NABC Chapter 971 Recovery
Chapter 971 Recovery
Yu Shijiu knelt on one knee on the ground, panting heavily, his forehead covered with a mixture of cold sweat and blood.
He looked down at his left arm, which had fully recovered.
The boy's pale, thin fingers curled slightly, and beneath his skin came a long-lost, warm, soft touch of human limbs, instead of the cold, hard texture of beast claws he had felt before.
For a moment, he was somewhat dazed.
"...Shi Jiu?"
Xu Han's voice trembled with disbelief as he cautiously approached and crouched down beside Yu Shijiu.
He looked at Yu Shijiu, somewhat hesitant to touch the other's arm, which had just recovered.
"Your...your hands...really...have changed back?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Han hiccuped, wishing he could slap himself twice—how could he say such a thing! It's obvious he's back to normal!
"..."
Yu Shijiu slowly raised her head, her face still bearing traces of dirt left from the struggle.
But his eyes, which had been chaotic and frantic, had now completely regained their clarity, and even looked more normal than before.
"Um……"
Yu Shijiu tried to force a smile, but it aggravated the wound on her face, causing her to hiss softly in pain.
"...It seems...it really has changed back."
His voice was terribly hoarse, as if it had been sanded.
Anjie quickly stepped forward, first glancing warily at the driver who was still wailing beside her, and at the dark red hat on the driver's knee, before squatting down to quickly check Yu Shijiu's condition.
"How are you feeling? Is your mind still... a mess?"
"...Let me see."
After Yu Shijiu finished speaking, he closed his eyes and carefully sensed it—
The screams, cries, and harsh words that had been flooding his consciousness like a tidal wave... had all vanished.
All that remained was the steady beating of my own heart and the sound of the drizzling rain outside the carriage, which gradually subsided.
"It's not chaotic anymore."
Yu Shijiu opened her eyes, looked at An Jie, and replied truthfully, "My mind is very quiet."
All those random noises are gone.
Anjie's tense shoulders finally relaxed. She nodded and then looked at the light red marks on Yu Shijiu's left arm that were healing rapidly—
Those were the marks left from when the skin and muscles were forcibly stretched and then contracted during the previous strange transformation.
"These injuries..."
"It's okay, it doesn't hurt."
Yu Shijiu moved his left hand fingers, and the joints made a slight clicking sound.
"I just feel a little weak."
He was telling the truth.
Although his left arm had recovered, the previous fight against the source of pollution and the forced dissipation of negative energy had really taken a toll on his strength. In addition, he had lost some blood, so his entire arm was limp and he couldn't muster any energy.
But even more noticeable than physical exhaustion is mental fatigue.
It's like... a long battle that's finally over.
As if his taut nerves had been suddenly snapped, Yu Shijiu swayed and was about to fall when a hand quickly reached out from the side and caught him firmly.
It was Chen Yi.
His face was pale from blood loss, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat, but his hand supporting Yu Shijiu was very steady.
"It's alright now."
Chen Yi's voice carried an undisguised weariness and relief; the wound on his shoulder was still bleeding, staining a large part of his clothes red.
"Feeling weak is a minor issue; you'll recover after a good rest."
Despite the excruciating pain in his shoulder, Chen Yi looked at Yu Shijiu's arm, now back to normal, with a sense of relief in his eyes.
"It's alright...it's alright...that's great..."
Xu Han, who had been listening to the conversation for a while, finally dared to reach out.
He quickly grasped Yu Shijiu's intact left wrist, carefully feeling the warm pulse under her skin, and then let out a long, complete sigh of relief.
"That's great...that's really great..."
His eyes reddened, and he almost cried, but if he did cry this time, it would be tears of relief!
But have I forgotten something? Wait a minute!
"Brother Chen!"
Xu Han finally reacted, scrambling around to turn around and frantically pressing on the wound on Chen Yi's shoulder, whereupon the faint light of healing shone again.
"Don't move! Don't move! I'll stop the bleeding! You've lost a lot of blood!"
No wonder he felt like he'd forgotten something! He'd forgotten about Brother Chen's injuries!
Yu Shijiu also used Chen Yi and Xu Han's strength to lean against the side of the seat to steady himself, and nodded in agreement.
