CH 34

Chapter 34 – Esophagus 6

The crawling sound of the basilisk immediately evoked Xu RenDong’s bad memories. His heartbeat suddenly accelerated and he couldn’t help holding the baby in his arms more tightly. Fortunately, the baby slept soundly and breathed lightly and evenly. It shouldn’t cry suddenly.

Through the narrow door of the cabinet, Xu RenDong could just make out the figure of the basilisk. Its slender human body looked pale in the moonlight, like a corpse with blood drained, with the thick snake tail trailing behind. The image was very incongruous. There was still no mouth or nose on that person’s face and the three black holes were bottomless. The two bloodshot eyeballs were rolling in the eye sockets. Because there were no eyelids, the eyeballs were always exposed to the air and they looked dry and very strange.

The basilisk stood still in front of the cabinet and suddenly bent down. The pale and shriveled face suddenly approached, magnifying the sense of horror hundreds of times. Xu RenDong was shocked and instinctively wanted to retreat but he forced himself to hold it back. This cabinet was made of wood and was very old. He would make a noise when he moved it and then he would be dead. Therefore, he could only keep his position close to the cabinet door, holding his breath and nervously watch the basilisk from the crack in the door.

If his guess was wrong, then the price is death.

Fortunately, it’s only death. He still has a chance to come back.

The two dark nostrils on the basilisk’s face twitched a few times, as if smelling something. Soon, it lowered its head and finally noticed the baby bottle on the ground. It seemed to be a little confused, looking at the baby bottle and then at the cabinet.

Xu RenDong’s heart touched his throat, and watched the basilisk stretch out its long, slender fingers like bones. Fortunately, it still chose a feeding bottle.

There is a small half bottle of prepared milk powder left in the bottle. The white basilisk picked up the baby bottle, tilted his head and looked at it for a while and then made a move that Xu RenDong could not understand.

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—It actually stuffed the entire milk bottle into its mouth.

Xu RenDong was dumbfounded. Without the hindrance of teeth, the basilisk easily contained the entire bottle in his mouth. But the bottle is as thick as a child’s arm, even if it can fit in the mouth, can it still be swallowed in the throat? (See Author’s note at the end.)

Sure enough, the pale and slender throat of the basilisk undulated a few times. After all, it could not swallow the bottle directly. It had to spit out the bottle, hold the top of the bottle in its hand and begin to tear at it like a chicken leg.

Of course it cannot be torn apart. The glass bottle is very firm, sticky with saliva, and  very slippery. The basilisk didn’t have teeth yet and couldn’t bite it. It made several frustrated noises and was so angry that it let out an angry growl.

It is pitiful to have no teeth and pitiful to have no brain. So far, Xu RenDong can be sure that this basilisk has very low intelligence, almost acting according to instinct. In this case, although they couldn’t confront it head-on, they could still subdue it easily with some traps. In the beginning, Lian Qiao used small things like skipping ropes and sandbags to play around with the basilisk. It seems that as long as they did not confront it head-on, they still have an advantage.

Xu RenDong calmed down a bit and suddenly there was a crisp sound in his ear. The sound of glass cracking almost resounded through the entire monastery. It turned out that the basilisk couldn’t swallow the bottle so it smashed the bottle with anger.

The glass shattered and the milky white milk flowed everywhere. A rich milky scent was exuded. Xu RenDong couldn’t help swallowing, only to feel that his stomach was empty and the noisy hunger rushed to his throat, scratching his heart.

After the white basilisk smashed the bottle, it turned and left. Just as Xu RenDong was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the basilisk seemed to remember something and suddenly turned back. That pale face suddenly leaned in front of Xu RenDong!

If it weren’t for the cabinet door, Xu RenDong would be face to face with it. His heart pounded wildly, almost breaking in his chest.

The basilisk’s dark nostrils throbbed and its dry and red eyes turned left and right, looking inside through the crack of the door. This distance is too close so let alone stepping back, Xu RenDong didn’t even dare to breathe. He could only confront the basilisk through the thin cabinet door, praying in the dark that the basilisk would not see him.

—Wait, darkness?

Xu RenDong suddenly had a plan. He suppressed his fear and, instead of backing up, he cautiously leaned forward and blocked the door with his body.

As long as there are no gaps, the moonlight from the outside can’t penetrate, and the basilisk can’t see anything.

However, Xu RenDong would no longer be able to peer at the basilisk through the crack of the door. He clung to the cabinet door, his breath full of the stench from the mouth of the basilisk. It smelled like animal internal organs  that had been soaked in blood for more than ten days. Xu RenDong breathed gently but the stench stayed in his nose for a long time and he was so sick that he was about to vomit.

