317: Chapter 317 The Significance of the White Mouse

Lin Fan stood at the edge of the platform, overlooking the misshapen monster on the beach.

"What is there to talk about?"

"My voice... isn't... this loud." Chen Jian's vocal cords produced a vague sound. If Lin Fan's hearing hadn't been enhanced, with the sea breeze being this strong, it would have been completely impossible for him to hear what was being said.

"You... come down."

Go down?

Lin Fan sneered inwardly.

This slope and platform were his tactical advantage. Standing here, he overlooked everything, able to advance to attack or retreat to defend.

Go down to the beach? That would be equivalent to turning himself into a live target, standing at the same starting line as the monster. All directions were open ground, and goodness knows what else was hidden in the woods.

Furthermore, who knew if this was a diversionary trick played by Chen Jian.

Lin Fan wanted to throw stones directly, but on second thought, perhaps he could use this opportunity to squeeze some information out of Chen Jian's mouth.

"If you want to talk, come up to the middle of the slope. We'll keep a distance of a few meters, and I'll talk with you."

Inside the Karst Cave, Yang Ningcong mustered up his courage and poked his head out through a gap behind a rock, wanting to see what the beast that had abducted Anan actually looked like.

With just one glance, he abruptly pulled his head back, his face turning pale.

"F*ck, what the hell kind of stitched-together monster is this?"

"If I turned into this kind of appearance, I'd rather die."

Chen Jian on the beach didn't move.

His turbid eyeballs stared fixedly at Lin Fan, as if calculating gains and losses, or as if silently asking for instructions from some invisible entity.

"If you lack sincerity, forget it. I'll give you three seconds. If you don't get lost, I'm going to throw stones."

"I'm going up." Just as Lin Fan's voice fell, Chen Jian strode forward.

With a sudden burst of strength in his limbs, he bounded a few times and scrambled up to the halfway point of the slope.

"Can we... talk... now?" Chen Jian raised his head.

Right now, the sun on the island was blazing, and the light poured down without any obstruction.

This time, Lin Fan saw it crystal clear.

That face had completely departed from the category of human beings.

The brow ridges and cheekbones protruded exaggeratedly outward. The skin was dry, shriveled, and covered with a layer of grayish-white keratinous hard shell.

But what shocked Lin Fan the most were his arms.

That arm which he had personally crippled was now hanging intact at his side. Beneath the grayish-black short fluff, the wound was practically no longer visible.

Was this because the medical technology of those behind-the-scenes masterminds was superb, or did this mutated beast possess the ability to heal automatically?

"You guys... from that... woman," Chen Jian's rough voice sounded like he was stuttering, and also like it took a lot of effort for him to speak, "obtained a tube."

Lin Fan didn't respond, waiting for what he would say next.

"Hand... it over."

"As an exchange," Chen Jian continued, "from now on... from now on, all mutated things on this island will never trouble any single one of you again."

As soon as these words were spoken, an irrepressible commotion came from the entrance of the Karst Cave.

Yang Ningcong's head poked straight out from behind the rock, the excitement on his face impossible to hide.

No longer being hunted and killed by monsters?

What kind of heaven-sent good thing was this!

Just as he wanted to shout "Deal", he was pushed back by Zhou Kai with a shove.

Lin Fan still remained expressionless.

This trade sounded tempting to the extreme.

Giving up a tube of unknown use in exchange for the safety of the entire team in front of the monsters.

Especially at this critical juncture when a third-party force was about to land on the island, being able to eliminate the greatest threat of mutated creatures would undoubtedly greatly increase their survival rate.

This was simply a tremendously profitable deal.

But what spun in Lin Fan's mind was another thought.

Why did this bunch of monsters want to make a deal with him?

They had a flock of Strange Birds, a giant snake, a troop of monkeys, and a stitched-together monster like Chen Jian who couldn't be killed.

Their strength was far above that of his own small team.

If so, why didn't they rush straight onto the platform, kill everyone, and then take the tube away?

The only explanation was that they couldn't do it.

Or rather, they were afraid that thing would be destroyed by them.

Therefore, taking advantage of the fact that they didn't know the value of that thing, they sent Chen Jian out to negotiate.

Just as Lin Fan was weighing the pros and cons, a figure impatiently rushed out of the cave.

"Deal! We'll deal!"

Yang Ningcong broke free from Zhou Kai, scrambled and ran to the edge of the platform, shouting loudly to Chen Jian below: "We'll take this deal!!"

After shouting a few times, he turned around to get the tube placed inside.

Lin Fan did not stop him. Chen Jian had already reached halfway. If he went in to stop him, no matter how fast his speed was, Chen Jian could take this opportunity to jump up.

If Chen Jian came to the platform, he would be much more threatening than those unconscious Strange Birds.

Just a single Yang Ningcong—Zhou Kai could handle him.

And in Yang Ningcong's eyes, this was simply a lifeline falling from the sky!

Without the monsters, they would only need to deal with that batch of new humans about to arrive.

The problem was simplified from being attacked from both front and rear into a single-line defense.

Besides, maybe those people even had the rescue team hired by his old man.

The degree of danger plummeted straight down! What fucking tube, could it be more important than one's life?

However, Yang Ningcong's hand had barely reached halfway.

A whiter, steadier hand took the soft tube a step ahead of him.

Xu Zhixia picked up the tube and took a step aside.

Yang Ningcong grabbed at empty air and turned around exasperatedly, "Xu Zhixia! What are you doing? Are you crazy? This is our chance to survive!"

