Chapter 1328: The Child Who Leads the Way
Qiu Ming had no choice but to put down some food, and after a moment's thought, added two bottles of water. "They're all pitiful souls."
They were just borrowing a cool path to walk through, but unexpectedly, that child soon returned, using a slingshot to pelt stones at them, and said, "You ruined all our traps! Who wants your stuff!"
Although it couldn't hurt anyone, the boy kept aiming at their faces, which was somewhat annoying. Cao Qinglin threw out a prop to capture him, and said with a dark face, "Let's just hang him here."
"Don't be so rough," Qiu Ming said, grabbing the boy up. "Just give him a beating. Come on, you hold his legs, I'll pull down his pants."
Hearing this, the boy's face immediately flushed red as he struggled, shouting, "My big brother won't let you off!"
"Oh? And who's your big brother?" Qiu Ming pinched his cheeks and pulled hard. "Call him out, let me see."
"If you've got the guts, follow me!" the boy said through gritted teeth. "My big brother will knock your teeth out... Let me go..."
"Alright, scaring a kid is enough." Cao Qinglin saw he wasn't holding back and had to intervene. "If his big brother were really that tough, he wouldn't have set up those little toys in the passage. This kid is deliberately setting a trap, probably trying to lure us in. Just leave him here."
Qiu Ming was a bit puzzled. "The player who set those traps probably isn't that strong, right?"
"Hard to say. Maybe those little props were just a diversion." Cao Qinglin looked at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo had no objection. There was more than one child in the area. Whether they were trying to lure them away or set a trap, it wasn't worth delving into.
"Have you ever had candy?" Xu Huo signaled Qiu Ming to put the boy down, then handed him a small bag of fruit candies. "These and the food from earlier are all non-toxic. You can share them with your companions. We'll be leaving soon, so don't worry."
This time, the boy didn't throw the things away. He took them cautiously, turned around, and ran off. At the end of the passage, he looked back at them once.
Once he was far away, Xu Huo turned around to find Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin both staring at him. He raised an eyebrow. "What? You want some too?"
The two of them laughed and followed him forward. Qiu Ming started a conversation. "Hard to tell, you're so young but you've already got kids. They say players live a long time, so there's no rush to get married and have children. Of course, it's different if you had kids before becoming a player."
"But who dares to get married and have kids as a player? You might end up leaving behind widows and orphans."
Xu Huo hadn't noticed before, but this rough guy sure had a big mouth.
However, Qiu Ming didn't need a response from him. He just kept talking to himself, with Cao Qinglin occasionally chiming in to keep the conversation going.
It didn't take long to cross the small city. The underground passage didn't reach the city's edge, so they emerged from underground early, planning to use props to cover some distance.
"Hey!" The boy appeared on a nearby small building, calling out to them. "Do you want to take a cool path?"
"Do you know a cool path?" Xu Huo asked loudly.
The boy, sucking on his candy, quickly ran down and stood in the shadow of a building. "There's a path in the woods just outside the city that leads to an underground river. The river dried up long ago, so you can walk through it."
Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin exchanged glances before looking at Xu Huo. Without hesitation, Xu Huo agreed, letting the child into the shade of the floating umbrella to lead them to the underground river.
"How old are you this year?" Xu Huo asked.
"Fifteen," the boy said, sucking noisily on his candy.
"Do you have any siblings at home?"
"I did. They're all dead. Some starved, some died of illness. I'm healthy, so I survived until now."
"Do you want to go live in another city?"
"No. It's fine here."
"It's fine here?" Qiu Ming interjected. "Your siblings are all dead."
"It's just as hot everywhere else, and there are players killing people. Hiding here, no one will find us." The boy looked at him with sincere eyes.
Qiu Ming was a bit speechless. He scratched his head and said, "023 can't be all high-temperature zones except for the mutant activity areas, right..."
"Just move to another district," Cao Qinglin thought it wasn't difficult. As long as a player went out, getting a few Non-Player Tickets was still possible.
"This is my home. Why should I move to another district?" the boy said. "My home can't be given to others."
"You're a strange kid," Cao Qinglin said. Normally, a child like this, growing up in such harsh conditions, would yearn for a better life. Especially in a place like this, which couldn't even be considered fit for human habitation. Those abandoned houses and the barren, lifeless land weren't worth clinging to. If you couldn't even survive, how could you have a concept of "hometown"?
But the boy said, "My home is my home."
He said it with such solemnity that it left Cao Qinglin and Qiu Ming momentarily silent.
Xu Huo looked at the boy's features, which resembled those of the players who had attacked them earlier, and said, "Maybe they're particularly attached to their hometown and home."
"We're here," the boy said, pointing to the woods ahead. "See that withered tree that's still standing? Past the slope below it, you can reach the underground river."
This forest had long since dried up, with only one or two short trees barely surviving, making them easy to spot.
The boy didn't look back and walked straight ahead, saying, "The underground river is very long. If you keep going in this direction, you can come out after dark..."
As he spoke, a hand landed on his shoulder.
Xu Huo smiled. "Alright, you don't need to lead us anymore. Go back."
The boy looked at him suspiciously. "If I don't go, do you dare to go?"
Having him scout ahead was the normal procedure.
"Just follow the underground river, right?" Xu Huo said. "It's simple enough that we won't get lost."
With that, he took out a prop dagger and placed it in the boy's hand. "Live well, and you'll have a future. Throwing your life away for a small matter isn't worth it, especially when it has no meaning."
The boy gripped the dagger tightly, momentarily at a loss. But soon, he forced a smile. This time, even Qiu Ming noticed something was wrong. He grabbed the boy. "What's up ahead?"
The boy kicked his legs. "A dried-up river. Didn't you want to walk in a cool place... Let go... I can't breathe..."
But Qiu Ming, abandoning his earlier easygoing attitude, grabbed the boy's throat with his other hand. "Young as you are, your heart is black. We told you we're just passing through, but you've tried to kill us twice!"
In just a few seconds, the boy's eyes rolled back, his hands hung limp, and his face turned purple.
"That's enough," Xu Huo said.
"He was trying to kill us! In the game, old people and children aren't always innocent!" Qiu Ming said through clenched teeth.
Xu Huo signaled him to let go. "There should be a Random Instance up ahead."
They might not necessarily die if they entered the Random Instance, but the boy would certainly die. Obviously, he knew this himself, which was why he deliberately led them there.
"I have questions for him." Seeing that Qiu Ming had only loosened his grip but refused to let the boy go, Xu Huo frowned.
(Chapter End)