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He was more worried about the smell waking up the baby than the vomiting he couldn’t control himself. He gently covered the baby’s nose and mouth, trying to prevent the odor from entering. As for whether it would work or not would depend on if the heavens favored him.

Xu RenDong was holding a time bomb in his hand and was in close contact with the basilisk through a thin wooden door. The basilisk outside was silent and Xu RenDong’s heartbeat beat fiercely for fear that the basilisk could hear his heartbeat through the wooden door.

He tried to calm down, telling himself that at most he would die, at most he would start all over again, there was nothing to fear. But when he thought of death, the fear engraved in the depths of his soul climbed up his back, ascending up his spine section by section.

He was like a cat caught by the back of his neck, his hair exploded with tension. He was so confused that he couldn’t stop a series of thoughts coming into his mind.

Was the basilisk still at the door? Would it directly open the cabinet door? If he is found, could he escape?

Time crawled by very slowly. Every second was extended indefinitely. Just when Xu RenDong’s nerves were tense to the extreme, almost breaking off, he heard the basilisk exhale a long breath.

A lot of stench came in, Xu RenDong held his breath immediately. At the same time he heard a soft wandering sound.

It was gone.

As if exhausted, Xu RenDong’s whole body relaxed.

After a two-second delay, he forced himself to regain his energy, carefully adjusted his posture and peek out from the crack of the door again. However, his vision from the crack of the door was limited after all and he couldn’t see where the basilisk had gone. Xu RenDong huddled up in the darkness holding the baby and couldn’t help but feel a little worried.

Everyone must have heard the movement of smashing the baby bottle. He wondered if anyone would come to check it out. What he worried about the most was Lian Qiao. With Lian Qiao’s temperament, even if he is afraid, he will have the courage to come to check on the situation. Not to mention that he and Lian Qiao are not together and so Lian Qiao might come out to look for him out of concern.

If Lian Qiao came out at this moment and just happened to encounter the white basilisk, it would definitely be a dead end.

Although he specifically told Lian Qiao not to go out, he didn’t know if Lian Qiao would abide by the agreement between them. Xu RenDong raised his ears and listened to the movement outside the cabinet. He faintly heard the footsteps of the basilisk, as if it were  walking away, but he couldn’t tell the specific direction. The more he waited, the more disturbed he became and he desperately wanted to go back to the second floor in the dark to see if Lian Qiao was sleeping honestly.

But he did not dare to act rashly. He is still holding a baby in his hand and if this ancestor woke up and started to cry, everyone would be buried with him.

In this way, in the deadly darkness, Xu RenDong kept his heart in his throat, for fear that he would hear Lian Qiao’s scream in the next second.

He didn’t know how long it took until he could no longer hear sounds outside. He was slightly relieved but he didn’t dare to relax his vigilance completely. The baby was asleep in his arms, breathing evenly. Xu RenDong closed his eyes in the dark and began to organize his thoughts.

His guess was correct, the basilisk was attracted to the smell of milk. In order to verify this, he deliberately brought the milk bottle out of the kitchen. But the baby also had the smell of milk after drinking the milk powder so he put the bottle at the door of the cupboard and hid in with the baby by himself.

Sure enough, the basilisk was attracted to the cabinet by the smell of milk. But Xu RenDong didn’t expect it was still able to detect a milk scent outside the bottle. If it wasn’t for the fact that the basilisk smashed the bottle by mistake and filled up the entire room with the smell of milk, his simple idea of hiding in the cabinet probably would not have worked.

Based on the response of the basilisk, it can be concluded that the major target of the white basilisk was the baby. Then the conditions for death in this world should be like this: the baby is hungry and cries -> it is fed with powdered milk -> the scent of milk attracts the basilisk -> the basilisk screams after swallowing the baby-> all team members die.

Not only the scent of milk but the cries of the baby can also attract the basilisk. In other words, even if the baby is not fed milk and keeps on crying, the basilisk will find them sooner or later.

Two plans suddenly appeared in Xu RenDong’s mind. One is to find other substitutes to feed the baby and the other is… to kill the baby.

Of course, the latter was immediately rejected by him. Not to mention that the baby might be a living teammate, even if he is really a “prop” as Lian Qiao thought, it should have other uses and shouldn’t be killed casually. Since this time the world has reduced all of them into children and deprived them of their combat effectiveness, it is clear that the rules this time is that no force can be used nor can violence be used to solve puzzles.

What’s more, their ultimate goal was to find the elevator and the button and escape from this world, not to live shiveringly under the shadow of ghosts.

— By the way, this time he had no clue where the elevator was.

