Ch70 - Fear of the Full Moon

The mentality of the others was far less peaceful than that of Nan Zhou, a san value monster. That scene just now was a horrific fantasy that countless children had when gazing out the window.

—In the middle of the night, in the shadow of the shaking curtains, a head full of voyeuristic desire slowly emerged. Even Lu Bifang felt a bit creeped out. Therefore, he headed upstairs and reported to He Yinchuan all the information they had investigated and what they had just witnessed. 

He Yinchuan was very calm.

“I know.” He Yinchuan reached out and affectionately hugged Zhou Ao’s shoulder. “Xiao Zhou found that thing a few minutes ago.”

Zhou Ao, “……” I’m two years older than you, thank you.

Lu Bifang was worried. “Then what should we do?” 

Zhou Ao cherished words like they were gold. “There is a way.”

“Just now, Xiao Zhou discovered that someone was eavesdropping outside. I deliberately played a trick.”

He Yinchuan winked playfully and added to Zhou Ao’s concise words, “I deliberately chatted with Xiao Liang and Xiao Zhou saying that we came from the bottom of the mountain and saw someone who wanted to climb the mountain.”

Lu Bifang’s tense heart suddenly relaxed. In this way, the person who came to investigate would get false information. This group of climbers cared about climbing the mountain so much and they definitely wouldn’t ignore the information.

Nan Zhou breathed a bit unsteadily. “They have at least four people. Not all of them will leave.”

He Yinchuan’s understanding was very clear and he wasn’t so complacent. “It is at least less people. We were discussing what to do next.”

His teammates were very careful and cautiously arranged everything. Nan Zhou felt a bit more relieved. His body shook and he barely managed to take off his goggles. It took more than half an hour to go back and forth. During the entire journey, he was bathed in the silver light of the giant moon. This consumed too much of his physical strength. He didn’t make a sound. He just leaned against Jiang Fang while supporting himself on the wall with one hand. His gasps made people feel pity.

Nan Zhou originally had a gentle and elegant look. Now that the snow on his eyelashes was rapidly melting at room temperature, he seemed to have a tearful and aggrieved look. 

Liang Shu noticed that Nan Zhou was covered in sweat and quickly gestured to Jiang Fang. Jiang Fang understood and picked Nan Zhou up horizontally.

Nan Zhou, “……”

Nan Zhou had never enjoyed such treatment. He was like a cat being picked up belly-up for the first time. He turned sideways frequently to look at the ground. It wasn’t because of shyness. He was worried that Jiang Fang wouldn’t be able to hold him steadily and would drop him.

Nan Zhou still couldn’t recover as he was carried to a room where only an empty bed frame remained and was placed down on the cold and hard bed board. 

Liang Shu was a military doctor. According to her attributes, most of the items allocated to her by the system were medical equipment. She measured Nan Zhou’s heart rate and blood pressure before asking, “What is your usual blood pressure?”

Nan Zhou shook his head quietly.

Liang Shu was puzzled by his action. “You never measured it or you don’t know?”

“I haven’t measured it in a long time.” 

Liang Shu pressed a few acupoints on his head. “Do you have a headache?”

Nan Zhou shook his head again.

After asking a few questions, Liang Shu’s serious face relaxed. Her cat-like sharp eyes naturally curved in a charming and affectionate manner. Liang Shu told him, “I don’t feel like you’re having a reaction to high altitude.”

Li Yinhang, who had followed them in, was quite nervous. “Then what is the problem?” 

Liang Shu pondered on it. “Right now, it seems like… he is just physically weak.”

Li Yinhang, “……” Fuck physical weakness.

She was confused about why Nan Zhou was experiencing such severe discomfort if it wasn’t altitude sickness. It was like a change of person.

“Be glad. A high altitude reaction can kill people.” Liang Shu smiled. “Body weakness won’t.” 

Nan Zhou’s reaction was light. “At a time like this, a weak body can kill you.”

Liang Shu’s words were mostly for comfort. She hadn’t expected Nan Zhou to be so sober and couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter if you are physically weak or anything else. According to the personality of our Captain He, he will carry you up.”

Nan Zhou said, “It isn’t a matter of who carries whom. The physical qualities of the climbers are very good. If we compare with physical strength alone, we might not win.”

Liang Shu shrugged, half comforting and half serious. “Their physical quality might be good but their brains might not necessarily be the same.” 

She got up and patted Nan Zhou on the shoulder with an expression of not wanting to talk too much. “Have a good rest. Captain He and the others will come up with a good idea.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Liang Shu knew who he was asking about. She replied truthfully, “He has tachycardia, hypothermia, pale lips, cold sweat and no trauma. It is just simple physical weakness.”

