Chapter 73

"What are you saying?" The woman said, smiling. "How could Yiling be enough?"

As her words fell, Liu Zhiyi's phone buzzed.

The woman was still smiling. "Have a look at your phone."

Liu Zhiyi blanked, then took out her phone and looked at the latest news pop-ups.

[Heaven bless Yiling — rescue teams have set out.]

[On the scene: live broadcast of the Yiling disaster.]

News about dungeons was polluting.

Liu Zhiyi: "You want to pollute everyone?"

Liu Zhiyi: "You're insane!"

The woman's face was calm. "If it makes you feel better, then take us for insane."

Hearing the woman's answer, Liu Zhiyi realized she couldn't reason with them.

She raised her arm and looked at the watch on her wrist.

She'd just come out of that dungeon where she couldn't see; there was bound to be dungeon information left in the task bar.

Just as she'd thought — a dungeon entry had been added to the watch's task bar.

[Tongue-Pulling Hell]

Below the dungeon task was a description.

[Since you can't tell right from wrong, have eyes but no pupils, and make up lies — what use are this mouth and these eyes?]

No wonder she could see nothing in that dungeon.

As for speaking… Liu Zhiyi thought of the "oo-oo" weeping monster inside.

Liu Zhiyi: "What's this dungeon about? Weren't you all going to control people's minds? Why are there still monsters in there?"

"The dungeon was built by Shen Songyue on pieces of the captain's body." Having said it, the woman explained further, "You've met the captain — the cat."

"Though the captain always stresses treating everyone equally." The woman gave a laugh. "But how could a person have no feelings? So Shen Songyue's own feelings leaked a little into the dungeon; those who spread rumors about others, who talk wildly and loose malice, are punished in this dungeon."

So it was Tongue-Pulling Hell.

"But only for this stretch of time." The woman sighed. "Once the captain's ability takes effect, Shen Songyue won't have negative feelings, and those tormented monsters will change back — no lives will be lost."

These people were hard not only on others but on themselves.

Little as she agreed with their ideas, when it came to seeing things through, Liu Zhiyi still admired them.

Liu Zhiyi: "What happens to the people who are controlled?"

"Nothing happens." The woman said. "No negative feelings, no positive ones either — if I had to put it, it's about like being asleep without dreaming. No sensation at all."

Liu Zhiyi said nothing.

The woman: "I mean it — the false-god invasion is only a matter of time, and by then living will be a torment too. Better to sleep like this and wake once the problem's solved. How nice."

Liu Zhiyi: "Can you be sure your plan will succeed?"

The woman was still smiling. "No. But can you come up with anything better?"

Liu Zhiyi was stuck for words.

The woman: "There's no way out anyhow, so we might as well try."

Liu Zhiyi: "It does sound like there's some sense in it, but honestly, I'm not willing to become a person with no thoughts or feelings, to hand everything over to you."

The woman nodded. "Understandable. But hasn't the captain made arrangements in advance — keeping you in a dungeon so you can hold on to your own thoughts and feelings?"

This was favoritism, Liu Zhiyi knew.

Liu Zhiyi: "I don't want it that way."

The woman: "Then you're being rather difficult."

Liu Zhiyi opened her mouth, not knowing what to say, so she lowered her head, took the backpack off, and pulled out Shen Songyue's coat to put on.

The woman: "Getting ready to go into the dungeon?"

Liu Zhiyi nodded. "I have to do something, or I'll never get past this knot in my heart for the rest of my life."

"Feelings really are a marvelous thing." The woman sighed, and with that took out a coil of rope and an iron rod. "Then I'm sorry — I won't be holding back from here on."

As she spoke, the woman swung the rope in her hand; it curved into a loop in the air, and then she snapped it down toward the ground, the rope-end overlapping a stretch of itself.

When she swung it again, the rope-end wound into a knot around the rope's body.

With the woman's motions, it looked like the lasso an American cowboy swings in the movies, just waiting to rope cattle and sheep.

Seeing this, Liu Zhiyi sped up toward the dungeon.

Before she'd run a few steps, the lasso twisted in the air, as if alive, and looped her tight from head to foot.

It was a prop.

Liu Zhiyi had been ready for it; she reached a hand back and pulled out the scissors hanging under her backpack, and cut the rope.

—Snip.

The rope shivered, rippled into a wave, then balled into a loop and, clutching the cut-off length, shrank back behind the woman.

Liu Zhiyi paused.

The rope was alive?

The woman reached out and, like petting a dog, stroked the rope a few times, then stepped to one side, blocking Liu Zhiyi's way exactly.

"You've actually got an offensive prop — quite an aggressive one at that."

Liu Zhiyi ignored her words.

"I don't want to fight you. Infighting between people is meaningless."

The woman crossed her arms. "On that I agree with you. So tell me — once you're in, what do you plan to do? If you can convince me, I'll let you go."

Liu Zhiyi found that the people of the cat's faction thought and acted quite unlike ordinary people.

But they all did what they said.

Liu Zhiyi turned it over.

"Once I'm in, I'll go find the cat — the pieces of your captain's body."

The woman: "How will you find them? We've made a lot of preparations for that."

Liu Zhiyi thought a moment; the dungeon's underlying mechanics came down to just a few things, and in the end it was all human thought and feeling.

So she raised her hand, turning her palm toward the woman.

"With this."

Actually Liu Zhiyi wasn't too sure herself, but after these several dungeons, she had a dim sense in her mind that this was how it should be.