Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 46

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Chapter 46 – Eyeballs

No one thought that Lamia’s eyes were actually a special prop that could be brought out of an instance. Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao quickly finished their supper and returned to the apartment. Xu RenDong took out the brass key he obtained in the world of the Russian dolls and sat on the sofa with Lian Qiao to discuss.

“The styles of these two things are different.” Lian Qiao poked Lamia’s eyeballs. The eyes were bloody and slimy and it felt quite disgusting to hold in his hand. In contrast, the brass key was much more normal. If you didn’t say it, no one could tell that this was  something brought from the world of ghosts and monsters.

“Is there anything similar in the games you play?” Xu RenDong asked.

Lian Qiao nodded: “Yes. The eyeballs that drop from a monster are mostly used as materials for enchanting, and sometimes they can be sold as collectibles to a store.”

 Xu RenDong: “Enchanting?”

Lian Qiao: “It’s to strengthen weapons or add special attributes to weapons… Oh, yes.” He seemed to think of something and said with some disgust, “In some games, you can even eat your eyes to directly strengthen character attributes… For example, add more strength, physique…”

Xu RenDong stared at the eyeballs on the table wide-eyed. He said, “I don’t want to eat it.”

 Lian Qiao: “I don’t want to either!”

Xu RenDong said: “Then…  maybe you should try with the crowbar?”

Lian Qiao thought the conversation was funny: “Will the eyeballs enchant a crowbar and increase the hit rate? Hahahahaha…” While smiling, he brought the crowbar out and placed it next to the eyeball. After making a few gestures, nothing happened.

Xu RenDong was a little disappointed: “It’s not for that.”

Lian Qiao said, “I guess it’s not. After all, there are no holes punched in this crowbar. How can the eyeball be equipped?”

 Xu RenDong: “Punched?”

So Lian Qiao taught him a series of game terms such as blacksmith punching. After hearing this, Xu RenDong said seriously: “Then I will buy an electric drill tomorrow and come back and try it.”

“Hahahahahaha I doubt it!” Lian Qiao put his eyeballs on the crowbar again and gestured, “Look, this crowbar is so thin and the eyeballs are so big, there is no way to put the eyeballs in.”

Xu RenDong thought for a while and pointed to the hook at the end of the crowbar: “What about this place?”

Lian Qiao laughed: “If I put it here then it will turn into a staff! No way, I am a melee warrior not a melee mage! I don’t want to knock the monster on the head with a staff!”

Xu RenDong pondered for a moment and then made up his mind: “Then let’s just eat it and see.”

Lian Qiao: “…”

He originally thought Xu RenDong was joking but he didn’t expect Xu RenDong to really grab an eyeball to want to put it in his mouth. Lian Qiao exclaimed and quickly snatched it from him.

“Fuck! How could you eat something like this indiscriminately!” Lian Qiao held the two eyeballs to his chest and said in shock, “You are too crazy! Even if this thing is not poisonous, at least it is not clean! Eating it might give you gastroenteritis. What are you thinking!”

“You make a lot of sense.” Xu RenDong nodded, “Then let’s wash it first and eat.”

Lian Qiao was silent for a moment and said deeply: “…Sometimes I really can’t keep up with your thinking. “

Xu RenDong finally realized that the behavior of gnawing his eyes was too abnormal so he gave up the exploration of what the eyeballs were for and got up to go to the kitchen to find fruits to eat.

Lian Qiao sat on the sofa and continued to study his eyeballs. He looked carefully at the ceiling chandelier. He suddenly moved in his heart and wanted to get closer to see if there was something in this eyeball. As soon as he aimed his pupils at himself, his eyes suddenly went black.

“FML!” Lian Qiao shouted in a panic, “Ahhhhhhh Brother RenDong, help help!”

“What happened?!” Xu RenDong hurriedly shook off the water on his hands and ran towards the living room.

 “I can’t see through my left eye!” Lian Qiao yelled while covering his left eye. Xu RenDong didn’t know what to do but then Lian Qiao suddenly changed his expression, “Huh? It’s strange, it doesn’t hurt.”

 “Let me see.” Xu RenDong leaned over and pulled down the palm Lian Qiao was using to cover the front of his eyes. When Lian Qiao removed his hand, Xu RenDong gasped in horror.

Seeing his expression, Lian Qiao was so scared that he didn’t dare to move: “What’s wrong? What’s happened to my eye?”

Xu RenDong asked, “Are you not uncomfortable now? How do you feel?”