In his last reincarnation, they didn’t even survive the first night and all died quickly. Xu RenDong realized at this time that the NPC hadn’t issued a task to them this time so that they didn’t know what to do next.

In the previous doll world, although the clearance condition was not actually to complete the task, the rabbit still pointed them in a certain direction. But now, the old nun just took them into the monastery and put them to sleep. She didn’t say anything else. Are the elevators and buttons hidden in the monastery so they just had to look for them?

Was it so simple?

Xu RenDong felt it was unlikely. He recalled the text that appeared in the elevator: Esophagus. Regarding this word, he really couldn’t connect with the world of ghosts and monsters in front of him, so he had to give up.

Let’s explore the monastery well tomorrow… and discuss with Lian Qiao again…

Amidst the baby’s gentle and even breathing, Xu RenDong gradually became sleepy. He hugged the baby, leaned in the cupboard and fell asleep like this.

He didn’t know how long he slept before Xu RenDong vaguely heard someone calling him: “RenDong.. Are you there…”

Lian Qiao?

Xu RenDong opened his eyes and there was still darkness in the cabinet and nothing to see. He heard Lian Qiao calling him outside so he picked up the baby and cautiously opened the cabinet door: “I’m here.” 

In the living room, a small figure was looking around. Lian Qiao turned around when he heard this and said in surprise: “Brother RenDong! You’re okay!”

He greeted him happily. Xu RenDong wanted to climb out of the cabinet, but he felt sore and numb. Lian Qiao reached out to him: “I’ll hold the baby.”

Xu RenDong nodded. Lian Qiao took the baby and found that the baby was still asleep, so he asked: “Were you hiding here all night?”

“Yeah.” There are ten thousand ants crawling through his limbs. Xu RenDong rubbed his sour arm and told Lian Qiao what happened last night. He suddenly noticed that the light in the living room was very dark and the surroundings were very quiet. It seemed that there were only two of them in the entire monastery. He couldn’t help being surprised, “Where are the others?” 

Lian Qiao said, “Still sleeping.” He looked at Xu RenDong, his eyes showed admiration, “Fortunately, I listened to you and didn’t go out at night otherwise my body would be cold by now. I heard the sound of the baby bottle breaking and I was a little worried about you. But then I thought – you’re a big boss, it’s not my place to worry. Since you’re so confident, it must have been planned. Sure enough, you found out the death condition on the first day. You’re really amazing!”

Xu RenDong thought to himself, there’s nothing amazing about it. No matter how stupid people were, if they died a few times they will surely know what happened. Therefore, he just treated Lian Qiao’s compliment casually and didn’t take it to heart.

After he got out of the cabinet, he went to the main entrance of the monastery. When he opened the door and saw that the big iron door in the yard was still locked. The chain was cold and the morning dew was still condensed on it.

At this time, the sky had brightened but the sun was still hiding behind the clouds and refused to show its head. From the cracks in the iron railings, you could see that there is a thick fog outside the courtyard wall. The gray-white fog was abnormally thick and the visible distance was less than one meter. Regardless of whether there was something hidden in the fog, Xu RenDong didn’t want to take the risk.

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“It seems that the dungeon area this time is limited to the monastery.” Lian Qiao walked to Xu RenDong’s side with the baby and looked at the thick fog outside with him.

“I think so too.” Xu RenDong glanced at him and inadvertently noticed that he had a pair of dark circles under his eyes.

He didn’t sleep well last night?

Xu RenDong suddenly had a flash in his heart- was it because he was so worried that he could not fall asleep?

No wonder he ran out to look for him even before the sun had risen?

Xu RenDong’s heart suddenly softened. In the slightly cold morning air, he felt a burst of warmth slowly flowing from his heart to his limbs. There was an indescribable comfort.

At this moment, he suddenly heard a gurgling belly sound coming from beside him. Lian Qiao touched his belly and said very sadly: “Oh, I’m so hungry… I want to eat barbecue.”

… It turned out that he was just too hungry to sleep.

Xu RenDong thought calmly: Sure enough, I’m thinking too much. How could he be so worried about me that he can’t sleep? We aren’t very familiar.

At this moment of thinking this, Xu RenDong’s memory suddenly became a little confused. He turned his head and asked: “Lian Qiao, how long have we known each other?”

Lian Qiao was taken aback, he counted on his hand: “Today is exactly two weeks. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.” Xu RenDong’s throat felt blocked but he didn’t know what to say so he smiled in a restrained manner, “Go back to the kitchen and find something to eat.”

***

The author has something to say:

Note: This description of gnawing a baby bottle is nothing at all. When I write down the four words as thick as a child’s arm, I don’t think it’s right.