Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 55

Chapter 55 – Butterflies in the Stomach

Up!

Xu RenDong grabbed Zhang XiaoXiao’s wrist and raced up the stairs.

Zhang XiaoXiao covered her mouth with one hand and couldn’t run fast, but he couldn’t expect too much from her right now. After all, her mouth is full of living moths and it made his skin crawl just thinking about it. The footsteps behind him were getting closer and Xu RenDong anxiously exerted all his strength and almost dragged Zhang XiaoXiao upstairs abruptly.

The foreman was on the third floor. Xu RenDong had no choice but to continue running towards the fourth floor. As they came around the corner of the stairs, both of them felt something dazzle their eyes. The light in front of them was too bright and both of them automatically shut their eyes. 

Xu RenDong opened his eyes first. The entrance was a straight long corridor, with incandescent lamps on the top of the corridor. It was no wonder it was so bright. There were offices on both sides and the blinds are tightly drawn, making it impossible to see what’s inside.

Before he could think about it, Xu RenDong rushed to the office closest to him and turned the doorknob. The door opened suddenly.

He was about to go in to hide when Lian Qiao suddenly said: Close the door! Change to another room!

Xu RenDong was puzzled but there was no time to ask questions. He instinctively followed Lian Qiao’s instructions.

Lian Qiao’s fingers raced across the screen: The second to last one!

Xu RenDong did not hesitate and pulled Zhang XiaoXiao towards the second to last room at the end of the corridor. He turned the doorknob and only heard a few clicks. It turned out the door was locked! At the same time, Lian Qiao types: Opposite you!

Reluctantly, Xu RenDong turned around and went to the room on the opposite side.  This time the door could be opened, he hurriedly dragged Zhang XiaoXiao inside and closed the door swiftly.

It was pitch black in the office. Xu RenDong just took a step when his thigh hit the corner of the table, causing him to groan with pain.

Zhang XiaoXiao said in horror: “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”

Xu RenDong whispered: “It’s okay.” He touched the table and then took Zhang XiaoXiao to hide under the table.

As soon as the two of them hid, they heard a loud bang from the corridor. It was the sound of the door being kicked open.

Zhang XiaoXiao trembled in shock and suddenly grabbed Xu RenDong’s arm, pinching her nails into the flesh. Xu RenDong frowned slightly and said in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid, it’s not this one.” 

The voice should be the first room near the stairs, which was the room he originally wanted to hide in.

Now he understood. The normal first reaction of people was to hide in the nearest room. So Doctor Birdbeak would also go to the first office to search first. Once he failed to find them, then he may search room by room or he might go directly to the last room at the end of the corridor. As for the second to last room, there was a high probability that it would be the last one he would search!

In such a stressful situation, Lian Qiao was able to find the best solution so quickly. He was like a battle-hardened agent.

Was he innately intuitive or….

From a distance came the sound of tables and chairs overturning and glass breaking. It seemed that Doctor Birdbeak was smashing the cabinets in the first office. Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao hid under the table and they couldn’t see anything in the dark. They could only hear each other’s oppressive and trembling gasps.

Zhang XiaoXiao clutched his arm desperately, her nails almost sinking into the flesh. Xu RenDong slowly fumbled the ground beside him, trying to find something to use as a weapon. Soon, the distant table and chair tipping over disappeared, replaced by a low, sharp, metallic sharp sound dragging across the floor.

—It is the big scissors, the scissors that stabbed the gentleman’s stomach and dug out his stomach!

Zhang XiaoXiao was trembling all over. Her panting sound became visibly intense.

Xu RenDong bit his lip. He didn’t touch anything except dust on the ground. Right now they both don’t have any weapons on them. Once Birdbeak entered the room, it  would only be a matter of time before they were found. What should he do then?

In the field of vision of the left eye, Lian Qiao’s fingers moved nervously on the keyboard but he did not press even a single letter for a long time. It seems that even Lian Qiao was out of ideas at this time.

He really made a bad move. He’s afraid that he could only reset again. 

Xu RenDong thought so resignedly and let out a long sigh. But soon, he found that his fingers were shaking.

Not only his fingers but his arms, thighs, and the muscles all over his body were trembling.

What was wrong? What was he so afraid of? It was not like it was his first time….

His body was shaking uncontrollably, Xu RenDong closed his eyes in the dark, trying to calm down. But no matter how he comforted himself, his body still trembled. His throat was itchy, his body was sweating and even his cheeks began to feel sore.

