INSIDER Chapter 70

Accompanied by Yuan Kejie’s cry of surprise, Lu Chu immediately felt a tight, crushing grip on his leg as if his leg bone was being squeezed.

Despite having lit two bonfires, apart from Luo Qi and 7, the others still held their torches. Lu Chu, holding a torch, looked down at his leg with the help of the firelight. He saw a skeleton hand, about the size of an adult’s, break through the soil. The white bones, covered in dirt, had gripped his leg tightly.

The skeleton hand had an immense grip strength. Lu Chu felt as if his leg bone was about to break, a wave of uncontrollable pain surging through him. His forehead was instantly covered in sweat, and just as he was about to struggle free, another skeleton hand broke through the ground and grabbed his other leg.

Seeing this, 7 furrowed his sharp eyebrows and immediately stepped forward, slicing through the two skeleton hands clutching Lu Chu’s legs with two swift movements. After severing the skeleton hands, 7 gently pulled Lu Chu into his arms and moved him away from the spot.

At that moment, Yuan Kejie suddenly shouted, “Wow, so many more are coming out!”

Lu Chu immediately looked down. The once solid ground had become extremely soft, with soil, semi-decayed leaves, and animal carcasses overturning as skeleton hands kept breaking through the ground, waving wildly. Under the night and the firelight, they looked particularly eerie and sinister.

Realizing the situation, Luo Qi quickly grabbed the nearest backpack and nimbly jumped onto a nearby giant tree, shouting to the others as he climbed, “Run, what are you standing around for!”

The others immediately retreated, with Qian Zhen and the rest following Luo Qi up the giant tree.

Lu Chu, whose legs had just been grabbed by those skeleton hands, found his movements slightly sluggish due to the lingering pain. 7, noticing his struggle, quickly picked him up by the waist, and Lu Chu instinctively wrapped his arms around 7’s neck. With his excellent physical strength, 7 ran towards the giant tree without the slightest disruption in his breath or movements.

Standing under the tree, 7 kicked away several skeleton hands trying to grab them and then supported Lu Chu’s waist, helping him climb up. “Step on my shoulder and climb up,” 7 said softly.

Knowing that his legs, still aching from the skeleton’s grip, might be broken, Lu Chu realized that debating this would only slow down the team. He stepped on 7’s shoulder and climbed up the tree.

7 matched Lu Chu’s pace, ensuring he always had a foothold, helping him climb to a branch about five meters high.

This branch, although the lowest, wasn’t the thickest or most stable and seemed to have grown later.

Standing on it, Lu Chu looked down.

They had discarded their torches in the bonfires to climb the tree, carrying only the nearest backpacks. Lu Chu could only see the ground changes through the light from the fire. The ground had become entirely soft, with soil overturned, and countless skeleton hands emerging, creating a sea of waving, swaying bones, clashing and making “crack” sounds.

On a higher branch, Yuan Kejie couldn’t help but exclaim, “Impressive, how spectacular…” Song Gui stood with Yuan Kejie on the same branch.

When Lu Chu’s leg had been grabbed by the skeleton, Song Gui had initially wanted to help, but Qi Li had moved faster to guard Lu Chu. Surprised, Song Gui followed Luo Qi and Qian Zhen, protecting Yuan Kejie up the tree. Now, seeing Lu Chu’s struggle, he asked worriedly, “Lu Xiao Chu, are you hurt?”

Lu Chu looked up and saw Song Gui’s head peeking out, shaking his head, “It’s nothing serious, I’ll be fine soon.”

7 glanced up at Song Gui.

Song Gui rubbed his arms, “It’s a bit cold up here, the higher you go, the colder it gets.”

“What’s the situation down there?” Luo Qi, standing above Song Gui, asked.

Song Gui shook his head, “Nothing good.”

The group observed the situation below. More and more hands kept emerging from the ground, creating a white wave.

“No, I can’t take it,” Yuan Kejie shivered, “My trypophobia is kicking in.”

Lu Chu, staring at the arms churning below, frowned, “They’re not afraid of fire.”

Even in the space between their bonfires, countless skeleton hands had emerged, pushing away the burning logs. Despite the scattered logs’ intense flames, they only managed to scorch the hands black. Yet, the burnt hands continued moving, unaffected by the heat.

The group fell into contemplation.

Yuan Kejie said, “This is bad. I was going to ask if they avoided the fire, but luckily they just emerged and didn’t climb out.”

The rest shared the same unease.

Just then, a monster ran toward the white sea. As it approached, it hesitated, then turned abruptly, letting out a panicked cry, clearly scared and wanting to escape. But just as it turned, a skeleton hand grabbed its hind leg with such force that the monster couldn’t break free. The skeleton hand squeezed, shattering the leg, and the monster was quickly overwhelmed by more hands, its dark, putrid blood oozing out from the white bone mass.

The next second, something even more astonishing happened. The hands continued to grow, and soon skeletons began to crawl out of the ground.

Under the dim firelight and moonlight, Lu Chu saw the full form of the skeleton army, his eyes widening in shock.

These skeletons, though human in their skeletal structure, looked incredibly bizarre.

Lu Chu thought for a moment and came up with a fitting description—random.

Yes, these skeletons appeared too random, especially their arms.

Most of them retained the human head, spine, and leg structure, but their arm positions and numbers varied wildly. Some had three arms growing from their legs, using both hands and feet to move swiftly. Some had their original two arms, with additional arms growing from their chest and back, attacking in all directions, creating a strange symmetry when viewed from above. Others had arms growing from their sides, resembling centipedes crawling on the ground. Some skeletons were so covered in arms that their bodies were hidden, only countless hands visible, looking heavy but moving nimbly.

The skeleton army crowded together, the sound of bones clashing echoing.

Song Gui and the others looked down, inhaling sharply at the sight below.

Yuan Kejie took a deep breath, “Oh my…”

Even the usually relaxed Luo Qi looked serious, “I’ve never seen monsters like this in so many situations. This is troublesome.”

Qian Zhen tensed up, gripping his weapon, ready to fight at any moment.

Lu Chu, leaning against the tree trunk, tapped his fingers, thinking, “I wonder what these things looked like when they were alive.”

Song Gui, who had been watching Lu Chu, responded, “You think they had a life before this? I thought they were always like this.”

Yuan Kejie shivered, “Stop it. Imagining them with flesh and bones makes me shiver. I’ve even started to find them cute… hopeless, hopeless…”

Lu Chu agreed, preferring these skeletons to their imagined flesh-and-bone forms.

After all, animated skeletons and living humans are entirely different entities. However bizarre, they’re just “monsters,” while a human with multiple arms is far more horrifying.

The group fell into an eerie silence.

After a moment, Song Gui suddenly asked, “What do you think happened to that monster grabbed by these skeletons?”

Luo Qi replied, “Eaten.”

Song Gui shook his head, “Eaten? They have no tongues, no esophagus, no stomach, how could they eat? I don’t think so.”

Yuan Kejie looked at him, “If you want to know, why don’t you go down and see for yourself?”

“Going down would mean them watching me instead,” Song Gui joked, “Luckily, these things only emerge from the ground and don’t climb trees.”

Lu Chu, who had been observing the situation below, froze and said bitterly, “Do we all have to raise a flag?”

Song Gui, puzzled, asked, “What do you mean?”

Lu Chu pointed to the base of the giant tree, sighing, “They’ve started climbing the tree.”