Soul Trigger

Chapter 599 The Maze and the Students

Animated knight armor, deformed masked blood corpses, and numerous activated, cruel traps...

The screams of panic and the sound of sharp weapons tearing through flesh mingled together.

Soon, all the men and women in the underground labyrinth perished in various horrific ways.

After the last burly boy in a jersey fell, at the heart of the maze, an hourglass with an ornate and simple design finally ran out of sand and suddenly turned upside down.

An invisible wave spread throughout the entire underground labyrinth.

Anya suddenly opened her eyes, a sharp gasp filling her lungs, as if the scene before her death was still lingering before her eyes.

Inside the European-style decorated room, several men and women woke up one after another, uttering curses and blaming each other for their behavior just now:
"If you hadn't pushed me just now, I could have easily escaped!"

"Come on, even if I save you, we'll all still die. Anya is already dead!"

"At least we can live longer and find more clues to escape!"

"Idiot, if you hadn't insisted on coming here, we would never be in this situation!"

"What did you say?! Now you want to blame me?"

"You two, stop fighting!"

The man in the jersey and the man with curly hair started fighting, and the few people who had just woken up were in chaos.

Only a black-haired girl dressed as a nun silently observed the chaos before her, and lit a cigarette for herself.
"A bunch of idiots..."

"What did you say?"

The hot-tempered man in the jersey immediately turned around and strode towards the nun:

"If you ask me, you're the most suspicious person here, you bitch! You're not one of us, you're the mastermind behind all this, aren't you?!"

The nun, cigarette between her fingers, gave a cold laugh:
"If I had any brains, I'd know I need to get moving right now and go find weapons immediately, just like before..."

These arguments gave Anya a headache. She shook her head, her beautiful long blonde hair swaying.
"Guys, can we unite? If this keeps up, we'll all turn into monsters here..."

One person chimed in, "Anya is right. Only through cooperation can we get out; infighting will not lead to anything."

The brown-haired boy strode toward Anya and tried to help her up, but she declined.

Just then, the fragile wooden door shattered instantly, and an axe came hurtling through the air.

With a sound of bones and flesh bursting, the man in the jersey who was gripping the nun's head collapsed completely, falling to the ground instantly, dead beyond any doubt.

Screams erupted, and everyone stared in disbelief at the living corpse that had appeared at the doorway.
"How could this be?! Wasn't it supposed to appear in several more minutes?"

A look of astonishment flashed in the nun's eyes:
"We've died too many times, the rules are changing!"

A young man in a shirt roared and, gritting his teeth, tackled the zombie to the ground.
"Quick! Kill him!"

In a panic, the group grabbed whatever they could find and, at the cost of several bloody gashes on the young man's face, smashed the blood corpse's head.

A group of people hurriedly left, but the reduction of the unstable factor of the man in the jersey did not end the argument; some people were still grumbling incessantly.

However, thanks to the results of countless previous drills where they had already died, they managed to resolve the troubles they encountered along the way without any major incidents.

They successfully arrived at a room filled with weapons and retrieved various dusty cold weapons from it.

Although they were described as melee weapons, they were really just tools like machetes and pickaxes, which were enough to fend off the zombies in front of these panicked youths.

"Anya, what should we do next? Everything has moved up in time, and the previous plan may no longer be feasible..."

Anya also seemed quite helpless—

How does she know what to do?
She's just lucky; except for the last round, she's almost always lived longer than others. She has absolutely no leadership talent, so why do you all have to ask her?
But the current situation didn't allow for much thought. She could only rely on her memory of the various traps and monster encounters she had experienced, and, based on their current circumstances, rewind those events to find a way out of the maze:

"Let's go through that same gate again. According to the image, the way out is at the deepest part of the maze."

Soon, after losing two men, they advanced to the central part of the maze.

But clearly, things have developed in a way that has exceeded their expectations.

Upon reaching a large iron gate, the man in the vest who was usually in charge of clearing the way froze in place:

"Guys, something's not right."

"what happened?"

"The keyhole is gone..."

He shakily picked up the key in his hand and stepped aside to let everyone see that the keyhole on the huge and heavy iron gate had disappeared.

The nun's expression froze for a moment, while Anya quickly stepped forward:
"how so!?"

The next moment, the iron gate opened from the inside, and a living armored body carrying a greatsword emerged, cleaving the man in the vest in two with a single strike.