He quickly realized that the reason his cheeks were sore was because he had clenched his teeth too tightly. And his teeth were clenched because they were also chattering. 

At this moment, apart from the gasping and heartbeat sound of the two people, the only thing that can be heard is the sound of the big scissors dragging on the ground. Doctor Birdbeak seemed to be deliberately making this sound to create panic and his goal was indeed achieved. Both people’s brains supplied them with images of Doctor Birdbeak covered in blood holding the large scissors and approaching them step by step.

Lian Qiao suddenly moved his finger and typed the words: “Don’t be afraid”. The corner of Xu RenDong’s mouth twitched and he made a wry smile.

How could he not be afraid? Although he could come back to life if he died, it would still hurt if he was fatally injured.

Sha-sha. The sound was coming closer and closer. 

Sure enough, Doctor Bird Beak did come into their room but went straight to the last office first.

The sound of the scissors scraping against the floor stopped. In the suffocating silence, even time has become stagnant.

Xu RenDong took a deep breath. He raised his hand and pressed his left eye, trying to remove Lamia’s eyeball. If death was unavoidable, then at least he didn’t want Lian Qiao to witness the scene of him being cut up.

At this moment, the vision of his left eye suddenly shook and Lian Qiao quickly typed: When he goes in, you run!

Xu RenDong suddenly woke up: Yes! They still have one last chance! Just take advantage of when Doctor Birdbeak goes into the last room and flee.

He had to grasp the timing accurately and not hesitate.

Xu RenDong grabbed Zhang XiaoXiao beside him and, carefully avoiding the debris around his feet, went back to the door of the room. Zhang XiaoXiao just shivered and looked like a lamb ready to be slaughtered. Xu RenDong held her tightly with one hand and pressed the other hand on the doorknob, ready to rush out at any time.

As long as Doctor Birdbeak walked into the next room… as soon as he heard the sound of him opening the door, he had to immediately—

Click.

The moment the sound wave reached the eardrum, Xu RenDong pressed the doorknob in a reflexive manner. However, in the next second, all his blood froze.

Before he could press down the door handle, it had already turned.

Birdbeak had chosen this room!

His heart had almost stopped beating. Xu RenDong’s muscles were in a state of rigidity. He was unable to move and was nervous enough to vomit. Zhang XiaoXiao was so terrified that she forgot to breathe. Her entire body was shocked and dumbfounded.

The cold fingertips of the god of death touched their backs and both of them got goosebumps at the same time. At this moment, a loud shout suddenly came from the distance in the corridor!

It was the voice of the foreman!

The door handle instantly bounced back to its original position and again made a light “click”. Immediately afterwards, there was the clicking sound of the opening and closing of the scissors and chaotic fighting sounds from outside the door.

Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao, separated by a door, listened to the sound in the corridor with bated breath. Soon, there was a rapid sound of footsteps outside, and another set of footsteps followed. Both gradually disappeared at the end of the corridor.

The corridor fell into dead silence, leaving only the heartbeats of the two in the darkness clearly audible.

Xu RenDong was cold all over and his palms were full of cold sweat. He moved his fingers and slowly released Zhang XiaoXiao’s arm. But Zhang XiaoXiao immediately grabbed him back and her nails dug into his flesh again.

It hurts.

Xu RenDong suddenly missed Lian Qiao very strongly. Even though Lian Qiao would also hold his hands so strongly it would hurt, at least he wouldn’t pierce the skin.

The two said nothing in the dark. It was unknown how long it took before Xu RenDong sighed and said in a low voice: “They should both be gone.”

Zhang XiaoXiao trembled: “Then…what shall we do now?”

Xu RenDong thought for a while, turned around and found the flashlight from his backpack. At the same time, Lian Qiao excitedly typed four words: “Since you’re already here.”

Xu RenDong said: “Let’s search the place.” 

Zhang XiaoXiao: “???” Are you serious?!

Before he focused on searching, Xu RenDong took a look around the stairs and confirmed that the foreman and the Doctor Birdbeak were no longer nearby. Zhang XiaoXiao held the phone and turned it on the flashlight mode. She followed Xu RenDong into the first office, looked at the desks, chairs and bookcases that had been turned over by Birdbeak and asked in confusion, “What are you looking for?”

Xu RenDong uprighted a table and opened the drawer inside.

“Looking for clues to clear the instance.” 