"Brother Chen, you've really lost a lot of blood."
After she finished speaking, her already pale face seemed to turn even paler.
Chen Yi was both amused and exasperated by the two of them, and shook his head, saying:
"I'm fine, really. I'm thick-skinned, what could possibly happen if I got poked like that?"
"That won't do either." Xu Han's lips trembled with exhaustion, but he still managed to disagree:
"I still have some strength left, Brother Chen, don't worry, the bleeding will stop soon."
“Okay,” Yu Shijiu nodded and said seriously, “Brother Chen, I’ll buy you the recovery potion once we get out of here.”
Chen Yi: "..."
Seeing that both of them had expressions that said, "Don't talk, just listen to me," Chen Yi laughed so hard he forgot about the pain in his shoulder.
Is it really that exaggerated?
Chen Yi looked at An Jie, both amused and exasperated, "Sister An, don't you think so? Their reaction is way too exaggerated. Anyone who didn't know better would think I—"
Anjie interrupted him calmly: "To avoid prophecy."
Chen Yi choked: "..."
He Lingling also moved over step by step, holding onto the chair.
Her enormous black pupils had returned to their normal size, but the whites of her eyes were still covered with horrifying blood vessels, and there were traces of blood and tears still wet at the corners of her eyes.
He Lingling looked down at Yu Shijiu's arm, then looked up at the driver, her gaze finally settling on the dark red hat on his head, and slowly said:
"The pollution was transferred by the driver, but it wasn't a simple transfer. The driver... was digesting the pollution with his own body."
Her voice was soft, yet everyone could hear it clearly.
Lin Hai's body trembled slightly.
His long, eerie pupils turned to the driver, looking at the middle-aged man who was wailing and crying as if he were crying out all the regrets of his life, his eyes filled with a complicated expression.
why?
If "The Way Home" is adapted from his memories, then most of the main emotions in this story should also be his... In his memories, the driver's presence... has never been very strong.
"Digestion……?"
Mulanzhi pressed her lower back wound, her face pale, but she was also drawn to the scene before her.
What does "digestion" mean?
"It means that he absorbed all the sources of pollution that were originally permeating the car, which were composed of the negative emotions and tragic memories of countless people, into himself."
Lin Hai took over the conversation in a hoarse voice.
"Then... he used his belated repentance and pain as a solvent to gradually dissolve and dissipate these pollutants with his own body."
He pursed his lips, looking at the red hat on the driver's knee, its color deepening but no longer evoking a sense of bloodshed, and murmured:
"This hat was once his shield to escape reality, but now... it has become a container for all his pain..."
As if to confirm Lin Hai's words, the red hat on the driver's knee soon began to change.
As the driver continuously absorbed the dark red hat, the scarlet color gradually faded and lightened, from dark red to light red, then to a near-faded pink, and finally... it turned into a translucent, glass-like transparent color.
Inside this strangely colored, transparent hat, one could vaguely see some dark, fibrous material slowly swirling and then dissipating.
Under the watchful eyes of Lin Hai and the other players, the driver's sobs gradually subsided.
He went from wailing to sobbing softly, and then from sobbing back to intermittent weeping.
Finally, the driver looked up, revealing streaks of tears on his face and swollen, red eyes.
He looked disheveled, but his eyes were no longer as numb as before; instead, they held a kind of... almost exhausting calm.
The driver wiped his face, slowly looked at Yu Shijiu leaning against the seat, then at the injury on Chen Yi's shoulder, his eyes filled with sadness.
Yu Shijiu, who had been stared at several times, was speechless.
He felt the driver's gaze was a little strange, giving him the illusion that he was being pitied or sympathized with—was it just his imagination? It must be an illusion.
Just as Yu Shijiu was about to speak, he saw the driver's lips move, as if he wanted to say something.
Yu Shijiu patiently waited for the driver to continue, but saw that the other party only nodded very slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Yu Shijiu: "..."
He gritted his teeth and saw him lower his head, reach out, and pick up the hat that had become semi-transparent from his knee.
The driver, holding his hat in both hands, slowly stood up and turned to walk towards the driver's seat.
