Chapter 133: Deliberate Teasing

Gray-white mist receded like a tide.Sunlight pierced through the clouds again.

Su Zhan was crouched on top of the cooling tower, wiping his twin blades.

The cracks along the blade were so numerous they looked like a spiderweb, but at least they hadn’t snapped.

He leaped down, landing in the middle of the square where his teammates had gathered.

“Brother Su! Are you okay?”

Xu Hao immediately stepped forward and asked.

“I’m fine.”

Su Zhan pointed to the wound on his abdomen. “The bleeding stopped long ago. It’s not a big problem.”

Well, the wound had already been healing during the upgrade.

What everyone saw now was an artificial recreation of the wound.

Of course, it was a one-to-one replica of the original injury.

“Holy shit! You didn’t die?”

Liu Ziming limped over, shouting, “I hid in the eastern pipeline for more than thirty hours! I nearly suffocated!”

“Tsk tsk tsk…”

Su Zhan covered his nose in disgust. “You stink. Stay away from me.”

That was the truth.

If Liu Ziming said he hid in a pipeline…it had to be a sewage pipe.

Otherwise, how could it smell that bad?

“Damn! You fell into a cesspit, right?”

Xu Hao pinched his nose and hopped backward, pulling at his injured leg and grimacing in pain. “This stench is worse than the survivor’s sealed room before.”

“Hey! Smell it more, huh?”

Instead of keeping his distance, Liu Ziming deliberately leaned in: “If it stinks, sniff it more.”

Everyone immediately moved away from him.

“Stand still!”

Xie Xi pressed the pole of her scythe against Liu Ziming’s chest to keep him from approaching. “Something’s still moving on you! Are those maggots?”

“Nonsense! Those are leeches from the pipe!”

Liu Ziming stomped angrily and a few shriveled insect corpses fell from his pant leg. “...Fuck!”

Feng Jue silently took three steps back.

He pulled half a pack of tissue from his pocket and tossed it to Liu Ziming from a distance. “Wipe it. Behind your left ear…there’s something.”

“Don’t tell me it’s shit?!”

Liu Ziming hurriedly wiped behind his ear and smudged off a suspicious black substance.

Su Zhan poked it with the tip of his blade. “Not shit. Paper.”

Paper from the sewer pipes, saturated with all the “nutrients” of the sewage.

That smell—well, one could imagine.

Hearing this, Liu Ziming immediately threw the unknown lump as far away as he could.

He nearly vomited from the stench.

“Tsk tsk tsk…”

Su Zhan covered his nose in disgust and took two steps back. “Stay away from me. The ventilation over by the cooling tower is great. Don’t bring that smell near me.”

“I was in the distribution room in the substation to the south.”

Xie Xi added, “It was cramped, but at least clean.”

“I was at the sewage treatment plant to the north. The smell wasn’t great either, but it’s a hundred times better than yours!”

Xu Hao leaned on his makeshift crutch and edged toward Feng Jue. “Where’s Brother Feng?”

Feng Jue answered, “The monitoring room to the west.”

“Damn! How come you guys all found such nice spots?”

Liu Ziming wailed. “Why was I the only one who crawled into the sewer?”

Su Zhan grinned with schadenfreude. “Whoever ran the slowest, what do you expect? I remember you were the first to shout to run east.”

“I thought the eastern pipes would be a good hiding spot!”

Liu Ziming protested, aggrieved. “Who knew it would all be sewage pipes…”

Xie Xi had a sudden idea. “Wait, I remember the industrial area map—there’s clearly—”

“Ventilation ducts!”

Xu Hao chimed in, then burst out laughing. “Ziming, did you read the wrong map?”

Liu Ziming flushed and fell silent.

The four of them instinctively took a step back and kept their distance from him.

After this teasing and banter,

the oppressive tension in the air eased considerably.

“There’s a river over there, maybe about a kilometer from here. Wash up and come back.”

Xie Xi pointed in a direction. “You look like you need a steel wool scrub.”

Su Zhan and the others exchanged looks and, from those glances, understood the plan.

“Hey! Wait! Where are we supposed to find steel—”

Liu Ziming shouted.

The response was four backs walking away.

Even holding a branch as a crutch, Xu Hao insisted on increasing his pace to get out of the polluted area.

Screams like pigs being slaughtered and splashing sounds came from downstream.

Why the screams…?

Water had gotten into the wounds; of course it would hurt!

If ordinary people went through this, they’d probably be left with scars.

But awakeners didn’t have such worries.

That’s also why, despite their disgust, everyone was fine letting him wash in the river.

They were bros.

Rather than pure disgust, it was deliberate teasing of Liu Ziming.

Su Zhan sat on a stone by the bank and said, “Do you guys think he’ll stink up the entire river?”

After three seconds of silence,

the four of them stood and walked further upstream.

...

Vermilion Bird Academy.

The mission had been completed successfully.

As mentioned earlier, Xie Xi and Liu Ziming didn’t need the money, so they generously declined any share of the reward.

12,000 credits.

Su Zhan, Feng Jue, and Xu Hao split it evenly.

Xu Hao still leaning on his crutch did the math: “Four thousand each. With this many credits, I can get a new dagger!”

Su Zhan was about to reply when an assistant instructor appeared around a corridor corner. “The three of you, the Review Department wants to see you now.”

The air instantly froze.

Xu Hao’s crutch clattered to the floor. “Re-review? We already submitted the mission report, right?”

The assistant instructor said, “Routine inquiry regarding the anomalies encountered in the mist.”

Feng Jue frowned slightly. “What anomalies?”

The assistant instructor’s gaze swept over the three of them. “You reported killing nine Bone Eaters, but we did not find a single corpse at the scene.”

“We were too busy running for our lives.”

Su Zhan gave a light laugh. “Who had time to count that?”

“So…”

The assistant instructor locked eyes with Su Zhan. “Student Su, you really hid in the cooling tower the entire time?”

“If not?”

Su Zhan shrugged. “Should I have crawled into a sewer like some Liu Ziming?”

Xu Hao suddenly snickered, then quickly capped it.

Feng Jue’s mouth twitched.

This wasn’t an act—Liu Ziming really had chosen the worst hiding spot.

The assistant issued a final command: “Come with me. Someone’s waiting.”

Walking down the corridor,

Xu Hao lowered his voice. “Brother Su…do you think they really suspect us?”

“No need to panic.”

Su Zhan looked straight ahead. “We saved so many people. By rights, we should be heroes.”

The metal door to the Review Department slid open.

Su Zhan saw Liu Ziming at first glance, looking dejected.

His hair was still wet—obviously he’d just showered and probably hadn’t even blown his hair dry before being called here.

He must be marinated to the bone; he just kept washing endlessly.

Yeah, this young master loved cleanliness.

Yet he had hidden in a sewage pipe for over thirty hours.

When a person is close to death, they do all sorts of things.

Xie Xi sat nearby and gave the three a meaningful look as soon as she saw them.

“Oh, the sewer war god shows up too?”

Xu Hao whispered, teasing.

Su Zhan didn’t join the teasing.

Because he saw someone familiar—the one person he currently least wanted to face.