“Clues to clear the instance?” Zhang XiaoXiao also began to look at the shelves on the side. She suddenly thought of something, “By the way, wasn’t there a sentence in the elevator at the beginning? Butterflies in the stomach… …”

Xu RenDong said: “En, that’s this instance’s prompt.” Speaking of butterflies, he only just remembered and asked, “Are you okay just now? What about the moths in your mouth? Did you swallow them all down? Do you want some water to rinse your mouth?” 

Zhang XiaoXiao looked shocked: “Rinse my mouth…” In the next second, her expression became extremely weird again.

“The moths are gone,” she said.

Xu RenDong did not understand: “What do you mean, gone?” 

Zhang XiaoXiao said, “They’re just… gone.” She frowned, with a complicated expression, “I don’t know what’s going on. When I was running away, I could feel something moving in my throat the whole time. When I hid under the table, my throat felt the same as when I first spat out that moth. So I kept covering my mouth for fear of spitting out more moth but now… “

She paused for a moment and licked her mouth with her tongue. She said, “Now there’s nothing.”

Xu RenDong mused: “This may be related to the instance prompt but why was it moths rather than butterflies?”

“That’s right! I just thought of something!” Zhang XiaoXiao slapped her thigh. “Butterflies in my stomach! In German it’s “Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben!” I just memorized this when I was studying today!” 

The string of foreign words came so fast that Xu RenDong did not hear clearly: “What studying? You’re learning German?”

Zhang XiaoXiao said: “Yes, I’m learning German. I have an exam in a few days so I’m studying every day. When I first saw it written in Chinese, I didn’t think of it. But now that I think about it, “Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben” also means to fall into a river of love.”

Xu RenDong recalled the information he and Lian Qiao checked together. He added: “There is still tension and fear.”

Zhang XiaoXiao: “Yes, yes. Anyway, it’s just used to describe the feeling of an accelerated heartbeat.”

Xu RenDong: “Then why did you vomit a moth?”

Zhang XiaoXiao: “I don’t know…”

After thinking about it, Xu RenDong still couldn’t guess what the prompt was saying. He continued to search the office and looked at Lian Qiao’s side when he was distracted. In the left field of vision was a Victorian draped bed with an old man in pajamas lying in it. The old man’s face was blue and gray, with blood on the corners of his mouth. It looked like he had been dead for a long time.

Lian Qiao and a group of people were standing around the big bed, seeming to be discussing something. Seeing people’s lips move, Xu RenDong tried to read what they were saying through their lips but he immediately gave up. It turned out that the movement of his lower lip at a normal rate of speech was so fast that he could not keep up.

Suddenly, the corpse on the bed moved its fingers. The eyes of the dead old man flew open and he jumped off the bed. Thin fingers grabbed the neck of the man closest to him!

A zombie?!

Xu RenDong’s heart tightened and his breathing became quicker.

The vision in his left eye shook badly showing that Lian Qiao was dodging. The violent shaking produced a motion sickness-like effect. Xu RenDong felt nauseous and quickly covered his mouth, almost vomiting.

The next second, his eye went dark. Lian Qiao had removed Lamia’s eyeball.

The left eye returned to a normal field of vision and it was a little uncomfortable for a while. Xu RenDong held the table, still feeling dizzy in his head. He immediately realized that Lian Qiao had cut off visual sharing in order to not to affect him but like this, he couldn’t see Lian Qiao’s situation.

Unexpectedly, his worry gradually subsided. Lian Qiao could easily handle a zombie in a small area. It was best not to bother him at this time.

He believed in Lian Qiao’s combat effectiveness.

Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao continued to explore the fourth floor, searching all the rooms in the corridor that could be opened. The structures of these offices were similar and there were no obvious clues inside them. The only valuable item was a key in a drawer that said ‘Director’s Room’ on it. When the two came to the end of the corridor, they found the ‘Director’s Office’ sign hanging at the door of the last office that could not be opened.

Xu RenDong aimed the key into the keyhole and was about to turn it. Zhang XiaoXiao suddenly moved her nose and pointed to the corner of the wall in surprise: “What is that? Is it food?”

Xu RenDong looked around and found that in the corner was what looked like a food basket. Zhang XiaoXiao lifted the cover and took a look. They found that it was stuffed with sandwiches and milk.

Zhang XiaoXiao was still wondering why there would be food here. Suddenly a line appeared in Xu RenDong’s mind:

Before a big battle, the game will always load you up with supplies!

…. Maybe he should reconsider. If his heart was constantly stimulated this way, it would definitely collapse.

He withdrew his hand silently and put the key back into his pocket. I yield.