Lin Zhisong’s eyes flashed. “Oh.” 

Liang Shu saw what was on his mind and slowly put on her gloves. “Don’t worry, it isn’t made up.”

Lin Zhisong nodded slightly.

Liang Shu inquired, “Where did you meet him before? Do you remember?”

Lin Zhisong made a syllable with an unknown meaning. It wasn’t known if he remembered or if he was just casually giving Liang Shu a small sound in response. 

Liang Shu laughed. This little brother Lin had a strange personality. He wasn’t unsociable but he was a typical male who liked inorganic things. It was easy for him to get lost in his own world.

Lin Zhisong followed behind Liang Shu and headed to the room where Captain He was. He suddenly asked, “Sister Liang, what did he say his name was?”

“Who? Nan Zhou?”

Lin Zhisong lowered his head and was silent again. 

Liang Shu had long been accustomed to his eccentricity and walked forward without looking back. Lin Zhisong silently repeated the name.

Nan Zhou… Nan Zhou? Even the name was familiar.

***

Li Yinhang hugged the bed rail and watched the pale-lipped Nan Zhou holding a pot of 70 degree boiling water that had been delivered by Lu Bifang. Blood gradually returned to his lips and her heart settled a lot. It must be admitted that she couldn’t help relaxing with the Bronze Brigade as support. She knew that the five climbers were nimble and strange but it was difficult for her to feel a strong sense of crisis when she was around the police uncles. 

Nan Zhou was drinking the water with all his heart. No one knew what he was thinking in his heart.

Moonlight poured through the window, turning his outline into a furry, soft look.

Jiang Fang easily saw through him. “What are you thinking?”

Nan Zhou put down the green army canteen. “Why is the instance called Fear of the Full Moon?” 

Li Yinhang wanted to interject and persuade him to have a good rest. If he wasn’t feeling well, he shouldn’t think so much. Then she thought about it and meekly withdrew her voice. She knew that neither Nan Zhou nor Jiang Fang were dependent on others.

Jiang Fang pointed out Nan Zhou’s thoughts. “Do you think the moon is the key to breaking the game?”

“Of course.”

Nan Zhou drew a half circle with one hand. “It’s so big. There must be a reason for it.” 

Jiang Fang laughed out loud. Nan Zhou’s ideas were always strange and interesting. Still, there was logic in it.

Nan Zhou looked at him. “You are laughing at me.”

Jiang Fang stroked his hair. “No.”

Nan Zhou turned his gaze toward the canteen again. Fine silver light swayed in the canteen. It was half a canteen of water and half a canteen of moon. It was just that the thought of the huge moon of unknown origin made the remaining half a canteen of water hold little appeal to Nan Zhou. 

He slowly spun the lid of the canteen and spoke to himself. “In addition, why would they kill people?”

According to the mountain climbers, the moon god was a human eating monster. True believers shouldn’t warn Nan Zhou and the others. They should send sacrifices to the god they admired. Yet the climbers didn’t even allow them the action of ‘going up the mountain.’

In this way, who would pay tribute to the moon god? Wouldn’t the moon god starve to death?

Nan Zhou’s intuition told him that Jiang Fang would laugh at him again when he mentioned this speculation. He didn’t want Jiang Fang to laugh at his ideas. Still, Jiang Fang looked good with a smile. 

…It was a real dilemma.

Jiang Fang took the canteen from him and twisted it two more times before the plug lid was really tightened. Nan Zhou looked at his action. “You don’t seem to be greatly affected.”

He was referring to Jiang Fang’s fear of heights.

“Fortunately, we are just climbing, not rock climbing.” Jiang Fang smiled. 

Nan Zhou honestly said, “Yes, I’m relieved.”

Jiang Fang looked at him saying the word ‘relieved’ in such a serious manner and couldn’t help laughing. “Why do you care so much about me? Do you have me in your heart?”

Nan Zhou touched his chest, carefully gauged it and spoke cautiously, “Of course, I have you in my heart.”

Jiang Fang, “……” 

Li Yinhang, “……” No, now they weren’t avoiding other people when saying such words?

Nan Zhou was puzzled. “Does this need to be asked? Don’t you have me in your heart?”

JIang Fang, “……” He had a bit of tinnitus after this straight ball.

Jiang Fang gave a low cough and his cheeks turned red. He quickly changed the subject. “Are you hungry? I found some compressed biscuits.” 

“Yes.”

The compressed biscuits were found in the small building and were shockingly poor in texture and taste. If he was talking about the taste, it was no different from eating a thicker version of rough straw paper.

Still, Nan Zhou held the biscuit bag and ate it without any dislike. In short, he was very easy to support.

