went away. He placed his palm on his forehead “What about the others?”

“…” Mingyi shook his head and pointed to the other side, “They are…”

Mingyi’s expression gave Chang a bad feeling. Sure enough, it was blood smeared behind him, almost everyone was still twitching.

There were about 15 people lying on the ground now – apparently, the others were awoken by the pain from the swoon and had become fertilizer for the flower bush. The conditions of the remaining people were no better than the missing ones, with long scratches all over their arms as they still stuck in the neurotoxin.

As if Chang realized something, he quickly tore long pieces of cloth from his shirt to tied up Jing and Pangzi’s hand respectively. However, when he looked over to Qing Shui, his condition had frightened Chang that he was almost traumatized.

Every inch of Qing Shui's skin was intact, he even maintained a clear mind.

Although he was immobile at this time, his eyes told Chang that he was the only witness of this whole misery.

“How early did you regain your consciousness before me?” Busy with tying up his friends’ hands, Chang asked Mingyi, who was also tying up others.

“10 seconds, perhaps. In fact, the neurotoxin only lasted for 7 or 8 minutes.” Mingyi pointed at those scarred soldiers “Otherwise we could have been gnawed by other animals, smell this bloody scent!”

“To be honest, we are lucky enough that we weren’t fought out by other beasts… ” Exclaimed Mingyi.

“You are right.” Chang agreed upon “I just didn’t know it was such a short time, I thought it had been at least 3 or 4 hours.”

“I thought exactly the same when I woke up, but my watch won’t lie to me.” Mingyi waved the watch on his wrist. “We weren’t delayed for long, we can still make it to Zhengzhou before sunset.”

“But… look at them, we went around this giant flower bush and that cost us quite amount of time already, not to mention they are injured now. I doubt we could ever make it to Zhengzhou.” Chang was obviously discouraged, he counted the number of people lying on the ground and said, “There are only 13 left and almost none of them are intact. And the smell of blood, I can’t even think of a way to cover this. We are doomed, seriously.”

“The smell… we have become numbers of lights in this dark jungle to those sensitive hunters.” Mingyi sighed as he spoke softly as if he had foreseen the endless attack from unknown beasts that were lurking in this jungle.