Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 829 Pus

Anjie's pupils suddenly contracted.

The fish leaping out of the water were densely packed, like countless strange fish with large mouths and sharp teeth. Their festering, damp scales were bleached white by the sunlight filtering through the grass, and some strange grayish-white pus even oozed out.

These strange-looking fish, completely unlike the kind ones in the original story, stared with pairs of dead fish eyes filled with malice, and opened their mouths to bite Yu Shijiu, who was standing on the edge of the lotus flower and "singing loudly".

Chen Yi stood up in shock, his fat face trembling slightly. He subconsciously wanted to speak, but then he saw Yu Shijiu, who was in the center of the attack by the fish, suddenly stick out an index finger and hold it up to his lips for a second.

Chen Yi: "..."

The next second, an axe appeared in Yu Shijiu's hand. He nimbly gripped the handle, and the axe, which was half the size of a person, spun rapidly in his hand. The still-unclean blade fiercely met the monsters.

Splash!

puff!

The continuous sound of strange fish falling into the water reached the ears of all the players. Most of the monsters with distorted faces and bodies were cut in half by Yu Shijiu and fell directly into the depths of the pond, losing their aggressiveness.

The remaining strange fish, seemingly oblivious to the "death" of their kind ahead, continued to leap out of the water and tear at Yu Shijiu.

Yu Shijiu blinked lightly, and drops of blood splattered from the monster fish's corpse slid down his eyelids, blurring his half-red eye sockets.

"Wow."

Yu Shijiu watched as the strange fish continued to surge forward, trying to tear him apart, and excitedly raised the blood-dripping axe in his hand.

“That’s great,” Yu Shijiu tilted her head, a faint red line sliding down the corner of her eye. “You don’t seem to be here to help us, so I’m sorry.”

"Go to hell, all of you."

The boy's voice was gentle, and his blood-splattered eye sockets appeared even redder against the backdrop of countless monstrous fish being chopped off.

He Lingling and Xu Han turned pale as they looked at the strange fish. The latter tried her best to restrain herself and carefully examined the strange parts of the fish's bodies. With trembling hands, she pulled a steel pipe out of her system backpack.

He Lingling: "..."

He Lingling stared in shock at Xu Han's hunched figure holding a steel pipe, her mind filled with a dense array of questions.

What... what is this thing?

When exactly did Xu Han install this steel pipe? Why didn't he install one for her too?!

He Lingling swallowed hard. She wanted to stop Xu Han from trying to help, but she swallowed the words back.

There was no other reason—she simply noticed that the fish seemed to be attracted by human voices.

He Lingling's heart was pounding, but her eyes were unusually clear as she gazed at the dense, tireless school of fish that resembled a perpetual motion machine. Her gaze quickly settled on their dead fish eyes, which seemed to be covered by a layer of white film.

They... should be invisible.

Listen to the sound and identify the location!

Shi Jiu did it on purpose!!!

He Lingling's fear instantly subsided by more than half. She took a deep breath and glanced at Xu Han, who was gently moving back and forth on the lotus flower beside her, trying to jump towards Yu Shijiu. Her lips twitched.

Although she had to admit that Xu Han was indeed lucky, if Xu Han dared to jump towards Yu Shijiu now, a dozen or twenty of these perpetual motion machine-like fish would definitely bite several big holes in Xu Han's body.

He Lingling felt like she could almost see the miserable state Xu Han would be in later.

That idiot—

The next second, He Lingling saw Xu Han, who had just stuck his foot out, be so frightened by several dead fish that had been sliced ​​in half and flew over that he took several steps back.

He Lingling: "..."

She withdrew her gaze and continued to stare intently at the monsters that Yu Shijiu was splitting apart with each axe stroke.

The monsters' corpses also looked strange. The grayish-white pus oozing from the gaps in their fish scales was not so clear after being soaked in the dirty pond water, but if you looked closely, you could still see that the color was different from the pond water.

He Lingling thought the pus... looked a lot like the pus that splattered from bursting pustules on a toad.

Could it be that... these fish were also contaminated by toads?

He Lingling's mind raced, her eyes fixed on the corpses of the strange fish, sensing that something was off.

What exactly is strange about it?

Are there just too many of these strange fish, or... why do their eyes look so much like human eyes?

He Lingling's heart was pounding. She tried to calm her agitated emotions and kept thinking about and carefully observing the eyes and bodies of the strange fish.