Nan Zhou slowly ate the packet of compressed biscuits before releasing Nanji Star, who was afraid of the cold, from the warehouse. He fed Nanji Star a few biscuit crumbs before waving to Jiang Fang to see if he could be placed in the warehouse. As a result, it didn’t work. 

Nan Zhou’s body was covered in cold-resistant items. They were temporary items provided by the system for the task. According to the system algorithm, each cold-resistant item existed independently. Even the gloves were divided into the left glove and right glove.

In other words, even if Nan Zhou obtained them, these temporary items didn’t count as part of his body. This meant that when Jiang Fang thought about Nan Zhou and pulled him into the warehouse, the cold-resistant equipment on Nan Zhou’s body was blown off and fell to the ground.

Outside, it was a low temperature of around -30 degrees. Looking at the angle of the moon’s movement, it wasn’t midnight yet. The coldest hour of the day had yet to come.

In other words, once the instance’s race really started, the extreme cold meant that once Nan Zhou entered the warehouse, he wouldn’t be able to come out again. He wouldn’t be able to put on this heavy and complicated equipment in the ice and snow. He would be frozen in a very short time, affecting his mobility even more. This meant that if he chose to go into the warehouse, he would hand over his fate to someone else. 

For Nan Zhou, this was a last resort and not the best choice.

Nan Zhou emerged from the warehouse and put on the equipment again. It was hard work and he started sweating all over. By the time he finished dressing and leaned against the bed to rest for a moment, a fully armed He Yinchuan pushed open the door. He raised his eyebrow at the trio and gestured. “Pack up and get ready to go.”

***

The gecko man went back and reported there were climbers at the bottom of the mountain. The hammer man frowned and thought for a while before letting the bear man and gecko man go down the mountain to investigate the situation. 

The hammer man and icepick woman remained.

Two hours later, the small concrete building disappeared into thin air.

However, the hammer man and icepick woman’s faces seemed like they were paralyzed by the wind blowing from the mountain. They were expressionless, as if this was something they were used to.

On the vast snow field, eight figures were busy setting up tents as if they were planning to camp in the same place. The hammer man watched their movements from across the snow. 

…They were people who might go up the mountain.

…Their words couldn’t be believed.

…It was all lies.

Perhaps it was due to their skilled hands but they quickly set up the wind-proof tent. The wind-proof lamp inside was also warmly lit, reflecting a dazzling orange cold color on the ground. It was just that in the moonlight, the gold was taken away by the silver and seemed a lot bleaker. 

In the tent, a few black shadows swayed before they fell asleep. Two of the wind-proof lanterns were turned off and only one was left to illuminate the shadow of a person sitting in the tent. It was probably the person standing guard. In the absence of eye protection, people were prone to snow blindness if they stared at the snowy field for a long time.

However, the two people who stayed behind in the camp had dry eyes as they stared at the tent hundreds of meters away. They were just like the moon in the sky. They had no emotions in their eyes as they watched and observed in the cold light.

Around an hour and a half later.

The bear man and gecko man reappeared beside the tent. They shook their heads silently, indicating they couldn’t find the target. 

The hammer man lowered his head. His dark eyes stared at the snow pile in front of him, not shifting like he was a corpse. Then he abruptly got up. He stepped on the snow, panting violently as he rushed toward the camp he had been observing for nearly two hours.

The loose snow was roughly stepped on by him and collapsed. In an instant, it condensed into dirty footprints. He didn’t know when it started but the night guard in the tent hadn’t moved. The hammer man rushed to the tent and opened it to find—

Inside were several sleeping bags stuffed with thick, cold-proof mattresses and first aid items. There were also two full-scale simulation dummies with a full set of anti-cold outfits. Even the hair was there.

This was Liang Shu’s puppet item. It was a B-grade item and was a healing stand-in. It could be used to practice first aid but also to confuse people at critical times. It was limited to five and these were the last two. 

The inside of the tent was empty.

Under the gloomy gaze of the hammer man, the bear man followed and clearly saw the situation inside the tent. He roared, grabbed a doll with his bare hands and lifted it in the air. He squeezed it with his hands and the head was smashed with a loud noise.

The gray-blue fingers of the hammer man gripped his hammer tightly. “Chase.”

“They can’t see… the moon god…” 

“Never… never.”

***

According to the topographic map drawn by Zhou Ao in the cement building where they had the dominant view, there was a snowy hill 50 meters away from the small building.

Based on the GPS data and the data of the camp measured by Lu Bifang just now, Lin Zhisong set out to model and simulate a more accurate path that specifically pinpointed the blind spot of the climber group. 

As long as they came to the snowy hill, they could slowly detour to the other side of the mountain and completely disappear from the view of these strange climbers.

