Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 918 Flower

Meeting Yang Hua's gaze, He Lingling, supported by Xu Han, stood up, her voice slightly hoarse:

"I didn't expect you to be so lucky."

"Death" in guild battle dungeons is not a good thing either.

But fortune favors the bold, and with every gain comes a loss. They entered the guild competition dungeon for the high double points, and this is the consequence they have to bear after their failure.

Yang Hua stared at her blood-covered face, noticing her pupils still oozing bloody tears and completely blackened eye sockets, and his throat bobbed.

"……Why?"

Yang Hua didn't understand why Fang Youhua didn't take him with her to "die".

Everyone else who entered with the "Eye of All Things" had "died" for various reasons... so why did Fang Youhua "save" her?

It was clear that her relationship with Fang Youhua wasn't that good.

"..." He Lingling coughed a few times, suppressing the blood rising in her throat, "It might be because of your name."

Yang Hua: "Name?"

“Xiao Hua, Xiao Hua…” He Lingling looked at Yang Hua through the hazy bloodstains, as if she could see Fang Youhua’s eternally pale and gentle face, yet it was filled with a sense of powerlessness and exhaustion.

Before entering the Dawn game, Fang Youhua was definitely the "perfect bride" in everyone's eyes.

He Lingling has no doubt about this; the plot of "Thumbelina" has already confirmed Fang Youhua's past as a tamed woman.

But all of this... was gone after the last hope was extinguished.

"...You have a good name."

He Lingling repeated softly.

Yang Hua didn't quite understand what she meant, and subconsciously touched her face.

Was He Lingling looking at her own face just now?

Is there a connection between her face and her name?

Anjie and the others did not interrupt He Lingling and Yang Hua's conversation. They simply waited for her to finish speaking before continuing to help He Lingling walk forward.

They passed by swallows frantically banging and scratching at the walls in an attempt to escape, and then they saw the old field mouse.

The old field mouse knelt in the messy corner, clutching his hair and chuckling nervously.

“Destroyed…all destroyed…my home…my beloved granddaughters…my food…all gone…hahaha…all gone…all gone…all gone…all gone…”

The old field mouse's "kind" mask shattered completely, revealing its mad and desperate nature beneath—

Strip away its mask of hypocrisy and gratitude, and it's nothing more than a parasite that survives by feeding on the lives and hopes of "Thumbelinas."

Thumbelina was led forward by Angela's hand, staring blankly at everything.

Her gaze moved from the devastated old field mouse to the swallow frantically crashing against the wall, then to the churning blood-red swamp in the distance, and finally landed on He Lingling's blood-stained face.

"I...I remember..."

Thumbelina, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke, her voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, yet remarkably clear amidst the noisy, collapsed cavern.

“That bracelet… I made it… no, 'we' made it…”

Anjie turned around abruptly to look at her: "What did you say?"

"Many, many times..."

Thumbelina's empty, lifeless eyes began to focus, and some long-suppressed memory was breaking through the "docile" shell that the old field mouse and the burrow had imposed on her.

“Every time…every time after the swallows come, when the hope of freedom is rekindled…I would get those dandelion seeds…I would plant them…and they would sprout, grow green leaves, and even have little yellow flowers…The swallows told me that after the flowers wither, the dandelion would bear fruit, turning into a fluffy ball of seeds that, with just a gentle blow, could fly freely to every corner of the world…”

Thumbelina spoke softly, her eyelids drooping:

"But the dandelion didn't produce any fruit. No matter how carefully I took care of it, it only produced small yellow flowers and didn't produce the fluffy, easily blown-away fruits that the swallow had described."

"Over time, I started to think that these pretty little yellow flowers were also very beautiful. I picked them and started weaving bracelets... I told myself that when my bracelets were finished, when the dandelions bore fruit, and when the seeds inside flew away... I would be able to leave this place..."

Thumbelina's voice grew softer and softer, and tears silently slid down her cheeks, but they were no longer tears of fear; instead, they were tears of endless sorrow and anger.