"They don't seem very smart."

As Yu Shijiu chopped some of the strange fish that had leaped out of the water in half and dropped them back into the water, he sighed softly and glanced at Xu Han, who still wanted to help.

"Brother Han."

Yu Shijiu tilted her head and said with a smile, "Don't move, I can handle this by myself."

Xu Han: "..."

Xu Han tightened his grip on the steel pipe, and said somewhat urgently, "There seem to be so many of them, Shi Jiu. You'll get tired sooner or later. Otherwise, otherwise we should just use props—"

"That's such a waste."

Yu Shijiu: "We're here to earn points."

"If we use items, even if we earn double or ten times the points, it would still be a loss, right?"

“After all, it’s a guild competition,” Yu Shijiu smiled, “we won’t die.”

Xu Han's pupils suddenly contracted, and he exclaimed, "Shi Jiu! Watch out behind you!"

wow-

A cold wind blew through the small pond as the sun gradually set. The icy wind seeped in through the gaps in the grass. Unbeknownst to Yu Shijiu, a strange fish leaped swiftly from the edge of a lotus flower behind her, its mouth full of sharp teeth snapping at her.

puff!

The sound of the knife cutting into the fish was exceptionally clear in the silent space.

Yu Shijiu paused slightly as he turned around. He saw the monster that had tried to ambush him being stabbed in the eye socket by a small, exquisite dagger, which pierced through the entire fish head and stared at the lotus flower's stamen.

The monster's blood stained the flower stamens, and the pungent smell of blood was nauseating.

Yu Shijiu wrinkled his nose and looked at An Jie, who had stood up not far away, as if he had sensed something.

Anjie frowned, her usually cool-toned but cheerful face now appearing unusually serious.

She was also holding several small daggers in her hand.

Yu Shijiu recognized these daggers.

These beautifully designed, sharp-bladed daggers... were actually kitchen utensils that Xu Han and He Lingling had casually bought and given to Chen Yi when they went out shopping.

Of course, Chen Yi "disliked" it because of its exceptionally exquisite and small size.

Finally, at Chen Yi's suggestion, it was relegated to being used as a fruit knife for peeling fruit.

Later, Anjie collected several of them.

Anjie really enjoys collecting these small and exquisite items.

"Thank you, Sister An."

Yu Shijiu blinked at An Jie, who was clearly a little angry, and said, "Sister An, your knife is so accurate, so amazing."

Anjie: "..."

Anjie took a deep breath, pretending not to hear the flattery in Yu Shijiu's words. The veins on the back of her hand bulged, and even the hand holding the exquisite dagger trembled.

"...Alright, watch out for another sneak attack."

Anjie opened her mouth silently, her mouth movements very slow.

If she hadn't acted quickly, Yu Shijiu would have inevitably been bitten by that strange fish.

Who knows what the consequences would be if you were bitten by a strange fish?

Anjie has sharp eyesight; she can clearly see the grayish-white slime on the floating corpses of strange fish. This stuff looks too much like the liquid in the pustules on a toad, and it's hard for her not to overthink it.

Yu Shijiu was almost bitten just now.

Thinking about that strange fish that had opened its mouth wide to bite Yu Shijiu, Anjie felt like her heart was about to jump out of her throat.

The feeling of being in the same game instance face-to-face with someone through a screen is different from that of being in the same instance with them face-to-face.

Ange couldn't bear to see anyone in her team get hurt in front of her.

Especially this unknown possibility of injury.

Yu Shijiu seemed to notice that An Jie's mouth opening was a bit strange. He stopped playing around and, when he saw the strange fish rushing towards him again, he cut down the fish much faster.

He didn't believe that the strange fish in this pond were endless.

If it's truly endless... then what's the point of them continuing? They might as well just get torn apart and eaten by these strange fish.

As Yu Shijiu's movements in chopping down the strange fish became more and more skillful, Fang Youhua and the others began to have their own ideas.

Fang Youhua and Yang Hua exchanged glances. The latter pointed somewhat irritably at the strange fish corpses floating on the water's surface with the current, and silently opened his mouth.

They are not blind.

Anjie didn't say a word when she helped Yu Shijiu earlier—wait, didn't that player named Xu Han speak up just now?

Fang Youhua and the others' expressions changed, and they instantly looked at where Xu Han was.

