Lightning flashed and thunder roared, and torrential rain poured down.
Mass Grave, a desolate place, is filled with tombstones. The densely packed, broken tombstones are engraved with messy characters, and hands keep reaching out from the soil beneath them.
Some hands, buried underground for so long, had rotten skin, revealing even the bare bones. Others were fresh corpses, with pale, slender arms and fingernails painted with bright red nail polish.
Ye Qi's mind was a complete mess, thunder was roaring in his ears, and the torrential rain had soaked him to the bone. He haphazardly wiped his face, stared at the hands emerging from the ground, and shouted, "Are these...are these vengeful ghosts or zombies?!"
Xiao Lou wondered if what crawled out from under the tombstone was a vengeful ghost or a zombie. Was this escape room a supernatural escape room, or an escape room similar to Resident Evil?
He no longer had time to think.
Xiao Lou felt a slight tightening around his waist as he sensed the familiar strength emanating from Yu Hanjiang. Just as those grotesque creatures crawled out of the ground and were about to grab Xiao Lou's calves, Yu Hanjiang suddenly lifted Xiao Lou into the air, shouting to his teammates, " Mass Grave is too large, get out of here as soon as possible!"
The Mass Grave stretches as far as the eye can see, and its length is unknown.
In the pitch-black rainy night, everyone could only rely on luminous pearls for lighting. However, the luminous pearls could only illuminate a fan-shaped area 10 meters in front of them. All the areas that the luminous pearls could reach were tombstones, and those things that were either ghosts or zombies were emerging from the ground like ants carrying food.
Just as Tang Ci was about to run forward, her right foot was suddenly grabbed by a pair of icy hands, and her body plummeted straight down!
The torrential rain made the ground incredibly muddy, and the entire Mass Grave seemed to have turned into a giant swamp.
Tang Ci struggled desperately, but he was stuck in the mud, and the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. In the blink of an eye, Tang Ci's legs below the knees were already submerged in the mud.
Upon seeing this scene, Lu Jiuchuan's eyes widened in fury!
He rushed to Tang Ci's side in a few strides, grabbed Tang Ci's waist and pulled him up with all his might. A strong force dragged Tang Ci off the ground. Lu Jiuchuan took out the Ice Sword with his other hand and swept it cleanly.
A flash of snow-white sword light appeared, and the hands that were grabbing Tang Ci's legs were cleanly severed by Lu Jiuchuan's sword!
Tang Ci was rescued. His trousers were covered in mud, wrinkled and dirty. His white shirt clung to his body, highlighting his lean physique. His wet hair clung to his pale face, making him look frail and vulnerable.
Lu Jiuchuan hugged him tightly and asked in a low voice, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
The man's voice, mingled with the deafening thunder, sounded as if it were trembling slightly.
Tang Ci's expression quickly calmed down. Compared to Plum Blossom J's experience, this zombie was not a great threat to him, especially since he had teammates with him. He gently patted Lu Jiuchuan's shoulder and said, "It's okay. I could feel them scratching and biting my legs when I was dragged into the mud."
Upon hearing this, Lu Jiuchuan shouted to his teammates, "This is a huge mud pit! Everyone be careful where you step, don't get stuck!"
After saying that, he summoned the Vermilion Bird and whispered in Tang Ci's ear, "I'll take you away."
Lu Jiuchuan flipped over and straddled the Vermilion Bird, his other hand tightly wrapped around Tang Ci's waist. The fiery red bird let out a clear, sharp cry, and with a "whoosh," it spread its wings and flew forward like an arrow in the darkness.
Lu Jiuchuan looked down and saw that the hands he had just severed seemed to possess a mind of their own, still crawling around on the ground after being cut off. They were frantically searching for living things. In the blink of an eye, Gui Yuanzhang's legs were also grabbed by those hands. Gui Yuanzhang swung his brush sharply, flinging all the severed hands off the ground—
Gui Yuanzhang drew a trail of wind with his brush, flying forward in the direction of Lu Jiuchuan while shouting to his teammates, "It's not a ghost, it's a zombie!"
