Chapter 55: The Shop Owner

"Let's go with this one, Ding Mo."

In front of a certain shelf in the store, Ding Mo turned his head to look.

It was Zhang Yunfan; he was holding two bottles of mineral water in his hands, walking over to hand them to him.

Ding Mo took them and looked at the date on the packaging:

Year 2024, Month 14, Day 234.

"..."

This extremely chaotic, distorted date made Ding Mo's eyelids twitch involuntarily.

"Forget it, anything will do..."

Half a minute later, the two of them returned to the main entrance with the mineral water.

The shelf they were at was the first row, less than ten meters of open space away from the main entrance. Only, next to this open space,

stood a counter.

When the two of them cast their gazes toward it, especially toward the empty seat behind the counter, they couldn't help but feel a sense of dread.

Could this plan succeed?

What they had to do was actually not complicated; they just needed to take these free goods and pass by the front of the counter.

This both conformed to the rules of "shopping" and required no payment—because it was already written at the mineral water stall that this water was free.

It was just that the date was a bit problematic.

In fact, many of the water bottles there didn't even have dates at all; the packaging was entirely filled with strings of garbled code, which was incredibly eerie.

The few bottles Zhang Yunfan found could already be considered relatively "normal."

Moreover, on the way to find these abnormal goods just now, the two of them had searched again, yet still found no other exits.

"... Stay close to me." Ding Mo took a deep breath, grabbed the water with one hand, and walked toward the main entrance.

This was the only way!

Zhang Yunfan's knuckles turned white as he gripped the water bottle, but since they had to do it, he could not afford to continue hesitating.

He took a step and followed!

And so, the two of them gradually approached the main entrance.

1 meter, 2 meters... When the two of them were less than a few meters away from the entrance, it was the same position Ding Mo had reached the first time.

This is it... Ding Mo narrowed his eyes, staring at the corridor within arm's reach, and instead slowed his pace.

Whether they could walk past this point was the key!

Hopefully, this bottle of water would be useful.

However, just as Ding Mo was thinking this...

Bang! A somewhat dull sound of collision rang out.

Hearing the sound, Ding Mo turned his head abruptly, only to see that Zhang Yunfan had fallen to the ground!

And the direction he was facing was... that counter!

Why... Ding Mo had just wanted to pull him up to see if he could save him, but he didn't expect a massive force to strike his own feet as well!

He had fallen too!

Was this method useless!? Ding Mo's pupils constricted!

Glancing at the counter at high speed, Ding Mo was just about to open the Curtain when his eyes met the "Lucky Cat."

"I... must pay to leave." A thought suddenly occurred to Ding Mo, and he felt that as a model citizen, this thought was extremely correct!

Thus, he did not resist.

The two were immediately dragged over!

Zhang Yunfan had long since been so scared that he dropped his baton, his ten fingers digging into the floor. But the strength of the ghost was so great that even though he scraped his fingertips raw, leaving a trail of blood as he was dragged toward the counter,

he could not stop the process.

Ding Mo was even more stunned in place, offering no resistance at all.

The two soon arrived in front of the counter.

Only then did Ding Mo snap out of it! But he discovered that his body could not move! It was as if he had been struck by a paralysis spell!

A thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he dared not look at the Lucky Cat beside him again.

But what... would happen next?

Yet he did not expect that what followed was the water bottles tucked at their waists flying up!

They landed on the counter, and then went "beep-beep" twice.

The cash register displayed: Amount payable 0.00 yuan... Amount received 0.00 yuan.

"Thank you for your patronage! Please come again~"

"..."

Eh!?

This turn of events left both of them stunned.

That was it?

Ding Mo and Zhang Yunfan exchanged a glance, picked up the water bottles, and tentatively walked outside.

They were not blocked.

Soon, they came out without any obstruction.

Arriving in the corridor, the two ran far away. Ding Mo looked back and could faintly see in the distance that the Lucky Cat was standing inside the store entrance,

and it, which seemed to be only a line away from the corridor, was waving at them.

It was as if it were seeing off two guests.

Ding Mo was slightly startled; he turned his neck and, while running headlong, did not look back again.

A while later.

Both of them were leaning against the railing, gasping for air!

They had escaped...

They, had actually escaped just like that?

The plan had succeeded!

When they were attacked just now, both of them had thought they were going to fail.

But the result was not that!

Aside from losing some Threshold, it could be said that everything was more or less as they had previously imagined.

Calming his mood, the now-relaxed Ding Mo suddenly felt a bit thirsty.

Counting it up, he had not consumed any water for over an hour.

He subconsciously twisted open the bottle cap in his hand.

The movement was very relaxed, natural, and effortless.

But just as Ding Mo raised the water bottle, about to drink deeply, he felt...

Something was strange?

What was going on? Ding Mo's movements became hesitant.

But the thirst in his mouth kept driving him, suppressing his reason.

Having just escaped danger, was he not even allowed to drink some water? Ding Mo raised the water bottle again.

Slap!

But immediately, as if suddenly awakened, Ding Mo violently threw the water bottle onto the ground!

The water bottle immediately went "gurgle-gurgle" as it flew far away, the liquid inside spilling all over the ground!

Ding Mo looked closely and discovered that this liquid had turned a murky yellow, with some non-human hair mixed in; it was not the transparent water from before at all!

Damn! It really wasn't that simple...

Cursing, Ding Mo turned his head to look, and was startled!

Because Zhang Yunfan, a few meters away, was already tilting his head back, pouring the "water" from his bottle out!

The murky yellow liquid flowed down in a stream in mid-air, and it was about to pour into Zhang Yunfan's mouth!

And Zhang Yunfan himself had a look of longing, as if he were drinking some kind of nectar!

The light around them began to distort.

Within the Curtain, Ding Mo gazed at the murky yellow liquid just centimeters from Zhang Yunfan's mouth a few meters away, thinking rapidly with the help of the frozen time.

Was there any way to save him?

After all, he was a teammate who was still somewhat normal; if he could be saved, he should be.

But the distance between the two was too great, and with the Curtain descended, Ding Mo could not reach him; otherwise, he would only need to push him.

About 20 seconds later, Ding Mo gritted his teeth and chose one from the several methods that had formed in his mind.

He took off his top, balled it up, and threw it at Zhang Yunfan's head.

The clothes flew out of Ding Mo's range of activity and hung suspended in mid-air.

As Ding Mo lifted the "Curtain," that bundle of clothes, like a face-hugger, slammed onto Zhang Yunfan's face.

Wham!

Almost the instant after that, the strange liquid in the water bottle fell.

The liquid soaked the clothes, and the clothes blocked almost all of the liquid,

but a few drops still fell into Zhang Yunfan's mouth!

Zhang Yunfan had been stunned by being "attacked" by a bundle of clothes, but after consuming those few drops of liquid.

"Cough, cough!"

He first bent over and began to cough violently, not even paying attention when Ding Mo ran over to snatch the water bottle and throw it away.

Ding Mo lifted the top that was covering his head.

A dark face was revealed, the two pupils upon it having shrunk to the size of needle points!

It was a "Threshold Withdrawal Reaction"!