Chapter 461: Ruins 5

Luo Qi sometimes has nightmares, and these nightmares have many themes, but as he thinks about it now, he fears that all his future nightmares will pale in comparison to the scene before his eyes today.

At first, a faint, rancid stench drifted through the air, as if someone in the distance had held a snail rice noodle convention; this was truly unfriendly to a Mage's keen sense of smell. Liu Ziyi had plugged her nose long ago, while Luo Qi could only hold on for a little while longer, secretly wondering if the organizer behind this intended to poison them to death.

But this kind of odor was truly more ominous than poison. It was the smell of excrement, the smell of foul sweat, the smell of filthy yet living human bodies. If he had a choice, the stench of a corpse would be more reassuring than this.

Luo Ruiqi shivered in Luo Qi's pocket and excitedly poked its head out, but the kitten suddenly sneezed and shrank back in. When your battle pet is a kitten, what else can you expect?

Luo Qi slowly stretched out both hands, one pressing down on Liu Ziyi's shoulder, the other tightly covering her mouth. He did this just in time; a person (human body) walked past their window with a dragging gait. A Mage's eyesight is truly too good; even though the lighting was already terrible, Luo Qi still clearly saw a five-centimeter-long worm crawling on the half of the face turned toward the window, while the person stared blankly, not even knowing to raise a hand to brush the worm off. Luo Qi would rather his eyesight were as poor as a human's; sometimes, not seeing clearly is a blessing.

At this very moment, all around them, countless feet dragged with the same gait toward the center of the small plaza. Aside from this, there was no other sound—no sound of conversation, no sound of sighing, no sneezes, no yawns... The silent crowd was like a patch of insects spilling out of a nest. And yet... these creatures possessed the shells of humans. Luo Qi almost vomited.

Liu Ziyi trembled slightly in his arms, performing above expectations by not making a single sound. Luo Qi's hand remained fixed to keep her secure; his arm was aching now, but he was too stiff to dare put it down.

He suspected he knew what they had encountered, but encountering a dozen or so was one thing; encountering hundreds or thousands was an unbelievable nightmare.

Now, he should seize the opportunity, extend a tentacle, and test the person closest to them to see if they were alive or dead, and whether there was still a soul existing inside their skull. But he did nothing, just stared blankly while covering Liu Ziyi's mouth, lying in ambush with her at the corner of the room.

A moment later, he recovered and realized a very simple fact—they must be alive. It was obvious; although it looked like a zombie movie, dead people don't need to eat, yet these people were rushing to the cafeteria to get food at mealtime.

In his subconscious, Luo Qi truly wished this were a zombie maze. Although terrifying, it would be much simpler.

Liu Ziyi suddenly struggled a bit, not very forcefully, just enough to serve as a reminder. He realized what was happening and immediately let her go. Just then, he heard a sharp summons: "Luo Qi!"

He was stunned. Liu Ziyi turned her head, staring at him with wide eyes, those eyes filled with terror. —"Luo Qi! Are those puppets? Who could know so many puppets? Who did this? Heavens!"

He saw clearly that Liu Ziyi's lips had not moved; her teeth were tightly biting her lower lip. Ah, he understood; she still remembered what he had said, and he could hear her most obvious surface thoughts. She was concentrating her attention on shouting to him with her thoughts. Smart to death; who knew what the hearing of those things outside was like.

He watched her and shook his head; he didn't know, he didn't know who had done it. With such a large scale, he only felt himself shivering, his spine turning cold. Was it the Qionglin? Killing thousands of humans? Imprisoning them in an isolated space? Why? Had Mages always been dominated by lunatics?

Do not use your full strength—he recalled Du Zhengyi's hint again, and now he understood the weight of this hint. He almost wanted to expand his Yajian across the entire area to see what was going on with these people, and who was manipulating the marionettes. Even... perhaps he would eventually seize back control, perhaps he could control these people, and then... then he didn't know what he would do. He was very afraid, and also very angry; the anger was even more than the fear. He was filled with righteous indignation and might do something unexpected. It was also possible that he couldn't stabilize his energy at all; in his current state, he might burn out thousands of brains.

The result of doing that... Luo Qi's mind suddenly became clear. The result of doing that would allow him to survive this Sandbox and not be harmed here, but after that, he would be judged as a highly dangerous Mind Mage! He widened his eyes, suddenly realizing why he had passed the Investigation Team's questioning so easily: because the investigation hadn't ended at all.

The interrogation process for him hadn't been strict at all; he had thought it was because they couldn't do anything about him. He was truly too naive and arrogant. They had gone on to interrogate Du Zhengyi; he wasn't there, perhaps they had interrogated him, perhaps they hadn't interrogated him at all. Really, what did the facts matter? The Qionglin only hoped he was useful, harmless and useful. If he were harmful, then no matter how high his Mind Magic Ability was, it would be useless; they only wanted to test that using him was harmless.

Mahjong had also been investigated; he would tell the Qionglin all the medical facts, as Mahjong had always advocated. Even if the Doctor hid a portion of the facts unfavorable to Luo Qi, he would certainly say that Luo Qi's mental world currently relied on Du Zhengyi to remain stable. So the Qionglin had cleanly and efficiently executed the test; they took Du Zhengyi away, then pushed him into an isolated Sandbox, where even if he went berserk, he wouldn't cause large-scale damage among the Mages.

Du Zhengyi must have had a hard time finding the opportunity to leave him that hint, and all he could rely on was this bit of a hint, and a little bit of his own luck.

A cold shadow swept across his heart; if he just exploded like this, they would seal this Sandbox and throw him away like trash. Is that it?