Xiao Lou also realized—ghosts are illusions, and a phantom couldn't possibly have its hands severed. And these things were clearly dead people who crawled out of their graves.
Lu Jiuchuan said with a grim face, " Mass Grave is experiencing a large-scale zombie outbreak. These things are much more powerful than the low-level zombies we encountered in Zombie Town! Everyone, try to avoid touching the ground, or you might get dragged down by them!"
The densely packed hands left almost no place for people to step.
Lu Jiuchuan rode the Vermilion Bird with Tang Ci, Yu Hanjiang used a Lightness Skill Card to carry Xiao Lou, Liu Qiao also used a Lightness Skill Card to fly in the air, Shao Qingge and Ye Qi used a Teleportation Card to carry Lao Mo and the Longqu Couple to escape. Chu Huaying herself was extremely fast, and often before those hands could grab her, she had already quickly escaped to the next place.
Everyone used their best skills and fled from Mass Grave as fast as they could, like they were being chased by wolves!
Half the people teleported and ran wildly on the ground, while the other half flew through the air. Everyone was frantically trying to escape, and it was quite a mess.
However, after 5 minutes, Lu Jiuchuan was surprised to find that the Mass Grave seemed to have no end in sight.
There were still countless tombstones underfoot and a dense mass of zombies crawling out from beneath them. The white, gleaming arms were increasing in number, even crowding the ground.
Lu Jiuchuan, who was riding the Vermilion Bird and leading the way, stopped and turned around, asking, "Why can't we get out?"
Tang Ci asked, "How big is this Mass Grave exactly? Did we go the wrong way?"
Yu Hanjiang led Xiao Lou to the vicinity of the Vermilion Bird. Xiao Lou said, "This place is too big, and there are no reference points on this rainy night."
"In that direction, we might just be going in circles!"
Turning in place is the biological "circular motion" effect. Because the left and right legs of humans are not the same length, and the left and right wings of birds are also not the same length, when walking forward while blindfolded, it is like a compass with two legs of different lengths drawing a circle. Humans and animals will always walk in a very large circle.
Humans and animals can normally walk in a straight line because there are reference points around them, and their brains are constantly helping them adjust their course. Now, although they are not blindfolded, there are absolutely no reference points around them.
On a rainy night, there are no stars in the sky to provide a direction reference.
Mass Grave is a vast expanse of gravestones, with not a single tree in sight.
If you can't tell which way to go, you won't be able to get out. The Vermilion Bird must have circled around in the sky.
Ye Qi shouted from below, "We don't have enough Lightness Skill Cards! Teleportation Cards are fast, but you still have to land. My foot almost got grabbed by a few zombies again just now. It's disgusting!"
The thought of having her ankles grabbed by icy hands sent chills down Ye Qi's spine!
Shao Qingge said, "Everyone, decide what to do as soon as possible. Those of us without Lightness Skill Cards can't stay here for too long."
If they landed for more than two seconds, the surrounding pale fingers would grip their ankles like iron clamps, pulling them deeper into the mud. Once they sank into this mud, it was very difficult to climb out. Shao Qingge had just been grabbed by a pair of hands, and luckily he broke the other person's wrist with a stomp, but the icy touch still left him with lingering fear!
He, who was always very clean, was now covered in mud and water, his hair was messy, and his expression was as cold as if it were covered with ice.
Running for his life in Mass Grave, with his legs constantly being grabbed by cold zombies and pulled down... even the worst nightmare he'd ever had was far better than his current situation.
These disgusting things kept grabbing at them. If they continued running, not only would they not be able to maintain their physical strength, but it would also be difficult for them to remain calm.
Gui Yuanzhang suddenly said, "You lot, come here to me!"
Upon hearing his words, Shao Qingge and Ye Qi immediately took Lao Mo and the Longqu Couple and teleported to Gui Yuanzhang's side.
Gui Yuanzhang took out a piece of paper, and in a flash, the white paper unfolded in the air to the size of a scroll. Then, he used a brush to levitate the paper and whispered, "Go up first. My brushstrokes won't last long, but it's much better than you running on the ground!"