Blood spurted out, soaking everyone who was almost within reach. Anya, who was still walking towards the door, froze on the spot.

"Anya, did this guy show up at this time? I don't remember it being like this!"

Before she could finish speaking, the wall beside her suddenly exploded, and a masked butcher, three meters tall, wielding a cleaver, pinned the girl to the ground, blood spurting out.

"Run!"

In an instant, the once orderly group broke apart again, scattering in all directions throughout the maze.

A nun, a brown-haired boy, and a punk with a nose ring run together with Anya, pulling up a seriously injured bald young man and a short-haired woman along the way.

Anya's mind was completely blank at this moment:
It's a mess, a complete mess! It wasn't like this the previous times!
Based on their previous deaths, they should be able to use the key dropped from a zombie to open the iron gate, enter the middle of the maze, and then see a map to leave the maze.

Not only has the start time been brought forward, but the Living Armor and Butcher, which were originally supposed to appear in the middle, have also appeared earlier.

"It's the difficulty; the difficulty here is constantly increasing..."

The nun coughed, a short knife stuck in her shoulder, wincing in pain, yet she ran faster than anyone else, her black high-heeled boots clicking.
"Actually, I had noticed it before, because the tools and weapons that everyone could be allocated were constantly decreasing, and there used to be an easier route that led to the middle of the maze..."

"Then why didn't you say so earlier?"

The severely injured bald man hopped and ran, clinging to life with sheer grit.

"Given how often we fight amongst ourselves three times a game, what do you think would happen if we said it out loud? Would that big guy in the jersey just break down on the spot?"

"Then you shouldn't have kept it from us! You should at least have told Anya..."

"Enough! Don't mention me anymore. I'm just an ordinary person!"

Anya was on the verge of a breakdown; she wasn't that outstanding!

She was just lucky to die last several times, accidentally stumbling into the deepest part of the maze two or three times.

She was the best dancer and captain of the cheerleading team in town's high school, and also the vice-captain, that's all!

Just then, the nun's expression froze, and she abruptly stopped in her tracks:

"Anya, watch out!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door in front of them suddenly burst open, revealing a tall, strong, blood-soaked corpse facing the crowd, its bone mask sinister and terrifying.

Terrified, everyone screamed and tried to turn and flee, but they saw the blood-soaked corpse take two steps forward, then collapse to the ground with a thud, revealing the space behind it. Behind the iron gate was a large hall, filled with various undead figures lying haphazardly, including the butcher who had appeared not long ago.

A black blade was piercing his forehead when it was gently pulled out with a leather glove.

A figure stood on the butcher's body, making a clicking and rattling sound as if countless gears were meshing and snapping within it. The figure turned to face the crowd, revealing a bird-beak gas mask covering the head and forehead, and a military cap.

They stared blankly at the figure shrouded in trench coats, oblivious to the nun's sudden change in expression, and quietly slipped behind the group.

The "officer" slowly stood up and took a step toward the crowd.

This action instantly jolted everyone awake, and they screamed and ran wildly towards the back—

What kind of monster is this?!
The main problem is that the clicking sound it makes doesn't sound human. Where do you find humans who move around like they're turning a clock face?

However, the road behind them was completely blocked by the onrushing zombies. In their panic, the group of people, except for the nun, did not have time to brake and crashed into the zombies like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

Suddenly, a machete slashed at Curly's shoulder, and a pickaxe came crashing down on Anya's head.

Looking at the tetanus blade so close at hand, Anya had only one thought:
I'm going to die again!!!

This round ended too quickly, and no new intelligence was gathered; it will only get harder from here on out!
In despair, there was a soft snap.

With a soft thud and a sudden gust of wind, everyone's clothes fluttered wildly, and the hurricane even made it difficult for them to open their eyes.

When he saw what was happening in front of him, he froze on the spot.

The "officer" we just saw appeared in front of the zombies as if by teleportation, gripping the pickaxe and machete tightly.

Anya, in particular, felt her pupils shrink and her heart pound as she looked at the leather gloves and the creaking body so close to her.

This caused the nun, who was hiding in the back and about to slip away, to suddenly shrink in surprise:

Teleportation?!
Seeing the obvious chasm between the crowd, her astonishment deepened:

No, that's not right... He charged straight over using his physical speed!

While the men were still in shock, the officer had already crushed the pickaxe and machete, and pulled out the black cane knife, slashing fiercely.