“But every time… every time I painstakingly and secretly make a bracelet, it gets lost… trampled… stolen… or… or when I’m ‘disobedient,’ Grandma Field Mouse burns and crushes it in front of me…”

She looked at the old field mouse lying on the ground beside her, babbling incoherently, and her eyes gradually turned cold and twisted.

“You burned them, saying they were ‘useless junk,’ saying good children shouldn’t waste their time on such things, and that I should learn to do all the housework, learn how to serve my future husband, and learn how to be a ‘good bride.’”

The old field mouse, crawling on the ground, raised its head, and its cloudy eyes reflected Thumbelina's distorted expression. It was so frightened by the intense resentment in Thumbelina's eyes that it shrank back and crawled back half a step.

"How dare you talk to Grandma like that... You, you disobedient and naughty child..."

The old field mouse, though outwardly fierce, inwardly accused Thumbelina of suddenly turning bad.

"I am not your child, nor am I your granddaughter."

Thumbelina spoke slowly and deliberately as she stepped out from behind Angela. Although her body was still trembling, her back, which had been bent limply, slowly straightened.

“You have never treated me as your granddaughter. In your eyes, I am just a commodity that you have tamed, a ‘commodity’ that you can use to exchange for food and resources.”

The old field mouse was terrified and let out a sharp rebuttal from its throat:

"No! It was me! I saved you! I saved you! If it weren't for me, you would have frozen to death in the cold snow—"

"I'd rather die!"

Thumbelina's voice suddenly grew louder, and her beautiful, gentle face was now almost distorted into a blurry, fleshy mass with indistinct features.

“I’d rather freeze to death, I’d rather freeze to death… it’s better than being treated as an object and sold around.”

The old field mouse's screech immediately ceased. It stared wide-eyed at Thumbelina's ferocious expression and suddenly burst into a nervous laugh.

"No! No, no, no! You're so ugly, so disobedient, you're nothing like my granddaughter, nothing like the image of a good wife... No, no, you're not, you're not Thumbelina... You're not Thumbelina..."

Thumbelina ignored the old field mouse and turned to look at the swallow frantically crashing into the wall, raising her voice.

“And you, Swallow, you are not a savior either. You are just another buyer. You took me from one cage to another and then used me to get paid from your ‘new husband.’ I saw it all. The last cycle… the cycle before that… those memories… they have all come back…”

The swallow abruptly stopped its collision with the wall.

It turned its head in astonishment, its black bean-like eyes fixed on Thumbelina, and its beak opened and closed, emitting indistinct, almost human-like syllables.

"Chirp—you...remembered..."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

"I remembered."

A bleak calm settled on Thumbelina's face. "All cycles, all deception, all death... all... 'us'."

As Thumbelina uttered her last words, the collapse of the burrow seemed to slow down and pause for a few seconds.

No, it's not slowing down—it's that those wildly spreading crimson swamps are beginning to converge at one point.

Right where Fang Youhua disappeared, a whirlpool of dark red mud began to swirl.

At the center of the vortex, a single golden light stubbornly shone—the light emitted by the old straw bracelet.

Anjie and the others looked even more serious. He Lingling, unable to hold onto Xu Han's arm, shook her head.

"Don't go any further."

Xu Han was a little scared and whispered, "Then, what about Shi Jiu... what about Shi Jiu then..."

He Lingling blinked slowly, a hint of worry flickering in her eyes, but she still said:

"……I believe in him."

I believe Yu Shijiu will be fine.

Xu Han opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

From the depths of the dark red swamp vortex not far away, Fang Youhua's hollow yet clear voice slowly emanated. The voice was no longer as gentle as before, but carried a kind of resolute determination to sever everything.

"It's almost over... It's almost over... We can all leave... We can all leave this hellhole..."

"All you 'Thumbelinas'... lend me your strength..."

"Lend it to me... to end this final cycle..."

At the same time, all the straw bracelets scattered throughout the cave—whether they were brought out by Yu Shijiu from the hidden cave, kept by He Lingling, or even a straw bracelet that had somehow appeared in Yang Hua's pocket—began to glow faintly, then turned into specks of golden light that converged toward the blood-red vortex not far away.

At the same time, Yu Shijiu, who had been dragged deep into the wall, let out a final, low roar.