Several people immediately climbed onto the scroll. Gui Yuanzhang quickly created a scroll that could "fly," leading everyone to Lu Jiuchuan's Vermilion Bird, where they all hovered high in the air.
Lu Jiuchuan suggested, "Why don't we just fight our way out? They're just some zombies!"
Xiao Lou shook his head in opposition: "No, Mass Grave is too big, and we don't know how many zombies there are. Rushing in will only waste time and energy. Besides, the zombies we're encountering this time are different from the zombies in Spade 2, and we might not be able to kill them."
Yu Hanjiang calmly said, " Xiao Lou is right. Zombies are clumsy and slow because they are infected with a virus. Their weakness is their head, so they can be killed by breaking their heads. But now, the dead people buried underground have turned into zombies. The hands that Ninth Brother cut off can still move. Obviously, they can't be killed by a simple method."
After saying that, he threw a grenade at the ground. With a loud "boom", a large number of tombstones were blasted to ashes by the exploding grenade, and the nearby zombies were also blown away. However, after being blown away, those things were still able to drag their limbs and continue crawling on the ground.
Ye Qi stared wide-eyed at the zombies at his feet, his voice trembling as he said, "These are all dead people, so naturally they're not afraid of death. Simple knives and guns pose no threat to these already dead things! Maybe my control skills won't even work?"
He took out his flute and tried playing a tune, but the horde of zombies at his feet didn't react at all.
Shao Qingge frowned and said, "Xiao Ye's control skills are all sleep and dizziness-type controls, which are aimed at living things. Now we are dealing with inanimate objects—how can you put a dead person to sleep or make them dizzy?"
Most control skills are ineffective against things that are already dead. Using the piano to immobilize them might work, but unfortunately, the piano only controls a 500-meter range, and this Mass Grave area looks like it spans several kilometers!
It's raining heavily now, so having Ninth Brother activate the Vermilion Bird Heavenly Fire and burn Mass Grave to the ground is simply not going to work.
The teammates all looked rather serious.
Weapons can't kill zombies, musical instruments can't control inanimate objects, and you can't set fires during a rainstorm... What should you do?
Lu Jiuchuan frowned: "It seems that Guardian has given us a difficult problem right from the start!"
Xiao Lou looked down and was shocked by the sheer size of the Mass Grave. As far as he could see, there were at least tens of thousands of tombstones. They only had two Lightness Skill Cards, but the [ Light as a Swallow ] card required finding a foothold every 10 seconds. The Vermilion Bird card was the most stable; Ninth Brother could ride it indefinitely, carrying Tang Ci through the air. But half of their teammates couldn't float with their movement cards, and Old Gui's paper pen could only float for a very limited time…
If you fall and end up in a horde of zombies, the consequences will be unimaginable!
Fighting is time-consuming and energy-draining, and you also risk being dragged into the swamp by a large number of zombies.
The best option is to escape by air, since zombies can't fly. The problem is, they can't orient themselves and are just going in circles, unable to escape Mass Grave!
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and quickly calmed down to think of a solution.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He took out a card and shouted to Tang Ci, "Mr. Tang, let's use the drone!"
As soon as he finished speaking,
Then everyone saw Xiao Lou suddenly throw out a [Lantern Tree] card.
This was the reward we received in the Diamond Secret Room at the Lantern Festival. Everyone remembers those complicated lantern riddles we solved with Xiao Lou. Now, the lantern tree, adorned with lanterns, reappears in Mass Grave. In the pitch-black, rainy night, a beautiful lantern tree appears in the desolate wilderness, its light shining on the surrounding tombstones—a scene that is indescribably eerie.
Xiao Lou activates the skill "Thousands of Lights"—the lantern tree instantly ignites hundreds of inextinguishable lanterns, illuminating the scene within a 1-kilometer radius as bright as day; and all hostile targets within a 1-kilometer radius will be irresistibly attracted to the lantern tree, quickly gathering under it within 30 seconds.