Lian Qiao said: “It’s not uncomfortable at all but my field of vision has become very strange…” He shook his head up and down and his eyeballs rolled around, “The left field of vision seems to be fixed, eh…”

 Xu RenDong took out his phone, adjusted it to selfie mode and held it in front of Lian Qiao. “See for yourself.”

Lian Qiao looked intently and almost dropped the phone in fright- there were two pupils in his left eye!

“Fuck! 8vo!” Lian Qiao called. {See Authors Note at the bottom}

Xu RenDong: “What?”

Lian Qiao laughed loudly: “It looks so funny! 8vo!”

 Xu RenDong didn’t know what he was excited about and felt worried and helpless: “Are your eyes really okay?”

Lian Qiao blinked, those asymmetric pupils looked very strange: “It should be okay, I don’t feel uncomfortable at all. It’s just that the angle of view is very strange, um…how do you put it…ah!” He seemed to notice something. He bent over and picked up the other eyeball on the coffee table and said excitedly: “I know! I know what the use of these eyeballs are!”

“En?”

Lian Qiao thought about it, holding the other one in his hand. He handed this eyeball to Xu RenDong: “Brother RenDong, you will know if you try! Just aim your eyes at the pupil of this eyeball. Don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt.”

Xu RenDong did as he said. It went dark in front of him and he subconsciously covered his right eye. But soon, a strange change occurred.

His vision split into two halves. On the left he saw what was right in front of his own eyes and on the right- he actually saw himself in the field of vision on the right!

“Hehe.” Lian Qiao tilted his head and looked at him with a grin. Xu RenDong’s vision on the right also tilted and he immediately understood what Lian Qiao meant.

This pair of eyeballs can share vision!

Xu RenDong tried to roll his eyes and indeed, as Lian Qiao said, he didn’t feel any discomfort at all. However, the feeling that his vision was split in half was so strange that he couldn’t accept it at all and soon couldn’t help but want to rub his eyes.

Unexpectedly, under the stimulation of the rubbing, the eyeball of the right eye actually fell out directly.

Xu RenDong was taken aback. Fortunately, it was Lamia’s eyeball that fell out, not his own. He calmed down and said to Lian Qiao, “It seems that it can be taken out at any time, which is quite convenient.”

Lian Qiao rubbed his eyes as he followed his example. Sure enough, his eyeball also fell back into the palm of his hand.

Really, ha ha ha ha, really convenient!” Lian Qiao looks very excited, “We have a hidden prop, so cool! In the next instances, we must find all the hidden props! Otherwise it will really be a big loss!”

He suddenly widened his eyes: “Oh no!”

Xu RenDong was startled by him: “What’s wrong?”

Lian Qiao said with great annoyance: “We should also have a hidden reward for killing the old nun! It’s over, this is over. I missed it and there is no way to go back and get it! Ahhhhhh! So annoying!”

Xu RenDong nodded with sympathy: “You’re right. Why didn’t you think of going back and searching? This is not in line with your habit ah.”

Lian Qiao was silent for a moment: “…Did you forget that you were about to die at that time?”

Xu RenDong: “…”

Lian Qiao looked upset and said in an unhappy voice, “Oh that’s right. That’s not it. Originally it wasn’t a critical situation, but because someone decided to pull out the rock blocking the artery, the blood suddenly spurted out and you suddenly became critical.”

Xu RenDong: “…” 

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Lian Qiao: “Why don’t you learn a little bit of common medical knowledge? Don’t do that kind of thing again otherwise I’m going to be scared to death by you.”

Xu RenDong: “Okay.”

Lian Qiao’s expression relaxed a little. Xu RenDong changed the subject and said, “That’s right, what do you mean by 8vo?”

Lian Qiao laughed again: “Ah that. There is a horror game called “Angels of Killing” and there is a villain in it who wears two fake eyes that have two pupils.” Lian Qiao made an “8” gesture and placed it on his left eye and firmed a small circle of “o” on his right eye, “It looks like this! So everyone nicknamed him 8vo, isn’t it very vivid!”

Xu RenDong stared at him for a while and said, “You are not 8vo.”

Lian Qiao: “Huh?”

Xu RenDong: “You are 8v0.” {o was replaced with 0.}

Lian Qiao blinked in confusion. Suddenly he realized that Xu RenDong was complimenting him for having big eyes and suddenly he became happy again and laughed.

Lamia’s visual sharing function greatly piqued the two’s interest. Afterwards they studied the brass key again but this time they found nothing. So the two decided to take both of these things when they entered the elevator next time and try to use them if they had a chance.

