The feeling of falling is enough to wake people up from a nightmare. It causes your heart to tighten, your limbs to stiffen, and you will shout out loud.
Strangely, when they suddenly fell, only Dispirited cried out. Wang Tanzhi, as a guy who always gets scared in Thriller Paradise, became exceptionally calm in this condition. In a flash of lightning, he buckled his backhand and seized the wrist of Dispirited and threw her to a higher position.
In a moment of crisis, his first instinct was to pick up his teammates and use himself as a human cushion, so this guy is a really good guy. Of course, it’s meaningless to fall into an extremely deep abyss, and the difference is just between death up and death down.
Fortunately, the feeling of falling only lasted for a few seconds. Followed by a plop, the two felt into the water.
In the darkness, the feeling of falling abruptly ended, as Little Tan felt pain in his back. But at this moment he was happy because he knew that falling into the water meant they won’t die for a while.
The impact of the two players falling into the water was huge and they kept diving downward. Wang Tanzhi understood that he was not out of danger. He held his breath, and when as he sank slowly, he swung his legs and began to kick the water. He didn’t let Dispirited’s wrist go. He embraced Dispirited with his left hand and his right to pull water, struggling to swim up.
It wasn’t long before their heads popped out of the water, and they both took a big breath as soon as they were out of the water.
“I can swim!” It was the first thing to be said after two breaths by Dispirited.
“Why didn’t you say earlier? It made me really tired.” Wang Tanzhi said. He let Dispirited go and drew some distance from her, then he began to swim with both hands.
“Say your head!” She punched Little Tan’s head. “Did I have a chance to say that?”
“Ouch… “Wang Tanzhi shouted loudly:” When I held you as I swam up, why didn’t you move at all?”
“You talk to yourself as a lifeguard, I have to cooperate with you. What if I struggle so hard,” replied Dispirited, “and you fool do it again and again, and both of us drown in the end?”
“Oh, oh… “Little Tan muttered.” by the way, are you all right?”
“I’m not all right!” Said Dispirited, “I want to beat you.”
Wang Tanzhi thought that Dispirited was blaming him because he had troubled her, so he said helplessly: “You can’t entirely blame me, how could I know that the roof beam would break and the floor collapse?”
“Ha-ha… “Dispirited responded with an awkward laugh, she couldn’t argue with that. After all, it was her that pulled Wang Tanzhi making them fell together. If her first reaction was to jump backward, she might still be on the ground now. It would have been better for her to find a rope or something and rescue Little Tan. That will be much better than the situation right now.
At this moment, there weren’t any lights near the players, the only light they had was from the hole where they fell. It was a pity that the hole was indoors, so the light could not fully illuminate the depths of the ground at all.
They were having a conversation in the dark and couldn’t see each other well. However, due to the proximity and the splashing sound, they could see each other even though it was dark. Five seconds before, when Dispirited beat Little Tan’s head just by his voice’s place.
“Oops, my flashlight was…”Little Tan just wanted to say his lighting equipment has been damaged, but suddenly felt Dispirited buckling something on his head.
Click, and a bright light appeared. A yellow miner’s cap was over his head.
“Aye? You still have this equipment?” Little Tan asked. He remembered that in the scenario where he first met Dispirited, she had wanted to trade it for a flashlight with him.
“Yes.” Dispirited returned: “I remember I used this to exchange a flashlight with you, but you incredibly said that… ‘Looks silly on people’s head, just keep it'”
“Then why do you still have this? This is already worthless. ” Little Tan said.
“I hate being rejected” Dispirited beat the cap again and said, “Look at how well you’re in tune with this silly equipment… “
“I miss the times when I first met you.” Wang Tanzhi showed an expression of bitterness “At that time you called me ‘Little Tan-Ge’. The good Dispirited which exchanged equipment with gentleness with me has gone forever… “
Dispirited didn’t want her black history to be uncovered, so she changed the topic indignantly “Stop talking nonsense! Turn around and see if we can find someplace to stand! Do you want us running out of Stamina Value in the water?”
Wang Tanzhi’s neck shrank and he didn’t speak more. He slowly circled the water and shine his light sitting on his head on his surroundings.
Anyway, in this case, the miner’s cap was really practical because it’s a lighting device that could be used without constantly lifting his hand.