He didn't look at anyone else in the carriage. He simply held his hat and walked back to his driver's seat, sat down, and gently placed the hat on the passenger seat next to him.
Then, the driver gripped the steering wheel.
The engine sound—the bus engine, which had long been shut off, surprisingly emitted a low and steady starting sound once again.
hum-
The lights inside the carriage also changed from being dim and flickering to being stable and bright.
It wasn't a blinding white light, but a warm, dim yellow light, like the dawn, that illuminated the entire carriage.
Yu Shijiu seemed to sense something and turned his head to look out the car window.
Outside the car window, the rain had completely stopped at some point.
The heavy darkness outside the bus finally faded away, and a faint, warm, pale light appeared on the horizon.
A hazy morning mist slowly rose from the houses and woods in the distance, the air was fresh and moist, carrying the scent of earth and the warmth of the rain.
The bus started up slowly again and drove smoothly forward.
There were no station announcements, no urging, only the steady roar of the engine and the rustling sound of the wheels rolling over the wet road.
The carriage was completely silent.
Everyone stared at the driver's retreating figure.
He sat upright, his hands firmly gripping the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
The translucent red hat lay quietly on the passenger seat, reflecting a faint, warm, pale yellow halo in the morning light.
【Ding--】
The long-awaited system notification sound rang clearly in the ears of all players.
[The core source of contamination in the Guild Tournament dungeon "The Journey Home" has been completely purified.]
[Things that shouldn't be in the car have been confirmed removed.]
[Current surviving players in the instance "The Journey Home" - "Alive" 5/5, "Echoes" 4/5.]
[Based on the progress of the instance, contribution level, and resolution of core events...determined...determined...determined as...]
The system's cold, mechanical female voice paused for a few seconds, as if it were calculating something quickly but slowly, and remained silent for a long time.
Exhausted, Xu Han sat on the ground, listening to the clicking notification sounds in his ear, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
What's wrong with the game notification sound? Is it stuck?
other people:"……"
He Lingling had already leaned back in her seat, her eyes closed in a daze, completely exhausted.
Anjie walked over to her and helped her up, and nodded upon hearing this.
"Hmm, it's probably stuck."
Xu Han: "Why is it stuck? Is there a bug?"
Everyone: "..."
Ma Ming, growing impatient, or perhaps knowing they had already cleared the game, couldn't help but speculate:
"Because it's hard to calculate who won between us, right?"
Xu Han was shocked to hear this. "This is impossible! We must have won! Don't forget, if it weren't for us, your president would probably have turned into a monster by now!"
Ma Ming: "..."
Mulanzhi and Li Ye: "..."
Lin Hai, who had nearly turned into a monster, remained calm. Upon hearing this, he even smiled good-naturedly and nodded, saying:
“You’re right. If it weren’t for you, I… might really have died.”
Turning into a monster is definitely impossible... but death is certain, and suffering severe psychological trauma is also certain...
Lin Hai was aware of this—although it was strange that the guild competition dungeon didn't provide clear hints about the story progress gained by either guild, the chances of "Echo" winning were still too low.
Putting everything else aside, just the period when I, as the president of "Echo," almost had a mental breakdown and dragged everyone down with me... "Echo" had no chance of winning.
In general, Lin Hai believes that "Echo" is unlikely to be judged as the winner.
Ma Ming: "..."
He responded with some disappointment, then let out a long, dejected sigh.
Why couldn't they win...? If you really think about it, their involvement was considerable...
Li Ye walked over to him, patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him:
"It's okay, we'll still get a lot of points even if we lose."
Ma Ming still looked sighing and downcast, saying dejectedly:
“But Meng Lang is ‘dead’…”
Li Ye paused on his shoulder, also thinking of Meng Lang's "death".
"Just a lesson learned."
Mulanzhi's voice came from behind the two of them, soft and gentle as ever, "After this 'death,' Meng Lang will definitely cherish his life even more."
Ma Ming and Li Ye: "..."
Xu Han, who was sitting on the ground eavesdropping with his ears perked up: "..."
He swallowed hard and stole a glance at Mulanzhi's expression.
Mulanzhi still looked the same as before, gentle and docile, with her eyelids drooping, looking very quiet.