The black sword wave, accompanied by screams and wails, completely cleared the corridor in front of him, and the dripping blood instantly soaked his entire body.

Anya blinked, stunned. A silence fell over the scene until a short-haired woman in the group screamed, only to be instantly covered by an officer who appeared before her, his hand covering her mouth and nose.

"It's noisy."

His voice was muffled and layered as he released the short-haired woman and looked at the crowd:

"What's wrong with you?"

The group was still in a daze, exchanging glances:

"This monster can talk? And it doesn't hurt people?"

"But what is he saying? I can't understand a word..."

"It seems to be Shulong Chinese. Have we studied it?"

Looking at the group of silly young men in front of him, Ji Li was slightly speechless, but he also noticed his language problem. He had indeed gotten used to speaking Chinese over the past two years and had switched to English.
"I'm asking you guys what happened?"

The group was immediately overjoyed:

"Can you talk?"

Ji Li tilted his head, clearly realizing that these people were still not quite thinking clearly, and decided to take a look himself first.

Then they discovered that the boys and girls were dressed in a really strange way.

The bald man was dressed in sportswear, while the short-haired woman was decked out in jewels as if she were going to a party. The blonde woman wore a crop top, fishnet stockings, and brown leather boots; it was hard to imagine that she was one of the campers outside.

The last nun was wearing thigh-high boots and stockings, and she exuded a faint aura of an awakened being. It was obvious at a glance that she was using cognitive disguise, so there was no need to say anything more.

Perhaps due to the sexual repression he had experienced from being tormented by the madwoman in Black Sun Mansion these past few days, Ji Li's gaze lingered for a moment on the chests and legs of the three girls before returning to his own gaze:

"Lots of nonsense."

He swung his weapon behind him, and three throwing knives pierced the heads of three undead creatures that seemed to appear out of nowhere, sending another shiver down the spines of the group.
"Come with me."

He led the group of foolish young people to the hall and casually tossed them a few rolls of gauze, telling them to bandage themselves.

The group hesitated slightly. One was still immersed in the shocking experience of Ji Li's massacre of the zombies, while the other was skeptical of the mysterious creature. Nevertheless, they hurriedly bandaged the bald man and the short-haired woman in layers of cloth.

Then Ji Li threw out some dry food, and everyone except the nun was almost in tears. Regardless of whether there was anything fishy going on, they forgot to tear open the plastic wrappers of the chocolates and just started eating them, clearly because they hadn't eaten in a long time.

After letting the group catch their breath for a while, they began to chatter on and on about what had happened:
Apart from the bald man, everyone else present was from the town's high school.

It's summer vacation now, and some college graduates from the same university who have returned to their hometowns are taking them camping.

It was called a camping trip, but it was more like an outdoor party. It happened to be near this old house, and the bald man was one of the college students.

There's not much else to say. Men and women who were drunk insisted on coming here to court death, and as a result, the whole group of them fell into the maze.

According to them, if all of them die, the maze will reset them, returning them to the beginning of time, until they can escape.

They have tried more than a dozen times now, but have failed to escape.

After listening, Ji Li seemed to ponder for a moment.

This is the stronghold of the Tower of Babel, under the jurisdiction of the Tombstone, a semi-spirit prison.

The so-called semi-spiritual prison is a spiritual prison that covers the current dimension, rather than just having an entrance in the dimension.

The entire White Island contains a large number of semi-spirit prisons, a significant portion of which are the lord's "territory," while the remainder are generated by "resting objects."

Resting objects are relics of one's personality.

On White Island, there are relatively few malevolent spirits roaming around; instead, there are highly active personal remnants, or, in White Island's official language, resting objects.

Resting objects often generate a special plot of land that overlays reality, known as the semi-spiritual prison.

Such land belongs to the territory of the Prometheans, and entering it rashly would indeed provoke a Promethean riot and invite an attack.

And this is the territory of resting objects.

According to the inscription on the tombstone, this place should be very safe.

Or perhaps these fools' reckless actions triggered the protective amulets' alarm, leading to this situation?

Because these malevolent derivatives will also attack him, even if he reveals his Dead Apostle aura through the resonance of the Flesh Trigger, they will still attack him without hesitation.

"You've asked us so many questions, so who are you? And what are you doing here?"

Everyone turned around and saw the nun standing not far away.

She didn't touch anything Ji Li had given her; she just looked at him warily.

The group then realized something:

Is this masked officer from outside?
(End of this chapter)