As the light moved, the two finally saw their surroundings. The underground pool that they were in was not very big and there was a stone bank ten meters away from them. Right above the pool was a cylindrical passageway where they had fallen from. The entrance at the top of the passageway was the sunken opening in the kitchen of the empty house, while the shape at the bottom of the passageway spread outward. From the overview, the space above the pool was like an upside-down funnel, making it impossible to return the same way.
The only thing left was the stone back surrounded by stone walls
Dispirited and Little Tan had no other choice, it was more urgent to find a place to settle. They swam and climbed onto the bank. when they got there they were tired and panting so they sat on the ground and took a rest.
It was only a few minutes, but it took a lot of their Survival Value and Stamina Value. Falling into the water from a height cost 67% of Wang Tanzhi’s Survival Value, while Dispirited was 59%. That’s not much for sure. If a person fell into the water at that height, it’s even possible that he would die directly. As players, they have better states compared to normal people so they’ll be able to survive.
While constantly floating on the water and swimming to the shore cost them more than 300 Stamina Value, for two players of level 17, that’s nearly 20 percent of their whole bar.
“Well… We didn’t find any tombs, did we?” Wang Tanzhi turned his head and looked behind him, there was a deep path that led to somewhere.
“How? Are you imagine I accompany you in the tomb and practicing sword naked?” Dispirited answers, actually she was the one who said shameless words. [1]
“Well… I was going to say, maybe we can find some equipment, skills, or hidden missions… But you suddenly said that…” Before he could speak, he was knocked on the head again, and it was hurt him even though he had the miner’s cap.
“And then you also think in that way?” Dispirited blamed.
“Why you say ‘also’… Alright… It’s all my fault… You can blame me for everything, ok?” Little Tan was bullied bad.
The deep underground pool was as cold as an ice cave. They were both drenched and chilled to the bone so, they didn’t stay put for too long they just wrung out as much water out of their clothes as possible and took a short break. When their fatigue finally disappeared, they got up and walked towards the only path.
Perhaps the rock in this passage had a special function for absorbing light. After a short walk, the two found out as they went farther ahead, that the passage became a dark mass of shadow. The light almost disappearing completely 10 meters ahead of them.
The other thing they noticed was that the road wasn’t going up and that it was going further down. They had fallen into the pool below ground and this path led them even deeper underground? Was this the way to Yama’s palace?
More than a dozen minutes later, the road stopped going deeper and the tunnel became almost horizontal. It became more and more spacious and the height and width of the surrounding tunnel were enough to accommodate a train.
“Did you smell it?” Dispirited suddenly asked. The hole was filled with vapor and the smell was persistent, about a minute ago she had smelled something nasty which didn’t represent anything good.
Wang Tanzhi looked up and down with confused eyes for a few seconds and said: “Are you telling me… That… You… I didn’t even know that this game supported farting… “
“I’m going to cut your head off!” She blushed, tore off Little Tan’s hat and punched him on his head, scolding him.
“Well, I guess I misunderstood… “
“Idiot! Fool! Hooligan!”
“Hey… Why aren’t you blocked from saying that… “
“Well… Well…” Dispirited took a deep breath and tried to calm down, “I should buy a big fan in the system shop. My hand is gonna hurt if I keep punching…”
“I’m sorry… ” Wang Tanzhi sighed “that my head is too hard.”
“Is that really what you’re apologizing for?” Dispirited pressed his hat back heavily on his head.
“In a word… It’s all my fault.” Little Tan said, “You don’t really need to punch me every time, why can’t we just solve this by speaking…… “
“Little Tan-Ge… ” Dispirited interrupted with a smile on her face, while having a look of horror in her eyes,” Please turn back, and throw yourself into the pool.”
“You’d better hit me then…”
“Roar!”
Suddenly, the distinct roar from a non-human being interrupted their conversation.
They didn’t know if this monster was frustrated with listening to their conversations, or if it found its prey and was coming to hunt. In any way, a giant creature was crawling on the ground from the tunnel ahead and was quickly approaching the two players.
[1]This shameless reference came from a Chinese famous Wuxia novel, The Return of the Condor Heroes. The MC, Yang Guo, and the female protagonist, Xiao Longnü, was practicing the sword in a grave, naked.
Thriller Paradise 