The time was approaching midnight and Lian Qiao was sleepy. After bidding farewell to Xu RenDong, he got up to go back to his own apartment. Xu RenDong was stunned for a moment before realizing that they didn’t live together in the real world. Although it was right across the hall and very close, there was still a distance.

He walked to the door of the apartment to send Lian Qiao off. He watched Lian Qiao walk to the opposite side and take out the key to open the door. He suddenly felt that the scene seemed familiar.

Xu RenDong felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. At this moment, Lian Qiao suddenly turned around and glanced at him with a strange look.

“What’s the matter?” Xu RenDong asked.

Lian Qiao didn’t answer for a while but frowned slightly, seeming to be confused. Soon, he shook his head and smiled. He said, “Let’s go to the gaming exhibition next weekend, don’t forget!”

“Okay. Good night.”

The corners of Lian Qiao’s mouth were raised and his smile almost overflowed. “Good night.”

Xu RenDong returned to his apartment. He saw two tea cups on the table and the fruit in the fruit plate had all eaten clean. A thought flashed through his mind.

He can buy a whole watermelon in the future.

The phone in his trouser pocket suddenly vibrated. Xu RenDong looked down and saw that it was a few news links shared by his colleague Wang XiaoGang on the work chat group.

Wang XiaoGang: Work, comrades! Get up to work overtime!

Xu RenDong has long been accustomed to this kind of sudden overtime. He immediately turned on the laptop and entered a working state. After reading the news link shared by his colleagues, he returned to the interface of the WeChat work group and saw a bunch of people wailing in the chat. Everyone was complaining that their good weekend plans had fallen through again.

Xu RenDong watched the messages popping out one by one and suddenly thought that the avatars of his colleagues were quite interesting. Wang XiaoGang’s avatar was a husky with his head tilted and his tongue stuck out. It had a silly expression. Gu XuFeng’s avatar is his ID photo. Just look at his profile picture and you could see his suit was neat and he looked very scholarly. However when chatting in the group he loved to use emojis commonly used by little girls. Liu JiaQi used a certain male celebrity’s picture and claimed it was her husband but Xu RenDong didn’t know the name of that celebrity.     

Xu RenDong realized that he had never paid attention to the avatars of his colleagues before and also never paid attention to their speaking habits or preferences. The communication between him and his colleagues was always limited to work. He did not chat to them and was not interested in the celebrity gossip and entertainment activities they chatted about. Over time, they would only talk to him about work.

However, this time, looking at the chat records flashing on the screen, Xu RenDong clicked on the emoji in the input method for the first time.    

Xu RenDong: “So-angry-but-I-still-have-to-maintain-my-smile-(crossed out). Work-makes-me-happy.Jpg.” {Xu RenDong sent one of those stickers that has text attached, if you don’t use WeChat they have lots of large and expressive stickers with cartoon characters etc. It doesn’t actually look like the normal emoji/emoticon but that’s the closest translation so I’ll be using it.}    

After he posted this picture, the WeChat group fell into silence.     

After a second.     

Wang XiaoGang: “?”

Gu XuFeng: “???”

Liu JiaQi: ” Fuck was Xu RenDong hacked? He actually used an emoticon?!

Wang XiaoGang: ” Fuck I’ve seen the boss use this picture before! Could it be the boss is using his phone to spy on us?!”

Wang XiaoGang withdrew a message.

Wang XiaoGang withdrew a message.

Liu JiaQi withdrew a message.

Gu XuFeng withdrew a message.     

Wang XiaoGang: “We’re dead, we’re dead. Messages sent more than two minutes ago cannot be withdrawn.”

Liu JiaQi: ” Working overtime makes me happy!”

Gu XuFeng: “Working overtime makes me happy!” 

Wang Xiaogang: “No more chatter, I’m going to go do the report.”

Liu JiaQi: ” I’ve already written half of mine.”

Gu XuFeng: “I’ve finished writing mine.” 

Wang XiaoGang: “…!!!” 

The WeChat group suddenly stopped vibrating. Everyone stopped talking and started to diligently do their work.

Xu RenDong: “…” 

He really was a topic terminator. He suddenly felt that it would be better for him not to speak.

Xu RenDong silently threw the phone aside and began to work.

It was not until half an hour later when the report was completed that his narrowed mouth returned to normal curvature.

***

The author has something to say:

RenDong: an old man who tried to pretend to be a young man but was seen through in a second.