On the lotus flower, Xu Han, who had just warned Yu Shijiu to be careful behind him in his shock, was now pale-faced and kept raising the steel pipe in his hand to smash the strange fish that was pouncing on the lotus flower. He was almost scared to death.

Although there were far fewer strange fish than Yu Shijiu's, even just a few scattered ones, it was still a considerable challenge for Xu Han.

After all, he's just a helpless and vulnerable support! And a soft support at that!

Despite his fear, Xu Han slammed down with considerable force each time, leaving the surrounding monsters dizzy and disoriented, thus managing to maintain his own safety for a time.

He Lingling was getting a headache. The "Ghost Eye" was becoming increasingly unstable as she impatiently opened and closed it repeatedly. For a moment, even He Lingling herself felt her eyeballs expanding, and her cognition was showing signs of collapse.

"..." He Lingling resisted the urge to activate the "Ghost Eye" and bit her tongue fiercely.

The moment blood and excruciating pain filled her mouth, He Lingling's agitated and chaotic thoughts suddenly ceased.

She focused intently on the eyes of the strange fish, her gaze constantly falling on the height they leaped out of the water, the sparse mucus on their bodies, and... those eyes that were no different from those of humans.

The eyes of these monsters look remarkably similar—no, not just similar, they're exactly the same! Even the curve of their blinks and their sinister gazes are identical!

He Lingling swallowed a mouthful of blood-stained saliva, and a bold guess slowly formed in her mind.

She remembered... in her foster mother's house where she kept "Thumbelina," the "Thumbelina" in the flowerpot should be exactly the same... Could these strange fish that try to bite people and seem to want to contaminate the players be the same as those "Thumbelina corpses"?

If the "Thumbelinas" were trying to drag others to their deaths, then these monstrous fish must also be trying to turn players into monstrous fish just like themselves...

He Lingling's mind raced, the sounds of an axe slicing into a fish's belly and her own steel pipe slamming into the fish's body and head echoing in her ears.

When did the strange fish appear?

It was the singing—He Lingling suddenly turned her head to look at the lotus flowers that hadn't made a sound for a long time.

The strange fish appeared when Thumbelina on this lotus flower started crying and singing.

Thumbelina… The appearance of the strange fish after Thumbelina sang perfectly matches the original storyline. However, compared to the kind animals attracted by Thumbelina in the story, these fish were man-eating monsters…

He Lingling's temple veins throbbed repeatedly.

She stared intently at the lotus flower that Thumbelina hadn't moved at all, an unbelievable guess popping into her head.

Is the singing "person" really Thumbelina?

As a positive character, shouldn't the animals she attracts through her singing also be positive, kind, and helpful?

What if... What if...

He Lingling's breathing became rapid. She looked at the lotus flower that was still motionless, then turned to look at Yu Shijiu, who was surrounded by strange fish.

Yu Shijiu swung the axe very quickly, but upon closer inspection, one could see that the arc of his lifting and lowering the axe was somewhat stiff... Yu Shijiu was tired.

It might not be very tiring, but constantly engaging in high-intensity slashing under the relentless onslaught of the monster fish is physically demanding—Yu Shijiu would definitely unleash his "slaughter" if he were in this state for a long time.

too early.

It's too early to start the "killing spree".

He Lingling quickly constructed various possible scenarios in her mind, and finally gritted her teeth, looking at An Jie and Chen Yi who had stood up not far away.

Chen Yi looked at Yu Shijiu and Xu Han with concern, his fleshy body trembling as if in the cold wind.

Brother Chen is considering whether or not to help.

Anjie appeared relatively calm, but the several daggers she was tightly gripping in her hand shifted position between her fingers, their flashing light making He Lingling a little dizzy.

Sweat beaded on He Lingling's forehead. She licked her dry lips, not daring to look at An Jie's expression.

Anjie appears open-minded, but in reality, she has a very, very small, protective instinct.

If Anjie knew what she was thinking, she'd probably slap herself so hard she'd fly out of the pond.

Anjie noticed that someone was watching her. She slowly shifted her gaze from Yu Shijiu, first cautiously glancing at Fang Youhua and the others who were quiet not far away, before looking at He Lingling, who was wiping her forehead.

From her perspective, He Lingling was looking down at the strange fish corpses on the water's surface, retreating towards the edge of the lotus flowers as if in fear, her hand constantly wiping the sweat from her forehead.