"A chance?" Xu Zhixia let out a cold sneer, "The more they want it, the greater the value of this thing. If you hand over our only bargaining chip, what difference do we have from meat on a chopping board?"

"What fucking bargaining chip!" Yang Ningcong was completely anxious, spittle flying everywhere, "I only know that we are caught in a pincers movement, and there are still goodness knows how many people coming from behind!"

"Once those people find out they can't go back, they'll definitely go crazy! They'll rob! They'll kill! The fewer enemies we have now, the better! Give this thing to them, and in the future we'll only need to deal with humans; the chance of surviving will be much greater!"

His logic was very simple and also very direct: of two evils, choose the lesser.

Monsters were unknown, terrifying, and unbeatable.

Humans were known entities; no matter how bad they were, there would always be a way to deal with them.

Therefore, first placating the monsters with a useless thing and concentrating their energy to deal with humans was the most cost-effective deal.

Zhou Kai listened from the side and frowned. Although he also felt that Yang Ningcong's words made some sense, he instinctively felt it was unreliable.

"Human words are untrustworthy," Xu Zhixia's voice grew a bit louder, overriding Yang Ningcong's roar, "and you want me to believe the words of a beast?"

She held the soft tube up against the sunlight.

The dark purple liquid inside the tube flowed slowly, and those fine filamentous objects appeared exceptionally eerie under the light.

"Xu Zhixia!" Yang Ningcong's voice grew loud again, "What have we been working ourselves to death for these past few days, digging tree roots and hoarding supplies? Isn't it just to stay alive!"

He stepped forward closer, "Now there is an opportunity! An opportunity that can reduce half of our threats, an opportunity that can greatly increase my chances of survival, yet you don't want it, and instead turn around to talk to me about value? About bargaining chips?"

Yang Ningcong was so angry that his entire face turned the color of pig liver, and spittle flew everywhere.

"I'm telling you, even if what's packed inside this tube is the elixir of immortality, it still has nothing to do with us in the slightest! What we want right now is to survive! To leave this ghost place alive! This is more important than anything else!"

Yang Ningcong's logic was simple, but it also hit straight to the human heart.

In front of an absolute survival crisis, any illusory future value appeared pale and powerless.

Before his voice fell, Yang Ningcong suddenly pounced forward with a clear target: the soft tube in Xu Zhixia's hand.

"Give it to me!"

Xu Zhixia was not slow to react. She dodged to the side while simultaneously pulling the hand holding the tube behind her back.

But Yang Ningcong's eyes were already red with anxiety. When the pounce failed, he turned his hand back to grab Xu Zhixia's arm.

"Let go!" Xu Zhixia let out a low cry, tightly protecting the thing in her hand.

As a woman, her strength was ultimately a notch lower.

Although Yang Ningcong was a good-for-nothing, his physical build was right there. After a few rounds of tearing and pulling, Xu Zhixia's body began to lose balance.

"Zhou Kai!" Yang Ningcong shouted at Zhou Kai while snatching, "What the f*ck are you still standing there for? Come over and help me!"

"Don't you want to go back? Don't you want to live in the large villa I promised you? Don't you want to drive sports cars and play with those blonde-haired and blue-eyed foreign chicks?"

"This is our only chance! As long as we placate the monsters, we'll have the energy to deal with that group of people who are coming!"

"Only by dealing with that group of people can we stay alive."

"Living to wait for rescue."

"We'll be able to go home! At that time, whatever you want, I'll give you double!"

Hearing this, Zhou Kai's breathing grew heavy. He glanced at Yang Ningcong, and then glanced at Xu Zhixia, who was being tightly grabbed by him.

He took a step forward.

A smile appeared on Yang Ningcong's face.

"F*ck your mother!"

With an angry curse, Zhou Kai's thick leg landed solidly on Yang Ningcong's stomach.

"Ah..."

A miserable scream.

Yang Ningcong slammed hard against the stone wall behind him. He curled up on the ground, his facial features painfully distorted together.

Clutching his stomach, he couldn't catch his breath for a long time. The entire Karst Cave instantly fell silent.

Yang Ningcong coughed several times and finally caught his breath. He raised his head, his face full of disbelief.

"You... are you f*cking crazy? Zhou Kai!" He pointed at Zhou Kai, his voice shaking, "The villa... the sports car... the foreign wife... you don't want any of them anymore?"

Zhou Kai walked up to him, lowered his head to look down at him, "Can't tell who's the boss anymore, huh?"

Zhou Kai raised his foot and stepped heavily on the hand Yang Ningcong wanted to use to grab the soft tube, grinding it forcefully.

"Ah...!" Yang Ningcong let out another miserable scream.

"What kind of thing do you think you are? Brother Fan's woman, and you dare to touch her?"

Lin Fan stood at the edge of the platform, not saying a single word from beginning to end.

He suddenly discovered that the value of keeping Yang Ningcong alive seemed to manifest at this moment.

If they couldn't ask out what was specifically inside that tube, wouldn't they find out later by letting this laboratory mouse Yang Ningcong try it...

PS:

What cannot crush me can only make me stronger.

Perhaps because it's on the rankings, the book title and cover got wiped out again. Esteemed readers, reading up to here means you are practically veteran readers of this book.

This junior asks everyone to send a free Power of Love.

If everyone is busy and has no time to watch GG, then just click to urge for updates. I don't know if the Tomato boss gives traffic based on data like ongoing reads and update urging, but it's like treating a dead horse as a live one. [The author kneels and thanks you]