According to He Yinchuan’s plan, they needed to use the lights and tents to attract the attention of the other side. They would pretend to rest, turn off two lights and hide their figures in the dark where they couldn’t be found. Then crawl out of the tent, hide behind the snow hill 50 meters away and follow the predetermined route, moving in a roundabout manner to leave the field of view of their opponents.

It was commonly known as ‘fleeing in their presence.’

Yet the moment the small building disappeared and they started to raise the tents, they realized there was an issue they had overlooked. Under the icy moonlight, everything was clear as they set up camp. There was no shelter and they had no way to escape at all. They weren’t chameleons. The small building provided survival items and the color was the most suitable for a snowy mountain rescue. It was an eye-catching orange. 

Just as they were in a bottleneck, the gradually recuperating Nan Zhou came up with a rather bizarre idea. It was with his help that the plan was carried out successfully. As they fled, they were covered with an item Nan Zhou had drawn in Ma Liang’s Sketchbook. It was an 8×8 square meter piece of snow.

At first, the people of the Bronze Brigade were worried. How would Nan Zhou draw a fixed area of snow?

This lasted until Nan Zhou simply and crudely wrote an area calculation formula in the notebook.

Was this okay? Facts proved that it was really okay. 

However, even with the cover, they didn’t have a lot of time. Ma Liang’s Sketchbook was only a B-grade item and the duration was three minutes.

Fortunately, after going around the snowy hill, the field of view available was only 50 meters.

It was just that they had to pay attention to concealment while dragging a huge climbing load. In addition, they had to move on frozen ground that had been frozen for over 10 years. The physical strength consumption was obvious.

Fortunately, once the instance officially started, a storm of wind and ice began. The wind blew over them, making them unable to open their eyes. Still, it formed a certain blinding effect and swept away their footprints. 

As for the ‘physically weak’ Nan Zhou, he was simply dragged directly by someone. Even so, as he crossed the snow mount, Nan Zhou’s orange pants and boots appeared because of the sudden disappearance of the cover. He was directly exposed outside the snowy hill. Fortunately, Nan Zhou reacted very quickly. He spontaneously rolled to the blind spot of the hill.

After climbing the snowy hill, they were almost exhausted. The eight people lay down on the ground. It took a full seven or eight minutes before they lined up and moved to the side according to the established route.

In the next section of the road, they didn’t dare to be reckless. They moved very slowly, their bodies hunched over toward the ground.

Therefore, by the time they reached a place with no danger where they could no longer see the other side’s camp and the concave gourd-shaped snow valley, they could barely straighten their waists. Even so, no one proposed to rest. 

After climbing up around 100 meters, Nan Zhou couldn’t breathe easily due to the increase in altitude and there was some dizziness. The group stopped for a while and took a simple rest. Nan Zhou barely continued breathing with the portable oxygen tank. Jiang Fang didn’t say anything and just gently patted his back to help him regain his breathing ability.

In the moonlight, Nan Zhou’s face was so pale that the fine hair on his neck and the blue veins under his skin could be seen. Still, Nan Zhou was always turned toward the moon as if he was thinking.

He Yinchuan gasped as he came to pull Nan Zhou’s hand. “Is it okay?”

Jiang Fang politely blocked the hand and covered Nan Zhou’s cold hand while replying lightly, “He can do it. If he can’t, there is me.” 

On the side, Liang Shu forced herself to eat two compressed biscuits. She was just about to ask if Nan Zhou’s body could endure it when her expression abruptly changed. In the warehouse, the ‘Healing Stand-in’ that was originally displayed with a light gray color had disappeared! It was found! Liang Shu shouted, “Gou Jian!”

The moment she shouted the task code, the atmosphere that should be relaxed instantly froze.

Zhou Ao got up first. He consciously stood at the forefront and walked. He Yinchuan moved to the end of the team and urgently shouted in a low voice in the roaring, cold wind, “Hurry! Hurry up!”

Nan Zhou understood and was about to stand up. However, his heavy jacket made him bend his knees and he almost fell back into the snow. Just as his body was about to come into contact with the snowy ground, a force pulled him up and hugged him with one hand, directly placing him on this person’s shoulders. 

Nan Zhou, “?”

Jiang Fang hugged Nan Zhou and said in a gentlemanly manner before Nan Zhou could react, “I have to offend you. Teacher Nan, don’t move around.”

Nan Zhou obediently curled up on his shoulder and looked down at Jiang Fang’s legs that started to walk on the snow. From this angle, Jiang Fang’s legs were extraordinarily long. He couldn’t help being distracted as he thought, ‘It is like an Arctic rabbit.’