Xiao Lou has never used this lantern tree since he got it, but it's actually a very useful lighting and monster-gathering skill.
Now that Mass Grave's area far exceeds 1 kilometer, simply attracting zombies within a 1-kilometer radius to the lantern tree is ineffective. Xiao Lou's key purpose in summoning the lantern tree is not actually to lure monsters—but rather to serve as a reference point.
Just as a north star helps one stay on the road through the night, having a lantern tree that won't be extinguished by rain as a reference point means they don't have to worry about going in circles.
Xiao Lou looked at Tang Ci and said, "Mr. Tang, let's fly forward as fast as we can with our backs to the lantern tree. You use your drone to keep monitoring the distance between everyone and the lantern tree. As long as we keep going in a straight line and stay away from the lantern tree, we won't deviate from our direction."
Tang Ci immediately understood Xiao Lou's idea and couldn't help but praise, "Great idea!"
If they remain equidistant from the lantern tree, it means they are circling around the lantern tree and will never leave the Mass Grave. Therefore, by continuously monitoring the distance with a drone, as long as they stay away from the lantern tree placed in the Mass Grave, it can be guaranteed that they are moving in the same direction.
Just like locating a north star in the sky, if you keep walking with your back to it, the direction will be south.
Using brightly lit trees as a landmark on a rainy night is perfect.
Even the largest mass grave has an end; as long as you keep moving in one direction, you will eventually find your way out.
Tang Ci summoned a drone to monitor the distance and said, "The current distance to the lantern tree is 100 meters."
He looked up at Lu Jiuchuan and said, "Ninth Brother, let's go!"
Lu Jiuchuan rode the Vermilion Bird swiftly forward, and the others immediately followed.
While using the drone to monitor distance data, Tang Ci helped Lu Jiuchuan adjust his direction: "200 meters... 500 meters... Yes, keep going forward..."
The lantern tree gradually disappeared into the distance behind the crowd.
With this tree as a reference point, the group finally left the five-kilometer-long Mass Grave after 10 minutes!
The number of tombstones at my feet gradually decreased.
However, a bottomless cliff appeared in their field of vision.
Lu Jiuchuan hurriedly stopped Zhuque, looked down at the cliff below, and couldn't help but curse, "We finally escaped Mass Grave, and here we are, a cliff?! In martial arts novels, the protagonist can learn martial arts by jumping off a cliff, but for us, jumping off a cliff is a dead end!"
Everyone: "..."
Tang Ci's face darkened: "Did we go the wrong way? Should we go back and check?"
Gui Yuanzhang said, "My pen can't maintain buoyancy for that long."
His temporary "flying scroll" that carried people in the air finally gave way and fell back to the ground. Meanwhile, the Lightness Skill Cards in Yu Hanjiang and Liu Qiao's hands also fell back to the ground after 10 seconds of not being able to find a landing spot, and went into cooldown.
Returning the way we came? That's most likely not going to work.
Ye Qi suddenly shouted, "They're catching up!"
Upon hearing this, everyone turned around and saw countless zombies crawling rapidly forward in the torrential rain. The Thousand Lantern Tree only attracted zombies within a 1-kilometer radius; zombies from other areas crawled over, drawn by the scent of living people on them.
From Xiao Lou's perspective, the horde of zombies was like a surging tide, almost completely engulfing them.
Some female zombies have hair that reaches their waists, wear bright red dresses, and have lips that look like they've been smeared with blood. Their appearance is even more terrifying than that of a vengeful ghost.
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines and took a step back in unison.
Ye Qi couldn't help but exclaim, "What should we do!"
Behind them was a bottomless abyss, with no way to retreat; one wrong step would mean certain death.
Ahead lies a dense horde of zombies, impossible to kill and immune to most crowd control effects.
They pushed everyone to the brink from the very beginning!
As expected of a [Battle Royale] escape room, it didn't even give us a few minutes to transition or adjust. We were chased by a horde of zombies as soon as we entered the room. At that moment, everyone wanted nothing more than to collectively pin Ace of Spades to the ground and beat them up!