Chapter 693: The Beginning of My Fear

What…?

Uncle's scent became hesitant.

"You pull me up right now, or we'll all die together," I said. "I don't even know any of you anyway…"

"That's right! That's the way!" Jie’s muffled voice shouted from a distance. "Little brother, don't let them win!"

She smelled of anger.

After thinking for a moment, Uncle decided to have everyone help pull me up first.

To survive, I used my hands and feet to climb, but my palms, already scraped raw, stung terribly from the water. I had to hold back from crying out, or I'd get scolded.

By the time I finally climbed out of the well, I was completely drained, my hands and feet trembling with weakness.

That Uncle, reeking badly, approached me and took the key from my embrace, then hurried to the door.

I saw Jie being held down by several A’yi, with others trying to cover her mouth. Once she saw me climb up, she struggled free with great force and came to my side.

"Little brother, are you okay?" she asked, looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine, Jie…"

Her scent was still so pleasant, clean and fresh.

"It's open! It's open!"

One of the A’yi called out.

The group turned back excitedly to look at the machine in the room, only to find the countdown still ticking.

"What does this mean?" the lead Uncle asked. "Can we go now?"

As they watched the moving countdown, scents of confusion spread from everyone.

The door was open, so why hadn't the countdown stopped? They should just run, right?

Seeing my knees were also scraped, Jie quickly picked me up from the ground and looked with the same confusion at the masked people.

"Of course, you've passed the game," the Tuzi Ren said with a nod. "Go on, the losers will be automatically punished."

Losers…?

I clearly smelled the confusion emanating from Jie.

After speaking, he glanced back at the Goutou Ren and Hutou Ren behind him, and the three of them whispered among themselves.

"Does anyone want to leave?" the Tuzi Ren asked. "'Train' still has some unfinished business, so if you need to go, I can stay behind and die."

"It's fine," the Goutou Ren shook his head. "I can die first too. Everything's handled. What about you, Tiger?"

"How about I live?" the Hutou Ren scratched his head. "Nah, it's pointless. I'll die this time and let the Rabbit go."

The three of them discussed death so casually, and I smelled no fear or panic from them—only a strange stench.

It was a foul odor I'd never encountered before.

The masked people didn't stop us, and we all fled the room into a long corridor, with doors lining both sides.

Once the Uncles and A’yi stepped out, they were unsure whether to go left or right and stood frozen in place.

Jie, carrying me, was the last to leave the room.

Right up to the end, she was still confused, until she saw the countdown end and the massive machine release a yellow-green gas. Only then did her scent of confusion turn to panic.

In her arms, I turned back to see the gas engulfing the masked people. The Tuzi Ren waved his hand to disperse the gas in front of him and followed us out.

He closed the door from the outside, trapping the other two masked people and the gas inside, then stood with us.

"What does this mean…?" Uncle asked. "Is it over? Can we leave?"

"Yes, go ahead," the Tuzi Ren replied.

"Isn't there a 'reward'…?" one of the A’yi asked. "You captured so many people for this game—do we get money for winning?"

"Yeah… Even though we all survived, there should be money, right?" another Uncle asked.

The Tuzi Ren fell silent for a moment before answering, "All you think about when you wake up is money. I'm tired of explaining. Go die out there if you want. You all survived and still expect a reward?"

Later, I learned we'd woken up in that room many times before.

But I still had so many things I couldn't figure out… Why didn't I remember waking up before?

Why didn't anyone else remember?

When I woke up before, did I smell all these strange scents?

I often think that if I could have foreseen what would happen next, foreseen Jie and "Yu Cheng"'s future, I'd rather have never left that room.

I'd rather the gas had poisoned me to death. I wanted to forget everything, just like the others.

But I can't forget anymore.

Ever since I started smelling these scents, I can't forget.

We followed the Tuzi Ren's instructions down the corridor, where a person wearing a monster mask waited at the end. He gave us a large handful of emerald-green stones and told us they were called "Yu." As long as we could collect 57,600 pieces of "Yu" within ten days, everything would be saved.

This monster-masked person also smelled awful—actually, even worse than the others.

When he opened a strange door and led us into the city, my nose finally felt a bit better.

It wasn't so smelly here anymore.

But when I turned around, I saw the other eight people covering their noses, as if the outside air was unbearable to them. I felt it was okay, though.

Things were getting stranger—they could tolerate the stench inside but not the air outside?

In my opinion, those masked people smelled far worse than out here.

From that day on, carrying memories I'd never erase, I officially arrived on this land.

"Little brother, what's your name?" Jie asked beside me.

"I'm Zheng Yingxiong," I answered.

"Hero?" Jie laughed at my name.

"No, no, no, it's not 'Hero'—it's 'Yingxiong,' with the fourth tone."

I waved my hands nervously. I'm just a petty thief headed for prison; I don't deserve the word "hero."

I suddenly thought of Yue Fei.

Only someone like Yue Fei can be called a "hero." No matter who the hero is, it's definitely not me.

"Zheng… Ying… Xiong?" Jie pondered for a few seconds and still laughed. "What a strange name. It sounds so outdated, like something only my dad's generation would use."

Jie said my name was outdated, but I thought it was fine—better than "Xu Jiahua," anyway.

"Jiahua" is pretty common, right? "Yingxiong" is rarely used.

"Jie, what's your name?" I asked, holding her hand.

"I'm Li Siwei," Jie said, patting my head. "You're such a little kid—why give you such an old-fashioned name? It feels so mismatched."

"I'm that small… a little kid?" I was puzzled. "I'm already in second grade… I'm almost eight."

"Okay, okay." Jie nodded. "You're not a little kid; you're a real 'hero,' okay."

"Huh?" I looked at her in confusion. "Why?"

"Because we all survived thanks to you," Jie said. "If you hadn't gone down into that well to get the key for everyone, we might have died in the room."