Everyone heard the pain and madness contained in that roar, their hearts pounding, but then—Yu Shijiu's voice abruptly stopped.

"Shi Jiu!"

Anjie's heart almost stopped. She wanted to rush over, but Chen Yi and Xu Han held her back tightly.

"Sister An! Look over there!"

The wall suddenly exploded at the spot where Yu Shijiu's voice disappeared.

It wasn't the earth and stones that made up the wall that collapsed, but rather the dense claws that seemed to be torn apart from the inside by an invisible force. In an instant, dark yellow fur and shattered flesh and bone flew everywhere in everyone's eyes.

A figure staggered out from the blasted earthen wall and broken claws.

It is Yu Shijiu.

But his appearance at that moment made everyone present gasp.

Yu Shijiu's left side has been completely mutated.

His entire left arm swelled to twice its original thickness, completely covered with an unbelievably thick black and yellow fur, and his fingers turned into sharp beast claws with black, curved nails that were no different from the claws on the walls. His left cheek was also covered with fur of the same color, and his left eye had completely turned into a cloudy yellow vertical pupil—exactly the same as the old field mouse, but with a much larger yellow pupil.

Miraculously, Yu Shijiu's right half of his body still retained its complete human form. Although his right eye was bloodshot, it still revealed rationality and a kind of incomprehensible excitement.

"Shi Jiu..."

Anjie subconsciously took a step forward, and this time, Xu Han and Chen Yi let go of each other's hands.

Anjie, no longer being pulled, looked at Thumbelina, who was silently staring at Yanzi, and then quickly exchanged a glance with Chen Yi.

Chen Yi nodded, indicating that he could keep an eye on Thumbelina.

Anjie then quickened her pace and rushed towards Yu Shijiu's location.

Once you're out, don't get so close to that place...it's too dangerous...

Anjie's eyes were filled with Yu Shijiu's disfigured left side, and the sound of her heart pounding was so loud that she felt like she was suffocating.

We need to bring Yu Shijiu back.

Anjie thought.

Unaware that she had been "targeted," Yu Shijiu kept her eyes fixed on the blood-red vortex in front of her.

Is this... the resentment of Thumbelina after those girls were killed?

Yu Shijiu glanced down at his left arm, eager to take a step forward—then he turned around quickly within seconds, his mutated claws viciously grabbing at the person behind him.

Bang——clang!

"--Well!"

Anjie swiftly raised the long knife in her hand to block in front of her, raising an eyebrow and swallowing the blood in her throat. "What's wrong? You want to kill your own people first after you come out?"

Yu Shijiu blinked in surprise: "...Sister An?"

Before he could finish speaking, Anjie seized the opportunity to grab his right arm and pull him back, saying, "Stop talking, step back now—"

Anjie's words came to an abrupt end.

She stared wide-eyed in horror at Yu Shijiu's left hand in disbelief.

"In your hand..."

From a distance, An Jie could only see that Yu Shijiu's left side was completely mutated. But now, looking down at such close range, An Jie discovered that Yu Shijiu's left hand was tightly clutching a large handful of... wriggling, struggling, dark red, tentacle-like things that seemed to be alive.

The ends of those dark red tentacles were deeply embedded in the skin under his left arm, as if they were originally part of his body, but now they had been forcibly torn out of his body.

"...Huh...this one?"

Yu Shijiu was panting, and with each breath, dark red blood foam spilled from the corner of his mouth, but he was laughing, a laugh that was both unrestrained and excited.

"It's alright, Sister An...they're just some little bugs hiding in my arm..."

After saying that, he suddenly exerted force and completely tore off that large handful of tentacle-like things!

Dark red liquid splattered, and the tentacles twisted wildly in his hand before quickly turning into black smoke and dissipating into the air.

Anjie's breath hitched slightly as she frowned and asked, "Are these remnants of those claws?"

"more or less."

As those dark red tentacles completely disappeared, the mutation of Yu Shijiu's left side actually stopped, and even began to slowly... regress under An Jie's gaze?

Yu Shijiu could clearly feel that the wildly growing hair on his body had stopped spreading, and even the peristalsis under his skin had weakened considerably.