BXBX NOVEL Chapter 136 - The Underground Scene
... even if he has to die, it would be better than aimlessly wandering this battleground of a world, where everything is a thousand or more times larger than back on earth.
"..."
Still getting no reply, Yueliang just keeps it up, and resolves himself for death, as arguing with the system is like arguing with a wall that will not speak back to you. It is useless and a waste of time.
Falling into sleep, Yue hears. *Ding
<Survive and keep traveling in this world for 72 Hours Total>
<62: 02: 49 Hours of 72 Hours Remaining>
{Reward: No more required daily missions.}
Opening his eyes and seeing the timer, as well as the mission placed before him, Yue thinks to himself with a smile. \'Finally the mission has been given to me. Thank you system, and thank you for counting the prior time as well.\'
<71: 59: 30>
Seeing the time change, Yue mumbles quietly. "What? That is not a funny joke, seriously this is hard enough as is."
Hearing this, the number goes back down.
<61: 58: 11 Hours of 72 Hours Remaining>
\'Great, well I guess it is time to figure things out.\' Yue thinks to himself as he climbs between each roll on the worms skin each time it extends and contracts, lest he gets ground into paste against the tunnel.
\'3, 2, 1, and now.\' He rolls across the worms back.
\'... 2, 1, and ... now.\'
\'3, 2, 1, and now\'
Repeating this cycle, Yue quickly traverses the distance from around the middle of the worm to its head.
Making quick work of this routine, he quickly makes it to the top. Although while underground, in these tunnels, he has to take deep breaths every few seconds, because the air is awfully thin each time the worm contracts its body.
Once up to the top, Yue reaches for his back, more specifically the back of his belt. Pulling out a hard piece of metal from within his belt through a small slit, thinking. \'I sure am glad that I prepared this before, just in case another situation without Yang and the system occur. While brother Yang is bound to the system, it is becoming increasingly clear that it has a mind of its own as well.\'
Regardless, Yue brings the piece of metal to his other hand, and then pulls it apart, revealing two small slightly curved daggers. This being because they had to fit inside the belt.
Once one dagger is in each hand, Yue waits for the worm to contract thinking. \'2, 1, and now.\' Then stabs the blades into either side of the worm, well as far as Yue can reach which is not far considering the size of this insect.
However the moment that Yue did this, he could hear an almost ear piercing deep roar sound out from the worm.
Regardless, he does not let go, knowing that since many underground critters react to vibrations rather than sound or sight, he holds on for dear life.
Sticking in the right dagger farther, the worm turns left to avoid the pain. Thus producing a general rule of thumb on which way to guide the worm.
From here, Yueliang crawls down the crevice between bumps, while trying to stay in between tight enough that he will not fall and get crushed.
Once at towards the bottom of the worm, he stabs the daggers in ones again, thus causing the worm to start moving upward at a diagonal angle, since if he did went directly under the worm he would be crushed by the creature.
Holding on tight, Yueliang waits in the crack for about 30 minutes, intermittently stabbing the worm over and over in different areas around the same spot to keep it from adjusting and thinking that it was not something harmful beneath it.
Quickly making its way up to the surface, the worm keeps eating and pooping all the dirt to get away from whatever could be causing it pain. The reason it has not turned and tried to fight is simply because it knows that whatever it is, is able to fit between the tunnel wall and it, which means it would be difficult to get rid of while it is underground.
A few minutes later, the worm makes it above ground and, Yueliang seeing some light rays passing into the tunnel gets excited.
Although before he can get to happy he feel the worm getting stretched and pulled. After getting out into fresh air again, he sees a giant bat pulling the worm out of its hole.
Not wanting to get pulled out of the hole only to be eaten by a bat, he grabs tightly onto the daggers, and using his feet, pushes himself off of the worm. Doing a backflip in midair to align his body properly, he lands after falling over six meters, or about 2 stories high.
Standing up straight, and knowing what is coming, he instantly turns around and starts running towards the cave he saw as he was getting pulled out. Doing this, he thinks. \'Here I am jumping into the fire right after escaping the frying pan. I just have to hope these bats will not be interested in me, or the geckos and other creatures that will likely be infesting this place.\'
While running into the cave, Yue slides the knives into each other before putting them back in his belt through the little slit in the back.
Once in the cave, Yue slows to a light jogging speed, so as to avoid slipping or making too much noise. Being careful to avoid any puddles or otherwise, he sticks close to the cave wall to ensure he could hide in the cracks if need be.
After about an hour of light jogging, Yue feels a breeze, and ponders. \'How can this be unless this is not a cave but a tunnel?\'
Feeling happy at this realization his face quickly turns sour, knowing that it will likely be worse if it leads somewhere with even smaller creatures. For the bigger they are the less appetizing he looks, and the smaller they are the more delicious and nutritious he appears.
Still jogging forward just to examine what is over there, he is extremely wary. However quickly stops when he sees a fork in the path. Being able to tell which leads outside is easy so long as one follows the draft, however a thought crosses his mind. \'Maybe I could camp out in this place until the time is up. After all I already have an idea what is here, and do not have to be as wary.\'
Thinking more about it, Yue comes to a conclusion. \'As much as I would like to make this easier on myself, the mission is to not only survive but travel. Clearly the worms would be the best choice as I could just ride in between their folds, however I would rather not risk getting eaten while I sleep. A bat could keep me moving if I could ride it. However that will only provide me about 28 or so hours of flight, before I have to find some other creature because of day light, since this world seems to have a 1 to 3 ratio for time. 1 of my hours is 3 here.\'
\'Hmm, I guess the bat is the best choice for now, unless they have owls here, then I am probably dead, but might as well just cross that bridge when I come to it.\' Thus Yue starts wandering the cave looking for a bat.
\'Ohh, that is not a bat but it will do for now.\' Yue thinks to himself seeing a gecko coming in his general direction. So, quickly he runs to the nearest crack in the wall to hid in, to lay in wait for it to pass by him.
Waiting, and waiting in the crack, the gecko walk in front of him before stopping. Thus causing Yueliang to stop breathing, not even moving in the slightest. Of course, this is not from fear, but simply because most lizard type creatures hunt through movement, of course, smell and other factors will play their part as well. Either way, having been pulled around in worm feces for an hour or so, as well as being dressed in such a way, it would be a surprised if anything determined him as prey without him moving around the place first.
Meanwhile as the gecko is not noticing Yue at the moment due to him being so small and looking like a pile of excrement due to wearing mainly black, and his skin looking like urates (Whitish). However still smelling something in the direction, the gecko continues moving towards him.
Closing his eyes slowly, Yue hopes he will not be noticed still holding his breath, and not moving in the slightest.
Feeling something touch his shoulder, Yue does not even flinch, in hopes that whatever it is passes on.
Waiting a few seconds and only feeling light vibrations on the ground around him, he opens his eyes figuring it cannot hurt. However quickly sees the geckos stomach above him, and a large insect being pulled into the geckos mouth quickly by its tongue.
\'Once this gecko moves just enough for me to get behind it, I am climbing on. Come on, you can do this Yue. It is just living or being eaten..\' Having finished giving himself a pep talk he waits for the gecko to take just one or two more steps forward.